The Saga of the Blower and the Distressed Runner

My dad got the bad news a few weeks ago that he can't run, at least, not for a while. And, for anyone who has any inkling of my dad, this is pretty distressing for a guy whose always out running, even if its thirty degrees below zero and he's in Canada (which really does happen, every Christmas). So, he's pretty bummed out, and as kind of a rebound, he's taken up... you guessed it! leaf blowing! Which sounds pretty tame, right? I mean, get the leaves out of the driveway, make everything look nice, etc. Except, for a person who is used to going out every day and running... leaf blowing must be done every day. And pretty soon you start to notice that the driveway is entirely clear of leaves... but he still pops out of the backdoor to get the leaf blower and says something about 'just have to get a few more off' and then starts up again. And this particular leaf blower he has been using to stem his agony over not being able to run is one of those that perpetually sounds like its just about had it. It kind of purrs and mutters and then chugs and splutters if it gets too near the monkey grass. And the worst of it is, he simply won't cut the thing off, as someone whose used to spending a long time outdoors, say, running, I suppose he finds it his duty to walk up and down the driveway swinging the thing until dinner time. Now, I'm in my living room, outside of which directly is our front porch, and I have never known a front porch (especially one that is covered) to be in need of a leaf blower in the middle of January. But you can here the thing, kind of far off (Jaws music starts in the back ground) an ominous little *chug-chug-chug-chug* and then this huge *VOOM* and the leaves are off! and I don't know what's keeping him, but he's been standing on our front porch for about twenty minutes now with that horrible leaf blower, and if he doesn't get off soon I think I shall have to find it my unpleasant duty to insert a leaf blower in his left ear, which I think should just about keep him from the unnecessary practice, at least, until he can start running again.

The Portrait of a Lady Blog

Yet another intriguing blog has come to my attention--this time my mother's :P --a very talented foreign artist who plans to finish 6 masterpieces in the following year. The first one is going to be of a little three year old girl whose the daughter of a friend of a friend (I believe)--and she's quite cute, which is good because the last little girl she had to paint... She's doing some very artistic method too, involving gesso (so you know its fancy) and this board that apparently has been in our back porch for over three weeks, but today was the first day I actually got a good look at it. It looks very promising, as far as painting surfaces go, and so I think the author of such an exciting blog will get quite a lot done in this lovely new year! Not to mention that her blog has very intellectual literary references in it as well... :P And, as a multi-talented persona, this new blogger will also be running extraordinary amounts of miles this year, which I do not envy her for, just the muscles she will develop by doing so. All in all, a pretty good start to this 2010 :) and, seeing as we apparently only have two years to go before a giant black hole sucks us away or some Mayan god comes to get us; I should say she's being very upbeat about the whole end-of-the-world thing, wouldn't you? :P Now if only I could figure out how to post pictures on blogs, I could help her show everyone some fantastic work... unfortunately, I suck at computers, but... what can you do?

Cheers! (I think I will sign off like this more often...)

~Lucy :)