Got a Number of Irrational Fears
That I'd like to share with you.
#1. The night-time is the right time
So I went on my first night run in Chicago yesterday. Back in Washtenaw County I would routinely drop outside for a brisk midnight/early morning run (provided there was enough light to prevent me from running straight into the maw of some giant marsh-beast or slumbering hillbilly) and was, at times, a familiar sight to bats and coyotes and perverts and midnight truckers and other night creatures around Saline and The Deuce. See you know I'm lying 'cause we all know I'd shit my pants if I saw a coyote alone at night... right before I killed and ate it on a spit over a ditch-fire on Platt...
no one knows what I am talking abut...
Anyway, contrary to my want and general habit, until last night I'd been reluctant to go running around The Chi after darksies. After all, that's when the bad people come out right? I mean, you know how us white boys get scared of the dark in big cities. Anyway, I did it. I had been sitting around in the apt at 11:30 listening to the thunderstorm outside, growing more and more uncomfortable with being warm, dry, and stationary, when I finally snapped, tucked my feet into the oldest, hardest pair of flats I could find (1982 Asics Tigers) and my balls (1982 Asics Tigers) into the suicide pocket of my running shorts and shot outside into flash and din. If it had been an option I would have rather gone night swimming in Lake Michigan, but I gotta tell ya, the running in a lightning storm thing is underrated. In Saline when that happens it's all, "BY THE BEARD OF ZEUS, DUCK AND COVER!!!" But out here, well, I'm surrounded by tall buildings with lighting rods, right? I admit, I felt a bit dim about running though the scaffolding tunnel next to the construction site on Broadway, but shoot kids, can't be operating at 5th grade level all the time.
The storm started dying down shortly after I got out there and so as soon as I was able to concentrate on running rather than my oxen dying while forging Hawthorn Street I noticed something: I am a numbnutts. My neighborhood is really not at all scary to be running around in at night. In fact, I rather like it. I dunno, I guess I'm still letting my experiences in Savannah get to me a little. In Savannah all bets were off at night, even in the nicest part of town. Between the 'roaches and voodoo queens and the gangsters, SOMETHING was going to get you. But my neighborhood in Chicago at night just kind of reminds me of Ann Arbor. So that's pleasant. I'll still probably just run loops around my apt at a half-mile radius, never daring to venture more than a 2 minute sprint from safety, but still, it's nice to have the sans-daylight option open again.
#2. There was another thing, but it will have to wait.
.
#1. The night-time is the right time
So I went on my first night run in Chicago yesterday. Back in Washtenaw County I would routinely drop outside for a brisk midnight/early morning run (provided there was enough light to prevent me from running straight into the maw of some giant marsh-beast or slumbering hillbilly) and was, at times, a familiar sight to bats and coyotes and perverts and midnight truckers and other night creatures around Saline and The Deuce. See you know I'm lying 'cause we all know I'd shit my pants if I saw a coyote alone at night... right before I killed and ate it on a spit over a ditch-fire on Platt...
no one knows what I am talking abut...
Anyway, contrary to my want and general habit, until last night I'd been reluctant to go running around The Chi after darksies. After all, that's when the bad people come out right? I mean, you know how us white boys get scared of the dark in big cities. Anyway, I did it. I had been sitting around in the apt at 11:30 listening to the thunderstorm outside, growing more and more uncomfortable with being warm, dry, and stationary, when I finally snapped, tucked my feet into the oldest, hardest pair of flats I could find (1982 Asics Tigers) and my balls (1982 Asics Tigers) into the suicide pocket of my running shorts and shot outside into flash and din. If it had been an option I would have rather gone night swimming in Lake Michigan, but I gotta tell ya, the running in a lightning storm thing is underrated. In Saline when that happens it's all, "BY THE BEARD OF ZEUS, DUCK AND COVER!!!" But out here, well, I'm surrounded by tall buildings with lighting rods, right? I admit, I felt a bit dim about running though the scaffolding tunnel next to the construction site on Broadway, but shoot kids, can't be operating at 5th grade level all the time.
The storm started dying down shortly after I got out there and so as soon as I was able to concentrate on running rather than my oxen dying while forging Hawthorn Street I noticed something: I am a numbnutts. My neighborhood is really not at all scary to be running around in at night. In fact, I rather like it. I dunno, I guess I'm still letting my experiences in Savannah get to me a little. In Savannah all bets were off at night, even in the nicest part of town. Between the 'roaches and voodoo queens and the gangsters, SOMETHING was going to get you. But my neighborhood in Chicago at night just kind of reminds me of Ann Arbor. So that's pleasant. I'll still probably just run loops around my apt at a half-mile radius, never daring to venture more than a 2 minute sprint from safety, but still, it's nice to have the sans-daylight option open again.
#2. There was another thing, but it will have to wait.
.
posted by reno mac @ 2:28 PM
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