If a bunch of our friends weren’t going, and if we weren’t going out to dinner afterwards, there’s no way you could get me to go to a store, even a bike store, and spend two hours milling around looking for bargains. I spent the entire time being in other people’s way. If I stood in the corner, somebody wanted to look at something in that corner. The only thing I needed was Smartwool running socks and they were one of the only things not on sale. I did pass by a couple of bargains and, if I wore a XXXL or an extra small, I could have gotten a real deal.
Jean spent her time looking at bikes since I gave her half a bike for her birthday. Bill, one of my former friends, suggested to Jean that Jack should buy the back half which includes the seat, a custom seat post, custom crank arms, front gears, rear cassette and front and rear derailleurs since those components costs the most and Jean could buy the front half which would be cheap by comparison. I thought us guys stuck together, but I guess Nancy’s got him whipped into shopping shape and he’s trying to take the rest of us down with him.
After the shopping torture I was ready for a good meal with great friends in a nice restaurant. Apparently I had this black cloud hanging over me ‘cuz my meal came last. Not just the last one on the serving tray, but was one of those “Oops…they must have forgotten your Chicken Tortilla Salad” after everyone else had been served. It came five minutes later just as everyone was finishing up and trying to decide whether to get dessert or not.
If that wasn’t bad enough, we ran into the worst snow squalls driving home I have ever seen. Sometimes the snow will swirl and you’ll be blinded for a few seconds, but this went on for miles. I couldn’t see more than fifteen yards in front of the car and couldn’t tell whether I was on the right side of the road or not. The girls in the car looked out the side windows and let me know when I had wandered into the center of the road or was getting too close to the edge. I couldn’t see well enough to pull over and, if I had stopped, we would have been hit from behind by the cars following us. By the time we got to a business where we could have pulled over, we could see well enough to continue on. Why was it that I decided not to spend the winter in Florida this year???
This morning was the Elaine Standler Memorial Indoor Triathlon. Since I can’t get in the pool with my chlorine allergy, I couldn’t compete but did help out on the treadmills. The turnout wasn’t very good and I’m not sure why. It could be that tons of people have the flu or it could be that fewer and fewer people want to embarrass themselves in front of “those people” (the Trilanders). At any rate, after standing on my feet for three hours, I came home and did my Sunday run. I’m still not running far, but I’m up to six miles and I feel great.
Since I was running around noon and tried to avoid traffic, I ran on side streets as much as I could. Things went great until I ran up North Hanover street past Hastings Manufacturing Company. Just past the plant is an older neighborhood of homes that are small bungalows…the type of home you would expect in an industrial part of town. The homes are small but well kept and I was daydreaming as usual about bygone days. All of a sudden a Pit Bull and his younger mutt friend came running out from a house into the street. The dog looked like he didn’t want me there and I didn’t want him there either. I had my sunglasses on and looked him straight in the eyes where I saw a reflection of what looked like a huge Thanksgiving turkey on a serving platter with my head attached to the turkey neck. I stopped, turned toward him, pointed and yelled GO HOME!!! After about the fifth time, he turned and went back to his yard along with his yippy little friend. I’m not sure whether he was afraid of me or whether he couldn’t stand the smell of me messing my pants.
Just (I Guess I’ll Have To Start Carrying My Pepper Spray) Jack