Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I guess taking Saturday and Sunday off made me nice and fresh.  I did better on my diet this week, too, so I'm sure that helped.  Today's pace was a minute and three seconds per mile faster than Friday's. 
 

I think I forgot to mention last week that I saw Rich Porter's wife, Lindsay and their son, Ashtin as they were taking a walk.  Ashtin was one of my scouts about a year and a half ago.  I said, "Hi guys."  Well today as I was heading down my street I saw someone running towards me from the other side of Adobe.  I thought it might be Rich.  It wasn't.  It was someone else with grey hair.  I didn't recognize him until he said, "Hi Burt!"  Then I realized it was Byron Allen.  He lives right down the street from me and we have neighborhood barbecues at his house every three or four months.  But not in the summer.  It's just too hot. 

I decided to do just one loop today because it's the first day of school for my kids.  I headed up the Floodway Path and as I approached Brown, I could see the Gradall on the west Canal road.  The Gradall (pronounced grade-all) is usually run by Lonnie.  He's older than the dirt he scoops out of the Canal.  There was another RWCD truck there, too, but I didn't recognize the driver.  Maybe he was new.  A Gradall has two compartments.  I've never been in one, but I believe one is for driving and the other is for scooping.  So as I was running by I was looking in the front one for Lonnie.  There was nobody there.  Then I felt stupid because he was in the back one waving at me.

I continued back towards Adobe and saw another man walking down the east Canal road.  I didn't know if I would catch him.  But I finally caught up to him as we both reached the fence at the same time.  Luckily he was just walking up to the fence and turning around while I was going through the gate.  It would've been awkward if we both tried to go through the gate at the same time.  He was a big boy.  Even bigger than me.

Slow run today.  So humid.  The Gradall was scooping out more muck today.  Summer is a good time to do it.  Unless it rains.  They just scoop out the muck and pile it next to the Canal.  Once it dries out, they scoop it up and haul it away.  I saw Gordon on the other side of the Floodway as I was heading south.  I didn't think I'd see him on the way back since it would be over a mile to get back there.  But he was there.  He had stopped to talk to another dog.  I said hi to him and reached out and petted him for the first time.  I'm glad he didn't bite me.

I got some real sad news yesterday.  They are only going to do the Del Sol Ragnar one more year.  I almost cried.  I'm going to captain it up for the last time.  I'm sure I will continue to do other Ragnars, but this one holds a special place in my heart.  It was the first one I did.  It's my favorite course.  And I've done all of them.

I saw Sis. Lee again today.  She was running with her dog.  I didn't recognize it was her at first because there was this older couple in front of her walking their dog.  It was a small dog and it wasn't on a leash.  I wondered if there would be a confrontation with Sis. Lee's big dog.  Those little dogs are yippers.  But there wasn't.  I also saw the Ray's again.  Sis. Lee's boy was one of my scouts and the Ray's son is currently one of my scouts.  I texted both Br. and Sis Ray to see if they wanted to join my last team.

Another hot and slow day.  I lost 5 lbs this morning.  I saw a family walking down the street a ways off.  I could tell they were all wearing red shirts.  How fun, I thought.  I couldn't recognize them because they were far off and it was a little dark out still.  Then two of them started racing each other through the little park on the corner.  When they finally got close enough, I could tell that it was the Ashcroft's.  The Ashcroft's recently decided to foster a child.  They just wanted one young one.  Well, after a month or so they got a phone call saying they had found their foster child's brother and sister.  So now they have three foster kids on top of all of their own kids.  Now my wife wants a foster child and it looks like we might get one here shortly.