Karen's Journey

I think my head might might explode. Two years ago, my son -- then in kindergarten -- came home with an assignment for Veteran's Day to write the name of an active or veteran serviceperson in our child's family on a star and then send the star back in to school. At that time, I contacted the principal, requested sensitivity to non-traditional and immigrant families, and asked if the assignment wording could be changed to be inclusive by adding "your child's family, family friend, or neighbor." She told me I was being insensitive to the children who have parents currently deployed. Um, not sure how she got that out of that. I assure d her I was not, I was just trying to ensure that children who come here from different countries or who don't know their family backgrounds don't feel excluded.  She told me that if I felt the assignment didn't fit our situation, to feel free to change it. My head almost exploded then.  Here's the point: the minu...

A bit blurry, but he was moving . Two years ago, Hubs paced T to a single-year age course record of 40:18 for male, age five in our community's Festival of Races 5km men's race. That was actually three minutes slower than what he'd run on the Cape over the summer, but he ran it in a monsoon and while fighting a cold. Last year he was poised to set the record for male, age six, but was diagnosed with pneumonia five days before race day, and the doctor said a 100 meter race would be okay, but not 3.1 miles. So Josh A. got to retain his record, which is a respectable one. This year, T was adamant that he did not want to run this race. So I signed myself up. I'm trying to retain some amount of triathlon fitness, and regular racing is going to be an incentive to get myself out the door twice a week to run. Training with him along has not gone well. He crabs, moans, complains, drags his feet, tries to outdo me by walking fast -- an incentive for me to move fast...

Wright Peak's summit knob, overlooking Heart Lake and Mt. Jo --  look how tiny! -- and mountains beyond mountains all around. We left off with us making a spur of the moment decision to ascend Wright Peak instead of our planned stroll into Marcy Dam -- without any additional food, water, or "be prepared to spend an unexpected night out in the woods" gear. Wright peak and Marcy Dam share the same path for the first nine-tenths of a mile, then the trail to the McIntyre range -- Wright/Algonquin/Boundary/Iroquois -- splits off to the right. And the climbing begins. At first it is no more difficult than Mt. Jo. My confidence perks up. I've heard about how big the boulders are on this trail, but since it was snow covered when I went up Algonquin, I don't really know what to expect. We make decent progress and again, Bearie is the one asking for breaks, so I don't have to. I'm more than happy to stop and take a breather and a few sips from m...