Monday

cycling / Monday / photo / running — Comments Off on An easy 20 mile weekend
23
Jan 17

An easy 20 mile weekend

It was sunny and 67 and gorgeous on Saturday. We were supposed to run 12 miles, but you get days like this in January here only so often. Or a day. You only get a day like this in January only so often. (As in, Saturday. That was the one day.)

So instead of running we decided to go for a little bike ride. So we set out for the bike and pedestrian trails around town:

It was an easy spin. Just as well, because it was the first time I’d been on my bike since the end of last season. She was in fine form:

A lot of people were out, because they understand the weather to be an exception to what is ahead of us, so the trails were often full. Lots of walkers and joggers and families and you can hear the briefest of a snippet of conversations on the trails and I’m always hoping they fall together to make some nonsensical story. You’re around people for about a second, and it’ll take forever, but I’m hoping.

And there are a lot of kids on bikes. Whenever I see a kid on a bike I always try to compliment their ride. “Oh I need one that color!” Give a little boost and all that. Not this girl, though:

She went by me too fast.

On Sunday afternoon it was overcast and 60. We were supposed to run 12 miles, but I only got in five miles. It just didn’t feel good (so I added four more miles today). But it looked like this, which is what most winter days look like here:

And this:

We passed that barn going the other direction the day before on my bike. I’d tried to take a picture of it from my bike, but my phone’s iOS decided to confuse my opening the phone app for “Yes, let’s update right now!” I just wanted a photo of the silo and I got an all new operating system, instead. It was good that I found the barn and silo again on foot. I had no idea where we were when we rode past it, which is the best way to start your year on the bike.

Monday / photo / running / video — Comments Off on Oh the things I could tell you
16
Jan 17

Oh the things I could tell you

I could tell you about the shuttle drivers we had this weekend. (They were each great in their own ways. The first because she was enthusiastic and opinionated and talkative and honey this and darlin’ that. And the second because he was waiting just for us and took us directly to the car and then told us which way to go to avoid the new toll on the bridge.) I could tell you about the six-and-a-half miles I ran today in the fog. (It was slow and I’m still not a very good runner.) I could tell you about one book I just finished and another I started. (One was fiction, the rare piece of the genre I read and, thus, a real guilty pleasure. The other is a historical collection, and we’ll get into it at a later date.) I could talk about a lot of things, I suppose.

But I have a picture of The Yankee with a horse:

And we also met a donkey this weekend:

That was at the ranch, which I’ll tell you a bit about tomorrow. But, first, there is a video of the sky:

And, tomorrow, we’ll talk about a historic farm.

family / memories / Monday — Comments Off on We danced, she smiled
9
Jan 17

We danced, she smiled

She always smiled.

adventures / friends / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off on In exotic Milford, Connecticut
2
Jan 17

In exotic Milford, Connecticut

We met some friends for lunch today. He’s a fireman. She’s a counselor. Also, they are parents, and they brought their kid, who is adorable and interested in pointing at people. They told us of their 2016 real estate horror stories, which were so bizarre and bad we didn’t even tell any of our tales from last year.

And we have some tales, mind you. Tales involving buyers who didn’t understand the concept of boundaries, a realtor who was either a compulsive liar or losing her mind. Tales involving people showing up at inopportune times, and not taking the hint. And we sold our house in less than a week. These are some write the real estate commissioners and complain sort of tales. But our friends’ tales were better. Or worse? Worse. Definitely worse.

Anyway, we had lunch at SmashBurger:

The place where they make burgers like most other places and charge you a bit more. And then they drizzle a little oil on their fries and you think This place is brilliant!

Also, it is the place where the shift leader has to come out and make an announcement that everyone that ordered milkshakes is going to have to wait about 10 minutes because it is just her and three other people working today. They’d been open for an hour.

But the point was visiting and seeing the kid and not so much worrying about burgers or milkshakes we didn’t order. It was cold and wet and raining and it was a good day for friends. We also went to a mall, which is something people seldom say anymore, I gather. We walked into the mall itself through one of the anchor stores and one of the employees there was saying to a coworker that they’d been busy today, but it didn’t especially feel that way. Anyway, we went to a makeup store, which was perhaps the busiest place. It is colorful and full of smells and you can buy a charcoal face scrub product for $47 a pound. I thought about making a video out of it, but remembered I did that in the same store last year:

Which, I suppose, makes this an annual pilgrimage now.

And I took a few pages out of a children’s book, Yellow Copter and cleaned them up. I like these scenes where there is a lot going on:

The theme of this book, if you are like me and unfamiliar, is that the school goes on a field trip and, somehow, the teacher gets stuck on the ferris wheel. Cranes can’t reach her. Jets just zoom on by. But a little yellow helicopter comes to the rescue.

This is the guy on the crane. His original message says something like “Hold on, teach!” I’m going to repurpose it with other positive messages, like this:

I mean, a guy on a crane is holding a sign out there for you? How can you not be encouraged?

adventures / I do not know what is happening. / Monday / music / running / Twitter / video — Comments Off on It still counts
19
Dec 16

It still counts

It doesn’t matter if it was a training run, or criminally slow. It does, somehow, count, that it was quite chilly and very foggy.

What’s important here is that another half-marathon was put into the books. A half-marathon was completed at an arbitrarily important birthday. (I do not know what is happening.)

(Today, meanwhile, it is 2 degrees. Two. Dos. Zwei. Deux.)

No individual mile splits were good, but that’s not important right now.

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