Thursday, February 8, 2018

Ahoy Brother

The weather had changed abruptly overnight.  That peculiar humming sound of high wind through metal railings howled in the night, and thick clouds had moved in.  (Why do the meteorologists always call this "considerable cloudiness," as if it was something I might have to think carefully about before drawing a conclusion about it?)  I had intended to run some slow, easy recovery miles after yesterday's workout, and so I headed out in shorts and a shirt that did not seem as warm when I turned the corner as it had in the condo.  I ran in the opposite direction, in residential areas between here and the causeway, long quiet streets I had discovered in past years.  The wind was so strong it reminded me of a post from another year on a day like this when I remembered Martha telling me I "wasn't right in the head."   This is an expression she likes and often has the opportunity to use.

I was indeed wondering after a mile what I was doing out here in the wind - there was nobody to see, after all, nobody to applaud, nobody to double-check my running log.  I was on my own.  I must have had my determined game-face on, though, because suddenly I heard a man shout behind me, "Ahoy Brother!!"  I slowed to a stop and turned, and a complete stranger was standing on his deck, giving me a vigorous thumbs-up.  "Yeah!  You're getting it!!"  I smiled and waved back at him, and continued on, buoyed up by this simple shout of encouragement as only a man not right in his head could be.

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