Desperate to connect.

Michele Kosboth (2014)

Just a perfect, well-timed morning. Rose early, at 6:30. My wife and I traded somnambulic places, for once I had a decent sleep while she was up reading American Gods in the middle of the night.

I made coffee. I sat on the porch and wrote nonsense for a half-hour or so. I came in and sat in front of the fire and figured out a key moment in the new work. I made pancakes in honor of my father's nativity.

Seventy-nine years. I am less impressed with his advanced years than disturbed by the fact that I am old enough to have a father who is seventy-nine years old.

Temperature: 77°
Distance: 4 miles

Stephani and I had an exchange on Facebook yesterday about my routes. It drives her to distraction that I always report a fraction of a mile in my routes, she has a thing about round numbers. This is where runners with OCD can't see eye to eye ... some must run to the nearest mile and if they step one over they have to run another mile. In my case, I must run from one definite point to another, and then map it so I know exactly how far I ran.

Pheidippides had the decency and good sense to run precisely 26 miles before dropping over dead. But then for the 1908 Olympics, fat old Edward VII wanted another 0.2 miles so the runners could finish right in front of him. This is why we had to help them out of the Great War.

This morning I went an additional 0.2 myself (you're welcome, Stephani) running in the opposite direction for a bit to say hello the horse. We just stared at each other for a moment, then he whinnied. I win.

Pompeii Playlist
The Wire - HAIM
Shine - Take That
Sad Beautiful Thing - Taylor Swift
Love Is Blindness * - Jack White
Symptoms - Atlas Genius
Youth - Daughter
Hearts A Mess - Gotye
Don't Panic - Coldplay
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Next Girl * - The Black Keys