Operation Fitness for Fear: Today we extended our run to 41 minutes. It was misty out, so that made for a very cool and shady run. It was perfect weather for pushing it a little further than normal. As a result of the extra minutes tagged onto our normal route we were finally able to find the Winner Creek Trail (the trail we failed to find on our July 6th hike). It was a very exciting discovery for us, but I am beginning to think that Tess and I might be pretty easy to impress/please.
We also saw a bear on our run. That’s right, after over two weeks of running this route and anxiously scanning for bear, we finally saw one. It was on the second floor of the house at the top of the hill. It gave me quite a start for a second, and then I realized that it was actually stuffed and just on display. Clearly I haven’t been looking as closely for bear as I thought!
On the return leg of our trip, Tess found a stick that she wanted to carry for a while. Of course, Tess rarely picks out a travel size stick. She usually opts for the biggest stick she can find. You know the kind that is twice as long as she is, with about five knife-like branches sticking out of it that will surely impale her in the belly if she drops it accidentally. And of course she always decides to carry it by one end, instead of in the middle where it would balance perfectly. That way if the opposite end hits the ground at just the right angle she’s sure to either choke herself or give herself a lip/nose piercing. What can I say? She’s obviously not as safety-oriented as her mom. Regardless, Tess was happy as a clam dragging along this weapon for about 50 yards or so, and then she grew tired of it and decided to drop it. Unfortunately, she dropped it right on to the leash, and it got tangled immediately. So, naturally, Tess freaked out a bit and accelerated so that she could get away from it. But, of course, the leash, and therefore the stick, was still tangled, and “chasing” her. This led her to freak out some more and run even faster. All the while I was just getting pulled along for the ride while the wicked stick and its huge tentacles whipped around trying to “Sweep the knee Johnny!” I finally got Tess to stop, untangled the branch and was prepared to start running again, when I realized that Tess was now completely afraid of the “possessed” stick, and all the other sticks around it. There she was, tail between the legs, shaking a little, and suspiciously eyeing any sticks in the vicinity, quite sure that they were going to “get her.” Ah the joys of parenting “Timid Tess.” I spent the next five minutes convincing Tess that she could smell and touch the branches without them “chasing” her. I still couldn’t quite convince her to put one back in her mouth, but at least she wasn’t fearfully dodging all the random branches on the trail the entire way home.
Score at the end of FFF:
Sticks of the forest: 1
Tess: 0
Kate: N/A
Our Adventure for the Day:
In the afternoon, Tess and I went for another walk along the train tracks on the Gird to Bird path. It was a very pleasant walk. Tess found lots of tall grass to run through, which in turn dropped a plethora of grass seed on her back. She looked like she was covered in grass seed confetti. It was adorable. (As I said earlier, apparently I am easy to please). We also saw more berries and berry pickers along the train tracks. I just love the fact that you can harvest so much straight from the land in Alaska. It really does feel like the land of plenty.
Random Observations for the Day:
The large picture windows in my house are quite dangerous for birds. We’ve had a few birds fly in to them over the past couple of weeks. They usually recover and wobble off looking a little ruffled and drunk after the experience, but it is NOT helping Tess’s fear of things attacking her via the sky. There is something fairly disconcerting about napping on the couch and being awoken by a loud “thud” about two feet above your head!
My knees sound like shit. Anytime that I bend them while bearing weight (like my body) they sound like sandpaper rubbing across wood. Thankfully they do not hurt a bit. They just sound horrible. I simply ignore the odd noise and keep running, walking, or bending. And in case there are any doctors out there who just read this and are currently considering commenting about how this is a clear sign that my knees are going to explode in the next two months, please don’t. I don’t want to know what is actually causing this noise. I prefer to be blissfully ignorant about any impending knee explosion.
The clerks at the mercantile are weird about their produce. I know that I have already mentioned the spotty produce selection and the general expense associated with purchasing anything fresh at the mercantile due to the cost of shipping to “remote” locations, however, I’m beginning to think there is a conspiracy about buying anything fresh at the mercantile. If by some chance, you manage to wander into the mercantile on the day that they have been stocked with fresh, albeit expensive, produce you are bound to feel like you are being judged when you bring your fresh cherries, oranges, or grapes up to the register. I could drop 20 bucks on a bottle of Jack Daniels or two six packs of mike’s hard lemonade and the clerks won’t bat an eye. But, if I wander up with 7 dollars worth of cherries, no matter who the clerk is, they always have the same response. First, they put the produce on the scale. Then they wait for the price to show on the display, for the entire line of customers to see, and then, without fail, they suck in a big breath of air through their teeth, look at you with pity in their eyes, shake their head and say something like, “Oh man. That hurts. You sure you don’t want to put some of those back?” The first time it happened I thought, “Oh, that’s nice of him to be concerned, but really, it’s the first fresh fruit I have had all week, I think it’s worth the splurge.” But now, it’s happened about four times, always the same way. And, I’ve seen it happen to anyone else who dares to bring fresh produce up to the register. I think the clerks must be getting bribes from the canned vegetable/fruit people. I don’t have any definitive proof yet, but I’m keeping an eye out!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Day 16, July 14th, Living in Girdwood, AK
Operation Fitness for Fear: We ran much slower today compared to yesterday’s speedy pace. We ended up completing our normal route in 34 minutes and it felt slow. Overall I am ok with that time. I mean, I know it’s impossible to shave minutes off of your run every day. But, I do think that our chances of breaking more records in the future would improve greatly if Tess didn’t poop so much on these runs. Seriously people. She pooped three times today. I know she’s got to feel lighter after that, but carrying that much sh*t around has the opposite effect on me! I suppose it’s possible that Tess sensed my frustration and tried to help speed it up towards the end. She did, uncharacteristically, opt out of the swim in the fountain today, but she got so caught up in her tug of war/cross training that it was still a wash when it came to saving time. Oh well. It’s not really important how fast we ran. What’s most important is that we hauled ourselves out the door and ran. Period.
My Adventure for the Day: I will be the first to confess that we didn’t have a MAJOR adventure today. I was feeling rather mellow, so instead of trekking through, or fishing in, the woods I just opted to take a drive out onto the Kenai Peninsula. It was quite picturesque. There are countless ridges along the highway and the clouds were barely hovering above them. We’ve had a little moisture lately but it was still warm and sunny out so you could literally see the clouds evaporating. They looked like windswept hair, or an upside down rain shower. The fireweed also added to the scenery on the drive. The pink fireweed flowers start on the side of the road and then they slowly crawl up higher and higher onto the ridges. It creates a beautiful contrast when the pink is mixed into the green grass and brush that blankets the hills. And, it seems like every time that I drive this road the patches of pink have spread another five yards up the hills. It’s like a slow moving map illustrating the passage of time.
On the drive I kept passing cars with dip nets and canoes strapped to the top of them. It is making me *really* want a canoe!
I stopped in at a fly shop near Cooper Landing on my way home. While I was there I chatted with the woman behind the counter about the upcoming salmon run. She was very nice, and more importantly, this interaction counts as another step towards my “Trying not to be a complete hermit” certification.
When I was almost home, traffic suddenly ground to a halt. Because of the fact that most roads in Alaska have only one lane going in each direction, almost any accident or construction zone leads to incredible delays. Today’s accident was no exception. I sat in that line of cars for about 20 minutes at a dead stop, while I waited for my turn to move. But the silver lining of that wait was that over the course of those 20 minutes I got to watch the tide rolling in. I feel like I can’t take enough pictures of that view. There’s something so cool about seeing a mile wide section of mud flats glistening in the sun one second and then completely covered with water 20 minutes later. The hazy ridges on both sides of the mud flats frame the picture just perfectly. Really. It’s a view that is hard to top.
Wildlife/Unique Sightings:
Bald Eagles: 3
My Purple Tacoma: Today’s drive was also awesome because it took me through a wet construction site. What does that mean? It means that my purple truck is now solid grey. So cool! Why is that cool? Well. I have an obnoxiously purple truck. I didn’t pick the color, but the truck was the vehicle of my dreams on all other fronts so I bought it. I say it’s an obnoxious color choice for me, because 1) I don’t love purple (but Heidi does. Hey Heidi!) and 2) Purple is the color of my people (the gays). Don’t get me wrong, I love the gays and I am proud to be one, but really . . . have you seen me lately? I look like a big ol lesbian. I do *not* need a rainbow sticker on my truck, nor do I need a purple truck to make something that is very obvious, even more obvious. That truck screams, “I’m GAY would you like to date me!?!” Again, there’s nothing wrong with that message, I just prefer to let my stylish short hair and Carharts do the talking instead of the truck. Now, the plus side of the color is that it is a fairly deep purple, so when Jo is dirty she looks almost black (yes I call my truck Jo – like Jo from the Facts of Life). So, I typically keep Jo pretty dirty, because black truck = cool lesbian. Purple truck = slightly obnoxious lesbian. An important side note, my Dad (who is the best and such a sweet guy), loves to have very clean cars. I know that it drives him crazy when I pull up to their house in a dirty truck. How do I know this? I know this because as soon as I head off to take a nap or chat with my mom he’s down there washing the truck. And he’s not just washing it, he’s waxing it. Seriously. If I step away for 45 minutes, 95% of the time I will come back to find a truck that is so bright and shiny that the purple can be seen from a mile away. It’s such a sweet gesture, but so not the direction that I want to go with the color. I suppose that I could just bite the bullet and tell my Dad that I like it better when Jo is dirty. But he is right. Cars do run better when they are clean. So, I am sure that I will be scrubbing off the construction grey and waxing that purple paint till Jo gleams before I head back to the lower 48. However until then I am really enjoying my grey truck. It’s so. . . Alaskan!
My Adventure for the Day: I will be the first to confess that we didn’t have a MAJOR adventure today. I was feeling rather mellow, so instead of trekking through, or fishing in, the woods I just opted to take a drive out onto the Kenai Peninsula. It was quite picturesque. There are countless ridges along the highway and the clouds were barely hovering above them. We’ve had a little moisture lately but it was still warm and sunny out so you could literally see the clouds evaporating. They looked like windswept hair, or an upside down rain shower. The fireweed also added to the scenery on the drive. The pink fireweed flowers start on the side of the road and then they slowly crawl up higher and higher onto the ridges. It creates a beautiful contrast when the pink is mixed into the green grass and brush that blankets the hills. And, it seems like every time that I drive this road the patches of pink have spread another five yards up the hills. It’s like a slow moving map illustrating the passage of time.
On the drive I kept passing cars with dip nets and canoes strapped to the top of them. It is making me *really* want a canoe!
I stopped in at a fly shop near Cooper Landing on my way home. While I was there I chatted with the woman behind the counter about the upcoming salmon run. She was very nice, and more importantly, this interaction counts as another step towards my “Trying not to be a complete hermit” certification.
When I was almost home, traffic suddenly ground to a halt. Because of the fact that most roads in Alaska have only one lane going in each direction, almost any accident or construction zone leads to incredible delays. Today’s accident was no exception. I sat in that line of cars for about 20 minutes at a dead stop, while I waited for my turn to move. But the silver lining of that wait was that over the course of those 20 minutes I got to watch the tide rolling in. I feel like I can’t take enough pictures of that view. There’s something so cool about seeing a mile wide section of mud flats glistening in the sun one second and then completely covered with water 20 minutes later. The hazy ridges on both sides of the mud flats frame the picture just perfectly. Really. It’s a view that is hard to top.
Wildlife/Unique Sightings:
Bald Eagles: 3
My Purple Tacoma: Today’s drive was also awesome because it took me through a wet construction site. What does that mean? It means that my purple truck is now solid grey. So cool! Why is that cool? Well. I have an obnoxiously purple truck. I didn’t pick the color, but the truck was the vehicle of my dreams on all other fronts so I bought it. I say it’s an obnoxious color choice for me, because 1) I don’t love purple (but Heidi does. Hey Heidi!) and 2) Purple is the color of my people (the gays). Don’t get me wrong, I love the gays and I am proud to be one, but really . . . have you seen me lately? I look like a big ol lesbian. I do *not* need a rainbow sticker on my truck, nor do I need a purple truck to make something that is very obvious, even more obvious. That truck screams, “I’m GAY would you like to date me!?!” Again, there’s nothing wrong with that message, I just prefer to let my stylish short hair and Carharts do the talking instead of the truck. Now, the plus side of the color is that it is a fairly deep purple, so when Jo is dirty she looks almost black (yes I call my truck Jo – like Jo from the Facts of Life). So, I typically keep Jo pretty dirty, because black truck = cool lesbian. Purple truck = slightly obnoxious lesbian. An important side note, my Dad (who is the best and such a sweet guy), loves to have very clean cars. I know that it drives him crazy when I pull up to their house in a dirty truck. How do I know this? I know this because as soon as I head off to take a nap or chat with my mom he’s down there washing the truck. And he’s not just washing it, he’s waxing it. Seriously. If I step away for 45 minutes, 95% of the time I will come back to find a truck that is so bright and shiny that the purple can be seen from a mile away. It’s such a sweet gesture, but so not the direction that I want to go with the color. I suppose that I could just bite the bullet and tell my Dad that I like it better when Jo is dirty. But he is right. Cars do run better when they are clean. So, I am sure that I will be scrubbing off the construction grey and waxing that purple paint till Jo gleams before I head back to the lower 48. However until then I am really enjoying my grey truck. It’s so. . . Alaskan!
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