Go, you chicken fat, go away!

It's good to be back in the 'hood, where it's shorts and T-shirt weather year round.  I went to bed late and woke up with a headache.  I finally got outside at 9am, but then I talked with my neighbor for a while.  They did the BOSA donut challenge as a family.  Still bummed that I couldn't do it this year.  Anyway, I finally started at 9:25am.  I felt ok, despite only running three days last week and eating everything.  Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I weigh the same or less than I did before I left on vacation.  Not sure how that happened.  Maybe my scale is broken.

I turn 46 today.  So naturally I need to run 46 miles.  How about 4.6 miles?  Yeah, I'll do that instead.

3 loops today.  I was sore for some reason, so I went slow.  The weather is perfect.

I skipped yesterday.  Busy at work again.  When I got to the Floodway I saw a lady walking her dog.  As I got closer I saw that she was wearing a Ragnar McDowell Trail shirt.  She said good morning, and I said, "I think I have that shirt."  She said, "Yeah.  Ragnar."  Good story. 

I think Jeff has moved about a quarter mile south now.  That's where I've seen him the last couple of times.  I think he has a sleeping bag now, so that's good.  He asked if I had my wallet with me today.  Nope.  Sorry.

It was me, Vickie, Maggie, and Mike this morning.  I went to bed last night feeling kinda sick.  Achy all over.  Luckily I woke up feeling better.  I thought it might be cold this morning, so I wore some long running pants.  It wasn't cold.  It was perfect.  I was hoping for a good run today because for whatever reason, hurt back, being sick, I haven't been able to run very well on a Saturday run lately.  I did feel good, so it was nice.  Vickie and Maggie were the first to leave, but they didn't get a very big head start on us.  Mike left just after me.  Mike caught me seconds before I caught Vickie at the 0.4 mile mark.  I could only see Maggie when a car came by because she was wearing all black and had no reflective gear or lights.  I finally caught her around 0.75 miles.  I couldn's sneak up on anyone today because I was wearing a brand new headlight, and it was quite bright.  For the last few weeks, I've seen on Strava that Mike always goes a little bit further than the top.  So today I wanted to get more distance than him so I kept going.  He must've known or something because he ended up with 7.6 miles.  Jerk!  I headed back down and was surprised to see Maggie wasn't too far behind.  I was maybe half a mile ahead of her.  She hardly runs, but if she did, she could be faster than me.  Then I saw Vickie and I was about three quarter of a mile ahead of her.

I was feeling good, and was hoping for a fast time.  It was the fastest I've done all year, but not as fast as I thought it would be.  Oh well.  Mike usually beats me by a mile, but it was only 0.9 miles today.  I texted the girls to see if they wanted us to pick them up or finish.  Maggie didn't respond, but Vickie said it was up to us.  So we drove up and found Maggie about three quarters of a mile away.  She said she wanted to finish.  So we drove up and got Vickie and drove back down.  She ended up with 6.32 miles.  Also, we never see horses when Maggie comes :(
 

Saturday night it started raining again.  Not very hard, but enough to ruin our plans of s'mores.  We got a little rain yesterday, too, and I'm guessing it rained during the night.  Last night when I took Herbie for his walk, it looked foggy.  I thought maybe my glassed were dirty, but it was fog.  This morning it was still foggy.  My legs were sore from Saturday, so I went slow.  I got to the half way point and it started to rain.  It felt kinda nice.
 

Not a cloud in the sky this morning.  But it was cold.  I got to almost the half mile mark when I saw a coyote running in my direction.  I've seen them do this before.  They usually ran as fast as they can along the wall until they get passed you.  So I immdediately started to run after it.  It was too fast for me so I just howled at it.  Then I did my normal route and when I got to half a mile from home right after passing the green belt, I hear this voice yell, "I love you!"  I look over and see my wife running on the other side of the Floodway.  Ha!

Today is Saturday.  I took two days off from running, and apparently I forgot to blog on Wednesday.  I don't remember anything from this run other than I took a picture of the gorgeous sunrise.

Today was supposed to be our ward Christmas party/breakfast.  But somebody died and they needed the building for the funeral, and they couldn't secure another location, so they just cancelled it.  Boo!  That meant we could go running.  Yay!

Alyssa texted last night to say that the swelling has gone down in her feet, but she still has sore muscles.  Or torn muscles.  I don't know.  Maggie texted this morning to say that she woke up with her neck hurting and a headache and she needed to bake cinnamon rolls, so it was either going to be running or baking, and baking won out.  So it was me, Vickie, Mike and Glen.

Vickie started out first as usual, but the three of us left right behind her so that Glen caught me before the stop sign, I caught Vickie right after the stop sign, and Mike caught me shortly after that.  On the way up Mike had said he almost cancelled on us because he also had a sore neck and ankle.  I was able to see Mike most of the way except when there were curves, but I knew either I was a little faster this week, or he was a lot slower.  It was a combination of both.

It was 5:30am when we started running and it stayed dark up until the last mile.  I saw three shooting stars.  There were 0 cyclcists on the way up and 8 on the way down.  About a tenth of a mile from the top, there is this place where you can pull over and park a few cars.  Maybe 10 if you squeeze them.  It's close to the start of the Phoenix Marathon course.  There was a big group of runners about to run the first 10 miles of the course.  Most of them left right before I got there.  But one left a little after them and was right behind me.  I recognized her as one of the twin girls I follow on Strava.  I thought it was Leann, but it may have been Debbie.  According to the Flyby's they both were there, so I think it was Debbie.  I said, "Is that you Leann?"  She said, "Good morning."  Then I asked her about it on Strava after and she doesn't remember.  LOL!  Running down I expected that Glen would catch me.  He usually runs extra, but catches me before I reach the bottom.  With half a mile to go, I could still see Mike, and I turned around to look for Glen.  He was no where in sight, so I knew he wouldn't catch me today.  When I turned to go into the parking lot, I looked and saw his headlamp not too far away, maybe 4 tenths of a mile.  Vickie, I think, slowed down a lot.  She likes to wear headphones and sing.  I could hear her half way up the hill still, so she couldn't have been too far behind.  But when I texted her after Glen got there, she said she was 5.5.  So we waited a few more minutes and went and got her.  It was a beautiful morning for running.

So Herbie is kind of a mean dog.  Not like super mean, just protective.  He thinks it's his duty to protect the house, which is great.  Except that he has on occasion gotten lose and terrorized the neighbors.  I think he's been getting better.  When he was a young pup he would bite.  But I don't think he bites anymore, but he will run after a neighbor and corner them and growl at them. 

We used to keep him outside most of the time, but he always finds a way to get loose, no matter what we do.  Now he's an inside dog.  We got a cat and he now gets along with the cat, and I've noticed a difference in his behavior when I walk him and he sees other dogs.  He won't run up and bite other dogs, which used to be a problem, too.  Now he actually plays with them.  But when it comes to being around our house, even though he's seen these neighbors a million times, he has to bark at them to protect us.  Right now he's barking at a big fat cat in our front yard.

I usually take him outside in the morning so he can go potty.  Then I walk him everyday around 5 to 6pm.  Yesterday (Sunday) I didn't take him outside before I had to leave to go to a ministering interview.  I asked my wife to do it, and she let him out back, but didn't watch him.  So he squeezed through the pool fence and went and opened the RV gate.  Then he apparently went and barked at our neighbor.

We haven't had a good relationship with this neighbor.  He's always so grumpy.  I think he doesn't like us because he keeps his front yard so nice and groomed, and ours isn't as nice.  Plus we have like 15 vehicles parked out front all the time.  One time, a couple of years ago, Emily and my wife were late getting ready for church.  My wife jumped in the shower real quick and in that time, Emily decided she needed to go for a walk to find the rest of us.  Our neighbor saw her walk off.  Then when Vickie was trying to find her, she ran outside, ran around the yard, and got in the van.  My neighbor saw her doing this.  Vickie found Emily down the street not too far away from the Canal.  What kind of jerk sees a kid with Down Syndrome walk off alone and doesn't say anything?  His excuse was that in today's age, if you approach a kid, you get labeled as a pedophile.  I ended up having a talk with him, and that's been the extent of our relationship.

Up until yesterday when he started yelling at me about my dog.  Look, I get it.  I would be mad, too, if my neighbor's dog got loose and terrorized the neighborhood.  So the first words out of my mouth were - I'm sorry.  But he just proceeded to yell, cuss, and berate me.  And I have my breaking point.  He has the right to be mad.  But he does not have the right to berate and to go on and on and on.  So we started arguing and he called me stupid, and I told him to call me it again.  He did, and then dared me to come on his property.  I told him to meet me out in the street.  He wouldn't, but if he would have, there would have been fisticuffs.

I feel like there's been a number of instances like this in my life lately that have escalated beyond what they should have.  Is it me?  Has my attitude changed?  Has my demeanor changed?  Maybe.  I feel the same.  But I haven't been studying scripture as often as I should.  I haven't been attending the temple as often as I should.  There's a number of things on a spiritual level that I need to get back to doing on a routine basis.  What would Christ do in this situation?  Turn His other cheek and let it get smote, also?  That's the difference between me and Christ.  I'm not there yet.  But I need to get there.  I need to learn to forgive.  I do forgive, but I don't forget.

Anyway, enough of that.  I ran 3 loops this morning.  When I was coming back toward Adobe I saw someone in the dark wearing a beanie with a headlamp.  I was pretty sure it was my wife, but it was too dark to know for sure.  So I texted her and it was.  She usually stays on the main streets.  I realized that if I was doing 3 loops, I might see her again at University.  Sure enough, when I was heading north and crossed University, I could see her light about an eighth of a mile down the road.  She's getting faster.

I did 3 loops again today.  It was 41º out.  Still T-shirt and shorts weather, but it's getting colder every day.  It was about 20 minutes later than when I ran yesterday, so it started to get light out.  When I was half way in between Adobe and University, I could see a man riding a bicycle real slow and a small dog following him.  I assume the dog was his.  Anyway, the man said, "I fee like a sissy.  I'm all bundled up and wearing long johns!"  All I could do was shrug my shoulders at him. 

I have a pair of reversable shorts.  They are baby blue on one side and dark navy blue on the other.  I usually wear them baby blue because that puts the draw string on the inside.  When I grabbed them out of my drawer today they were inside out, so I decided to wear them navy blue today.  It would also match my shirt.  Win, win.  That was great until I realized my pockets were on the inside.  So I ended up having to hold my phone the whole time.  That's why I just did two loops today.  That, and my left leg (shin) is aching.
 

It was 6:18am and 43º when I started running this morning.  It was dark most of the time.  When I got to Brown, I could see a coyote under the light of the street lamp.  It ran towards the wall and I tried to call it to me, but it wouldn't listen.  The rest of the run was pretty uneventful.  My pace was slower today, but I think it's because of how dark it was.

Today was the coldest morning that I can remember.  40º.  I just went nice and slow so that I feel good for tomorrow.
 

I went to bed real early last night.  So early that I didn't see some of the texts from the group come in until 2:30 in the morning when I woke up.  For a while there I was worried that I would be able to fall back asleep.  But I got about another hour in before it was time to get up. 

It was me, Vickie, Maggie, and Mike today.  We were supposed to clean the chapel at 8am this morning, so Vickie wanted to run 8 miles, but was afraid we wouldn't have time.  So I decided to run 8 miles since I'm faster.

I thought it was going to be super cold this morning, so I brought some gloves.  But it was only 45º.  Beautiful running weather.  Maggie and Vickie left first and stayed together the entire time.  Mike left right before me and he was back to his old speedy self.  I caught Maggie and Vickie at 0.6 miles.  They ran all the way to the top and back.  I kept going for another 0.3 miles so that I could get 8 miles in.  There was another running group that we saw at the top of the hill that were coming from the other side.  They were much faster than us.  But they were friendly.  I saw my first cyclists with 1.25 miles to go.  Then I saw two more at the stop sign.  It's either too cold or too close to Christmas.

When I finished, I texted Vickie to see if she wanted us to come get her.  She said no.  She wanted to finish.  That's when I knew we wouldn't make it back in time to clean the chapel.  Oh well.  No blessings this week.

I thought that since it was Christmas break, I would be able to get out and run at the same time, and could go straight to work without having to worry about getting kids ready.  But instead, I slept in.  It's now 10:30am and I will start working after I'm done blogging.

It's nice and cloudy today.  The weather is so nice.  Not too cold.  I decided to only do two loops since I got out late.  Maybe I'll do more tomorrow.  Merry Christmas everyone!

I woke up to the sound of rain.  It was 5:30am-ish.  I waited for it to die down some.  I left to go running at 9:13am.  It was nice out.  I decided to run up to McDowell.  That would be about 5.6 miles.  I crossed Brown Road and saw a coyote in the Floodway.

I watched it for a bit, and it ran around me.  I have that video on my story on Facebook.  This is the top of the Floodway, or rather, where the Floodway starts.  I could see water discharging through a pipe into the Floodway, so I went to the other side to investigate.  It hadn't been raining hard enough for that much water to be coming out.  I could see an irrigation standpipe about 20 feet away.  Sure enough, water was being pumped into the standpipe from a nearby well and then just discharging into the Floodway.  Weird.

I then crossed Greenfield and headed toward McKellips.  A man named Tory Adair (thank you, Strava) stopped me and told me there was a coyote watching us.  I saw it, but didn't take a picture because of how far away it was.  I crossed McKellips and ran by the orange grove.  I was looking in the grove in hopes of seeing more coyotes.  Sure enough, I spotted two together.  I took a picture and kept running.  I caught up to a guy walking his dog.  I asked him if he had seen the two coyotes in the grove.  He said he saw one that crossed the Canal, but did not see the other two. 

I kept running and then I saw a barricade half a mile before McDowell.  I guess I won't be going to McDowell today.  I stopped and took a picture to send to my friend Greg who works at RWCD.  He teased me about trespassing.  I turned around and watched for the coyotes again.  I spotted two on the other side of the Canal.  I stopped and watched for a bit, and I saw the third.  So the two I saw had joined the other one the other guy saw.

I was still texting my friend and showing him the pictures I had taken.  When I crossed McKellips again I saw a woman running toward me with an old Ragnar McDowell Trail shirt.  She waved and said, "Merry Christmas!"  I was in the middle of telling her that I have that same shirt when I recognized it was Amy Spencer from the ward.  I didn't tell her about the coyotes, though.  Then I started looking for the other coyote again.  I spotted it and took this picture.

So, I was able to get pictures of all 5 of them.  It was a nice morning for a run and I took my sweet time.  I saw my Strava friend Matt Bell and said good morning to him.  That was right after I had crossed Greenfield and that's when it started to rain.  It was a just a sprinkle actually, but a hard sprinkle.  I couldn't see any other coyotes after that.  I couldn't see much of anything after that.  But I made it home on instinct alone.  5 coyotes.  I think that's a world record.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  I for one, woke  up to check my stocking, dumped out its contents on the kitchen counter, did not see the jar of mustard that must've rolled right under the line of my arm until it fell off the counter and straight on to my toe.  Holy buckets of Santa joy!  So I took two days off from running.  This morning was nice, except my right shin hurt.  I don't know if it was because of the time off or if I was compensating with my stride somehow.  I tried to run normal. 

The fence was open that said GATE CLOSED the other day.  But I saw some RWCD trucks up there, and didn't want to bother them.  I stopped and tried to stretch out my shin.  But I don't really know how to stretch out a shin.  I just pulled my foot up into my butt cheek and put some tension on it.  It felt better on the way back.  No coyotes today.  Just some friendly dogs.  Not that friendly.

Yesterday Mike, Maggie, Glen, Vickie, and I all said we would be running this morning.  This morning Mike texted to say he couldn't make it.  A little after that Maggie texted to say she couldn't make it.  So Vickie and I hopped in our van to go pick up Glen.  We got to Usery and it was cloudy and dark.  But the city lights were lighting up the clouds.  It looked really cool and had me mesmerized the entire time.  Glen got a slight headstart on me and was off like a gazelle.  I caught Vickie right after the stop sign.  I was running slower than last week, no doubt because I ran almost 5 miles yesterday.  Maybe also because the road was wet and slick.  I never saw any cyclists while I was running, but I saw some later. 

I got a new reflective vest for Christmas.  My old one was like a construction worker's vest, and the zipper broke a couple of months ago.  I would still wear it and somehow it would stay on.  The new one is actually just straps that clip together in the front.  I think my belly is too round because it kept riding up and would fall off my right shoulder all the time.  Oh well.

Since I missed a few days this week, and I wanted to run at least 20 miles, I knew I needed to run an extra 0.1 miles after getting to the top.  Glen ran all the way down to the Usery Park entrance, which means he runs another 0.9 miles from the top.  I didn't see him when I turned around, but he must not have been too far behind me.  He caught me at about the 4.9 mile mark.  He ended up finishing just over a half mile ahead of me.  He likes to come back to the stop sign and wait for me, then run back to the parking lot with me.  I finished up and texted Vickie to see if she wanted to finish.  She did, so I walked to the stop sign.  Then I just kept walking until I met up with her.  We ran the last 0.4 miles together.  So I got 20.4 miles this week :)

Here's a picture I tried to take of the clouds using Night View from my camera.

It was 40º this morning.  Still shorts and T-shirt weather, but just barely.  I only had time for 2 loops today.  Truth be told, that's probably all I needed to do.  I'm kinda sore.

52º today.  Cloudy.  I sweated a lot.  I've been eating too many Christmas goodies.