Virginia Is For Families

How long has it been since the aging blogger constructed a post and rocketed it into cyberspace?

It has been awhile.

And I was trying to figure out why this happened because it was not a conscious decision. A vacation from blogging was not in the works.

Not a vacation at all. No. There was a struggle going on and some soul searching. And it occurs to me now that a key phrase in that search would be “routines”.

There are routines that are imposed and routines that are self-imposed it seems to me. I have been fortunate lately to be free of the work related routines that were central for so many years. And it has been a temptation to avoid routines of any kind.

But dreamers must be careful. And their friends must wait in places beyond routines.

Recently I realized that I needed to go to the exercise room five days per week and start putting this aging body into some sort of good order. It was enjoying the “no routine” too much and I began to see it taking both of us down a lovely path to the grave in blissful ignorance of the time of day.

I must fight with this. Oh me. It was a fight in school and then a fight in the workplace. Then it was a fight to survive severed relationships and a fight to deal with depression.

And now it is a fight with muscles, bones, teeth and organs of various squishy sizes. I look down at it and wonder that it has managed to work for over fifty years without breaking down! It’s an amazing thing! The body does so many things and it does them well. But it cannot be in charge. It must be wrestled to the ground.

I spent a few hours at our local zoo today and took some photos with my newest lens. It’s a professional telephoto lens by Nikon and here is some information about it.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/70200vr.htm

It’s a little heavier than my other lenses but I feel much more comfortable with it after our outing today. I tried to bring out the personalities of the animals in the photos and you can see many of them with wry or humorous expressions. Some of them seem unhappy or bored with their situation as well. Captivity and enforced routines can be such a drag.

And yet they are all beautiful creatures living in a world next to ours without so many of the concerns we carry around. They wear the colors of the soul on the outside for all to see. They blossom while moving gracefully in coordinated efforts with each other.

So I feel better physically tonight after a week long exercise regimen. I feel better after being with them.

The funny part is how easy it is to exercise regularly without getting worn out. The machines practically exercise you! Entertainment is included too. It’s like the easiest job in the world and so I’m going to work again five days per week. But it is a routine and I feel like a part of some giant machine.

Still it is good to feel better. I’ve not drawn a very flattering self-portrait here but that’s not what a blogging diary should be, should it? I inwardly wince to admit some of these things. When you retire and have no “routines” shouldn’t you just be happy and complaint free for the rest of your life?

Well a job is just one example of what living requires of us in the way of work. There are other activities that are often neglected because we are “working” and “don’t have time” for them. But they require effort and pay us in ways that cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Some of these payments are actually more important in their own way.

So I have tried to talk about some of these things. Hopefully exercise and taking photos of our animal friends will benefit this senior citizen and those around him too in ways that cannot be measured so easily.

And hopefully there will be some music out there that will resonate with our fuzzy friends in their slide show.

Metro Zoo Aug 09

Click on music

Play

Death and All His Friends

Then click on the slide show for a full screen presentation of the photos. Eight seconds per photo ought to do the trick.

Death And All His Friends

All winter, we got carried
Oh way over on the rooftops let’s get married.
All summer we just hurried
so come over, just be patient, and don’t worry.
So come over, just be patient, and don’t worry.

So come over, just be patient, and don’t worry.

And don’t worry.

No I don’t wanna battle from beginning to end;
I don’t wanna cycle or recycle revenge;
I don’t wanna follow death and all his friends.

No I don’t wanna battle from beginning to end;
I don’t wanna cycle or recycle revenge;
I don’t wanna follow death and all of his friends.

I was downtown early this morning taking some photos of the Richmond Marathon participants.

I don’t think that I have ever seen so many skinny people in one place before.  And not just thin but also exhibiting good posture and looking very healthy.  After awhile it made me want to cry a little bit.  Because it raised my faith in humanity.   Here all these people were getting ready to submit their bodies to cruel and unusual punishment.  Perhaps a bit of torture in some cases.

And they seemed pretty cheerful about it.  In fact you could see that they had been doing this to themselves fairly regularly and it really wasn’t such a big deal.

I was very impressed.  Every once in awhile my fellow human beings cheer me up.

This morning was one of those times.   And here are some photos of some of the leaders in the race.  I called my son Zachary after a few hours to see if he was in the neighborhood and wanted to join me.  And in fact he was at a friend’s apartment nearby.  He was planning to make breakfast for a group of sorority girls but managed to fit me in for a little while.

I appreciate it big guy.  So we hung out and I took some photos.   Some of the leaders have some really amazing muscles don’t they?   Congratulations to everyone who participated.  A lot of folks ran the half marathon but they ended up crossing the finish line right next to the ones who ran the full marathon.

Wouldn’t it be cool to run through the finish line and look on the other side of the orange cone to see an  extraordinary  runner from  Kenya  finishing at the same time?   Of course he would have traveled twice as far before getting there.

But it would still be cool.   I may have to start running so I can run side by side with some of the great marathoners next year.  That would be about twelve miles or so in two hours and twenty minutes.  Or about twelve 12 minute miles.

Or I could take some more photos.

Jyocel Basweti, a 22-year-old from Kenya, won the 31st SunTrust Richmond Marathon men’s race this morning with a time of 2:22:22.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports/marathon.html

Click on photo to enlarge

[Show as slideshow]

 

More Sports Writing

http://davidnotes.com/2008/04/13/sunday-morning-and-tiger-woods-the-masters-tournament/

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