Training continues and, even though I know it’s redundant, I’m spending the spring and summer in Michigan and I’m cold!!

Yesterday’s bike was 4:07:56 and I was cold every minute. I kept thinking it would warm up so I waited until a little after 10 to go out. Martin, Jon and Jim (there may have been others) met at 7 at the fitness center to ride and it was 47 degrees. That was way too cold for me (Jean too) so she went out a little after 9 when it was also 47 degrees and, as I said, I went out a little after 10 when it was a balmy 47 degrees.

I rode out past Hopkins again (yes, Jean, I went 5 miles past the “stone house”). When I turned around to come back, nature called. I was so cold I went while standing astride my bike on the shoulder of the road. If I had thought quicker I would have gone on my feet to warm them up.

Interestingly enough (to me, at least) I came across a couple of strange things. There was the usual array of dead animals (what the kids would call road pizza) but the oddest thing was a fork. No, not a fork in the road, which reminds me of that old Yogi-ism “If you come to a fork in the road, take it”, but a dinner fork and, no, I didn’t take it. I thought to myself “What would that be doing there?” But then I got my battered brain into a road kill dining scenario that was weird, even to me, so I erased that whole picture out of my mind.

The other strange thing, although it’s not the first time I’ve ever seen this, was a pair of purple panties. Some years ago I would have said women’s panties but I know times have changed. I walked into a conversation at the post-run brunch this morning at Larry’s where Pat Purgeil was talking about how women’s shorts fit him better than men’s so that’s why he bought them. I backed right out of that conversation but a few minutes later Pat talked about selling his house in town and moving out to the cottage at Crooked Lake (closing on 6/4/2004) with me. HELP!!!!

The run started out today at 42 degrees but warmed up quickly. I had worn a yellow jacket (so someone could see me lying in the ditch just in case), winter hat, and gloves. The gloves came off first and I wadded them up and put them in my jacket pockets. A few minutes later I looked down and had quite a shock. I had looked on Web-MD to see what the possible side effects of my anti-seizure medication “Dilantin” were and one was “enlargement of breasts”. I thought mine had swollen (I had forgotten about the gloves) and, although I wasn’t embarrassed about that, they were sagging quite a bit which I was embarrassed about. Suddenly I remembered the gloves so I knew it was a false alarm (not to be confused with the Junior High boy’s “falsie alarm” signal).

So teachers, how many days ’til the end of school?

Just (covered with Goosebumps) Jack