Tag Archives: weather

Moody Monday Run

Posted on September 20, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

At work this afternoon, I realized I was in a foul mood.  I said to myself, “Mood swings are a symptom of menopause.  Just wait quietly and it will pass.”  I was still waiting when my shift ended and I came home.  I continued to ignore my irritation as  I put on running clothes and gathered a load of laundry.  Wrestling a sweaty body into spandex shorts and two sports bras did nothing to improve my mood, but I had to feel a little pleased with myself that I hadn’t talked myself out of the run.  For one reason, I needed a blog post and wanted to do a Running Commentary.

It was still warm out but less humid than my place of employment.  My workplace neither cools off nor dries out as quickly as the outside, which is just another reason to be happy when the workday ends.  I started towards German Street and turned right, since I had gone left when I ran on Saturday.  When I ran Saturday, it was after five days of not running, don’t judge.  Then I did not run Sunday, largely because I had also gone for a nice walk including some hills on Saturday.  I am really trying to get back into the habit of running more often.

I was running very slowly.  It was quite the plod.  No matter.  I was moving.  I remembered reading a long time ago that running slowly was a good way to train.  When you run fast, the theory goes, your body reaches toward high-octane fuel, such as the protein you recently ate.  When you run slowly, your body reaches for the low-octane fuel, your fat cells.  This was a nice, slow, fat-burning run, I told myself.  I think the theory has since been debunked, but I could hardly concern myself with that.

There was a lot of traffic, as there often is in the late afternoon.  I turned down Main Street rather than try to cross at the four-way stop.  I was thinking I would prefer not to run into any people, running so slowly and clunkily, but it was such a nice day, I thought there would be people almost any direction I took.  So why not go down Main Street?

Oh, my legs were not happy with me.  Shouldn’t they be warming up and getting into this, I asked myself.  Oh, just keep running, I answered.  One must have these difficult runs to get to the more enjoyable ones.

I did not start to feel really good until I was doing my cool-down walk.  It was then I realized, the irritable mood had passed.  Yes!  Maybe I sweated it out.  Maybe I ran away from it.  No matter.  I felt better, I had burned some calories, and I had something to write a blog post about. Not too bad for a Monday.

 

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Waaaait a Minute! I Never Got My Beer!

Posted on September 9, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

So I ran earlier.  It was a pretty lousy run, but I did not despair of writing a passable Running Commentary post.  The trick is to get to the computer while it is all still fresh in my mind.  Well, I tried, but the damn computer was updating.

Then again, I don’t think I was thinking all that many great thoughts during the run.  Mostly I was gasping for breath in the humidity and wondering why the rain wouldn’t start and give me some relief.  Or does rain get rid of humidity instantaneously?  Perhaps it would not have given me any relief at all.  At least it would not have made me appreciably wetter, because I was covered with sweat before I started.

All of this was no great matter, though, because at least I ran.  And by virtue of running on my Monday holiday, I had only gone two days without running.

I can’t say it was a particularly fun run.  Partway through it I felt that I was not enjoying myself and asked myself why I keep thinking I like to run.  I answered, I like to run on weekend mornings, when it is cool and I feel fresh.  Unfortunately, you cannot only run two days a week with five days break in between.  That would not make for enjoyable weekend runs.  Then I pointed out to myself that when running in hot weather my leg muscles warmed up faster.  My leg had felt quite discouraged at the beginning of the run but were doing better by the end.

I carefully pointed out to myself beautiful flowers in people’s lawns and window boxes.  Scenery always helps.  I envied people who were sitting on their front porches. I would have liked to be sitting still on my front porch, possibly with a beverage.

That was when I thought of beer.  A nice cold beer.  How good would that taste?  I thought, VERY.  So that was the reward I kept in my head for the rest of the run.

I finished the run and my cool-down walk before the rain.  I had a lovely cold shower, ate some food and waited for the computer to cooperate.  Then I wrote this blog post, which I am afraid is not as good of a Running Commentary as I had originally envisioned.  Then again, at least the whole post was not about How I Can’t Write a Post Today.  We’ll save that for Lame Post Friday.  I’m going to call this a Non-Sequitur Thursday and hit Publish.  I hope you’re having a lovely day.

 

 

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Off to a Running Start on Sunday

Posted on August 28, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

It’s Sunday Running Commentary!  When I got up this morning (at a leisurely but not as late as I would have liked) 6 a.m., I said, “It would be a good idea if I went running.”  I was bearing in mind a recent note to self: do not go three days without running.  It had been two.  Regular readers may recall that it is a trick I use to get myself to do what is good for me:  I say, “It would be a good idea if…” as opposed to, “I should…”  Sometimes it works.  Today it did.

I wore my ARMY t-shirt with the reflective doo-dah on the back, because it seemed the sun was not quite up.  By the time I had wrestled myself into two sports bras (do NOT tell me, “TMI!”), it was not as dark as it had seemed, but a bit of reflective stuff is not a bad idea on a run.  Off I went.

As I reached the end of the driveway I saw the most beautiful sky.  The rising sun was making a lovely pink texture on the bottom sides of lots of clouds.  It was to the left of me as I ran towards German Street.  I wondered if it was a red sky at morning (sailors take warning). I pondered, as I have since I first heard that expression, if there was a qualitative difference between red skies and pink skies.  And how about orange skies?  Anyways, I’m not a sailor, so I have never been too exercised over the whole idea.

I turned left onto German, so I could enjoy the sky.  I saw our paper deliverers across the road and waved at them.  Our paper deliverers are awesome.  So prompt and reliable, and they seem to have a vast territory.  My plan was to run up Main Street, down the path over what used to be a hydraulic canal (does that path have a name?) then on to the end of German, via a street that runs parallel, and back down German, going up and down the dead end streets.  It is what I think of as my Sunday Dead End Run.  As my run time increases, I can add more dead end streets.  My run time is back down (I’ve had a bad summer, running-wise), so I wondered how few dead ends I would make today.

As it turned out, very few.  OK, just one. And I suffered an injury. Not much of one.  As I approached the end of the street that ends near the parking lot of the HARC building (another dead end but not one that forces me to turn around, so ah ha ha), I ran around a car parked across the sidewalk.  I thought to get back on the sidewalk for the little bit of it that was left, then I tripped on the curb and went down.  Damn!  How clumsy of me.  I scraped my knee but did not pause to check how badly.  It didn’t feel too bad.  I had landed on one hand too but thought I had done even less damage there.  Mostly some gravel.  This was fine. I would be bad ass enough not to worry about it (although I planned to mention it in my blog post).

It was not, however, a particularly bad ass run.  I was ready for the cool shower portion of my day well before I stopped running.  I enjoyed it, despite being sweaty, tired and (slightly) injured. I like looking at people’s houses, envying features like screened-in porches and wondering if I can imitate certain garden features.  For example, I saw a chair with a potted plant sitting underneath the space where the seat was missing, vines climbing up the chair back.  Do I have a broken old chair I can use that way? Maybe I could find one at a garage sale.  I saw a very long clothesline.  My clothesline is not nearly that long but I like it.  Is it supposed to rain today?  My bunions are non-committal.

I ended up running 30 minutes.  My goal had been 28, approximately ten percent over the 25 minutes I ran last Sunday.  I felt pretty pleased about it.  I feel pretty pleased that I have made my blog post prior to 8 a.m.  What other ambitious things can I get done today?  The sky’s the limit!  Incidentally, it stopped being pink soon into my run.  I think I’ll check and see if it’s grey.

 

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After Dinner Lame

Posted on August 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Ooh, is my stomach full.  We just got back from Salvatore’s right here in Herkimer, NY, where I had the first calzone I have had in years.  I must say, YUM!  But, what a surprise, I ate too much of it. I still have plenty left over for further pig out activities.  In the meantime, I am quite late in making this week’s Friday Lame Post.  What, I ask, is a blogger to do?

It is hardly a “real” Friday for me, because I work tomorrow.  No, I am NOT complaining about it, I’m just SAYING.  Sheesh!  Then again, there is no pleasing some people so I might as well just stop trying.  Why, yes, I had a glass of wine with dinner, why do you ask?

I had thought I might possibly write something earlier today, on breaks at work, and avoid sitting here in front of a blank screen trying to be funny (or at least coherent).  I started by working on a letter I had started to a friend.  It did not go so well.  I ended up going back to a puzzle book I had handy and working on some puzzles.  It was all my brain wanted to do.  As the day wore on, things got even worse, brain-wise.

Yes, the heat and humidity continues in the Mohawk Valley, along with its deleterious effect on my writing activities (don’t you just love that word, deleterious?).  As I left work today, a work friend was talking about what he was going to do next week.  I said, “I am going to get my act together.  Do you believe me?”  Nobody did.  Even I didn’t believe me.

On the other hand, here I am, over 250 words and it’s past my bed time.  I hope to see you all again tomorrow on Scattered Saturday, or whatever kind of Saturday it turns out to be.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

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Run before Rain

Posted on August 26, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I thought of that title as I walked to my vehicle after work under threatening grey skies.  As it turns out, it is an appropriate headline mostly because today is Non-Sequitur Thursday.  But at least I ran.

First I went three days without running.  These things happen.  My legs started to ache again today, so I thought it would be a good idea to get out there.  I thought it was going to rain; for one reason, my bunions said so all day yesterday.  If it rained I could run in place on the mini-tramp.  When it was not raining immediately after work, I thought I would take a chance.  What was the worst that could happen?  I get wet?  As I like to say, I ain’t sugar; I won’t melt.  I get hit by lightning?  Well, my grandmother used to stay in the pool and count the seconds between the flash and the boom.  If it was good enough for Grandma, it’s good enough for me.  Anyways, I didn’t hear any rumbles nor yet see any flashes.

I took Spunky out as soon as I got home, as I usually do.  It was more a short business meeting than a real walk.  Those clouds looked dark. However, on my way home from work I had seen some high school kids running.  Probably the track team.  If they could run, I could run.

Off I went.  My legs were not the least bit happy with me.  Next time don’t go three days without running, I scolded myself.  Oh, this was painful.  I was moving slow but I was moving.  A little breeze was nice when I got it.  Otherwise it was humid.  Breathe, Cindy, breathe.  As the run progressed it became harder to breathe.  However, I realized that the worse the breathing, the less the legs hurt.  One thing about my body, the parts usually take turns complaining.  If they didn’t all have to take a turn one right after the other, that would be even better, but you can’t have everything.

I enjoyed running around the neighborhood, looking at houses, flowers, cars.  I saw a classic car in one driveway.  I think it was from the ’40s but I am not very knowledgeable about these things.  I saw a person sitting on a front porch.  I would like to sit on a porch, I thought.  With a beer.  There was no beer in my house.  Why did I not stop and pick up beer on my way home? That beer could be chilling in my refrigerator, waiting to reward me at the end of the run.  Now what would I reward myself with?  There are Klondike bars in the freezer (somebody gave Steven a coupon).  The song, “What would you do-oo for a Klondike bar?”  played in my head for the rest of the run (full disclosure: at the time of this posting, I have not yet eaten a Klondike bar; weight loss goals, you know).

There was a lovely screened in porch. You can sit on a screened-in porch when it’s raining.  Why didn’t I buy a house with a screened-in porch?  I had my reasons, but it basically boils down to what that great philosopher Mick Jagger once said, you can’t always get what you want.  How much longer was this run going to take?  I hadn’t been running in three days, surely 15 minutes would be good enough.  Maybe 20.  Should I keep running once the rain started or head for home by the most direct route?  Why wasn’t it raining yet?  Those big fat bluffing clouds!

The rain began 11 minutes into the run.  The clouds were not bluffing; my bunions were vindicated.  It was a nice gentle sprinkle.  I could rock this. Mind you, I was not particularly rocking the run itself, but I was still running.  Maybe the rain would wash away some of the humidity.  Then it would be easier to breathe.  This wasn’t bad at all.  Why don’t I ever run in the rain?  Of course it wasn’t raining very hard.  A downpour might be more uncomfortable.  I would see when this rain became a downpour.

Which, it never did.  Two or three blocks later, it stopped.  What was that all about?  It was supposed to RAIN!  That little sprinkle had done nothing for the humidity.  Rats!  Still, I kept going.  Once you’re out, you might as well keep going, right?

I ended up running for 23 minutes.  I thought that was pretty good since I had run 23 and 25 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.  I don’t have a definite plan of when to run again, but I’m thinking before three days have passed.  So, Sunday at the latest.  Perhaps I’ll write another Running Commentary.  It’ll make a change from Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

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Old Movies on a Rainy Sunday

Posted on August 22, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I love a rainy Sunday.  My favorite kind is with old movies.  Imagine my delight, then, when after seeing rain in the forecast I saw that it was Bette Davis day on TCM.  I LOVE Bette Davis!  I prefer to write about cheesy movies in this space, but for Wrist to Forehead Sunday, I feel justified in giving an overview of my Bette Davis day.

We tuned in to The Letter at nine.  We’ve seen this one before.  We rented it in Augusta, GA (remember going to a video store and renting movies?).  I wrote my Mom a letter about it in which I said something along the lines of,  “We saw this Bette Davis movie where she murdered this guy and was on trial for it.  There was this letter she had written which would incriminate herself and she had to get back the letter.  It was a really good movie, but I don’t remember the title.”  Steven wrote in the margin, “It was The Letter.”  I was pretty amused by that, but sometimes I am easy to please.

After The Letter was Mr. Skeffington, which I had DVR’d once but never watched (then we got a new cable box and the chance was lost).   I found it very sad, although the ending was happy (should I have included a spoiler alert for that?)  It also stars Claude Rains, who Steven and I love.  Bette Davis loved him, too.  I like to hear about actors who like and respect one another.  Oh, I guess it is also interesting to hear about when they loathe and despise one another.

Which brings us to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?  That movie is on now, and we are watching re-reuns of Snapped.  You would think I would love that movie, but I do not.  I know, I love Bette Davis, I love Joan Crawford, I love old horror movies.  But I don’t like that movie.  Go figure.

We shall watch A Catered Affair, with Ernest Borgnine, which is on next.  I do like Ernest Borgnine.  Then we FINALLY get to some cheesy stuff with The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.  I was thinking I had written a blog post about that one, but I was getting it mixed up with The Virgin Queen, which is a really cheesy one. I’d better watch Elizabeth and Essex again and make sure it’s as cheesy as I’m thinking. I may stay up past my bedtime for that one.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

 

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Toto, I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Hamlet Anymore

Posted on August 14, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

To post or not to post, that is the question.

See what I did there?  See, I’m in a Shakespeare play, and I took a well-known Shakespeare quote and modified it to fit the situation at hand.  And if you say, “But you’re not in Hamlet,” I shall say, “Don’t be so didactic.”

I guess the question is not so much “to post or not to post?” as “to post now or later?”  Obviously I am GOING to post.  I post every day.  It’s in my nature, it’s what I do (that’s a family quote; long story and possibly not as cute as we think it is).  I am sitting here in the increasing warmth and humidity, waiting for time to pass till my ride picks me up for the closing performance of Much Ado About Nothing.  I have a few things I must do before that happens, but not many and I’m stalling.

So do something useful, I can see you gearing up to suggest.  Who, me?  Be useful?  Excuse me, have we met?  In fact I did one marginally useful thing:  I ironed Hawaiian shirts for Steven and me to wear to the cast party later today.  I do love a nicely pressed Hawaiian shirt, and I  only recently obtained an ironing board to replace the one that perished in the flood of 2013. I’ve been making do with a towel on the table.  As you may imagine, under those circumstances I only iron what I absolutely must.

As I ironed the shirts, I pondered the appropriateness of it.  After all, Hawaiian shirts are synonymous with leisure, relaxing and parties.  Is it appropriate to labor over them with a  hot steam iron?  But the question was not “To iron or not to iron” (see what I did there?).  The shirts needed ironing.  They will now look awesome at the cast party.

I see that I have babbled on for over 300 words.  I call that quite respectable for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  Then again, is a Wrist to Forehead Sunday ever quite respectable?  I must leave these questions to ponder another time.  Right now I’m going to look over my lines and check if my costume needs ironing as well.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

Oh and once again, Much Ado About Nothing, Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, Little Falls, 3 p.m.  Be there, aloha!

 

 

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Much Ado Before the Deluge

Posted on August 14, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

This afternoon was the penultimate performance of LiFT’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (as you see, I take every opportunity to use the word “penultimate” in a sentence).  The weather was even hotter than on Thursday, and thunderstorms threatened.  However, as they say, the show must go on!

I had heard some thunder as I took Spunky out for a business meeting before leaving for Little Falls, but the skies were blue with fluffy white clouds.  What was that all about?  The heat and humidity were formidable, but my friend Kim, who was picking me up, has a good A/C in her vehicle.  We arrived in Little Falls early so were able to walk around Chicks on the Canal, a vendor fair that is part of the Canal Days festivities.

A delightful band was playing on the stage that we were to occupy in about an hour (I stupidly did not find out who they were).  They get the best musical acts for Little Falls events.  I couldn’t help dancing.  I figured, I was already sweating, how much worse could it get?  Additionally, dancing would pep me up, loosen me up and cheer me up.  It did all three, but the sweat did get rather bothersome.  I found a spot in the shade to sit and study my lines while I waited for my entrance.

At last the play began!  And I still had to wait for two acts and two scenes of a third before my entrance.  We had a pretty good audience, about 60 somebody said.  We could hear appreciative applause and laughter.  Yes!  Let’s hear it for live theatre!  I was happy to finally get on stage and even happier when the scenes I was in got laughs, too.

It was not until Act IV that the sky began to darken.  Our energy level was still high and we did not flag through Act V.  After curtain call it was downright dark and the wind started to whip.

“Where’s my Bible?” I asked (I’m the Friar, remember?).  “Where’s my green bag?”  A couple of cast members had gathered things up and put them inside as the rain threatened.

Then it hit.  It was a deluge!  I helped carry the last of the stuff into the building, pausing to do a Shawshank Redemption pose in the rain, because it felt damn good on my sweaty body.  I was laughing heartily, as I usually do at inclement weather.  I also helped carry stuff out to our director’s car.  We took a slower drive home than usual, trying to avoid hydroplaning.  We were so happy we had gotten through the whole performance before the storm.

We have one more performance, tomorrow at Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, Little Falls at 3 p.m.  I hope we get another good audience and the weather once gain cooperates!

 

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Some Kind of Halt

Posted on August 12, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I gradually realized what my problem is.  I started to put “suddenly realized” but the fact is I do not do anything quickly these days.  Yes, it is the heat.  If you are one of those people who worship summer weather and feel chilled when the mercury drops below 75,… I don’t know where I was going with that sentence.  After all, people have the right to like whatever kind of weather suits their fancy.  To each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow (I stole that expression from  friend).

I have mentioned in this space that I melt in the heat (alas, not literally; my weight-loss goals continue to elude me).  My body slows down and my brain comes to a grinding halt. Is that a cliche, “grinding halt”?  Perhaps I could come up with a more imaginative term.  Let’s see, what kind of halt has my brain ground to?  Did it, in fact, grind?  Or was it something… gooshier?  It did not slosh, because that implies more movement than I have recently experienced.  More of a drag.  My brain dragged along in a discouraged fashion and at last reached an ominous stillness.

Ominous?  Perhaps so, because it may never start again.  Still, “ominous” implies that my brain is actually doing something, namely threatening unspecified consequences.  Only it is not.  It is lying there, thinking nothing, offering nothing, doing nothing.

I wrote the preceding during my nine o’clock break at work.  When I read it over at lunch time, my brain thought, “complete halt.”  Of course, “complete halt,” I realized.  That is what I meant.  Perhaps not evocative, but more accurately and less cliche-edly what happened (yes, I know, “cliche-edly” is not a work, but it is exactly what I mean).  It was some few minutes later that I realized for my brain to think “complete halt” it clearly was not at one (yes, it took some minutes, moving slow in the heat, remember?).

If only I could think of an unrelated yet clever-sounding title, this could be a Non-Sequitur Thursday post.  However, I have no time nor, as observed ad nauseum, brain for such a thing.  I must get ready for a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Benton Landing in Little Falls at 6.  I am quite nervous but of course looking forward to it.  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

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Rainy Wrist to Forehead Sunday

Posted on August 1, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

My original title was “Lousy Sunday Afternoon.”  You know, because yesterday was “Lazy Saturday Afternoon.”  But once I typed it, I just didn’t feel like being that way.  Steven had suggested “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.”  I typed that in, wrote the first three sentences of this post, then thought of what I used.  Unless I change my mind before I hit publish, in which case I will change the preceding sentence.

I am back from rehearsal for Much Ado About Nothing.  We met at the Utica Zoo, where we have a performance Aug. 8 as part of Utica Monday Night.  It was raining.  I brought an umbrella but had missed the text or email (technology mystifies me) that said we were not doing costumes.  I was in my Second Watch costume.  I took off the shirt (I had on a camisole underneath) and my black socks, changing my clogs for the sandals I wear as the Friar.  Then I put on some earrings I had in my purse.  As long as I wasn’t supposed to be in costume.

The rain got heavier and lighter as rehearsal started.  Some of us stood on stage with our umbrellas, acting.  We felt all method in one scene, where a character mentioned it was drizzling rain.  A few zoo patrons were also braving the weather.  We cordially invited them all back tomorrow.  My main problem is there was no dry place to sit down when I did not have to be on stage.  Also, I was pretty sure the stuff in my bag were getting wet, although that seemed better than standing there holding a heavy bag for hours.  I was not sorry   when rehearsal was over.  It is certainly more pleasant to rehearse in more agreeable weather.  Still, the show must go on.

The play seems to be coming together very well.  I cordially invite all my readers to our performance at the Utica Zoo.  It is at 6 p.m., free with zoo admission.  For details look for the Facebook event.  And have a Happy Rainy Sunday.

One small note:  This is an updated post.  When written earlier today, the event was scheduled for tomorrow, Aug. 1.  It has since been rescheduled to the 8th due to weather concerns. Sorry for any confusion.

 

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