Must be . . .

. . . crazy. Seriously the boulders/rocks blocking the bike path from cars have not moved in a week. I know I didn't imagine that they were in different locations . . . or did I? Maybe it was a dream?

Speaking of night, which is when most dreams occur, there was a horrible screeching sound that woke me up last night around 4AM. Some animal was clearly in distress. Sophie was upset and started barking - it wasn't a pretty sound. I couldn't get back to sleep and should have gotten up, but instead I laid there trying to convince myself to go back to sleep - but failed!

Back to morning and my bike ride. The weather report predicted rain in the late afternoon, but I figured I would chance it. Meteorologists, some times they're correct and some times they're wrong, and I have been married to one for 37 years so I think I have an interesting perspective. Whenever you see 50% chance of rain, why think it will rain? There is a 50% chance it won't. Go for the positive!

Anyway, somewhere around 3:30 - 4:00 that 50% became 100%! It suddenly started to rain, make that pour. But upon checking radar, it looked short lived and after another couple of short bursts of rain and thunder showers it looked like I would be fine to bike to Pilates. So at 5 I hopped on my bike and headed to class. The sky was dark and it was windy, but no rain.

The Pilates studio I attend classes is on Atwood Ave, a rather funky neighborhood in town. This is a sign I pass, turning to the Pilates studio.

I checked the weather again after Pilates to see what the radar looked like and all was clear. Granted it was a windy ride home and the wind was coming directly out of the north, which is the direction I was headed, but I didn't get hit by a single drop of rain!

On the menu for this evening was a Cuban pulled pork sandwiches and boy was it good. I made mine when I got home from Pilates. Pulled pork and ham warmed up. Add the warm meat to a nice chewy bun with mustard, pickle spears and Swiss cheese and heat on top of the stove.

This is not a Jenna inspired meal but speaking of Jenna, I need to get back to cooking recipes from her blog! I have been slacking off!

As I lamented yesterday, summer is quickly fading. It seems we are busy every weekend until mid September. Why are we so busy you ask? Well, my oldest son is getting married in September and between family reunions, bridal showers and volunteer commitments we have no free weekends. Add to that my Peoplesoft upgrade project at work and I am feeling a tad bit stressed. I require a lot of down time and just don't feel like I am getting enough right now.

Speaking of downtime, it is past my bedtime. I am hoping there are no animal distress sounds tonight.

Enjoy the quiet moments!

 

 

 

 

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The days . . .

. . . become a blur when you stop blogging regularly, or even semi-regularly and then try and do a recap of a couple weeks! One day becomes the next. Did I run on Tuesday or was that Wednesday? Did I do anything other than eat, sleep and work?

Well yes, I did accomplish a little more than simply eat, sleep and work during the last couple of weeks! It has been busy but that seems to be my new normal and I just need to accept that fact!

what a beautiful sight, although this is now only a distant memory

For one, I ran a 1/2 marathon, the Tyranena Half Barrel in Lake Mills. Albeit my slowest half ever at 2:16, but I still enjoyed it. I got to see Rachel and Amy, two of my teammates from our Ragnar relay team along with Sarah, Alicia and Matt, all friends of Rachels's that I have met at various runs.

Regarding my lack of speed, I need to either lower my expectations or train harder - it is as simple as that - no complaining!

After the 1/2 marathon, a few complimentary beers from Tyranena brewery and a lasagna lunch, (which is reason enough to LOVE this run) I was ready to hang out at home and relax. But late in the day we received a call from my son - Hey, do you want to go the Badger hockey game tonight? Sure - Well get ready, because we are going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat before the game. So off we went to the BW3 and then to the Badger Hockey game!

On Monday, I had an old filling replaced with a temporary crown. Although dentistry has improved so much, there is still room for improvement regarding numbing your mouth before work is done. I didn't feel a thing during the procedure, but returned to work with a numb tongue and mouth that took hours to return to normal. I go back next Monday for the permanent crown. Then I am done with both my dentist and orthodontist except for regular check ups!

On Thursday morning I attended "The Home for Families Breakfast". This is an annual fundraising event for "The Road Home" agency, where I am on the board. As a new Board member, I wasn't expected to host a table, but did and was very happy that all of my invited guests were able to attend. I, like most people, don't like to ask people for money, but I approached this as a "getting the word out event" and invited people to come so that they could learn more about the work that the agency does for homeless families.

On Saturday we woke up to mild temp's but winds of 20-30mph. After doing the usual floor cleaning, dusting and vacuuming - can we ever get out of doing this weekly chore? Well after the cleaning was done, Todd and I went to the Badger football game and saw a great win over BYU. We thought briefly about biking - but since it was a 2:30 start time we would be biking home in the dark. We drove downtown and easily found parking and then walked into the wind on the way to Camp Randall. With the winds gusting to 30mph, there were times it was tough going. After the WIN, we mostly had the wind at our backs, which made a quick walk back to the car.

Today, started with church, where I played clarinet with the choir. After wasting hours watching the Packers lose to the Eagles (arggggg) we headed outside to clean the leaves off the roof and then headed to Costco. Dinner was roasted veggies and burgers.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Flexible

I have been involved wih a local homeless program for 4 years called, The Road Home. They provide shelter, housing and case management for homeless families. My church acts as one of the many host churches, providing overnight shelter to families 4 times a year. Families stay in a church for a week and are then moved to the next host church. Individuals from the congregation provide meals, entertain children in the early evenings and stay overnight with the families during their week. In general families stay in this Shelter portion of the program 8 weeks!

I am on the overnight crew. Sleeping over night at the church 1 evening or sometimes 2, during the week we host. My sleepover occurred on Wed evening.

Always thinking of biking and running - I planned to run to work from our church on Thursday morning and bike home Thursday evening. This allows me to get a longer run in during the week, which usually doesn't happen. Generally I find it very difficult to fit in anything longer than 3 miles in the morning, before work.

But, in order to run to work and bike home, a few things had to happen. I would need to bring work clothes to the office the day before. Since I try to bring my lunch, I packed two lunches on Wed morning. I also had to bring my bike and helmet to work on Wed and leave it there, so hat I could bike home on Thursday. Plans were in place and everything was executed.

We woke up Thursday morning to rain, lots of thunder, lighting and rain. The overnight guests are picked up every morning at 7 by a volunteer and the children are dropped off at their schools, and parents dropped off at work or The Road Home day shelter, where case managers assist with searching for homes and work. (The agency has a 15 passenger van which allows 14 individuals to be part of the shelter program at any one time).

Once the families left I decided to drive to work and get a run in from there. That way, if the weather was bad, I wouldn't be that far from shelter. The heavy rain had stopped by the time I got to work. It was sprinkling at best when I took off. A few sprinkles along with the mild temp's made for a beautiful run.

 

This is a picture of Lake Monona, near the Yahara River entrance to the lake.

 

Here is the bridge I took over the river. Not long after I crossed this bridge it started to POUR. Oh well, I stuck to the sidewalks which allowed for lots of tree cover!

At the end of the day there was another deluge so instead of biking home I put my bike back on the trailer and drove home.

I must remain flexible - plans don't always work out perfectly.

 

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