Saturday, May 16, 2009

Context...

Our road has been freshly paved and is now wonderfully smooth. In honor of this, I decided to take a ride on it and check-out how the neighbor boy is doing with his lemonaide stand.

On the way back, I ran into my wife taking the dog for a walk and asked her if she had any money. No. "Okay, I'll get some at home and meet you at the stand". When I got back, on foot, I paid for her drink and ordered one for myself.

After the drinks we set-off on the walk and began to chat.

Wife: I talked to the gardening lady on the way down to the lemonaide stand..."

Me: What did she have to say?

Wife: She asked me if I knew you.

Me: I'm sure she has seen me with you and the kids walking them down to the bus stop.

Wife: Well, you know how it is when you see someone out of context.

Me: Yeah, I guess she has never seen me riding a unicycle before. So what did you tell her? Oh, that's my husband--the idiot?

Friday, May 15, 2009

How come the liar gets a pass?

President Obama was asked his view on gay marriage during the presidential race said that as a Christian, he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman.

I think he got away with this because everybody got something out of it: Conservatives figured he was lying, but he was agreeing with them so that was fine. Liberals figured he was lying, but it wasn't a problem because he is really on their side.

Miss California was asked the same question and gave the same answer the President gave. And incidentally, gave the same answer as Californians when they voted on it last Fall. There was a failed attempt to strip her of her crown and she underwent a huge amount of criticism.

Why?

Because everybody thinks that her answer is her actual view!

The deceptive guy, okay. The honest gal, not okay. It is an upside down world we live in.

A good illustration

HT NRO

Thursday, May 14, 2009

"... the buff older gentleman puffing his way up one of the more strenuous climbs in New England?" There are no strenuous climbs in New England. Only a sissy would think so. Although, I suppose what you make of the terrain counts: Taking all day to hike up Mt. Washington, not strenuous. Running up Mt. Washington, strenuous. I regularly see stickers on the back of cars around here bragging about having driven up Mt. Washington. Pride in very small accomplishments is more common than it ought to be. IMHO

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wednesday Run

This took 1:47:24--8:11/Mile

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Three, or more, beautiful things about the below run...

The weather: It was breezy, but in the low 60's and sunny--really quite perfect other than the dust that got kicked-up and stuck to my sweat-dampened person. The grit in my eyes reminding me that perfection does not occur in this life.

Honey for sale: On the Old North Road, someone had set-up a stand selling honey from their hives. It gave a pleasant reminder of when I raised bees and a reminder to drive-by sometime to buy some. Also, it was nice to see an honor-based outlet. Trust still exists.

A loud motorcycle buzzed past on Rt. 225 and I did not mind the noise because it was compensated for by the wonderful view of speed and acceleration as the rider flouted the posted limits. Just after the bike passed, a large branch fell from above and crashed to the road about 2 feet in front of me. It wasn't large enough to have killed me, but would have caused much pain had it hit my head. I wondered for a second if the vibrations of the loud motorcycle caused the branch to fall. I think it was the breeze and that the passing of the bike was a coincidence.

I decided along the way to extend my run from around 8 miles to around 12. I didn't feel good at the time the decision was made (around 6 miles in), but I was glad I did: I felt much better in the final 4 miles and ran with a feeling of strength. The overall time was not great, but I think the tail end of the run improved things and that is usually where I am weakest.

Sunday Run

I'm not sure that I trust the distance given by the above map, but if true then the pace was a little dismaying. 1:39:42 for about 8:10 per mile. I felt faster than that.

Happy Mother's Day!