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. 😉
Category: Life with Pratts
Boston’s Run to Remember
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.
American Idle
Here I am, plodding across the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I’ll probably buy a copy of this photo. If I do I’ll post it again without the watermark.
With No Power Comes No Responsibility
This has been the scene at our house lately…
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.
Mentos Moment
You’ve perhaps, if not probably, seen videos of what happens when Mentos candies are dropped into bottles of diet cola. The reaction is due to the carbonation, and diet soda is better because it isn’t sticky. There’s now a Geyser Tube™ kit you can buy that will make it possible to waste some Mentos and a bottle of soda from a safe distance for ten seconds of excitement. Eric and his cousins Sarah, who pulled the string, and Kate, who complained the demonstration wasn’t very exciting, demonstrate.
[flv:/Video/2008/APR/Mentos.flv 440 330]
I’m glad Eric took the video in front of the garage. This gives me a chance to tell you that Glenn, our contractor, is visiting again, but there’s no big project like last year, when he remodeled the porch. In a few days the bit of vinyl that’s above the garage door will be gone, replaced with cedar shingle, and that chimney will be removed. It belonged to a wood stove that was gone long before we bought the house ten years ago.
