Wednesday, January 7, 2009

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.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

HA!

Yeah I'm tired of the Mother Nature merry-go-round too! Granted we have no snow...but dang it was a cool 40 degrees this morn when I took the kid to school.

That's almost blizzard weather for us! lol

BTW, nice feet!

Bee (the one who muses) said...

You know, that's why I don't run. Unless I'm being chased by a bobcat.

ReformingGeek said...

@Quirkyloon - Thanks. Kuddos to the pedicurist.

@Bee - That's what I'm hearing from folks. Maybe I should take up cycling. I can move faster!

Anonymous said...

You're paying for photos? Girl, get over to flickr and search for creative commons photos. You'll get much better shots for free.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE BOBCATS. There are so few of them anymore. Yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt and crocks. Today I'm watching it SNOW! (at least I'm not still looking at a Christmas tree in the living room) ugh.

YOU'LL BE ON MY FRIDAY'S READER'S SPECIAL.

ReformingGeek said...

@zyada - The photos are cheap but I'll check out creative commons on Flickr. Thx.

@dana - Today is beautiful, a little cool but Mother Nature, bless her heart, has settled down with the winds. I'll definitely be visiting you on Friday!

Ed & Jeanne said...

Are you sure you didn't see a LOL cat instead?!

I was running in some crazy winds yesterday too. Personally I'll take that over rain though.

United Studies said...

Gotta love when they drop houses wherever they can find a little plot of land. Here in the DC area they built some homes near one of the airports, then after the people moved in, they complained and wanted the airport to move one of the runways. We are talking about a major international airport that everyone knows, because it has been there for years.

ReformingGeek said...

@VE - Wind and warm is OK. Rain? No thanks.

@Jacki - That happens near DFW also. Stupidity! We expect that eventually the neighboring city will pressure our city to shut down our airstrip. It doesn't seem to matter who was there first when it comes to stupidity.


"1.00s, 1.50s, 1.75s for the short arms. If you know what I'm talking about, you're probably old, too."

"Boomer brain fog: What was the last, middle, and first part of what you just said to me?"