Weekend getaway

Judging from the (lack of) traffic this morning everyone is taking a four day weekend instead of the usual three day-er. That makes sense; traffic when I left work yesterday was awful. There were too many vehicles, distracted angry rude drivers, big rigs barging into lanes, y'know, the usual it's-about-me syndrome on the road. I'm glad most people have already left for where they're going since I'll be driving down to Carmel in several hours and hopefully the freeways will be less congested. Yeah, of course they will. But I'll be prepared if there's gridlock; I have my phone, my ipod and my camera.

We had a good run last night, despite people driving like maniacs and crazy skaters/cyclists on the trail. It was another warm night, breezy, luckily cooler than the rest of the day had been. We were taking it easy until the last red light where another runner came up behind us. He was a friend and co-coach with Pam and ran the last stretch with us. Obviously he was faster than us and slowing down a lot to chat with Pam, so I sped up. Not sprinting speed, but just short of that. Wheeze wheeze. It actually felt fine and I'm glad we got our speed work (heh) in for the week.

Another few rows done on the everlasting superlong wrap. Zzzzzzzzzz. Must ... start ... brighter ... project ... soon ...

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day was a gift for my 50th birthday from my sis. Shut up, I know I'm old. He's a premium 22" bear from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. A couple of years prior to that my sis turned 50 and coincidentally that year was the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear. VTBC issued a commemorative bear for the occasion, a 22" bear with an anniversary foot stamp. Since sis was a half century old and the bear was a full century, I just HAD to get her one as a gift. Thus when my 50th rolled around she returned the favor. Although the anniversary bear was no longer available she sent me a regular big bear. I had a very hard time naming him, trying out a half dozen different monikers before I just gave up. He finally became, and remains, Brownie Bear.