Snuggles
Snuggles RIP
April 1997-May 2008
It was a cold, windy, rainy night tonight,
best suited for hunkering down on the
Ikea couch with popcorn and a good movie.
Probably a Disney, Pixar, or Tom Hanks movie,
if Grandma Debbie had a choice.
It could’ve been "Wizard of Oz", with this weather.
But instead, they held the Indiana high school track
Sectionals tonight, so our high school heros braved
the elements, and ran against gale force winds
400 meters at a time.
And we sat huddled together in the stands, like
emperor penguins in a blizzard, fighting valiantly
against Mother Nature and physics to keep our
umbrellas from becoming inverted, or airborne.
That is, if we had thought to bring umbrellas.
Or rain gear. Or an actual coat. Dad warned me.
Fortunately, Uncle Samuel got to run the first event
of the evening, the 4 x 800 relay, before the flying
monkeys arrived, accompanied by treacherous
backstretch winds that felt like you were hitting the
wall out of Turn 2.
Sam echoed memories of his recent conference meet,
and kicked in his last 200 meters to beat his previous
personal best time by nearly 5 seconds, and stop the
clock at 2:10, which is a tremendous time for a Sophomore.
As nasty as it was to sit in the stands in the typhoon, it
had to be worse to be running 800 meters in it, especially
dressed in the minimalist nylon track uniforms.
And as good as it must have felt to finish this season’s
track adventure on a high note, with a personal best time
in the rain, it probably felt good for Sam to eventually regain
the warmth and comfort of home after the meet, knowing that
the season is over.
After all, there’s no place like home…..
