We ran in the night.

My own writing!
Damnable weather. No run in over ten days for a variety of reasons, temperatures in the nineties may or may not be one of them. Happy to say it was my wife who encouraged me to get out at 5:30 ... only to find the atmosphere remains hot and humid.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 82º
Weather: I sweat.
Weight: 165.5 lbs.

Since my illness in North Carolina, I have been plagued, on and off again, with intestinal distress. Nausea. Had it two weeks ago, had it last week. So I examine my behavior. Poor diet, eating too much. Serious lack of sleep. And the heat.

Took care of the diet, for the most part. Nausea helps with that. More water. Lots of vegetables, much less meat. And my wife has, as much as she can, helped me to get to bed earlier. Five, six hours a night were slowly destroying me.

And the heat. No air conditioner in my car, driving home in the late afternoon can ruin me for the rest of the evening. So she has loaned me her car. And it makes a difference.

Trying to remember why the date "July 20" was so important. Knew it wasn't the moon landing. That's right, five year ago yesterday, while I was keeping him, my son fractured his skull. Five years ago today they put his head back together.

Cold War Dance Party Mix
Dissidents - Thomas Dolby
The Gap - The Thompson Twins
Road To Nowhere - Talking Heads
New Frontier - Donald Fagen
Party At Ground Zero - Fishbone
I Melt With You - Modern English



Who knew?

You always seem to make me feel at home.

Route: Lakewood Park Loop
Total Distance: 4.15 miles
Temperature: 89º degrees

Another writing vacation at my parents' house in Lakewood. You know what goes poorly together? Strenuous yardwork in 90 degree temps followed by two Christmas Ales at a cookout, and hitting the sack at midnight in your folks' poorly air conditioned and (for some reason my wife and I have yet to understand) terribly dehydrating home.

But rise I did. Write I have. And I continue to, though it was necessary to first of all, run, which I have not done in a week (goodbye ocean, hello lake) and to visit Root Cafe to spend that Groupon the wife bought almost a month ago.

Meantime, the wife sent this reassuring link:

10 Ways of Thinking That Lead to Writing Procrastination and Rebuttals to Those Thoughts

Thought #11: I have to tell everyone about this in my blog.

Rebuttal: Who do you think you are?

Romancing the Stone Genius Mix
Romancing the Stone (12” Mix) - Eddy Grant
Johnny Come Home - Fine Young Cannibals
Forever Live and Die - Orchestral Manouvers in the Dark
I Don’t Want to Be a Hero - Johnny Hates Jazz
Union of the Snake (The Monkey Mix) - Duran Duran
Saved By Zero - The Fixx
Are We Ourselves? - The Fixx
It’s My Life - Talk Talk
One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head

Pirate ships and fairy tales.

Route:
Topsail Beach (1) - 4.15 miles
Topsail Beach (4) - 2.37 miles barefoot.
Total Distance: 6.5 miles
Temperature: 71º degrees

Yesterday brought me crashing down, it was a physically overwhelming day, too much light, heat and wind for me. I would have preferred to stay up late - again - listening to what must be the best miniature golfing soundtrack in the country (Sinatra, Dylan, Chuck Berry - as well as Diana Krall, Stereolab and Beth Orton) but instead had to retire early (10 pm) with a headache.

We spent a good part of the day on the beach, in the surf, out of the surf, managing children who cannot get enough of simply being here. We found two large, feisty blue crabs, a few flounder, and a ray in the tide pools. I made a sand castle on a sand bar and watched it wash away. Tonight, like most nights, we have eaten tremendously well -- grilled grouper and swordfish, corn-on-the-cob and red potatoes, and of course beer, wine, rum & coke and daiquiris.

I have been reading Shakespeare's Henry VIII (All Is True) - backwards. I started reading it from the beginning but found it a little dry, so I read the fifth act first, then the fourth, and that has been very exciting. It's an old hardback Arden edition, one of Calvin's. His books that I have include the best margin notes, this one doesn't have as many as, say, Hamlet does (that one has index cards of notes stuffed between the pages) but they are good for a laugh. I'll be reading a stretch of surprisingly tepid prose, glance at the margin and there will be Calvin's cramped hand reading "Fletcher?"

Get it?

Playlist: Gabriel & Dresden - Gabriel & Dresden

Got my final run of the trip in early. (71º? Really?) There's sand in the camera, boo. All in all, a very relaxing (oh yes, don't let me confuse you) vacation. The children have been in heaven. The boy caught a black bass around 5:30 am this morning (the wife took him this time, bless her) and the girl had gorged herself on card games, wave jumping and cable TV.

I will miss this place, but I am also looking forward to normal life. And that's good, too.

Just a drop of water in an endless sea.