Friday Thread: How was your summer?
Let's catch up, now that summer is about to give way to fall
Morning, friends! ☀️ It’s been a little while since the last time we gathered for a Friday thread, and now here we are, with kids back in school and (mostly) back at college, the weather (even here in Atlanta) is starting to turn cooler in the mornings and evenings — we’ve even had temperatures in the 50s this week!
So, like I used to do when I saw friends again at the start of the school year, after not seeing them all summer, I’d love to know — what did you do with your summer, running-related or not? Did you train for a big race? Reach a big goal? Take a cool vacation? Read an amazing book, or watch an amazing series that you loved?
Really it could be anything — I love hearing it all. I’ll kick us off in the comments, and feel free to share whatever inspired you, or something you did that you really loved. — Terrell
It took me a few months, but I FINALLY finished the big Ron Chernow biography of Mark Twain that came out back in the spring. It's long -- just over 1,000 pages -- but taking all that time to live, even if only in my mind, back in the 19th century world that Twain grew up in and helped shape was a *very* welcome break from the times we're living in right now, to be honest.
Other than that, though, the book was completely absorbing. Twain is surely right when he said, "I am not *an" American, I am *the* American." From his time as a riverboat pilot to his time as a journalist living out west to the years he spent in Hartford at his family home -- the happiest time in his life, when his wife and his family were still all young and healthy, and all the world was still new -- I just got completely wrapped up in his life story; you almost feel like you're there with Twain through all his adventures (and mistakes, as he squandered both his and his wife's fortunes in pursuit of harebrained business schemes).
I really was only familiar with Twain's books and had no concept of what his life was really like, and didn't know that he lost a very young son, his oldest daughter, his wife and his second daughter all before he passed away at age 74. He smoked -- and this is not an exaggeration -- dozens of cigars every day; how he made it to 74 I'll never know! It's well worth a read.
My summer was......mostly boring! But...I finished revisions on my novel--AND I saw Tedeschi Trucks in Red Rocks. While I'm not a big TT fan, what was noteworthy is the common thread between TT and the last band I saw at Red Rocks--OMG--40 years ago! That band was The Allman Brothers--and the connection is that Derek Trucks is the nephew of the late Butch Trucks, who was the Allman Brother's drummer. And...if you've never been to Red Rocks--lordy me, it's a fine place to listen to music--especially on a clear, warm summer night.