Evacuations, NBA Playoffs, and Playsets

So, I have really been behind on my posts this past week. I would like to be able to blame it all on my new grad class, but that would be a lie. The main reason is that I have been busy doing a number of things and I have been just too tired to sit down at the end of the day to write something. I am going to try discuss my past week in this single post.

On Memorial Day, Anna, the boys, and I went to Douthat State Park to swim in the lake. Anna's Mother and Sister's family came a long too. It was a very nice day but the water was very cold. The combination of my weight loss and the cold water caused my ring finger to shrink. I was chasing Eli through the water and realized that my wedding ring was gone! I am not too sentimental about things, but I have been wearing that ring everyday for almost 5 years. When I picked out my wedding ring, I chose the cheapest one possible because I figured I would lose it someday. On the bright side, a symbol of Anna and my lover for each other is now on the bottom of Douthat Lake. We love camping up there every year, so it just seems right.

We came back home after our Douthat trip and ate some Bojangles chicken. After dinner, I was giving the boys a bath while Anna cleaned up the kitchen. I heard a loud vehicle coming up our road, so as I was getting Coy out of the bath I looked outside the window. I saw a firetruck with its lights on, stopping at the top of our road. Firefighters got out and started running in all directions. I thought this was very strange so I stepped out on the front porch to check out things. One of the firefighters yelled at us to leave our house as soon as possible. He said that a tanker truck at wrecked in the S-turn and that gas was pouring out.

We started running around everywhere trying to get a diaper bag together. I have never had to rush out of the house like that. It was very crazy. We left the kitchen a mess and ran out to the car with the boys and a packed diaper bag. I was smart enough to grab my work laptop, but I was dumb enough to leave the power cable downstairs. So I would have only had about an hour worth of work before it ran out of battery life. As I was rushing to the car Jasper was following us. I couldn't leave him behind so I told Anna to go on in her car and Jasper and i would follow in my car.

We couldn't smell any gas fumes at our house, but as i drove down the hill to get to the main road, I suddenly smelt the strong odor of fuel. We rode over to Anna's parents house, which is only about 1 mile down the road, but they were not being evacuated. We didn't really have a lot of news about when we could go back home. So we ended up spending the night sleeping in their extra bedroom. Anna, Eli, Coy, and I slept in a double bed. Needless to say, it was a long night with two squirmy boys.

I woke up in the morning and drove to our house to see if the road was open. There were no more emergency vehicles blocking the way, so I drove to the house and got ready for work. The majority of our neighbors were still gone, so it was very eerie to see the neighborhood so empty. Later I would find out that the driver of the tanker truck had passed away in the accident. All the inconvenience of being evacuated didn't seem so bad. The truck driver was only 31 and had two young children. Not being able to sleep in my bed didn't seem so bad when you think about those two kids not being able to hug their daddy again.

The rest of the week consisted of me running, working, playing with the boys, and watching the NBA playoffs after the boys went to bed. That was the daily routine until the weekend arrived. Early Saturday morning I began assembling a new play set we got for the boys. We have been looking at getting a play set for the boys for some time. We got a really good deal on this one at Toy R Us. It was $150 off for a limited time. The directions said 8-10 hours of assembly time, but I think i spent about 16 hours over Saturday, Sunday, and tonight putting that thing together. It was officially completed tonight as the sun was going down. The only thing left to do is to fix up the ground around the set.

Did I mention I have a test on Friday that covers over 460 PowerPoint slides! I better stop typing and get to reading.

Random Thoughts

I find it sad how much energy we waste everyday. I was using the restroom this week and there was an automatic paper towel dispenser. Even though I do appreciate not getting the extra germs by touching a lever or knob, I could not help be feel a little guilty for using energy to do such an easy task. Some bathrooms have electric toilets, faucets, and soap dispensers. I am sure most of this equipment is powered by batteries, which make it even worse. Those batteries are going to end up in the trash at some point.

This got me thinking. If there was some way to harness the energy of people actually entering the bathroom and use this energy to power these hygienic automatic equipment pieces. Then it came to me. There could be generator type hinges on the doors. The energy gathered by the act of the each person opening the door to the bathroom could be stored in a capacitor and used for the electric features. I am sure there would not be a lot of energy created, but if you think about this technology being applied to every door in a large office building. This energy source could really contribute to a companies total energy consumption.

So I did a google search and this technology has already been considered. So, it doesn't look like I am going to get rich off this idea. There are already "hinge" generators being used in experiments to power LED lights. Also, it would probably cost a company more to implement the technology versus the actual monetary savings it would provide. On to the next idea to save humanity! This is just one of the random thoughts that passed through my mind this week. I know, I need help!

Random Thoughts

Thoughts before my first half marathon:

While thinking of a topic to use for my inaugural “Random Thought Thursday” post, the first thing to come to mind was my first half marathon this weekend. Thoughts on this topic have been dominating my mind all week anyway. Why not write about a few of these emotions? As I wrote in my latest post, this half marathon has been a goal of mine since last year. I have been anxiously waiting for this weekend to get here for some time. But now that it is so close, three distinct questions have been on my mind. What do I need to do this week to get ready for Saturday? What is my plan for the actual race? What do I do once this much anticipated goal has been met, or not met?

I have raced in three different races since last November, but they all had something in common. They were all local races, which allowed me to sleep in my own bed the night before. This weekend is going to be different. Since the race is in Charlottesville and since the start time is 6:30 am, there is no way I can stay at home the night before. In preparation, I reserved a hotel room in Charlottesville weeks ago. So this race is technically a destination race, even though it is only about a couple hours from my house. This requires additional planning and packing. Back when I use to play football, I was that guy that would check his travel bag 100 times to make sure all the important stuff was there. My biggest fear was that I would get to the away game, only to realize that my helmet as back in our locker-room.  I have already made a list of gear and clothing I need to pack, which items I need to take with me to the starting line, and which items I can leave in the car. I am very happy that Anna and boys are going to be able to come too. But as any parent would know, taking a trip with kids brings stress too. Plus, Anna and the boys will be leaving the hotel after me and will probably need to checkout too. I am trying not to get too worried about the logistical details of our trip, but it is almost impossible not get a little stressed.

So that leaves me to start thinking about the actual race itself. Once all the planning and packing are finished and I actually have to run the longest race I have ever run. Since I am new to the running world, I do not know enough about planning a race to be too worried. I have told myself that I was going to just run at a comfortable pace with my only goal of actually finishing the race. But the competitive person I am, I can’t help but shoot for a specific time in my head. Since any time would be a personal record for me in the half marathon, I shouldn’t be too concerned with meeting any set time goal for myself. I use my iPod as my watch when I run. It works pretty well for me because I can hit a single button and the nice computer voice tells me my time. So, I am going to use my rule of 9’s when keeping up with my pace. I am sure someone probably already coined this term, but I like the way it sounded. So, I am going to try to set my pace so that every mile split is a multiple of 9, or less. So after mile 1, my split should be 9:XX, followed by mile splits of 18, 27, 36, etc. Hopefully that will get me to over 10 miles with enough energy to push myself a little bit more in the last few miles. Plus, it is easy enough to keep track of while huffing and puffing down the road.

So hopefully all my logistical and race planning will lead me to accomplish my ultimate goal of completing a half marathon. Which leads me to my last question, what next? This is the one question I am not going to stress out about too much. I have actually already signed up for a 5k trail race next Saturday, but I did it more for experience of running through an apple orchard (more on that race to come in later posts). I just plan to take a couple easy runs next week to try and help my legs get over any soreness. Other than this race, I have signed up for one more trail race (10k) in May. So after those two races, I am going to continue to get my weekly runs. But more importantly, I am going to enjoy my summer with Anna and the boys. If I miss a run, I miss a run. I will not get overly concerned as long as I missed the run due to a family function and not due to laziness.  I do want to try and ride my bike more this summer and also start a little weight training. Once the end of summer comes around, I will concentrate on getting ready for the Virginia 10 Miler in September.

So, as long as I can get to the starting line at 6:30 am on Saturday, everything should work out. I will continue to try to not sweat the small stuff and try to enjoy the experience. Hopefully I will have great stuff to write about when we return home.