Every Race is an Adventure!

I haven't been blogging because I've been busy with the holidays, but also because I've been sick, and mostly because I haven't been running. Despite my being sick, we had a great Christmas. We spent most of Christmas day and today doing family stuff together. Both of our adult children that are living away from home are home for the holidays. Our youngest is 9 so she was old enough to play all of the games we played. We've enjoyed eating, watching movies, playing various games together, and just hanging out. We were just taking turns playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, but our two new favorite games are both card games, The Great Dalmuti and Bang! We explained to our children (none married yet) that any potential in-laws must pass the "fun to play games with" requirement to be in consideration for joining the family. I've sure been blessed with a wonderful family.

That goes for the extended families on both sides as well. The Thomas clan (just under 40 of us I think) were at our house Sunday evening for the annual Thomas Family Christmas Party. There probably aren't too many families who get together to play Bunco as their annual Christmas tradition, but we've done it for a number of years now, and everyone looks forward to it. This year was as fun as ever.

I hope to get back to running tomorrow.

Larry and I ventured out into the 12' weather (plus wind chill) this morning but we didn't get very far. About a mile out we saw the garbage truck headed towards our neighborhood. Neither of us had put our garbage cans out yet, and with all the Christmas trash we didn't want to risk not getting it out in time so we headed back. Larry's wife had ankle surgery yesterday so he decided to just call it good and head home. I went back out but then decided I should probably get into work as soon as possible, so I only ended up with another mile or so for a whopping total of about a 5K. This may sound like blasphemy, but running just isn't a very high priority for me right now.

By the way, I found out it's going to cost about $2000 to fix the old Suburban. It needs a new fuel pump and starter, among other things. It was a tough call whether to junk it or fix it, but I've already replaced about everything else. I certainly can't afford a new Suburban, or even a good used one. I can't even buy a good quality used car for $2000, let alone something that can carry my whole family, has 4 wheel drive, can pull a trailer and, most importantly, can support 6 sweaty runners for 24 hours on the Wasatch Back Relay. I've had this old Suburban for over 13 years now. It's been paid for almost 10 years. It's been in the family longer than my 9 and 11 year old daughters. I chose life support and resuscitation this time, but next time it may be time for the "do not resuscitate" order. I just hope the surgery is successful. It will probably be under the knife all day tomorrow.

I'm not exactly sure how far Larry and I ran this morning. The battery in my Garmin was dead this morning. We ran the six mile course to Cascade Golf Course but we added some distance along the way. Larry said it was at least 7 miles. I'm a little skeptical, but I'll claim 7 miles anyway since it puts me into double digits for mileage this week. It was nice having the temperature back up into the 20's this morning.

By the way, I got the old Suburban back from the shop yesterday. They had quoted me around $2000, but it was only $1400...only $1400? That included replacing the fuel pump, starter, thermostat, and fan blower motor, and servicing the transmission. It now not only starts, but starts enthusiastically, and it's nice not having the fan rattle noisily anymore.

I had to drive 6 teenagers all around Orem on a scavenger hunt as part of my daughter's 16th birthday party tonight and the old Suburban performed admirably. My daughter's two best friends planned the party (at our house and funded by us) and about a dozen boys and girls came. They are all awesome kids. It's comforting to know she has such a great bunch of peers to associate with.