Day 80 Bras in the Breeze and Broken Ankles!

Day 80, Thursday May 20 Ran 3.5 miles/ Total so far 126/ Miles to go 874

Started the day on my front porch with coffee. It was muggy and a little warm. I am afraid that my cool mornings outside will soon come to an end as the heat of Texas summer drives everyone indoors (accept when you are by a swimming pool, which I do not have and do not want, thank you). I had a pool once, in Kuwait. I have to admit that the kids really enjoyed it. Things were easier there, of course. The landlord of our villa had a pool boy who came and cleaned and maintained the pool, so I did not have to mess with the whole business of chemicals and scrubbing, etc. Absent such a luxury again, I will confine my use of pools to gyms, hotels, resorts and pools of friends.

Thinking of that pool in Kuwait brings back two distinct memories. First, our next door neighbors were a very nice, but very conservative Kuwaiti family. One day the mother asked if she and her two young children could swim in our pool. Of course we said yes. I looked out of my window a few minutes later to see two children have a wonderful time and my neighbor with them, in the pool, in full black abaya, covered from head to toe. It was like watching a nun from my Catholic School days playing in a swimming pool except I had never seen a nun in a pool and the thought that they might even swim never crossed my mind, at least, not when I was little. In fact, the first time I realized that nuns were women was when I was in 5th grade and as I walked to the back of the Convent to take my piano lesson from Sister Margaret Rose (who later changed her name to Sister Patricia...guess with the modernization they were allowed to get their old names back?). On the clotheslines behind the Convent....yes, it was in the days when people actually hung clothes to dry, I saw bras blowing in the breeze! OMG I thought. Nuns ware bras. I was so struck by that thought and all the ramifications that I am sure I was a very poor student that day for my lessons. Later someone stole a bra and flew it from the school flagpole....boys will be boys.

My second pool memory of Kuwait involved the time my ex, Kay, slipped on the wet marble steps leading up to the villa after getting the kids out of the pool. She broke her ankle and some good Kuwait friends took her to the hospital and called me. When I got to the hospital, which was a big public hospital with large wards swarming with people (medical care is basically free for everyone with a small payment for drugs) Kay was fit to be tied. They had already tried to Xray her leg twice but the machines were not working and of course, each movement brought more pain. In exasperation Kay hollered out "This is a rich country. They should be able to afford Xray machines that work! This is ridiculous!' Our Kuwaiti friend became a little alarmed at her outburst. He told he to please be calm and not make such statements or maybe they would ask her to leave the country. In response, and in a louder voice, Kay said "They ask me to leave Kuwait and that is a bad thing? No that is a good thing!" That did happen to be the last year we were in Kuwait, but our leaving had nothing to do with her broken ankle and after the release of that defiant statement she did calm down.

I ran at lunch. I will hopefully run at lunch again on Friday. Second Mom, Pat Savage is coming Friday night for a short weekend visit so I will need to hurry home from work......Life is good!