goodie, another heat wave

Today I walked with Betsy for about an hour (3 miles or so) in South Whitehall. Then we ate leftover pizza for lunch. Oops. But we also had raw veggies!

We walked about an hour. Another heat wave is building. No. 6 for the summer. Okay, for the last six weeks.  I took the screen shot of the temp a minute ago. It's past 6:00! My house is really warm. I'm going to try and wait till tomorrow to turn on the ancient a/c.

Global warming is getting old. And it will only get worse.

Today in the mail I got a 5k notice. It's called the merry-go-round 5K. There's a 5k run, then a family walk.

The run will follow a course down a slight hill on Third St. then enter the flat path along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek. Runners will go through the historic covered bridge, circa 1832, and around Lenape Park crossing the famous Twin Suspension Bridges. The finish will be at the Carousel after climbing one good hill. The Carousel will be open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and all rides are free!

And Perkasie has a farmers market at 7th and Market Street!

I'm actually kind of glad that it's a fun walk. So many photo ops! I wonder if the carousel has rings ...

i got thrown out of the pool!

Today was the Quakertown 5K Dash and Dip. We didn't quite dash, and we dipped and then I got tossed out of the pool. I was dressed inappropriately! Excuse me, the old man in the Speedo was dressed inappropriately, not me.

But that's the end of the story. You'll have to cool your heels to find out why.

We —Sharon, Lydia and I— met Kathy in Quakertown. Bonnie is still on the disabled list. We're hoping to pull her off the bench for the Alburtis 5K.

Before we start, let me say how wonderful Kathy looks. She's half the size of when I met her at the Jingle Bell Run. The baggy clothes she's wearing are not doing her justice. I think she had her surgery soon after Lydia. She's working the program to the letter and it shows. Way to go Kathy!

I picked up our goodie bags Friday night so we didn't need to register.

We arrived maybe a half hour early. It was hot, but we found some shade and waited for the race to start. Some headed to the bathroom. We all came prepared to battle the heat. Friday I had bought some sports drink and mixed 1/3 with 2/3 water in two bottles to take along. Lydia brought a bottle of G2 and Kathy had something yellow mixed. I think Sharon was drinking Propel. Maybe not. Again, stay tuned.

This race started on time. It was two loops of the park plus a serpentine in the parking lot.  "If you return in 12 minutes, and aren't Kenyan" the announcer said, "we'll know you only did one loop." Stereotypical yes. Funny, for me yes.

It was fairly flat. A few minor rises in elevation. Nothing I'd call a hill. There was some shade, some macadam, some stones, and a little dirt. I did not try to break any records and tried one power spurt. Didn't last long. I came in at about an hour, on the nose. Crappy, crappy time. Then the guy said they miss measured the course.

I was also having a problem with my New Balance Toning sneakers. I was walking over on them like I did when I was a little kid. Guess they need to go in the Soles4Souls bin.

Kathy and Lyd walked together most of the route. Then the G2 decided it didn't agree with her and she booked it to one of the many port-o-potties. Kathy kept going and came in at about 65 minutes. Her pedometer on her iPod said 3.7 miles. They announced it was 3.25.

When Lyd re-emerged Sharon was going past and they walked in together. They came in at a hair under 68 minutes. Sharon looked like shit. On the way home she said she was queasy but wanted to finish. She said she was drinking a lot. She handed me her water bottle and it felt full. She poured a lot out when we got home. So what was she drinking   those tiny cups they give you on the route? I sent her over to the very bored EMT people. They checked her out, forced her to sit and drink.

We went to the pool. I wore those horrible shorts because I knew I could swim in them. Lydia dove in as is also. Kathy brought her suit. I haven't been in a pool in a million years, and I was actually afraid to jump in. Once I got wet I was better. None of us could swim. Kathy and I could keep afloat, but Lyd doesn't have any skills.

After playing in 5 feet for a while we went to the kiddie pool. It's padded! They have this mushroom shower thing that's fun. Then we went to the slide. That's where I got in trouble.

First spot of trouble. I'm to fat for the slide. Too wide I guess. I got stuck. It had water running in it and I had to push myself to the bottom. The bari-sisters had no problem.

I finally got down and the life guard calls me over. Tells me I need to get out of the pool. I was dressed inappropiately. Huh? He was talking softly and I only heard every third word. My shirt was apparently the big problem. I was covered. I had a bra on. Oh wait. I had a beige bra on. The reason you do that is so you don't see your bra thru a white shirt. Maybe he thought I was doing a wet t-shirt thing? Oh vey. I have neither the body or the boobs for that!

So we left. We were close to leaving anyway I guess.

Speaking of boobies. Yesterday they closed the route for the 3-Day in Boston because of the heat. It was too dangerous to walk. today they opened the rout at 6 am so people could head out early. They might close it early again if temps reach 100. Here, it's 93 and seems less humid. I hope my sister 3-day-ers get to finish the rest of their walk and do so safely.

heat wave

Who wants to read a post about another heatwave? Not me. So here's a Heatwave of the Motown kind:



But the fact remains that the mercury is rising. It's 7:30 in the evening and it's 92. By Friday it's supposed to be over a 100. Goodie. With high humidity. Super dooper.

Lydia and I are doing the Quakertown Dash and Dip on Saturday. I know I haven't walked since Saturday. At least Lyd has to walk the dog. I won't break any speed records, that's for sure. I might even consume Gatorade. Now that would be a picture.

Betsy and I usually walk Friday afternoons. I think I'll contact her and see if she wants to go in the morning. I can't go real early because I need to take Sharon back to the foot doctor at 8. Maybe we could do 9:30. It will be better than 1. If not, I guess will skip that this week also.

signed up

Today I'm signing up for three more 5Ks. Hopefully some of the other "scoobies" might join me. Bonnies back on the disabled list. She's had one heck of a year. I haven't talked to Lyd or Kathy yet. Sharon would go to the proverbial opening of an envelope if someone drove, so I'm not too worried about her.

I was trying to wait, but I just need to do it. Otherwise I'll schedule something else on one of the dates, then I'll be p.o.'d.

Isa's Run for a Cure; Sept. 17 starts and ends at the Rose Garden. It's going to have a huge hill in the middle. We are heading up Pennsylvania Avenue from Broad to Union Boulevard. This one isn't for Sharon!

City of Hope Walk for Hope; Sept 18. That's the one where you walk across the Ben Franklin. Can't wait. Somebody better take a picture. They shuttle you from Olde City back to Camden. They'd like you to raise $150, but it's not mandatory. Dear Readers, I've given up fund raising forever. However, if you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, here's the link. http://nationalevents.cityofhope.org/goto/sneeezy  Don't worry, I won't be hounding you.

Allentown Rotary 5k Walk/Run at the Trexler Nature (aka Game) Preserve Oct. 2. Have no clue what the terrain is there. I remember it as hilly. The zoo is in the middle, and if I remember correctly it's in a valley.

Jingle Bell Run. Team Ellie's Angels is back in business. Hope everyone still has their halos!  Again, they want you to fund raise and set you up with a page. Again, I won't actively pursue donations. But if this cause is near and dear to you here's my link  http://www.jbrlv.kintera.org/sneeezy or the team link http://www.jbrlv.kintera.org/elliesangels

My friend Angel wants me to show her how to can. I need to pick a date and haul all my stuff over there. You can read all about that adventure in her blog Angel Food Cooking. The calendar is getting full, but I'm sure we can get a date. (Next Monday, June 25.)

Also, the fall term starts soon. I have to get my classes together! Where has the summer gone?

sitting, cross legged, in the middle of a parking lot

Sharon wanted to go to the gym this morning. I said yes. It's supposed to get more hot/humid as the week wears on, so I wanted to be sure to get some walking in. Without a mega walk to train for I've turned into a wimp. For the past two years I went out in every kind of weather. No matter what.

We got to Planet Fitness early. (The pix was from when she joined the gym. Even Sharon isn't silly enough to wear a winter coat in July!) She had to wait about 15 minutes for them to open. The parking lot was pretty shady at this point. I headed right out.

I headed up the hill, past Dave and Barbs, out Chew, up another hill to Hamilton, and then came down Irving. It didn't seem long enough. But the route was pretty shady. (Google Pedometer said less than 1.5! oops.)

When I returned to the car, most of the shade in the parking lot was gone. Then I started playing the wi-fi game. Find a place in the lot—with shade—that I could connect to wi-fi. So here I am, sitting on the curb next to Family Dollar. Totally pointing away from the gym. Hope Sharon see's me! I am kind of hard to miss. People are staring at me when they drive past. "Who's this loon on the curb with a laptop?"

Last night while watching This Old House, WHYY had an ad on for the Y12K.So I looked it up. No walking segment. Hey guys, if you want to raise money for public television, then include walkers damn it. There is a family fun walk. 3K. I'm not driving to Philly for a 3K. What is that, a mile and a half?

I am going to sign up for the City of Hope Walk of Hope in Camden. It's a 5K September 18. When will I have another opportunity to WALK across the Ben Franklin Bridge? Heck, some days it takes forever to drive across it! That's certainly worth the drive to Camden. And it benefits women's cancers. Good cause.

It's been more than 45 minutes since the gym opened. Wonder where Sharon is? Maybe she's wandering the parking lot looking for me. Guess I need to go find her. If I can get up from the curb.

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I found her sitting on the bench, in the sun, right by the gyms door. "I've only been here a couple of minutes".  "No, I didn't see you." Did you look. "No. Thought you weren't back yet."

a day in easton

Like I don't go to Easton frequently.

Today I signed up for a rain barrel making workshop at Weyerbach Brewery. I remember my dad trying to have one when we moved into this house. It was a wooden booze barrel, open on the top. It filled easily with water, and algae and mosquitos. I gardened a lot then, but rain barrels weren't for me. They were gross. It lasted till the barrel rotted and broke apart.

I really don't grow my own veggies any more. Not sure why. Maybe it's because growing, or canning for one seems silly. In the summer I get veggies from friends and family, and shop the local farm markets and stands.

But I do grow, or attempt to grow, flowers. Watering my yard is a pain. It's long and skinny. If I connect several hoses together they become a tangled mess. Modern rain barrels are better than what my dad used, so I decided to give it a shot.

Since we were going to Easton, we went to the farm market. The oldest—or at least they say— in the country. Nice variety, although the one stand's produce looked like it was left over from last week. I had my sister with me and I left her pick out what I bought. I thought maybe then she'd cook it. Jury is still out on that one. Hoping.

Then we headed to the brewery for the workshop. The barrel was quite easy to make. {aside: Damn don't I look good in that first picture. Taking a picture at the correct angle is the key! On second thought no. I'm as wide as the barrel. I guess that's where "big as a barrel comes from?"} Installing it might be much harder. It has to be raised (so gravity helps empty it into your bucket), and the rain spout drains into it. 

I plan to use it at the garage. It's in the alley. The entrance to my garage is a small hill. They said to use cinder blocks but that won't work at my garage. It won't be level. I have to figure out how to make a box with the correct angles, and cut off the rain spout. Then fill it with stones, or broken flower pots or something. My other worry is that the angelic teens in the neighborhood might want to play tip the rain barrel one night when bored.

They told us since it's food grade plastic, nothing will stick to it, so don't think about painting it. They tried, it doesn't work. I know Sharpies work. That's how I marked the holes. If nothing else I'll decorate it with Sharpies!

On the way home we looked for more of the urban art. The one above is made from bikes which will be donated to the community center when the show is over. Again, this lights up a night. So it's probably a little more interesting then. We couldn't find 2 others. That leaves just the steps to go. We'll do that one day at lunch time. But not next week. Supposed to be humid and 100 degrees.

Our final stop was a Koehler's for corn. It's a beef farm. They raise corn to feed the cows. So they sell corn and a few other things. Of course they sell beef. (It's frozen). I like the idea of seeing a field of cows knowing that one of them might be for dinner. I get to ask the farmer all kinds of questions to. Can't do that with agri biz. Bonnie and I have talked about getting a half or quarter animal and splitting it. We never do it. It's probably a good thing. I don't cook beef very well. My sister is worse.

While I was there I took a picture of the new crop of calves. The white one is adorable. I think they liked me. They were mooing away.  Maybe the knew they wouldn't be dinner.

nice day for a walk

Last night I got an email from my brother telling me he's lost 9 pounds since the challenge began. (Happy dance). He also mentioned I hadn't blogged in a week. I knew that. I just had nothing to say.

We didn't walk much at lunchtime. I didn't walk Friday with Betsy. I didn't even do great walks over the weekend. Sure I walked to Ahart's a couple times. And around campus a bit. And to the Wawa. But nothing that really adds up.

Until today.

Easton is having the Art of Urban Art Festival all over town. It runs thru October.  Today we went back to check it out.

I went down last week with my boss. Officially we were measuring banners and counting light poles. Unofficially we were looking at art and peaking in the galleries. Then the sky opened up and it poured. We took shelter in the Williams Visual Arts Center. I thought about blogging that adventure and totally forgot. Maybe it was because I didn't have my camera.

Today I had the camera.

There's one more withing walking distance. We'll get that next week. It's stairs, so we'll climb the art. I'll be sure to blog that. There looks like a lot. Maybe 100. Don't worry. I'll count them.

Saturday I'm going to a rain barrel making class. While I'm in Easton I'll find the other four in the west ward and post those also.

The art: Top to bottom

• "Love Motel for Insects" Brandon Ballengee (the one that looks like feet)
• "The Nest" Shayna King
• "An Untamed Place" Martha Posner (the one that looks like a bed)
  "Bushkill Overflow" Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi. Yep it's made out of umbrellas.
• I don't know. It was in the sculpture garden. It looks like iron tombstones
• The Bushkill Creek, from the WVAC sculpture garden
• I posted the "Bushkill Curtain" by Stacy Levy previously

Now I'm kind-of anxious for the art trail to open in fall. It's going to run adjacent to the Bushkill creek. Wonder if we can walk it at lunchtime?

volume two is printed

Volume two of my fat girl walking blog has been printed and delivered, It runs August 19, 2010 to June 26. Not quite a year. I was hoping to go August to August, but the coupon code came in June. I need to save pennies when I can. I also did one for my doodle blog.  The next code that comes will be used for my friends cooking blog.

There is a bit of a bug in the software. If a photo has a caption, it plunks the caption in wherever it wants. Sometimes in the middle of a sentence. I need to go thru it and maybe highlight the captions!

If anybody ever wants to see or reads these, let me know. I'll loan them to you. Otherwise they are more like journals for me.

Today I walked a little a lunch time. Not much. But better than nothing.

time about the same as last year

Today was the Firecracker 4-mile. I came in at 1:03:15, Bonnie 1:03:13 and Lyd at 1:08:19. Our time was about the same as last year.

We parked on the street and walked to the park. I was wearing some dilly-bopper streamers on my head that I bought at the Christmas Tree (junk) Store. I think Bonnie and Lydia were embarrassed by my head wear. However I received many compliments on it.

The chiropractor was there again. As was the massage girl. I didn't take part in either this time. But Bonnie did.


The route was the same as last year. We walked around the park then down the bike trail, made a turn around and came back. It was fairly flat, which makes it a little faster.

The walkers started five minutes after the runners. (That's why the time difference on the clock.) If there was 12 walkers there was a lot. A very old couple, two older men, and three women in their 30s. I think that's it! And us of course.

Bonnie and I were in the lead till the 2nd block and then everyone but Lyd passed us. The very old couple had the lead for quite a while.

It was very humid, but cool with lots of shade. I was fine the whole time. Bonnie struggled a bit. But her competitive personality beat out her injured and tired personality. For about 2/10 of a mile I was leading the family pack, and it felt good. Then Bonnie got her second wind and caught up and passed me to beat me over the finish line.

After we crossed the finish line I went back, like I always do for the others. This time it was just Lyd. I found her about 2 blocks from the finish line. I used my dilly boppers as pom poms and cheered her on.

If you read the comments you'll know I left out part of the story and got scolded. Actually I left out two parts.

Do you see the water bottles? As we walked down to the turn around the water people asked if we wanted refills. They'd do it and we'd pick it up on the way back. Bonnie said no. Lydia said yes. So she had fresh cold water for the return trip. He watered the corn field with the warm stuff.

The sweep van was a guy on a bike. I can't remember if she told me if he was cute or not. He followed her for about a mile, kept checking if she was okay. She told him that a year ago she wouldn't have tried this. Biker-guy didn't cross the finish line with her. He took the shortcut and we all know that's cheating. We complete, we don't compete.

He was gone by the time we connected and I walked with her thru the finish line.

are they expecting lance armstrong?

Friday, late afternoon,  Betsy and I walked at Trexler Park in Allentown. This park has nice paved and level trails and bike lanes. I saw this sign and had to take a pix. "Bicycle Speed Limit 10 in park. Who are they expecting Marty Nothstein? Lance Armstrong?

Wouldn't racers and Olympians be working out at the Velodrome?

If someone flies toward you at that rate in a public park, move out of the way!

So we did two loops at the park. The longer high one, and the slightly shorter low one. We probably did 2.5 miles. I'm not really sure.

Yesterday we walked Sharon's rent check up to the landlord's house. Round trip it's about 2.5 miles. That walk has a few good hills. I've decided as Sharon's "trainer" that we're going to do more difficult or faster short walks, rather than endurance walks. It will be interesting to see how much walking she does when she moves.

Maybe I'll get a walk in today. It's been raining off and on. I need to go to Staples, so maybe I'll go to the one on 33, then stop at the Bethlehem Township Community Center and do their "course" two or three times. It's about a mile per loop, fairly level and paved so I can work on intervals and speed.

Tomorrow is the Firecracker 4 mile in Palmer. It will be Lyd's first 4 mile walk.