dodging runners, obligatory kisses

Fall is in the air, ya feel it?

Magnum and I enjoyed a noticeably crisp bicycle ride this morning. A welcome transition from the hot hot of summer.

It was a peaceful meander as he's just coming off a crud virus he caught from me a couple of weeks ago, and I just got my annual flu shot yesterday. It worked out since it so happened that this morning, there was a half-marathon happening on the path we took.

I'd hooked up the bike cam to catch some of the fall colors that have just begun, but we mainly had to keep our eyes out for the half-marathoners.

Coupla screen grabs from my grainy video:

I didn't get a covid-19 shot, partly because I highly suspect the crud virus I had was just that. It featured a tell-tale "razor blade sore throat" from the latest version, followed by what felt like a garden variety cold. So hopefully, I'm thoroughly inoculated.

In other news, I'd heard that this last week was homecoming week at my hometown high school. Their social media page listed the royalty, and I found it odd that for each female royalty, two male escorts were named. But, in thinking back, I remembered that yes, there were two boy escorts for each girl.

The escorts for the dance were all members of the football team, but the escorts for the parade and football game half-time were of the non football variety because the players were otherwise occupied. I'd forgotten about that, I mean, it's bean 43 years...

This had me flashing back 43 years to that whirlwind week where I found myself part of the homecoming royalty - this would've been back in my big-fish-in-a-very-small-pond days - and I remembered my full gamut of escorts.

Escort for the dance was the hunky football captain, Ken. Escort for the parade and half-time was the effeminate, good natured, Joe. Joe was clearly gay, but this was the 80's where such things were not really spoken of, but were just understood. I'm sure Joe had his bullies, but he had plenty of good friends, myself included, and he was a pretty popular kid. And again, clearly gay.

So this walk down memory lane took me back to the fun Joe and I had during the parade, and then it was on to the halftime show of the football game. This is a pic from my yearbook of halftime just before we paired off with our respective escorts.

Our names were announced, our escorts handed us a flower of some sort, then gave us a traditional smooch. Joe fulfilled this obligation, probably bregudgingly.

My boyfriend at the time - he'd graduated a year ahead of me and watched from the stands - said that Joe had a big ol' grin on his face after the smooch. I can imagine Joe thinking, "Geez, the sh*t I gotta do for school!", and just having fun with it.

As I was recalling that memory yesterday, I realized, I was likely the first and last girl Joe ever kissed.