Dad Garage Workout

It was really good to do workouts with Dad on the total trainer over Thanksgiving. I climbed today and I climbed a problem I hadn't been able to get before! Definitely felt really strong after working on some muscles that I don't normally train.

I'm on track to reach 200 posts for the year. I have to post pretty much every day in December.

Pictures of Mom's delicious Thanksgiving food

so good!

cat boy

all hail the fleischwolf

I'm pretty sure it's German for MEATWOLF!

MĚATVVÜLF

turkey boy

Thanksgiving Day Thoughts

missing the turkey trot. So much fun to wake up early and run and see so many people and feel part of a community. 

missing Erin. obviously.

missing Paw Paw.

excited to be here with Mom and Dad and see Maw Maw.

watching the parade and realizing how much I dislike about the Macy's parade.

It was supposed to rain but it's sunny and warm.

Anyway, make Puerto Rico and DC states already. And cancel student loan debt. And abolish prisons. And recognize power that exists in the background and the incredible force it exerts over what we consider normal.

California Prison Scam

A story came out today about california inmates claiming unemployment benefits. Much was made of just exactly who was applying for these benefits. Rapists, serial killers, etc...

Let's completely ignore the fact that the criminal justice system is clearly racially prejudiced and we have the highest incarcerated population IN THE WORLD, with a clear financial incentive to lock people up for cheap labor and private prisons, and the war on drugs lead to tons of sentences that have ruined people's lives AND

AND

AND

AND

the handling of covid in the incarcerated population has been an absolute travesty!! It has ravaged prisons and no precautions or protections have been put in place. If you believe in justice then you must believe in honoring the rights for those who are incarcerated. If you believe in absolute, unrelenting torture and depravity for those charged in an imperfect system then I don't know how you could ever expect mercy or forgiveness that you are unwilling to give yourself. It's wrong. It's flat out wrong how people are treated in prisons. 

But hey! Look over here! The bad guys scammed you! They think it's a big joke. These criminal masterminds. It makes me sick how we can give attention to this narrative of "the bad guys in jail" while completely ignoring the hypocrisy and failings of the system as it is.

catch me rocking this look

every day for four days straight

Walter Kronkite

Walter Kronkite once laughed at the idea of Joe Biden becoming president. Well,  Kronkite is dead and Biden will be president. But I guess Kronkite died thinking he was right. So that counts for something. 

Speaking of life and death, I think you spend your life receiving and transferring different influences, something like energy. And when you die I guess that influence stands out in contrast somehow. It's marked because it's not flowing through you anymore. But it's still there. 

hamstring

I had this great idea that what I really needed to do to run faster was to really focus on engaging my hamstrings when I run. And so at the moment of foot contact, or right before,  I really focused on pulling the foot down and back. And I had a really good workout doing that. And now my hamstring is a bit strained. But I spent today massaging and stretching and getting everything all loose so I think I'll feel better tomorrow. 

Heard the Greatest Kid Conversation Today

I am a track doing stretches.

Two older elementary looking kids, a boy and a girl, in the parking lot ride by on bikes.

The boy says, "yeah, the only reason we have the buddy system is SOME LADY"

He continues, "It wasn't even my mom's idea, she just heard from it from some lady who said you should have the buddy system and now we have the buddy system."

The girl goes, "did she see it on pinterest??"

The boy, "No, some lady on facebook."

And then they named every social media platform they could think of in a condescending tone.

you had to be there.

riders on the storm

still at it

 It's exciting that I can still go for a run and feel some extra pop in my stride and think, "oh, I don't know if I've ever had quite this much push before." My tendons felt like rubber bands. Makes you think new things are still possible. I've been running for 16 years or so and I still get excited about a glimmer of untapped potential. This is the year for it. Let's see what happens.

I Want To See Dear Erin 🥺

My sister might be working around Thanksgiving this year and won't be able to make the trip home. 

Noooooooooooooo.

I will have to visit her then. Maybe after Thanksgiving. She can read this and respond accordingly. 

great long run and climb yesterday

I did 16 miles with 10 miles in the middle where I alternated between 5:35 miles and 6:20 miles. felt really really good!

And then I climbed with Michael. I felt a little tired but we climbed pretty much nonstop for 80 minutes. It was great.

Today I'm exhausted and have the most mild of headaches and just feel irritable. I took a nap in the afternoon so I must be really tired. My run was good though. Today I really focused on flexibility, mobility, good mechanics, and a little bit of speed and power. The run was short but I felt really good. I guess I just need a lot of rest. I don't like feeling super irritable and exhausted and also not wanting to do much of anything between running. But overall I'm doing well.

I think my roommate is somewhat difficult to be around. And without meaning to he kind of takes up all the common areas so I feel stuck in my room sometimes. I'd probably feel better if I felt more comfortable in more of the house. Some of that could also be me and maybe I'm not great at sharing spaces. Oh well. In the end it's still a good living situation and I'm doing good. I think all of this is a sign that I'm putting a good amount of stress on my body and with good rest that will lead to good performance!!!!

new look for the winter

this the one

stunning

just stunning. like a poem. there's so much to unpack here.

Twas a good day

The End of the Movie

the end of the movie

Such a beautiful song. The kind of song that swallows you completely in its sadness and holds you at the same time. 

Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead

 I was listening to an Alan Watts talk today while drawing and he quoted this passage from the Bible, from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. 

The part about not worrying about food or clothes or the future. The way birds don't worry about food and they are fed. The way the Lord has clothed the grass. And he says don't worry and that worrying will accomplish nothing. 

So I said, "okay well that's kinda cool." And then Jesus goes and does some miracles and he's gathering a following and he tells a man to follow him and the man says he will but first he needs to go bury his father. And Jesus says, "follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

What a poetic line. What a confounding thing to say. The guy raises a seemingly absolutely valid point and Jesus's response is utterly opaque and bizarre and grim. Let the dead bury their own dead. Completely reject whatever you think is important in the face of a call to faith. It's ominous. 

Jesus isn't much for cajoling or negotiating here. What an intimate thing to respond to. And with audacity.

And people well say, "well, Jesus wasn't being rude or crazy. What the guy was saying was that his father was dying and the guy had to attend to him until he died and basically the guy was trying to put it off and Jesus was telling him that it's not something that can be put off and it's okay because we all know Jesus was right, anyway, that's a given."

Any way you slice it that is a radical thing to say. And a radical way to say it. I like it. I think it's cool. 

I don't really have a larger point. It's just a really cool line to reflect on.

it me

Plants

 It seemed like it was getting cold before I went to West Virginia so I brought my plants inside. I guess it's a little premature. Oh well. 

Anyway, a couple thoughts:

1) my place is heated by radiators and I found out today that radiators are really bad for houseplants. it dries them out too fast. I don't think my spider plants like direct sunlight so I guess that's not a huge concern. My current plant management system is they are placed in a corner of my room and I have humidifier/oil diffuser in the middle of all of them because I read that makes them happy. We will see!

2) I got these plants (I still don't know what they are) in 2019 from afterschool and they pretty much died over the course of a year. One died in the Spring and then I put one in the dirt outside my new house in the summer. I decided to bring it back inside today. It doesn't seem like it's doing great. Anyway, surprise surprise! Two new plants were sprouting in one of my spider plant pots. I have no idea how it get in there and grew. So we'll see if those survive. I clumsily moved them to their own pot. It gave my a vague sense of hope that they found a way to survive and grow like that. I hope they survive despite my intervention. But I'm not letting myself get to invested in their fate.

visited Paw Paw today

miss you. love you.