Catch Up

A few months ago, some friends mentioned that it wasn't good when I stopped blogging--it's their only way of knowing that I'm alive! So, dear reader, in case you were wondering what happened between a post whose last words were 'Beer now' and today, four days later: no, I did not go out on a bender and spend the last 96 hours lying in a Philadelphia gutter / laid up in the hospital / thrown in the slammer after my Knob Creek-tastic Friday night. No, I've been to Michigan and back for my grandmother's 80th.

Saturday: nothing (drove 8.5hrs Philadelphia -> Ann Arbor).

Sunday: ran ~4mi along the basins of the Huron in Gallup Park. It's kind of weird that I don't have a favorite place to run in Ann Arbor. My running loops are a big part of the connections I feel to the places I've lived--Boston, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Grenoble, etc. And it's strange that I don't have that in Ann Arbor.

Monday: woke up at 5am and drove Westland -> Philadelphia; did an evening run with Clare up the river. She ran up to Girard St and I did a little extra leg out to US Grant and caught her on the return leg, then back down 22nd St. Mostly an easy pace, but kicked it up for ~10min in the middle, so felt like I got a good workout.

Also built up my bike! Modulo fiddling witih the shifting, it's ready to ride!! Planning a bike trip around Philly for us tomorrow.

Here's Clare's report of our roadtrip back:

Overall the trip was fairly uneventful. We didn't run out of gas, or get run off the road, hit anything, or have anything hit us. It was smooth and quiet, like Asphalt. We left in the dark of the Detroit suburbs, still lit brightly with extravagant Christmas decor. The lit, sometimes moving, 'deer in the lawn' seem to be the most popular. Other versions of Moose (nice) and polar bear were less trendy, but I appreciated their display. It was so colorful driving through the neighborhoods last night I almost didn't notice when we turned out of the Wayne County Festival of Lights tour and started home. I was bit bleary eyed when we left, but like I said, I "naturally" woke up at 4:15 am was swiftly diagnosed with bronchitis, sent on out with bags of food and hot tea (decaf, what the?).

We made a vow to not stop in Ohio (since Ohio sucks) but later remember that they have cheaper gas, causing a break at the PA border for McDonald's coffee and gas. The real pleasure of Ohio was the vanity license plates. I started to notice them due to the boredom, and then liked interpreting them following it up by checking out the driver and usually being totally surprised.

The winner was a confident plump man in his mid-30s who named himself or his killer Chevy Aero car " STRM FOX". Storm Fox, well that makes it more fun I guess. Runner up was a Cutlass Supreme complete with a hanging rack in the back seat with button up shirts on it. The driver, even larger that STRM FOX, had long balding blond hair, hadn't shaved in a few days, and was wearing glasses from 1989. This was "Bandito". yeah. Honorable mention was really a puzzle, a woman with 3 MDF - we only mention her because we remarked that if you're going to get a vanity license plate, you at least have to make it good. Which is why STRM FOX is the obvious winner.