Even though I had no intentions of exercising this weekend, once my Twilight plans were lined up, I had no reason to turn down fitness invitations. My goal is to accept all fitness invitations unless I have a legitimate excuse. So, when Gerry invited me to take a walk in Piedmont Park with him and his dog Mocha on Saturday morning, I accepted. Plus, he enticed me with the promise of Starbucks coffee and muffins from one of the vendors at the farmers market. To my disappointment (and to his supposed shock) the muffin lady was absent from the farmers market that morning. We did have our Starbucks coffee though and walked around the park for about an hour and a half with Mocha leading the way. We took a stroll to a new area of the park that will link up with the new BeltLine Project in Atlanta. As we were headed down one path I glanced to my right and noticed a figure standing in the middle of the path just over a newly constructed wooden bridge. I stood still and stared at the figure across the bridge and it remained perfectly still. I finally realized it was not an actual person. Now I was intrigued. I thought to myself, has someone put some kind of cardboard person in the middle of the park to freak people out? I yelled out to Gerry, who had walked on with Mocha, “I’m going to check this out,” and I headed off towards the bridge. When I reached the figure, I discovered that it was a thin, black metal sculpture anchored and bolted to a block of cement in the middle of the path. Someone had drawn a face on the sculpture with pink spray paint. It was altogether creepy. Because it looked somewhat official I looked around for some explanation and found a marker off to the side of the path that said it was a tribute to the folks that died in connection with the historic railways the BeltLine is making use of. Okay, I am all for a tribute, a sculpture, a memorial or whatever to remember folk for something they did or something they died for. What I am not in favor of is a creepy, perpetrator-like, dark, menacing, human-shaped sculpture placed in the dead center of a wooded pathway of a secluded area of a public park. Really? Who decided that was a good idea? If I picture the person who made this decision, he (and I am 100% certain it was a he) is wearing a gray Members Only jacket and dark sunglasses. I can’t imagine running along that path at dusk and coming within 30 yards of that thing without turning tail and running the other direction. I feel duty bound to contact the park officials to let them know that perhaps a soothing water feature or grouping of standing stones off to the side would have been a more appropriate memorial – and such choices would certainly make park goers feel less like the Zodiac Killiller was blocking the road up ahead. I have posted a picture of the sculpture below and would love your opinion. Maybe I am being overdramatic.
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| Me, Gerry and Mocha |
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| Creepy Zodiac Killer Sculpture |
On Sunday, shortly after enjoying a stack of pumpkin pancakes at Java Jive (my favorite breakfast joint), Lawrence texted me and invited me to join him at Grant Park for a walk/run. He was planning on running eleven miles as part of his marathon training. While I really really really wanted to say “No thanks” and just veg out on the couch, I accepted the invitation (yay me!). He said it would take him about two hours to do his eleven miles. I decided maybe I would walk for one hour and then sit and read at the coffee shop for the last hour. I assumed that he ran around a track and that as he ran around I would be walking and we would pass each other several times along the way. Well, I had that all wrong. He typically runs “around” the park on the main roads – with an occasional detour through the park. It was 3pm when we started our run/walk and we would be finishing around 5:00pm, just shy of sunset. Not sure if you know, but I am a big chicken when it comes to walking around alone in areas I am not particularly familiar with. Lawrence assured me there would be plenty of folks running and walking around and that he would likely pass me from time to time. Once Lawrence and I parted (him running and me walking) I didn’t see him again until the last 30 minutes. What I did see during my walk was several ladies in full burka having a picnic in the park, a blimp, a dog named Crouton and a residence-challenged man who proclaimed to me as I passed “That’s a cute ass smile momma.” Also, the weather here in Atlanta keeps flip-flopping between chilly Fall temps and balmy Summer temps. Sunday evening was in the 70s and it was very hazy and humid. Apparently it was the perfect mix of wet and warm to call every gnat in existence to come swarm the area. I got at least two gnats stuck in my eye and untold numbers sucked down my throat and stuck to the sweat on my face and neck. It was a constant duck and swat as I made my way around the park two times in one and a half hours (Yes! I kept walking and didn’t go to the café – again – yay me!). When I finally ran into Lawrence at 4:30pm, he looked like a human fly paper. He was covered in gnats!!! He still had a mile or so left to run so he tossed me the keys to the car and headed back up the street. As he ran away I yelled “Don’t touch those bugs; I’m going to take a picture of you when you get back!” I’m not sure I would have been able to run another mile knowing I had a plastering of bugs stuck to me, but he did!! The pictures are pasted below. While you can see a speckling of gnats on his neck, the pictures don't really do his bug coverage justice. He had bugs stuck in the sweat on neck, face, hair, etc. He looked like the grill on the front of a sports car. He must have really been zooming down the road! Smelly, sweaty and bug-beadazzled, we got in the car and headed home! All in all it was a pretty productive weekend - the perfect mix of fitness and fangs!
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| Lawrence covered in bugs (look closely) |
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| A closer look |
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