A friendly walk

My last two nights of walking with different friends has been profitable in a couple of ways.
Monday night's walk with neighbor Christine was instead of our usual run. We had both just eaten dinner and felt too heavy to run.
I found a penny, too!
Tonight's walk was with my long-time friend Beth, who is visiting from Florida.

Beth and Lisa

I've known Beth for 25 years. Hard to believe it has been that long! We even went to Italy together for 10 days several years ago. For both of us, it was the first time in Europe and Italy. I've been back three more times to Italy, but Beth has a husband and a son and she hasn't had an opportunity (yet) to return.
That was a great adventure. Rome, Florence, Venice and a half day in Pisa. We kept joking that the farther north we went on our trip, the smaller the bathrooms got. By the time we were in Venice, the shower was about the size of a postage stamp.
We were talking tonight about that trip, and about how much we loved gelato. We got our first taste of it in Rome, in a gelateria right by Trevi Fountain. I can still picture the shop, and I've been back to it each time I've been back in Rome. Now when I go to Italy, I make every effort to eat my weight in gelato while I'm there. Just can't find anything similar in the States.
Tonight I found three pennies! Closer yet to that mocha latte or espresso or whatever year-end reward.
So here is to rewarding friendships. They are always profitable.

First harvest, fun run, big headache

My friend Liora reminded me today that I likely jinxed myself when I said I was afraid I would run out of blog topics. Days like this one remind me I will never run out of blog topics.

I pulled the first cherry tomato from the garden Friday evening. I have a Roma tomato just about ready, too, but this little guy was ready to come off. He was delicious. :)

Cherry tomato from my garden

This morning was the fifth annual Save Our Skin 5K. My neighbor Christine and my co-worker Joann joined me on the run.

Christine and Lisa

Joann and Lisa

We did very well. I was really pleased with my time today. It was even a little cool this morning because of a bad thunderstorm that came through Friday night.

Which leads me to the big headache portion of this blog.

I came home from the run and needed to mow, but before I could mow, I needed to pick up the tree debris, small branches and twigs that were littering my yard.

It was then I spotted this.

Branch sticking out of my roof from storm Friday night

OH CRAP!

I ran into the house and went up in the attic and sure enough, it was all the way through the roof.

Yep, all the way through the roof. That was some strong wind!

DOUBLE CRAP!

I had heard a loud "bang" Friday night, but because it was so dark and so stormy, all I could see were some small branches and twigs on the ground. I thought a branch had hit the roof and fallen off, harming nothing. Wrong!

In fact, you could not see the limb in the roof from the front of the house. I guess it was good I needed to mow and came around the house from the back.

Thankfully, I found a roofer via the Better Business Bureau website and he came over this afternoon. I've never been so happy in my life to have a man on my roof hammering. The sound of happiness.
My roof is fixed. I'm $400 poorer. Bring on the rain!!
No found money on today's 5K, but I did find a penny on Wednesday on my way out to dinner with a friend, so the piggy got fed this week.

Leo Tolstoy's hospital stay

Well, if you really want to catch up on your reading, sit in the waiting room or a patient's room of your local hospital.
When my father was still in the emergency room being treated for his initial injuries, I drove home to put the packed lunch away and grab some things from my parents' house -- namely my Mom's Kindle and my Anna Karenina tome.
Oh my gosh did I get quite a bit of it read in the past few days. There was really nothing else to do. Dad would doze off a bit, or he might watch a little TV. But he was really in too much pain just to carry on a conversation. So Mom and I just sat and read our books.
And really what I'm getting is that Anna Karenina is like any other Harlequin romance. Well, without the heaving bosoms and swelling manhoods. But there is love and lust and marriage and infidelity and broken hearts and romantic misunderstandings and meddling friends. It's your basic soap opera set in Russia.
Father's Day weekend also turned out to be a bit profitable for the piggy bank.
The drive to my parents' house is four hours, mostly along Interstate 20, so I usually stop and grab a McDonald's hamburger Happy Meal along the route. It is the only time I eat McDonald's. I so rarely eat fast food, but get the Happy Meal with the sliced apples instead of fries and the whole meal is under 300 calories!
I went to sit down at a table, but the air vent was blowing right on me and I knew I would be cold, so I moved to another table and found four pennies on the floor by that table. :)
I found a quarter in the Wal-Mart parking lot after shopping there with my mother. I found two more pennies somewhere else (a store parking lot).
And tonight on my running route, I found two more pennies!
Maybe I should send all of that back to my parents to help them pay for this hospital bill. I don't even want to think of what that is going to cost them, and they are both on Medicare.
So Leo and I are quite an item now. I'm not quite half way done with Anna Karenina. I'm not sure that after I finish the book I'll want to read War and Peace. I think something shorter and lighter will be in order.

Broken bones and a broken heart

Today is Father's Day and I drove to South Carolina on Thursday to visit my parents. I was looking forward to a special luncheon with my mother, and then celebrating Father's Day.
The weekend I planned was not the weekend I got.
On Friday, as my mother and I were just starting our luncheon, my father fell off a ladder while pruning a tree at the house, breaking his left wrist and fracturing his left pelvis.
Mom got the call he'd been hurt and we had our lunch packed in a box -- didn't even get to eat -- and drove straight to the emergency room of the local hospital.
My father will recover, but it will be a slow process, and will be difficult for such an athletic, active man.
Let me explain. My 72-year-old father does not look or act like your typical 72-year-old man. He is an avid cyclist and has been for years. He looks at least 10 years younger.
Here's a photo of us from about 10 years ago on vacation in Florida. He doesn't look like he's in his 60s there, does he?

Dad and Lisa at Treasure Island, Fla.

He rides 35 to 40 miles about three times a week. He's done numerous century rides, covering 100 miles in a day. In the early 1990s, he did an East Coast ride, starting in Maine and finishing in Florida in three weeks.
My father started jogging first, in the 1970s, when jogging really started to take off, but trouble with his knees put him on a bike. He keeps telling me that one day I'll be on a bike, too.
He takes an interest in my running, asking me about my races, how I'm doing with my running.
So to see my father flat on his back in a hospital bed, unable to sit up, roll onto his side, or get out of the bed, breaks my heart. I have always known him to be so strong, so active, so athletic.
It is shocking, for me, to see him so vulnerable. I was looking at his hands in the hospital room and suddenly realized they are the hands of an older man. Not a 40- or 50- or even 60-year-old man. And it scared me.
It scared me because it made me realize my parents are getting older. I feel young, so I just feel they are young, too.
And so, I am a little heart broken today to realize my parents, like me, are getting older.

Starting late in life

Many of my friends know that I am a runner. Many assume that I've been a runner for a long time. Well, now it seems like a long time, but I came to this sport "late in life."
I was not a high school runner, nor did I do much running in college. I have some memories of every now and again running around the track at the student field house during college, but once or twice. Not with any regularity.
So what made me start? A little competitive team work.
I was working at the Jacksonville Business Journal in Jacksonville, Fla., and my company fielded a team to participate in the AvMed Corporate Run in April 1999. I was in my early 30s and thought I was in pretty good shape, so I signed up for the 5K.

Jacksonville Business Journal team for AvMed Corporate Run 1999

That's me on the bottom row, second from left.
I was more than embarrassed that it took me 41:53 to cross the finish line. (Oh wait, that looks like some of my recent times! Oh no!) I really thought I could do better than that. So I started training.
I began by walking a mile from my apartment complex and trying to jog back. After a few weeks, I realized I could run the whole way back and soon I was running the whole way.
Then I did something I never thought I would do. I began signing up for other 5K races, trying to better my finishing times. And I was hooked.
A year later, I ran the Corporate Run again and took a full 11 minutes off my time.
I ran my first Gate River Run 15K in 2000 and my first half marathon later that fall.
How do I know when I ran these races and what my times are? I scrapbook all of my races.
I have kept every runner's bib, every time, every date, and every race name and put them all in two very fat scrapbooks. I'm now working on my third scrapbook.
I will say that now that I am getting slower, I've taken a lot of pressure off of myself to better my times. In some ways, it has made my running that much more enjoyable. When I do have a good finishing time, I celebrate that accomplishment, but mostly I enjoy running with my friends. I take their pictures before and after the races, and save mementoes from the races, because they will all go in the scrapbook.
I get a lot of pleasure in looking back and some races and remembering funny things about them, or who I ran them with.
I haven't run since Sunday. I've walked Monday night and tonight. After all that running Saturday and Sunday my legs have felt like lead.
But slowing down didn't mean my exercise was any less profitable. I found a penny Monday night and a penny tonight.
Still feeding that piggy!

The Power of Motown

This morning was the Magnolia Run, a 4-miler that benefits the Epilepsy Foundation of Georgia.
It is a great race to serve as a tune-up for the upcoming Peachtree Road Race on July 4 in Atlanta. The weather conditions are about the same and the conventional wisdom in running is, if you can make 2/3 of the distance goal, you will be able to make it across the finish line. Since the Peachtree Road Race is a 10K, or 6.2 miles, today's 4 mile run is a great way to test stamina.
I will say I have struggled post-cancer treatment with my running. I've watched my running times get slower and slower. Some of that is injury, which I always wonder if chemotherapy didn't help along. You can't put that much poison in your body and not expect that all body parts are affected -- not just the cancer.
During some of this spring's 5K races, I have struggled between miles 2 and 3. But today's race reminded me of why I enjoy running so much. It was a nearly effortless run.
I got to the first mile and didn't need to take a walk break. I got to mile 2 and realized I was having a really good race.

Somewhere between miles 3 and 4 of Magnolia Run

Between mile 3 and 4 there was a little more walking on the hills, but not much. And I finished the race strong. Not just praying to cross the finish line, but really giving it some kick.
And I owe it all to the power of Motown.
Knowing my running play lists are set for a 5K (which means the music runs out at about 38 minutes), I made a new play list for the Magnolia Run, consisting of all Motown hits.
Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, the Jackson 5, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, all helped me keep my legs turning. I defy you not to walk or run a little faster when you hear "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."
And guess what I found on the route? You guessed it, another penny!
This one is a little more than road worn. :) You can't really tell which is heads or tails.

Penny found on Magnolia Run

I guess it will spend just as well as a new one. I found a dime in the grocery store parking lot two days ago. That went in the piggy bank, too. I'm not a purist. Found money is found money.
So the rest of the afternoon will be spent running errands and getting ready for a friend's son's graduation party. But there may be a little more spring in my step today. For I have found the power of Motown.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?
My summer garden has been in the ground since early April. I have planted a summer garden for well over 20 years, even when I lived on a second story of an apartment complex in Jacksonville, Fla. I just grew tomatoes and cucumbers in 5-gallon buckets. It works very well, just remember to drill drain holes in the bottom of the buckets and keep the soil moist, because in the soil in the buckets dries out faster.
Ever since I've been living in my house, which is nearly eight years now, I've tried to grow one new thing besides my tomatoes and cucumbers.
A few years ago it was yellow squash. I've also done snap peas. They rarely made it into the house. I just stood at the plant and would eat the two or three that were ready to pick!
The past couple of years I've tried my hand at eggplant. The first two tries were with Ichiban eggplant, or Japanese eggplant. It's the long, thin eggplant. I got a few to ripen, but that was a bit of a disappointment. I was ready for some eggplant!
I couldn't find the Ichiban eggplant seedlings this year, so ended up with a traditional "Black Beauty" eggplant. Now I'm really hoping I get some produce from these plants.

Black Beauty eggplant

I've also planted Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and what I call "slicing" tomatoes. They are Big Boy variety and when they start coming in I pretty much begin my summer diet of BLTs with fresh tomatoes, turkey bacon and lettuce. It's making my mouth water just thinking about them.

Sweet 100s

Roma tomatoes

Big Boy tomatoes

I also have some volunteer squash growing in the garden. Quite unexpected and more a mistake on my part. This winter I was a little lazy about my composting and sometimes just threw my vegetable matter right onto the garden plot, rather than to the backyard where my sad attempt at a true compost pile is located. I think I have butternut squash seeds that have decided to come up. I have no idea if they will do well in the summer. I probably should have torn the whole bunch out, but I'm willing to see what happens. I can always take them out if they get way out of hand (and they look like they might!)
I should get the first ripe tomatoes by July 4.
Until then, I'll dream of yummy BLTs and watch how my garden grows.

A happy surprise

I love to garden. I've planted vegetables, mostly tomatoes, every summer since I've been out of college, which is more years than I'm willing to publish.
I've also almost always had houseplants, but those have usually been the low-maintenance variety. Spider plants, philodendron, snake plants, etc.
So I was delighted, and more than a bit intimidated, when I received an orchid as a gift. I have never owned one and knew nothing about how to care for them.
I'm trying to remember if I read "The Orchid Thief" before or after I got the plant as a gift. I imagined them very difficult to maintain.
My little orchid plant was in full bloom when I received it. And one by one the blooms all were spent. I was left with some green leaves and what looked like a twig sticking out of the pot.
But I had overheard, and I mean that very literally, a woman telling her friend that she had thrown out what my orchid plant now looked like, and the friend berated her, saying she should not have thrown it out, that it would bloom again.
So I kept my twig plant on my kitchen window sill all winter, watering it about once a week when the soil looked a little dry.
Lo and behold, another twig began to grow off of a "spent" twig, then blooms appeared. Two blooms fell off without ever opening.
But just last week one opened!

I suppose the little lesson for me is to have more patience. A happy surprise awaits.

Hot dog! It's summer

Just came in from an evening run with my neighbor Christine. Truth be told, I really wanted to walk tonight. I had no great desire to run in 93 degree heat -- and it was 7 pm when we set out. What crazy person runs in 93 degree heat? Us, apparently, with some hill walking thrown in for good measure.
Found this little gem on a mail box along the running route. My thoughts, exactly!

Now I think I'll just spend the rest of the evening sipping home-brewed iced tea and reading a little more of Anna Karenina.

Summer fun at Summerfest 5K

What a hot, hilly run this morning.
This was the first time I've run the Summerfest 5K in the Virginia-Highland area of Atlanta. I've run other races in that community, and I know how hilly it is. A friend posted on Facebook about the hills and I replied "but at least we'll have great looking calves!" Yep. My calves are chatting about those hills from this morning.
I've been nursing a running injury for a few years now -- one that kept me from running for about six months a couple of years ago.
So it has been fun, and surprising, to have run the number of 5Ks I've run this year so far. I've run at least three 5Ks a month. For me, that is a lot. Normally I just run one or two a month.
But in a way, it has been lots of fun, too, because I've run with several different friends and running buddies.
This morning, I ran with my friend Michelle. Here we are pre-race, looking fresh as daisies. :)

I don't know if Michelle would appreciate my posting the post-race photo. We no longer look "fresh as daisies." To preserve our friendship, I'll keep that one on the desktop.
The other nice thing about the Summerfest 5K was because it was before the festival actually started, as I walked back to my car, I could visit the early artists and vendors, without the huge crowds I'm sure are there right now. No, I won't be hearing the bands, etc. But it was nice to be able to leisurely walk up the street and see the beautiful and interesting art that was for sale today. I hope the artists do well this weekend.
This might be a race I do again next year. Just don't tell my calves.

The Summer of Leo

I read a lot of books. I like fiction, non-fiction, biographies, autobiographies. And at least once a year I want to read a classic.
So this year I dragged -- and I do mean dragged -- "Anna Karenina" off my book shelf. I'm not quite sure where I acquired this tome. Seriously,  736 pages. One of those old-fashioned faux-leather books that is more a show book than a well-worn best seller book. More adept at pressing flowers or using to bench press than to read.

But here I am, 61 pages into a Leo Tolstoy classic. I've read plenty of classics -- and not just because it was required reading in high school or college.
On my own I've read "Crime and Punishment," "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" (I personally rush to read any book that someone wants to ban). And in the past couple of years I've read "Innocents Abroad" and "Gone With the Wind."
I must say there are some parts of "Anna Karenina" I am enjoying. Leo Tolstoy's use of language. I found it ironic that in the first chapter one of the main characters is caught "carrying on an intrigue" with the French governess. This just after a certain former California governor was caught "carrying on an intrigue" with the housekeeper.
I was intrigued by the use of the term intrigue. I guess no one had affairs in Leo's day. They just had intrigues. :)
And I added another cent to the "found money" piggy bank today. I had run into Saks Fifth Avenue to get a free sample of a cosmetic. Ironic that I should find money outside an upscale department store.
Even though I was not running or exercising when I found the penny, I count it as found money and it is going in the bank. I shook the bank last night. There's enough in there to make noise.
And now, for more of Leo. I might take me all summer to uncover all of these intrigues. I hope it will be well worth it.

Penny for your thoughts

Penny for your thoughts.
My thoughts? Gee, will anyone want to read my musings? I hope so. I hope I have something thoughtful to say.
I hope this blog is enlightening, funny. inspiring, and fun.
This blog will be about running, gardening, pets, reading, cooking, and, cancer.
For many of you my cancer journey is over. For me, it is NEVER over. Wish it were different, but it is not. Cancer. The gift that keeps on taking.
No, after five years, my cancer is not back. But I live with the side effects of all of my cumulative treatment every day. Some days are better than others. A lot of days are better than others. But then, the discomfort of lymphadema and the tightness from radiation and the fatigue of just all that crappy treatment rear their collective ugly heads and I am reminded once again of what I have gone through and survived. So there will be a little whining in this blog for good measure. :)
So, a penny for your thoughts? Why a penny for your thoughts?
Since the beginning of the year, I have been depositing the money (YES, MONEY) I have found while running. My first day out -- Jan. 1 -- I found a quarter! Two days ago I found a penny while running and I realized I really wanted a forum to write about the found money, and other topics.  And so, a blog.
Found money, you ask.
I had read in a running magazine about a guy who collected all of the change he found while running and when I found that quarter I decided I would save my found money for a year and see how much I actually find. I doubt my running will turn into a full-time money-making endeavor, but what the heck. I hope to have at least enough for a coffee or Diet Pepsi at the end of the year!
I'm saving my found money in a cute little piggy bank my friend Marcia -- a "pink" friend (that means she's a breast cancer survivor like me) -- give me when I visited her in Kansas City. It's a darling little pig. She gave the bank to me because she said Kansas City is known for its barbecue and the pig represented that. I love that little pig. I'll post a photo of it.

And so, I become a blogger. Welcome to the daisy chain, where I link together random thoughts among friends.