Walked Three Difficult Depot Parkrun Laps This Morning

 This morning was another installment of the DepotParkrun 5K odyssey that Melissa and I have been undergoing here in Gainesville in recent weeks.  Getting through the entire event was something I knew would be quite challenging.  I wanted to complete the four laps required to get my wristband scanned and my finishing time read and posted online.  Only thing is that in order to accomplish this, I needed to complete the four prescribed laps, either through walking or running.  In previous recent Parkruns, a completed event has been very elusive for me because I have tended to tire out too quickly to finish.  Today I started out all right, but felt crowded out by other, more pushy contestants...they wouldn't leave me alone!  And then some stern-expressioned dude comes up right behind me and Melissa and introduces himself as "my"tail walker! I think his idea was that I stood out as an impaired, incompetent walker, whom he was babysitting...that didn't hit it with me!  I managed to struggle through three laps (2.3 miles), and although I felt it (barely) possible for me to walk that last one, I let it ride after three laps and got into the car.  Maybe I'll swing the whole course next week, after today's particularly annoying Parkrun. I wondered if the others creeping on past me would ever let me go in peace, instead of inflicting themselves and their children on my presence and threatening to knock me down in the process. It seemed that although I deliberately held back on my walk today, I was constantly being approached and passed throughout the course...very irritating, and scary because I dared never to veer at all in any direction! I did get some exercise from the Parkrun experience...maybe things will turn out well next week.  In all, I did the three walking laps in exactly one hour, and Melissa helped me a lot by providing some electrolyte hydration after each completed lap.  My intention is to enjoy the outdoors for a little while this afternoon, inserting some backyard walking and/or light jogging into the mix, which I plan to keep short for the unseasonably hot weather.  Later on I'll check my Facebook to see if one of the Parkrun folks got a pic of me in that race...my suspicion is that they're deliberately shunning me. I'm still getting the chemo treatment for my brain cancer that was identified last October...let's see how the Lord gets me through it all...He's in complete control...  

Quote of the Week...from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.            --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th century American philosopher and essayist, a proponent of transcendentalism, which he presented in his essay Nature...I haven't read any of his works, only picking up the above quote on my Music Choice Soundscapes TV channel. Emerson clearly was an advocate of folks getting off their butts and getting outside and active, and I have to admit that he had a point here.  When I look back on my life, some of the happiest times were when I was in the great outdoors, be it running long courses or riding my bicycle or experiencing the beach or hiking down a wooded trail or eating outside or climbing a tree or taking a walk in the neighborhood or riding a theme park roller coaster or star-gazing or just sitting out on my porch.  That having been said, until just recently the weather here in northern Florida has been nothing short of awful, with heat and mugginess defining the conditions.  Once it finally began to cool and dry up a bit, I enjoyed outdoor activities once again.  But yesterday, although it was pleasantly cool early on, the humidity was way too high, and today (and tomorrow) rain and storms will prevail.  So sure, Ralph, I'll live in the sunshine (when the sun is out), swim the sea (when there aren't sharks, jellyfish or rip currents), and drink the wild air (when there aren't forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes or sand/dust storms).  Come to think of it, on this rainy, slushy morning the idea of just hunkering down here within the secure confines of my house sounds pretty appealing...

Annoying Seasonal Respiratory Allergies Appearing

This past Saturday I went on one of my four-mile runs through my own neighborhood, the adjacent subdivision, and down NW 53rd Avenue and back.  It was a good run, but afterwards I began to show the signs of seasonal respiratory allergies...sneezing, sniffling and coughing...which have bothered me over the course of several years.  I took a Zyrtec that night, and it alleviated my symptoms.  I've noticed some others in my workplace and in stores and church in different states of allergic distress as well during the last few weeks of this extremely early spring season...my heart goes out to them.  Last night I sat out on my back porch to keep our dog Freckles company as she roamed sniffing around the yard.  No mosquitos yet, thankfully, but I could sense those little particles of plant emissions that have plagued me so much in recent years...time for another Zyrtec.  Still, I enjoyed it out there with the bright stars, a misty fog beginning to sweep in, and the pungent smell of flowers permeating the air.  I'm not going to allow respiratory allergies to ruin my spring...the temperatures are warm but not excessively so and I've noticed that I run the best under these conditions.  With a little help from the pharmaceutical industry to treat my allergies...and possibly a little later from the companies making mosquito repellent...I'm determined to spend more time outdoors during the upcoming weeks...
 

Went Boating With Friends Yesterday

Yesterday our friends Richard and Kelly invited Melissa and me to join them on their boat, going up the St. John's River (which is actually southward).  Their marina, the launch and return point of our excursion, is on the river's east bank in Satsuma, a small community in eastern Putnam County.  We went a few miles up river, with thick forests on its west side and numerous homes, apartments, and docks on the east.  Along the way we encountered several osprey nests, rising high above water in the center of the river, built at the top of man-made markers.  The parent ospreys were very protective of their nests, which at this time of year were full of their young offspring...our passing by didn't exactly please them as they hovered about and threatened to buzz us.  Eventually we made our way to where the Ocklawaha River empties into the St. John's and veered to the right.  At this point we encountered numerous manatees, who seemed naturally curious about our boat and its occupants.  One of them got very close to Melissa as she was leaning over the edge, and it gave her a friendly snort with its muzzle sticking out of the water as it looked at her.  Richard piloted the boat very carefully and skillfully around these gentle and noble beasts...unfortunately, we saw several other crafts that whizzed by without any apparent regard for the wildlife around them.  After hanging around the mouth of the Ocklawaha for a while among the manatees, we made our way up that river, whose flow has been greatly stemmed since the construction of the Rodman Dam in 1971 that created a reservoir behind it.  Going up the Ocklawaha River for a few miles was marked by many sharp meanderings, and we were surrounded by wilderness...much different from our St. John's River experience and probably a lot different from the Ocklawaha on the other side of that dam...

After we made our way back to the marina, we all went to a seafood restaurant, called "Shrimp R Us and More", which is in the small town of Welaka...incidentally, also situated on the St. John's River just opposite of where the Oklawaha empties into it (and where we encountered the manatees).  The food and service there was top-notch, with generous portions of shrimp for the price...and I was happy to be able to order cheesy grits, one of my favorites, as a side dish...

As you can see from the photos, the weather couldn't have been better for our trip...I only regret that during our close encounter with that manatee I got lost in the moment and forgot to take a picture, although in another I've posted you can see a couple of them breaking the water's surface in the distance.  Richard and Kelly were wonderful and thoughtful, and we deeply appreciate having been able to spend some very enjoyable hours with them yesterday...