Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I slept a lot yesterday.  So last night I didn't try to go to sleep until 1am.  Even then I heard a mosquito buzzing around, so I couldn't sleep.  I finally got a few hours in and woke up at quarter to five.  It took me over an hour to get ready.  It was 39º out.  A bit cold.  I was having a hard time breathing this morning.  My allergies are still kicking my bum.  I just did one loop again.

Another bad night of sleep.  But it may be due to the fact that my daughter had her baby at 2:30am this morning.  I kept waking up to ask my wife if she did.  I got out late.  Late for me.  6:55am.  I ran to Adobe and saw a kid waiting for the bus.  There was also a mini van parked by him waiting.  I looked over to the Floodway and saw a coyote.  I was going to knock on the window of the van to point it out to them, but they had their window down and were already looking at it.  They wanted to warn me about it, so they were probably surprised when I ran towards it.  I took a couple of pictures, but only one was decent.  I can't remember if I blogged about this or not, but about a week and a half ago, a coyote jumped the fence and killed three of our chickens.  Most of them have started sleeping in the tree.  I think the black one hunkered down in the coop still.  Maria still sleeps by the back door, close to our window.  So, late at night I heard Maria start clucking.  It was the type of clucking when Herbie gets too close to her.  So I immediately jump up and run to the window and pound on it.  I saw something scamper away.  I then ran outside to check on Maria, and luckily she was fine.  I had scared it away before it got her.  My daughter, Julianna, had also heard the commotion from her bedroom above us.  She went to the sunroom and then she was like, "Dad?  There's something dead right there."  Next to the steps was one of our white chickens.  She handed me her phone so I could use the light.  I then went over by the tree where the chickens sleep.  I saw a bunch of black feathers.  I counted the remaining chickens and there was one more missing.  So, that's three and almost four with Maria.  Ever since then, the chickens have been sleeping another branch up and I put Maria in a laundry basket, and she sleeps in the laundry room. 

I did my first loop and was looking for the coyote on the way back.  I suspect it went through the culvert to the south side of Adobe.  I crossed Adobe and couldn't see it anywhere.  I decided to run to the well, cross the Floodway, and head north on the other side of the Floodway.  But then I saw the service ramp and decided to run down it instead.  Once I got to the middle of the Floodway, I stopped to look around.  No coyote.  I was hoping it wasn't brazen enough to jump my fence in the daylight.  I started to run to the other side of the Floodway, but just as I reached that service ramp, I got a phone call.  It was my #1 client, and probably the only person I would stop to take their phone call.  We talked for a while and then I headed home.  Right before I got home I got a call from Krysta Summers, no relation to Tara Summers.  Since she works for my #1 client, I answered.  But I didn't stop running.  She was like, "Do you want me to call you back?"  I was like, "Nah, I'm almost home."  After I got off the phone with her I checked on the chickens.  All present and accounted for.

Wow.  It's been a week since I've ran.  I've just been lazy.  We finally had a neighbor complain about David, so we had to "take care of it."  The neighborhood should be sleeping better now.  I should be sleeping better now.  I did sleep well last night, but I didn't get up until shortly after 6am.  It was completely light out when I started my run.  Luckily it's Spring Break and there aren't that many people out. 

I didn't feel great today, but decided to push two loops out.  I could tell I wasn't at full lung capacity, but I wasn't wheezing.  It's now been about an hour since I ran, and I am starting to wheeze.

Today is my daughter Abby's sweet sixteenth.  It's been a while since I ran, and I was feeling pretty blah, so I decided to do a thing I don't do very often.  Run in the afternoon.  I changed my clothes and was ready to head out when my daughter Julianna asked, "Did you get mom's text?"  "No."  "Oh, she said be ready to go at 6:45."  "We're going out to eat?  We're not ordering in?"  "Yeah."  Dang it!  Well, my wife was on her way back from Wickenburg picking up AJ, so I figured I could do at least one loop.  That's what I did, and that's all I felt like doing anyway.  So it was good.  Afterwards I showered real quick and we went to IHOP.  All 17 of us.

So Maggie baked a cake for Abby's birthday.  But apparently she forgot and made it yesterday instead of the day before on her actual birthday.  My wife said she felt bad and she cried.  I laughed.  I guess there's this Instagram thing where people use glasses to scoop out a piece of cake to eat.  That's what we did.  We're trendy like that.  Anyway, the cake was probably part of what caused me to not sleep well last night.  So I woke up early and decided to go for a run.  It was 5:43 am when I left.  So it was nice and dark, but it would be getting light out soon.  I saw a man walking his dog leaving the Floodway as I was entering it.  I stepped off the pavers and into the gravel to avoid them.  I said good morning to them, but I'm not sure if it was someone I knew because I didn't look at him that close.

As I got closer to Brown Rd. I saw another man running with a dog.  I immediately knew it was Jesse.  I asked in a loud voice, "Jesse?"  I listened and no answer.  But then I heard music.  He was playing music from his phone, so he probably didn't hear me.  He said, "Hey, Burt."  But I didn't say anything back because I had already said something to him.  He probably thinks I'm a jerk now.
 

Two days in a row!  Woot woot!  It was light out when I started.  6:42am.  My lungs were a bit congested so I forced out some coughs right before entering the Floodway.  The next thing I knew I was seeing stars.  I had to stop and compose myself.  After that, I felt fairly decent.  I still run slow, so that hasn't changed.

I slept better last nigh despite eating a cinammon roll before bed.  Dartell came back to town to see my new grandson and she made cinammon rolls for Abby's birthday.  She's been in Kingman for months.  After her mom died she went up there to help out her dad and brother. 

I woke up rather gassy.  I'm often gassy, but this morning I was especially gassy.  Oh that's right.  Dartell wanted Santa Barbera quesadillas for dinner.  Beans.  The American fruit.  Once upon a time I wrote a race report on this blog where I made many similes to gas.  I got censored because this is a family friendly blog.  LOL!  This entry may get censored as well.  So I got up early and it was nice and dark out.  As I was heading south between Brown and Adobe on the west side of the Floodway, I let one rip.  Right after that I heard a voice.  I couldn't see anyone at first and I looked behind me and back in front of me.  Finally I saw a man coming with a dog.  Was he talking to his dog?  Or did he have something to say about my expulsion?  Right after that I saw another man coming with a dog.  I didn't realize right away that it was Jesse because I thought the two guys might be together.  I reached Adobe and saw another guy and a dog.  So three dog walkers in less than two minutes.  Actually Jesse was running.

Oh, one more thing.  Something had our neighbors chickens agitated this morning.  They are down to 4 chickens because last summer they lost a bunch to the heat.  They had shade and misters, but the heat was still too brutal.  Just yesterday I noticed they have more chicks under a heatlamp right next to the coop.  So maybe the chicken was upset about the chicks.  Not sure, but it worries me.  Their chickens are safe in their coop from predators, but mine are not.  Last night was the first time in a couple of weeks that I didn't bring Maria inside to sleep.  But they're all good right now.  The End.

I woke up in the middle of the night and had to go potty.  But I didn't feel like going all the way upstairs, so I just held it in and went back to sleep.  Come 5am, I couldn't hold it any longer, so I got up.  I went running shortly before 6pm.  It was still dark out, but it was getting light.  I saw a man walking on Adobe as I approached.  That's when I noticed my shirt was riding up my belly.  So I pulled it down.  I crossed Adobe and was heading towards the Floodway.  I could see three women coming towards me, all three of them walking dogs.  Two of them were on the sidewalk and the third was in the bike lane.  I had to run out in the street to go around them.  I also had to pull my shirt down.  I hope they weren't laughing at me.  I could see a light all the way up at Brown Rd.  It was just sitting there for the longest time.  When I finally decided to watch it to figure out what it was, it started to move.  It was moving pretty fast, too, so I figured it was a bicycle.  It was on the other side of the Floodway.  It was still too dark out to be able to tell if it was being pedalled or if it was electrical. 

I started running south on the other side of the Floodway and as I got closer to Adobe, I saw another light.  Was it the bicycle that had gone all the way down to University and turned around?  Nope.  It was the same guy that passed me a few weeks ago.  It was just getting light enough to see, so I thought it silly that he still had his light on.  I crossed Adobe and saw a runner coming towards me.  He was an old man with shoulder length gray hair.  He was wearing jeans and hiking boots.  Silly.

After passing by the well site, I could see a light underneath the Floodway bridge at University.  Was this the bicycle?  I kept watching it the whole time, but I never figured out who it was.  I headed back north on the other side of the Floodway.  I could see another light heading my way, but on the the other side.  It was the same guy again, still with his light on, but now it was perfectly light out.  I guess he was probably in the zone and couldn't bother to save his battery.

So in my church we have what's called ministering.  It used to be called home teaching.  This is where you are assigned to a family to check in on them, usually monthly.  It's changed a bit now that it's called ministering.  You don't do a monthly report, but you have quarterly interviews with the Elder's Quorum Presidency to see how you're doing and your families are doing.  For a couple of years my families have been high counsil members.  Basically that means they're pretty solid.  I certainly don't check in on them every month.  They don't need it.  However, I was also assigned to the daughter of one of these high councilman.  She lives with her parents.  I should say lived.  She died a week ago from a severe asthma attack.  And guess who never went to meet her.  Yep.  Her ministering brother.  Me.

Today is the funeral.  I told the father that if there's anything he needed from me in preparation for the funeral, to let me know.  Yesterday I got a call from the Elder's Quorum President asking if I was going to the funeral.  I said that I was planning on it.  He then asked me a favor if I'd be willing to do it.  Apparently there is something in the church handbook about having someone watch your house while you are at a funeral.  I guess some people learn of the funeral and take advantage of that time to break into your house while you're gone.  Isn't that just the lowest of the low?  Who would do that?

So, that's what I'll be doing today.  I got up early and decided to just do one loop so that I would have time to shower and get ready.  My pace was 30 seconds faster than yesterday's.  I'm pretty sure I saw Edythe Ray on the opposite side of the Floodway.  I ran the loop clockwise today because I saw a zanjero truck and wanted to see if it was someone I knew.  But I didn't recognize him.
 

I woke up very early this morning.  Usually when I get up that early, I go back to sleep.  But I've been playing Scrabble with Tracy and noticed she was up, too.  However, she's two time zones away so it wasn't too early for her.  She asked if I was going for a run and I said that's a good idea.  But then she told me to go back to bed.  So to spite her, I went for a run.

It was 4:28 when I started.  Before I started I stretched out.  The reason I didn't run yesterday is because I was having cramps in my right calf.  So I knew I needed to stretch out good.  Right as I was finishing I saw some random dude walking down the street.  Creepo!

I could see the moon behind the houses as I was leaving.  I thought it might be nice to take a picture of the moon this morning, but by the time I got to Adobe, the moon was behind some clouds!  So I just kept going hoping it would pop out again.  When I was heading south on the west side of the Floodway, I spotted it.  I ran about 10 more feet and stopped thinking it would be a good time to take a selfie.  I had to back up to get where I could see it again, but when I got back, just seconds later, it was gone again!!  So I ran some more.  Then it came out again and I stopped and tried to take a picture with it, but it was gone before I could get a good one.

So my friend Sarah who used to be one of the Third Thursday Adventure Run volunteers has been on a running streak.  Back when she was about to hit 600 days of running at least 1 mile a day in a row, I told her I wanted to join her for day 600.  But then I got Covid and couldn't.  Today was day 700, and there was no way I was going to miss it, even though I typically don't run on Sundays.  So my wife and I drove out to Tempe Town Lake and met up with her.  She wanted to do 7 miles for day 700, but I only wanted to do 3, so she ran 4 miles before we got there.  She was nice enough to slow down for us, but sadly my wife couldn't keep up.  We ran one mile and reached some picnic tables, so we decided to stop and wait for her.  We started running again and stopped at a shade structure/bench which was the turn around point.  After talking a while we started off one more time.  As we got to the last turn before the parking lot we stopped one last time for Vickie to catch up, but she was only about 200 feet behind us, so we started running again as soon as she caught up because we were only 6 or 700 hundred feet from the parking lot.

She was so grateful for us for coming out to support her.  I told her I was grateful for her for letting us, because it's kinda awesome that she's run so many days in a row.  I told her I wanted to join her for day 730 (2 years) and certainly day 1,000.  We had some good conversation, too, while running.  It was so nice to catch up.

About 30 miles to go on these shoes.

I snored myself awake this morning.  It was 5am.  I started running at 6:03am.  I had to take the garbage out to the street first.  I noticed one of the hinges was broken on one of our barrels.    The other one looked broken, too.  I also noticed what looked like diarrhea on our driveway.  And some hot dogs in the gutter.  Strange morning.

I ran towards Brown Road and could see a bright light coming even though it was getting pretty light out.  It was a cyclist.  Then I saw two men crossing the street.  About the time I reached the fence, they started to run.  I wondered if they were going to run or if they were just running to beat the traffic.  Once they got to the sidewalk, they started walking.  Ok, I guess they were just trying to beat the traffic.  But when they reached the fence, they started to run.  By this time I was half way across the Floodway and wondered if I could catch them.  They didn't look fast.

I followed them for a bit when I noticed another light coming towards us.  I could tell it was a person running, and knew it was the old man I've been seeing lately.  As we passed each other he said, "All right, man.  Good to see you."  I said, "Same to you."  I then looked ahead at the two other men and saw that they were way ahead of me.  I won't be catching them.  I wondered if the old man would turn around at the fence.  If he did, there was a good chance he would catch me.

I turned around to look when I reached the halfway point between Adobe and Brown.  Sure enough, he was coming.  I probably sped up a little.  As I approached Adobe I noticed that the two men were walking again.  Maybe I would catch them.  But they were quite a bit ahead of me.  What if they were only going to walk for a quarter mile and start running again?  I probably wouldn't catch them.  The old man was getting closer.  There's no way I can hold him off until I reach University, is there?

The two men kept walking once they reached the halfway point between University and Adobe.  I caught them!  Hey, it doesn't matter that they were walking.  I caught someone!  With about 20 yards to go before I reached the fence, the old man caught me.  He said, "You're running deceptively."  I asked, "How so?"  He replied, "I thought I was going to catch you a long time ago."  I said, "I may have sped up." 

He crossed the Floodway and started heading north on the other side.  I followed him.  There's a little dip on the trail right after you enter the fence.  When he started running down it, he stopped and walked.  He finally took his ridiculous light off.  Haha!  It was so light out by now.  He didn't even need it on the first time I saw him which was like a mile and a half away!  Anyway, I caught him.  That's three guys I caught in one day!  He said something about not liking running downhill.  He said some other stuff that I couldn't make sense of.  He started running again and I asked how far he runs.  He said according to [nonsensical noise] about 5.4 miles.  It takes him an hour.  I said, "That's great."  He had now passed me again and said that he would see me on Frid-, Thursday.  Tomorrow is his day off.  He's really friendly.  I think he thinks that we're best friends now.

When I got home I noticed the lid from the garbage was completely off.  How did that happen?  It was on when I left.  Did the diarrhea man do it?

I felt terrible this morning.  My legs were sooo stiff!  I ran a minute per mile slower than yesterday.

As I came up to Adobe, I saw a lady walking east of the intersection on the north side of the road.  I realized it was Edythe.  I wondered if she would follow me.  I got on the Floodway path and saw the two old ladies I see all the time.  I passed them up.  I didn't want to look back to see if Edythe was following me.  I ran up to Brown before looking.  She wasn't coming.  That means she probably crossed the street and went down the Floodway south of Adobe.  Probably trying to avoid me.  I stopped at a power pole to stretch out.  My legs felt a little better after that, but I still thought about only doing one loop today.  I got down to Adobe and figured I could go a little further.  I stopped again at another power pole.  I was leaning against it stretching my calves out.  That's when I saw Edythe on the other side of the Floodway.  I yelled, "Hi Edythe!"  She said good morning back in her usual cheery voice. 

I was going to cross the Floodway at the green belt, but I decided to tough it out and do the complete loop.  I think I stopped one more time.  Maybe twice.  Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.