Go, you chicken fat, go away!

After my last hike, my feet hurt so bad.  I wonder if I have diabetes.
 

Today is Vickie's birthday.  Yesterday she said she wanted to go on a hike.  I think she wanted the whole family to go, but she didn't tell us.  I got up and she decided it would just be her and me.  Fine by me, I guess.  She found a short easy hike fairly close to us.  Turns out it was right at Bulldog.  But instead of going east, the hike was on the west side of Usery Pass Road.  It was actually one of the peaks of Usery Mountain, but not the highest peak.  We started at 8:31am.  Kinda late, but the temperature has been going down lately, so it wasn't too hot.  We crossed the street, straddled over the broken barbed wire fence, and started trudging up the sandy wash.  After a couple hundred feet I could hear gun shots.  The gun range is right on the other side of the mountain, but these sounded closer.  We kept going and then I could see some people up ahead behind the brush.  We got closer and saw that it looked like a scout troop.  I'm ok with them learning gun safety, but I don't think they are allowed to shoot there.  Anyway, after that Vickie checked her All Trails and realized we weren't on the trail.  That makes sense because I see mountain bikers come in here all the time and there's no way they could pedal through all this sand.  So we cut through the desert and got on the trail.

At one mile in I head the distinct shake of a rattle.  It startled me, but not to the point where your blood runs cold.  I was more scared that I was pretty well exposed with tennis shoes, short socks and shorts, and that my wife was right behind me, and that I would rather the snake bite me than Vickie, and that I wouldn't be able to stop her from walking into it in time.  So I did the only thing I could do; I yelled, "Dut dut dut dut dut dut dut!"

It was kind of exciting, and we weren't really in any danger.  But in the brief time between hearing it and seeing it, a myriad of thoughts go through your head.  We circled around it, taking pictures and videos.  It did what it was supposed to do.  Warned us by shaking its rattle and got ready to strike if we got too close.  I did want to try and catch it, but Vickie talked me out of it.  It stopped rattling as we walked around it, which didn't make for exciting footage, so I kicked some rocks at it so it would start rattling again.

After that we were on high alert, but we didn't see any more snakes for the rest of the hike.  It was an out and back, and by the time we got back it was gone.  We stopped and got donuts on the way home for Vickie's birthday breakfast.

I need to get up earlier.  Not because it's still hot, but because I would rather run while it's dark and people can't see me.  But I didn't get out until 7:06am.  I think today is the first day back for many kids at school.  I saw the crosswalk guard doing his duty for the elementary school, and I saw my next door neighbor's junior high kid sitting at his bus stop.  My two high school aged daughters only have school two days a week; Tuesday and Thursday.  The rest is on-line.

I turned west to head toward the Floodway/Canal.  I saw four guys walking across the street.  I thought about just going to the other side of the Floodway to run because I didn't want to have to deal with them.  But I couldn't break the habit of running the same route in the same direction.  So I turned in behind them.  I caught up to them and one of them looked to be in his 40's and the other 3 in their 20's.  As I passed them the 40 year old said, "Is that all you got?"  Mohummad Ali once asked that same question to George Foreman, so I gave him the same answer, "That's it."  One of the 20 year olds said, "Well, you're beating us."  Not long after that I heard their footsteps behind me.  They caught up and passed me.  They started walking again before reaching Brown Road.  They went through the gate and turned west.  I was like, "Please don't tell me they're going to go back south on the RWCD Canal.  I don't want to play leapfrog with them.  But they ended up crossing Brown Road, and that was the end of them.

I think they kind of made me push my pace because my second mile was 2 minutes slower than my first one.  My legs were sore, but not as bad as they were during the two weeks I took off from running.  I turned north on the Floodway trail at University.  Jeff was laying down asleep against the wall.  He was probably pretending because there was what sounded like a dirt bike revving its engine real loud as it drove down the street.  As I approached the green belt, I could see a leg up against the wall.  It looked like a woman's leg.  It seemed weird because although I could see a lump of clothes, I couldn't make out the rest of the body.  When I was close enough I could see that it was a lady (or a man with nicely shaved legs) underneath a jacket.  She was sitting on her butt up against the wall with one knee up and the other leg criss cross apple sauce without the cross.  Then there was a man laying down next to her long ways with the wall.  I'm guessing they slept there.  I briefly stopped just to make sure they were ok, and when I saw one of them move their arm, I ran off.  I wonder if they were there the other night when I took Herbie on a walk.  I could smell cigarette smoke, but I assumed it was coming from the other side of the wall.

I took Vickie to a fancy restaurant last night.  Her birthday was Saturday.  I wanted to book a reservation for Saturday, but there wasn't any availibility until 9:30pm.  So I booked one for Monday at 6:30pm.  I literally just asked Google to find me some fancy restaurants, and a seafood one popped up, so I took it.  I'd never been there before, though I'm sure I've driven past it.  We pulled up and there was a tiny little building on the property.  How can this be a fancy restaurant?  It was all underground.  It was kinda fun.  Vickie got a lobster and filet mignon.  I got crab stuffed shrimp.  It was real good.  We had a carrot cake for dessert. 

Luckily I barely ate anything before that, so this morning I wasn't suffering from being overfilled.  I got up just before 5am, went potty, and went back to sleep.  I should've stayed up, but I didn't.  Vickie and I went outside at the same time to go running.  I started my stretch routine, and she started picking up some of the garbage on the side of our house from our remodeling project.  I left about 30 seconds before she did.  Maybe a minute.  Not sure.

I was running north on the Floodway path and passed two ladies.  One young and tall and one older and short.  I'm guessing it was a mother and daughter and the daughter had outgrown her mom.  Then I saw the lady with the curious dog.  The dog always wants to come see me, and the owner doesn't really stop it.  But I don't mind.  Then I turned south on the RWCD road.  I could see Vickie running on the other side of the Floodway.  So she was following me!  We waved at each other.  Then I could see an RWCD truck stopped at Adobe and the Canal.  I wasn't sure if it would be there when I got there because I was still over a quarter of a mile away.  But it was, and it was Mosiah.  I stopped and talked with him for a little bit.  I pointed out my wife as she was heading toward us.  Then another zanjero truck pulled up.  It was Dave.  He got out and we started talking and shortly after that Vickie arrived.  I introduced them to her, and Vickie says she remembers meeting Mosiah before.  Mosiah asked if I had any marathons coming up, and I said no.  But Vickie piped up and said she was doing Rim to Rim this weekend.  Then she said she had to go because the girls needed her help getting ready for their first day of school.  So she left to go home and I left to do one more loop.  I got home and jumped in the pool.  It was actually cold.

I was up at quater to 6.  I thought I'd have the bathroom all to myself.  But after a while I saw the light on in my room because my wife was up, too.  So I cut it short, hoping I'd be all right.  But I wasn't all right.  I had to go more.  Next thing I know it's 6:35am.  That's almost 50 minutes of you know what!  Of course, I wasn't on the toilet for all that time, but still.  I did my two loops again.  I could see a bunch of trucks up at the Canal on Brown.  Then I saw a zanjero truck pull up.  I wondered what was going on.  The zanjero truck left before I got there.

When I finally got there I saw Rob Carlock and Danny Shin.  I don't remember what Rob's official title was when I worked there, but he was one of the heads of the zanjero department.  Danny worked in the shop.  They were talking to other guys from a construction company.  I said, "Hey Rob!"  He didn't recognize me right away because of my Covid beard, so I was about to run on by.  But then he said, "Oh, hey Burt."  So I stopped.  I kinda interrupted the converstation, so Danny walked to the side with me so we could talk and Rob could continue talking with the construction guys.  I asked what they were up to.  He said they wanted to be able to clean out underneath the street this year during Dry Up, and this company had short Bobcats that are remote controlled.  I then said that I had heard about Stephen Davids.  Stephen was one of the zanjeros that trained me.  He was about my age.  A couple of weeks ago I got a message on Facebook from his sister-in-law that he passed away unexpectedly.  She didn't say how.  I asked Danny if he knew how.  Covid, maybe?  He said they were never told.  Just that he didn't show up to work at wherever he was working now, and they sent the cops over to his house to do a welness check, and he was dead.

I said goodbye and headed south down the RWCD road.  I saw the tall old lady.  She's usually trotting along, but today she was walking.  Then I could see my wife running down Adobe.  I waved at her, but I couldn't tell if she waved back.  It looked like she had her face turned toward me, but I couldn't tell if she was waving.  She later told me she was.  Three more days until she does Rim to Rim.
 

I finally got up a littler early.  Early for me anyway.  I was having a weird dream when I woke up about my mom confessing to having given up my older brother's twin as a baby.  She said she could only take care of one of them and was now feeling guilty.  I told my brother that I rember seeing someone that looked exactly like him at ASU.  (True story.)  But my mom said it was a girl.  I decided I was going to find her, so I took my phone out and started doing a Google search for babies that were put up for adoption in Bakersfield, CA in December 1972.  A monthly calendar popped up starting in 2020.  I had to scroll all the way down.  I was scrolling and scrolling, and ads were popping up that kept slowing it down.  I never made it before I woke up.

Since I'm driving Vickie to Flagstaff today, I decided to stay up and get my run in.  I was on the toilet when I heard Emily come in to my room.  Apparently she had a weird dream, too.  I got dressed, took Herbie outside, and then went running.  I saw Edythe Ray.  I don't think she recognized me right away.  It was a little dark, and my beard keeps getting longer and longer.  I saw another beautiful sunrise.

It was dark out when I started.  But not too dark.  There were lots of pretty girls out running.  At least I assume they were.  It was dark.
 

I didn't run yesterday and I regret it.  I saw some of my locals post on Facebook that they got sprinkled on and saw rainbows.  Oh well.

I've been listening to Audiobooks lately on YouTube.  So far I've listened to 1984, Crime and Punishment, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, That Evening Sun, and now Catcher in the Rye.  I've read 1984, Animal Farm, and Catcher in the Rye before.  All in high school, so it's been a while.  I remember parts of Catcher in the Rye.  I remembered that there were F words in it.  But I didn't remember that there were so many other swear words.  I mean, there were thousands of them!  Still, I listened to it. 

Since I was getting close to the end, I had an hour to go, but I listen on 1.75x speed, I decided to listen while I was running.  I don't trust that my headphones will stay in my ears while I'm running so I just held my phone close to my ear and turned the volume all the way up.  I saw the Schumacher's walking toward me.  I paused it in case they wanted to talk.  We just said said hello to each other.  I had to pause it two other times when approaching Brown and University because the traffic was too loud for me to hear.  Anyway, the real reason I'm saying all this is because on the way back to my house I was running by this sweet old lady I see a lot.  She waved at me and I back at her.  Just then, the narrator said b@$&@*d.  Loud and clear.  I'm sure she heard it.  I won't be able to look her in the eyes anymore.

I can't remember exactly what was going on during the day, but by the end of the day neither me nor Vickie had gone for a run or anything.  She crawled into bed at 10:45pm, and I said, "Do you want to go on a midnight hike?"  She was like, "When?"  I was like, "Right now!"  So she threw her shoes back on and off we went.  All we did was walk up the RWCD Canal up to McDowell Road and back.  We got our headlamps, but we never used them because the moon was pretty bright.  That's not entirely true.  Occasionally I would turn mine on to search for animals.  We heard an owl as we were walking between Adobe and Brown.  But I couldn't see it.  After we crossed Brown and were heading toward Greenfield I turned around and saw a light behind us.  It turned out to be a couple of guys on mini ATV's.  We crossed Greenfield and were heading towards McKellips.  I heard some rustling in the leaves next to the wall.  I turned on my light and it was a skunk!  Luckily it kept its distance, but I kept the light on it until it turned the corner and scampered off into the orange grove.  We crossed McKellips and heard another owl.  I turned on my light and pointed it at the top of the power poles.  I couldn't see anything, but it looked like there was something big in the path ahead of us.  It was so big that I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.  But I realized it was an RWCD zanjero truck.  Oh yeah.  Those were the days.  Finding a nice quiet place to park and take a nap.  Hey, it's a 12 hour shift, and as the week goes on, you start to get exhausted.  I can't blame him.  We walked by the passenger windown and I could see him shuffling around to get comfortable.  Or maybe he was waking up.  I didn't see the owls.  We finally made it to McDowell and it was 10 minutes before midnight.  Vickie was wearing her workout outfit, and I was wearing regular clothes and my running shoes.  I was getting uncomfortable with the sweat in my nether regions, but I didn't think much of it.  We turned around and headed back.  The zanjero truck was now gone.  We had gone a mile and a half since last seeing it, but I didn't hear or see it move.  Anyway, we could still hear the owl and I shined my light again, and this time we saw the owl.  And another owl.  And another.  There were three sitting on top of the electric pole.  Hindsight, we probably saw them the first time, but didn't realize it.  We thought they were part of the pole.  But we could see that none of the other poles were like that.  So that was fun.  Three owls and one skunk.  We made it back home a few minutes before 1am.  I sat on the toilet and looked down at my panties.  They were stained with blood.  I showed them to my daughters and told them I was on my period.
 

I felt like I had a little extra pep in my step today.  Maybe my midnight hike helped out.  I saw Edythe again.  She has a lot of children.  I'd say she rivals the Pachev's.

I got out this morning almost the exact same time as yesterday.  I ran the same two loops again.  The first four people I saw were all walking dogs.  After that, there were quite a few runners out this morning.  I wonder if they're starting to train for the Phoenix Marathon?  I also saw the Booths out walking.  I said hi, but I'm not sure they recognized me.  The Booths are great.  But Br. Booth does like to talk a lot during quorum.  That's not a bad thing.  But it does make me question his motives.  But that's just me projecting.