The Visible Woman...February 15, 2004

Sunday, February 15, 2004

A Journal from Austin, Texas.
A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.

marathon

A long race even for the fans.

We are mile nine. We noticed that they painted a nine on the street outside our house a few days ago. This morning we struggled to get out of bed to see the elite runners go by (estimated at 7:36 or so) and we drank coffee and nibbled bagels, cream cheese and salmon with capers with our neighbors until around 9:30 when the stragglers went by and the clean-up began. We had a water station and were glad of that. We remembered having a vasoline station.

The race officials had put porta-pottys down the street a bit but a line developed in front of the one on our lawn (placed there by our contractor). Forrest and one of the neighbors let some of the people use our facilities.

Affter seeing all that energy expended I had to go to the gym for a brief bike ride. It wasn't like running the marathon but at least I sweated.

lots of runners

JUST TYPING

A sea of runners.
Each with a personal goal.
The slowest ones.
Look most tired.
A policeman hears on his radio that the leader has finished the 26.2 miles.
Meanwhile weary folks pass in front of us...at mile 9.

Food Diary.

breakfast
three bagel 'eighths' with cream cheese and smoked salmon from Iceland and capers

lunch

nothing

snacks

two Manhattans
a couple of scoops of tuna salad
a little piece of pepper cheese and some tortilla chips
a banana
a slice of American cheese

dinner

four tiny slices of buttered pumpernickel bread, two with a little smoked salmon and capers and two with tuna salad
some green onions
a boiled egg

Today I
- just kept snacking but I didn't eat anything at the movies.

Time flies....

We wanted to see the first runners go by but we kept going back to sleep. We missed the wheelchairs. A huge water station graced our yard. We joined the party across the street. We saw front runners. I got some salmon and capers from our house for the bagels and cream cheese they had. We sipped coffee and cheered. We didn't see one person we were looking for but we saw other people we knew. We cheered for people we didn't know who had written their names on their shirts. A line formed at our porta-potty (which our contractor had placed in the yard). FFP went over and started a bathroom service in our house, too. Then it was over, the clean-up trucks coming by, everything being picked up.

I rushed to the gym for a bike ride and then rushed back and showered. We met a friend at the movies to see Mystic River. One more film down in my campaign to see a bunch of the Oscar-nominated ones.

When we got home, I got something to eat together, a very late lunch or early dinner and then snacked and ate while reading some of the newspapers and watching a DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Another down in the Oscar race films. Now if I can just find time to go see Master and Commander and Cold Mountain and a few more odd things.

We watched TV then...King of the Hill, Sex in the City, The L Word, Cold Case. I watched part of this TV movie about the suffragettes and it suffered some awful anachronisms ... early twentieth century women, I'm thinking, did not say 'do the math' nor drink red wine out of bowl-shaped wine glasses. I'm just guessing. We had an invite to a movie theater sneak of this one ... glad we gave it a pass.

Not a very productive day. But an entertaining one.

Reading.

Newspapers.

The Conquerers by Michael Beschloss.

Voices of D-Day. ed. Ronald Drez.

nothing

Exercise

recumbent bike	45 min
treadmill
ergonomic rower
water aerobics
chest, shoulder, triceps
leg, back, bicep
lower back
ab exercises
stretches
walking
tennis

I feel good standing outside in the cool air this morning. I get a little bleary in the evening with the Manhattans and the newspapers and two much tube. But I'm feeling good physically if a little out of alignment, a little lost and spacy.

It's a Tangled
Web we weave...these
days of our lives.

One year ago
"So when we get home, I go directly to bed and, although I surf the cable channels (it takes so long now to conclude that there is nothing you want to see that you haven't already seen) and read a bit, I'm soon asleep."

Two years ago
"Death has been near lately for us, recognizing people in the obituaries a lot. It's been raging around us without getting too close, just reminding us of the mortality thing."

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