Amitesh, Samaresh and I braved the cold of Atlanta – minus 6 F with the wind chill to put in a run like we had started doing nine winters back. (We have not run together for over a year now)
Last night we decided to run on the coldest day to relive those memories. We chose to start from the same Starbucks we used to run from those days. And followed it up with a good chat and hot coffee like the good old days.
Airports are a veritable mix of emotions. If you go to the west end of Atlanta airport, you are going to see a lot of emotional good byes, last hugs and tears. If you go to the south side, you can actually feel the anticipation of the crowd waiting for their loved ones to show up. And the excitement, hugs and tears – happy tears – when they actually unite with them.
I was at the airport this evening to pick up Nikita coming from Washington DC. As I was pacing up and down, I saw this young kid with another lady and an even littler kid also waiting there. The kid had a sign in his hand. I was walking past him and had in fact, gone a good couple of yards past him when I had to do a double take.
“Wait! Is that what I saw?”, I asked myself.
I paced back. Read the whole sign again and laughed out aloud.
I had to make friends with the kid.
I asked the lady “Did he do this himself?”
“Yes. We can’t wait to see the look on his mom’s face!”
I turned to the young kid and asked “Who made this?”
“Me”
“Was this your idea?”
“Sort of”
“What do you mean, sort of”
“Well, I had seen something like this in a video once”
“Ah! That is very funny. I want you to know that you made me laugh very loud today!”
Unfortunately, an office call came in and I had to step towards a quiet area. When I came back, they were gone.
I would have LOVED to see the look on his pranked mom’s face.
Riding in 41 degrees with wind at 10 mph making it feel like 36 degrees on the skin. Good news is no part of my skin was directly exposed. I had enough layers all over. Except the gloves. I had only two layers of protection. I need to find a good solution quickly.
The fingers nails hurt the most. I could feel the stinging pain of the nails starting to get real cold. Briefly thought of pulling over and hugging the tailpipes. Finally made it to my coffee spot. After about ten minutes, I got my senses back in the finger tips to type this out.
Sipping an extra hot capuccino, I am now getting mentally prepared for the return journey. Visages of me inconsolably singing “Let it be” from inside my helmet are floating thru my mind right now…
