Boom Boom

The weather has been pretty intense the past week. We've been lucky in avoiding the tornado stuff. There has been plenty of thunder and lightning though. My dog will not miss it in Vegas I'm sure. It's so strange though that he's scared of thunder here, when in Maryland, storms didn't phase him at all. I'm not sure what made the storms scary.

Our house is technically sold. I say technically, since we still have the house inspection and VA appraisal to get through, and the appraisal won't happen for over a month.

Here are a couple of pics. If I weren't so lazy these days, I could have at least stitched a 180 for the first pic. To the left was a subtle long continuation of the lighter bands. I just really liked the one lit cloud tip and resulting ray.

The next pic is not about the lightning, but that it's a single bolt coming straight down on the new hospital here. With the cloud set above that reminds me of Fright Night, I just thought it was cool.


The lightning was so exquisite the other night. You'd see a bolt go down, and immediately five forked fingers would go up and outward almost 270 degreess around you. The sky was lit green, revealing the sinister swirls hovering like Independence Day ships amidst the sheets of curvy rain in the backdrop. I would've taken more pics, but the ole lithiums aren't what they used to be.

Lunarglides

Here are my newest running shoes, the Nike Lunarglides. I still run with my Free 5.0s when I'm running longer or faster on the treadmill, or at the gym. I also still run with the VFFs on the treadmill. I tried just walking around the block a few times in the VFFs with a little jog here and there. OW! Gotta build up to that slow for which I don't have the patience right now.

Funny sidenote... Liz had a woman come see her complaining of foot pain on the balls of her feet. This woman wore here VFFs to the clinic even. I think she expected Liz to give her the crazy eye, but she was comforted to know that Liz knew all about VFFs. This woman ran all winter on a treadmill in them and then hit the pavement a little too quick me thinks.

Anyway, I started looking for new shoes cuz honestly, I just wanted to buy something new. But it was kinda odd that suddenly I got blisters running in the VFFs and my Free's seemed not as comfortable, as if they were pinching the top of my arch. I really think my feet got a tad smaller with weight loss making these slight changes more evident.

I tried on several other Nike shoes which were not very comfortable at all. The Asics like I had before my Frees are all too cushy. I tried on a pair of Brooks Glycerines I think, and they were nice feeling, but expensive and heavy. I tried on a pair of Mizuno's as well and they felt odd to me. But the lunarglides felt very nice the minute I put them on. I was pretty wow'ed by how good they felt.

After running in them a few times, I was a bit concerned. The rear of the shoes almost felt as if something were pushing into my foot at first, but after more runs I have not noticed this. Outside on the pavement, especially going up and down hills, I think they really give me an extra 'spring' in my step, or better push off maybe. It's not so much cushion as it is bounce, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I most always run with them outside now, and am very happy with them. One aspect of them that they share with the Frees is they are incredibly light. They aren't as flexible and the toe box is completely different, but it doesn't seem to bother me. Along with the lightness, when the shoes bends on top of your feet, I think it's more comfortable than the Frees. That's probably a personal foot thing though.

I was trying to up my speed last week and tweaked my thigh a bit. So I rested a couple of days, and then got in a couple of days on the bike. I can't tell you how excited I will be when I finally get around to getting a new bike. Maybe one of these years I will ride with my friend Dave in the Iowa Ragbrai. That's a 7 day ride across the state of Iowa. I'd prolly do it this year if we weren't moving! But small moves Ellie, small moves.

Funnels

Cakes are better than clouds.

Went for a bike ride today while we were under a tornado watch! I checked the radar and felt I'd be fine. It's not like I'm one of those guys that go surfing during a hurricane. Or am I?

Was a good ride. Road west to east so I was in a constant crosswind. Going north in some spots was treacherous! At one point I was going down an under pass and saw some kids smoking and lighting something on fire. Riding by I thought, that's odd because I smell funnel cakes. As I rode up the underpass there was a huge carnival right next to me hidden in the trees. Ahhhh those are real funnel cakes I smell! Mmmmmmm! I'd have to ride for a couple of hours though to burn one of those bad boys off.

At my turn around point, Liz texts me and says bad storms are on the way. I look up and don't really see anything too crazy. With that said, the sky was simply awesome. Full of color, and various clouds, and sunlight patterns all over the place. As I made my way back, the wind started to pick up. I could make out just the faintest mammatus clouds forming. I could see a darkness behind me and to the south that would correlate to what I saw on the radar earlier. Bahhh I was gunna be fine.

The wind continued to pick up as I rode back. Today was supposed to be a slow ride, but secretly I was getting anxious and pushing it. With about 10 min left to return to the truck ,I stopped to look back. The sky was just so busy. It had the dark menace on the left, bright radiant red sun in the middle, and rain sheets glowing on the left.In front, glowing white clouds with an occasional flash of lightning in them moved quickly against a deep gray blue sky. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blew threw. You could see the prairie grass sit down and hear a slight howl. I wish I had my camera with me to take a pic of that sky.

Anyway, I made it back fine and watched the storm roll in. It dumped a massive amount of rain on us pretty quick. Good thing I decided not to bbq.

4th quarter

There's only a few more minutes left in the game. Can we get in field goal range?
Two showings today and an offer! A decent offer even. But a counter will be made tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

Other than that, today was pretty dang miserable! aaaaachhhhhooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Sneeezeee

Ohhh man! Sinuses are not happy! Didn't help that I had to mow the lawn today.

here's a pic from Ponce De Leon sometime ago in what seems like another world. It was nice and tranquil at the springs. It was a chilly winter day , the company was great, and we had all the time in the world. (cue Louis Armstrong!)

Today some crazy kat I know sent me this clip. It's quotes are destined to stick around in my circle for a few weeks.

Inches

Spent the day scraping up river rocks to lay down plastic underneath them. Landscape fabric is wimpy! Got 3/4 done. After 4 hours, Liz and I were worn out.

Had two showings this weekend. No bites. One looker chose to spend 10 grand more on a new house that they could choose the paint colors on. Doh!

Went for a walk to our neighborhood park later in the day. Suddenly, out of my peripheral shoot two speeding objects. A brown short and stocky german sheperd followed by a small black and white pit bull mix. My initial alarm faded quickly as these dogs were in full sprint, but not even interested in us or our dog. My dog even lunged to join this chase, but they just ignored him. It was the classic big dog ,little dog from the cartoons, and they were just sprinting around like electrons set free.

Then they came hauling by again this time chasing a rabbit. This rabbit was at top speed. You could see the little bubble above his head that said something like... "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

The agile tuft of brown fur dove into some bushes in someones yard. The dogs just ravaged that garden tearing around ,dirt flying, noses like guided missiles. Liz and I said 'damn those dogs are tearing that yard up!' ( we said that like rednecks too!)

We watched them come around again chasing another rabbit which dove through a fence. Without a lick of exhaustion, these dogs proceeded to run through and check systematically each heavily grassed area. We watched and waited with anticipation for another chase to happen. Asa and Finley were very excited by all the commotion.

Then out of nowhere a small bunny popped out of the grass and the sheperd was on him. They were coming right at us and just like 20 feet away the sheperd overan the bunny. You could hear the dog's chest violently puffing air and the weight of dirt being kicked as he slammed around hard.

Normally the rabbit's awesome juking abilities would give it another good head start, but the small dog was also in pursuit and was making a second strafe. The rabbit saw the small dog and instinctively spun round only to get trampled by the sheperd. The little bunny rolled upside down and over trying to get back on its feet just as the small black dog's jaws lunged at it. The fence was inches away for it's escape, but the sheperd was too quick.

That's when you hear that squeal come from the rabbit as if everything innocent, cute, and fuzzy was squeezed out of it. The chase was over. The dogs grabbed each end of the rabbit and began pulling it apart until it was over twice it's length. Fuzzy brown was replaced with a dark red meat color. Then the dogs dropped it and sprinted off as if nothing had happened.

Liz and I just stood there giving each other that No F'in way look!

Later, coming back home, we saw an old man out there looking for the rabbit carcass with a plastic bag in his hand. I said , "are you looking for the rabbit?" The old man said, "yup, hope dem dogs git more of em."

Finally, almost home a car pulls up and the driver asks if we've seen two dogs. We explain where we saw them. 40 minutes later, we were driving to dinner and this guy was still out there looking for them. I felt bad for him. I've stopped 3 strays in my neighborhood to return to their owners, but these dogs were on a hunt and there was no stopping them. I hope he finds them. I also wonder how many rabbits they got? Certainly not enough.

Smell my apple

Reading my current book, A Brain That Changes Itself. The first two chapters were what I expected as far as neuroscience wonders and oddities. Some of the first chapter tells the story about a woman who for 5 years felt as if every waking minute was spent falling. Later you meet another woman who can tell time but couldn't tell you why or what time was. Mother's daughter and daughter's mother meant the same thing to her. She was also called a 'piler'. She had to keep all her drawers open and everything important in a big pile, because if she didn't see it, it did not exist.

This third chapter deals with sexual behavior and takes a very abrupt turn. Suddenly I'm visualizing about a kids foot stuck in a drunk masturbating mother's vagina, men who only sleep with certain races, and how porn can cause a lot of problems in one's responses to sexuality. It's potent reading that I'm having to absorb in small chunks.

One small portion talked about how our culture is all about covering up 'smells' or natural body odors. You know, those smells coming from THAT guy who was standing next to you at the grocery store in the bread aisle. Phew!

Well imagine a few hundred years back when natural body odors were considered arousing. A lover supposedly would take a chunk of apple, because it's kinda sweet in it's odor and put it in the armpit for a while so it can soak up some of your sweaty hot yum yum juju. You would then slip this warm and moist love biscuit to your lover for them to inhale over and over so they could shudder at the thought of being in your arms.

That's pretty nasty no?