The best chair.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

I guess I’m just a sentimental guy. I headed out to Jim’s old place to pick up a couple of beat-up chairs. One came with a foot stool and was the favorite place to sit every Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. Dad would usually claim it, but after mom died, he gravitated to her favorite chair and Jim, as the oldest and heir apparent, laid claim to it. When dad died two years ago, Jim took the chair home with him, which is where it was the day he died.

It’s not in great shape…a little dirty and worn and the colors are kind of ugly. I had told Ash she could have it for her apartment when she moved out, but the more I got to thinking about it and the more pictures I saw it in with people I loved sitting in it, the more I felt like I needed to keep it.

Our house is full of furniture I feel like I need to keep and I really pity Holly, who would like a couple of new pieces or at least things that had some colors that hinted the person who’d picked them out had a clue…instead of appearing that they were color blind. ‘For better or for worse’ gets overworked in our situation… she keeps allowing me to bring these things home. Anyway, I went to pick it up along with a recliner that had also been my dad’s and Jim had taken. It was in better shape than the one we had in the living room because Dakota had managed to shred that one by jumping in it to bark at all people using the sidewalks in front of our house…something she felt needed to be addressed. It was at least a color somewhat resembling the scheme Holly was going for…so maybe it would be an improvement.

I drove out to Perry and as soon as I started down Main Street, looking at all Jim’s familiar haunts, I began to tear up. It’s really hard to accept that he’s no longer here and when I go to his place…something I suppose I should avoid…it overcomes me. I know it will never change, either. I get the same way when I go to my grandparents’ home town and pass their old house in New York. Big brothers are harder to lose though, so I was glad no one was there when I pulled into his old driveway.

Once back home, I brought the chair and stool into the rec room and put in down by the TV. Jack plopped in it and said, “wow…this really is comfortable. How come I never got to sit in it before?”

“You were so far down the pecking order that we figured it would only be cruel to let you try it when you’d never actually be able to use it,” I said…which just confused him. Sarcasm often does.

It ended up about three feet from the TV and wedged between a futon and the foosball table. I was sure Holly would get one look at its placement and blow a gasket. I told Jack not to get too attached. To her credit, when she did see it…she said maybe we needed to lose the foosball table. She knows me well and understood why I wanted it. “We’ll do some rearranging once I empty all those Christmas boxes," was her final take on the situation.

I went to the park for a run before having to pick up Heidi. I was running low on time…only enough for 25 minutes and that’s what I did. I got back in the car, turned on the heat and was getting comfortable when I noticed I had a voicemail. It was Holly calling to tell me Jason was picking Heidi up. Damn. I could get back out of the car and run the additional 5 minutes that I had originally planned for today…but what a bother! Instead, I decided I’d add that same lost 5 minutes onto a run I would do tomorrow when I tried my first back-to-back runs since hurting my foot. I think I’m starting to put on a little holiday weight, so I have to get the running in full swing again. The battle with holiday calories is quickly morphing into a full-scale war.

Run duration: 25 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 450.