The OG’s Are Back

Received an email two weeks ago that registration is now open for the challenging 5K that turned into a cluster you know what last year — the race where my back went out on a Mile 2 incline, muscles in my legs stiffened, leaving me struggling to get to the finish line.

Inasmuch as the race isn’t until October, it’s way early to open registration in January, which means to me the organizers caught so much flack for screwing everything up last year that they’re worried few will be interested in participating this year.

I don’t think so. One screwup after forty years of this very popular race isn’t going to result in a boycott.

Nevertheless, the organizers were so worried that they sent us participants a survey a while ago, asking for our thoughts on how things had gone.

I said it was snafu after snafu after snafu and gave the race an overall failing grade.

In the section that asked for an explanation I outlined start location was wrong, had to be moved; new guy on the microphone failed to call which race was up, necessitating most of us going rogue and just taking off whenever; the RFID reader failed to record the time we crossed the mat going out, which meant there was no record of how long it took for us to cross the finish line, and a lack of results in the computers; the measurements on the length of the Mile 3 stretch seemed questionable and, to top it off, the Photographer failed to capture Official Race Photos at the finish line.

The final question on the survey was "Would you do this race again?".

Call me crazy, but I said yes; explanation being that even though it was a mess, I enjoyed the challenge the course afforded.

I’m thinking most respondents said the same.

So anyway, I’ve been trying to get back to training on concrete and asphalt ever since I got the notice of open registration, but have been hampered by rain, wind, lack of motivation.

With the heavy winds gone yesterday, and my energy level up, I finally was ready to jump start my training routine — starting with fast walking a few loops around the complex until I can find a location, with inclines, where I feel safe enough to be out walking on my own and can try out the Walking Poles which I think will eliminate stress on my back during inclines.

On the very first loop around the complex, a guy that looked familiar began smiling, waving, walking towards me.

Holy Crap Batman! It was the husband of the couple I’d in the past referred to in the blog as the OG’s.

They’re back living in the complex — happy and relieved for it as he tells me they’ve been through hell since they moved out.

As a reminder, the OG’s are the battling couple — him now 66, his wife now 74, married for now 37+ years, that moved out just before the Pandemic hit and we went into Quarantine here at the complex, which was probably a good thing because, with them already beating up on each other, had they been stuck inside with only each other during quarantine, two would have gone in, but only one would have come out alive.

In October of 2019, the husband had gotten himself arrested for "bashing his wife’s head into a wall and blackening her eyes".

According to the wife, it wasn’t his first time.

"Why did you stay with him?", asked I.

"I always forgave him", said she.

At any rate, they didn’t move out or get evicted after the bashing/blackening episode. Instead, they stuck around, continued to battle, decided on their own that enough battling was enough, moved away — but not as a couple. The wife moved in with their daughter, while the husband moved in with the son — or so they told us was the plan.

I didn’t see that arrangement of living with daughter and son lasting long, didn’t think they’d even stay separated.

It didn’t and they didn’t.

He now tells me they’d moved in with the daughter together — as a couple, but things got rough when daughter lost her job, rent went up to $1600 a month, and the amount could not be met even with paying their share.

He said they bounced around for a while — found a room somewhere, which didn’t work out. Moved into a cheap motel, where he said they weren’t safe — "people tried to fight me". He didn’t say, but I gather from there they ended up homeless, living in their car. So here they are, back to where it’s safe and they have friends.

He says he feels really lucky to be able to get back in, and he should feel that way because, though others have returned, a few have tried to return and been denied reentry.

As for the OG’s, I liked both of them. Glad to see them back because the wife was the life of every party, but husband tells me her health has taken a decline.

"No wonder", said I. "The stress and uncertainty of what you two have had to deal with", but that his wife will begin to feel better now that things are more stable.

The OG couple are now living on the opposite side of the complex — pretty much close to where they were before.

Evidently, someone I don’t know passed away and the OG’s got that unit.

I don’t know of any other vacant units except the upstairs corner unit in my quad — the unit that’s needs a sage ritual to rid it of bad energy because everyone who's moved in there has had their life fall apart. There’s been no work done on that unit, nothing done to get it ready for a new tenant, otherwise the OG's might have landed there.

Add that to what they’ve already experienced and it would not have gone well had they been placed in that unit.

Hopefully, the turmoil of the last two years has taken the fight outta them, and life will be copacetic between them henceforth, but I doubt it.