It’s not what you once did that counts the most, but what you keep doing. – John Kelley The Elder
So slow, looking like a living fossil….
Closed a note to Benji Durden – “36 degrees at dawn. No snow.”
Response – “We were 7.2° overnight and we have warmed to 8.2° now. It will be chilly walking to chemo today.”
“You are a maniac and you know I mean that lovingly. Bundle up.”
I live in Central Florida, he lives in Boulder. At altitude even.
I’m cold, I’m lame and miserable, worried about that prostate biopsy I canceled. Meanwhile, Benji is being Benji.
Have to talk to somebody.
Bill,
Winter Storm Cora. When did we starting naming snow ‘events?’
It is eight degrees in Boulder and Benji is walking five+ miles to Chemo. And I remembered you were staying indoors yesterday. Because of the inclement weather. Then he is going to walk five+ miles back.
Meanwhile, I managed a 28-minute shuffle around the block. Good times all around. Nothing about this is easy.
“Crush the day.”
(Bcced Benji. Didn’t want him to think I was talking about him behind his back.)
Contundere Diem
Bill writes back.
Benji is one determined guy. And he is from the south, running in the south with the heat and humidity and the tough tough weather they had. It’s amazing that Benji rose to such a very high level in the marathon and road racing world. But, like I said, he’s got that willpower. You got it, too, Jack, as you’re going out there with that knee injury.
As for me, I do take days off here and there. But I ride my indoor bike which I bought 22 years ago when I broke my right tibia and I finally could do weight-bearing exercise.
I’ve never been able to run on a treadmill. I think because I have a leg length difference. And these days one foot is weaker than the other. My left foot, from sixty years facing traffic and the left slant down for water run off.
Anyway, today I ran 45 minutes. Very windy and cold-ish but when you dress right, it’s okay. I actually have a super warm Nike winter shirt, so that’s what I wear on the days when it goes twenty or below.
Bill, I am wearing a neck gaiter, gloves, long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt. I am indoors.
To be honest, I haven’t been out yet today.
Jack, can you ever get to a pool? That’s the great Recovery Place. I know because when I had Achilles tendonitis, six or seven years ago, the pool – and doing those Frederickson exercises on stairs – really helped. I know Joan does a lot of pool work, too, and Deena Castor has done that but I don’t know if pool work would help or hurt your knee.
Quit. Don’t quit. Noodles. Don’t noodles. – Kung Fu Panda
Bill, you telling me how tough I am seems funny. At first. To me. But maybe too tough for my own good. Always thought I should be doing more. The orthopedic specialist said he couldn’t precisely diagnose a cause of the crippling injury/extraordinary pain in my left knee. BUT, he said, ‘the joint might have committed suicide to get [me] to stop.’
Like I shot Neal – my left knee has a name – three times. Just to make sure he was dead.
One thing I have decided, CELEBRATE JUST HOW LONG I KEPT LAMENESS AT BAY.
Oh, crap. It’s 51 degrees out there. Clouds rolling in. “Temps to plummet.” Gotta go.
Right about here, a more gifted writer would segue to the cause of the endangered gopher tortoise, a slow wrinkly creature whose continued existence is a never-ending struggle.
Instead I will sign off with this post-chemo report from Benji Durden after his ten-plus-mile walk at altitude in sub-ten degrees F.
“I did bundle up and it was not too bad.”
Epilogue
Started out to tell you I’m designing a cross-country course which would meander around my property. Route includes the contiguous Wild Dog Gopher Tortoise Preserve. Bundled up or not, to be honest, I am afraid to get too far from home. Or rescue, if necessary. And it is so important to protect as many of these crinkly old reptiles as we can. No noodles!
Benji says I exaggerated. “I’m not sure where the 5.6 miles came from. A while back I had a dermatologist that was about that far away. It could be that I walked that far because we got there early and kept walking rather than just waiting inside. Amie always does the walk with me.” I knew that.