It had just started to rain as we went to bed early Sunday morning. I cautioned Helen to move the futon away from the windows because it was supposed to thunderstorm. Well, when I got up in the morning about 10 AM and looked in on her, water was pouring through the ceiling ! It was like a waterfall! I ran to get some garbage cans to put under, but they filled too quickly. Enlisting the help of Columbine, we set up an empty trash can to catch the drips as Helen watched blearily through not-yet-awake eyes. What a way to wake up! We ate and then Helen and Columbine got packed up while I emptied water-filled containers. I called my daughter Heather to make sure she'd cme over and empty the containers until her father got home later that evening. Then we petted the dog and went out the door. Helen had to make her connection at the Philly airport to go home to Colorado. What a whirlwind week she's had! Four GBS shows in a week in four different states with four different combinations of people!
After we dropped Helen off at Philadelphia International Airport, Columbine and I continued on our journey up to Massachusetts. No - no GBS show this time - but my niece was running in the Boston Marathon on Monday and I wanted to be there to cheer her on. She is a special person, my niece Chandra, and is a teacher in the Washington DC School District. She's played National Lacrosse (her nickname was Junkyard Dog) spent two years in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while she was there!
She's spent several years no building up for this moment. In the past year she's run 7 other marathons, including races in Ireland and Uruguay and all around the USA. In fact, her older sisters accompanied her to Ireland and ended up running the marathon too! Chandra had to run below 3hours 45 minutes in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. She ran about that time but her sisters ran in 6 hours and in 8 hours. Not bad for only a month's trainging on their part!
The trip up to Boston FELT like a marathon. It was raining so hard you could barely see in front of you. Rivers of water were everywhere on the road, making travel hazardous. More than once I found the car hydroplaning on the road. It never let up the whole way. My hands gripped the wheel and my shoulders tensed as I crawled up the NJ Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, over the Tappan Zee bridge and up Routes 684 and 84 to The MASS Pike. I surely was glad to park on Columbine's street and go to the Burren to eat supper. Smudge was happy to see us, well at least he was happy to see Columbine!
An evening of reminiscing led to a good night's sleep and with a hug and a hearty brekfast, Columbine sent me on my way. There was some talk over whether the arathon would be postponed because of the weather, but it had decided to let up at race time although it was still plenty cold and windy. Racers were being cautioned to watch out for hypothermia and to wear clothing layers and to make sure they had a dry change of clothes at the end in their bags.
I met my brother Tom and his family and Chani's friend Rob at the Dunkin Donuts in Porter Square and parked my car. We were like a covert operations group, trying to deploy to various spots along the route so she'd have someone familiar to cheer her on at the tough spots. Tom and I went to the 16 mile mark, Dora to Boston College and Mimi and Rob farther down the road. My brother shouted encouragement to everyone as they ran by. He's an equal opportunity cheerleader. (Click here for my soundseeing tour when I get it up on google) |
