Walking 10,000 steps a day takes TIME and allows for a lot of solitary reflection. Occasionally on my outside laps, I\u2019ll see runners or joggers go speeding past the front gate. I suspect that\u2019s a way of getting the exercise job done faster. I also suspect that, long term, jogging is a lot harder on knees and ankles than plain-Jane walking is, but maybe that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n
My walking reflections take many forms.\u00a0 I keep track of the progress and health of the cactus we planted last fall.\u00a0 I watch out for signs of wildlife. (Yes, the coyote has indeed returned and is using the same latrine he used before.) I like how the local hummingbird has adjusted to my presence and doesn\u2019t bother flying away when I pass within six feet or so of him.<\/p>\n
At the moment, I\u2019m deep in writing a book.\u00a0 Yesterday, while I was walking past the row of oleanders alongside the driveway, I remembered a piece of a scene that I had meant to include in the previous day\u2019s chapter. As soon as I \u201cgot my ten,\u201d I came inside and installed the necessary additions and corrections.<\/p>\n
But on those occasions when I see joggers and runners, I often spend the rest of the walk thinking about my brother, Jim\u2014James Andrew as he was officially named and what our mother called him when he was in deep doo-doo which was \u2026 well \u2026 often. Earlier this week, while sorting through some photos here in Tucson, I saw a photo of Jim, my father, and me at an insurance company function in the late seventies.\u00a0 That may be part of the reason I\u2019m on today’s particular tangent.<\/p>\n
In a family of seven kids, I was, again as our mother, Evie, phrased things, \u201cthe youngest one of the third batch\u201d which consisted of the three girls who were born in South Dakota before the family move to Bisbee.\u00a0 The \u201csecond batch\u201d consisted of three boys and finally an additional girl who were all born in Bisbee.\u00a0 Jim, six years younger than I, was \u201cthe second one of the second batch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s just say he and I were never pals.\u00a0 It was more oil and water than anything else.\u00a0 Jim was smart as a whip, arrogant, and\u00a0 \u2026 well \u2026 short.\u00a0 Five seven or maybe five eight?\u00a0 The fact that, from junior high on, I was a beanpole six-one may have contributed to our ongoing case of sibling rivalry.<\/p>\n
Jim went off to college but dropped out in short order.\u00a0 After joining the army and serving in Vietnam, he came home and spent some time doing sales–auto parts and insurance–before eventually returning to our hometown to become a firefighter. As far as I can tell, he was a great father and a loyal friend.\u00a0 He was an outdoors-man who loved hunting with a bow and arrow.\u00a0 And, of our whole family, he was by far the most physically fit.\u00a0 He ran for miles almost every day.\u00a0 When it came to lifting weights, he could put the younger firefighters in the station to shame every single time.<\/p>\n
I remember being in Bisbee on a visit and driving past him as he and his dog jogged along Border Road near Bisbee Junction.\u00a0 He was newly married at the time, and I remember wondering what his new wife thought about the hours he spent away from home on those long daily runs.<\/p>\n
He was Fireman of the Year twice, once for rescuing a man who had electrocuted himself on one of the radio towers on Juniper Flats and once for saving a young boy in Naco, Sonora, Mexico, who had caught his arm in a sump pump.\u00a0 (For that he had to negotiate permission from the governors two states, one in Arizona and the other in Sonora, in order to take life-saving equipment across the international border.)<\/p>\n
In May of 2001, weeks after Jim’s 50th birthday, he took his new family on a vacation trip to California.\u00a0 While swimming in the Pacific Ocean off Hermosa Beach, he suffered a heart attack.\u00a0 A lifeguard noticed he was in trouble and hauled him out of the water.\u00a0 The irony, of course, is that the guy who had saved so many others could not be revived.<\/p>\n
An autopsy revealed that he had died of an undiagnosed heart ailment. The only place in town large enough for the funeral, the high school auditorium which holds 800, was filled to capacity. His graveside fallen officer memorial, complete with the \u201cLast Call,\u201d was the first one of those I ever attended. Remembering it just now and writing about it put goosebumps on my legs. <\/span><\/p>\n And so I often think about Jim during my walks these days.\u00a0 I think about the fact that I\u2019ve had an extra two decades on this planet\u2014decades that he missed. I\u2019m sorry about that.\u00a0 I think he\u2019d be proud of me for being out there, \u201cgetting my rear in gear,\u201d as it were.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad he missed the devastation of 9\/11 that occurred only months after his death.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine that wild horses would have kept him from going to NYC to do his bit.<\/p>\n There was a lot of singing in our house while we were growing up.\u00a0 Our mother was a catalog of lyrics, and she taught all of us to sing in harmony.\u00a0 Nowadays, when one of those old songs surfaces in someone\u2019s memory, that person is bound to send out a group-grope email to the whole crew, reminding us of those good old days.\u00a0 When I look at the names on the recipients\u2019 or senders\u2019 lines, I\u2019m always struck by the fact that Jim\u2019s name isn\u2019t there along with all the others.<\/p>\n Jim and I may not have been the best of friends when we were younger, but I\u2019m pretty sure we would be now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Wednesday.\u00a0 Having written this week\u2019s blog, it\u2019s time for me to go walk.\u00a0 I probably won\u2019t be thinking about Jim Busk today while I\u2019m out doing my laps today. After all, been there; done that; got the tee-shirt.<\/p>\n RIP, little bro.\u00a0 All I can say is, I wish we\u2019d had more time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walking 10,000 steps a day takes TIME and allows for a lot of solitary reflection. Occasionally on my outside laps, I\u2019ll see runners or joggers go speeding past the front gate. I suspect that\u2019s a way of getting the exercise job done faster. I also suspect that, long term, jogging is a lot harder on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-lA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}