Chicago

 So with everything else that is happening in our lives, why not throw a trip to Chicago into the middle of it? Makes sense to me, especially since I had already paid the entrance fee for the Chicago Marathon and Whitney had a show that weekend we could go to. Also unknown to us

Dathan and Whitney had made plans to surprise us by all four of us together for the long weekend! Of course we had to have Chicago style pizza (twice) and Cheesecake Factory. It was a great family vacation.

Highlights:
Friday night was Whitney's show,  a musical entitled "Blood Brothers" and it was great to see her singing on stage again. It has been awhile for us.

Sunday was the run, 26.2 miles of touring Chicago streets. I missed my cheering section a few times along the route but finally saw them around mile 21.

"YOU MADE IT"

PICTURE BREAK yeah!!

my support section

Finisher and still standing :)

Monday was a boat tour of Chicago. We went up the 3 sections of the river and learned all about the architecture of the downtown buildings. Chicago really is a beautiful city!

Lisa thought parking in our garage was a challenge!!

Restocking the Pond

The title of this blog reminds me of a deep metaphor for life, such as "the glass is always half full" "you only get what you can handle" "time to refresh and renew" "restocking the pond". But it isn't.
 I have a pond in my backyard:

 

not this one.......

 

 

This one:

 

 

 

It is a very relaxing place to have morning coffee, listen to the waterfall and watch the fish swim. At least it was until this year.........

 

 

For reasons I won't go into (because they are all my fault) local raccoons had a sushi feast this spring. We had 20 fish earlier this spring, and now only one, lonely, baby fish as of a couple of weeks ago. So we have been in "discussions" to get a few more small fish and start over. Yesterday was the big day.

 

She hasn't named them.........yet

 

I'm not sure who was more excited, Lisa or the remaining fish but Lisa was excited enough for all 3 of us. We got 5 goldfish and 2 koi. I'm sure in no time there will be a bunch more swimming around while I'm enjoying my morning coffee in the near future. And I had to promise that the raccoon sushi bar is permanently closed.

 

The happy fish family

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me

I turned 52 a couple of months ago and for my birthday Lisa gave me the gift to run the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon. Run, not Race. The two things I know when I line up is that I'm not going to win and I'm not coming in last. As I mentioned in a previous post this trail is one of the most beautiful places I've been to and a favorite run.  Who needs birthday cake when you can have all the lukewarm, diluted Gatorade you can drink? Along with over 2000 complete strangers of course.

Sherry drove us out to the start and kept Lisa company while cheering the runners along the route. Nancy also joined the party at the finish line.



Great morning for a run in the hills.






Mile 5 High Five and still smiling!



Mile 13: Finish line in sight.
Notice the guy reacting to my jet wash as I zoomed by

I feel so blessed to have the support of my family and the opportunity to enjoy a great weekend in the Black Hills. Lisa is so supportive that she even helped me loosen up on Monday when we got home by having us weed the garden and plant a bunch of flowers. Gotta love her!

Recovery and dreaming of 26.2 miles in Chicago

Oh the Places You'll Go

Places I don't want to visit:

The back seat of a cop car

A hot dog factory

The surface of the sun

An infusion room at the cancer center. But this is where I spent Friday, while Lisa was getting treatment for her ITP. About a month ago Lisa had an "episode" (unexplained bruising and swelling) that got our attention so we, along with a strong recommendation from her Dr, decided it was time for the next step. What we had been trying over the last several years hasn't worked so the next step was a type of Chemotherapy that is fairly new and has been successful. The first of four sessions is over and went really well and we are very hopeful. On second thought I am thankful for the option of visiting a cancer center.

Places I do love to visit:



Mickelson Trail with Dathan and Whitney

On a road trip with the lovely ladies

Witness Protection

At home with Mom and Dad

Finish lines

and my very favorite

Cuddling with my Sweetie

The Long Run

"Who can go the distance, we'll find out in the long run"
This lyric went through my mind yesterday morning as I did my first long run of the season. And by season I mean since........October 2013. Last year I didn't do much running for a bunch of excuses reasons, but this year is the Year of the Gump - as in run Forest run. I got Lisa's blessing to register for a couple of races this year, so I (hopefully) will have a full marathon in October, a 10k in two of weeks and a half marathon in June.

"Well we're scared but we ain't shakin' we're kind of bent but we ain't breaking'"
Last February, sitting at my desk in warm office looking at a blank calendar, a race in June sounded like a great idea. The Mickelson Trail is one of my favorite spots and a run there on a bright sunny June morning sounded perfect. I wasn't thinking about the training in March, April and May in South Dakota where summer may or may not show up. I WAS thinking about that yesterday. It was a 30s kinda day: Temperature in the 30s, wind in the 30s, I wish I was in my 30s...... It rained Friday night and I have 6 miles of gravel road ahead. This will be fun.

"Did you do it for love, Did you do it for money, Did you to it for spite, Did you think you had to honey"
Aside from a couple of short runs, all my training has been on a treadmill due to cold, wind, a warm bed, rain/snow and laziness. This weekends schedule was for 8 miles, and 8 miles on a treadmill is too much to ask of anyone. So I hopped out of bed at 5 am and Lisa rolled over: "aren't you gonna wait till it gets a little lighter out?" me: "of course not-all serious runners can see in the dark." Then I remembered I am wearing a dark green hoodie and black sweat pants and am not a serious runner who can see in the dark. "um yeah I'll just grab a cup of coffee and head out in an hour or so"

I passed this around mile 3-this is not a good sign.......

"Ooh, I want to tell you its a long run"
My original plan was the loop that has a steep hill towards the end and after I see which way the wind is blowing, I decided to switch direction to tackle the hill first so that will make the last 2 miles downhill with the wind at my back making them the easiest two miles. Half way up the hill I start questioning my decisions: Is this the right direction?.......Do I really want to run in these races?.......Did I need that second piece of pizza last night?.....Thankfully I survived the run and actually enjoyed that last two miles. My reward for finishing the run? I get to go further next weekend!

for those playing along at home........The Long Run by the Eagles

I'm Baaaaack (sort of)

Its been a few weeks since my last blog post (ok more like 15 months but who's counting?) If I had been doing anything worth blogging about in the last year I would have jumped right on this and blogged it up. Who am I kidding, we all know that never would have happened-even if I had done anything even remotely interesting. 

So as a reboot, this month's highlight was my niece's wedding in the hills over Easter. As a bonus both Whitney and Dathan came home for the party. Lindsy had asked Whitney to sing at the wedding, and when Whit got the song list her first instinct was to call me for my advice and assistance. That's how I envisioned it anyway. Closer to the truth is that she googled the music, couldn't find any accompaniment that she liked and was forced to ask me as a last resort. As for the second song, "wellllll as long as you're here-and have your guitar you might as well play for that also." But what I heard was pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasedaddypleasepleasedaddy will you accompany me.

One thing I remember Mr. Melton my high school band director saying is: "you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert." I played brass, but it stuck with me all the same and its words I live by. Race coming up? you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert;  powerpoint  presentation at work? you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert;  road trip to Chicago? you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert; want a big bowl of ice cream? you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert-ok so it doesn't always fit, but still.............

The last time I played my guitar was probably 5 years ago when Whit and I played a few Christmas songs. After I dusted off Jeremy (my guitar) and tuned him up it was obvious he needed new strings. So the Saturday before the wedding you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert I went to Guitar Center to get a new set of strings. Did you know GC closes at 6 pm on Saturday night? Me either. Sunday-no trip to SF, Monday-no trip to SF, Tuesday-trip to Guitar Center: "a set of 12 D'Addario acoustic strings please". Paid, bagged, and home by 8:00 pm only to find out they gave me a set for a  6 string. FAIL! Wednesday night back to GC to try again. Of course this is the night Whitney and Dathan flew in and after that adventure we didn't get home till after 1:30 am. It took me an hour to restring my guitar and since you never break in a new reed on the night of a concert, I tried to tune it before going to bed and managed to break 2 strings. One of which I had a replacement for (thanks to the 6 string error) the other I did without.

We had very little time to rehearse but I got through it and Whitney did a wonderful job. And we  had a great family weekend. After we got home late Sunday night we did a quick recording of the songs - in our jammies- with my eleven string guitar.

 ..I Choose You

 

I Can't Help Falling in Love