Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Last week my leg was feeling better.  I told Sarah that I wanted to test it out.  I did test it out by taking Herbie on a long walk.  I got just over a mile into the walk, when the top of my right foot started to hurt real bad.  I almost had to stop and call my wife to have her come pick me up.  I actually did text her, and she didn't reply, so I slowly walked the rest of the way home.  When I got ready to take my shower, after I'd been sitting down for a while, my foot hurt so bad I could hardly walk on it.  I ended up hopping into my office and resting some more until it felt good enough to make the climb upstairs to the shower.

I wasn't sure if it was a stress fracture or just soreness due to inactivity.  But it was feeling better so I decided to try and run on it this morning.  I went real slow.  I wanted to go over to the Floodway and turn south instead of north like I usually do.  But for the last two weeks they've been doing construction work at the stop sign at 48th and Adobe.  They're replacing a sewer line.  When I got to the stop sign it just looked like there were too many work trucks around, so I continued straight.  I basically took the same route I walked Herbie in, only in reverse. 

Everything felt ok.  I did stop twice to stretch out my calves and catch my breath.  I was wheezing for the first half mile.  But all in all, it was a successful run.

I just realized I haven't blogged for two days.  Anyway, I ran the same route as I did yesterday.  I was a tiny bit faster.  Also, I saw a coyote for the first time in forever.  I stopped and took about 3 pictures and one video.  There were two quail right by it, so I'm sure I ruined his chance at breakfast.

The only thing different about this run was that I went through the fence at a different spot.  There's an opening in the fence right next to the neighborhood wall.  Yesterday I barely squeezed through with my fat tummy.  So I went to the other opening today.  It's probably about 6 feet wide, but there are two bollards making about 3 2-foot openings.  Luckily I'm not that fat.

Three days in a row!  But I was feeling terrible today, so I'm going to take a day off tomorrow.  It was so hot!  My legs were sore, and I was wheezing for most of the run.  I took a different route today.  I went the way I usually walk Herbie, but in reverse.  So, through the neighborhood, to the green belt, and over to the Floodway.  But then I turned and went south down to University.  I ran across the Floodway and over the RWCD Canal.  Then I ran north until I reached the green belt, cut through the Floodway, and back through the neighborhood to home.

I woke up at 4:30am.  I took the dog outside to go potty.  Then I got ready to go running.  It was 5:10am when I started.  It was mostly old ladies out.  The construction workers weren't there yet, so I decided to run my normal Floodway/RWCD route.  I was dragging this morning, but at least I wasn't wheezing.  I was coming up on Brown when I saw a large branch covering the entire Floodway path.  It had fallen out of the tree.  We've gotten some crazy wind storms the last few nights.  My next door neighbors are on vacation for a month.  I have been checking on their chickens every day.  Two days ago I noticed that their neighbors behind them have a tree and a saguaro cactus that blew over into their yard.  But I digress.  So, I took a picture of the tree branch and I also saw an old lady on her bicycle.  She got to the gate just after I did, so she waited until I came through.  We had a small conversation about the branch.  I told her she'd just have to go around it.  I guess I wasn't just dragging physically but mentally, also.  I ran to the other side of the Floodway and I saw her get off her bike and drag the branch off the trail.  I didn't even think to do that.  I felt lame.

While this was going on there was another old lady walking her three dogs.  She was on the other side of the Floodway and I was slowly catching her.  By the time I crossed the Floodway, she had crossed the RWCD Canal.  So now we were closer still heading in the same direction but separated by the Canal.  I could tell that the dog she had on her leash was a Doberman.  But where were the other dogs?  Surely she's not going to let two more Dobermans run wild.  Maybe they weren't Dobermans.  Then I saw their heads pop up from the drainage swale between the Canal road and the subdivision wall.  Sure enough, they were Dobermans.  And they weren't leashed.  She must have faith that they would behave themselves.  But they did bark at me.  And then I saw Gary Prahl's wife walking toward them.  It was the second time I'd seen her this morning so I waved again.  I hoped she wouldn't get attacked, and I don't think she did unless they went straight for the throat.

When I got to Adobe I decided I didn't want to do another full loop.  So I would cross the Floodway at the green belt again.  I figured that would get me real close to 2 miles.  Then I could run loops around the cul-de-sac until I got to exactly 2 miles.  But when I pulled my phone out of my pocket just as I reached the cul-de-sac, I was pleasantly surprised that my Strava read 2.10 miles.

I woke up at 3:30am.  I took the dog outside even though he doesn't like to go out that early.  He hesitated, but he went out.  I tried to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful.  About 4:30am I heard it start to rain.  By 5am it had cleared up, so I put my running clothes on.  I did one loop.  I was following a lady, but I couldn't keep up.  She continued north when she got to Brown, and I went to the other side of the Floodway.  I saw two more women running north on the other side of the Floodway.  Then when I was almost back to Adobe I saw a group of 5 or 6 guys on the other side of the Floodway.  They were walking, but then they started running.  So that's 8 or 9 runners I saw this morning.  Much more than normal.  Everyone must be training for something.

The construction crew had already trenched through the intersection and patched it all up.  But now they had it barricaded again.  When I got there I saw that they were about to dig it up again.  I wonder what that's all about.  I ran over to the Floodway and headed north.  I decided to not do my normal 1 loop because I didn't want to have to deal with the construction, just in case.  So when I got to Brown, I turned east.  I ran to 48th St and headed back south.  Then, instead of going through the intersection, I ran around the block.  But before I did that I saw Sis. Sutherlin.  We waved at each other.  Sadly, they haven't been to church in at least a year.  I really enjoyed hearing their testimonies when they started coming back.  Anyway, I ran around and saw Br. Cox working in his yard.  I said, "Hi, John!"  I might have surprised him a bit.  Then I saw Sis. Sutherlin again as she was driving by and she waved again.

I woke up at 4am and started running at 5am.  Since it was so early, the construction crew hadn't arrived yet, and I decided to do 2 loops.  I've been playing Scrabble with Tracy and I know that I have an 8 letter word I can play (there are little hints you can use), but I haven't been able to figure it out.  There is a word strength meter that you can purchase.  There are 10 bars on the meter.  If you don't purchase it, it only shows your 4 of the bars.  So, for example, if with your letters the best move on the board is a 40 point point word, and you place a word that is 20 points on the board, the meter will go up to 5.  But if you haven't purchased it, you'll only see it go up to 4, so you don't really know if 20 points is the best word, or if there's a real high scoring bingo.  If you use all 7 letters on your rack, you get a bingo, which is a 50 point bonus.  So my trick is to put a word on the board somewhere that is worth 7 points.  If the word strength meter only goes up to one, I know there is a word on the board that is approximately 10 times higher than 7, which is more than likely a bingo.  There's another hint you can use if you have enough coins (diamonds actually) saved up.  This hint highlights every available tile on the board where you can put one of your letters to form a word.  So, I knew I had a bingo somewhere and I used the "binoculars" hint.  Since it was so late in the game, I could tell that the only place a bingo would fit was either on an L or an A.  Since I only had two vowels on my rack, I figured it was probably the A.  Scrabble is 70% math, 20% vocabulary, and 10% another word that I can't think of at the moment.  I usually win, but Tracy has beaten me more times that I'd like to admit.  I'm too competitive.  The letters were N U C L E R S and probably A.  So nuclear is a word, but not nuclears.  Unclear is a word, but not unclears.  As I was running I kept shuffling around the letters in my head. 

When I got to Brown I saw doberman lady again.  I was able to get through the fence before she did.  When I got half way between Brown and Adobe I thought of a couple of words I would like to try; secularn and reclanus.  Reclanus.  That's a good one.  I stopped and opened the Scrabble app.  But it was taking too long to load and I was afraid doberman lady and her dobermans would catch up to me.  So I exited out and continued running.  There were a lot of dog walkers out this early.  I didn't want to stop while I saw someone with a dog.  It wasn't until I was heading north again north of University that I finally stopped to try my words.  Neither of them worked.

Well, that was yesterday.  Today I finally gave up and hoped that I would get some better letters to make an obvious bingo.  Tracy has a slight lead that I won't be able to catch her unless I get a bingo.  But, as I said, it was late in the game, and I didn't realize there weren't any more letters left.  So she's going to win.  Anyway, the word was LUCRANES.  Now I will go crawl up in the fetal position and cry for a while.

We had an awesome lightning and thunder storm last night.  Around 2am there were some thunders instantaneous with the lightning.  It also rained most of the night.  Often times that makes me sleep soundly.  So after going back to sleep, I woke up 7am, which is kinda late for me nowadays. 

The rain was very light, so I decided to go running.  When I started running it looked like it might even start to clear up.  I wasn't even sure which route I would take today.  I ran straight through the intersection because the construction workers were in full swing.  I thought about cutting through the retention basin, but they have a large pipe connected to a fire hydrant that's laid all the way through the basin.  I didn't want to deal with that.  What if I tripped?  I couldn't handle the humiliation.  So heading north my next decision was whether to turn east or west when I got to Brown.  I could go east to Higley, south to Adobe, and back home.  That should be just over two miles.  But I don't like running on the main roads anymore.  I could go west, but the RWCD road is probably muddy.  Sometimes it's slick when it's muddy.  But I did want to see the Floodway and how much water was in it.  So west it was.  I ran over to the east side of the Canal which is the west side of the Floodway.  It wasn't bad as far as mud goes.  But now what?  How do I get back home.  My initial thought was to cut through the Floodway at the green belt like I did last week, but there was at least a foot of standing water in the Floodway.  I didn't want to go through the construction zone at Adobe and face my arch nemesis the large pipe.  So I had no choice but to run all the way to University, come back up the east side of the Floodway, and cut through the green belt into the neighborhood. 

Once I committed to that I remembered the dream I had last night.  I dreamt about Jeff, the hobo.  For some reason I had to get somewhere and the only way to get there was by crawling through a thicket and that's where Jeff lived.  I saw Jeff get up and leave, so I figured it was safe to go through, but as I was crawling through, I could see the shadow of another hobo under the brush.  I asked if it was all right that I pass by.  It was a weird and unrealistic dream, but still, it just felt weird that I might see Jeff after having dreamt about him.  When I got to University it started raining.  So, indeed it was not about to clear up.  It looked like Jeff was bundled up in his sleeping bag.  There was a palo verde tree near him that had been blown over.  Or struck by lightning?  Probably not.  I didn't see any burn marks, but I did take a picture.

It rained on me all the way home.  It was nice.  When I got home I was soaked, but I decided to get even more wet.  We're having our pool redone.  Yesterday, I think, the pool company came and put in the pebble tec.  Now the pool had about 8-inches of rainwater in it.  I wanted to be the first one to swim in the refurbished pool.  So I went down the steps and laid down in the water.  I couldn't swim.

To give closure to my previous blog entry, I ended up beating Tracy in that game.  She had some high scoring letters on her rack when I placed all my letters on the board.  The value of those letters get subtracted from her score and added to mine.  So it was like a 40 point swing and I ended up beating her by a couple of points.  Poor thing.  LOL.  Love you, Tracy.

I discovered the time when everyone is out.  6am.  So many people out, most notably the guy that wants to be my best friend.  I saw this lady walking towards me with her dog.  Then I saw my would be best friend.  He came up from behind of the lady.  He scared both her and her dog.  Then he stopped and started talking to her.  When I ran by I heard him say, "Here's the man that's never gonna die."  Then he gave me a thumbs up and she gave me a thumbs up.  So I guess he wants to be her best friend, too.  Two timer!  Maybe he wants to be everybody's best friend, which would make him an all timer!  He's an all time great!

What a difference half an hour makes.  I got out half an hour earlier than yesterday and I didn't see anyone until my second loop.

I started running at 4:30am this morning.  It was wonderful.  The moon looked to be about 3/4 phase and it was high in the sky providing some good light.  As I was heading towards Brown Road, I heard an owl hooting on the other side of the Floodway.  Then I heard some wings flapping behind me.  Even though I knew the owl was far away and the sound of the flapping wings sounded like they would be coming from a smaller bird, probably a dove, it kind of freaked me out.  I then spotted the owl sitting on the power line next to the power pole.  I guess that's why they're called spotted owls.  When I got to the other side of the Floodway I hoped that the owl would still be there so I could try and take a picture of it with my night vision.  But, alas, it was gone.  I heard three distinct splashes in the Canal as I ran down the mile stretch as part of my two loops.  All three came near the edge.  So I wasn't sure if they were fish popping their heads out of the water or perhaps turtles that scampered back into the water after seeing me.

I didn't see anybody until I got almost to University.  Someone was running down the road, but it was too dark and they were just a little too far away to tell if they were a boy or girl.  I think it was a girl.  Then I ran by where Jeff lives and it smelled like one of my sweaty shirts.

It was 5:30am when I woke up and I didn't feel like running.  Yesterday the painters come to paint our pool deck.  Now we're about 99% done.  They just have to fix the light.  So I decided to work out in the pool this morning.  First I did 20 sit ups on the trampoline.  Then I did some pool running in place.  Then I did a little bit of swimming.  Then I got out and skimmed the leaves out.  Then I got back in and did a little bit more of running in place and swimming.