All in a day....

I really am not a snooty person; I like people (most), but I do feel life is too short, having lost too many close to me at an early age, so am selective of those I let close to me. We don't need to dredge into that business but I have to clarify the neighbor's paint house thing. I am NOT friends with this neighbor, due to ethical reasons which I also won't delve into other than he's not a nice person to his wife (though he has been more than friendly when our mutually shared fence fell over not once but twice). In the matter of an hour yesterday, his entire house was painted bright, baby blue. I am not complaining about the color, it's actually quite beautiful -- if you live in a place like Seaside, Florida where brilliant pastel colored houses merrily adorn the shoreline. But I don't (though I wouldn't mind a second home there. LOVE the beach!), I live in Colorado. Colorado is the gateway to the West; it's semi-arid, it's dusty, and we live in muted earth-toned houses to match our climate. It's just the way it is; I didn't set the rules. So when I came home from wherever I was for 2 hours and see my neighbor's house looking like the Easter egg that belongs in Seaside, I kinda freaked. I didn't solely go to the HOA office to file a complaint; I was simply there for the exact same purpose - that being to find a house color for myself. I was being a good girl and getting approval of my house color unlike my unlawful neighbor whom did not. So while there going over paint colors, I matter-of-factly told the manager of the HOA (okay, there's like one guy that works there....but there are committee members in each section of our subdivision who overlook everything you do to your property to make sure it's up to code. An okay thing, really, so that things don't get dumpy) I expressed my concerns over my neighbor. That's how that all came about...but I will admit, I probably would have made a special trip down there when all was finished because really, it's a major eyesore amongst all others. So this morning there is commotion yet again going on in the driveway and I hear the committee chair discussing new colors. I go for a run (a story in itself to follow) and take off my sunglasses to get a peek at the new colors and upon my return, they are already spraying the new color on. I later left for several hours and okay....I will say that I only saw it for a brief minute due to excess rain going on outside, but I will say this: if this new periwinkle-purple color is going to be the new choice, the finale is no better than the original. OMG, can't these people see that this is just hideous??!!?? Errrrr.



I woke up early today in an attempt to get in my run before the heat started setting in. But here's a rundown of the major delay of said event: I had some paint samples for my new house color and while transferring them to the garage via the laundry room, the lid came off of one of them and the entire green paint contents landed on me, whatever clothes I had on and tiled laundry room floor. I won't go into clean up details other than it took awhile. Next, I simply go to get some water out of my faucet and the entire handle breaks off. Like snap, it's broken off. And I bought this MOEN faucet a few years ago; it's not like it's some cheap thing. I had to maneuver a knife in it to move the part up and down to get water, which took some time to figure out by my lonesome (picture of snapped faucet handle with knife along side...if you want to get a drink or any other million things you do daily with water in your kitchen) but did not figure out right away! Next, get into a discussion of paint colors for house way longer than I wanted. Top morning catastrophes off by landing a pint of salsa from top shelf of refrigerator onto hardwood floor, spewing contents as far as 5' away, including the majority of it on my right running shoe, which was on my foot. Of course, I have no water due to broken faucet handle and thus I'm running back and forth from the hallway bathroom to the kitchen to clean up this little nightmare. It was everywhere.

Now it's 9:00 and I'm looking at the thermometer on my windowsill that is linked to the device on my front porch that tells me outside temperature. A life-saver for any runner guessing how many layers they need, or not. I knew it was getting late so I am getting frantic to get going for my run; it was a tempo run and I knew I'd have problems in the heat if I waited longer.

I now have one running shoe on and one that is soaking salsa off in my bathroom sink. I'm left without a shoe to run. I have a pair of half-size-too-big-same-style-shoes. If you've followed though the months, you'll know that I have all-together changed shoe brands -- after being a die-hard loyal Asics wearer for years but foot numbness with the new version of old shoes caused me to switch to Saucony since late April. But with the new shoes came much pain in finding the correct size so I am left with one pair that is a half size too big (but have held onto them for when I do downhill running .... ). Without even thinking of changing both shoes to the larger size, I put the larger on on the right foot and I head out the door for my run at now 9:40, because the day wouldn't be complete if I couldn't find my Garmin watch nor my good running sunglasses and search for about 20 minutes for both (found watch eventually in my car, no luck yet on the glasses) with one shoe larger than the other...and it's about 80 degrees.

It didn't take long before I knew my tempo run was going to go nowhere; it was too hot and I was too tired. I did the 15 min warm up and then did about 8 minutes at tempo instead of the 20 on my plan, and instead went back to warm-up pace and cut short my 45 minutes of tempo to 44 minutes of slowness. Figured I'd just reattempt the same workout this evening if I felt up to it.

To just keep the day in the same rhythm as it started, I went to the the zoo about 2:00 with my 18 and two almost 14-year-olds this afternoon when inclement weather baptized us, (forget that I had a writing deadline come and gone .. and oh well, time to be a mom for a couple hours). Mind you, my kids, being 18 almost 14 and 14 have not been to the zoo in like 5 or 6 years due to the fact they are a wee-bit old and it's not like we didn't practically live there when they were tiny. But zoo was today's vote and thus zoo we went. Get in the car, go run a couple quick errands and I look in the sky and asked if anyone has bothered to check weather forecast, it looks a tad stormy. Negative. Reluctantly, we continue on zoo-bound quest after heavy protests when I suggested otherwise. Stormed about 10 minutes later, of course, so popped into Cherry Creek Mall to wait-out rain; total sanctuary for us girlies but a death sentence for B and R. They both managed to entertain themselves with food until the sun shone again and we could make our way down Colorado Blvd with the majority of Denver traffic. Get to zoo, were there an hour, before I inhaled half of Ryan's disgusting grape-flavored cotton candy just cuz it was there, when it starts to downpour. Stand under a tree waiting to see if it will stop...no, so run from tree cover to tree cover in an attempt to stay somewhat dry. Failed. Decided we were wet enough, may as well just tap off the remaining section as drowned rats. Get to car, shed soaked layers, and turn on heat full-blast, which fogged up the windows. Get on Colorado Blvd to Leetsdale, which took oh...30 minutes to go maybe, 4 miles? Get on Leetsdale and low-and-behold, an hour later, we have covered another 4 miles. Who knew that side streets off of Leetsdale flooded and thus traffic police were out dealing with that and traffic on Leetsdale. Get home 1 hour 45 minutes after leaving the zoo to find that my neighbor's new house color is anything but appealing.

Decide I DID need to run later because it's my therapy and the day I had, I needed a lot of it. Hopped on my treadmill about 8:45 p.m. and didn't do the exact workout as the day's earlier attempt, but I did manage to crank out a mile warm up followed by 3.5 miles at 8:30 marathon pace.

I'll call that a day!!!

8 miles run.