"Hello" Again!

Farmington Canal Linear Park trail 71 degrees. 5 miles; Splits: 8:54; 8:58; 8:56; 8:56; 8:50 44:34; 8:54 per mile pace.

Thank-you to the 6 of you who commented on my short post yesterday. You're all nuts! :-)

Yesterday I ran. Yesterday I remembered what a gift it is to be able to run. Yesterday I appreciated the fact I can run; can enjoy running on a beautiful spring day, on a scenic trail, with lots of people enjoying the day and being active. Yesterday's "music" while I ran was the sounds of nature and people talking.

CRAZY past week. Sunday my wife Kathy and I celebrated our 29th anniversary at Mohegan Sun casino. We had a fun time, but of course didn't win big. However, a growler of Thomas Hooker beer and good food helped ease the pain of losing money. Then another type of loss on Monday. My son called me at 9 a.m. while we were at the casino to tell me my cat "Ace" had been hit by a car and died. Ace was my best bud. He was the cat at the pound that nobody wanted. He wasn't a "lap cat," or so everyone thought. When I told the pound a couple of years ago that I wanted to adopt him, they thought I was crazy. He had scratched me the day before when I petted him for what he thought was too long a period of time. He was a cat that thought he was a dog. We would wrestle; he would lay on my lap and wake me up if I fell asleep by shoving his butt in my face. He was a big boy-16 lbs. of love. He even sounded like he said "Hello" if you dared to ignore him whenever he wanted to go out or come in. So Ace is dead...buried in our backyard. We planted some perennials in his memory, and I'm moving on. We'll probably adopt a cat named "Charlie" from the pound today. Charlie is a macho kinda guy, and another cat that nobody wants to adopt since he's not a kitten. My son's cat, Reyes (named after Jose Reyes of the Mets) will be mad. Oh well! UPDATE: We adopted Charlie Sunday night. It pays to have a co-worker who also works at the pound :-)
I've been back to see "Sweet Melissa" for physical therapy (PT) twice this past week. I'm approved for 3 more visits, and this time I WILL get my shit together by joining the gym there and strengthening my ridiculously weak left leg, and not so strong either right leg. I have had absolutely no motivation to run lately. That's not like me. The weather has been perfect for running. I used to have the excuse that my left knee was bothering me. I don't have that excuse now. It feels about 90%, and I'm confident will be 100% real soon. I joined a running group a few months ago, but out of its 200 or so members, only about 5 actually go out and run as a group. They run about 10 miles from my house, which is fine. What isn't fine is their 8 a.m. weekend runs and no scheduled weekday evening runs. So I guess in reality the free running group I joined is not really a running group at all. I have a few co-workers that have told me for the past 6 months that they either want to learn to run, or just go for a run with me. You guessed it-it hasn't happened. I've given up reminding them it's time to get their asses out and run. So running alone=less motivation for me to run. I'm registered for a half in a month. Time to get it together. So, a start. I joined a team of 14 women and 3 men and will be running next Saturday, June 5th, in the Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure. It's a 5K race and walk to raise money for breast cancer. I'm on a team called "Sonny's Girls." LOL at the team name if you want. My daughter and 2 co-workers are on the team with me. We need to raise $1500 as a team. I know a lot of you donated money to team Autism Speaks when I ran the NY City Marathon last November, but if you have a spare $5 or so that you can donate, please do. Just click on the link here.
As usual, you guys are very supportive whenever I post. As usual, I'm a week behind on blogging. I won't apologize (Thanks, Anne), but I will say once again "Thanks." Thanks for reading my blog, thanks for writing your blogs, and most importantly THANKS for supporting "Iron Mike" after I posted on May 23rd that he needs our support. Isn't it wonderful what a great support group of runners/bloggers you all are? You're 73 of my favorite friends, even though I've only met 4 of you in person. Enjoy the remainder of this weekend, and don't forget the reason we have a three day weekend: It's not about the cookouts and sales at the mall. The real meaning behind Memorial Day is to honor service men and women who died while serving our country.