Saturday, August 9, 2008

Casper

Today is crosstraining day. 1/2 hour on the elliptical, 1/2 hour on the treadmill at a fast walk and high elevation. It gets my heart rate up and rests my legs, and seems to be a pretty good workout. I just don't know when I'll get to it.

One of the oldest cars residing in my garage is Casper, the 53 MG TD. We bought the car 30+ years ago just before Hubby and I got married and it was my daily driver. For those non gearhead readers, an MG TD is not the most practical mode of transportation. It's a roadster and thus has no windows; there are funky window screen things that take forever to put up so no one ever uses them. And the convertible top is equally difficult and impractical, plus the rear window on Casper's top was ancient plastic that you couldn't see out of anyway so I cut it out.

Casper was wonderful in the summer months, even at 5 am when I was driving to work. Blasting down the highway under the stars, the scent of strawberries from the fields-magic. Winter, however was challenging. The floorboards are wood and not even remotely watertight. If I drove through town and hit a deep puddle, the interior of the car filled with steam from the hot exhaust. And since I drove with no windows and the rear window removed, I got wet when it rained.

Every morning on my drive to work I saw a runner at just about the same spot. Rain or shine, summer, winter, every cold, dark morning, there he was, running along the road. We started waving to each other. I used to think, sheesh, what a moron, out running at this hour. In the cold and rain. I realized that what he was probably thinking as he saw me drive by in my completely impractical, cold, non watertight sports car- sheesh, what a moron, driving a car like that. In the cold and rain.

I think about him sometimes now when I'm out running, early in the morning, in the cold and rain.

2 comments:

BeachRunner said...

I like this post Tanya. Casper sounds awesome. Good luck tackling the elliptical today. I ran 3 on the mill this morning.

Your post has made me wax philosophic about how everyone in the world must appear moronic, odd or impractical about something or other. "Judge not lest yest be judged ... yadda yadda."

But I struggle to see how I could be ever be perceived that way. Me odd or moronic? No way. I am the exception to the rule of universal oddity and moronism.

I am kidding, totally kidding. This very comment to your post was in fact proof that I am a oddball moron.

robison52 said...

How nice it was for you to wave to that lone runner in the wet and cold!! I still have painful memories when I first started to jog in 1999, I was 250 pounds of flubber and many motorists would shout hurtful comments about me being too fat...geez, do ya think? I would often be overly sensitive to what other motorists might think, that I might be a fat moron. Due to those past episodes I strive to give any support to new runners that I can.