The First Step to Recovery: Good Drugs

I'm feeling better (no you're not). The title of this post is a bit of a nod to the denial I've fallen prey to recently. First, I decided I was well before I was and tried to go back to work too soon. Secondly, not going to the doctor for help with the flu.

Remember the caravan scene in the movie Gladiator where Russell is passing in and out of consciousness while clouds spill across the sky in fast forward? There has been a bit of that for me recently - wake up, its morning, wake up again, its early afternoon. How did that happen? Only I didn't have a gladius wound on my shoulder and pajamas were involved.

Two days ago I finally went to see the doctor, who gave me antibiotics for my lungs and blessed codeine to help me sleep through the night without impersonating a mustard gas victim. Since then I have steadily improved to the point where work on Monday is a foregone conclusion/victory. Yesterday I felt pretty good but little tasks like washing my hair would tucker me out and force me to lie down for a while. Today I can take a shower and make the bed, all in a row. Take that flu bug!

I’ve always been fairly healthy. By that I don’t mean I eat the prerequisite helpings of veggies. I mean I have been blessed with good genes and fortuitous circumstances. Getting ill enough to spend a couple of weeks out of it and then be as weak as the old people who shuffle around the grocery store with two items in the cart they are using as a walker, makes me all the more determined to lead a healthy and active life so as to keep the strength and ability that it is so easy to take for granted.

Keep running and keep blogging about it. If nothing else you are inspiring us invalids.

Somebody's Snot Been Running

Feeling puny today, which is an improvement. Counter to my purpose for taking two weeks off from work to stay home and enjoy our new son and help my wife adjust to being the stay at home mom of two instead of one, I came down with a nasty bit of the flu. Not to be a miser, I also shared it with the two year old. No sir, no running happening in these parts, nope. Yesterday I felt sufficiently recovered to do little tasks like folding a load of laundry, but even that would tucker me out. I'm hoping for a short run this Sunday.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Where I run

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

T says, "Whats with the camera this time, Dad?"

Keith recently asked me how I can stand running the same loop around the lake over and over. I run the vast majority of my runs around the same 3.7 mile jogging path. When I was marathon training, I'd usually branch out away from the lake after a few circuits but now that I'm doing short runs, I rarely do. I don't find it monotonous. I know exactly where I am distance wise at all times - when to pour it one, when to hold back, etc. I never have to cross traffic so I can tune out if I want to. I see the same people at certain times of day. Also, I enjoy watching the landscape change with the seasons and time of day.

I thought I'd take the camera along on a recent run and share some photos with both of the people who read this blog.

SD

Mysterious Pilings

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Community Church

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Originally donated by our town patriarch.

The old Elks building

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Lots of fond memories here. In high school, we had dances here. The place ground is fenced in and parents like to bring their kids here to run around and freak out in a safe environment. The building is currently a teen after school club that is usually blaring techno (or something) when I run past.

A great place for lunch

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Asian Island

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

I love the bridge and the sounds of the ornamental stream on this little island recently spruced up by several community organizations and cooperants.

Mercury, It's what's for dinner...

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

This kid obviously wasn't expecting to catch anything remotely this large. All he had was a pole and a cell phone. As I arrived, he was trying to punch out the fish's lights. niice.

My Son the Swanky Party Boy

Well, two days of running in a row. I'm on a roll. The day after I posted last, the boys' grandmother arrived and in the general confusion and tumult that ensued, I abandoned my son to his female relatives and went running by myself.
On the bad side: I'm more than a minute off my marathon pace.
On the good side: I ran four miles and each one was stronger and faster than the last.

Yesterday, we skipped running and instead went to his regularly scheduled play party. We got there and found a suburban house amazingly filled with toddlers. I got to be the first dad in memory to ever attend play group and got a window into another little part of my family's life, and T got to run around for several hours like a crazy man. It was a workout just watching.

Today; back to the lake!

Time for running

I’m in the first of two weeks of paternity leave, currently, and quite enjoying myself and my family’s company. This is the second time I have had this opportunity to slow down for a while and help out around the house. Zoot used the word “Familymoon” to describe the trip she took with her family after getting married. I like that word and think it applies here, where we’re not going anywhere in a geophysical sense but are taking time to adjust our new family.

What does any of this have to do with running you might ask? Yesterday I went running – There it is! A post about running on a running blog… get nuts…

T. and I took the runner stroller (my stroller doesn’t jog) down to the lake yesterday afternoon and did four miles (I ran, he rolled). As we were getting there my dad ran by, so we did the first two with him and then did two more by ourselves. I think we’ll probably give the new mom and baby another break from our presence this afternoon and go do it again.