We are getting ready for a second visit from the grand children. Hazel was here a couple of weeks ago for five days and tomorrow Heidi is arriving with Sadie and Madison. They will be here two weeks.
The thing with grand children is they require some stuff that we either didn't bring with us from NY or never had in the first place. What we discovered is that the community has set up a neat service called Grandma's Gear. How it works is people who have things like pack and plays, baby swings, baby bouncy seats, riding toys, booster chairs, car seats, child beach chairs, etc, that they are willing to lend out, give a list of what they have to the woman who coordinates everything. When it's time for the grand children to come visit you simply call the coordinator and let her know what you need. She then checks her list and gives you phone numbers of people who have those items.
It is a wonderful idea. Today I picked up two riding trucks, a booster chair, two child's sand chairs and a 12" bike with training wells. I also put the car seats we brought with us in the car. We are all set for tomorrow's trip to the Myrtle Beach Airport.
Hazel is growing and changing fast. She just rolled over for the first time. Check out the proud expression on her face. She's also learning how to grill.
Some adjustments were obviously needed. After getting back from our great trip, I was beginning to slip into a serious malaise in the NC heat and humidity. Learning to play golf was turning out to be harder than anticipated as I seem to be getting worse instead of better. How that's possible with how bad I started out is hard to understand.
The worse part of all is trying to run. When the temperature is 90 degrees and the humidity is close to the same, it's hard to run more than 40 minutes. I know, you're thinking I should run early in the morning. Two problems with that – I hate running early in the morning and the humidity is 100 percent until the sun comes up and starts to burn a little of it off.
Two things were needed: a goal and a means to achieve it. The plan was always to run at the Dutchess County Classic. Then a conversation with my old coaching partner, Mary Sclafani, turned that into running the half marathon instead of the 5K. Then came the idea of seeing how many John Jay High School XC alumni we could get to join us. OK, so now the pressure is on. I have to be ready to run 13.1 miles on Sept. 19. Goal established.
Now the hard part. How to train for a half marathon during July, August and September in NC. I think the solution, at least in part, will be the treadmill. I've never been a big treadmill fan, using one only sparingly on days when winter conditions in NY were really brutal. The gym here has a few treadmills which come with two drawbacks. They only go 30 minutes without shutting down and having to be restarted. That's because there is a 30 minute time limit. The other drawback is there are only two TVs, both of which are too small and you can't hear the sound over the noise of the workout machines.
The 30 minute time limit is not an issue as long as I go at times of low use. I go 30 minutes, get off, get a drink and hop back on for another 30 minutes. I have yet to get on a third time, but that's not far off. To solve the TV issue, I told Marlene today that I need a one month early birthday present. I've never had a walkman or any similar device, but it's now time for an IPod. My daughter, Heidi, is coming in a week. In return for all the free meals she is going to have to show me how to use it!
If you're wondering if I will wear the IPod on my runs outdoors, the answer is NO. Enough said.
I have no idea how many John Jay alumni still check in on this blog, but if you are one of them, Coach Sclafani and I need your help. We are going to use this year's Dutchess County Classic as a sort of alumni reunion. Coach Sclafani and I are going to run the half-marathon. We are looking for former JJ XC runners to join us. If anyone is too out of shape to run the half marathon, there is also the option of running the 5K.
The date is Sunday, Sept. 19. You can click here to get all the information.
It's been a while since I've posted. We are in the midst of having some of the family take turns visiting so it's been a little busy. Josh, his wife Lisa and Hazel were here for almost a week. They were our first out of town company! Yesterday, Adam arrived for a week. A few days after he leaves Heidi will be down with the two girls for a two week stay!
If you scroll down to the next post there are some pictures of the three oldest grand kids on vacation together. The picture below is one of Madison that I could just not resist putting on. Heidi sent me a whole sequence of "The Faces of Madison Joy", so I'm giving you a taste.
This all started over a year ago when I bought a hat to help keep the sun off of my face and neck. The hat was purchased under protest from Marlene. At the time, her comment was, "You're not going to buy that dorky hat are you?" The answer was, "Yes". Despite comments like, "You're not going to wear that hat today are you?' and "Aren't you going to take that hat off for the picture?", I've gotten many hours of great use out of the hat. You can see it in some of the pictures from our trip that are in the posts below.
Alas, my dorky hat has now been relegated to second string, only to be worn for yard work and other activities where I'm not likely to be seen. While visiting Zion National Park we were strolling the streets of Springdale looking for restaurants when Marlene spotted a hat in the window of one of the stores. It was a rather dapper looking hat and I could tell Marlene was very interested in seeing it on my head. Since the store was closed for the evening the shopping trip would have to wait until the next day.
Of course, by the next morning I had forgotten all about it, but as soon as breakfast was over Marlene steered us straight to the hat store. Turns out this hat is rather special. It comes with an Owner's Manual, a lifetime guarantee (even if lost), bragging rights cards, a flotation device and much to my liking a 50 UPF rating.
It also happens that owning a Tilley hat is like belonging to fraternity (or a cult). I was wearing mine at the 4th of July celebration in Southport today and as a gentleman walked by me his comment was, "Nice hat." He was wearing one exactly like mine. If you're interested in more info on Tilley hats click here.
The next few posts below have a few pictures from each of our stops along the way. These are just a sampling of the 300 pictures we took . There were lots of beautiful canyons and rocks, which can start to look the same when you take that many pictures.
This was our favorite couple of days. Great hiking, beautiful scenery and not too hot. The one thing that made the hiking tough was the elevation. It gets really tough walking up out of the canyon when you're at over 8,000 feet.
The pink colored columns are called hoodoos.
Marlene caught the Prairie Dog peeking out of his hole. The bottom picture is Pronghorn Antelopes.
