Great Weather Means No Excuses...

I love running in Minnesota. I even love running in the dead of winter if I can find a place where the footing is good. Great trails with nary a soul to be seen, which means I can let the dog run free at the same time as I do. Fantastic scenery in the north woods, especially in the fall with the changing colors, which is also the best time to get a reprieve from the bugs. But I must admit, that as much as I love running in Minnesota, running in California is pretty hard to beat right now. 

In Minnesota, running this time of year is not only a physical feat, it's a mental feat as well. When the temps drop into the freezing zone, the lungs tend to burn a bit from breathing in the cold air until the body adapts to the new winter season. After a run in sub-zero temperatures, I always felt like I not only overcame a physical challenge, but that I also conquered the elements. It's a great feeling, but it takes a lot of preparation and planning. Makes great fodder for excuses to not run as often as one should!


Well, no more excuses now. Tonight, the temps were in the high 50's, no wind and no bugs. I ran in shorts, a tank top, and my barefoot gloves (extolling the benefits of ditching the running shoes is a topic for another day). Colors are changing so the scenery was beautiful. Easy to get out and run, but the trade-off is that I have to run on paved streets, and it's hard to find places where the dog can run free. I really hate running while hanging on to a leash (and I don't think Laird would list it as his favorite thing to do either), but I do like the dog's company and he needs the exercise, too. 


With the majority of the year in southern California having mild temperatures, every day is an easy running day with no planning or preparation required other than making sure I have plastic bags tied to the leash to pick up any messes Laird leaves behind. The farthest I've had to run carrying a bag of Laird's goodies is a mile and half before I found a garbage to toss it in. 


Last year I backed out of a half-marathon I signed up to run with my cousins (I really was busy getting ready for the move to CA). This year, no excuses and no backing out. So Huntington Beach Half-Marathon, here I come (in February)! 

Suburbia in CA, or "Laird, I've a Feeling We're Not In Minnesota Anymore..."

As I walk Braden to school every morning, the Truman Show keeps flitting across my mind. Remember that movie? The one where the guy lives in the idyllic neighborhood where the neighbors all wave and say "Hi!," and people are out walking their dogs, and every driveway has two cars, and every house has 2.4 kids. Well, we only have one kid, but if we average it against the neighbors four, we're pretty close. 

Our city house....

I just keep hoping the cameramen don't expose themselves too soon and tell me this is just a hoax, because it puts a smile on my face when it takes 30 minutes to walk the half mile back from school because of stopping to talk to the neighbors, or let someone pet my dog, or help someone else track down their loose dogs. 


I love living in the country, and I am going to love getting back to our little country house for a few weeks over Christmas, and then again in the summer, but I am amazed at how much I am liking living in a neighborhood. I like that when I step outside on the front lawn, I have to wave and say hi to all the neighbors out in their front yards too. I like that when I go in the back yard, I have to call Daisy and Pepper's names and let them know it's just me so that they quit barking. Pepper is the size of a puppy treat for our dog, and has a cute little bow on the top of her head, but she's got a big bark until she's acknowledged. Then she wags her tail and yips because she wants to come play. Daisy, on the other side, just likes to talk. She barks to say hi when we go out back, and then she snuffles and snorts like a little pig with her tail wagging the whole time. 


I consider myself lucky to have the best of both worlds - a country house and a city house (reminds me of the storybook about a country mouse and city mouse). So here are some scenes from my city house neighborhood and the route I walk to get to Braden's school... 

Every neighborhood needs a white picket fence...

...and some palm trees.

I love these flowers because they look like bird heads. They are starting to fade now, but when there is a whole bunch of them together, I can't help but laugh because it looks like a flock of goofy birds.

My roses don't look like the this perfect one.

A couple years ago, Braden would

have loved having a dinosaur head

as a permanent part of our garage.

Can't wait to see what they do 

with it for Christmas!

We live in a valley, so almost every where you look there are foothills and mountains as a backdrop.

  

Not many log homes here, but I do like the light colored Spanish style homes.

Cross Country Living

Living cross country from the rest of your family is nothing today compared to 30 years ago, but it still can feel like a long way at certain times: holidays, celebrations, health scares, crises, birthdays, milestones, quiet mornings of catching up on the yoga mats. And surgeries....


I'm fortunate that my parents are in a place where they have lots of family and friends, so there will be no lack of care for my mom while she recovers from shoulder surgery. I get updates from Dad, and I talk to her daily, but I miss the reassurance of seeing her with my own eyes and knowing all is OK. 


But even with the distance, it's amazing the tools we have at our fingertips that my parents did not have when they were my age, or even 20 years ago when I was in Germany for 18 months and they were in Minnesota. I remember when calling long distance was a huge deal because the cost was so astronomical. It was a luxury reserved for holidays and emergiencies. Now it's nothing--literally--to call anywhere when calling from one cell phone to another. And even if we use the old fashioned land lines, it's just pennies a minute to talk and hardly makes a dent in the pocket book.

My Skype ID Photo

Then there is the greatest gadget/app of all! SKYPE!!! And that's free, too! We just hop on the internet, call through Skype, and we can see live video of the person on the other end. I can talk to my parents in Minnesota, or my brother in England (still working on my brother in North Dakota to get with it) and it's like were sitting in the same room, feet away instead of thousands of miles. This technology used to cost tens of thousands of dollars, and now it's free! (Obviously I am still amazed at the wonder that is Skype.)


Even working with my clients across state lines has proven fairly simple and low cost. I have a great program that allows me to access their computers when needed and take care of business. I think a couple of my clients have forgotten that I'm not in the same state because one of them keeps asking me if I'm going to be able to make it to meetings at his office. I'll take that as a good sign that the distance isn't noticable when doing my job. 


When it comes down to it, I can get from California to Minnesota in a matter of hours if needed. And though I miss out on a lot of the day to day things with family and friends, I hear from others who live away from their extended families that the time together will be even sweeter because it won't be taken for granted any more. (My uncle Paul can attest to this...) I think there could be some truth to that, and I am looking forward to my visits back to Minnesota. 


Tomorrow, Mom is able to take a shower, and then she says we can Skype again. So I'll get to see with my own eyes via webcam that she really is doing OK, especially now that Mom and Dad have figured out to tilt the computer screen so we can see more than just the tops of their heads (love you, Mom and Dad!).