Some things I did on Labor Day Weekend

I had a 4 day weekend for Labor Day and I was set to go through some of my crap at home and possibly purchase some new items to spiff up my house. Before that, I thought I'd go for a run at Cougar on Friday. After last weekend's urunnable run at Cascade Crest, I just wanted to get out and run with Struth. I headed out to Cougar and set out for a 3 hour run. I started with a friend who only wanted to go an hour so I looped back around with him and refueled my bottles and watered down Struth, said goodbye to my friend, and headed back out. I was running along and out of the corner of my eye I see a black thing move. Anything that moves right off the trail is always and eye catcher for Struth so he was ready to pounce. But since the movement appeared to be black, it caught my eye. YIKES, a BEAR! A bear at Cougar! Whoa. It was right on Indian Trail before you get to De Leo Wall. I called Struth back and he actually listened to me and came right over. Me thinks he had a sense of the behemoth animal that stood just a few feet from us. I looked at the big black bear and it looked at me. It didn't move, but I can tell you, I did. I called Struth to follow me and off we were running backwards to make sure we were not being followed by something much stronger and much more wild than we could ever be. It was such a rush! WOW, A BEAR! I was feeling kinda eerie and wondered if there were more. I didn't see any more, just a couple of people who were lost so I helped them find their way. I got back to my car and dammit, it was broken into and my bag was stolen with my wallet in it. My credit cards, debit card, ~70 bucks cash and yada yada yada. I looked around for it in the hope that whoever took it just took the cash and threw the rest on the ground. But I couldn't find it and I knew I needed to get back in town to go to the bank and cancel everything. I had no gas because I was going to get it over there and now I not only had no gas, but no $$ and I knew there would be traffic. It could have been worse I kept telling myself. I made it back to town and to the bank and did all things you do when your stuff gets stolen.
On Saturday I got up early to get to the Dept. of Licensing to get a new license and be the first one there. I checked the website to make sure they would be open on the holiday weekend, they were, said the website. But when I got there, they were closed and I was irritated. But I kept telling myself, it could be worse. So I took the opportunity to take Struth to Lincoln Park and walk around. I stopped at the Bakery to get coffee and a pastry. Um, good. I leisurely walked around Lincoln Park with Struth and noted that it was a nice change to getting up and hurrying and scurrying to do this and do that and blah blah blah.
So I get home and go nuts cleaning and going through all my crap. I do this for a few hours and then decide to hit the gym. I call my Strength Training partner and he comes to pick me up and head out to do some ST. But first I snap a shot of him and his new doo.
After ST, I continue my rampage cleaning and organising my house. I filled up my entire car of stuff to give to GoodWill. What a great feeling. Since I had no debit card, I couldn't really purchase anything new and exciting for my place, but it was still a relief to clean it up.
Sunday Glenn and I returned to Denny Creek. The first time we were there it was sunny and beautiful. This time it was cold and rainy and foggy. I had a hard time sucking it up and enjoying myself because it was slippery and technical and I just wanted to run. But it was still fun.


I was pretending to be an Olympic Gymnast here.




And with such a wet and rainy day, Struth had some serious muddy paws.


Later that day, after a nap, I went to a friend's house for dinner and wine. Gorgeous view of the sound.....would love to live there!

On Monday, I headed out with good friend Bob for a final swim and the most awesome pool in Seattle; COOLPOOL. Bob was sporting his swim stuff, he looks like a natural swimmer.....




So overall, the weekend was so rejuvenating that on Tuesday when I got up for work, I only hit snooze a few times. From Sunday to Monday, I actually slept 12 hours. Wow, I haven't done that since I worked in the bars!
So now, it's back to business. Work, running, keeping up on the clean house and seeing friends, trying to finish my book, listening to the Republican National Convention, (arg!). That is enough to keep me busy for the week.