Today is the first day of summer with an expected high of 98 degrees...tomorrow we're supposed to have 100 degrees. Then it'll drop down to around 93 by Friday. Whew! Relief! At last!
The weekend was way busy. I even did a long nap Sunday afternoon and I was still busy. Yesterday Jonnene and I woke up at 4:30 am to volunteer at the Sunrise #3 Triathlon: her to work registration and me to help set up the transition area (oh, yeah, Jonnene did some of that, too!). I also helped guide the racers thru transition during the race after The Wife went on to work...she had to work the weekend. She's never too enthused to do that...don't blame her. My Centenary kids did well but the heat got to them as well as everyone else but they all survived.
After that I got home and went out for my Sunday run in 95 degree warmth. Had to do six 1-mile repeats at 20 seconds faster than my planned marathon pace and I managed to do that. With four minute rest breaks between the efforts I would down a nice cold 6-8 ounces of water or energy drink. I still felt wiped out after it was all over and I got a nice outline of my tanktop on my shoulders from the sun. I still sorta feel it today. That got me a nice nap that afternoon. Called Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and I'll get his gift to him later this week. Ashley and Clint came over last night and fed them as they got ready for their second night in their new rent house here in Shreveport.
Yeah, Saturday we helped moved them into their new place in the south part of Shreveport. It was hot that day, too! Saturday morning I spent out in the yard, doing yard stuff and starting on placing the pickets on the fence. I'm not too interested in looking into the back yard of our backside neighbors and them into ours. Got the main supports in place, set up a line to keep the top of the pickets level, and got one picket up. By then I was worn out and put everything up.
But the most important part of the weekend was getting a call before 5 am Saturday morning from my step-father, telling me that he and Mom were at the emergency room of the hospital. She's got a kidney stone and the sucker made itself known much earlier that morning. She hasn't passed it yet and I feel for her since I've gone thru that...it is REALLY painful and can mess up your schedule for sure. I drove down to the hospital, picked Jim up and took him to their house so he could get the car to bring Mom home (he had traveled in the ambulance with her). Today she's supposed to set up an appointment with a urologist and see what the next step is to clear this thing up. Keeping the fingers crossed for the simplest and less painful solution.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
I do run-run-run, I do run-run
Wow, I'm now starting my seventh week of this marathon training gig...139 days until the Marine Corps Marathon, so about 17 more weeks of this to go. Actually it hasn't been bad at all. I did a 12-mile "long run" this past Sunday and listened to the squish-squish of my shoes that were full of sweat in the last three miles (takes about two days for the shoes to dry out). My right ankle, or more precisely the right achilles tendon has been acting up the last few weeks so I started putting it on ice after a couple of runs plus being careful in how I walked on that foot. Seems to have worked...it didn't bother me at all during Sunday's run and it's been relatively pain-free since Friday. I'm still not taking any chances however. I'll do ice again after Tuesday's run whether it hurts or not.
This morning I took a quick drive over to Minden to attend the funeral of one of my classmates from 1973, Billy O'Neal. He died of cancer on Friday morning and had been sick for a long time. I got to see him on April 30th (see photo below where he's making a face at the camera) when there was a fund-raiser to help offset some of his medical bills and we talked a bit. Neither of us had really spoken to each other since graduation from Minden High School. We just weren't in the same circles as life went on but we knew each other and we had absolutely no problems, past or present, with each other. Thing was that he remembered me and told how a couple of months ago he had mentioned to his wife, Charlotte (another classmate of mine), that a house they were driving by was one I used to live in. He just said it out of the clear blue. Heck, I didn't even know he knew where I had lived in the first place! After that visit and today's services I wished I had gotten to know Billy a little better. We still had different interests but I think it would have been fun to know him as the man he grew up to be. He was funny during our short visit back in April even though the cancer was in his brain and he spoke a little slower. He was also confined to a motorized wheelchair that he said wasn't fast enough for his liking. But the thing was that he looked like a man who was content with how his life was (obviously wasn't that wild about the way it was ending) and that things would be fine.
Billy O'Neal: March 1, 1955 - June 11, 2010
Rest in peace, Billy. Even though we were more acquaintances than friends, I'm glad I knew ya.
We have niece #3, Holly, staying with us for the month while she goes to summer school at Centenary. She's taking Physics which is some kind of hocus-pocus, voodoo subject that can't actually be real and goes beyond art major types like me. Well, really it doesn't but I don't like bothering with it. I got the gist of it when I took the class in college and I got into a couple of arguments with the instructor (to this day I'm still convinced I'm right) but I pretty much know how it works. Just don't ask me to explain it in English. I can see it in my mind much better than I can say it.
This morning I took a quick drive over to Minden to attend the funeral of one of my classmates from 1973, Billy O'Neal. He died of cancer on Friday morning and had been sick for a long time. I got to see him on April 30th (see photo below where he's making a face at the camera) when there was a fund-raiser to help offset some of his medical bills and we talked a bit. Neither of us had really spoken to each other since graduation from Minden High School. We just weren't in the same circles as life went on but we knew each other and we had absolutely no problems, past or present, with each other. Thing was that he remembered me and told how a couple of months ago he had mentioned to his wife, Charlotte (another classmate of mine), that a house they were driving by was one I used to live in. He just said it out of the clear blue. Heck, I didn't even know he knew where I had lived in the first place! After that visit and today's services I wished I had gotten to know Billy a little better. We still had different interests but I think it would have been fun to know him as the man he grew up to be. He was funny during our short visit back in April even though the cancer was in his brain and he spoke a little slower. He was also confined to a motorized wheelchair that he said wasn't fast enough for his liking. But the thing was that he looked like a man who was content with how his life was (obviously wasn't that wild about the way it was ending) and that things would be fine.
Billy O'Neal: March 1, 1955 - June 11, 2010We have niece #3, Holly, staying with us for the month while she goes to summer school at Centenary. She's taking Physics which is some kind of hocus-pocus, voodoo subject that can't actually be real and goes beyond art major types like me. Well, really it doesn't but I don't like bothering with it. I got the gist of it when I took the class in college and I got into a couple of arguments with the instructor (to this day I'm still convinced I'm right) but I pretty much know how it works. Just don't ask me to explain it in English. I can see it in my mind much better than I can say it.
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