Crashes are never good, But hey..... .

Lesson 1
No.
Lesson 3,897,345 dot 2
Don't change anything that is working.

I knew that.

Why... oh, never mind.

I am happy to be here.

Where was I?

I don't remember exactly.
Did I mention that the RED SOX are the salvation of humanity?

Mebbe not.


You should know two things: I ran another Half Marathon today and, if I may say so myself, I ran as hard as I could the whole way. That was my goal and I did that.
(It is still disconcerting, to be amongst so many people and have no connection with any of them.)
I met a very lovely British woman on the train going home, I met two Irish Expatriates on the ferry going home, I met two German fellows who will run the ING Marathon next year in New York (ME TOO!) I met the British woman's brother.
Yet.
Is there a friend amongst them?
No.

Isn't that odd?

I have to discover what I should have learned in junior high school.
\\\\\
How to make friends.


Hey.
I know people like me. (They come into the store on Fridays (my day off) and Ford reports that they are sorely disappointed that I am not there. They respect my honesty and my humor. Which is all I have to give.

Which is all I have to give.

Enough for now. I have to go and see if I got a PR for the Half Marathon today.

Joe(Still running as fast as I can)Nation

Just then

So,

her best friend asked me

and I told her,

just as I've told all of you,

that I was in love until the last moment,

that I never gave up on L.,

that I never gave up Love,

that I got up to go to work

on the morning she was leaving

and looked at her sleeping in my bed

and I said,

"I said 'Goodbye.' "

Just then and just then,

as the goodbye slipped out and down,

my love died.

I hardly felt it go.

Maybe that's what death feels like,

one moment here,

the next breath,

gone.

But no pain,

just then, just then, just then.

Pain isn't due to arrive with his bags until night falls.

I like to think upon that last moment of love.

She looked so small,

there upon the mattress,

the covers needing a fluffing,

a cat asleep near her furthest foot.

Love breathing her last shallow rhythms,

her last shining feelings,

the last few grains of her time,

then just then, gone.

Photography Night

Make up your own captions.



It will be better for everyone that way.

Joe

The Queens Half (Marathon, that is.)

Okay.
Clock didn't go off.
I woke up anyway.
Checked the radar for excuse.
No rain.
Actually laid back down and had the following conversation with myself:
Screw it.
What are you going to do instead?
Sleep. Now shut up.
Are you going to run later?
Yeeees. (pounds pillow)
How far?
I'll do about 10 or so.
Sooo, you are going to sleep now instead of getting up and going to the Queens Half so that later you can run almost the same distance.
Arrrrrgh.
(gets up, gets dressed, grabs bag and gatorade and big piece of toast. Out the door in two minutes flat. It's 3:52 am)

=I just got home. I'm showered and I had a nice lunch and now I'm going to lay down for an hour=

The race was fun. I met several really nice people, especially a (too young) Michelle whom I rode over from Manhattan to Queens with, sat and talked with for two hours while we waited for the start and ran with for about the first three miles. No, I didn't get her last name (she's too young, remember.) But I think I will see her again, we run about the same speed (when I am not two days after a roto-rooter expedition.)

I did really well I think. The procedure did take a lot out of me. Har har. but seriously, I brought along three Energy Gels and took one just before the start, one at six miles and one at nine and half miles and, I think, they really made the difference for me today.


I was about fifteen minutes slower than usual but that was as good as I could do.

I am taking myself out for a drink and a steak tonight.

Joe(two hours, twenty three minutes and fifteen seconds)Nation

Sometimes If You Run Too Fast

A nine mile ramble

SOMETIMES if you run too fast you will miss many many things that are all around you.
Hanna took down this tree, but it provided in it's last day on earth, a photographic bonanza for hundreds of folks. I passed this downed tree at least three tines and each time there was a family or a group of friends having their pictures taken in the frame of the tree.

Further on the cops and the fire department were on the scene of a stupid accident.
One idiot (got a dollar was on a cell or had the music up so LOUD he couldn't think straight) ruins a perfect Sunday for someone.

Trotted along the path for awhile and then got just the right postcard shot under the George Washington Bridge.


Really a beautiful day



There were whole families doing multiple fire barbeques. There were shirtless guys, off their bicycles, enjoying the sun and the breeze. There were thousands out in this perfect September Sunday air.

I ran about nine miles in about two hours. I did a lot of stopping. I did a lot of looking and liking, what a great city this is.

Joe (can such air be bottled?)Nation

The Fellow I Live With

Fellow I live with is funny.
He got up early to go on a long run yesterday,
but then get involved in changing the beneficiaries on some Life Insurance.
That took some looking up of addresses and emails
and getting the scanner to actually scan.

So, he didn't go run, but that was good
because his son called
and they talked for over a half hour.

And he did the laundry,
vacuumed,
filled and ran the dishwasher,
washed the dust layer off of the radiators,
cleaned the A/C filter,
put the dishes and the wash away,
moved the living room furniture around (again),
got the mail and read the Co-op monthly report therein,
put a Yew shrub to be placed in the front of the building on his credit card,
met the grocery delivery guy at the door and then put away the groceries,
made a large martini,
made and ate dinner,
got a second phone call from the son
in which they decided some things for the future
while he spread a coat of floor polish over the entrance area of the apartment,
packed a bag of gym clothes and a lunch to take to the race in the morning
and he still felt bad about not running.

He said as he drained his glass, "I was lazy the whole day."
I said, "No, think back."
He said, "No, you think back, I'm going to bed."

Top Ten Things I like About Living Alone

10: No empty ice cube trays.
9. The magazine in the bathroom is right where I left it.
8. I can have plants.
7. Dinner is always on time.
6. There is always a Diet Coke left.
5. I don't have to be anywhere.
4. I get any pillow I want.
3. No paying attention.
2. No sorting of the mail needed.
1. The tv clicker mine mine mine.

Ten Things I Don't Like About Living Alone
10. The Silence
9. Not having anyone to gripe at for the crap everywhere
8. Making one omlette
7. Trying to think of enough STUFF to order from the grocer.
6. Still thinking a cat may appear.
5. The Silence
4. Every once in awhile the whole thing sinks in, that's never good/
3. Being chipper during conversations with neighbors.
2, The middle of the bed is a vast uncharted sea.
1. Realizing that this condition is one that might last until the end of your life.

Joe(until the 12th of Never) Nation

The Better Day

The better day to go to the beach was last Friday and that is when I went. Down to Penn Station, get the ticket, not ticketS which was weird, but okay and just as weird as making my own beach lunch of turkey and swiss sandwichs and nectarines and not even thinking about hitting the Burger King on the way to shore. The train lets you off four blocks from the water. I got there very early.

Wait.... this post was supposed to be about art.
How about this?

Before you vote, I must tell you I cannot have this work in my home because it's on another wall.

This one:

Art is where you find it.
Joe(But only if you are looking for it)Nation

The Genius Judas Goat

So she called early this morning and asked if she could come and get the cats.
"Sure." I said.
I should tell you all that one of the cats, Ruby, is about as wild a cat can be and still be a housecat. She will allow L to give her a drip of ice cream on the carton lid, but not to stroke her back. I am allowed (after months of training) to pet her head and rub her back, but only two to four times. Neither of us has ever picked Ruby up, not that she would allow such a humiliating experience to occur. We often said if there was a fire, we would grab Max (the other cat who thinks it is her job to be petted.), the Suzie Orman Big Book of Your Most Important Crap and the hidden money stash. Ruby would be left to fend for herself.

I didn't want there to be any problems. I wanted the kitties to be okay. So, for the past two nights when I fed them, I put the food bowls inside the cat carriers. Nothing doing for the first five minutes from Ruby, but Max happily gobbled hers and then, backing out, headed over to the other carrier to see what was up. Ruby, uh, elbowed her out of the way and streeetched inside the carrier to get to the food, leaving her hindend outside. I knew that wouldn't work.

As luck would have it, I was roasting a chicken. As soon as it was done, I took many chunks of chicken leg over to the carriers and, as soon as a cat arrived, I would toss the piece waaaaay into the carrier. Like a charm, my friend, Ruby went all the way, time after time after time. Then I tried it with Kitty Fish Treats. Um. Not so much. Lots of hesitation and giving me the eyeball, so it was back to thigh meat. Yes. I am the Judas Goat.

So I told L how to hold the chicken piece where the Rube could see it and toss it way in.

The cats were gone when I got home and there was a nice note saying that I was a genius. duh.

==
On my bookcase there is a little clear box containing a copper belt buckle and a jade heart charm my father made in his "metal-working as a hobby"life. It now also contains my wedding ring. I haven't had that ring off more than five times in twenty years. I hadn't had it off for five minutes when my left thumb started asking my third finger where it was.

It will take some getting used to.

Joe(so will all this quiet.)Nation

Monday Comes

Good morning all,

My apartment is full of tightly packed boxes, stacks of shelves and the guts and rails of a closet hanging system. L is sleeping in our, well, my bed. She was packing until 3AM or later, I don't know because I was fast asleep. I was fast asleep because .uh... I had a beer, a martini and two fingers of Scotch plus a big Bleu Cheese burger in the company of Thomas, Kickycan and his author friend, Ray and HighSeas.

(I must say it's a very good thing to have a Swiss woman with a cigarette bouncing around her mouth scream at you at the top and bottom of her lungs about Alsace and Lorraine when you yourself are trying hard to find things to occupy your mind and heart. It was wonderful white noise and I thank her for it. I also thank her for the kind words she did say and the two fingers of Scotch. yum.)

We called Frank, he called back. I'm not sure he understood a word we were saying (there are helicopters landing and taking off at full volume.) so he still may not know about the breakup. L and I just had dinner with Frank on the Pan about two weeks ago, so he'll be as surprised as I was. Oh, and Thomas called Bernie and Lola and shouted into the phone at them.

Thomas and I will be running in the same half marathon next month in Queens. Right, Thomas?Ray, (we've got to get him to join us here on A2K) goes on a job interview this morning, so that's at least one person in New York who has more to worry about than me. Kickycan was disappointed to hear I was going to be single. "Crap," I could hear him thinking, "How can I compete with guy? No way." He's got until after the first of the year then all Manhattan is mine, mine, mine.

I only started to cry once during the get-to-together and it wasn't while HighSeas was screaming (Yes. You. Were.) but no one noticed. It was just a brief upsurge. It was great to be with friends.I got home about ten thirty, helped L get the last screw out of the closet wall. We stood amongst the boxes and boxes. She had too many hobbies, she said brightly, -- knitting, beading, painting, scrapbooking and more.

She smiled.

Joe(Uh huh, I said and went to bed.)Nation