I fear my posting frequency this summer is going to continue being abysmal, but I'll keep it going as best I can until get back to Oregon in September. In the meantime, here's a brief update on my life.
I'm still jogging on a regular basis. So far, I've managed to keep myself from getting injured. Last week I did my first 8-mile run. At the end of this week, I should be able to get in a 10-mile run. At this rate, it's quite possible that I may be in shape to run another marathon in October. I'm very excited about this.
The only setback I've had is that one of my new running shoes suffered a huge tear in the lower heel. Fortunately I was able to take it back to the store this morning in exchange for a new pair. I certainly hope that the new shoes hold together much better. I'm still a bit suspicious of the flimsy feel of the design, but Nike must know what they're doing.
My extremely low-fat diet combined with jogging has allowed me to lose a grand total of nineteen pounds since returning to Muncie. The first fifteen were easy, but these last four have taken forever, and I still need to take off an additional thirteen pounds to reach my arbitrarily selected target weight.
Is yard work interesting? Should I blog about that? Probably not, but I will anyway. I have a monster hedge growing at the side of my house. It's the type of thing only a professional with a large chainsaw can handle. I've finally found someone good to tackle it. He's even successfully removed some of the trees that had somehow become part of the hedge and grown extremely thick trunks. In the meantime, I've planted some gourds next to my porch screen. I try to do this every year. The results can be quite spectacular. The vines grow up the screens and then blossom into large orange flowers which then become colorful gourds. Anyone coming to my front door gets to walk behind a sort of canopy of vines and flowers. And I've also got sunflowers coming up. Perhaps I will post photos later in the summer.