Sunday, June 15, 2008

Summer Day

Today is a beautiful summer day - sunny and mid 80's. I have a lot to do today but I am taking some time this morning to blog. First of all, the cherries are ripe and I picked a bunch the other night. I got inspired to pick cherries about 20 minutes before dark - these are what I picked.

Molly was checking out the cherries, probably seeing if she wanted to eat them. The cat will eat anything that's not nailed down pretty much.

Yesterday, Jerry and I ran did a 5K - Run by the River in Russell. The race has been run over 30 years so it was very well organized. Rain was predicted and it was very cloudy and breezy, but no rain and a great day for running. My goal is always to finish in under 30 minutes, but I was hoping to beat 27:45. Sadly, I did not. The time keeper at the one mile mark called out 9:02 as I past him. At the 2 mile mark, I heard 9:14 after I past him. The last quarter mile about did me in. I was heaving and cold. My hands were cold and numb and I thought I might not make it to the finish line...which is really disheartening when you can SEE the finish line and worry that you won't get there. I did finish though and the guy who tore off my number had concerns that I was going to puke on him. After a minute or two after finishing I was fine though. My time was 29:30 something. I was disappointed with that. I thought I would have at least been 28 something. I did take the first place trophy in my category - women 50-54. Jerry got third place in his category, and he ran an excellent race - 23 minutes and some seconds. I guess I just need to run more and get into better shape. Maybe I need to lose another 2o pounds or so and that would help my time.

The deer ate nearly all the impatiens I planted around the mailbox. A whole flat of flowers gone in a single night. I love deer but I wish they'd eat somebody else's flowers. We are going to work on the fence around our garden today. My flower seeds are up and I am excited. I can see zinnias and cosmos because I know what the leaves look like. The poppies, I don't know. I see some little seedlings but I can't tell if they are poppies or weeds.

We went swimming at Grayson Lake last week. The girls each invited a friend. They had fun but were paranoid about the dead cicadas in the water. We only went for a few hours but they insisted on packing a picnic lunch for themselves. That was fine because they did all the work. I thought it was odd that they made a thermos of hot soup to enjoy in the 98 degree sun that day. Here are shots from the day. The picture in the water, they are either looking at the little bluegills or dead cicadas...I don't remember.