I think it was back in early twenty-teens when, in a moment of false bravado, I said to my wife, "I'll run exactly one half-marathon with you: The Maui Half." I'd been athletic in high school and college, but never much of a runner for its own sake. Then I got old and my health plan was simple: "Save room for dessert." It worked, and I was still thin because I have the food-related will power to actually save the room.
Yeah, I sorta did that. I honestly can't remember why she put on the ear muff things and asked me to do it, but I ran with it. Maybe it had something to do with the clear thing she's holding...a speculum, maybe? A bit of obstetrics and genecology has myotises'd its way into my brain over the years. She's a real life OB/GYN. But sadly, she's not the blogger that goes by OB/GYN Kenobi. Well, I say sadly, but that dude's a dude, and I'm pretty happy with my wife.
I was skyping with my children while at an amazing B&B in Dingle, Ireland, population of right around 2,000. "Boys, tomorrow, we're going to see the Cliffs of Moher. They're like the Cliffs of Insanity from Princess Bride. Ok, see ya later." Then on a whim, I googled it. I was spot on: they were the exact cliffs used as the establishing shot in the film (one of my favorites), and I was going to see them in a day!
In junior high, that's middle school for you whippersnappers, I listened to the radio a lot. That's when I discovered U2's Pride (In the name of love). Then Joshua Tree came out. Then some years passed, and I found myself dating a big U2 fan in college. It seemed like the relationship might be going somewhere (it did, and that "somewhere" has been pretty freaking nice for the last 27 years), so I borrowed her cassettes and CDs and made myself a U2 mixtape.
In case you aren't up on your US geography, I had a professional artist work with a professional cartographer to mock up this sophisticated image...just for you!
It wasn't in a race or anything, but for fathers day one year, my wife got me a driving experience.
It was my 40th birthday, 2012. The world didn't end because of the Mayan calendar thing that in fact, never predicted the end of the world at all. So that's probably a good thing.
Being a milestone birthday, it seemed like a fine idea to get onboard a tiny airplane and jump out of it. It may not have been such a good idea after all, but I went into it with plenty of unearned optimism.
