Alyssa accused me of already being checked out, because she is catching mistakes and I do not usually make mistakes. Alyssa asked me if the potential job is something I really want to do. I told her that my life has changed so much over the last ten years and there have been so many things I wanted that did not work out and so much that I lost that I have a hard time planning a future very far ahead. I told her that promotion is just the best thing for me to do today.
We also have the added problem of being super bored. The two of us, with our new great boss, have streamlined processes and become so much more efficient, that we do not have that much to do. So, Alyssa started Couch to 5K and showed me the site and I've been playing with the route map,
Couch to 5K http://www.c25k.com/
http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/
Funny, she thinks sometime in the future she might need to run fast and I've been thinking that, too. With the route map I can finally know how far I am walking. I can guess based on the time it takes, but I wasn't sure how accurate I was. My regular walk is 2.2 miles around the cemetery.
Sunday was a glorious sunny day, 14 degrees above normal, and Sunday morning I decided to walk down to the greenbelt. Turns out the greenbelt is one mile from my house.
My house is right above the yellow 1 mile mark, where Garden Street hits the edge of the map. Sunday I walked 6 miles to the Willow Lane Park Complex. From my house, I walk over this bridge to get to the greenbelt,
On the way, I walk by Joe's Crab Shack, which has a patio that looked like a super place to spend a Sunday afternoon (although these pics were taken Tuesday evening),
I walked a 4 mile version on the same walk on Tuesday and passed Riverside Park, which includes some rapids on the river. One guy was practicing his kayaking and several were boogie-boarding,
Being from So Cal and having seen boogie-boarders in the ocean, the boogie-boarders in the river just cracked me up, but they looked like they were having a great time.
On Sunday, I meant to walk over to the Veteran's Memorial, but I passed it. Ed Freeman is buried at the Veteran's Memorial in Boise and Dad just sent me the email that goes around on a regular basis about him,
"You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.
It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But… It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho
May God Bless and Rest His Soul."
The email makes it sound like he just died and is anti-media, but the truth is that Ed Freeman died on August 20, 2008 due to complications from Parkinson's disease and was buried with full military honors at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise.
One of my pea seeds sprouted and is about 2 inches tall, one is just about to sprout, and the other 7 are not doing anything. Some of the herb seeds sprouted, so I could tell that I planted about a dozen seeds of some of them and had to pull out some of the sprouts. I hate doing this, it feels like I am killing something. Sarah gave me some heirloom carrot seeds, so I started another tray with carrots and lettuce. I look at those tiny sprouts, which make my 4' by 4' planter look huge, but I know it will fill up fast.
Last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and when I returned from my walk, the neighborhood burst into noise. The construction is still going on next door, the Harley-rider's music is blaring and his grandchildren screaming, dogs barking, another neighbor having a party on their patio, and the leaf-blowing neighbor traded his leaf blower for a roto-tiller. (Hey, pal, I'm a girl and I still did that with a shovel!) What a racket! I wished for the quiet of winter for about 30 seconds, then I went to the grocery store and it was quiet when I got back.
Sarah and Joe's backyard tree burst into flower this week and I know it is really spring. For at least a week that tree will make my backyard smell like Jasmine.
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