S is in his room with his keyboard on auto-play. I don't know who the hell picked out the songs that are on it, but if I wanted that child introduced to elevator music, I'd definitely be living my dream right now. A second ago, it was belting out something by The Carpenters (God help us all), and now it's - literally - "Killing Me Softly." Extremely apropos. And for awhile, he had it playing "Auld Lang Syne" and was singing along in this high, operatic vibrato. It was hysterical. Does anyone even KNOW the words to that song, besides S? And I don't mean just the part that you sing on New Year's Eve. He went through several verses of it. No idea where he picked that up.
I did 6 miles this morning. I had a fantastic 3-miler earlier in the week, but other than that, I'm still pretty much sucking. My motivation gets low toward the second half to 3/4 of a run lately, and I don't really know what to do about it other than to keep running and hope it passes.
I've seen some fun things on my runs recently. Last week, there was a green turtle in the gutter that apparently crawled up from a nearby flood-drain-faux-creek-thing that runs along the edge of our neighborhood. It was really cute, just sitting there with its front feet (paws? What the hell do you call them on a turtle?) on the curb, staring up at me, wondering what manner of fucked-up thing this odd human was doing. I was afraid it would get out in the street and get hit by a car, so I picked it up and took it back over to the aforementioned flood-drain-faux-creek-thing and put it on the edge of the water. It was gone when I came back around that way a little bit later.
Today toward the beginning of my run, I saw a large tree that had been very thoroughly and expertly toilet-papered. Since I'm getting a sexy new cell phone this week (it's RED!!!) - one that I will actually let me pull my pictures off of it onto my computer, unlike the piece of shit that I currently have - I've decided to start a new thing here where I post a picture of something that caught my eye on my weekly long run. I won't call it a meme, because it's a pretty sure bet that it's NOT going to take off and spread like wildfire and become the Next Big Craze of the Blogosphere (god, I hate that word), but it'll be fun. For me, anyway.
In other news: J is dropping hints. Good things to come, a surprise, been thinking a lot about our relationship, he's so happy, loves our life, loves our family, etc. We briefly got into this discussion a couple of days ago, and J said, "In fact, I know I'd be a fool..."
At which point, right on cue, S came running in to tell me something.
Hmmmmmmmm...
I think posting random pics from your runs would be a great idea and I so now how you feel about the bad timing our kids sometimes have. Great post. Thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: Blue Monkey Jammies | 05/27/2007 at 02:39 PM
Hints huh? Exciting!
Posted by: caramaena | 05/21/2007 at 04:21 AM
That's what I like to call an "OPK" (Other People's Kids) gift. Got an acquaintance or relative you'd like to needle without bringing too much crap down on your own head for it? Buy their kid an OPK gift. Noisy gifts are OPK for me. So are gifts with a million pieces.
And according to Wikipedia, they're called...(drum roll)..."feet".
Posted by: Claude | 05/20/2007 at 08:25 PM
And just which evil relative bought him a keyboard with autoplay? Because that is a person you want to disown!
Good turtle rescue. They're not the brightest bulbs on the tree, turtles. They often need help with roads.
Here from michele.
Posted by: margalit | 05/20/2007 at 04:11 PM
I had a keyboard when I was a teenager. However, I couldn't play it very well and I definitely can't sing well!
Hope you've had a good weekend.
Here from Michele's :)
Posted by: Nikki-ann | 05/20/2007 at 02:16 PM
I'm here from Michele today...And I personally don't consider "Killing Me Softly" Elevator music...In fact the GREAT record of that by Roberta Flack is still one of the best recordigs, ever...So, in my view, your young son has very good taste in music!(lol) It is amazing that he would even have hear that song in this day and age!
Love that you saved that Turtle...And I'm sure he is very very grateful!
Good luck with your running...It sounds like you are doing fantastically!
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | 05/20/2007 at 01:08 PM
Hey, Sirius. Here from Michele.
The kids and I once hopped out of our car and made sure a turtle didn't get run over as it crossed a nearby street. I think that was two years ago now, actually.
I've been seeing neat things on my bike rides this past week. One night, I came close enough to a groundhog that I could have petted it if I'd tried. I was going too fast to try, though. I do wonder what groundhogs feel like (other than the sharp teeth that tell you to bug off)...
Posted by: Susan Helene Gottfried | 05/20/2007 at 12:58 PM
You were brave to pick up a strange turtle in the street. How'd you know he wouldn't snap your head off or follow you home?
With regards to S, my favorite songs when I was 10 were "Tweeter & The Monkey Man" and some song by the New Kids on the Block that I forget now. Who knows why kids like the music they do, but I know I felt it deeply. Even Debbie Gibson touched me.
Posted by: bobealia | 05/20/2007 at 11:15 AM
Hi Sirius, here from michele - who of course says hi.
Back when I was a cub scout, which may have been before you were born, I used to love the Carperters, and the song "Killing Me Softly". I don't know what turtles' feet are called either, but when I come across them out in the California desert - I don't touch them. If you pick turtles up they get scared and lose their water, which could be more deadly for them than moving them from a motorcycle trail.
Posted by: dan | 05/20/2007 at 10:29 AM