The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Monday, May 25, 2020

Memorial Day & 1/2 Marthon for May


With full Covid-19 safety precautions, I ventured out to one gardening shop yesterday afternoon and bought the traditional 10 different flowering plants that I always do, loaded them into my rusty, but trusty old pickup truck, and ventured on the longest trip I have made since the start of this pandemic.  I drove the ~1 hour distance to reach the cemetery where my closest relatives and friends are buried, and delivered a plant to each grave site and spoke to each of the 18 different relatives or friends who have passed.  While this year, I did this on Sunday, most years I would have done this on Friday or very early Saturday to have the flowers there for a longer period of time during the Memorial Day weekend.  But, with the current situation, it took me a bit longer to garner up the energy and fortitude  to be prepared for the shopping experience.

On Tuesday of this week, I will venture out again to the cemetery  to retrieve the plants that remain.  There are some folks who will scour through the cemetery and use their "five finger discount" to take planters off of graves for their own use.  Some years are worse than others in this regard.  Hopefully, come Tuesday, I will find all of the plants still present.  I then take them home with me and use them in various locations in the backyard area.  I have done ever since owning a home, and I think of each plant as a remembrance/reminder of the loved one.  It helps me to feel a sense of their presence in my home all Summer long.  

With today being the last Monday in May, I came to realize that today would also be my best chance to be able to keep my goal intact of running at least one 1/2 Marathon (13.1 miles (21km)) each month in 2020.  Mondays seem the easiest day for me to try to accomplish a run of this length. 

So, I got up and hit the trail this morning at 5:30am.... in order to have coolness, and lighter sun intensity... and ran 13.6 miles (22km).  My pace was slower than my pace with my normal running distance, of course... and ended up being 9 minutes, 14 seconds per mile.  (which I *think* calculates out to be 5 minutes, 30 seconds per kilometer... or at least pretty close). 

Not too damn shabby for a grey-haired, furry-faced old professor. 

PipeTobacco

4 Comments:

Blogger jenny_o said...

Not shabby at all - well done! I admire your steady persistence at creating good habits and striving for improvement. You are a very good example for others.

I like your thoughtful tradition of taking plants to the cemetery and then taking them home, along with the essence of connection that you establish with your loved ones who are gone. I do hope none have gone missing this year.

Monday, 25 May, 2020  
Blogger Tom Cochrun said...

Your custom of taking plants to decorate graves and then planting them at home is a beautiful thing. My family all rest in Indiana ground and I'm on the West Coast. In previous years I would have "visited" my parents, brothers, grand mother, great aunts and uncle on a trip back, but alas this year, no such trip.
I feel somewhat disconnected from a tradition that began when I was kid and continued through the years when my widowed mother and I were the last. We'd decorate, then stop at a favorite restaurant. This year those are memorial day memories.

Monday, 25 May, 2020  
Blogger peppylady (Dora) said...

Possible even shabby chic. I didn't make up to grave yard this year.

Tuesday, 26 May, 2020  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

That's an impressive ritual you have with the flowers.

Tuesday, 26 May, 2020  

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