Category: Life with Pratts

Five Dead In Iowa

Tuesday afternoon I saw my eye doctor, who gave me good news and bad news. Good news is my retina is healing fine from the laser ZAP! last week. The bad news is, it’s still healing, so I can’t go running for at least another two weeks. Running on the road, that is. I can get on a treadmill, so that’s what I’ll do, at the gym at work.

Driving back to work after the appointment, I went over the Zakim Bridge and past whatever Boston Garden is being called these days where, minutes ago, the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship. The last time they did that, 22 years ago, I was living in a one bedroom apartment in Melrose, Massachusetts, and Carol was a couple of months away from moving in with me. That was a very long time ago.

But I want to at least mention Iowa, because I feel so sorry for those people. They have a lot more to worry about now than $4.15 gasoline. What a mess out there. So many lives disrupted, and an entire region’s economy devastated. The Boston Globe has an excellent set of photos of the flooding in Iowa at this link. The first one, of a tornado, is terrifying, and looks as though it could almost be a special effect in a movie.

My buddy Dennis made some noteworthy comments about what’s happening in the midwest.

When bad things happened in New Orleans, those on the religious right proclaimed that it was “God’s Wrath on Sinful New Orleans.” So, what is this? “The Heartland” is facing the same wrath now. Maybe because Iowa voted for Obama? Where is the “They had it coming” and “Well, they built the city below water level” stuff? I’m sure that 50 years ago, most of the land flooded in this disaster was farmland and absorbed the water in time. Today, houses and buildings sit there, awash in a toxic sludge. Would someone say “They had it coming”?

Good question. Why is the flooding of Cedar Rapids and Des Moines different from the punishment that Hurricane Katrina was supposed to be for the sinfulness of New Orleans? I would add the question, why are so many who claim to feel the forgiveness of Christ so full of judgment, and lacking in forgiveness themselves?

Eye Am OK

In the middle of lunch today at work I suddenly saw a new, dark floater in my eye that still has a vitreous. I knew immediately it couldn’t be ignored, so I called my eye surgeon. He wanted to see me right away, and he found a small hole in the retina. He patched it with a laser, and it seems OK now, but I’m prohibited from running until my follow-up appointment next week. I can’t imagine what could have caused this, other than watching the K3 videos. 😉

Boston’s Run to Remember

Boston\'s Race to Remember 2008

Today I got up bright and early (OK, maybe I wasn’t feeling so bright) and drove to Boston to do the Run to Remember. It’s a half-marathon, 13.1 miles, and it commemorates Massachusetts law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. With a huge police presence, it’s the most crime-free race going!

I finished in 2:04:31, and that comes out to one minute per mile slower than I did two years ago. I couldn’t run it last year because of my ankle trouble. Between this race and the marathon last month, I’m feeling confident that I can bring myself back up to what I consider to be good shape.

Much of the Run to Remember is along Memorial Drive in Cambridge, going past MIT and down to Harvard and back, but the start and finish go through Boston, which sure looks different than the last time I ran this race. The elevated highway is completely gone now, in post-Big Dig Boston. The total cost for the massive project, known for its mismanagement and corruption, was about $14 billion over 25 years. Compare that to our occupation of Iraq, known for its mismanagement and corruption, which costs about $12 billion per month, with no end in sight, and none promised by John McCain if he becomes President.

100.3

No, 100.3 isn’t the frequency of a favorite FM radio station, it was my temperature last night. My fever has broken, but I’m still miserable with a very bad cold, the worst I can recall having in many years.

Carol says because of the fever and muscle aches, it must be the flu.