• Coming apart and coming together •
[1½ MIN READ]
I met Jason at his house on the way over to the running store last week. This is something I regularly do because his place is just on the way to JRC. When I arrived, wife Valerie had me hang on while he finished readying. Then she looked across the street and determined that he was already finished. And no longer even at home. Instead, he was across the street. It seems that just as I finished texting with him my ETA and while I was heading over, he got the abrupt alert from that next-door neighbor that the across-the-street neighbor—the one whose house Jason was now at—hurt himself falling.
The other circumstantional details (and certainly the private, medical ones) aren’t important, but it made sense for Jason to hang around as the neighbor’s needs were getting attention. It also made sense for me to hang around, since the situation was complicated, what with the neighbor in need and his 2 dogs also requiring some attention. I called the store and spoke to Growlers deputy Jim who knew the drill in my absence. He took the attendance picture of the 3 who made it on time. He also took the picture of the additional 2 who didn’t quite make it on time.
(L-R: CtCloser, Free-Burma Pete, J’Adam, T’Adam, Jim, Thaddeus, Jason)
Jason and I finally got under way with one of the dogs (the young, rambunctious one), but too late to make the entire run. We caught Jim with the couple runners going back to the store after they finished the Sunset 5K route. That lot was game to add on mileage and join us returning the one dog back home.
Ultimately, a bunch of combined things made the effort last week a little skewed, but everything came together and the run took place, both in part and in whole. We tied the whole schmear up with a visit to Human Robot (joined by Lynette) to decompress over cheesesteaks, smashed potatoes, and an inviting plate of pesto gnocchis.
(L-R: Lynette’s fork, Thaddeus’ fork, Jim’s hand, Jason’s fork, CtCloser’s fork)
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Likeness used with permission. ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2025’05’28’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption.
2025’07’25’F: Edited (various text)
iCandybyWangC 
This story gives me a warm hearted feeling. Lots of community building and care for your neighbor. Good job/TD