I Finished Hippie Chick!

They still don't have the results posted, but keep checking - they were supposed to be posted by now. They said something yesterday about having some trouble. They used chips that we wore around our ankle, and they were supposed to register our start and end time. I know I did the full half marathon in under 15 minutes per mile. The time when I crossed the finish line said 3 hours and 12 minutes, and it may have been less if they were timing that starting at 9:00, because I held back and let runners go first, so my start time was a couple minutes after 9:00. I was going to be pleased if I made 16 minutes per mile, and I did way better than that! My hidden competitive spirit emerged!

Anyway, it was great! Perfect cool cloudy weather and my feet didn't even get too sore. I had extra shoes with me in case I needed to change, but I didn't use them. I wore my new Chaco Multisport shoes and they worked great! The only injuries I have is a bruised big toenail on my left foot and plantar fasciitis flaring up on the right foot. Not bad though. Lots of acupuncture and chiropractic and exercising and ice helped keep it from acting up too bad. At least I can still walk, and muscles aren't sore anywhere. I felt really good afterwards and was able to eat a bunch of chocolate!

Someone has to do this with me next year! A bunch of people in my weight training class either signed up and then pooped out between November and now, or didn't sign up in time, so I was all by myself.

Next weekend it's the Lop the Loop in Petersburg. I think that's only 5 miles. It will probably be raining though. But it's the old loop we used to do when we lived there out between the beach and the garbage dump.

P.S. Results are posted. My official time was 3 hours 11 minutes 41 seconds. 14:40 per mile. I was number 435 out of 508.

Excitement in Dundee Last Night

I was in Ashland when this happened. Pretty strange though. I heard that it is a bunch of red necks from the hills that hang out at Lumpy's. Probably like that freaky old guy that chased me off his property when I was canvassing for Kerry in 2004.

Training for the Hippie Chick Half

For the past couple months I have been training for the Hippie Chick Half Marathon, which will be at Champoeg Park on May 10. The half marathon is 13 miles. In March I walked a total of a little over 60 miles. At some point in there, I think after I did a 9 mile walk, my foot started hurting and I had to take it easy for awhile. I learned a couple simple exercises from Patty (weight class instructor) and my foot got better.

So far this month I have walked almost 57 miles, including 10 miles last Saturday and 12 miles today. It took me 3 hours and 11 minutes to do 12.06 miles, and that includes stopping at McDonalds's to pee. I started out going out Old Yamhill Rd and then Tangen Rd. to North Valley Rd., then down Cullen Rd over to Chehalem. Cullen Rd. is a gravel road with big orchards. I came to this one house and these 2 enormous great danes came running out. I started turning around and yelled at them to go home, which they did. Then I didn't know if it was safe to walk past their house or not. So I picked up a bunch of rocks, just in case, since I had forgotten to bring my pepper spray, and decided to brave it. They came out again, but didn't seem menacing. So I just yelled at them some more, and then someone stuck their head out the window and called to them. So I didn't get mauled by giant dogs, which was nice.

Then, a little further on, on Chehalem Drive, I got a migraine, so Rich had to bring me my migraine medicine. He brought my pepper spray too, but I didn't need it at all the rest of the walk.

Feeling good! Feet a tiny bit sore but not bad, and now I know I can do the half marathon! The 12 miles today was easier than the 10 miles last Saturday. Next weekend I'll do 13 miles, then for the 2 weeks until the marathon I am only supposed to do short walks to rest I guess.

Just got hailed on for a couple seconds today, and rained on another little bit. Decided to go today and get it out of the way because the weather is supposed to be crappy all weekend. We have the quilt sale at Baba's house on Saturday and we're going to Eugene on Sunday.

Goats, Goats, and More Goats!

Since Plato the sheep passed away in November, poor little George has been so lonely. Pretty much he hung out by the fence in the corner, next to the sheep next door. I thought about finding a new home for him. Then I had a better thought. More goats. Lots of goats are a good thing, right? I mean, look how well behaved George has been. Nothing like those old Bill and Hillary goats we had once. They were bad goats.

So, I decided to get cashmere goats. Nice soft wool to blend with some of the sheep wool I have sitting around and make nice blended yarns. We found some nearby for not too much. We wanted to get two, but ended up with three. On March 23 we went to pick them up. We brought them home in the pick-up, backed it up into the back field, opened it up and let them out. Within minutes they found George and made friends. He was so-o-o happy - doing his happy dance all over the place, and running around crazy. For a short while George was the head guy, as demonstrated by the highest position on the board pile, but within a few days the big new guy, Capricorn, became the leader. Capricorn is a wether male, about 4 years old. He is 3/4 cashmere and 1/4 angora. In the photos he is shedding, but we were finally able to catch him the other day and comb him, so he looks much better now.
Then there are the two little girls. The little white one is Eos. She is just about a year old I think, pure cashmere. We missed out on combing her - she was losing her wool when we got her and we haven't really been able to catch her yet, but it's all off. She is pretty brave though - she has eaten out of my hand a couple times. Then the other one is another little girl, also about a year old. She is dark - black and beige-ish. She is EXTREMELY shy. She will take some work to catch. I think she still has some good wool on her. Her name is Nyx. She has a little white star on her forehead. She's the one hiding behind the tree in the picture above.
You can see her better in the feeding photos. I have to give each one of them their own dish, or it just turns into a butt-head party and only the big guy would get anything to eat.

So I think we're in for some fun times!

Here's some more photos...

Evee Knievee's Ordeal

She's all better now. Last Wednesday night she had her stitches out. These photos are taken a couple days before that. I was too worried about her to write about it while it was going on. And even though the thought crossed my mind to take a picture of her as a fat kitty on the day it happened, I just couldn't do it.What happened, briefly, was this. On Monday March 3 she went to the vet for dental work. But Dr. Holveck was out of town and had a friend filling in for him. I picked her up at 1:00 or so, brought her home and noticed she was twice her usual size. Bad substitute vet misdiagnosed and said it was a vaccine reaction. Took her to another vet and they said it was subcutaneous emphysema, caused by a torn trachea, from the tube they put down the throat during anasthesia. Evidently the air leaks into the chest cavity and then finds it's way under the skin. A very strange condition that feels crackly when you touch it. The danger is that the air would press in on the heart, which makes it somewhat of an emergency. They referred us to Northwest Veterinary Specialists in Clackamas, where we promptly took her. They are the best of the best, I think. Amazing attention and care.

So she spent 4 nights there, and had surgery on Thursday, March 6. The tear in her trachea was 2.5 cm, and the incision in her throat, which you can sort of see in these photos, was 10 cm. And Holveck, when I went back to discuss it with him and ask him to pay, insisted that the surgery had not been necessary and she would have healed on her own. Pretty weird reaction from him! Not what I expected! Fortunately, his insurance company is more reasonable.



So, puddy tat is healing nicely now, and seems to be back to her normal self. Her fur is growing back and all the air seems to have cleared out. It is amazing what a presence this little kitty has in our home - for 4 days and nights this house felt very empty and quiet. In this house, one is always aware of her presence, even when she is sleeping under a sleeping bag on one of the upstairs beds! We are so happy she is recovered!

The Next Thing You Know, She'll Be Asking for Silverware!

Day of Destiny

I have to admit that until today I was undecided about who to support for president. Part of that was because it will probably all be decided before I get a chance to vote in a primary so I hadn’t really felt pressured to make a decision. Partly because we have the luxury this year of all the Democratic candidates being acceptable to varying degrees. If Kucinich had stayed in the race I would have voted for him, because I really wanted him to at least have a lot of say in the platform issues. So I was kind of just being an observer. An interested observer. But pretty impartial.

This morning when I got up and looked at my email, I noticed that Amber's Google status message said "Day of Destiny." I knew she was supporting Obama, and I started thinking about it. The excitement. The way he is inspiring young people. The passion.

And then they were talking about just the same thing on the radio. Thom Hartman, Carl & Heidi. Talking about how over and over it is young people telling their parents it has to be Obama. And the parents listening!

These children of my generation have grown up with Ronald Reagan, George Bush senior who took them into high school, a stressful but prosperous weird time with Clinton, and the 8 years of Bush. How completely pathetic. My generation on the other hand grew up with Eisenhower and Kennedy and idealism and the creation of the Peace Corps. We were in middle and high school with Kennedy as president. It was amazing. And then the devastation hit with the assassinations of John and Bobby and Martin Luther King and we ended up with LBJ and then Nixon. Our idealism was bashed. And then we briefly had Jimmy Carter, who was bashed by everyone.

And for whatever reason, our generation was unable to make good on the promises of the love and peace years. We couldn’t organize and energize. We were baffled by what happened to us. How did Ronald Reagan get to be president? How could that have happened?? And ultimately, our generation gave the world George W. Bush. Our generation has more children in jail than any other country. And we continue to be baffled by it all.

So maybe we can redeem ourselves just a tiny bit by giving our children Barack Obama. It is just time. The thing we used to say about how you can't trust anyone over 30 was maybe right. Maybe a little older than 30. But however old someone is, they have to still have the idealism that we had when we were in our 20's in the early 70's. Our children deserve to fall in love, to experience what we felt for the Kennedys and the Beatles. And it is so much more than just good speeches and inspiring people. It is the good work and the good works. The thoughtful intelligence. The real concern and caring. The bold action to move things forward. Ideas, positive change.

So let’s do it!