Have some mean forces of this world conspired to stop me from running? First Mr Achilles goes on strike, then I lose my Garmin (everyone knows that once hooked on those Garmin graphs and maps running without a Garmin requires uber-human dedication) and then today my car would not start. So it happened my hubby was not home and I am car-illiterate. I drive it and am quite good at that, that is where my love affair with cars ends. It breaks and I overpay somebody else to figure out how to fix it. But today, on a Sunday, even the dealer hotline was dead. Like they would advise me over the phone for free how to fix a 10 year old car. Sure.
The problem was that the key refused to turn in the ignition. I remembered from years ago to try and move the steering wheel and then turn the key, but that did not work. Oh, the wonderful world of the internet we live in. I Googled and Googled (I actually took my laptop to the garage) and after trying what seemed thousands of remedies, I managed to get it started. And I am glad it started when it did because the next advice I found was to bang the ignition "thing" with a hammer. After an hour of total frustration, hammering that darn thing seemed like an excellent idea. So the solution that worked was to turn the key at the same time as I was turning the steering wheel.
Of course by the time I got going it was almost noon, full sun on the trail, and quite a bit warmer than I would like but I was really determined to run. And since my runs are very short these days the sun was not really a problem. Actually I've been reading that vitamin D is very important in preventing and curing some, and that includes breast, cancers.
Oh, why didn't I run out of the house? Well, it is quite hilly here so before I can get any reasonable miles in the hills I need to strengthen my Achilles on flatter trails. I could run in my neighborhood but that would be even a shorter run and I really want to see some decent weekly miles in my log.
Once I started running I was totally happy and the only thing that clouded my run was a charred slope by the trail. Just a few days ago it was covered with beautiful golden grasses. After so many years living in CA it still amazes me how careless people can be casually tossing their cigarette butts out their cars' windows. Fortunately the fire did not spread and the damage was small. The ranger who passed by told me this was not a control burn. This is the time of year when I start worrying about fires. Maybe we should make smoking illegal everywhere in the state. I would not mind that at all.
