It's the End of the World as We Know It

When I saw the forecast for today, I made the decision to go for my long run early. I'm back up to 8 miles, and while that means I won't be able to run the full marathon I was hoping to run on August 31, it looks like I will get to do another half.

Anyway, I set my alarm for 6am, got up, had some tea and an energy bar and headed out the door while my kids were still asleep. My route took me out to Picnic Point and back, and was it ever gorgeous out there this morning!

Since I had my kids this weekend, I didn't arrange any running buddies to accompany me, with the exception of Slacker Alterntive workout, which, while not a person, is actually a pretty damn good running buddy.

During the last mile, I was just starting up a hill when Michael's voice fired up:

That's great, it starts with an earthquake

Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid

Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn

World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs

Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt, no, strength

The ladder starts to clatter with a fear of height, down, height

Wire in a fire, represent the seven games

And a government for hire and a combat site

Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck...

Those of us who grew up with REM will agree that this was not their finest hour, but tackling that hill, as well as the end of my world as I know it feeling that I have much of the time in the wake of this break-up, this was exactly what I needed to hear this morning:

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Of course, I don't feel fine a lot of the time, but I feel better today than I have in a while, and I'll take it.

Postscript: Looking up this video, I remembered being in the third row of an REM concert as a youngster and being completely hot for Michael Stipe. I guess my last lover wasn't the first bald dude for which I had it bad...