Automatic Weapons update

I haven't been running the last few weeks. Call it my summer coma. When winter turns to spring, I am full of energy, and need to be outside every minute of every day. After a few weeks, the excitement of the sun wears off a bit, and I just want to lay around.

The laziness wore off this week, and I finally made it back out to the park where I run. I was still curious to find out what prompted the police to show up with automatic weapons a few weeks ago, so I found the park employee I had talked to a few weeks ago, and asked her what she had learned. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of an update. But she did say that a day or two later, management sent down some flyers about "dangerous animals" and a "what to do if" type checklist. She speculated that somebody reported seeing some sort of animal, and that they didn't want to take any chances.

Was she telling me a story? Or was it the truth? I don't know. I thought they would call the park rangers instead of the police if there was an animal to be caught. But there were no signs posted around the park warning us about dangerous people or animals. So it is hard to tell.

When I was done with my run, I was walking to the spot where I stretch. This area is close to the big "kid zoo." The park has a big jungle gym setup on the side of a hill. It looks like one of those McDonalds play areas, but about 10 times bigger. Anyway, a mom was trying to get her two young daughters to come out of the tree area to go to the car. When the kids were ignoring her, the mom said, "You better come out of there. (pause) I hope the bears don't eat you!"

At first I thought it was a mean thing to say to a young child. By lying to the child, and manipulating her feelings, it might scare the child the next time they come out to the park. (It worked though, the kids came out of the wooded area!) But then I thought about the cops with guns I had seen earlier, and then the lack of warnings telling me to stay out of the woods. Should the park warn us if there are dangerous animals in the woods? Should they tell us about the report, and what the cops found? Or is it better to be oblivious, and go play where the bears might eat me?

Tuesday's BunnyCount was high. Somewhere around 15. About half were BabyBunnies. BabyBunnies have no fear of joggers, and won't run away until we are about 10 feet away. But at that critical distance, they run fast, but don't know where to go. Instant entertainment for us joggers!


posted by RICHARD

Even more weird things I've seen while out running

You know, sometimes I think the world throws things at you, just so you can tell others.

During my run yesterday (6.5 miles with 6- 2:00 intervals) I come across a guy cross country skiing.

Granted, I was on a cross country ski trail, but this is the first week of June, with the temperature of 80+. Haven't seen snow for a long time.

It looks like this guy made/bought a device which looks likes skis, and has rollers on it. Imagine 2 2x4 boards, each about 5 feet long. Sandwich these two boards together, and put some ball-bearings and springs between them. So you can push off and "glide", then pick up your other foot, and the springs will push the "ski" back in front of you, so you can land and push off again.

I swear, I can't make this stuff up.

Running count:
BunnyCount: 4
turkeys: 1
deer: 1
turtles: 1

Apparently the turtles are laying their eggs now. They try to get as far from the water as they can. I think that is why they are coming up on the trails more-and-more lately. It has been kinda fun seeing them.

Oh, and today is 6/6/6. We played volleyball at lunch, and our team won. There is no connection, but I think there was a chance I did see a snowball...

Enjoy!

A Great Band, OKGO

Last summer, Jill and I went to see one of her favorite bands, The Kaiser Cheifs, which was a great show.

One of the opening bands was "OKGO."

If you haven't heard of them, which you probably haven't, you might want to check them out.
http://www.okgo.net/

It is hard to explain their music. Fortunatly, they have some downloads on their site. It sounds like they were heavily influenced by "They Might be Giants", but they were the drama geeks in high school instead of band geeks.

For an example of what I mean, have a few beers (the more the better!) and check out the video "Ping-Pong Instructional Video" on their page: http://okgo.net/video.asp (Some people should not be allowed to operate video cameras!)

They have music videos on this page as well. These are a little bit more "normal" than their ping pong video.

Anyway, they've got two albums, OKGO and OHNO. Their first album OKGO, is the better of the two, in my opinion.

I don't know if they will ever be mainstream, but that doesn't mean they don't make some good music. Plus they put on a killer live show.

Enjoy!

More running and oddities

So I went back to my favorite park to go running again yesterday. Tons of kids in the play center, and everything looked normal/safe. No yellow tape anywhere, so I figured that everything was safe from last Tuesday.

I did a simple fast run (1 mile warmup, 3 miles fast, 1 mile cooldown) and stayed on the main trails. Mostly because I know the distances, but I also didn't want to go off into the "scary woods" where the police were headed a few days ago.

My run went off without a hitch. Nothing too weird happened. Here is my count:

BunnyCount: 5
Squirrels that looked like bunnies: 2
Pheasants flying and squaking in front of me: 1
Bikes with no pedals: 1

A no pedaled bike? Yeah! This guy went by me in a bike that had no pedals. It looked just like a rowing machine in the gym. You sit back and pull a bar, and the bike moves forward.
To me, it looked like a torture device!

After my run, I went into the snack shop and asked the gal if she knew what happened Tuesday night. Her eyes got real big, and obviously hadn't heard anything. But now she is going to "ask around", and I'll go back in a few days and find out.

Enjoy!