Obligatory Saturday Post

I had been a little worried that it would rain this morning, but when I woke up, there were only patchy clouds. Although the Doppler showed a big green blob, it was well to the northwest for the time being. So I taped myself up and hit the road!

I did my Tanglewood run, which is starting to become a favorite. I stopped at Turtle Pond along the way (my name for it-- it’s part of an office park) and while I took a calorie/water/electrolyte break, the turtles bobbed to the surface and paddled over to look at me. No, I do not share my Amino Vital with reptiles. Sorry, kids. I caught one turtle trying to escape the pond and chased it back in, so it wouldn’t wander into the street and get run over. My good deed for the day.

After my break, I crossed the street and noticed the roadside garden at Memorial Drive and Chimney Rock is doing well. I saw a cucumber and lots of green tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen and should be ready soon. It looks like it’ll be a good year for the figs and oranges, too. I saw the gardener himself, trimming one of the kumquat trees, but I had dawdled too long at Turtle Pond, so I didn’t stop to chat. I would like to know the story behind the garden, though. It’s just so bizarre to see all that stuff growing inches from the curb of a busy street, when the house and yard are more than sufficiently large for growing just about anything short of a redwood.

I ran up Chimney Rock to Tanglewood, to San Felipe. After I stopped at Rice Epicurean Market for some water, I did a little window shopping at the fancy drug store next door. I say it’s “fancy” because it’s one of those drug stores one often finds in these high-end neighborhoods, where you’ll never find a designer knock-off perfume or a pair of $5 flip-flops for sale. Since I had already run about 11 miles in the humidity, I was drippy and stinky at this point, so I didn’t go inside. But I saw through the window that they sell one of my must-have items that I have a dickens of a time finding at stores and usually end up ordering online: Frownies patches. Yay! Next time I’m running low, I’ll make sure to bring my credit card along on my morning run and buy a new box, which will fit into the pack I wear on my waist for long runs.

(Aside: For you ladies not in the know, these patches pre-date botox, and are cheaper and safer than having poison injected into your face. And what’s more, they really work!)

I got home from my run feeling pretty good. I wrung out my running clothes and hung them to dry, wiped myself off with baby wipes, and iced my legs. Dan was watching one of his video lectures for his summer class, and I flipped through a book about New Mexico ghost towns while listening to a wholly unrelated lecture about nineteenth-century American imperialism in Central America. How I didn’t end up concluding that William Walker conquered Colfax County is beyond me.

The big green blob I saw on Doppler early this morning had arrived by lunchtime, so my plan to buy a new desk chair got nixed. But a little water wasn’t going to keep me and Dan from our weekly Indian buffet, and the daal was particularly tasty today. And spicy potatoes—yum! Indian spices plus the quintessentially American food makes for damn fine eating!

This afternoon I read Motherland, the latest edition of Y: The Last Man. I was a little disappointed, since I had thought it would conclude the story. Instead, it looks like there is still more to come, and now I’m annoyed. Not only was Motherland not as good as the previous books (in my opinion), but now I’ll have to wait for the next book to find out if all the loose ends finally get wrapped up. I only hope the next book is out soon, so I won’t forget the story line.

And that concludes my long, rambling, Saturday post.

Todays Workout
15 mile run