Wrath - Cool names for the cats! I have CDs by the bands you mentioned, a lot by the Cramps who I saw live at a small club in Buffalo! Although now I listen mostly to jazz! Last night I listened to a recent CD I got by John Coltrane, very far out jazz!

Art - Good runs and bike rides as usual! My squash grew like crazy early in the summer, but by the end of August they started to rot away. Cukes vines grew up the 7-foot fence and across the 4-foot-wide bed, covered with flowers, so I expected like a hundred cucumbers, but only a fraction developed. That vine is also dead now, but I had buried some cukes to compost in another section and got volunteer plants which are now producing! I ate a nice crisp cucumber tonight! I should plant a second round of squash and cucumbers mis-summer for a late crop in the future! I have a story I wrote about growing a giant watermelon which I'll share if you request!

Di - Good luck with your training plans! I thought for myself that getting in shape is good preparation for doing well with surgery. As for the false positive, I think some topical anesthetics, like procaine and lidocaine, are similar to cocaine, which has a similar numbing effect. Perhaps if they were used during your recent procedures, they would cause a false reading? Actually, like AZ says, it was likely some sort of lab error!

AZ - Nice to donate shoes to those who need them! I wear mine as yardwork shoes as they wear out until they fall apart! The Day of the Tread ride looks like fun! Nice design on the shirts! I know the muscles used in biking are slightly different than running, so I hope you manage the 23 miles without issues! Should be fun to do an event with family!

I filled up my 100-sheet, 200 page running log and started a new book! Note I only write on one side of the page and write in race reports and other information as well as my daily runs!

Here are the logs I have kept. The first one is just a memo book and covers from March 1995 to Sept 2012. Note that I really started my running in like March of 1993, but if there is an earlier log, I haven't found it! Also, I have nothing recorded from Oct 2001 until April 2010, although I did a Marathon in 2004 after I had moved upstate. Partly because I was busy with moving to the new house, but also, I had an injury and did not run for several years! I copied all my runs, from August 2011 on, to the green composition book and have been using that now for like ten years! As you can see the cardboard cover did not hold up well and I have made several taped repairs! For the new log I'm using a ledger book which has a sturdy cover! The pages are like a half inch wider, although the ruled lines are 1/16 of an inch narrower.

I filled a page and a half of the new book with a listing of all my races! I count 31 altogether, over nearly a 30-year time period, so you can see I don't race much! Maybe will do more now that I'm retired and have the time! Here is a scan of the first page, back when I was faster! I wrote down the race distance, finish time and pace. Note that I don't have dates and times for some of the early races, although I think I saved the newspaper results for those first half marathons somewhere!

We have been in a weather pattern where cold Canadian air passes over the Great Lakes causing gloomy skies and scattered rain! Sunday and Monday whenever it dried out for a while, I worked mowing the lawn, grass grows fast when it gets more cooler and wet! Also, just not greatly motivated to run on damp, dreary days.

Well, I don't want to go too long without a run! There was some sun today and not a lot of rain. At 3:45 I did a little over 4 miles, 59 degrees and overcast, felt some misty drops of moisture towards the end, but no rain. Tried to go faster, the first mile was quicker than usual, but did not force myself to maintain that speed! Maybe some more gloomy weather tomorrow and then sun should return for Thursday and Friday!

The news just had a story about all the unemployment fraud in NY State! A lot of unscrupulous characters took advantage of the crisis situation during Covid. It is said they mostly were international cyber criminals.  I am still waiting to hear about my own case.

Art - Wanted to reply right away to your comments. I do tend to hang on to stuff, I'm sure I could find old race bibs around! I can see how looking at past race results could be depressing, but I like being able to analyse my running over the nearly 30 year time period. Running a sub-eight pace for a half would seem unlikely now, but then I never trained much for speed. Usually my focus was on distance. So I don't think I ever reached my full potential and, although I have lost speed over the years, I think with dedication I might be able to get fast again, at least enough for my BQ goal! So I'm not depressed by comparison to my past, I still have a chance for future accomplishments!

Wednesday morning a quick 3.2 miles before heading out for work.

Thursday morning did 4.4 miles and again headed out for work.

Looking forward to the weekend so I can get a few other things done. Weather is slowly dropping and drying out. Doesn't feel so bad being outside. Got some melon nets to help support the mini watermelons in the garden. Will get them up tomorrow. Quick look in the garden this morning shows almost all the seeds have sprouted. The rest should start in a few days.

Altair - I have all my activity in my logs. So it's pretty easy to go back and look at the prior years. I'm focusing on the now and the future realizing results will be different from now on. At least we can still do what we like and enjoy.

Hi everyone!

Hurricane Ian paid us a visit yesterday. There was heavy wind and rain, but nothing like it was in Florida.

It was a little windy on the day before Ian hit, and our neighborhood lost power then. The power came back up 2 hours later, but I was still concerned about the coming storm.  I guess I shouldn't have worried because a lot of folks in Raleigh and surrounding areas lost power, but our neighborhood managed to keep the lights on.

I went out for a 6.5 mile run today and checked out a few neighborhoods. I didn't see any downed trees, but tree debris was everywhere. In our yard, hubby and I quickly loaded three containers of tree debris, and it looks like we hardly did anything!