Friday, March 21, 2014

Friday


Hey, good morning! Friday, and a busy one for me today. That's OK. At the end of it, I hope to be ready for Sunday and then for a week away. Escape? Not really, I guess. With modern means of communicating, that's really impossible. I am looking forward to a little down time after an increasingly busy start to the year.

Yesterday was an interesting one. It started with a moonset/sunrise run, followed by a daylong bus trip, and then a late evening swim. Throw in some sermon prep and lots of communication with individuals and you have the day.

The run was noteworthy. I took off, and as usual, thanks to Garmin technology, I don't really have a totally planned route. I just go. Yesterday the wind was light and the conditions were pretty nice, around 32, I think. I decided to head out to Amish country on a quest to get 7 miles.

I turned around at Burton cemetery and was heading back north on the Amish Super 2, on the section before heading back east on Park's Implement's Road. I see a old brown Chevy truck coming down the hill with some frost on its windshield. The truck is going too fast, I think.

As the truck gets closer to me, it starts moving closer to the edge of the road, my edge. I start waving my right arm, hoping to get his attention, encouraging him to move over. He keeps coming and moving closer to the edge, just about going off it. At this point, I wave both arms. He keeps coming!

I literally jump off the road into the plowed field. Now you should know at this point, I do the most important thing. I stop my watch. I don't want skewed numbers. I am about 10 feet off the road, because I thought he was going to come off the road and hit me. I raise both arms in the "what are you doing?" position. The driver does not like me questioning him.

The guy stops and rolls down his window, yelling at me. He then gets out of the truck and comes around the back of it toward me. Clearly he is drunk, shouting at me and proclaiming colorfully his distaste for runners. I'm no Iron Bill. I don't wear glasses (all the time) and there was no dash to place them upon (sorry, inside joke stuff), so I decide to flee. Hey, I was out running anyway!

As I took off, I got to thinking and was a little frightened about what could happen next. I figured he would get back in the truck and try run me down, and there is no cover out there at all. I dismissed that fear, knowing he could not get too far in the field, too rough, too muddy. Then I started thinking, "he probably has a gun." There was no cover at all to hide from bullets.

I really kicked up my pace, while constantly looking back. He sat there in the road for a long time. No shots were fired. He didn't return. My heart finally settled down and the run was complete. It's been quite a while since anything like that happened to me.

Everything after that was pretty mundane. I did find a little Chinese restaurant very near where I took the kids yesterday. I love the name: Side Wok Café. Get it? The food was good, and they had WIFI. What was not to like? It was conducive to sermon prep. The late swim kinda washed away all the impurities of the day.

Today is going to be another busy one. Lot and lots going on right now, but, for the most part, it is getting done. I hope to squeeze in a ride late afternoon, about supper time. The weather sounds warm and a little windy. That'll work.

Thanks for coming by.

1 comment:

ironBill said...

Perhaps we have a new segment - the one you carved out of the corn field?