All The Hullabaloo, In Photos

Here is our tree that was struck by lightning and fell across the road. Our tree was one of about six that blocked our street (which is a pretty big road in Chapel Hill.) There were literally hundreds of trees down in the city. Up the block a utility pole was broken in half and a transformer exploded. Nice. No wonder our electricity was wonky for two days.

Durham didn't seem to get hit as hard so Saturday's run on the Tobacco Trail was great. It's very flat and feels safe to me. Have I bragged enough about running 7 miles in a row? (I have to brag while I can because this week's runs are 4, 4, and 8 miles. EIGHT - eek.)

This is the ATT. Isn't it pretty? John was my personal sherpa. He would ride his bike ahead and give me water and shot bloks every few miles. It was amazing. I've tried carrying water but I can't carry enough of it first of all and second of all, it throws off my gait to have something so heavy in one hand. I'm thinking about getting one of those fuel belts, but I'm worried about having something around my hips. (I already have issues feeling like two-ton Tessie as I lumber along. Having extra sloshing and padding around my widest part is NOT appealing, but dehydration is even less appealing I suppose.)


Sunday I was Donna's sherpa. She had a great seven mile run, too. Can you tell by her smile? Actually I think she ran 7.25 but could have run a few more miles.











While getting ready for John's birthday, we wandered around the American Tobacco Campus which is right next to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. I think this bike rack is fun. I enjoy when functional things are made in creative, interesting ways, don't you?

The Tobacco Campus has all kinds of coolie little restaurants and shops. I guess it used to be the tobacco processing plant (?) and for a long time was run down, inner city ickiness. Durham has done a beautiful job of renovating the whole area.

There are intriguing water fountains and patios and flowers all over the place. It's a wonderful date night to grab a bite to eat and stroll around. Sometime (when I don't have "missions" to plan) I'd like to explore a bit more.



But on to the birthday celebration! John turned 39 on Monday. We decided to make a big deal out of it because a) it's too predictable to wait until 40 and b) he gives us a moderate amount of crap for being "older women" and deserved to have the tables turned.

We (Agent Smith and Agent Smith - see photo) started the day by waking him up with the "Secret Agent Man" song. His first mission was to take his Agent-In-Training (17 year old son "Bug") to the secret location marked on the map and teach him to exchange units of universal power ($) for units of universal fuel (caffeine.)

His next mission involved memorizing this flow chart, eating secret agent chow, and drinking "Potion #6" for stamina. (John is a very good sport.)

The boy was sent all over town on missions - mostly to acquire his birthday presents and to eat. Sometimes he had assistants. Everyone was required to wear their G4/XM12 Eco-transponders (i.e. nametags) with logos on them. (The special UNDERWATER agents were friends of ours whose house in Carrboro flooded during the storms.) Oh, and all pictures should be clickable (as usual) if you can't see details in the smaller version. Sometimes getting pictures into Blogger just right is a pain!


Weirdly, on a mission to Cold Stone Creamery, Agents A-1, The Bug, and Slim Dunk helped fight crime! They were able to describe and identify some drifters they'd witnessed stealing. The day ended with our party of 12 secret agents noshing on yummy Indian food at a little place John has wanted to check out for months. A good time was had by all.

We got back to training with a four mile run yesterday. There were still so many trees down that we had to skirt utility crews three times on the trail and a cyclist passed us saying she'd not been able to get through and had to turn around. Today we've got a ride (on the trainer since the weather is iffy again) and a swim. I guess I better go rummage around and find some better fuel than Pringles!