It was in the mid 90s today with a feels like 98Fish and I know that this is nothing to get excited about it. Trust me, I’m sleeping as I type this. However, the guys at work love this stuff. So in the morning, I get the lowdown on the forecast for the day. Mid 90s, Chance of Rain 30%.

And that’s what it was like until 3pm when there was a sudden clap of thunder and it was still bright outside. For the rest of the afternoon, it was speculation on what was going to happen. The chart showed big red sploches on it, but it wasn’t cloudy.

Around 5pm, it got a little bit cloudier and the wind picked up. I left work and in 1/4 of a mile it was pouring rain.

And like the weather in East Tennessee, it can be pouring down raining at one place and dry just a few miles around

And just 1/4 mile away, it changes… again.

I stayed on the Interstate for quite a while. I wanted to go to the Kroger because there is a creek that gets Freaky Wild when it rains and so even though I didn’t have Stella, I wanted to get pictures or video. Just so happened that My Lovely and Talented Wife called and I went to Kroger on a dinner run. While I was in the store, the storm passed, but there was some lightening action going on when I came out.

After being that “Weird Guy filming in the Parking Lot” for a few minutes, I did get some lightening on digital.

Speaking of the mountains, here are 5 videos from my run on Tuesday. Their all water related, so if you are subject to the power of suggestion or atmosphere, I would suggest that you go to the bathroom before you watch these videos. You have been warned. They are all short and I only put the links for the other 4 as not to make the page really long and require a lot of scrolling.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXlEBpvVkdE[/video]

Waterfall #2
River
Off The Rocks
Overlooking The River

Running
I finally broke the 100 miles for the year. I was actually a little surprised that it took this long for me to reach this milestone. In the past, it has come much sooner, even with marathon training. I guess my illness really knocked me for a loop.

Last week, I ran twice: Tuesday Saturday. My Tuesday run was a 5 mile lunchtime run and it felt good to run a close to Tempo pace for that long. I didn’t get to run in the afternoon, but that was probably better in the long run. Saturday, I took the Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle for a 3 mile trail run, in the rain. My white dog came out of the trail very very reddish-brown. He did get a warm shower… although he was tired or pissed off because he peed on the carpet in the hallway.

Today, Monday, I ran a time trial of sorts. I guess you could consider then 1600m repeats. I ran the first mile fast and furious and then walked for a bit then ran the next mile at a steady Tempo pace. I wanted to make sure that I was in line with race stress. My legs did feel a little tight after running. If the weather holds, it will be Swimming Tues/Thurs with a rest day on Wednesday. Friday will be a pre-race prep.

Remember that you can win something (and I think I am going to get the prize off of MyCokeRewards) by playing the Guess My Time contest. Look in the upper left hand corner of the blog.

Kids and The Internets

Note to self: When surfing to YouTube to see the video you uploaded of your child and his train, be careful with keyboard shortcuts. YouTube (CTRL+SHIFT) is a little different the YouTube (CTRL+ENTER).

[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkPGC5Nxno]

Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the love and happiness that’s snowing down, all around
Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the winter friendliness that’s snowing down, all around the world

It’s dawning, Santa’s reindeer yawning now
All their festive work is done, filling houses up with fun
It’s dawning, here is Christmas morning now
Greatest day of all the year, listen out and you will hear our

Thanks for Christmas

It’s such a shame it’s only one day every year
Three hundred and sixty-four days full of doubts and fear
You’ve been saving your love up, let it out, ‘cos Christmas is here

Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the love and happiness that’s snowing down, all around
Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the winter friendliness that’s snowing down, all around the world

Thanks for Christmas

One house which is always fun to see is the Christmas Dolphin house. These people have their hearts in the Tropics and their home in Knoxville. We took the kids on an abbreviated Christmas Lights tour over the weekend and I tried to capture video of the Christmas Dolphin to share with everyone.

If you can’t quite make out the sun, it’s on the left behind a tree, unfortunately, there is no good place to park to film. There are 2 palm trees and a pink flamingo in the lower right hand corner. The thing that moving across the screen is a dolphin with a Santa Claus hat on! There’s even a splash effect for the dolphin.

Here is My Lovely and Talented Wife’s account of the 1st incident that happened at Way Too Early in the Morning. And let me comment that The Elder’s “Poop” (you gotta read the post for the reference) was much like the Baby Ruth Scene in CaddyShack “No Big Deal”.

At 6 something in the morning, I’m pretty groggy. We’ve had nothing more than a little early morning nap and The Younger comes to the bed side. I’m thinking why can’t you sleep in this morning, to at least 7am… come on! We were just up, 3 hours ago.

The next thing I hear is the loudest gurgling sound bellowing from the lower realm of The Younger. In 0.897 seconds, I am awake and halfway out of bed. I grab The Younger in the This-Kid-Is-About-To-Explode hold, my hands on his waste and my arms out as far as possible. I am awaiting for the mudslide to start dripping from the foot hole of his pajamas as I move very quickly but without jostling him to the bathtub. I trying not to “rock the boat” and have more spillage. After all, we had our mini-steam cleaner out at 3am in the morning working on the carpet.

Thankfully, the diaper was able to maintain containment and there was little biohazard mess to clean up. But I was now wide awake with no chance of going back to bed.

For the rest of the day, The Younger’s subsequent blowouts were less in volume but still high in the noise and smell factor. Poor guy. He did sleep through the night and he didn’t have a poop this morning. So hopefully he’s on “Empty” in the Massive Poop Department.

The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.

- David Sarnoff