I’ve openly wept two times in my life with the passing of a celebrity. The first time was a couple of years ago when Don Knotts...Barney of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ fame...died. The second time was when I picked up the morning paper and saw a picture of Andy and began to read the story of his passing and life.
As I read, it occurred to me that I really didn’t believe the actor they were describing was the same person I’d come to know and love. They talked about a comic Broadway career and numerous TV and movies in which he’d starred in addition to his role as the sheriff of Mayberry. This was some other person I was sure, because the guy I’d shed tears over was just a simple, honest man who, with the help of his Aunt Bee, was raising a wonderful son named Opie...another good friend. I loved the home spun, clean sexless humor of the show and continue to watch episodes to this day. In fact, like so many Americans, I own the complete set of shows up through the time when Don Knotts left. I know many of the scenes as well as I know scenes from my own life. And why wouldn’t I, since he and they seemed linked...as though I’d been nearby or that they’d happened to me. He did seem like family. He made me feel like he wasn’t acting...that there was a place called Mayberry and he was its sheriff, though long since retired. I really couldn’t separate the man from the character role and never will. He’ll always be ‘Paw’ and I’ll continue to watch what seem like nothing more than home movies for as long as my DVD’s hold out.
It was a hectic day. I had no time before work to get in a ride and had to pick Heidi up from Akron afterwards. She would be joining us for dinner at home with friends and then heading to my sister’s place on the Lake where we would all sit in her back yard and watch fireworks being launched from Mentor Harbor Yacht Club. I could see that it was going to be a day off until it occurred to me that I could stop at Sand Run Metro Park in Akron and do a short run before picking her up. Of course this would mean that I’d be discarding my decision to wait until Friday to try running again to give my knee more time to heal, but I concluded that I simply had to do something.
Sand Run is one of the hilliest parks I’ve ever been in, but since I was only going 10 minutes, I knew I wouldn’t be experiencing many of them. I parked, changed and began to run uphill. I didn’t feel any pain and decided I’d make it 12 minutes just to show some increase in distance covered. As with my first run three days earlier, I felt no pain during or immediately after the run, but by the time I arrived back home with Heidi, I could feel a slight swelling and discomfort in the knee. Maybe this is normal, but I think it warrants a call to the surgeon.
Run Duration: 12 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 200.
No comments:
Post a Comment