He picked me up just shy of 7:30 am. We had decided at the last minute to race in the Run To The Far Side. Well, he hadn’t. Decided last minute. I had. At about 11:30 last night I called him and said I’d do it.

On the way to the park I was getting myself organized. Money, id, and chapstick in my runner’s pocket in the center back of my shorts, velcroed shut snugly. Keys. Keys. What to do with the keys? I didn’t want to put them in my pocket. I’d tie them to my shoelaces. That would work.

I unlaced my shoelace and began to tie my keys to the lace. “Hmmm. But if I put them so far down I’ll have to unlace so much of my shoe just to get back into my building when I’m finished. That won’t be very convenient. But I don’t want them too close to the tie, because then they may inadvertently fall off. Maybe it’s better if they’re not laced at all. I’ll slip the ring through one of the loops on the shoe. That’s what I’ll do.”

He turned to me. “Lori!”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Did you just have an entire discourse about where to tie your keys?”

I thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“And you had it out loud?”

I thought again. “Yeah. I did. But don’t worry, everything’s taken care of now.”