Chance of Rain

Right now it's raining outside. And thundering. And lightning. And blowing down trees. I love summer thunderstorms but this one is causing some trouble.

Right now I am at work, and I came to work on my bike. Relatively soon, it will be time for me to go home and I do not have a rain coat. I did not pack a rain coat because I didn't realize it was going to rain today. Why? Because the weather reportsays it is going to rain EVERY day. Seriously.

If you go to weather.com at this moment the ten day weather report is as follows:

Today
Jul 10 -Isolated T-Storms 30%

Jul 11 - Scattered T-Storms / Wind 40%

Jul 12 - Isolated T-Storms 30%

Jul 13 - Isolated T-Storms 30%

Jul 14 - Scattered T-Storms 40%

Jul 15 - Scattered T-Storms 30%

Jul 16 - Isolated T-Storms 30%

Jul 17 - Isolated T-Storms 30%

Jul 18 - Scattered T-Storms 60%

Jul 19 - Scattered T-Storms

How am I supposed to know when it is really going to rain? And does anyone know what the difference is between scattered and isolated T-storms?

All By Myself

Aaron left for DC Sunday night. He starts his new job bright and early Monday morning. That leaves me home alone. All by myself. I'm working hard to try to ignore all those bumps and creeks in the night, but I'm still jumpy. To keep my spirits up I've been talking to Battle, but that's a slippery slope. I'm pretty sure that if Aaron doesn't come back soon enough I will end up one very crazy cat lady.

HURRAY!!!!

Aaron will be working up in DC. He just got the call this afternoon. Thanks everyone for your prayers and support!

Happy Fourth

I wasn't feeling very well on the fourth so I staid in bed and read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, start to finish. I loved it.

The story follows three families, The Jones: Archie, Clara and their daughter Irie; The Iqbals: Samad, Aslana and their twin sons Millat and Magid; and the Chalfeans. Archie and Samad fight together in WWII in the "buggered battalion" a unit for army misfits. They return to England and both eventually marry, Archie meeting Clara, a beautiful six foot Jamaican immigrant with a passionate Jehova's Witness mother, and Samad entering an arranged marriage with Alsana. Both women are about 25 years younger than their husbands. Within the year Clara gives birth to a daughter, Irie and Alsana has twin boys Millat and Magid. Both families struggle to make their way in lower end London. After his own moral failings, Samad becomes so concerned for his sons that he sends Magid back to India. Millat remains and becomes a womanizing gangster recruited by Islamic extremists. Irie also struggles to find her place. They both become intertwined with the middle class, intellectual Catholic-Jewish Chalfens, through their nerdy son Josh. His mother, Joyce Chalfen misguidedly attempts to "heal" Millat while Marcus Chalfen employs Irie as a secretary for his research work creating, "Futuremouse", an animal whose genetic makeup is supposed to precisely determine the animals whole life.

It can be a bit brutal and complex at times but the characters are so familiar, so human, and the story is told so naturally and with such wry wit that the book remains enjoyably fascinating in even its darkest moments.

Pallas Athena, she's got a great personality...

In the competitive world of marathons and half marathons you can win a race by being incredibly fast and well trained OR qualifying for a niche sub-group with lower standards. Since I am not a senior citizen and have all of my limbs, I didn't think I had a chance to enter such a group. I was happy to content myself to full-capacity mediocrity. Until Yesterday!
Marathons have traditionally provided a different group for heavier men, men at 200 lbs +. They call them the Clydesdales. Recently they have begun to offer such a group for "heavier" women. They call it the Athena. The really painful thing is the Athena group is 140+ lbs. Now I'm not quite 140 lbs but with a few late night snacks and a couple heavy meals I probably could be. Which provides a dilemna, should I try to improve myself as much as possible and end up average Or do my best to bulk up and try to become the winner of the fat race? Thoughts?

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?

I'm not a very musical person but sometimes when I wake up in the morning I will have a song stuck in my head, going round and round. The unfortunate thing is they tend to be rather bad songs. Last Friday I woke up singing "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?" I have NOOO idea where that came from, but it is a rather catchy tune.

I'm adding to this blog since Sarah informed me that not everyone knows the words to "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?"
So here, thanks to WIkipedia are several of the verses. Thoses sailors were a creative bunch.

Intro
What shall we do with a drunken sailor, (3×)
Early in the morning?

Chorus
Hoo–ray/Wey–hey/Heave-ho and up she rises, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Verses

Take him and shake him and try to wake him, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Put him in the bilge and make him drink it, (3x)
Early in the morning.

Soak 'im in oil 'till he sprouts flippers, (3x)
Early in the morning.

Spray him with whiskey and light him on fire, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Hit 'im on the head with a broken hammer, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Hang him from the sails til his eyeballs fall out, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Put him into bed with the captain's daughter, (*) (3×)
Early in the morning.

Slap him around and call him Suzie, (3×)
Early in the morning.

And my all time personal FAVORITE:

Shave his belly with a rusty razor, (3×)
Early in the morning.

Outro
That’s what we’ll do with a drunken sailor, (3×)
Early in the morning.

* The Captains Daughter was the other name for the cat o' nine-tails whip.

The Inconvenient Truth

The inconvenient truth is that I sweat, sometimes a lot, and I get BAD helmet hair, and I sound like a dying horse going up big hills, but I have started to ride my bike to work.
I've actually wanted to for a while. I live well within biking distance to my work place, I'm only 3.5 miles and a few big hills away. And those big hills are great fun to go down. Which makes me wonder, why don't more people bike to work?
You can fight fat, enjoy the beautiful outdoors, and some days you are even faster than the bumper to bumper car traffic. Plus, it's so cheap. A good car costs you a couple thousand bucks, a good bike, a couple hundred. And there's no need for gasoline so you can save that money too and reduce acid rain, smog and the US foreign oil dependency. All in a days ride...

PS Does anyone have any tips on reducing helmet hair? I thought I'd just shave my head but Aaron got that panicked look of horror on his face when I brought up that option.