Through a Glass Darkly

Oh to be a kid again.

Yesterday was the perfect evening - one of those I will look back on wistfully when I'm an old man in my rocking chair (with no knees left because of all this running). They finally opened up the city outdoor pools for the summer season on Monday, so we took Gavin swimming at Walnut Creek last night. He was so excited, especially when he realized we would be the first people into the pool.

There's a saying - "through a glass darkly" - which implies that we all perceive a filtered version of reality. And it seems to me that the older we get, the more inhibited, constrained and filtered we become - we lose that wonder and freedom we had as kids. Gavin has no such inhibitions and his squeals of delight were wonderful to hear and a joy to share. He just loves the water so much, and I love it that he trusts me completely - if I tell him to jump and promise to catch him, he has no doubt whatsoever that I will. However, I have to keep a real close eye on him because he kept trying to catch me off guard and jump when I wasn't looking. Or wanting to run off to jump in the deep end. A cheeky bugger like his dad!!!

I used to be a good swimmer back in the day and it's going to be such fun teaching him how to swim (even if he insists he already knows how). Now if I could only get him to listen!!!

We eventually dragged him out with his teeth chattering, despite his protests that he wasn't cold. When we got home, I found an old "Thing" costume I'd bought several years ago and which now finally fits him. We had a great time playing with it. Nancy had some errands to run so we got to hang out and play some more before I finally turfed a sleepy little boy into his bed and read him his bedtime story. He cunningly put his arm around me to stop me leaving and was almost instantly asleep. In fact Nancy came home to find us both asleep. What a great evening.

Today I added a nice 13 miles, split between a road run this morning and a trail run tonight. Takes me up to 220 miles for the month - I'm feeling good and looking forward to a long weekend down at the coast for Nancy's birthday.

Here's a "Gavinism". He's been a little more naughty than usual of late, so I've been telling him that I liked the old Gavin who listened and was a good boy. Over the weekend he was up to some mischief and I asked him where the old Gavin was. Without missing a beat he laughed and replied "he's out to lunch. He'll be back in 5 minutes".

I didn't have a comeback for that one.