Maybe I'm just like my father.

What does it feel like not to have run or done exercise of any kind for one month and ten days? It feels bad. It has taken less than three years, you know, to gain thirty pounds. The flesh on my hips is spongy and soft. This week I made a commitment to bigness and bought size 34 jeans.

This has not been out of any intention neglect. Life has moved into the way. More time spent on work during non-business hours. More time spent writing, and dealing with the children's extra-curricular activities. And there has been death.

My wife's grandmother died last month, which while not entirely unexpected, required sudden action, traveling to and from Athens in the middle of a work-week. And even more overpowering, the sudden and entirely unexpected death of her aunt who lives on Nantucket. My wife, her aunts and uncles and cousins gathered there for a weekend while I stayed at home with the children.

There was Halloween, but I took no Halloween-themed run. Harris successfully ran the NYC Marathon (5:10.46 -- two-thirds of it on an injured knee, way to go, man) with no celebratory at-home run on my part.

Great Lakes Theater's 80s-flavored production of The Taming of the Shew came and went without my having the chance to enjoy the following tunes from the show:

The Taming of the Shrew Playlist
Destination Unknown - Missing Persons
When Doves Cry - Prince and the Revolution
Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
Wild Boys - Duran Duran
It's My Life - Talk Talk
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
The Reflex - Duran Duran

My brother has been struggling with his colitis pretty much ever since I visited him at the beginning of October. My father joined me for a show at the State Theatre a couple weeks ago, and he is moving so much slower these days. My mother may or may not join us for a movie this afternoon, she has been having rapid heartbeats lately -- something she claims she used to get as a girl -- and stopped in at the hospital this morning for an EKG.

And I have had a cold, the kind which has lingered for two weeks and has been complicated by inexplicable stomach pains.

So I have been coping with sorrow and fear. Not every day, not all the time. But I am trying to keep my head up and what I see can worry me. When I look at the children and all of their friends, I can't help but thinking that part of the reason to have kids is so that not absolutely everyone you know and love is old and dying.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 63º
Weight: 178 lbs.
Weather: cool and breezy.