Go, you chicken fat, go away!

800 miles + on my shoes.  Time to retire them.  I think I will wear my neon yellow shoes next.  I woke up at 5am.  It's already getting light out.  By the time I was running it was completely light.  The sun was just about to come over the horizon.  I don't like that.  Anyway, I saw more people than normal.  One person was walking their dogs down in the bottom of the Floodway.  I wondered if they did that a lot, but I never saw them because it was dark.  Probably not.  As I was approaching Brown, I saw a zanjero truck pull up to the Canal.  I then turned around and saw the old man that thinks I'm his best friend.  He was running on the west side of the Floodway, and I thought for sure he would catch up to me before the fence.  He didn't.  But just barely.  As I ran toward him, he looked at me.  I could tell from his puppy dog eyes that he was sad that I was too far away to say anything to me.  He turned around and headed south.  The zanjero jumped out of his truck.  I didn't recognize him.  For sure he was putting a drop through.  I'm not even sure what that means.  That's what got me in trouble once.  I raised the radial gates instead of lowering them.  I kind of drained the top end of the Canal.  Oops.

I followed the old man down the RWCD road.  He kept putting more and more distance between us.  Within just over a mile, he must've put a quarter mile between us.  I'm slow.

I went to be early yesterday.  You know it's bad when you wake up at 12:30am and think it's closer to 4am.  I went back to sleep, but I would wake up every hour or so until I did get up just prior to 4am.  I was running at 4:45am.  Nice and dark.  Just the way I like it.  I saw a white suburban parked on the north side of Adobe on the east side of the RWCD Canal.  I wondered if I would see the driver during my run.  I kept my eyes open, but I could barely see more than 40 feet in front of me depending on neighborhood lights. 

My legs were feeling pretty tight this morning and I decided I would just to one loop.  As I was heading back south on the west side of the Floodway I could see a light in front of me. I figured it must be the suburban driver.  I guess that it was a headlamp on a person rather than a bike because for the most part, a bike is headed in one direction, so the light is constantly shining at you.  This late would turn every so often meaning that the person was turning their head to look at something off the trail.  Finally we passed each other and I saw that it was a lady I see quite often that walks her two dogs.  But then I noticed that the suburban was no longer there.  I never saw it leave. 

By now I was feeling better and decided to go ahead and do two loops.  I was running real slow.   It took me over half an hour to run, and it was actually getting light out by the time I got home.  I sat down outside my front door on the brick planter and watched the Suns game recap.  It's 9 minutes long.  I think I've mentioned that before.  My son came home after being out all night.  I mean, he's 26, so that's ok.  But he just spent a night in jail for driving with unpaid speeding tickets.  Or something.

I can't remember what time I went to sleep last night, but it was early.  I woke up at 1:30am to go potty.  I could not get back to sleep.  I tried everything.  It was probably close to 4am when I finally did.  After that, I did not feel like getting up.  But I did.  But I didn't feel like running.  But I did.  I just did one loop.  It was a few minutes before 7am when I started.  The entire world was up.  First Sis. Inglish from across the street waved at me as she was pulling out of her driveway.  Then Br. Heiselt said good morning to me when I was crossing Adobe.  There were more people out than I cared to count.  I also saw Sis. Ray and the old man in the fisher hat.

I had another bout with sleep paralysis last night.  My wife shook me out of it.  That was around 1:30am.  I woke up a few minutes before 4am and took Herbie outside.  Then I sat on the toilet for quite some time.  I heard a girl's voice say, "I'm sorry."  Then she called for Herbie.  She whistled a few times.  I thought it was my daughter, Julianna.  Turns out it was AJ's girlfriend.  I didn't know this until much later when I looked out my bedroom window and saw Herbie outside.  I don't know how long he'd been out there, but I'm glad he didn't escape.  Once he squeezes through the pool fence, he has no problem opening the RV gate.

Anyway, I started running at 5am.  It was nice and dark, but it started to get light out before I finished.  I saw a couple of guys out walking their dogs.  On the last half of my last loop I saw the two old ladies that always go walking together.  I also saw my neighbor, Kevin, in a bright orange work shirt in his backyard.  Kevin has chickens, too, and he has a bright light that shines in his backyard I assume as a safety precaution against coyotes.