Kinship

Tuesday 6/6/23

The other day, a meathead who was selling me lemons--which I cut up with the one knife I own and put in my water bottles--called me "kid."

This is no small thing, for the meathead only bestows that honorific on someone who they think looks youthful. I took this as a very good sign indeed, as the meathead will be parsimonious with that term. But I know meatheads, having written the book on them.

People will often make remarks to me as I run the stairs. On that same day, an old-timer said, "It's a hell of a workout."

I wondered if he was theorizing, or if perhaps he had ran some stairs himself in his own time. Maybe he wished he could run them again. He had to walk up the stairs very slowly and sort of halloed to me from a distance. I thought of time and life and life remembered and life looked forward to. I felt a kinship with this man, and answered him, "Yes, it is at that."

Then I went to Haymarket to procure fruit and vegetables. In addition to the meathead, there was an Asian woman whose English was limited, but also not that limited. She said to me, "Why you so wet?" then answered her own question by saying, "Oh, you do workout." Yes. I bought four of her orange peppers.

On Friday of last week, I ran 3000 stairs. These were not stairs I wished to run. It was very hot--pushing ninety degrees--and I was rather tired. But I had run 27,000 stairs on the week. Really the point is that I run the stairs most every day. The numbers will take care of themselves. Different stairs get run a different amount of times. For City Hall stairs are not obelisk stairs. Such are stairs and such is life.

I would say that 20,000 stairs is around where I should be for a week. 30,000 is a nice number, though, and I was not far away, so I made sure I got there. I had to take a break after 2000 stairs; that's how challenging it was in the heat. It's rare for me to have a break so early. But my heart is strong and I am strong. And each day I become stronger in every way.

On Saturday, the temperature plunged more than thirty degrees. Perfect stair-running weather. I did 5000 stairs without stopping. No sweatshirt, just short-sleeve shirt, soaked all the way through. On Sunday I walked three miles and did five circuits inside the Monument. Then yesterday and today, I did 3000 stairs each day at City Hall. I've done my push-ups every day, too, of course, using my new form going back to the last day of April. I think it was the last day of April. The Bruins were playing. It's likely documented in here.

I have also been creating as much as ever, at the highest level, every day here in the masterpiece factory. These entries and those stairs are but things I do among other things between the most important things. I will document all of that the best that I can in these pages soon. It wouldn't be possible for me to do that quickly right now.

For the time being, I shall go to the cafe to work on something, and then give an interview about the Beatles at five.