My Dad's Birthday!

Today my dad turned 69. I called him this morning while walking Struth before work. He said he is only really a day older. True. But he is 69 and that is reason to celebrate! He lives in North Carolina, so I won't be there celebrating with him but I am sure he is with steaks on the grill, libations and many friends. Lucky him! He doesn't actually have a sailboat or even know how to sail one, but I really like this photo of him.

Another gorgeous day in Seattle. These summer days make me forget about the cold, dark and wet winters. There is no place that I have ever lived that has a better summer than Seattle. WooHoo! Usually I do a long run on Wednesday's but tonight I had to be up in Greenwood at 8pm, sharp. I didn't have time to run and get there on time, so I thought I would put that off until tomorrow. I've had a few twinges in my leg that was injured in April on my last long run, so the extra day will probably be good for it. Although, I could not use that excuse yesterday, (a good thing though) when doing those torturous mile repeats again on the dreadmill. They were painful, as usual, in many ways. BUT, today is Wednesday so I can forget about them. I decided to ride my bike up to Greenwood from Capital Hill because these nights are too hard to pass up enjoying the outdoors. I hopped on my bike just past 7pm thinking that will allow me plenty of time to get up there and get a peanut butter cookie at Diva Espresso. My plan; to take the U bridge to the Burke Gilman, to Fremont, up the hill past the zoo and to Greenwood. I got to the U bridge and there was lots of car traffic. Oh, the bridge is up. Yep, it was up alright. In fact, is was STUCK up. Yeah, that's right, everyone had to somehow turn around in their cars and head towards Montlake bridge. Bummer to be in a car. For those of us on bikes, we just simply turned around and headed to Montlake, no problem. For the cars...well, that's another story. Which reminds me of my good friend Chad's blog. I thought I was going to have a nice and easy ride up there, but then I thought I might have to bust a move to get there on time on account of the detour. I didn't have a watch and so I was a bit anxious about my timing. I hauled my bum over Montlake bridge, down the Burke, up Fremont Ave., past the zoo and at a light on Greenwood, I thought I'd ask a driver with the window rolled down what time it was. Well, I peered into a car with a passenger and driver which, between the 2 of them maybe had one full set of teeth. I asked them what time it was and the older gentleman replied..."seven-five-two". Then he asked me if I was going to be on time and I said yes. He said "oh good, you look like a punctual gal, keep up the good work, looking good!" I wonder what is it about me that makes me look punctual, my sunglasses? My socks? Perhaps the tenacity in my voice, yes, that must of been it. I thanked him for the time. Then the light turned green and we were off like a herd of turtles. I was right on time, with 2 minutes to spare even. But no peanut butter cookie....

The ride home was not so eventful, just a nice easy ride with the sun setting over the mountains and the half moon rising. Downtown looked like a postcard. It was just warm enough that I wasn't cold, yet I didn't really break a sweat.