Just Run, Write?

I have raised a family of runners. Now one might think that because I run and my offspring run they must have taken after me. Not so. In this case the egg really did come before the chicken. The truth is these Greens run because we are not good at sports requiring a lot of equipment, especially balls. Baseball, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, and golf just have too many parts to coordinate. So we run … and we do math.

“But in order to run 400 meters in a minute I will have to run every 100 meters in 15 seconds...”

“If my opponent runs his/her best time then I will have to run this time to beat him/her...”

“There are 10 hurdles in the race and I have to clear every hurdle...”

“If you run a 6 minute mile pace you will be way under 19 minutes on a 5k ...”

And so on …

My advice to my mathematician runners was always this, “Just run!”

If they would just stop fretting about the obstacles and run, they might clear all those obstacles in the process. They often did.

I don't heed my own advise.

I write because I enjoy it. I am better at writing than I am at crafting, scrapbooking, record keeping. So I write .. and I make excuses.

“If I take time to write and nobody ever reads it, then I have wasted my time ...”

“I have other things I should be doing, like housework ...”

I have writer's block!”

And so on …

What advice might I heed?

“Just write!”

The Eye of the Beholder

Two weeks away from the wide open spaces of Idaho was most interesting.  I can't do it all justice in one post, so I will begin with this ...

I landed in Pittsburgh and rented a very small economy car to drive to Erie, PA.   Beautiful green trees with splashes of red were everywhere!  Freeway exits in Idaho are spotted miles away, as are the various conveniences surrounding those exits.  In woody Pennsylvania, if one isn't reading signs she may miss the exit entirely.  At the very least, she will be unable to spot any of the conveniences surrounding that exit.  (I did not miss exits.  I avoided them.)  The "ways" are not FREE.  I encountered toll highways. 

In Idaho, as in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and most western states, mountains are clearly identified.  Hills are not mountains!  Apparently, the wooded hills I was traversing were mountains.

When I spotted the warning road sign "Falling Rocks" I naturally looked heavenwards.  It's a normal reaction for a Westerner! We expect to see rocky cliffs threatening to loose small boulders sending them tumbling to smash our vehicles. There was nothing heavenwards.  Rather, there was a raised median that was sloughing mud and a few small rocks into the barrow pit.  Hence, the "Falling Rocks" warning!

Their lake is vast.  I wanted to call the shoreline a coast.

It's all relative!