Planning A Trip to Hawaii

On our coldest day so far this season, a seed order arrived.  Exercising remarkable restraint, I quickly checked it over and returned to work on my last book update scheduled for 2010.  I'll plant seeds tomorrow.  Instead, I turned my mind to things like overdraft protection plans and Community Reinvestment Act credit for low-income education loans.

Before all that, I put on a killer blue running outfit -- long-sleeve shirt and loose-fitting tights -- and a GPS watch a neighbor loaned me for Hellgate.  I was able to join men in tights because I finally went through my closet yesterday and moved my summer clothing where my winter stuff has been hiding.  Happy Christmas in November!  In December, I'll say "Merry."

I'd been toying with the watch for several days because the instruction booklet covers many interesting features but fails to explain how to set the watch back to zero for a new running session.  Perhaps it's self-evident to everyone but me.  Looking out the den window, Karen saw me standing halfway down our lane.  Ring-a-dingy-ding.  "Would you leave the gate open when you leave?"  Sure.  "You okay, standing there?"  Yeh, just waiting to home in on a satellite.  After a minute, I jogged to the gate, fussing with button after button.  A tenth of a mile down the road I smiled, master of the GPS, which showed a running pace of 22:00 and a hundredth covered.  Before long I was cruising at 9:20 and tempted to speed up.  Whoa, I said.  Don't let the gadget mess up your training less than two weeks before Hellgate.  "Would you like one of those?" Karen asked me later.  Yes, but I'm afraid I might return to what I'm tempted to call my compulsive running past, full of watches, running logs, schedules and fretting about minutes and meters.

"So, no cross-training today?" asks Virginia.

Not unless sitting on a couch using my brain and fingers to write counts.  I did poke through my old seeds to pick out some broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and cabbage.  And, guess what?  I borrowed a chair to decorate the greenhouse.  A little table would make a nice addition.  I understand a cold winter's day, when the garden is covered with snow, is a perfect time to pretend a greenhouse is Hawaii.