Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I need to catch up on my blogging!  Today was Veteran's Day, and it seems there were a lot of people staying home from work.  I saw half of the ward out on my run today!

I got out later than usual.  It was after 9am.  My back was feeling better.  I stopped a few times to take pictures.  The first time was when I saw three old airplanes flying together.  Next is when I saw a coyote.  What was he doing up so late?  I remember stopping one more time, but I don't remember why.  It wasn't for a picture.

Okay.  Now I'm caught up on my blogging.  Yesterday I took my Wolf scout and the Bear scouts on what will be not only our final hike, but our final den meeting.  We'll have pack meeting next week, and the following week is Thanksgiving.  After that, Bishop wants us to concentrate on family time in the month of December.  So luckily, I was able to get all the requirements done for our lone wolf to earn his Wolf.  We hiked up Hilltop and we all had garbage grabbers so we could pick up garbage along the way.  It wasn't that bad.  My wife had done the same thing with her Activity Girls a couple of weeks ago.  We got up to the top just as the sun was going down.  We did a skit and ate snacks, and then hiked back down.  We dropped off all the boys at their houses and when we got to the new kid's house, we saw a moving truck in front of it.  I remembered that his mom recently gave a talk in sacrament meeting, as bishoprics commonly pick the new families to speak.  She said for some reason all of their stuff was still in Maryland.  They had been here for a few months!!  Well, apparently today was the day that their stuff finally arrived.

After that I got ready to go to Young Women's in Excellence night.  My daughter Emily had worked real hard all year to earn her Personal Progress medallion.  My wife's best friend would work with her every Wednsesday and Saturday, and slowly but surely they checked off all the modified requirements for her to earn it.  All the young women were really impressed and I was touched at how inclusive they are for my special little girl.

After the program ended I saw the parents of the boy whose family's belongings had arrived that day.  I asked if they were glad all their stuff was here and the father said yes and that he was hoping to recruit some guys to help unload the piano.  I offered to help and I put a blast out on our ward Facebook page to see who else could help.  Between that and his recruiting we had 8 men show up.  But then Danny Brinkerhoff practically moved it himself.  He had his piano dolly and he told everyone to back off.  He lifted up one end of the piano, kicked the dolly underneath it and wiggled the piano into place on top of the dolly.  It was quite impressive.  There was also a large wooden armoire behind the piano that he couldn't get to.  So somehow I got on the wrong end of the dolly for that one.  Oh my gosh, it was heavy!  I pulled it in the house mostly by myself and regretted it because it kind of made my back sore.

Anyway, that was a long story to say that my back is getting better, but every day so far I start to feel it during the second loop of my run.  All in all, it was a decent run, though.

For most of the last school year I would pick up Emily from school on Fridays.  Now that she's in junior high, I haven't done it at all.  But she wanted me to yesterday, so I finally did.  We would mostly always go to Taco Bell.  That's where we went yesterday.

I texted the team to see who was running today.  It would just be me, Vickie, and Mike.  Mike said he would pick us up at 5am.  I set my alarm for 4:02am.  But then I didn't get up when it went off.  I thought I would be safe to sleep in a little longer.  I should know by now that I need at least an hour for my bowels to wake up properly.

I managed to get some out before Mike got there and thought I was good.  But guess what?  I had Taco Bell yesterday!  Remember?  So by the time we got to Usery, I asked Mike if he had any TP.  Luckily he had two rolls under the seat.  I went off in the desert behind a bush and popped a squat.  So gross.  Vickie had already left and Mike hollered at me that he was leaving.  He wanted to know if he could lock the truck up.  I told him I had all my stuff, so he was good.  Mike left and I finished up.  I placed the roll of TP on his dashboard and finished putting on my gear.

According to Strava, Vickie had a three quarter mile head start on me by the time I started running.  Mike was right behind her.  Mike runs much faster than I do, so I only saw him as he was coming down.  When I got to the intersection, I saw pylons in the middle of the road.  They looked like they went at least a half a mile up the road where the road bends.  I hoped that was all the further they went because cars were driving on the shoulder and I had to get off the road every time a car came by.  Well, I got to the first half mile and could see that they went to the next half mile.  I felt like texting the group to see how long they go, but I didn't want to wake up those that didn't run today.  I got to mile one and could see that they kept going.  That's when I knew in my heart they went all the way to the top!  Now, I usually get off the road whenever a cyclist comes by, so it's not that big of a deal, but there are much more cars than cyclists, so it was like every five minutes!  And there were places that the dirt is more like sand, or rocks, or sloping.  So it was no fun.

Speaking of cyclists, there was not a single one until I got to 0.15 miles from the top.  I thought that was smart of them to avoid riding here because you can't get off the road on a road bike.  But I saw a lot more cyclists making their way up the hill and some going downhill while I was running down.

After a while of running I was starting to get worried that I hadn't seen my wife yet.  I was hoping that she's just getting faster, not that she had been plowed over by a vehicle and thrown in a ditch somewhere.  I saw Mike coming down at the 3 and a quarter mile mark, which means he was a mile ahead of me.  I was going to ask him if he had seen Vickie, but just then I saw her behind him.  It was still dark out so I couldn't tell if she was going uphill or downhill, but she was on the other side of the road.  She needs to start wearing a blinkly light.  I was like, "Did she beat me to the top?"  But I realized that she was still going up and I finally caught her a quarter of a mile before the top.  She said that she was sick of getting forced off the road all the time, so she switched sides.  I actually did that twice, but both times I was too nervous that I wouldn't see the vehicle behind me and would get hit, so I went back to the regular side, against traffic.

I ran back down.  My back seems to be back to normal, but my pace was a little slower than it has been in the weeks leading up to Ragnar.  But, it was decent.  I'll take it.  Mike finished a mile and a half ahead of me.  I finished 0.9 miles ahead of Vickie.  We waited for her to finish this time.  She's getting stronger and stronger.