Day 7.066: A slight slip-up

Here's another picture from the "Rug City + marbles" session last weekend. It has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

On Saturday afternoon, I arrived at my hotel more than 30 minutes before the wedding was due to start. The wedding venue was less than 15 minutes away. I did a quick bag drop in my room then asked the hotel to call me a taxi. So far so good. A few minutes later a taxi arrived. Even better.

This is when it started to go less well. The taxi was not for me. I waited. I waited some more. They called the taxi company again (he'll be right there). More waiting. Even more waiting. The taxi company called the hotel (not a good sign). They would be twenty minutes. It was now 5 minutes before the ceremony was due to start. They called another taxi company - they said ten minutes (at least I might make it by the end). Then a couple of minutes later the first taxi company's taxi showed up. I got in.

It doesn't get better yet.

The driver confirmed the address with me - then spent what felt like ten minutes typing the address into his ancient Garmin GPS. Then we were off - down to the road and make a right turn. I wasn't sure of the route, but that didn't feel right. I tried to see the Garmin, but it didn't seem to be saying anything. A few minutes later it woke up - Recalculating - continue for 0.1 miles and make a U-turn. Great. Just great. I may have muttered something under my breath. The driver pulled over just before a blind turn on the 55 mph one-lane-each-way-with-double-lines, let a car go past us and went for the U-turn. He didn't make it. We were now doing a 3-point turn. By a blind bend. On a fast narrow road.

Then, as we were side-on blocking the whole road, a car came round the blind bend.

We survived that moment of excitement and a few minutes later, we were driving back past the hotel - some 40 minutes after I'd called for the taxi. We eventually arrived at the church. I was too rushed/happy-to-be-alive to be upset by then. I walked in just in turn to hear the end of a song and them being declared husband and wife - well that was the point I suppose.

The rest of the day was - happily - a vast improvement and I wasn't the last to arrive at the church - my friends walked in a couple of minutes behind me (for less dramatic reasons) only in time to hear the bagpiper lead the recessional.

Day 7.065: CT & run (for ME)

So this was my day: I woke up at 8-ish realising that drinking about 3 times my normal blow-out night of two beers and going to bed two hours later than my normal up-late time of 10 pm was not going to pass unnoticed. Actually I was fine, once I was up and about - what a lightweight I've become!

I had a shower and went to breakfast where I was lucky enough to chat to some people who I thought had driven home last night without my having much chance to catch up with them.

After that I hit the road. Two stops - one for a quick Facetime chat with my parents and the other for a very slow and still only OK lunch at Friendly's (I know! I know! but I'm a hopeful kind of guy).

I made it back just before 4 pm in time to hit the road again - this time for my longest run of the week (only 14 miles because it's a cutback week).

Then I Skyped the family, got a bit chilled, warmed up in the shower and then watched Nebraska since Exile #2 had rented and watched it last night. It's rather good.

Anyway, back to normal tomorrow. But it was all more than worth it thanks to, you know, this:

Day 7.064: Neither here nor there

I'm neither alone in Maine or home with the family in NY.  I'm actually in Connecticut, but for a very nice reason:

I've partied until after 11 o'clock and now it's WAY past my normal bedtime, so I'll just say a happy and tired goodnight!

Day 7.063: A cycle in the winter

This is a graph of my monthly running miles since...well, since I started running.

That's July 2011 at the left. The two big bumps peaking in the late summer months are my two previous marathon training cycles - and yes I am in the middle of a third cycle.

It's the first time I've tried to do serious training in the winter and it's definitely a different experience. Working the runs around winter storms, running on snow and ice and through slushy puddles and having to bundle up in enough layers to go out when it's sub-zero Fahrenheit but still be able to run are all challenges that just don't come up in the summer.

My current peak should end up looking almost exactly the same as the previous one since I'm following the same training plan. Hopefully I will have another good race in May. At times it's nice to have something to focus on that isn't to do with new houses, schools, jobs and cities, but all that needs to be factored in too. Hopefully I can continue to fit everything in.

Day 7.062: Moving stories

Today I was accused of sounding "a tad melancholy recently". Well that won't do!

The truth is that the sale of this house:

seems to be going fine and I've been reluctant to tempt fate by mentioning it.

Whereas the purchase of a house in Maine has been going less smoothly and I've not really known what to say about it. Hence the melancholic diversions. Sorry.

On top of that, I'm in the midst of marathon training so I tend to be up early to run and tired (but only occasionally actually melancholy) in the evenings when I normally write this. Sorry.

Hopefully there will be some better entertainment to come.