Tag Archives: weather

Grey Run

Posted on January 22, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I bet some of you thought I was never going to run again (while others of you are saying, “I never thought that!”).  I confess, I had my own doubts.  But today it was a choice between go running or eat something and I chose running!  I believe this demonstrates that there is indeed hope for me. (Full disclosure:  I ate something after the run.)

It was 40 degrees out, five degrees below my perhaps arbitrary border for running in shorts and short sleeves.  I found a pair of log johns that were only semi-dirty (I always feel so reduce-reuse-recycle when I wear something more than once before washing it) and pulled a long-sleeved running shirt out of my pile.  I was going to look for a ARMY t-shirt with a reflective decal in the back, but the sun was up and I was in a hurry.

Spunky wanted to go out when he saw me bustling about getting ready, so I took him for a short business meeting, then I was off.  Right away I thought, “Why oh why did I ever stop running?”  I also felt that the time not running had not wrought total havoc on my body.  Just a note:  I did not COMPLETELY stop running; let’s just say my habits have been  sporadic.  I turned right on German Street. Usually when I have not run in a while, I turn left, then go down Caroline Street, up Margaret, then down Henry.  That sounded boring to me.

It was grey and gloomy out.  I admired the bare trees against the sky, as I always do.  Perhaps I will venture out later with my Tablet and try to get a few pictures.  Soon it became apparent that my lack of running regularly had, naturally enough, had a negative impact on my body.  My legs were quite unhappy with me.  I sternly told myself that one must have the not so fun runs in order to get to the good stuff.  I tried to distract myself by deciding where to run.  Up Main Street and down the nice path?  I saw a man walking a dog in that direction and decided against it.  I do like to stop and pet a dog, but in the first place I did not know if that was a pettable dog and in the second place, I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to stop.

By the time I got to the end of German Street I had run almost ten minutes.  Oh dear, that doesn’t usually take me that long, does it?  Then again, what did that matter?  I set out to run a certain length of time; who cares how much ground I actually cover?  I thought a 20 minute run would be good.  I tried to feel happy about being halfway there.  It really wasn’t a horrible run.  Just kind of grey, meaning the sky and my mood.  Well, how much of life is in the grey area?  I’m thinking, a lot.

I looked at houses as I passed.  I saw one that still had red ribbons and wreaths on the porch.  As I ran I was narrating in my head that I went down this street, then that to the other, but that is more words than I feel like typing right now.  I ran by Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners.  There were poinsettias, red and gold foil, in the urns outside the Historical Society.  I made the sign of the cross as I ran by Herkimer Reformed Church.  I also noted the County Courthouse and 1834 Jail which make up the other two corners.

My run ended up being 22 minutes long.  I said good morning to three dog walkers as I walked around the block for my cool-down.  They were across the street from me, so I still didn’t get to pet a dog.  I petted my own dog when I got home.  I felt very happy that I ran again.  I hope to keep it up in the coming weeks.  I’ll probably write more blog posts about it.

 

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Not Useful But Not a Bad Saturday

Posted on January 22, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Once again, I post in haste on a Saturday so I can get back to enjoying my evening.  Hey, bloggers like to relax on their days off, too, you know!  I am at the coveted bra off, sweats on, wine drinking, TV watching, with husband hanging portion of the evening.  Why did I not post earlier in anticipation of this time?  No good reason.  I could not think of anything good to post about, but, really, when has that stopped me?

It has not been a usefully-spent Saturday.  I don’t know if I even did enough to warrant a Scattered Saturday post, but let’s try anyways.  We slept in till 6:30 this morning and could have slept even later but Steven had to go to work.  Rats!  After we hung out and had coffee, and I made my usual Saturday morning phone call to my parents (I call them other times, too, of course, but the Saturday morning call is kind of a thing), I started writing post cards (another Saturday morning thing).

I waited till after Steven had left and I took Spunky for a business meeting to walk to the post office.  Spunky did not walk with me.  He doesn’t seem to care for long walks.  I started making it an even longer walk than last week, but I got kind of cold and depressed, so I walked back home sooner than planned.  At least I got some exercise.

Back home I worked a little more on the murder mystery LiFT Theatre Company is doing at the Overlook Mansion in Little Falls, NY.  I read a few of the newspapers that collected all week (I don’t get the chance to read them every day).  I looked at Facebook.  I took a short nap on the couch.  I did a load of laundry and folded the last two or three that have been waiting to be folded (don’t judge me).  I talked to my sister on the telephone.

Finally I judged it OK to pour myself a glass of wine and sit down in front of the television with my knitting.  Ah, my favorite time of day.  After a while I changed into my sweats and started fixing a fairly interesting dinner.  At last Steven came home!  Now he is looking at the television and waiting for me to finish my blog post so we can go on to the movie watching portion of the evening.  And I think I’m there.  Happy Saturday, everyone.

 

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Scattered, then Snapped on Saturday

Posted on January 15, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

No, I didn’t suddenly snap and murder somebody, although that would have made quite the blog post, I suppose. How much internet access do they grant you in jail? I’m figuring if I murdered anybody I would get caught.  It’s all very well to trash talk that I know how to commit a murder, but in fact, any murderer I’ve written about has gotten caught.  But I digress.

This was hands-down a better Saturday than last one, because I didn’t have a headache.  I didn’t even have to take any medication to make it happen; I just got lucky.  Or blessed, I suppose.  However, I can’t say it was any better of a Saturday in the category of getting stuff done.  No, that, not so much.  But I shall attempt to make a blog post about what I did do, so I can get back to watching Snapped (you know, from the headline?).

Steven and I got up at the delightful time of 6:30 a.m.  That is SO much better than getting up at three! No, I’m not whining about getting up at 3 a.m.; I do it for a reason and I do not repine.  However, I LOVE getting to sleep in a little!  Even when I can’t exactly sleep (I am a long-time insomniac, but don’t worry about me).  I had no plan for the day, but I knew there were several things it would behoove me to get done.  Go to Melfe’s for work shoes, study my lines for Steel Magnolias, finish writing the various murder mysteries I have committed to, clean the house, do laundry, go running… the list went on and on.

I crossed out the first item mentioned by strategically postponing it till Wednesday, Steven’s next day off.  He wants to go to Melfe’s to see if they have any shoes that might be good for his work.  Having good shoes makes your work day SO much easier to get through!  After chatting on the phone with my Dad and Mom (that was not on the list, but it is something I almost always do on Saturday), I wrote a few postcards to the folks I usually write postcards to (that was not on my list, either, but it is something I usually do).

After Steven left for work, I felt kind of like a lump pondering what to do.  When Tabby was our dog, she loved to walk with me to the post office.  However, Spunky does not like to take long walks.  I took him for a short business meeting, after which he contentedly snoozed on the couch.  I went upstairs to take a shower.  After I was naked but before I was actually in the shower, I noticed what I had been noticing all week, that the bathroom really needed cleaning.  I have heard about women cleaning naked, to keep from messing up their clothes.  I tried it.  It was no problem, except when Spunky started barking and I wondered if someone was at the door.  I put on a bathrobe and ventured down.  False alarm.  I finished cleaning and showered.  Now what to do?

Finally I sat down and started working on my lines for Steel Magnolias.  I do the trick that was taught to me by my fourth grade church school teacher, Sister Mary Christina.  It was how she taught us the Act of Contrition (fourth grade is when you make your First Confession, or Reconciliation as I guess it is called now).  I include the trick for any possible benefit others may derive from it:  Take it one or two sentences at a time.  Say it out loud ten times, looking at it, say if five times not looking at it.  I still have to study the lines after that, but the trick really helps.

You know, it is kind of boring to say a line out loud over and over, not to mention hard on your throat when you have a little post-nasal drip, which I often do.  I persevered as best I could.  Finally I decided to take a break and walk to the post office.  I even thought of doing a Pedestrian Post and just writing about the walk, because I took a rather long way back and stretched it to almost a half hour.  I need the exercise and I really wasn’t up to running.  If only it were not face-hurting cold out, my life would have been perfect.

Back home, I studied my lines some more, spent some time looking at Facebook, read the newspapers I had been neglecting all week (this could be construed as a cleaning chore, since I put them in the recycling box when I had finished with them), waited for Steve to come home for lunch.  The only other remotely useful thing I did was go to the liquid store (as it is sometimes known) and purchase some white wine, a glass of which I am currently enjoying.  Oh, and I took Spunky for two more business meetings.  Good dog.

Ooh, look at me, over 800 words.  I wonder if anybody will read to the end?  If you did, thanks!  I hope I wasn’t boring.  And I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  Peace out.

 

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Is It Multi-Tasking to Vacation and Blog?

Posted on December 30, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I have previously bemoaned the absence of Blogger Sick Days.  How about the absence of Blogger Vacation?  I am on vacation from my real job this week (also known as “shut down” in the factory world).  Why do I have to keep worrying about this silly blog?

Of course the short answer is that I don’t. For heavens’ sake, this is not a paid writing gig.  I don’t have a contract with anybody.  I daresay not a lot of people would even notice if I did not post every day (I like to think that some would).  The long answer is… perhaps not worthy of a blog post.  In fact, I’m not even sure if I know the long answer.  I only know another short answer:  I decided in my head that I would post every day, and that is what I do.

It has been quite a dreadful weather day in the Mohawk Valley today.  It snowed like the proverbial son of a bitch most of the day (a friend said on Facebook that it was “snowing like a bitch,” and I corrected her) (thus being both didactic and silly; who says I can’t multitask?).  I went out in it for stops at the library and grocery store, necessitating three times of brushing off my vehicle.  That’s a lot of snow. When I got home I shoveled the top layer of snow in my driveway.  Throughout the afternoon, I checked out the window occasionally as the sonofabitchy snow rendered my labor useless.

I did not get a whole lot else done.  I washed the dishes.  I cooked a pretty good dinner.  I encouraged local entrepreneurship by paying two young men to shovel my driveway after the snow had pretty much obliterated my earlier efforts.  They did a marvelous job.  Score!

And now I am going to think of a silly headline and call this a Non-Sequitur Thursday post.  I hope you’re all having a lovely week after Christmas.  Stay safe, if you are also getting hit with a lot of snow.

 

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Don We Now Our Running Apparel

Posted on December 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I felt glorious as I got dressed to go running this morning.  Yes, “glorious” is the exact word that entered my head as I dug out the running clothes I have not had on since much earlier this month.  I was excited to go running, and hoped to write a Running Commentary blog post (we’ll see how that goes).

Yesterday we had terrible freezing rain.  I left the house very few times for specific reasons:  to help Steven scrape ice off his vehicle, to take my dog for a business meeting, and to decide NOT to scrape ice off my vehicle and drive anywhere.  I thought today was going to be better.  Listening to Jill Reale on WKTV News this morning, I found it was going to start out warm(ish) then get colder as we go on. Obviously there was no time to waste.

The sun was not all the way up when I started.  I donned my reflective vest, because I intended to run in the road, which had a decent shot at not being ice covered.  Really, as I started down my road, narrating in my head as I like to do, I thought, “I donned my reflective vest…”  Then I chuckled at myself for using an old timey word like that.  Then “Deck the Halls” played in my head for the rest of the run. It is not a bad tune to run to.  I thought of making up new words to it (another hobby of mine), but all I came up with was “heedless of the tacky pleather”  (you know, like “heedless of the wind and weather”) (I don’t expect everybody to know all the verses).

Fortunately there was not much traffic, since the side of the road had frozen and semi-frozen puddles.  The busiest street I ran on was German.  I ran all the way to the end, rounded the corner and ran down Church Street to Main.  Main Street in Herkimer is sometimes busy, sometimes not so much.  It was a busy moment, which was bad for me, since I had to cross the street to continue left-side-facing-traffic, which I am quite the stickler for.  Then I noticed that the sidewalk was almost completely clear.  Score!

I did not run all the way down Main, but cut through the little park by Basloe Library (open normal hours today, yay!), then crossed Pleasant Street.  This way I could go by the “Do Not Enter” sign on Bellinger Avenue.  I so enjoy entering where it says not to.  I crossed my own street to run up Henry.  I had thought to run a mere 20 minutes, because it had been so long since running last.  Then I thought, it didn’t matter if I ran too long and got achey legs, because my legs also ache from not running.  As I like to say, pick your pain.

I ended up running 23 minutes then walked 11 for my cool-down.  It was a wonderful run.  Every step felt good and the cool-down walk felt awesome!  I thought, “I have found the secret to happiness!”  I’m damned if I can remember why I stopped running.  I hope to not be so silly again.

 

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It Took a While to Get to the Wine

Posted on December 18, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I posted a Facebook status that read, “That moment on a day off when you have not accomplished nearly what you expected to, yet you want to begin the wine drinking portion of the evening.  Then you realize you have not eaten nearly enough to begin drinking without dire consequences.”

This by way of introduction to this week’s Scattered Saturday post.

I had declared to all and sundry that today would be Cookie Day.  I sort of hoped that if I said it enough, it would be true.  I did make one batch of cookies.  Oh dear, should I have included a spoiler alert before that?  No matter.  I am sitting at my keyboard, typing off the top of my head, as I usually do these days.  Yes, I am drinking wine.  Well, I cooked dinner, and you know how I love to cook with wine (should have included another spoiler alert).

The first thing I had to do this morning was call my mother, to get the cookie recipe I could not find in the messy cabinet that holds all my recipes and cookbooks.  One of my projects for 2017 is to clean out and organize that cabinet.  Maybe I will cook some of the recipes.  I could start a whole new blog about that, stealing the idea from Julie and Julia, adding my own twist (that falls under the Fair Use Doctrine, doesn’t it?).

It was quite wintry this morning.   However, I still had to pick up a few things at the store for my baking plans.  More importantly, I had to go by the post office and mail my postcards.   The people who get my post cards like to get them.  I am supposed to be sending out Christmas cards right along here, but one card at a time.  I brushed off my SUV with a push broom, an excellent way to quickly clear a large vehicle.  As soon as I set out, I realized I had not been as effective as I had hoped.  My visibility was just good enough to get to Hannaford, where I purchased a few more things than were on my list.  In my defense, they were all on sale “This Week Only,” according to the signage, and they were all highly nutritious, delicious food.

Back home I decided to wash the dishes before baking.  Soon I was ready to start.  And quickly realized I did not have sufficient sugar for my first recipe.  Oh don’t shake your finger at me for being unorganized.  I knew I had sugar. Steven puts sugar in his coffee; we always have sugar on hand.  However, this recipe calls for a bowl of sugar (it’s an old Italian recipe; the size of the bowl determines how many cookies you get.  I wanted a lot of cookies).  Moreover, the sugar that was there had gotten some moisture in it and was lumpy.

Back I went to the store.  This time I went to Rite Aid.  I wanted to get some beer for my pains.   Domino sugar was on sale, buy one get one 50% off.  Score!  Now we have plenty of sugar.

The cookies took a long time.  Maybe I used too big of a bowl.  Steven came home for lunch while I was baking.  I asked  him to taste test a cookie from the first batch.  He liked it.  I finished the cookies after he went back to work.  Then I took a nap.  In my defense, I had a LOT of hot flashes last night, with the accompanying insomnia.

After getting up from my nap and having a cup of hot tea for its revivifying qualities, I took Spunky for a business meeting and washed the dishes I had gotten dirty baking the cookies.  I took some butter out of the refrigerator to soften for the second batch of cookies I intended to make.  It was sometime during these activities that I made that Facebook post.  I snacked on a couple of things, planning ahead.

Steven came home before I got to the cookies, so I put the butter back in the refrigerator.  He poured us some wine, and we discussed dinner.  I felt quite proud of us for fixing something at home instead of succumbing to the temptation of ordering delivery.  Perhaps I could do a cooking post on what I fixed.

In the meantime, I see I am over 700 words.  That is almost unprecedented for a Scattered Saturday!  I hope people have read me to the end.  Well, anybody who did not will miss my wish for a very happy Saturday.  Hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

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Large Weather We’re Having Lately

Posted on December 16, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

So winter came back to the Mohawk Valley and it came with a vengeance!  I have never been so glad that I work a mere eight minute drive from home.  Oh who am I kidding?   love working so close to home each and every day, I’ll never get over it.  Be that as it may, I am home.  If only my dear husband was also home, my life would be perfect.

In the meantime, I need to make a blog post.  I hate having a Non-Sequitur Thursday after I just had a Wuss-out Wednesday and there is every chance that tomorrow will indeed be Lame Post Friday.  But here you have it.  I am tired.

When I got home, I first took my dog, Spunky, for a short business meeting.  I can’t say it was a walk, because he does not go far in this weather.  In his defense, he is a very small dog with a very short haircut.  I put his coat on him, but a coat can only help so much.  After he had done his business and I got him back inside and dried off (as best as I could get him with a towel), I went back outside and shoveled the driveway.

I felt somewhat ineffective, with the snow still pouring down on me, trying to move what had fallen so far.  There was not a whole lot to move, but I thought if I took out what was there, it might at least help.  And it gave me some exercise.  Back and forth, up and down the driveway I walked, pushing show.  Every so often I stopped and tossed a shovelful to one side or the other.   I also cleared the sidewalk in front of the house, although not quite as widely as the village sidewalk plow had done it earlier.  I’ll just take another opportunity to deplore the pedestrians I often see walking down the road when there is a perfectly good sidewalk (please don’t justify yourself if this is you; you will not convince me).

So here is my blog post for the day.  If only I could think of a punchy headline, all might not be lost.  Then again, if the headline is as dull as the blog post, at least it is truth in advertising.  I will try to come up with something better tomorrow.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

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Possibly a Pre-5K Run

Posted on December 8, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I actually wrote part of a blog post while at work today (um, on a BREAK, not while working), but then I came home and went running, so I thought I would like to make a Running Commentary Post instead.

This Saturday, Dec. 10, is the Reindeer Run 5K, part of the Christmas in Little Falls festivities. I have been saying I am going to run it.  Maybe.  As I left work today, I said to my co-worker, “I guess I’d better go running today, if I think I’m going to run a 5K on Saturday.”

“If you’re going to run Saturday, what do you need to run today for?” he asked.  He was not serious.

As I left work, I was a little afraid the temperature would be borderline.  That is, should I wear leggings and long-sleeves or shorts and t-shirt?  When I took Spunky for a walk as soon as I got home, I got a dreadful hot flash.  They have been getting hotter, and they are not over in a flash.  They do not particularly bother me; I just ride them out.  However, it impaired my ability to judge the weather.

Getting back home, I noted that the thermostat said 42 degrees.  My rule for myself is shorts and short-sleeves for 45 degrees and warmer.  Still, 42 sounded pretty warm to me, and the hot flash wasn’t quitting.  Still, I had made up that rule for myself…

I put on leggings and long sleeves.  The leggings felt too tight, so I looked for a pair of fat old lady pants instead.  I had run in fat old lady pants recently and found it works pretty good.  Fat old lady pants, in case you did not know, are fairly loose-fitting, elastic-waist, poly-cotton blend.  The pair I found had pockets, which I liked.  It would be handier for my watch, for one reason.  The band is broken on my wrist-watch, so now I pin it to my pants and make it a waist-watch.

It didn’t feel too cold or two warm as I started down the sidewalk.  I had it in mind to run up the hill to Herkimer College, a challenging 40-minute run to make sure I was ready for the 5K.  I managed to cross German Street without too much problem and ran down the sidewalk, avoiding the occasional puddle.  I had set out at 3:40 (15:40, my watch said; I have military time) (um, not because I was in the army; it’s because I don’t want to screw up and set the alarm for p.m. instead of a.m.).  There was a lot of traffic.

Soon I was running up Lou Ambers Drive.  It seemed to take a long time to get to the steep part.  Cars whizzed by me, mostly not slowing down or getting over.  I couldn’t blame them for not getting over, because there was also a lot of traffic going in the other direction.  As I ran, a song I had been singing to Spunky kept playing in my head:

He’d a good dog named Spunky

His name is Spunky and he’s a good  dog.

The lyrics are not inspired, but it has a good rhythm to run to.  I remembered when I was in Army Basic Training, one of my buddies was on profile and did not run all through Basic, till the very end (“on profile” is a medical thing).  Then she had to run the two-mile PT (physical training) test.  She said she was going to sing Christmas carols to herself to keep going.  It worked for her, because she passed.  I decided to sing a few Christmas carols to myself today.  It was not the miracle I was hoping for as far as taking my mind off the hill.  But I made it to the top.

I could see down to Herkimer, which I had not been able to do the last couple of times I made that run.  It was overcast and grey, but I could see buildings. However, I could not linger and really look.  I kept running.

By the time I got back to the village and level ground, I realized I could rock this.  I thought about the 5K and pictured myself at the 2 mile mark encouraging my fellow runners by shouting, “We can rock this!”  Oh yeah, like anybody there will run as slowly as I do!

I made my 40 minutes and was pretty pleased with myself.  I must confess, I am not as pleased with my blog post, but you’ll have that.  I still haven’t quite made up my mind about the 5K.  I’ll let you know.  In the meantime, I will gather what satisfaction I can from the fact that I did not make a Wuss-out Wednesday post.

 

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Running Out of November

Posted on December 1, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I started writing a real post while at work today (YES, I was on a break, don’t go running to my boss!).   Then I got home and went running, and I’d like to do a Running Commentary instead.

I was thinking when I left work that it would be a good idea to run. For one reason, I haven’t run for the last two days (judge me if you must). For another reason, it was almost warm out.  As I walked to my vehicle I pondered whether I should run in shorts or leggings.  When I got home I noted that our thermostat said it was 50 degrees outside. That is definitely shorts weather for me, although it had seemed like legging weather as I left work.  Spunky wanted to go for a walk, so I had another chance to think about it.

Spunky went down the driveway as far as the neighbors’ front yard and pee’d, while their dog, Piper, barked at him from their front window.  Then Spunky  led me firmly back to our house.  He is definitely not the walker Tabby was.  That was all right, though, because I had to get out and running before I ran out of ambition.  I went with the thermostat and put on shorts and short sleeves.  I chose an ARMY t-shirt with a reflective decal on the back, because it was grey and gloomy.

I did not feel too bad as I started down the sidewalk.  I admired the grey sky and dark atmosphere.  I felt it was a very November day for the last day of the month (although I think my blog post will be dated December 1; just go with it).  I turned right onto German Street.  I had it in mind to run by the HARC building at the end of the street.  I noticed when I drove by there the other day that they seem to be building a playground in back of it.  I wanted to take a closer look.

However, as I approached Main Street, I re-thought my plans.  It is a busy corner with a four-way stop.  I wondered if I would be able to cross it easily.  If so, then I would have to cross back later.  I would see how traffic was.  Several cars were there. I turned right down Main Street.  Main Street was busy, too.  Should I run all the way down it?  There is usually a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, especially as you get closer to State Street.  I decided to turn right on Church Street, at the Historic Four Corners.  When I got there, a car stopped at the stop sign actually pulled back a little to let me across the street.  I tried to wave, “Thanks but don’t bother, I’m turning.”  I hope the driver got that.

It did not seem especially warm to me.  My legs didn’t feel too bad, but my arms were cold.  I put my headband over my ears.  I looked around at houses to distract myself.  I noted a few Christmas decorations here and there.  I’d like to take a walk after dark and look at houses with lights.  I wish Spunky was into taking longer walks but I do not want to force him to go farther than his inclination.

Soon I had to admit that I felt tired.  Now I have realized that when I run I can pretty much keep going for just about as long as I decide to (I do NOT need anybody to tell me that this is painfully obvious and true for almost anything).  That said, OH, did I want to stop!  Or at least walk!  I could feel that I was running slowly.  A brisk walk might even be faster than I was moving.  However, I persevered.  Then I felt bad for not enjoying my run more.  Don’t I run because I like to run, I asked myself.  Never mind, I answered.  Sometimes you have to put up with the runs that are not so fun in order to get to the runs that are.

As I ran up my street, the end in sight, I saw a pedestrian on the sidewalk up ahead.  I had already gone around several pedestrians on the run, as well as changing direction a couple of times to avoid others.  I would go around this one.  Then I saw that the pedestrian had a dog.  I like to pet a dog.  Could it be my friend Rocky?  As I got closer, I saw that it was Rocky and his mom.  She was talking to another person I hadn’t seen at first.  Rocky saw me coming and pulled at his leash a little bit.

“He knows he’s going to get pets from me,” I said.  “Hi, good boy!  Good to see you!”  His mom and the guy she was talking to laughed.  I gave them a wave and ran on.  I was almost home.  Yay!

It felt GREAT to walk my cool down.  For about half a block, then the wind picked up and I was cold.  I had sensibly put a sweatshirt on my back deck with my water bottle, so now my arms felt OK and my legs were cold.  No matter.  I ran. I was glad.  I would write a blog post about it.

 

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Short Post on Shop Small Saturday

Posted on November 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I pause in my Saturday festivities to make a blog post on Small Business Saturday, which follows the more flashy Black Friday.  Quite frankly, I am not inclined to shop on any Big Day, because I prefer to avoid crowds.  However, being Mohawk Valley Girl, as I am, I felt it would behoove me to get out and support a few of our wonderful Mohawk Valley entrepreneurs.

The sticky wicket was that I had a headache and was in kind of a poopy mood (not literally; don’t go yelling TMI at me).  Additionally, it was pouring rain.  I usually try not to let the weather bother me, but today I felt… dampened.   However, I got myself out the door shortly after 10 a.m. and headed to Little Falls.  There was a lot going on in Little Falls, because Little Falls is really good at these things, in addition to having many excellent local businesses.  My ambition to shop took a nosedive when as I got to Little Falls I remembered I had not taken the postcards and letter I wrote to the post office before I left Herkimer.  Damn!

I hate to admit it, but I only made it to the Community Co-op in Little Falls.   Sorry, Little Falls!  I’ll make it back one day soon, shop at lots of places and write a better blog post.

Driving back through Herkimer, I remembered that Original Herkimer Cheese in Ilion was having a Holiday Open House.  I managed to find it.  I sampled and purchased some cheese.  I must write a fuller blog post about that place.  Next I went to one of my all-time favorite places, Ilion Farmer’s Market at Clapsaddle Farm.  I had a great conversation with folk artist Jim Parker and bought some pickles and tomatoes.

By now I was in kind of a better mood, and it had stopped raining.  Driving back through Ilion I checked out Honey Brook Hobbies and Sweet Temptations, another place I must make a complete blog post about.  Then I made a stop at Ilion Wine & Spirits, another of my favorite places.  Heading back to Herkimer, I made one more stop at T & J’s Fruits and Vegetables.

So I did a lot, but I guess I’m not up for writing a lot about it.  In my defense, I spent some time working on the murder mystery I’m writing for Herkimer County Historical Society, so I’m not a complete bum.  Call me a partial bum, and have a nice Saturday.

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