Skip to main content

Excerpt from, "Two Girls Talking... and God Listening In"

    After eating my brunch, and am completing my investigation of the mall a bit.  I am stopped as I approach the hotel lobby by a man in his early 60's.  He's not part of the hotel, per se. 

    He asks me, "Are you going to run tomorrow?" 

    "Yes."  I reply. 

    The man asks me, "May I talk to you about it, because, I've watched it other years before; but never really understood why or what type of person does this thing called a marathon." 

    To my surprise, as I'm a little leery, I reluctantly respond, "Well, what do you want to know?" 
    He replies, "Can we sit here in the lobby?"  He points to a set of plush white couches, where everyone can see us in the open. 
    I realize that this is a safe haven, odd, but safe.  As we approach the plush seats, I realize this man is lonely.  Some stubble appears on the man's chin and jaw line, he probably hasn't shaven within the last three days.  His hair is not yet white, he's mostly gray to silver, lacking some hair on top.  His hands are big and robust, the insides of his hands look like my father’s.  The type that appear to be rough as with crevasses of shale rock, making his calluses appear rugged like a tree deep in a forest of New Hampshire.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2023 Holiday Letter from the Reicher's

Well, I didn't think I'd be doing a Holiday Letter this year, but here goes... The Spirit of Norm is in the air. As the wind whips with minus a true snowstorm.  In hopes the Farmers Almanac was correct, I pray to the snow gods. Rain ensued the month of December thus far. We have nearly tripled the amount of rainfall usual for December in New Jersey. And I've witnessed its treachery. Storms such as these hit us hardest in July. Then remained fairly intense through til about early October.  Our daughters are doing well, Thank God.  Their Dad would be proud of them. Our oldest Sarah, now a Junior at UCLA pursuing her degree in Chemical Engineering. She's digging the whole California scene. Which I thought it was for her. She's had some good traveling on her off times from school. For her March 2023 week off, she drove her and a few friends out to Lake Tahoe and went downhill skiing for a first in nearly 5 years. She had to rent the ski equipment.  Funny enough when ...

"It’s the Hardest Thing..."

My friend since 1996, neighbor and pet care person texted back, "It's the hardest thing...". She texted back the morning just hours prior to my decision to have our last pet euthanized. It's not something I'd ever done. Although I've been told I have a killer instinct. Which I've discovered over the past 20 years that would be true. A promoter said that to my fight coach after my first cage fight. The promoter saw the charged smile on my face after I'd just lost to a decision. I am disciplined, so thank God for that. My feeling is we all have that, but not the amount I've discovered I have, and most certainly most do not have the obsessive level of discipline I have had or have. Fast forward to yesterday afternoon holding our bunny for quite sometime before her sedation in a veterinary treatment room.  About 20 minutes later the vet and vet tech arrived finding a spot to inject a sedative into our pet bunny. They said it would take ten minutes, th...

June 12th 2025

  Finally getting our oldest on the phone. "Mom! Chill! A man faceplanted on the ground. Blood was everywhere. It was so bloody Mom. We helped him."  She continues her hyper mode annoyed I called/texted 6x in one hour when no response was received from them. You know that parenting Mom thingy.  Oldest: "Didn't she tell you? We're doing pictures near sunset." She remarked, annoyed. Me/Mom: "Oh. Wow. Okay. And Thank you for being kind."  That's what I was reduced to. Hours later... Youngest explains now in my hotel room. Me/Mom: "So, what happened?" Youngest: "Mom, I thought he was like praying. He was laying facedown." Me/Mom: "Oh. Did it just happen?" Youngest: "People were passing by. But we didn't see the faceplant. As I approached, I realized he wasn't praying... you know like some religions do at certain times." Me thinking... I guess that ten years in the morning of teaching the kids religi...