Weekend Update

Cooterinos, it's Sunday night and I'm gonna take a few minutes to rap at ya. I'm not going to lie, I had a great weekend. I'm sure there's something I can rant about, but it's gonna take some real thinking to come up with it. Oh, I just thought of something. I'll get to it in a minute...

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Take it Up a Notch

Allow me to set the stage for you. I was out on Friday night, enjoying the brisk Berkshire air on an easy 10 miler. It was supposed to be a short run, but anything much shorter is hardly worth suiting up for^TM.

So anyway, we were splitting up at the end and going our separate ways when we starting trying to plan some things for the weekend. The idea of xc skiing came up and I entertained it, but wasn't really excited. It's one of those things I have to do once to remember that I like it, then I'm all about it.

Saturday afternoon we headed up to Notchview to use their perfectly groomed trails and enjoy the warm early January weather. They were predicting temperatures near 40, which was a real improvement over the 0 we had two days earlier (refer to picture above). Sho nuff when we got there I knew a whole bunch of people up there and the conversations all went like this:

Oh wow, hey! I didn't expect to see you here. Are you just getting here or finishing up? Yeah? How's the snow? Oh, great. Yeah it looks perfect out there. Do you skate or ski classical? Yeah, me too. I don't think I'm coordinated enough to skate (a round of chuckling). Alright, good to see you. You gonna be back tomorrow? Yeah, I might too. We'll see how my legs feel after today. It's my first day out this year (another round of chuckling).

Then, you saw someone else you knew and the conversation repeated itself.

The skiing was almost ideal to boot. It was 32 degrees, perfectly groomed, no ice, no rocks/dirt exposed, no wind, the sun was shining. Ahhhhhh. We did about 5 miles before I had to head in for cocoa while the rest of my crew did another quick mile. I was a little tired from the run the night before and was getting the low blood sugar cranks, so I had to quit early.

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Yes, No, Wait Yes, No

I won't smear their rapidly improving name, but I volunteer at a local theater from time to time. It's a nice way to get to see shows for free and help out at the same time. My only beef with the place is that they typically give me about 12 hours' head's up when I'm scheduled to volunteer. That means I get the call in the morning for an evening show, clutch!

Well Saturday I heard via the grapevine that I was scheduled to be there at 7PM. [sarcasm filter]No problem, my weekend nights are always free.[/sarcasm filter] Not only was I not scheduled to be there according to the calendar they gave me, but there was no show even listed. I was assured I had to be there, so I adjusted my schedule, busted my hump to get ready to go, dug up some old black sneakers because all of my dress shoes are at work and sped off to get there on time. Eeeewrong!

When we pulled into the parking lot it became readily apparent that there was nothing going on. The theater was all black and the lot was empty. So we grabbed some dinner at a local eatery and went home where I looked the damn show up online. They didn't even have it listed on their website. However, the city's website had the show listed, so those fuckers are busted! I would really like to just stop helping out, but I do enjoy free shows.

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Mountaineering, Runner Style

This morning I met my running crew for a snowshoe run up in Greylock Glen. As it turned out, this was the same route we took the first time I ran with them (sans snowshoes), so it was also a trip down memory lane. If you've never run over a mountain for two hours in snowshoes, you can't understand the feeling. Sure, it's tough as hell and you're literally drenched in sweat at the end but it's also a very peaceful experience.

We ran up and then back down the mountain, over streams, down ravines (and up the other side), pet a dog, had snowball fights (AKA ambushes) all under the guise of exercise. What could be better than that?

Afterwards we had breakfast at a little diner, which I love to do, and I had the Lion's Share of coffee to wash down my pancakes, eggs, bacon and homefries.

Awww, honey dip!

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Binners on the Mend

My cat Vinny is almost completely on the mend now. He's his usual punk self and is currently curled up inside my bathrobe in his typical burrow-cat style.

The second best part (after the fact that he's healthy again) is that they shaved his arm for an IV or something. I'm sure he doesn't care, but I've been busting his balls about how ridiculous he looks. "Dude, what's up with your arm? You must have no self-respect with a shaved arm like that."

Ahh, it's good to have the old Vinny back again.


Over and Out,
Old Coot