Monday, September 13, 2010

A Frost in the air

I know where I was a year ago because of where I wasn't a day ago.

Yesterday was Ironman Wisconsin, and I wasn't there. I wasn't there because the race is so popular that online registration opens 364 days before race day and closes within minutes, and I didn't even try. That's because I was sitting outside a coffee shop in Manistee, Mich., unwilling to broadcast my credit card information over their free Wi-Fi connection.

I was on vacation. I had finished my book on Saturday and had finished Ironman Louisville the previous Sunday, which completed a year of off-the-charts stress, sub-par training, infinite spousal patience and dreadfully habitual sleep deprivation. I sipped my espresso and stared into space, feeling happy with what I'd accomplished (if not ecstatic with my 12-hour-plus in Louisville) and promising myself that I wouldn't put myself through another year like that ever again.

Robert Frost wrote a quick and not nearly widely enough distributed poem that goes,

Lord, forgive my little jokes on thee,
And I'll forgive thy great big one on me.

Well, don't blame me if God's overworked. I seem to be pretty self-sufficient in the great-big-one-on-me department.

4 comments:

Jeremy Stein said...

If the web page is HTTPS, it doesn't matter whether you're on an unencrypted wireless connection. Nobody but your browser and their server knows what's going across the wire.

If the web page isn't HTTPS, you should have a word with their web staff.

La Professora said...

The Ironman was not all you missed. Last week was the Knutsford Great Race... on penny-farthings. That race happens only once every ten years. However, the race at the Evandale Village Fair is every February, if you feel the need to see Tasmania from that height. I bet they don't put down chip-seal there.

Jef Mallett said...

Oh, my gosh. Do check out those penny-farthing links. How completely silly and cool.

B. Kramer said...

It's good to take comfort in the things you don't do. Just think of the pain you're missing. Dosn't that feel good? Cheers!