Scott Douglas’ Terse Bloviation

While running the other evening I was feeling especially fatigued and the song “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” came to mind. So when I got home and started the usual 13-hour post-run routine I put on the album it’s on for the first time in years. Damn, that’s good stuff! I love dredging up something from the archives and finding it still speaks to me. In this case, I was thinking, “Wow, that’s really held up well for being 15 years old. Wait, it’s 25! Holy telescoped time, Batman!”

From A Geography of Time:

Until the Industrial Revolution, in fact, most evidence shows that people showed little inclination to work.

I’m in one of those stages with no big projects or adventures or cool trips to look forward to, so I need to remind myself to not forget quotidian items that reliably pierce the clouds. Ten off the top of my head:

1. Solo trail runs.
2. Trail runs with friends.
3. First 83 cups of coffee in the morning.
4. Dinner with Stacey.
5. Harold Mabern at full force.
6. For some reason, merino wool tops make me very happy.
7. A good chai is nice.
8. Interesting e-mail exchanges.
9. Perusing Slate.
10. At some point during the day, each of the pets does something that makes me smile.

Your list?

Actually, this time I seek rather than provide the advice on stupid household minutiae: A quandary over ecofriendly dishwashing submitted to the environmental site Grist.org.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/07/travel/1207-SKI_3.html

Don’t bang car doors into the place on your shin where you have a bump from an ancient stress fracture, especially if you are about to drive an hour and use the shin muscles the whole way to work the gas pedal.

Also, the easiest way to peel ginger is with the side of a spoon.

To balance the puling below, I’ll write something nice. Stacey and I tried a couple of times to make vegetable broth, but the recipes we followed never turned out to be worth it, as they would call for a couple onions, carrots and other items that we would normally eat. But now, thanks to one of our way-cool neighbors, we know what to do. All vegetable scraps that we would otherwise compost go into a bag. When the bag is full, we put the scraps in a pot, cover with an inch or so of water, and simmer for a couple of hours until the liquid volume has been reduced by a third. Strain the scraps, bottle the broth and then put the scraps in the compost bucket. The broth is way tastier than what we made before or could buy, and the stuff made to use it winds up in the compost pile where it would have anyway.

Hi there. How have you been? You’re looking well. Have you lost weight?

What’s that? What’s up with me? Why, thanks for asking! The near future should include:

• A turkeyless Thanksgiving at the home of vegetarian friends.
• Final harvesting of brussels sprouts and sunchokes.
• My second race in the last 26 months.
• A weekend in Montreal.
• A few days with Zola Budd Pieterse for a Running Times story.
• Publication of the second edition of Advanced Marathoning.
• Continued daily sits in front of the lightbox to account for the fact that the sun, when it deigns to appear, checks out for the day at about noon.
• Continued vicarious pleasure in the well-earned success of Stacey’s great 2009 wall calendar.

How about yourself?