No Show

I was supposed to meet John at the pool at 7:00 a.m. How do you follow being on time for once in the past three years? You don't show up at all. That's about right. I swam

2,100
2 X 50
total: 2,200 long course meters.

Later in the morning, I went for a shuffle and did 3.56 miles. The air had a different quality about it. I haven't been watching the weather, but it felt like the humidity was low.

We met at Brian's house at 5:30 and rode Money Road. Father Oryan took out ahead of us like he was out to win the Tour de France. Brian told me he had done that Monday and faded like a pecan leaf in the fall. We caught him before Tallahatchie Flats. He hung with us a while and then fell off. We waited for him at Money, and he kept riding and went to the McIntyre turn and back. When he got back with us, I told him, "Make us old men hurt."

He did just like he did at the start. We caught him a half mile later. Brian passed him and I passed Brian and just like that, we dropped Father Oryan. I couldn't help it. Call it hazing. Call it education. Just don't call it bullying--hazing maybe-- because you have to learn about these things, how to pace yourself, how to divvy out your energy in a sustainable way, and not to talk trash to old men. As I told him, "We might be old men, but we still have pride."

Later we stopped and let him catch up and then did it all over again. Despite the abuse he took from us, I told Brian that he will be a threat by the end of summer. He is strong, has lost eighty pounds and is still on the weight loss/fitness journey. Besides riding a bicycle, which he is a newbie at, he also runs. I can't help but be impressed by him. He is going places. Thank you, Jesus, for placing him in my life.