Last Christmas day I did something I had not done for many years. I went ice skating. Making use of the perfect ice on the pond across the street from my sister's house, we had over 20 family members sliding around using different forms of mobility. With a pair of skates borrowed from my sister-in-laws skate stash, I skated for about two hours. I had forgotten how much fun it is.

Of course, now we have moved to NC the chance of doing any ice skating is nil. What to do? Actually the solution was pretty obvious. Where we live, the roads are basically flat, well paved and very lightly traveled. Perfect for in-line skating! Figuring it can't be too different than ice skating, I ordered a pair of skates. They came today. Even though my legs were tired from this morning's weight workout, swim and 6.5 mile run I had to try them out. The straight ahead motion is a lot like skating. It does require more effort to roll across asphalt than to skim across ice. Skating is going to be a great workout. Stopping is very different because you can't just do a sharp turn and skid sideways to a stop. Using the brake pad on the back of the skate is going to take some practice, as will doing sharp turns.

One thing I noticed, even slight downhills can get me up to a speed I'm not yet comfortable with. I'm guessing there will be some road rash before long.

In case you didn't know, I'm married to a "gym rat". Marlene has been working out for 27 years. Her routine has evolved over time. For many years now it has basically been a six day a week routine. Two days of weights, two days of treadmill (5 miles) and two days of spin class. Not only that but each and every day also has a 45 minute stretch, abs, push-up session. Serious stuff.

The move to NC has forced her to make a series of adjustments. The gym here is not nearly as extensive as the one we belonged to back in NY: there are not nearly as many machines or free weights,  there are no spin classes and the treadmill set-up is not conducive to extended runs. To compensate she's sampling many of the classes they offer, she will get a bike to make up for the spin class and when things settle down a bit we plan on lots of nice walks on the beach.

Even with all the adjustments, her gym sessions are still 2.5 to 3 hours in length. The twist is, she's got me going to the gym with her. It will be interesting to see how my routine evolves. Today was interesting: started with a good weight session, swam for about 15 minutes (that was work), and then went out for a 40 minute run. I would love to start building my swimming back up. It's been a long time since I've been in swimming shape. If this continues, we may have two gym rats in the family.

When I got back into running at age 32, after a 10-year hiatus, we lived in a residential area with lots of developments. It was easy to get in a fairly interesting run while never being too far from home. There was a 10-mile route that pretty much covered every street within 1.5 miles of the house.

The last 10 years of my running have been almost exclusively on trails. Now we've moved to NC it's back to running residential streets. One nice thing about it is that since many of the streets still don't have houses they have nice soft shoulders along the edge. Some of it's pretty sandy, but for the most part I can find good footing which enables me to stay off the blacktop. There are many areas with sidewalks. Problem is they are cement. I stay off of them unless it's a section with no where else to run. I've managed to sneak onto the golf courses in the evening when it's getting dark and the golfers have all finished. I'm sure security will catch up to me one of these days and I'll get reprimanded for running on "sacred ground".

I'm attempting to put on a link to the area. You can put it on aerial to see the terrain and also move in and out to get close-ups and on overview of the community. Click here.

(added by Josh)

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Here I go again stealing a reference from someone else. As you may know I'm a pretty big Jimmy Buffett fan. I few years ago he wrote a song called Take the Weather With You. Jimmy and the Corral Refer Band had flown to Tierra del Fuego to check it out and while they were there the weather was much warmer than usual. The locals thanked them for bringing the warm Caribbean weather with them.

I feel like that's what we've done moving from NY to NC, except in reverse. The weather has not reached the average high for this time of year since we've arrived. Mostly it hasn't come within 10 degrees of what it's supposed to be. I just checked the 10-day forecast and it's not getting any better. It's staying well below normal for at least that long.

As you can see from the post below, my son Josh is directing a 5K race that will be held at Vassar Farms on Sunday, May 16. This has been the race date for the Laurel Run. When the Laurel Run was taken off the local race calendar, it worked out to be a perfect date for the Wa Wa Wally Waddle. The race will be a traffic free race held mostly on a basically flat dirt road with excellent footing. There will be a short stretch at the end around the rugby field to the finish. It really is a great place for a race.

The race is a benefit for the YMCA Camp Wa Wa Segowea. There will be an article in an upcoming MHRRC newsletter giving some history of the camp and some information on why they are raising money.

From a personal family perspective, Camp Segowea was a home away from home for my kids during parts of each summer while they were growing up. Summers there even extended beyond their teenage years. It all started when Heidi, our oldest, went for a two week session. When we went to pick her up at the end of the two weeks she cried because she did not want to go home! That was the beginning. As the kids each reached camp age they would join the older ones who were at camp, until we reached the point where all four of them were there. When they became too old to be campers they became junior counselors, then senior counselors. Josh and Sarah became the head counselors of a part of the camp called "Senior Village".  They would lead the campers on multi-day hikes on the Appalachian Trail and canoe trips down the Housatonic River. Josh even spent several years as the head cook for the camp while his wife worked as the camp nurse.

When the Poughkeepsie YMCA began to run into trouble and the camp was closed the kids all felt like they had lost part of their formative years. With the rebirth of the camp, they are very excited

If you're looking for a flat, traffic free 5K during the month of May, we would love to see you at the Wally Waddle.

Joshua Perks here:

I am very excited to announce the 1st annual Wa Wa Wally Waddle 5K Run/Walk for Segowea. On May 16, 2010 the Friends of Segowea will hold the first of hopefully many annual Wally Waddle 5K runs at Vassar Farm in Poughkeepsie, New York. The race will serve as a fund raiser for the Capital Campaign for YMCA Camp Segowea. In addition to the 5K run/walk we will also have a 1 mile kids run for children 13-years-old or younger.

We have setup an official Wally Waddle webpage at www.friendsofsegowea.org/waddle were you can find out all the details as well as register for the race. Hope to see you there!

We've been in the new house four days and things are starting to feel a little comfortable. It's amazing how many little (sometimes not so little) learning curves there are. New dishwasher, new oven, new microwave, new TV controls,  new sprinkler system, new thermostats, new gas fireplace, way too many light switches, which doors go to closets and which actually go somewhere, and the list goes on. This could become a real contest to see if my aging mind can keep ahead of the learning curves. I'm thinking I may lose the battle with the light switches.

We haven't had time to try the gym or the indoor pool yet. We did manage to get our pictures taken for our ID cards so when we're ready to go they will let us in.

I've set an interesting running goal for myself. I'm not sure how many miles of roads there are in the community. My goal is to run them all over the next few weeks. A lot of the runs I can do right from the house, others I will drive to a central location and run. I've got a big map and have started marking the roads I've run in red.

Not being too creative, I often "borrow" from others. Many of you may recognize There and Back Again  as the alternate title to J.R.R. Tolkien's, The Hobbit. Over the last year, I feel like Marlene and I have been on a perpetual There and Back Again. There have been so many trips back and forth to NC that I've totally lost track. Those don't even count the trips to Florida and back to move Aunt Ruthie. Up until now, There and Back Again, always was going south and then back to Dutchess County. Once we get to NC later this week all of that will change. Although we have lots of trips planned over the next few months, back again will no longer mean back to Dutchess County. We are going to have to start viewing things from a whole new perspective.

Speaking of The Hobbit, when I was an elementary school teacher there were always two special times of each day: Recess (I never grew to old to play at recess) and reading to the class. Many of the books I would read to the class changed over the years. One constant was The Hobbit. Since those long ago days I've bumped into many former students and the thing they most often remember about their year in my class was The Hobbit. Many of them later went on to read The Lord of the Rings and other fantasy literature. If I was able to make lifelong readers out of a few of those kids I consider my job well done.

On a running note, I've been looking into the North Carolina Senior Games for athletes 55 and over. It's a bit different than the Empire State Games. North Carolina has 27 Local Senior Games in the spring and early summer that serve as qualifiers for the finals that take place in the fall. To participate in the finals an athlete has to participate and qualify at the local games in the area in which they live. The qualifier meet for track and field is held at the end of April or early in May. I'm thinking of running the 800 and 1500-meters like I've done in the ESGs. It's a good goal to get me motivated. With the qualifier being so early in the season and only a couple of months away, I'm going to have to get into training mode in a hurry.

There have been times over the past 3-4 years when I often wondered if the day would really come. Tomorrow is the day. The car and u-haul trailer are packed to capacity. It is really time for the move to NC. It's actually going to be a three day trip, with a stop in Maryland at Marlene's sisters for a quick visit and a check on her aunt.

We will make the second half of the journey on Thursday. It' been two months since we've seen the house, plus the builder has not sent any pictures for awhile. I think he wants the whole thing to be a surprise when we arrive.

Another aspect of this adventure is going to be pulling the trailer. I've never pulled a trailer before and I'm sure some of the traffic situations are going to be a bit tricky. Driving the beltway around DC is always hairy. A trailer in tow will certainly add another element.

There is a bit of irony in all this. I checked the weather this morning at the new house and the temperature was 19 degrees. Somehow Marlene had convinced me we were moving to a warmer climate. Now I'm not so sure.