Silly Hair and Silly Socks
Today, in case you didn’t know it or couldn’t guess, was “Silly Hair Day” at my grandson Christian’s school in Hollywood, Florida.
Wednesday was “Silly Sock Day” at my grandson Cameron’s school in Leesburg, Virginia.
Like Cameron and I making fart noises into our walkie-talkies while sitting on my deck a few years ago, and me wishing I hadn’t missed so much with my kids, I wanted to participate too.
Cameron’s silly socks had tacos on them. Mine had mugs of beer running (Beer Runs) and gorillas playing golf.
Alexa thought my silly hair looked a little like Cindy-Lou Who.
I guess that was appropriate since we recently recognized the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2nd and some of his books were in the news for other reasons.
These first couple weeks of March seemed to generate a lot of memories.
Of course, it was March 13, 2020, when our lives shut down with the fear of Covid-19, and the first “Would You Like a Lime With That?” was posted. It’s funny to read that now since, at the time, the scientists felt that masks weren’t necessary.
That’s changed of course.
On March 3rd in 2018, we celebrated the life of my good friend Joe in New Jersey. That was the last time I saw many of my good friends from home on the Jersey shore.
We have grown used to not seeing the people we love.
Used to it maybe, but we haven’t grown to like it, it has become an unavoidable way of life.
On March 2nd I got one of those memories that pop up on Facebook. It was a photo of my buddy Jim (Jochems) and me running the Reston Ten Miler in 2014. That year, after putting on a few pounds during the holidays leading up to the New Year, I vowed to change my lifestyle, elevate my activities and wrote about it in a weekly Happier, Healthier Me blog.
Jim was kind enough to motivate me to run that race when I didn’t feel I was ready and kept me distracted with ten miles of old Marine stories.
At the time when the photo was posted another friend from New Jersey, Donny Brocklebank thought it funny to compare the image of us in our running tights by posting a link to Youtube Robin Hood: Men in Tights dancing video.
It was funny.
It’s even funnier looking now Donny B, seven years later, because I hate to tell you buddy, I started running again and this almost 65 year old body in tights looks way more gruesome.
Yup, after this Covid winter and having the same kind of experience that led to my 2014 need to increase my activities, I started to run again this week. I actually had a guy on a bike pass me on the W & OD bike trail on Tuesday who said, “Hey I see you got the Covid hair thing going.”
I don’t know who this guy was or whether he knew me or not but I just laughed and said “yeah, it’s my Covid haircut.”
But it was my Covid belly that was really motivating me.
That, and a documentary I watched called The Courage to Run.
It told the story of Chip Gaines, from the cable show Fixer Upper and his quest to run a marathon.
But that wasn’t the real story. The real story was about his coach, a young lady named Gabriele Grunewald, a professional runner continued to compete over a ten year period while battling and beating a variety of cancers.
But in the end, the rare cancer that she was diagnosed with in 2009, won the race. She couldn’t beat that one, and on June 11, 2019, she succumbed to her disease. Through it all, she was very brave.
That hit home to me.
I knew someone too who was very brave and lost his race.
And so, I couldn’t wait to start running again.
This week I have run 18 miles and I am feeling really good about it.
My wife even told me I seem less depressed and she is happy to hear my sarcasm has returned.
That’s a big deal because Kim doesn’t like my New Jersey sarcasm normally.
And, I even lost a couple of pounds already.
And just like making fart noised into walkie-talkies, it’s okay when you are 5 and 64 and 10 and 64 to share silly hair and silly socks.
Because we don’t care.
And now if I could just get my vaccine so I can begin the process of growing unused to seeing those I love.
Then I wouldn’t have to share silly hair and silly socks over video calls.
We could just be silly together.
Postscript:
If you need some TV time, check out The Courage to Run on the Discovery Plus channel. It’s an amazing story. And also the Brave Like Gabe Foundation website.
