Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Memories of the Lucky Pumas

Good morning! The sun is back after missing for a few days in the northeast. I don't mind the rain, but it sure does get damp around here. Could we have the rain without getting wet? No? OK...moving on....

Now that the major is settled upon...and this may change over the years...although I am pretty sure that a liberal arts major means no more calculus and sciences. Therefore, I think that he is safe and will not change his mind. Remember, that will require a great deal of more thought.

He is now having a great deal of fun in the apartment with Angel and Big Red. They decided that they would create rap songs in order to battle LW's gig of waking them up at 2 am to rap to them. Buddy and Angel wanted to call themselves "DJ Gepetto and the Puppets" which I loved but they settled on another name that is more rap-like. Buddy creates the beats and Angel is working on the lyrics. Some of the beats sound like moo-ing rather than a drum. This may be something that they add to their resumes as they are searching for their post college jobs....under the category of job experience....next to gathering golf balls at the club, Buddy can add "bad white rapper" to entice business owners to hire him and pay a boatload of money just to entertain them. Who wouldn't want this guy on their staff? Just the entertainment value alone is justification for hiring him. Look at what he will bring to the organization.....

OK, so I am rambling on and on about rapping rather than focusing on looking for new lucky sneakers and making plane reservations for the Florida tournament. Why do I need new lucky sneakers? You ask this question? Didn't you read the Ohio-days? The luck is gone...now the lucky sneakers are just sneakers....shoes...foot coverings....It's time to begin the search....

Where did the lucky sneakers get their start? If you are new to this blog, the lucky sneakers began in college as I played tennis in my Pumas. The sneakers carried me through classes (and I often needed a great deal of luck to get through them)...then out to the tennis court. The sneakers stayed with me for years even through the Grand Canyon. Actually, that is a story of its own....Having caught up on my work, I will share it with you.

Dad, Big Sis and Big M and I went to the grand Canyon together and had a blast. Big Sis posted a photo on FB two weeks ago with our group going into the GC. I looked at my feet and I was wearing the lucky sneakers.

Now I don't want to start a panic and this blog should be educational, so let me share this one solid piece of advice with you...never, and I mean never, walk down the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River without a large gallon container of water. Our group started the day with pancakes and orange juice and walked down the side of the canyon with two granola bars and one bottle of water. I saw people walk up the canyon past us as we were walking down and they were carrying gallon containers. Then the mules would pass us on the trail and I noticed that the riders also had lots of water. We didn't need that much. it would slow us down...or would it?

As fate would have it, going down was a lot easier than going up. Once we got to even ground at the base of the canyon, we realized that we needed water. Guess what? There are no 7-11's or convenience stores in the canyon (note to self....perhaps this is a money making venture for the future). We began to slow down and decided that even though we were parched, we would try to make it to the Colorado River....the going was getting tougher and tougher as we were dehydrated. We stopped a number of times and I sort of wanted to turn around. Then I heard it....yes, the helicopters lifting dehydrated, dying hikers out of the canyon...but there was more than the sound of the whirling blades overhead....it sounded like...yes, I think that this is true...rattling....not seeing any babies, I knew that I was in very deep doo-doo as I began to run zig zag in the canyon in my oh-so lucky sneakers...my friends ran after me not knowing why...all I could shout was "RUN!!!!" I know that we were not going to out run rattle snakes, but I was going to go down trying...my lucky sneakers helped me to make it to the Colorado without a snake bite and Big Sis having to suck the venom out of my leg so that I would not die on the edge of the canyon.

once we got to the river, we looked down and said: "Hmmm, there's the river...nice...let's go." And we turned around, walked around the snake filled canyon floor, and got to the bottom of the incline. Now we were really dehydrated and my heart started to race keeping the blood pressure up. We must have dropped 5 pounds in fluid. So, the climb was un-bee-lee-vable! There were two fountains along the way, so we stopped to drink as much as we could. Big Sis had two film canisters in her pocket. We took the film out and filled them with 5 drops of water that we rationed. There was a point where I asked them to flag down a chopper...I was not proud. My desire for survival was far greater than the embarrassment of being saved by the helicopter crew. At one point, Big Sis threw the last few drops of water on my face to keep me going. Was it the water droplets or the lucky sneakers? You decide.

As we climbed out of the canyon, we all saw it at the same time....broken down and dirty, it was the most beautiful bar I have ever seen in my life. We crawled to a table, sat down, and the waitress walked over to us. Here is how it went....
Big M: "I'll have 3 beers, two cokes, and a glass of water."
Big Sis:" I'll have 4 cokes."
Dad: "I'll have 5 cokes and a water."
Me: "I'll have a coke, a sprite, a water, and a Perrier...." We sat at the bar and drank until we could no longer drink. it was a beautiful moment. I never knew that a coke could taste so good, refreshing, life saving....what a moment....

And so, friends, the lucky sneakers were born...they were dirty, torn, stinky, and very very lucky. What happened to those Pumas? Well, I still have them in a box in a safe place. These sneakers hold a special place in my heart as does all of the adventures and times that I had while wearing them....hope that you have something special like ratty, old sneakers that can make you smile....have a nice day!

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