Ah, Amigos, Rest Assured I have not forgotten about you

Boys and girls, interesting times are afoot up here in Mystic. Spring is always a good time to be in New England, and an even better time to be a runner.

I had a whirlwind trip down to DC early last week, in which I got to catch up with my brother-in-law and his wonderful wife, and got to head up to the Sausage Factory (eg the Capitol, from the immortal quote which I’m too lazy to google, which goes along the lines of “It’s terrible to see what goes into both sausage and laws”). I managed to stay downtown, and got in a transcendent dawn run on the Mall, and tried as to be as loud as possible in the hotel hall, as it was full of whipper-snapper teens down for one of the many “see how government works” programs, which, near as I can tell, involves a lot of running between rooms and giggling at about midnight. But I had beer with the brother-in-law, and a good walk, and it really didn’t matter.

Saturday was Pinewood Derby, and it was outstanding. Jake’s (mostly) self-made car (I will dig up a picture, but all I did was rough out the shape with a table-saw and do a little light soldering) came in 5th out of 8, and that was without him doing anything to the wheels or axles. “But daddy, I want to paint it!” We also headed out to check out the YMCA camp over by Burlinggame State Park in Rhode Island. I’m sending the kids for pretty much as long as they want to go. The camp’s got all the cool “camp” stuff, like swimming and canoes and sports and lanyards and musty cabins, and none of that modern stuff like PowerPoint and DVDs. I’m sold.

The boys and I followed up a little time in the woods with a hike over at the Ninengret National Wildlife Refuge, and a trip up to URE outfitters to buy a fishing license. The hike rocked – it was brisk and windy, but there was no whining by the boys, and on the way back,

Jake said “Dad, can I run back to the car?”

“Sure”, I said, “just turn around and run back to us when you get there”.

Off he went. Nate and I continued to stroll, and Jake met up with us a little quicker than I’d expected. “Did you make it all the way back?”

“Yep. I did stop to read the sign for a while, though, so I didn’t run right back”. Man, fast, and honest, too.

I finished up Saturday with 5 miles. It was supposed to be 4 miles in preparation for a long run on Sunday, but I took a new route, took a different turn to do some exploring, and added another mile. I didn’t make the long run on Sunday, but I did a bunch of walking after church, so I think it’ll all come out in the wash.

Now it’s Monday, and I’m feeling rested, excited, and pretty fired up about being able to get back on track. I hit the gym with my officemate at lunch. Calisthenics and some time on the exercise bike are good for what ails you.

One thought on “Ah, Amigos, Rest Assured I have not forgotten about you”

  1. The quote is most commonly attributed to Otto von Bismarck, and there are two variations:

    “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”

    “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”

    The popular German version of the quote is this:

    “Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts.”

    Translation: “The less people know about how laws and sausages are made, the better they’ll sleep at night.”

    However, the oldest citation of the quote is from 1869, when it was attributed to the poet John Godfrey Saxe:

    “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.”

Comments are closed.