With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

5.6 in the morning and 5.13 in the afternoon.  It was actually cool again today and I had to wear gloves in the morning and long sleeves/jacket in morning and afternoon.  I'd brought my gloves in the afternoon but didn't wear them.  I put them in my jacket pocket and when I got home, they were gone when I got home.  I had to bribe mini-me to go drive and see if she could find them for me.  She actually found them- and they were less than 1/2 a mile from home.  I could have walked back and found them myself but I was done being out in the wind at that point.  The wind was 17mph.  Getting tired of the wind.

Morning run.  Where is the moon?  I haven't been out every morning like I used to, but I miss the moon all the same.  

morning elliptical

after work, ran my 9 mile p-town loop.  I was excited because the wind had finally shifted and was blowing from the SW instead of the NW.  I was glad to have the wind in my face the first half of the run instead of the last half.

What I hadn't planned on was someone being out spraying herbicide/pesticide in the fields on a day when there are 15 mph winds.  I kept smelling something different in the air, and I just couldn't figure out what it was, until after smelling it for 2 miles, I finally saw the tractor spraying the fields.  I'd been breathing that crap for 2 miles!!  No wonder I was feeling icky!

The good news was that after mile 3, I got completely behind the fields (from the wind standpoint) and had a really good 5 miles of fresh pollen-filled air.  The last mile I was back in the windfall from the fields, but I was almost home and didn't care as much.

I saw my first road-kill snake of the season.  It was a good 2 1/2 feet long, so not a baby snake at all.  Oh goody!  On the railroad tracks, there was a short train stopped and it had a real old-fashioned caboose.  It was bright red and said "Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road" on it.  I tried so hard to get a good photo of it, but the trees made it difficult.  It made me happy to see.

I was excited to see that the insecticide was working, because when I got home all of the gnats all over my face and neck were dead. 

Ran home from school.  Enjoyed the nice weather, the lack of wind, and fresh air without pesticides.  Of course when I got home I had to apply bug killer to my own backyard, but it was granules and I didn't breathe any of it in either.  The fire ants are already out and building mounds of potential death traps on the sides of the roads.  So now I've got snakes and fire ants on my list of running hazards for the week.

30 minutes elliptical.  I had plans on running home after school since mini-me had the car with her getting ready for prom.  But then I realized I needed 2 binders full of papers for checking kids in at prom and didn't want to run home with them.  So I got a ride home and ate chocolate covered strawberries and candy covered apple slices all night while I sat on my tukus and played bouncer at the prom doors.

I had so much typed up...but when I went to spell check "repertoire,"  it all disappeared.  So I'll sum up.

1- sat outside in pollen land for 4 hours last night before going to bed, too tired to shower, woke up with my eyes glued shut and throat on fire (after taking the zyrtec)

2-woke up feeling like an ornery pirate.  For my "day of service" contribution, I did everyone a service by staying home and resting & reading.

3- drug myself out around 2pm.  Went north-east (into the city instead of away from it like I always do) and got to do some hills.  Good run.

4-the "tobacco and groceries" store I stopped at for water (got it out of the sink in the bathroom) smelled like they'd had a hookah party back there recently. 

5- saw a car get pulled over on the by-pass road.  There's a photo of it I'll put on here... it's the only place I ran that didn't have businesses or homes, but did have a sidewalk.  Why?

6-local fauna for the day-  super dead & flat snake, flying grasshoppers, black butterflies, gnats, and huge dogs that didn't understand they were taller than the 3 foot fence keeping them in the yard.  Dogs can jump, can't they?  No one told these dogs. I wasn't going to be the one to do it either.

7- **bonus**  Sonic has brought back it's coconut cream pie shake for the summer.  Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.  He came in April this year.

Photos:

The bypass road with a sidewalk, but no houses for 3 miles.....

Wildflowers blooming along the side of I-95

Wisteria.  It's a weed out here.  People from this area don't understand why anyone would want to plant it in their yard.  But this time of year, it's beautiful!

And here's my attempt at capturing the cute little caboose from my Wednesday run:

and last but not least, there's also this cute "little caboose"

Love you, RAD.  She'd kill me if she saw this, but she's too busy to read blogs anymore so I'm going with it.