Magic. Shoes.

[ehowton]

Mama says they was magic shoes. They could take me anywhere.

The day we shot the goat head my neighbor and I hiked up the hill in front of his house and set up. I bore the bamboo into the ground then set up my tripod while he piked the head. I put the fish-eye lens on my camera, secured the lens cap and powered on the camera. NO MEMORY CARD it flashed. Damn it! I'd left it in the house. "I'll be right back," I said, and started running across the top of the hill. About halfway to my house, I realized I hadn't *stopped* running. I can't remember the last time I ran on my own accord. I took check of myself, and was surprised to find everything functioning at nominal levels. When I reached the house I grabbed a memory card and decided I'd see if I could run the quarter mile or so back, this time uphill. I did, and really surprised myself. Was running...easy now?

During clean-up after the City's Independence Day event, drax0r and I were asked to take down the CAUTION tape on the other end of the field, about 50-yards away. The recently 60-pounds-lighter drax0r took off like a shot and I hurried to catch up to him. "Why are we running?" I asked.

"Because we can." he replied.

Hells yeah.

We both picked it up a notch and ran there and back.

As I've been sitting for the past thirteen years I've never had purpose to procure a pair of running shoes. In fact the whole idea seemed absurd. I didn't run. I have some hiking shoes. I have some boots for when it snows. I have ropers, a pair of Bostonian dress shoes and two pair of slip-on brown leather shoes, one dressier, one more casual, I have suede mocs I mow in, a pair of plaid "keds" three pairs of Crocks, a pair of "tone-up" shoes and pair of...well, casual work slippers which have a good walking tread on them. I even have a pair or ten of New Balance tennis shoes.

But running shoes? Shoes for...runing? I think not.

Meet my 5th pair of Merrell.

I was unaware they made running shoes (and in fact so were they - turns out they're new to the market) and was shocked at how nonexistent their apparent weight is. They weigh almost nothing. Truly amazing if you haven't experienced picking a pair up. I mean, they have mass - you can see them, but its as if you're holding a trick of light in your hand. Anyway, they were on sale (aren't they always?) so I bought my first pair. And I'll tell you something: Mama was right.

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows.

Here lately I've been having dreams about running. I don't right know what to think about that. I look down, and I'm wearing shorts and my legs are pumping like pistons. I'm wearing my orange Merrell's. I don't know why I'm running in my dreams, but I'm real good at it. Last night, that bubbled up into real life. My wife and I were walking around our neighborhood like we do every evening, except for some reason, we started running. I remember the first time I "ran" around the neighborhood when we first started taekwondo. It was exhausting, and I didn't make it very far. Whole minutes seemed to pass and I'd have gone about ten feet. But that didn't happen last night.

Last night, I ran.