"Middleaged Runner... You never stop, do you?"

Chaos has once again been an all consuming trend here in my little world. Unlike last time things went down the crapper I have continued to run. I figure that not only will it perhaps assist me in the holding together of my mental state but it will ward off the major pounds that repeated family dinners might bring on.

So what on earth has been going on???

My Grandfather passed away completely unexpectedly, and rather frighteningly last week....
Yes, the Grandfather who was married to the Grandmother that we lost 5 weeks ago.

WHAT??? WHAT????

Oh man, what a hot mess.

The tsunami of absurdity pretty much continued on from there with many more (relatively) minor life issues clanging down around my head. All stories for another day...

I prefer to keep the emotion laden fraught with tears dialogues to a minimum on the interwebs so I'm not going to carry on much with this post. but I do have one recent memory to share (proving, that even in the toughest times my Grandpa was keenly interested in what the grand kids were up to, and what sort of mischief we were causing...)

When my Gramma was first diagnosed last summer we went to see family as fast as we could. Making my way thru the throngs of cousins, Aunts and Uncles I spotted my Grandpa. Clearly the strain was taking a toll on him but he opened up his arms to me and heartily said "Middleaged runner! You just never stop, do you?" We chatted briefly about my introduction to the world of running and how I enjoyed it. He closed the conversation with another very Grandpa like thought. "I have no doubt that you're going to take the running world by storm" he said with authority, as I laughed at the silliness of such a statement (being that I'm 30 something and 5 feet tall- unlikely!) "Nothing usually stops you, so go out there and show 'em what you've got!"

There is no doubt that at the times when I feel like crawling back under the covers, or skipping a run to eat the insides of cinnamon buns and buffalo wings I'm going to think of my Grandpa, and remember that "I never stop, do I...."

No, I don't.