Let Down

In my post-run shower I spontaneously started singing Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down." For those of you not familiar with old school country, the first verse and chorus (and I'm writing this from memory, mind you) go:

I've always had a bottle I can turn to,
And lately I've been turning every day.
But the wine don't take effect the way it used to,
And I'm hurting in an old familiar way.

Tonight the bottle let me down.
And let your memory come around.
The one true friend I thought I found,
Tonight the bottle let me down.

Now don't take this too literally, as I'm not lovelorn and if I'm having a few more beers these days it is solely for the purposes of staying cool. But the weather is still hot, the aftereffects from the basement flood are still needing to be dealt with, and I had a meeting this morning I was quite nervous about, and I had to be home this afternoon for the kids who are wrapping up school with a ridiculous number of early dismissals. I figured my morning run would help alleviate some of this stress.

My running let me down. I got to E's about ten minutes late and she wasn't there, so I took off on my own and proceeded to get sick to my stomach. Feeling better, I proceeded down Woodland Ave. towards Cobbs Creek and proceeded to get sick two more times. Fortunately there is alot of wooded area around Cobbs Creek, but the stopping, the stomach pain, the heat etc. did little to ease my burdened mind nor invigorate my beat up body. Hence the thoughts of Merle.

As a footnote, there's a bikepath now (it may have been around for awhile, its been repaved) along Cobbs Creek. Verdant surroundings alongside a stream, if it were anywhere else besides way western Philadelphia it would be full of bladers, runners and bikers. But as it is, I had trail all to myself, save a few guys pushing shopping carts.