the hour run

I ran for an hour on Saturday... not a long time by marathon standards I know but it was a long time for me. I haven't run that long for maybe ten years. So far no problems with my knee but I am not running again until Wednesday and then for only half an hour. It felt great to run on the MKT and I want to do it again next Saturday, but maybe this time with a friend.

Speaking of friends, after running Saturday, I went with Sam and the neighbor, Dr. Foote, out to help a friend who had also been our milk man. His farm by Fayette had been totally destroyed in a tornado March 12. Not just the barn or milk shed or even the house but everything. Gone. Wiped out. We went out and with about a thousand other folks took down what was left standing (part of the house and parts of some sheds) put it into big piles and burned it. Amazingly only one cow died in the storm and fortunately no one in the family was hurt. They were in the basement and by the looks of the house that seems to have been a really good idea. They sure don't build 'em like they used to though. It was an old house and solid. man. I was on a crew that started tearing off the second story. That was one well built house. I had gone downstairs to fetch a wrench and started thinking about the amateurs such as myself who were working in such close quarters with large hammers. Getting nervous for Sam, who was still working up on the second floor having a grand time smashing walls with a hammer, I returned to the second floor solely then to get him down from there. I had no sooner reached the top of the stairs than I has hit in the head with a flying piece of lath and plaster. it was only a flesh wound and didn't bleed much but it certainly made getting my son out of there more urgent.

It was really great to see all the people there helping out and feeling that they owed the family a debt for providing such a service to us.

food

It's funny what goes through one's mind when one is bonking.

I took the day off and was going to ride for maybe 2 hours and then do some work around the house. I got out on the road and figgerd that, "Hell, it's my day off and I really could put off the work at home..." so I ended up riding for 3 and a half hours. Let me tell all you young'uns...You should bring lots of food with you when riding alone in the boonies for three hours.

Among other places I rode out to Easley and did the hill there 2x. Sheeit, They graded that hill steeper or something since last summer.

But that was all nice and fine cuz it came before the 2 hour mark. I realized then that it was not going to be easy getting home without food. I ate my one little granola bar an hour earlier, and let me tell you there ain't much out southwest of Columbia. I mean Sapp's a nice townlet and all but they don't have a Casey's or 7-11 or even an A&W. I rode up and down the main drag but didn't see a one.

Actually, I was only a little hungry as I headed back down Woodie Proctor (who was he anyway and why does his name sound like a medical procedure?) and I didn't feel any sense of dread at the coming miles. Meanwhile my wheels kept getting farther from home and somehow (and i didn't know this until later) I was drifting with the wind. As I started back up the home stretch toward town on KK I realized just how far I had come with the wind. As the crow flies it's maybe 10 miles from the intersection of K and KK but I wasn't flying. crawling is what it was. wobbling was how I was doing it. Every bump made my stomach hurt. I never felt that one before. a dried shriveled up bean rattling around in my gut. As I passed the various eateries, Upper Crust, Shakespeares, MFA, etc. They all sounded delicious and it was torture passing them but the thought of stopping to eat and then having to get back out ON the bike and IN the wind was too much to contemplate.

I started fantasizing about the food I was going to eat when I got home. Taking inventory of the fridge and freezer. How long would it take to fry up the frozen hamburger (too long). Wondering if my wife would miss the bratwurst we as a family have on the menu for wednesday night (she would). Sudying the most efficient way to get the most food in me with the least amount of work and time...,"I'll walk in, turn on the stove for coffee, mix some chocolate milk, while i drink it, I'll cut the bread for my sandwich, then while I drink my second glass of chocolate milk..." Thank god for tuna in a can.

I ate and ate some more...and then fell asleep.

What a GREAT day off!

Bill Napoli

What more politics!...Sheeit!

Really, I'm just helping out the Smart Bitches (their term not mine) google-bomb the bastard in South Dakota, Bill Napoli. He is one of the prime backers of South Dakota's new anti-abortion law. His description of a case of acceptable abortion consists of the following (from PBS Online NewsHour):

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls "convenience." He insists that exceptions can be made for rape or incest under the provision that protects the mother's life. I asked him for a scenario in which an exception may be invoked.

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

So there you have it...Just doing my part to piss off the radical right.