5.5 miles
ford loop
40 degrees
This fall, it’s harder to make my way to the river: streets blocked everywhere, sidewalks torn up. I ran through the neighborhood and reached it at lake street, which had a lane and sidewalk partially blocked too. The sun on the water was too bright, even for my cone dead eyes.
Running up the east side, near shadow falls, I slowly passed another runner. He called out, A beautiful morning for a run! I called back, it sure is! Yes, I am a dork. After I passed him I could hear his footsteps behind me the entire way up the hill. I sped up and worried that I might end up going too fast. Near the top of the hill, I heard the bells at St. Thomas, noticed my shadow down in the ravine.
I ran without stopping until I reached the ford bridge. Stopped to admire the view and put in Beyoncé’s Renaissance.
10 Things I Noticed
- the boulevard on the other side of the east river road is extra wide, with an island of green grass on either side of the sidewalk
- a duet: chirping bird and whirring leaf blower
- at the entrance to shadow falls, at the top of the hill, they’ve put in 4 stone cubes — for sitting and blocking cars, I guess
- a white plane up above, flying straight and parallel to the ground
- the newly re-paved road, near the overlook just before the ford bridge, looked so smooth and perfect. It almost glowed
- very windy on the ford bridge
- looking down from the ford bridge, I noticed a white buoy bobbing in the water
- at the locks and dam no. 1, a runner passed me. She was short and fast
- running past Sunny Montessori, I heard a young child crying
- after I finished my run, walking back on a street that doesn’t quite line up from block to block, I looked ahead. In the center of my vision, I could see a bright white dot, then everything around it — the trees, sidewalk, houses — was in blur. I’m not sure, but I imagine people with better vision see this view the same way I do. The white dot at the end of 2 blocks is part of a fence
Halloween is next week, so time for another witch poem!
Song of the Witches: “Double, double, toil and trouble“/ William Shakespeare
(from Macbeth)
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
I remember reciting this in 6th grade, then getting in trouble for something I did, probably being too loud.