Omaha, NE

Keystone Trail

Run Time: 33:04 + 2-minute kick

Back in Omaha. I believe this is my third run here, maybe fourth. I tried to get away from Downtown and the Airport for this hotel stay. I got lucky that there was a cement trail about a mile away. It was no picnic, but picnics are overrated sometimes.

It was unnaturally hot. And windy. Not unnaturally windy, because Omaha is often windy, at least when I am there. The temp in my rental car said 90 degrees when I left the Airport. It was a little lower by the time I hit the pavement, but arid and windy is not my preferred running condition. You know what? Nature doesn’t care, so I don’t either. I just ran. I ran slower into the wind, and faster away from it.

I subscribe to Arnold’s e-newsletter (no last name necessary, right?), and his email this morning was about just doing it without thinking about it. Mostly he means exercise, but anything that you should do will qualify. I love this sentiment. It’s one reason why I run rather than go to a health club, and it’s one reason why I now run from the hotel unless there is nowhere to run and I can drive a short distance to find somewhere to run. It’s easier. Running is not always fun. Running from a hotel is even less fun sometimes. But I can, as Arnold says, say f*ck it and just do it. I don’t have to think about it.

This is a rare next-day publication. I am writing and posting this the day after I was in Omaha. I am now in North Platte, where I spent a fitful night in May, 2022, with Covid, after I tested positive in Waterloo, IA, the day before, and before I drove home to Santaquin, UT, the day after. There are high wind warnings in North Platte today, so I will be treadmilling later rather than getting gusted all over. Because I had the extra time when I got to the hotel, I actually got every calendar item done with a medium or high priority on both phone calendars, and it’s still light out. Now I am on to the low priority items, which include writing this blog post. I might be cresting a wave, or turning a corner, or moving into gravity assist, or some other metaphor.

I have a good feeling about the next phase of my life. I think the next 20 years are going to be extremely pleasant. I feel myself consciously slowing down to the unitasking that I prefer, and I am locking into contented behavior. I listened to a This American Life podcast last night and this morning, and at one point, Ira is talking to Amy Silverman about a story involving her daughter and some regretful behavior from her past, and Ira asks, “Do you feel like a certain amount of being a parent is realizing what an ass you were before you were a parent?” It is a really poignant question in the context of the episode – I recommend you listen to it (episode 564). Sometimes I feel like being a person is realizing what an ass I was before right now. But all we have is now. The past and the future are only memory and anticipation. This is why now matters so much.

Thunderstorms arrived in the night last night. I heard them once, really loud, then fell back asleep. After I woke up, they started up again, with some good downpours as I sat in the hotel room and worked before hitting the road. Omaha is much nicer after a torrential rainstorm. And when the wind dies down.

Hoping to get a run in tomorrow in Cheyenne, and Thursday in Wall, SD (home of the famous Wall Drug store), and then I’ll be back in Omaha Friday, for a flight home Saturday. Actually, I’ll be staying in a little teardrop of Iowa that hops the river by the Omaha airport. Must be a hotel tax haven, because that’s all there is there. Then next trip is North Dakota and Minnesota, then the trip after that is Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Just moving right up the flyover column. Bound to be windy.