Running Commentary: #8

Running Commentary: #8
July 24, 2012--Tuesday

     The day before Laura and family were to return from the coast, I was, once again, standing on the grassy knoll, overlooking the high school track, staring, and making up my mind what running drills I could talk my body into doing. Pin-pointed at the end of the stare, I noticed a host of young, lean, trim, male teenage football hopefuls, being pushed through systematic, physical drills. What a puzzling sight; the coaches were a visual oxymoron; they were fat. Looked like the only calories they were burning were blowing a whistle. Watching the contradiction gave me good reason to stall my workout for a few minutes. I never did make sense of it.

July 25, 2012--Wednesday

     Glory be to humidity. I could have entered a wet T-shirt constest after the first twenty minutes. Probably wouldn't have won a prize, though.

     Laura was back from the coast, full of stories and new information. For the first time, I heard about her love of fishing; A River Runs Through It? She loves this movie! Other days were spent sand castle building. To the beat of our feet, the castle building process was explained, along with a mention of disappointment that the guy giving castle building lessons was all booked. I learned sand-sculptors scooped up sand and let the water drain from the grains in order to create solidity. This part of the process was not working the days Laura was on the job because white grass seaweed strands had woven themselves throughout the sand; the water couldn't drain; the sand coudn't compact.

     The sand castle report was coming at about the fifty minute mark. I had slowed to a walk; mental concentration was getting tough; humidity was playing bandit with energy; queasy tummy; definitely time to head back to water. Silence took over.

     I call Laura, Top-Shelf Science Teacher. This satisfies my tendency to give people nick-names. Replacing names, I think, comes from an age old practice of American Indians to joke by changing names to identify Whites by various perceived characteristics. Today, I think my habit simply excuses my inability to remember people's names. Instead of Top-Shelf Science Teacher, though, we could just call Laura, TSST. This satisfies the popular need to reduce the English language to acronyms; the purpose being, to exclude and confuse others--or maybe, it's nothing more than mental laziness.

     Laura is always devising interesting ways to teach science--to the young and old. This morning, she was into The Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi's 'wax on' and 'wax off' lesson to Daniel-san. Laura had transferred Mr. Miyagi's car waxing lesson from Karate to the heavens. By moving the right hand in a right handed circular motion, one could remember the moon was getting bigger--it's waxing phase; the left hand, moving in a left handed circular motion meant the moon was in a waning phase, or getting smaller; clever teacher.

     Considering my disappointing slow-down, we agreed tomorrow would be a rest day. New plan--meet at the track. Laura wanted to look at the football coaches.


Interesting reading: Portraits of "THE WHITEMAN" Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache. Keith H. Basso with a foreword by Dell Hymes. 1992. Cambridge University Press.