Assorted other memories from the weekend:
It was only yesterday that I realized on Saturday after the race, I'd had dinner with (among others) three men over sixty who had just rowed a marathon. And who all look OK in shorts. I mean, when I was young I used to see old men in shorts at the swim club. They had nasty pasty legs with no muscle and they'd wear black socks with their shorts and it all just seemed unnatural and uncomfortable for them. These old rower guys were wearing shorts or jeans because that's what you wear when it's fairly warm out and you're eating dinner at a pub. It looked right on them, and comfortable, and I won't mind at all if I look like a female version when I'm in my sixties.
The funniest part was when Old Salt, who is all of 6 years younger, commented about another rower, "Do you believe he's sixty-nine??" Well, he is a pretty young 69, but from down here, rowing a marathon at 69 doesn't look a whole lot more improbably than rowing it at 63.
It turns out that the Mobile Monet has her own website. It's always more comfortable when you can look at the work of someone you like and realize you like it a lot, too. Take a look. I can just about draw something so it's recognizable, so I'm always impressed at people who can paint at all, let alone paint well. Judging by the awards list, though, in her case other people think so too.
They've just gotten home, so we'll be getting the stuff we sent in the van tonight. This includes the camera bag, so with luck I'll have time to post a couple of race pictures before leaving again Friday.
Stevie Mo's girlfriend is learning to knit, and is just at the garter-stitch scarf stage, so both he and she were very impressed with my socks. I was going to show her how to purl, but then realized there might be something even more basic she needed, so I asked whether she knew how to undo a stitch. She didn't, so I showed her. Funny how differently people learn. I think as soon as I knew how to knit a stitch, it was pretty obvious to me how to undo it; apparently an engineering mind is more useful in knitting than one would suppose. On the other hand, she's majoring in Pastoral Studies, learning to be a hospital chaplain. I'm not sure I could possibly learn to do that job well at all, having all the empathy of your average rock. (I have compassion, just not empathy - can't read people well.)
I've figured out what we can do if we get bored in Philadelphia next week: movies. Generally, there are either too many movies I want to watch, or more commonly, nothing. Right now there are too many: Goblet of Fire, Chronicles of Narnia, Pride and Prejudice, Walk the Line, Mirrormask, even Chicken Little. This might be a good time to catch up, and that might even be something we can do with my dad, who is difficult to interest in anything.
Posted by dichroic at November 15, 2005 03:57 PM