The strange man in the Monument

Monday 7/14/25

I have not felt well. Chills, fever. Nose not good, chest not good. Slept the last two nights with ripped wad of paper towel in nostril, replaced as need be. Nonetheless, I went to Charlestown to run the Monument yesterday. What is wrong with you? you might say. That was foolish. It's what I do. But then we're getting into a whole thing about not giving in to sickness--or anything--and I don't think we need to be doing that with this entry.

As soon as I came in, a ranger asked me if it would be five or ten times today. I said I wasn't sure, you don't really know until you're doing it, which is true-ish. I definitely go in with a number in mind many times, and sometimes it's a number I insist on. Other days it's more like, "Well, I'd like it to be this many times, but if it's not, that's okay." Then there are days where it's, "Might as well keep going." Or, "Are you this soft that you can't manage a few more?" Or, "Come on...let's just grind it out...continue."

But after this ranger had asked me his question another ranger had a couple others for me. He called me by my name, which I didn't know he knew, and asked me about this goal he heard I had--the 400 circuits in three months--so after I spoke to all of that I kind of felt like I'd be letting the side down to come back out and have to answer I'd "only" done it five times, so I made myself do it ten, which was unpleasant.

It's really not a good time trying to do ten Monument circuits in July. It's hard. You're so wet. Or I'm so wet, anyway. I sweat like someone who has malaria. I leave a trail of sweat drops on the stairs. DNA all over that place. Fresh drops on the way up, then I see them all on the way down. No bread crumbs required.

The stairs are a battle. A character test. More than a physical thing. Especially regarding the larger reasons why I do them. My quest, enduring, overcoming the incestuous evil of the publishing industry, making sure I'm here long enough for my work to do what it can in the world if it ever gets to the world. In a unique way...this is part of my process of...the whole thing. My whole thing with what I'm up against. All of the things I'm up against.

I'll remind myself of that on circuit number seven on a July day. This isn't la de da, Skip to My Lou, here I go again. You're fighting it in there. Never is it easy. A single circuit isn't easy. Stairs don't really work that way. Especially Monument stairs.

The day before, they let me in quite early. I ran five circuits in total and had the Monument to myself for the first four. That does the soul good, having the Monument to yourself. It's peaceful and centering. You are aligned with your larger purpose. And I think to go up and down the Monument like I do, you must have a larger purpose for doing so. It's more than a workout. What's worked out the most, if you will, isn't even the body, but the spirit, the soul. The heart. The faith.

I ran the first 150 stairs each of those four circuits when I was in there by myself, and would have tried to do the same on the fifth, but there were people in front of me by then, clogging up the space. Yesterday I ran the first 150 stairs on my first two circuits. As I said recently, I want to do better in many areas, one of them being "distance-wise" in the Monument. Been stretching properly and though I won't be running stairs today, will make sure I stretch regardless. Preventive, forward-thinking stretching. I don't want to have problems later because I didn't stretch now.

Coming down the fifth time on Saturday, I encountered a couple on their way up, and the guy was all, "Hey! Where did you come from!" He was an oaf, so I didn't answer him. I'll do that, I don't know, twenty percent of the time. Make like the other person doesn't exist if they're annoying enough.

Afterwards, when I was outside in the mist shower, I heard this guy talking to the ranger--the one who said she'd bring me a cupcake--at the base of the structure just outside of the door back into the mini-museum. I'm not sure if he was curious and looking for answers about the strange man in the Monument, or if he was complaining about someone being let in before him and his wife. I could hear the ranger saying, "He lives in the neighborhood and is here every day." No one could really see me through the cloud of mist.

I like this woman. I like all the rangers. This woman tends to greet most people as they come out by saying, "You made it back!" They couldn't get the mist shower to work yesterday. I dangle the concept of it like a carrot in front of me on some of these July days. I did 100 push-ups both days and walked five miles on Saturday and three on Sunday, which also marked 3283 days, or 469 weeks, without a drink. As far as my goal of 400 Monument circuits in three months goes, I'm now up to 330 for that August 15 deadline.

Even hanging around on top of the hill for probably five or six extra minutes, and then doing something in the basement of the building back here, I was upstairs again by 10:42. I didn't bring my cell phone to Charlestown because of how soaked through my pants get, so I don't know what time I got in there, exactly, but my time doing the five circuits must have been pretty decent as well.