Spring Break

We're back from snowy Colorado ~ another crazy trek across America.  85 miles per hour for 5+ hours = the state of Nebraska.  It's a great big honkin' flat farmland of a state.  But it was the warmest our break was...
Dillon, Colorado had snow every day of our trip ~ and gray overcast days.  Kinda reminded me of Ohio.  Mom and I did get to ski one day.  ABSOLUTELY beautiful and sunny blue sky morning at A-Basin.  It was great to ski in 6 inches of powder in April!  I love to ski and wish I could do it more often (and that it wasn't so expensive...I'm spoiled with the free A-Basin tix)
Our planned trip to South Dakota's Badlands-Mount Rushmore-Crazy Horse was SNOWED out.  We woke up Thursday morning ready to go, only to see that a SNOW STORM had closed the road from Boulder to Cheyenne.  (And we found out later 70 was closed at the tunnel, so we wouldn't have gotten very far if we'd tried to go.)  That's time #2 that trip has be cancelled as we were going to go last summer.  I wonder if we'll ever make it there...

We came home on Saturday morning to 70+ temperatures.  My gardens are starting to bloom.

It was the only warm day of the weekend.  Easter was rainy and cool and today is rainy and cool.  Guess what they are calling for tomorrow.  Surprise rainy and a little warmer.  Until Thursday, when it'll be rainy and colder.  To quote a facebook post I saw, With all these April showers, "we ought to have a crap load of may flowers this year."   Here's to the crapload!

at altitude

While on spring break, we're still in training for the Cleveland 10K in May.  I skipped a few workouts last week because I had this chest cold.  Well, I still have the chest cold, but I can't totally stop training ~ and my training partner is kicking butt.  Since it's my "goal" to beat him ~ I've been running in the Rockies.
Sunday I struggled around the development.  It's a mile figure-eight loop and half in downhill while the other is uphill.  And let's not forget that this is at 9,000 feet.  I managed to get one and half miles done.  Monday we went for a little flatter course and ran three miles though the town of Dillon.  Today we woke up to four or so inches of snow.  (Yeah spring break)  Mike was bold (and wanted very much so to test out his new Garmon Forrunner) and he went 6 miles along the bike path.  I chickened out going with him because it was still snowing and blowing and my chest cold is putting me below 80%.  So I just ran the development.  I managed to get three miles in and it was good.  Hills are hard and hills at altitude are harder.  I'm hoping it will be easy running we we get back to 300 feet.

Across America

Spring Break 2011 ~ began Saturday with a 22 hour drive across America!  We left in the rain from Madison and didn't hit "clear" weather until just west of Chicago.  Rain isn't usually an issue, but the windshield wiper had a big one.  Something was very wrong with the arm of the thing and it would wipe (sort of) on the upward sweep and then come off of the windshield and plop back down somewhere near the bottom of the glass.  Not a very effective motion for removing rain.  At one point it got caught in the wind (there's a lot of that traveling at 80 mph)  and I thought it was going to fly clear off the car.  That would have been a nightmare!  But it didn't.  And Mike and Dad got it fixed today so we should be good for all the rainy Ohio-like weather they are having here in Colorado.

I also saw a great sign traveling through Iowa (I think it was Iowa).  On one of those road signs that lights up different messages this was being displayed:  Don't be a loser.  Don't drink and drive.  Just hit me as pretty funny.

And in Davenport Iowa we ate at our first Village Inn of the trip.  The Bucky picture was disappointing ~ hard to make into gangster Bucky when he had Easter eggs and bunnies.

We're off to the Denver Mint today and then dinner at Casa Bonita to see the divers and Mary Grace's favorite gorilla.

JB funny

Walking down the hallway today I stopped to talk to the health teacher.  I look in her classroom and I see Jacob.  I wave.  He waves.  Mrs. R says, "Hey, Jacob, you know this person?"  The girl sitting next to him says something like, "Your Mom's here?!?".  He leans over and says, "My Mom is here every day."

Worry

If worrying were an Olympic event I could be a gold medalist.

I find that 3:00 am is the best time to practice this skill.  If you are interested in honing your worry skills, try this:  Wake up while the rest of the world is peacefully sleeping and dreaming of all sorts of wonderful things.  Figure out what could go wrong in life.  Mull.  Try to think of something else and discover what could go wrong with that.  Mull some more.  Toss.  Turn.  Flip the pillow (I can't do this one anymore, because I have a waterbed for my head, but I highly recommend it).  Finally, look at the clock.  Think about how tired your going to be the next day because you aren't sleeping.  Get up and go to the bathroom.  Crawl back into bed and check that clock again.  It's the constant looking at the clock that really adds to the worry experience.  Whatever you do DON'T get up and do anything.  Don't make a list of things to accomplish in the morning.  Don't read a book or try to distract yourself.  After all you will never fall back asleep if you're not in bed with your eyes closed.

I don't recall a time when anything I worried about came to fruition ~ this can mean one of two things: 
1.  There really is no reason to worry.  Things are never as bad as they seem at 3:00 am ~ and you can't do anything about it at that time anyway.   You might as well get a good night's sleep so you can take care of life in the morning.
or
2.  Worrying works.

cool things

Cool things about today:

1.  I had an AWESOME 6 mile run.  It felt like I was flying ~ it really took me 50 minutes, so I wasn't really flying, but it felt so good.  It's runs like today's that make me love running.  And I ran over I-90 twice.  For some reason I love to run over the interstate.  There's no real reason for why ~ I just think it's pretty cool to see all those cars and trucks going all those places that they go while I just run on.  It makes me feel like a little piece in this great big world and it's rather calming. 

2.  Dad finished his taxes and I took the K-1 to the accountant who thinks I may actually be getting a refund (or at least breaking even).

3.  We went to Ledgemont to see Katie pitch softball.  Katie rocks.  (I kinda really like that kid) When she bats she first turns around to see the signs from her third base coach.  Then she bats; if she swings and misses she turns back around and gives him a look like it was his fault.  Priceless.

4.  On our way to Thompson/Ledgemont we were stopped by a train on Dayton Road.  (not usually cool)  There was an engine and then there was an actual caboose and then there was the rest of the train.  It was even a little red caboose.  I wish I could have gotten my camera out in time.  I haven't seen a caboose in many, many, many years.  But today I did.

5.  Watching the Cavs last night on tv I heard Austin Carr say the funniest thing I've ever heard a sports color man say.  The ball was stripped from a Cavs player and then the Bulls player couldn't get control and it went through the hands of 5 or 6 guys all reaching and diving and trying to get the basketball.  Austin Carr says, "Someone hit it with a stick and kill it."  I'm still laughing about it today so I can consider it a cool thing about today.

What is one thing that you dad was right about?

When my brother got the last piece of bacon, what did I say?

When my choice of restaurant was not the final destination, what did I say?

When my youngest brother got have a later curfew that I did at that age, what did I say?

Yep, "That's not FAAAAIIIIIRRRRR."

And what did Dad reply each and every time?  "Life isn't fair."

Well, ain't that the truth.

I HATED hearing those words when I was a kid.  Absolutly hated them.  Life should be fair ~ translate: I should get my way.  And those words meant that I was not, under any circumstances, getting my way.  Frustrating, yet probably one of the soundest pieces of truth ever received. (once I decided to receive it)