Morning Trailers!

Got a nice 4-ish miles on the trails w/ DW and Tiny E yesterday, on the way back, maybe a 1/4 mile from the truck, we got hit with some wind driven graupel- it's the little round pellets of snow; it's not hail, but it stung like hail

Not working today, so will try and get something in the 6-7 mile range w/ Tiny Elvis.

qotd: building off of yesterday's question, popular places that you wouldn't consider moving to?  anywhere with a lot of people and anywhere that was too hot- that knocks off a lot of places    visit/vacation absolutely, live- no

Good morning!  Just checking in to say hello!  My heel is slowly improving, but still messed up.  I finally cut a hole in my climbing shoes and am going to go to the gym tonight.

QOTD:  Oh, let's see...NYC, LA, Chicago, <insert any big city here>, Seattle, Portland, the majority of the East coast, the majority of the South, anywhere in the Midwest other than Madison...  Oh, wait, the Midwest is definitely not popular.  Ha!

Mandy- glad the "heel is healing"

DD- looks like a possible funeral procession 

dhuffman- I had a bulged disc, took several weeks to diagnosis and I'm the one who did   had severe pain in my chest/tricep/shoulder on one side, the pain would radiate around that area and was also getting numbness.   finally had a MRI done and looked at by a neurologist, yup a disc bulging and not surprisingly the one that was responsible for the area of pain (don't recall the number)

anywho he asked if it was better or worse, well at the juncture it was improving- so he passed on surgery (as did I) and it finally healed; it was so bad at one point that I couldn't do a single pushup due to one side having almost no nerve function- wee bit scary!; I've read since that if it were to ever act up again- immediately apply frequent ice to that disc, not heat- to aid in reducing the inflammation

I know in Europe, and possibly here now???, they have a very no-invasive surgery using lasers to open up the disc to alleviate the pinching of the nerve bundle

Got in 4+ miles in Rock Creek. It was a slogfest. I donated blood yesterday and did not wait the '24 hours before strenuous exercise' guideline, but I cannot think losing a pint of blood would impact me that much. Just an off day (week?).  Nevertheless, it was a nice day in the woods with few others around.

qotd: Anywhere hot. My ideal temps don't go much over 75, maybe 85-90 for brief summer spells. That rules out half the country. I really liked northern AZ, not Phoenix but heard Tucson is nice (but might be too hot). I am fine with big cities if they have good parks and easy access to getting outdoors (i.e. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc.), but really don't care much for Chicago or NYC.

Had to cut my first post short due to the pager going off.  I hate when people get sick.  Makes me have to actually work .

QOTD: Hawaii.  It's nice but there is no way I'd live there. Won't go into the reasons.  I'd move to the Florida Keys first.

The first picture was definitely Mennonites.  That's pretty much all that live around me and most are quite plain especially the ones across the road.  I think they were having some type of plant sale.  While my neighbors are quite considerate of others, apparently some of the others from their church  are not so much.  Couldn't quite believe that they would park in the mailbox like that.

Yes, that is an Azalea bush. My MIL planted it there back in the early to mid 90s and it has really thrived. Lately a lot of our bushes have been dying off so I'm kind of afraid of trimming it because we've trimmed some stuff and it's then died.

Dhuff - I had/have several quite bad discs in my lumbar area.  Back in '05 I was totally laid up from the middle of March until early May and almost lost my ability to walk.  Took a root sleeve block to get me back on my feet and had intermittent problems for years. Still have some neuropathy in my left leg and foot drop.  It keeps getting better but I always know it's there just waiting to rear it's ugly head.

FWIW, when my discs are causing problems I never have back pain. It's always somewhere in my hip and/or down my leg.  If I pull a muscle in my back and have back pain, that can lead to the disc(s) slipping out of place again.

6 miles last night with the Lady out at Warwick Park. She was not sure she wanted to cross French Creek last night. It was slightly high, but she managed. An angler gave us approval for the crossing. I try to be polite most of the time so I asked him if we'd bother his fishing. He was still at it when we looped back 40 minutes later. Easy dog with a faster mile to finish things up.

Grey and cool today. Mowed the yard at lunch and will take the Lady over to the lake trails this evening.

QOTD: Like many, no big cities here. Not a big fan of the plains either, but honestly I haven't been there much. Seems to be a lot of reports of cold, wind, heat, tornadoes, pestilence, flood, you name it. I am sure it's fake news though.

Queenie - Cool pic! The Lady is always running in her sleep. I get kicked often at night.

Had to get rolling by 5:30 this morning to get my youngest daughter and wife to catch the bus to Houston for the BETA club field trip and drop my other daughter off at her school before driving about 50 miles from there to my job. I was 10 minutes late, but I'll leave 10 minutes early to make up for it. HaHa!! I was going to run after work, but it is storming here. I went to the store on my lunch break to get cash to pay for my portion of the cake for my boss' retirement party. I needed to get cash back at the register, so I bought some beer. He is on leave until his official retirement date at the end of September. Hopefully, it will not be raining in the morning and I can get back on track.

QOTD: I could not live in a large city other than Denver, Colorado. There is something about Denver that I just love. I'm a rural guy, so I could handle anywhere that is rural as long as there are some trees.