well, the bad news is that i went running on saturday and felt so good that i ran for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes, and i hadn’t run in maybe a month, but really, that shouldn’t have caused ALL THIS PAIN.  my foot is kind of swollen and it’s painful to walk on it, and a nurse i know said it could be a stress fracture which it had better not be, because i read  online that that could take FOUR TO 12 WEEKS TO HEAL.

and i’m already going a little crazy not exercising at all, and it’s only been three days.

but the good news is that i have a lot more free time.  but no, the bad news way way way outweighs the good news.

this morning i’m going to a water class called “water in motion” or something like that.  the problem with water classes, besides the fact that i’ll have to PUT ON A BATHING SUIT, is that it involves so many steps – after the water exercise i’ll have to shower and everything there at the fit club, plus i’ll have to haul all my stuff there and it’s a lot of rigamarole.

but ok, at least there’s something i can do.  maybe it’ll be fun to be in the water?  somewhat doubtful.

anyway, more time, in theory, and here are my last photos from the end of october, les out on a walk with chester behind him, playing with les’s leash.

les intently watches the geese out in the water.

…and looks so darling, relaxing amidst the foliage.

and now, rocketing right past november, which i’ll hopefully get back to before the year is out, but you never know…kevin had a 114th event yesterday, the dedication of the new re-created arch at oak ridge cemetery.  it’s a replica of the original archway, the one that lincoln’s body went through during his funeral procession.  many local businesses donated a huge amount of money and materials and time to create this new arch.

kevin lured me into going with him, saying that the event would only last a half hour.  this was a concern to me, because i had a masssage later.

i will say that he was just going on the (scanty) information he got about the event in an e-mail.

by the time we got there at 11:30, a good-sized crowd had gathered. that lady there in front of kevin had staked out her seat and was ready for the even to commence.  even though it wasn’t going to start for a half hour.

here’s the new arch, and off to the right in the yellow sweater is sam madonia, who was the master of ceremonies.  as i looked around, i realized there were lots of guys in suits, who looked like politicians.

here’s the municipal band, which entertained the crowd for the half hour before all the hooplah started.  it was a decent-sized crowd, but many of the people seemed to be politicians.

here’s mo and our friend ann, wife of jim, who is also in the 114th.  ann is crazy about scotties, in case you couldn’t figure that out.

and here’s her husband jim, on the far right, completely covered by the flag.  i love this picture because you can’t see him at all; it’s like he’s trying to hide behind the flag.

we got these fancy, slick programs about the proceedings and i was suspicious – it seemed that lots of these politicians and other important-type people were going to be speaking.  would it be a neverending blah blah blah?

yes, it was.  sam did a fine job, but then he’d introduce somebody and they’d go on and on and on, and mostly they were just congratulating each other on how awesome they all were.  the worst was our mayor, though – his speech was all about how great the arch is, and how wonderful arches are, and then he started talking about arches in ANCIENT ROME and at that point i realized that he might never shut up.  on and on, about the immensely vastly important importance of arches to LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.

so much blah blah blah.

and then they had to read out all the names of all the people and businesses who helped with the arch, and they gave out plaques, and it took almost forever.  as they were about to do more and more talking, the microphone finally conked out because clearly, the speeches had completely exceeded the time needed for the dedication of the arch.

but they kept talking anyway, continuing to congratulate each other, but now we couldn’t hear them.

it lasted almost an hour.

finally, it was done and we could leave.  whew.  here’s kevin, with a guy from the paper taking down his name.  we need to go out and get a paper, because hopefully there’s a nice photo of him in it.

lots of TV people were there, but they didn’t show kevin on TV at all, not on any of the stations.  it was just video of some of the blah blah blah…

back home, here’s kevin with our darling neighbor bernice, who had never seen kevin in his dashing uniform.  she was duly impressed.

yesterday was a big day, because instead of not going anywhere, we made it to TWO events.  last night we went to a house concert out in williamsville, to hear a celtic band called Switchback.

by the time we got there, the only seats were in the front or way in the back.

because we chose the seats right up front, we were very, very, very close.

very close.

but they were entertaining plus the house was nicely decorated for christmas, plus the little son of the couple who hosted the party got up and played the violin for one song, which made me have flashbacks of my horrible horrible violin playing when i was a kid.

a busy day, and les had to climb right up kevin and purr his head off.  because that’s what he does.

today won’t be nearly as exciting as yesterday, but it will involve me being in a pool in one short hour from now.

ok then,

mrs. thursday morning hughes.