Damn You Mother Nature and Other Weirdness!

I know that Monday was Amateur Antics day and my post was about running but weird things seem to happen to me on days that I run. Or maybe it's that weird things happen every day. Or maybe I'm just weird or that things happen.

Oh dear. I'm getting confused.....must drink more wine before continuing.

OK, I'm back.

Yesterday morning after surviving the grueling almost-annual squish of the boobies (I was supposed to do this last month), I come home to a sweet, innocent cat sleeping in the sun in the backyard. So I quietly creep into the house to avoid disturbing the beast and I glance out my front window and look across the street. It's a woody area and I see this gray thing coming up the hill.

Hum......what is that? Is it a dog?

No. Not a dog. It's got cat ears.

Wait a minute. THAT'S A BOBCAT! SHEESH!


Um, where's my camera?

And then it disappeared into the woods. Another great photo opportunity down the drain.

Just in case it was hungry, I encouraged sleeping beast to come inside for refuge.



OK, that was exciting. Now what? Oh yeah. Time to go run. I ask myself why we seem to be in this weird weather pattern lately. For the past month, it's freezing/effing cold on Mondays with/without rain, sleet, or snow. It's windy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and warm on Fridays. Mother Nature is helping me into a straight jacket. YIKES!

That's right. Tuesday. Gale force winds out of the west/northwest. I brilliantly chose an east/west course with the Hill-that-Never-Ends headed west on the way back. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. First, I had to dodge trash cans all over the road, both empty and full. (See this post, my very first post, for my rant on this subject.) There was no paper or plastic option. You got both. I clumsily tried to get a neighbor's recycle bin upright and reloaded before the next gust. That was futile. Back to the run.

Anyway, I sure as heck didn't notice the advantage when I was headed east but when I started up that hill headed west, I was seriously looking for something to hold onto and hoping wild animals, dogs, cats, or anything else was not blowing up behind me. I think I actually ran in place for a few seconds during a particularly forceful gust. I wish I could say that this kind of run counts for double mileage. It sure feels that way.

Enough already, Mother Nature!

Also, here's some more craziness. The houses in the photos are just across from the south end of the airstrip that is part of neighborhood. They are actually in a different city (gotta love borders). I wonder if the developer and/or Realtor will mention the runway that's in their backyard and I'm sure they will freak out the first time a plane lands. For reference, the runway is parallel to the shadow in the first picture. You can barely see a windsock in the second picture. One of the houses is finished and the others are being worked on by really nice workers that talk to me when I run up and down the grass strip.





House photos courtesy of ReformingGeek.

Bobcat and trash can photos were purchased from iStockphoto.com. Any likeness to the real ReformingGeek or ReformingGeek's bobcat is purely coincidental.

How about a smiley vote over at humor-blogs.com to help Mother Nature get back on her medication and settle down.