I’m afraid that I have not been running due to my achilles tendon (plus a bone spur right next to the tendon). The moon boot I was wearing back in Dec & Jan seemed to work, but it was only a temporary fix and the problem returned — and in a more painful and limiting way — so I am scheduled for surgery on my right heel to correct the problem.

My daughter and I enjoy running together and racing together and we have not been able to do that this year. We had both signed up for the James Joyce Ramble, a very nice 10k (in Dedham, a town outside Boston) that has actors in period costume along the race course reading aloud from the works of James Joyce. She ran the race but my heel kept me from running, although I cheered and took pictures.

The doctor says minimum of 8 to 12 weeks of no running after surgery, which eliminates a big chunk of summer… and my daughter & her boy friend are moving to Connecticut this summer (where he is going to law school), so our opportunities for running and racing together are going to be much more limited.

I take the assessment Jan 11th. I’m freaking out!

Good luck with your running goals!

I identified with Ralphie. I knew the same kind of childhood. When I was in college I loved to listen to Jean Shepard on the radio, telling stories, many of which were similar childhood stories. It seemed to me as if he were telling stories that could have been set in my neighborhood during my 1940s childhood (even though he was more than twenty years older than me).

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