Go, you chicken fat, go away!

When I turned on to Adobe, I saw a girl walking her dog through the park.  She got to the sidewalk and I could see she was wearing a shirt that said STAFF on the back.  It looked like one of my old shirts.  But there are probably a million shirts that say STAFF on the back.  I caught up to her right before the turn into the Floodway.  She apologized because her dog wanted to play with me, and the shirt was from some event that I had never heard of.  She followed me in to the Floodway and I realized my shorts were sagging down on the left side, the side with my phone in my pocket.  After pulling them up a couple of times, I had to stop to retie my drawstring.  That's embarrassing.  I ran up to the "turtle pond" again and looked for turtles.  Again, no turtles.  Just a couple of ducks.  I wasn't there long and I looked and saw the girl was almost caught up to me.  I'm so slow!  So I took back off and ran to the other side of the Floodway.  I saw this couple walking towards me.  I had seen them Saturday, too.  The guy looked like he was wearing a surgical mask, but it was really just a huge white moustache.  Today I told him that I thought he was wearing a face mask.  He probably gets that all the time.  I ran down to University, went back to the other side of the Floodway and headed back up again.  I saw the girl walking her dog still.  Even though she was on the other side of the Floodway, she probably thought I was a stalker.

2 loops again.  I saw a family leaving the Floodway path when I got there.  It was the Porter family.  I have seen Rich many times while running and usually he swoops around and runs with me.  I see his wife and their daughter often walking their dogs.  But I've never seen the entire family together.  It's nice to see families out doing things together.  Rich and I talked for about 5 minutes, and then I took off again.  I saw a lot of the regulars.  I stopped again at the pond to look for turtles.  Nothing.  The dollar bill is gone, too.  But later my daughter sent me a picture of the turtle.  When I turned south on the RWCD road, I could see a lady walking her dog and her daughter on a bike up ahead.  I finally caught up to them at Adobe.  I said good morning and we crossed the road.  They went over to the other side of the Floodway so that I saw them again when I ran back up.  I don't think the mother realized it was me, or maybe she did, but her daughter had gotten out in front and had just pedalled her way up the greenbelt dip and stopped, and the mom must've gotten worried that a man was running towards her.  She called her back.  Then the daughter got out in front again going the other way and before I got to the mom she called her again because she realized I was going to pass her.  So I told her to have a good one.  I wish women didn't have to be worried about men, but I get it.

I was about to go out the door and my grandson yelled at me, "Grandpa!  I wanna go with you!"  Well, it's hard to turn that down.  I made him touch his toes first.  Then he made me stretch my arms out.  Of course grandma was taking pictures and a video as we started.  It wasn't long before we were walking.  I'd say we walked about 70% of it, and ran the other 30%.  But that's not bad.  Everytime we would pass someone Atticus would say, "Look at this stick I found!  Or, "This rock is humongous!"  We went three quarters of a mile to the turtle pond.  Once again, I haven't seen any turtles.  But we threw rocks in the pond for a while, and I taught him how to place your hand in an ant hole without getting bit.  He would've played all day if I'd let him.  But I'm a mean grandpa, and I had work to do.  So we finally made it home and he asked if he could go running with me every day.

Such a beautiful morning in Mesa, AZ!  It's mostly cloudy and the temperature is wonderful.  There was a lot of people out, but I'm surprised I didn't see more.  I ran about a mile when I had to stop because the top of my right foot was hurting.  I thought I might have to call it quits, but I stretched out and was able to run the rest of the way.  I hope I can get back to running longer distances on Saturday mornings again soon.