Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I took an extra day off because of my knee.  I took Herbie on a walk last night and it did all right.  I was worried that it would still hurt, so I just decided to run the route I walk Herbie on every day.  Well, almost every day.  Except those days he's getting punished for running into my knee.

I got to the stop sign and saw this lady running.  It was the same lady I saw last week, that I guess I forgot to blog about.  Usually I cross the road, but since I was taking a shorter route today, it meant staying on this side of the road.  This also meant I was going to be right in her way.  She's super fast.  I moved all the way over to the side of the sidewalk.  But she ran in the street as she passed me.  I said good morning expecting her to be annoyed.  But she sounded pleasant when she said good morning back.

The knee behaved.  I'll try and up the mileage tomorrow.

For the last three days that I've gone running, I've felt something in my shoe.  The first day I thought it was just a little rock.  So when I got home, I shook my shoe out and the only thing that came out was a little piece of paper.  I thought it strange that a piece of paper could get positioned in such a way to bother me like that.  But the next day I felt it again.  So I thought maybe my shoes were falling apart and losing their padding and something in the soul was poking at my foot.  But I forgot to check when I took them off.  The next time, same thing, but this time I did check.  I stuck my hand in my shoe and felt around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  Then I turned my shoe over and saw that a bullhead (sometimes known as a goathead) had lodged itself in my shoe so deep that I didn't see it.  I pulled it out and threw it in the trash.

Today's run was poke free.  Also it was very dark and warm.  We've been having record highs here.  It finally seemed like it was going to cool down, but now highs are back in the 90's.  Anyway, I was running along thinking to myself how dark it was and how I could barely see anything.  But then I saw a shadow advancing.  As it drew closer I could see the soft glow of a cell phone light.  I didn't want to scare the person coming towards me so I yelled out, "Good morning!" when I thought they would be in range to hear me.  I received a sweet and mouselike, "Good morning!" back.  I said, "Is that you, Edythe?"  She chuckled, "Yes it is, Burt." 

I crossed Adobe and was thinking about the funny encounter when I was brought back to my senses by the sound of a siren.  It sounded like it was on Greenfield.  Then it stopped.  I was about an eighth of a mile south of Adobe when all of the sudden the RWCD road was lit up with red and blue lights.  I turned and saw the firetruck heading east.  Hopefully not to my house.  Then I started thinking about how there was a time in my life where I would pause to say a little prayer for whomever was on the distress end of call.  But I don't do that anymore really.  So I started thinking if there was any good reason why I don't do that.  Perhaps the person in distress was just pummelled for sneaking into some father's daughter's bedroom.  In that case, maybe they got what they deserved.  So they shouldn't be prayed for?  I don't know.  I'd have to reach a higher spiritual plane to show empathy for a child predator.

It stayed dark the entire time.  I only saw one other guy on the trail walking his two dogs.  They wanted to protect their owner from this mysterious dark stranger.  Then I saw what I originally thought was a large white dog.  It was actually light from a flashlight.  Someone was in the green belt walking around with their flashlight.  They shined it on me a couple of times.  I don't know what they were up to.  Maybe just exercising.
 

I started my run 32 minutes later today than yesterday.  It was dark, but not quite as dark.  The sun would be coming up soon and the rays were already providing enough light that I could see maybe 20 more feet in front of me.  My knee has been feeling better, but I'm still running real slow just in case.  I was heading south on the RWCD road when I saw a cell phone light coming towards me.  It was the same place that I saw Edythe yesterday.  But it couldn't be her.  What are the chances that I'm going to see her in the exact same place I saw her yesterday 32 minutes later?  Apparently 100%.  At least this time I was able to actuall see her instead of just recognizing her voice.

No clouds today, but the horizon looked pretty right before the sun came up.  My wife left on her run shortly after me.  We were flyby's on Strava.  Her pace was faster than mine today.  And she ran further.

I didn't sleep well last night and woke up with a headache.  I started running at 6:05am.  I wondered if I would see Edythe in the same place three days in a row.  While I was wondering that I saw a lady coming through the retention basin/park from the Floodway.  She waved at me.  It took me a sec, but I realized it was Edythe.  So even though I was thinking about her, I didn't realize it was her.  I guess I had my mind set that I would see her in a mile at the same place as before.

It was dark out, but I could see Edythe because of the lights in the park.  But once I'm on the Floodway path, there's hardly any lights.  The sun was about to come up, so it wasn't dark dark, but it was dark enough that I can't see people until they're about 20 feet away.  But hardly anyone's out anymore this early.  I did see a guy cruising down the RWCD road on a bicycle.  He didn't have a headlamp, but he had a tail light.

The run was slower than yesterday.  I'm sure it was the headache.  But it wasn't miserable, so there's that.
 

Lazy morning.  I had some bouts of sleep paralysis during the night.  I don't like it.  I laid around in bed even though I woke up pretty early.  I finally started running at 7:52am, which isn't terrible, but much later than usual.  My wife asked why we weren't running Usery.  I mean, we could be.  But she decided she would rather go to the gym this morning.  I'm an avid gym avoider.  She bought me a membership, but I haven't gone once.  So I ran up the Canal.  I wasn't sure how far I'd go.  Maybe six, if I was feeling ambitious.  I wasn't.  I could turn around at McKellips.  But that wouldn't even be four miles.  I have to do at least four miles.  I know, I'll run up to 1-3/4 and turn west down the hidden orange grove road.  As a zanjero, I was shown a shortcut to get into this part of the Canal without having to get out and unlock the gate.  The hidden orange grove road.  So I took that path.  It's nice and secluded.  There wasn't as much people out as I would have thought, but there was still enough to keep me entertained.