"The hardest thing is to take less when you can have more." - Kin Hubbard

I don't think it would be very comfortable, but it's cool.

I wasn't 100 yards into yesterday's run and I knew I was in trouble. I turned around before the stop sign at the end of Baker and got maybe a mile worth of running in. That was about 10 a.m. and by 1 p.m. I knew why.
Head cold. Or more accurately, a throat cold. Either way, blech! I won't run today in hopes that two days off will do the trick. I'm hoping to get Saturday's long run in. Those are the training runs that are most important.
This is why it's good to be ahead on the training schedule.

The French phrase l'esprit de l'escalier translates wit of the stairs. It refers to the phenomenon of thinking of exactly the right thing to say...when it's too late. Apparently some French author used the phrase in an old novel in which it makes perfect sense (the character had reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to leave the building when he had that dope-slap moment) and it went from that novel into common usage.
We've all had that experience - thinking of the perfect rejoinder an hour too late - usually in a conflict situation. Most often we move on and forget about it.
This morning, for the umpteenth time, a went back to what I think qualifies as an l'esprit de l'escalier, or maybe it's just a run of the mill regret.
Decades ago I got talked into doing something as part of my employment that anyone with half their wits about them would have rejected immediately. It may be one of my biggest regrets, at least regarding my career, something that affected almost every area of my life, all negatively.
Part of me is still mad at the people who put me in that position, but mostly (!) I'm angry with myself for not seeing it for what it was.
I'm still giving myself dope slaps.

In the wee hours of this morning during that space between fully asleep and awake I had a half-dream/half-thought about using an English wheel. That's a simple but very cool device that allows the shaping of metal sheets into curves of any radius. For example, shaping the front fender of a motorcycle. The real craftsmen use an English wheel to fabricate panels for custom cars, turning out complex and beautiful shapes.

If I had all kinds of money and time I'd buy one, get a bunch of scrap sheet steel and aluminum and teach myself how to use it. Then I'd be one step closer to making that hot rod I have in my head.

I should have started life a lot earlier!


I got the new cover for the shower trailer made and I like it a LOT better. It turned out well. Tomorrow I'll give it three coats of spar varnish, install the three doors, and take it in Tuesday to do the install.

But the day's big news is the transfer of AJ and Burrito to the weaning pen. I weighed each during the move. AJ came in at 55 lbs and Burrito at 45 lbs (the goal is 50 by 3 months). Sundae (momma) started bellowing loudly the moment I took AJ away and turned up the volume when Burrito disappeared. The two of them, though, were so enthralled with all the fresh browse in their new digs that I don't think they even noticed momma wasn't there. Apparently fir boughs and grape vines fill the void.
That all changed about an hour later. For the last two hours we've listened to two kids cry pitifully and pretty much nonstop.

I moved them about 3 p.m. so they could get familiar with their new digs but close enough to sunset that they'd bed down for the night. It's now 7:30, half an hour past sunset and they *may* be done. We've thought they were a couple of times only to hear the saddest and surprisingly loud cry. Meanwhile, Sundae is still going at it.

Unless things change a lot overnight I won't be running tomorrow.
Phooey.