Pictures AND there was a fire in St. John's

check out pics at Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/drbob1951/StJohnSNewfoundlandAndNearbyAndAFire#

Bill was all blow and no show

We are in St. John's and it is 16C headed for 22C with slight wind and no rain. One day at a time, one breath at a time.
I am supposed to run 3.5 miles at a tempo pace (which has been 8:30 a mile recently, Much too fast, so I can slow it down if I want to). Hard part is the 2 1/2 hour time change, the long run Sunday, the most sleep I have had in one night in 6 months, and the biggest breakfast I have had in 9 months. But I am about to change into shorts and get out there for the half hour it will take. (How many "nows" are there in half an hour?).
We are going on a tour of the old parts of St. John's this afternoon. Maybe out for dinner this evening. I may even have some pictures to post.

Breathing on Sunday afternoon

I ran 18.25 miles this morning. One step at a time. The full marathon is only 8 miles farther than that. I did it in 3 hours, which is a 4:20 marathon time. I can still stand up, slowly, and I can walk. I am not interested in stairs, but I did get up to our third floor. I am still breathing. Hurricane Bill is now creaming Nova Scotia, and then turning east. It looks like the tropical storm will likely hit the southeastern part of Newfoundland, probably leaving St. John's alone. If you call 40-60 km winds and rain, with 15C temperatures "alone". But we will get there, at least so far as it looks now. I have checked in online and we have our boarding passes. When I breathe in, I know I am breathing in and when I breathe out, I know I am breathing out. And I am not pissed off. Life IS good.

Breathing on a Saturday night

It is a nice day. That is what people say when they are having trouble staying in the moment. "Nice".
Tomorrow (which is NOT in this moment, at least yet) I have an 18 mile run to do. It was going to be a prelude to Julie coming with me to Newfoundland on Monday. Although Environment Canada needs to look again at the map on Sunday morning before committing themselves, there is a hurricane (Bill) much bigger than the entire Maritime Provinces, heading DIRECTLY for Newfoundland. Air Canada is offering to change flight bookings for free for the next 2 days at least. The Huricane Center in the USA is saying that there will be winds from 39-70 MPH (that is MILES, not Km) in the 36-48 hour time period from now, approximating our arrival time. Or the time we be sitting in Winnipeg wondering when we may be able to leave for our trip.
I still have Saturday evening and I still have my 18 mile run. One breath and one step at a time. Then I will be really tired and I will probably sleep a lot.
Then, in a particularly un-Buddhist fashion, I think I am going to be really pissed off.
Check out the satelite picture if it is still there:
http://weatheroffice.gc.ca/data/satellite/hrpt_emar_vis_100.jpg

Julie Bob and Bill

Julie and I are supposed to go to St John's Newfoundland on Monday. So is hurricane Bill. The bad news is that the National Hurricane Center in the USA is predicting that Bill will run right through St John's and has a 50% chance of having some very strong (70-80 MPH) winds by then. The worse news is that Environment Canada is forecasting "periods of rain" for Monday. That SOUNDS good, but they haven't been right yet this summer.
Keep watching for more exciting news. It could be worse. We could already be there.

Sigh.

One breath at a time.

Curiosity

I chose "monetize" which adds advertising to my blog. Apparently, when visitors click on an ad, I earn money. It is supposed to be "smart" in that it takes content from what I write and inserts adds that reflect that content, thereby attracting people who have an interest in that content to those content related adds.
My curiosity is this: what if I insert text that reflects what I would like the ads to be and see if it works. Here goes:

Amazon Canada
Buddhism
Cycling
Running
Photography
Photoshop
Travel
Woodworking

Let's give it a day or so and see :-)

Seven Year Itch

Shingles gives new meaning to seven year itch. Today is our 7th Anniversary! I have eight children, a newly renovated house, a fantastic wife, and I can run farther and faster than I ever could. Ben Gay ointment changes the horrible itchy pain into a warm irritating but tolerable pain. Valacyclovir is supposed to fix this within one week (instead of 2-3) and it is supposed to reduce the chances of post-herpetic neuralgia from 1 in 5 to less than that.
Life is good.