Goodbye Nebraska

Well, just one more day until we hit the road. First stop will be Cheyenne, WY. Can you believe a hotel wanted to charge me a 70 dollar pet deposit! Next Provo, UT, and finally Vegas baby. Tomorrow will be lots of last minute loose ends and cleaning.

Today was kinda of a limbo day for me. I did manage to get in a run this afternoon though. Most likely my last run in this state, it was a really good one too. Felt strong and fast throughout the run with the weather reminding me of the beginning of fall. Strange, but I'll take it.

I played with some trumpets today too. Muhuhahahahaha.

SOLD

Ahhh yah, I like seeing that big bold SOLD sign in my front yard. Now I just cross my fingers that the VA appraisal in Aug doesn't sink the boat.

Was a hot and humid day outside. Went to Liz's work picnic today and loaded up on all sorts of food. After being so stuffed , I went for a run when the sun was setting. Started off tired but by the end I was feeling good. Love it when exercise can perk you up for the night. Beats feeling sluggy and grumpy.

So my house is emmmmppppttyyyy. The movers came early on Wednesday, instead of today and not just packed , but took away all my stuff. Ahhhh I got no washing machine, no vacuum, no chairs. What the hell was I thinking?!! Thank God for good neighbors hookin us up.

I freecycled my small bbq gril and half a bag of charcoal today. I tell ya, I dig freecycle. It's a great way to get rid of weird shit that you can't sell , but seems kinda wasteful to throw away.

Speaking of weird! Guess what my "I want" radar is tweaked on now? Nooo not that 500 dollar knife I've been eyeing for a long time, but a ......trumpet! Can you see me blowing a trumpet?! We shall see, but I was in Borders today and picked up a Miles Davis cd, so who knows.

Packers

They come tomorrow! AHHHHHHH!!

Housing Inspector came today. Nice guy. Talked about Spicoli , tornados, mold, and how it cost 175 bucks to fedex a surfboard.

I just want to sleep.

I will dream of this. It's not strawberry ice cream or marshmellows either.

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!!