Tuesday crazy heat, crazy life means another rest day
Wednesday busy day at work that killed my plans for a lunch run. Wednesday is Denise’s volleyball night so after dinner and pajamas I set up the kids to watch their show so I can do the elliptical for an hour. Not ideal but it is at least easy on my knees. My four year daughter comes in to check on me after a couple minutes and sits down in a chair. She begins to pretend to read a story to me. It is a long wandering tale about three friends being locked in a bathroom and eventually they end up flushing one down the potty. I really wonder what goes on in her head. She looks so normal. But she tells the story with such enthusiasm that we are both cracking up. After about a half hour of this it’s time for Hannah Montana dance party. Poor girl has a not so great taste in music and my sense of rhythm. My hour on the elliptical ended and the kids went to bed.
Thursday I was up before the dawn and did a 3hour ride. The longest ride of year to date and only issue I had was that it was boring. I had no route laid out beforehand and was making the ride up as I went. Dull – which I guess is a good thing.
Friday woke up before the dawn again to the sounds of my daughter throwing up. We spent the early morning watching her expel the contents of her digestive system out both ends. My lunch she was very close to being back to her non-gross self. I got lucky in the afternoon and was able to do a quick 30 min run. I added in about 10 minutes of fartleks to try and keep it honest. Nothing much else to add except everyone thought it was a good idea to let their oversized dogs off the leash. Most of the time they just wanted to say hi or put on a show but I didn’t want to take any chances with the german shepard and turned around to avoid him.
Saturday was a washout and we were busy entertaining a friend who came in from outta town.
Sunday did more entertaining and no training. At around 2:30AM we get The Call. There was a time when calls at 2:30AM were a great thing. It meant a drunken friend somewhere wanted to catch up. Sadly at my stage of life a call now at 2:30AM only means bad news. Denise’s grandmother had slipped and fallen. The voice on the phone did not give her long to live. Denise rushed out to be at her grandmothers’ side. She passed away early on Monday morning.
Denise’s grandmother is not your milk and cookies kind of grandmother. She was TOUGH. She was known to have pop errant soccer balls that ended in her yard in front of their owners. When Denise took me to meet her family I was warned to high tail it out the front door if I saw her grandmother grab her broom, her weapon of choice. She was TOUGH because She had to be – she raise three children by herself during the Korean war and had to depend on herself to protect herself and her family. This an trait that she carried over to this country. Denise didn’t recall any happy moments with her grandmother but does credit her with instilling a fighting spirit in her that won’t let her back down from any fight and strong sense of family and a need to protect the family even the stupid Ahole uncles. So the last couple days have been a mix of tears, anger, and Korean food. We are pretty exhausted but are prepared to take up our lives again.
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