We’ve been down here a little over a week so there’s not much news. I promise not to whine about the wind while I was out running today, or the fact that the temperature had dipped to 47 on that same run. I’ve heard about the snow and wind in Michigan and I’m glad I didn’t have to run in that (did anyone run today?).

Jean and I joined the YMCA in Springhill for two months and she promptly left town to stay with Robert for a few days in Boynton Beach, just South of West Palm Beach and North of Miami. After we joined the YMCA last year in Venice, we went to Michigan and she never came back. I don’t know if she’s trying to spend her inheritance early on these faimly memberships or wants to whittle the divorce settlement to an even number.

For you runners out there, I’m still having blister issues. My “during the week” runs are in the 4 mile range and I never have any problems. The Sunday runs are from 6 to 8 miles and the blisters start forming on my arch around 5 miles. This morning I had blisters on both feet (to date it has only been the right foot). I’ve used three different brand/style shoes and have problems with all three. I guess it’s time to try vaseline. By the way, the shoes and socks are the same I have used for the past year and, yes, I do wash the socks.

I’ve had a couple of things happen the last couple of weeks and I don’t know whether I should be offended, people are try to tell me something for my own good, or I’m just imagining things. First of all, I told you all last week about the problems with my bike seat. I decided to get a Terry Liberator since that’s what I use on the Trek and it’s comfortable (I won’t get into the mechanics of how we plant 3/4 of our body weight on a bike seat on a few square inches of a tender part of our body and it is “comfortable”).

Anyway, I went to a bike shop in Springhill which is 6 or 7 miles North of Hudson, where we’re staying. I walked into the shop and it appeared to be geared toward Florida riders (draw your own conclusions). There were a few bike seats on the wall near the front of the store so I wound my way through the bikes and looked at them. None of them were what I wanted.The owner of the store was in the back, reached up to a bike seat on a shelf wrapped in plastic, unwrapped it and said “I’ll bet this is what you’re looking for”. It was one of those seats that looks like a John Deere tractor seat. It’s wider than it is long and accomodates big butts. I said no and walked out of the store.

That same day I got an e-mail from Florida Realty Centers with an attachment. That’s where brother Bob works and I assumed he had sent me a picture of some real estate I may be interested in. Instead it was a series of pictures, taken from behind, of a young woman who must have weighed 300 pounds with the caption, “Does this thong make my butt look big?” (shades of last year’s thong pictures of Bill Bradley and me).

Then this morning, just as I opened my e-mail program to write this, I received a message. It took forever to dowload so I knew it had an attachment which happened to be a song. It was titled, “I just don’t look good naked anymore”. I did listen to it but I won’t repeat the lyrics. I won’t say who sent it but his initials are ERNIE STRONG. We do take a trip together to the U.P. each August to a one room cabin, so I know he’s seen me naked.

So are they trying to tell me something or am I ust being too sensitive? Two of the encounters may have been a coincidence, but three? I think not. I know I gained 12 pounds after Ironman Wisconsin, but I’ve been trying to lose that and have a good start. Once Mom left for Michigan I took the homemade chocolate candies over to brother Bob’s so he could take them to work (I can’t stand the temptation).

Since I’m so close to fresh seafood, I’m trying to include more of it in my diet. Yesterday I went to the shrimp docks and bought 2 pounds of shrimp fresh off the boat and a 1/2 pound of Grouper. That was too much for me so I enlisted Bob and his friend, Debra, to help me eat it. The shrimp was boiled for 1 minute in salted water, then rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking process. I took two thirds of them and sauteed them quickly in olive oil, butter and sprinkled them lightly with cajun seasoning. I sauteed the grouper in the same olive oil and butter, and sprinkled it lightly with lemon pepper seasoning. We washed it down with a glass of wine. That sounds healthy, doesn’t it? O.K. Next time I should skip the olive oil, butter and the wine. But we all should enjoy life every once in a while, shouldn’t we?

Until next week,

Just (Chilly But Not Complaining) Jack