Monday, July 19, 2010

Yeah, This Beat Goes On and On and On and On

Here is the little entrance to the fossil gorge place.

Well, now. Where were we? Oh yeah. We were on Sunday. I got up at whatever ungodly hour it was to take Stinky to work. Since it was a lot less humid out, I decided to run my 8 mile route, and that went well, except the very end where I was pretty parched.

I did some cleaning and got some sun tea ready. I picked Stinky up at work and we ran errands and eventually ended up at Menards -which can be dangerous for me. I really just wanted a trowel and a sprinkler and some little ties to help stake tomatoes and some of our taller and more unruly flowers...Of course, then I saw this awesome lounge chair that would be perfect for reading and snoozing on my back porch. Best of all, it was $20 off. So, I got it. I still haven't had a chance to use it yet, but believe me, I will.

These here wild flowers are the closest looking things we have to saguaro cactus here in Iowa. Sigh.

I decided it was high time I went on my bike ride, so I loaded up my water bottle, camera and phone and decided to go off and live in my own little world for a bit. I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to ride around and see where I ended up. I stopped along the way to take a picture or two, but eventually ended up at the fossil gorge. It was warm, but windy and I hopped around on rocks and checked out fossils and it was all really very lovely.

Sadly, though, I wandered around longer than I had intended and realized I'd never make it to my friend's party and still get all the other stuff done I needed to do. So, I called Stinky and she and her boyfriend met me at the store and we got everything we needed for dinner. I made BBQ chicken in bone and twice baked potatoes among other things. Coadster had been loading in at the Englert Theater for her play next week, so we were lucky if we got to see her for a whole hour.

There were a couple of cool, very small fossils here, but my camera isn't good enough to show them.

I woke up today to rain. Coadster normally rides her bike to work, so I was glad I was home to drive her there in the bad weather. I slowed things down today - some of it was because of the weather, but I had overdone it a little the last couple of days, and I wanted to calm my shit down a bit.

I ran a nice, fast 4 mile route around lunchtime, in between downpours and it felt great to really run. I took care of some errands in the afternoon, and then went to donate plasma.


A cute little family, checking things out.

On the interstate, I finally realized that there wasn't a Harley anywhere near me, and that the obnoxious noise was coming from my car. Awesome. So, this month's expensive problem must be in the form of a new exhaust system for my car. I knew it would be something, I just had no idea which way I'd get hit. Seriously, if I ever go an entire month without an unexpected expense, I'll probably pass-out. Of course, it couldn't have happened on Sunday, so I could have taken care of it today. Now, I'll have to take some more vacation time and try to get it fixed tomorrow. Wah.

Okay. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, so I'm going to end this on a positive note. I promise....I finally baked banana bread tonight and I can't think of a better smell than when I first took it out of the oven...Oh, and my gladiolas and dahlia's are blooming, so I'll show you a pic of that tomorrow. Yippee!

8 comments:

Mnmom said...

Hmmmm banana bread mmmmm.
I remember well the night that fossil gorge was created. An entire campground swept away.

laura b. said...

I know you must get sick of hearing it, but seriously...seriously, I get tired reading your blog posts. You are the busiest (and coolest) bee in the hive :-)

rel said...

Churlita,
Warm banana bread spread with peanut butter...mmmmm..mmm good.
rel

Tara said...

I love discounted furniture, and how perfect to find a chair you can use to lounge on your porch!

That's a really cool rock photo.

Ananda girl said...

Funny... I'm baking zucchini bread today.

I enjoy looking at fossils. Great pics.

The unexpected expense... sigh. Do they ever go away? My sympathies.

booda baby said...

Dahlias! I can not wait to some some photographs. I like them very very much. I just wrote about dahlias this morning, in fact. (Actually, all I did was use the word 'dahlia' - but that sort of counts.)

I super duper appreciate this post. Between photos and temperature readings and notes on the rain, I had enough material to be there, poking around rocks and fossils. And a great time was had by all. I'm sure the people things were fun, too, but this part of the day was the best.

Proof? My word v. is: dechill. Yes, it IS!

MrManuel said...

An 8 mile run and a bike ride on the same day?! I am tired just reading that. I would stay home and just eat your banana bread!

Churlita said...

MnMom, I know. That was so scary. I was pregnant with Stinky that Summer.

LauraB, I know. I do try to slow down. I'm taking a week off next week and I'm going to try really hard to relax a bit through it.

Rel, I like mine with just plain butter, but I get the peanut butter thing too.

Tara, Thanks. I think I'll get a lot of use out of my patio lounger.

Ananda, I'll trade you a loaf of banana bread for one of zucchini....

Booda Baby, It was for me too. I really need to go exploring and live in my own little word as often as possible. Your dahlia photo is posted now.

MrManuel. ha ha. I ended up doing both.