So.... it snowed here

Yes, I am still in Arizona, and yes, it snowed.  And I have photo evidence which I can now share with you.  But first, let's backtrack a bit.  It's been a busy few weeks between fitting in my little California detour, which brought me this sight from the beginning of my ride:

 

Nope, definitely not in New Hampshire anymore.  Now you can probably see why I enjoyed it so much.  Not long after my return from California, I had some visitors in the form of my mother and my aunt Tricia who were very happy to be escaping the brutal winter back home.  So for that week it was pretty much, wake up, train, shower, and go play tour guide.  They were staying at a nearby hotel and I was the one with the car so I couldn't just strand them there!  Although they did take the car on their own during my long ride, as waiting until sometime in the late afternoon might have been a bit much and I surely didn't need it.  

We went to Sabino Canyon and they went to Tubac to see some art galleries and we just liked of drove around and saw some random stuff, nothing too exciting.  It was nice to have some visitors and to go to a few restaurants and have some decent meals that weren't eaten while sitting alone in front of the TV.  One night in particular we went to a really nice restaurant in the Foothills that had a piano player, who, for some reason, actually started playing the song from "On Golden Pond" which was Dad's favorite and the standard soundtrack to evening boat cruises on a near-nightly basis.  So we had a little moment there (do you know how much it sucks to have something happen in your life that can now make you near tears at the drop of a hat?)  and Mom said he was with us, but then inserted her typical humor by saying, "Maybe he'll pick up the check."

And last Saturday I had myself the most Kona-like wind experience I've ever had on the main land.  Of course it hit for the long ride.  At one point I thought I was driving into a rain storm or something because it looked so dark up ahead, but it was simply blowing dust.  I felt at one point as though I was tilted at a 45 degree angle during a crosswind just to stay upright.  Then there were times of effortless 35mph pedaling on the flats with the wind at my back.  You can only imagine what it was like when I had to turn around.  At times I felt dirt blowing into my ear canal and likely being embedded into my brain.  But, well, I survived and made it back in time to shower and rest a bit before hitting the town again.

They had some decent weather and lucked out with warmer mornings than we've usually had around here, and they flew off just in time for Tucson to get its first measurable rainfall for 2011.  I was on the couch and suddenly heard this noise outside, looked out the window and yep, pouring rain.  It didn't last that long, but it was definitely the first real rain I've seen, aside from a few drops here and there.  

I enjoyed their visit but I was also ready to be back on my own again.  It's funny, but when the training volume gets really high and suddenly your afternoon naps get wiped off the schedule, you can get pretty exhausted!  Actually, to the point where I think it was Tuesday night that I literally went to bed at 7:45 and slept ten hours.  I felt a lot better after that, but definitely after all of the training this week there have been some naps involved.  

Oh, I also got some long-overdue new running shoes.  I went down to Fleet Feet and it was great.  I haven't loved a pair of shoes in a while and I keep trying different things, unsuccessfully.  But they fitted me in a pair of Pearl Izumis that I must say I am loving so far.  It's been years since I loved a shoe from the first run, so that's promising.

Yesterday was the first legitimately cloudy day we've had here, where the sun was pretty much completely absent.  And of course, another windy long ride for Saturday.  It wasn't as bad as last week, but it seemed to be in my face a lot more and start a lot earlier in the ride.  It caused me to ride seven minutes longer than scheduled and let me tell you, on a day like that, that seven minutes can feel like an eternity.  It was also chilly the entire time because of that cloudiness, but at least I was dressed for it.  

Ok, that brings us to today.  This morning I woke up at 3am due to the sound of unbelievable wind and what I thought sounded like rain at the time.  All I could think was, I hope it doesn't stay like that, and then I went back to sleep.  Well, it didn't stay like that.  Somewhere in there the wind died, and then things turned into this:

That is my little patio, all covered in snow.  I had seen the snow in the forecast and figured it couldn't possibly get to me.  Well, it did.  Later on, I went and got this shot:

Yeah, I was not thrilled to see any of this.  I will say though that it did show me how sensitive the snow is to the elevation here, because while I'm at about 2300' at my condo, this was about 2700' and there was quite a bit more snow there.  It made me feel better when I got back.  Of course, all of these mountains were just pure white first thing this morning and I think by noon they already looked just like they did yesterday.  So, while I was not happy to see snow, the very thing I came here to avoid, I was at least able to look at it and think it was pretty, only because I knew it would be gone almost instantly.  And because it's going to be close to 80 degrees for most of the rest of the week.  Sure did mess with the big golf tournament going on here right now, though!

So, now it is time for a rest week!  I have to admit, while the last one I had I didn't really feel was all that necessary, I am dying for this one.  But it made me realize how little time I have left in Tucson.  I have five weeks, but two are rest weeks which means I have only three real weeks of training left here.  Of course then I will begin my California/Florida adventure, so in that sense, still lots of time left.  For now, I'm just hoping that the snow stays where it belongs!

A little detour

I decided to take a little break from Tucson.  And I mean little.  A few weeks ago I thought to myself, hmmmm... maybe I should take this opportunity to go out to Los Angeles and visit with my cousin's family?  I could have a little scenery change of pace for some of the training, go back for the first time in eight years, visit with family I don't get to see very often and have some actual human interaction, which would be a nice change of pace.  So a little e-mail exchanging and here I am. 

It's a little under 500 miles, which now to me is hardly a big deal at all after coming all the way across the country.  Plus, it's a lot more desolate highway with high speed limits, so it actually only took me a little over six hours to get here.  Plus a nice time zone change meant it was more like five hours.  I lived with these guys for a while when I lived here, so it's nice to be able to come back.  Also, it meant that I got to ride my bike on the Pacific Coast Highway for the first time since I moved back. 

So yesterday I had the bike in the car and off I went to the coast.  While the weather in Tucson has been sunny and such, it hasn't really been that warm.  I'm not complaining, because 50 is certainly better than 20, but when I ride in the morning in the desert air I've still been stuck in tights and long sleeves mostly.  Well, not the case out here.  I parked where I always used to, right by Sunset Boulevard, hopped on and started riding north through Malibu. 

Now, I tend to enjoy riding my bike mostly, though like anyone, there are times when I just don't feel like it and am not that excited about it.  I couldn't tell you the last time I enjoyed a bike ride the way I did yesterday.  I didn't want it to end.  It was sunny and in the 70's, riding along the ocean with trees and mountains and lots of other cyclists.  Sure, there were lots of cars, but trust me when I tell you that it is a small price to pay.  The entire time I was thinking that everything about this trip might be kind of dangerous because I'm not sure how I can ever spend another winter riding my bike in the basement and running through snow and ice under fifteen pounds of winter clothes. 

I don't remember ever seeing quite that many cyclists out when I used to ride out there, and certainly not so many tri bikes, but as you can imagine, there were lots and lots of bikes out.  The surfers were doing their thing, beach volleyball, and quite a few stand-up paddle boards, which definitely wasn't a big thing last time I was here but has really exploded in popularity. 

Everything about yesterday made me just immensely glad that I had chosen to come out here this winter.  I feel the same way in Tucson, but you just sort of fall into a routine after a while and stop thinking about it as much.  I had to keep reminding myself that it was February and not June.  I really needed this trip.  I think a lot of times I think about what I should be doing or what I shouldn't be doing, and what I'm basing those on, I'm not sure.  But most of the time you really have to sit back and think, wait, why not?  I realize that I am in such a position where it's easy for me to pick up and go somewhere for months at a time and not leave behind kids or anything like that, and a lot of people just don't have that freedom.  As long as I've got it though, I'm going to take advantage. 

That is another reason why I think I've decided to extend my little trip a bit.  The plan was to race Oceanside and then drive back from there the first week of April.  Well, we have this QT2 training camp coming up in Florida about a week and a half later, and I was thinking to myself, why drive back and then fly down to Florida so soon after?  Why not drive to Florida and then drive home?  So that's what I think I'm going to do.  I'll stay in California for a week, drive to Florida and do the camp, and then drive home.  I might even stop off in DC on the way back and visit another cousin I don't get to see that often.  And maybe then the snow will finally be gone.  How often do you get an opportunity to do something like that?  I don't think that often.  So, I'm taking it. 

Well, another day in Los Angeles and then back to the desert tomorrow.  My mom and my aunt are coming to visit this week so that should be nice.  You know, eating dinner in front of the TV is nice and all, but six weeks of almost strictly that and I think I'm ready for a break.   

Superbowl Sunday

Ah, here it is, Superbowl Sunday.  The big day where most of America parks in front of their TV's wearing their football jerseys, screaming at the TV and may or may not be more interested in the commercials than the game.  Myself, well, while participation in sports has always been a big part of my life, I don't make for much of a spectator, especially when I'm not at a game live. 

Most of the time when I was growing up we'd head over to Nana's house and sit in the aptly named "Big room" and watch the game on the big screen TV.  She had a big screen TV long before everybody had a big screen TV, so it was a big deal then.  And sometimes I'd bring a movie to watch upstairs.  My mom would make what she calls her "white trash chili" in which she is selective about whom she shares the recipe with, since it involves Campbell's tomato soup and ketchup.  I have to admit, it's pretty darn good. 

Superbowl Sunday was one of Dad's favorite days, as you can imagine.  Sometimes he'd take me skiing at Cannon since it was two-for-one day.  Then he'd park himself in front of the TV and watch as much coverage as was available.  Sometimes he'd go to Nana's, but sometimes he'd just stay behind because he not only wanted to watch the game in its entirety, but he wanted to listen to the game and not have the commentary be overshadowed by other people in the room who have no clue about football and ask those kinds of stupid questions that people tend to ask when they have no idea how the game is played. 

He was a die-hard Pats fan from the time they were a team in the NFL.  He and my uncle Bob, Dad's twin brother, had season tickets way back in the day and my mom still has the stubs.  I do believe that the entire season was just over $100.  But you see, for a long, long, long time, the Patriots were terrible.  But he stuck it out.  We were actually on a ski trip to Colorado when the Patriots went to the Superbowl in 2002, and we had t change our tickets home because we were due to fly back during the game.  He was only disappointed that he couldn't watch the local news coverage all day since we stayed an extra day.  Coming home early would've made the trip too short.  It's too bad he's missing his favorite day, although it's not so great that the Patriots screwed up so badly.  In fact, my brother said to me that one good thing is that Dad wasn't around to see that travesty of a game.  Good point. 

Ok, enough about that.  My rest week is coming to a close and I can only say GOOD.  Don't get me wrong, I needed it and I appreciated it, but just put yourself in my shoes for a second.  Yes, I'm in great training weather and able to focus on pretty much nothing but training, eating and sleeping.  But, yeah, there is nothing but training, eating and sleeping.  You take away a lot of training hours, and suddenly you're left with a lot of empty hours in the day.  And I have seven TV channels, essentially.  Well, seventeen, but three are shopping networks - yes, seriously, three shopping networks - four of them are in Spanish, one of which actually tends to show some pretty awesome movies, unfortunately dubbed in Spanish, three more of them are of the C-SPAN or other news variety, meaning I would never watch them, and one is PBS.  That doesn't leave with a lot of day-to-day entertainment options.  It's a good thing I brought an arsenal of my DVD movies as well as all episodes of 30 Rock available on DVD thus far, which I could easily watch over and over again... and have. 

So, needless to say, I am ready to get back into a more consistent workout routine again.  I am glad, however, that my rest week coincided with that freezing cold spell we had here.  Seriously, they can't handle that kind of cold here.  There was a gas crisis in part of town and some people are still without heat.  I've already become a cold weather wimp.  At least it looks like we are going to be back to normal this week with temperatures in the 60's and 70's.  Phew. 

Hmmmm... what else?  Well, a good chunk of time today was spent cooking some food that should carry me for much of the week.  After overdosing on turkey and pumpkin chili in the first couple of weeks I was here, I took a break and am ready for some more again.  I froze some though so I don't have to eat it every day.  I also made some chicken tortilla soup, although there weren't actually any tortillas involved, just kind of a nice, spicy flavor.  Although in all honesty, the two recipes were awfully similar, a lot of the same ingredients but only a few alterations.  Hopefully I won't get bored with them.  I also cleaned a lot so basically I've set myself up so that I have almost nothing outside of the usual to do over the next few days.  Oh, good. 

I guess that's about it.  I should start paying attention to this game (we're in the first quarter, still nothing to nothing) and of course the commercials.  One good thing about watching by myself: nobody is trying to get my to buy Superbowl squares or anything like that.  I never win crap like that.  Ok, time to pay attention.

Yes, it's even cold in Tucson

I realize that this post is unlikely,  to garner sympathy from anyone based on what the weather is like in much of the rest of the country just consider it more of a commentary on the weather rather than me complaining about it. 

First of all, this blast of cold weather had perfect timing for me since it was a rest week with a lot less training than normal and only three days where I had to get in the outdoor pool instead of six.  I will say that it has been somewhat amusing to see the reaction on the news just because it's going to be 20 degrees at night.  To be fair, this almost never happens, so when it does it's apparently a big deal, but they are treating it much like those wonderful New England weather men who like to update you throughout the day during a storm in case you hadn't looked out your window recently and didn't already know that it was still snowing.  Schools have even been canceled.  Yes, just because it's cold.  Ok, so it has to do with the fact that the pipes are frozen and there is no heat or water, but still.  Yeah, their pipes freeze when it's 20 degrees.  Can you imagine if that happened in New England?  I will say though that waking up to a 42 degree living room isn't that fun, but fortunately the heater works.... I just have to turn it on!

I have to admit though that already I've become a wimp when it comes to the cold.  Barely more than a month ago I wouldn't have thought twice about hitting the road for a morning run when it was 18 degrees out.  Suddenly I just can't stand the thought of it.  And it's not that I don't have the gear for it, because I had the foresight to pack clothes for just this kind of situation.  I just don't want to have to use them!  I also didn't bring a particularly warm jacket with me.  But even when it was 30 during the day, the sun did make it feel pretty warm. 

I will say that on the days I have swum this week it has made a great difference in lane availability.  Not that it's usually amazingly crowded, it's just that there seem to be a lot fewer souls willing to bear the cold weather to get in.  I'm honestly not really sure why.  The pool itself remains toasty warm.  I feel worse for the lifeguards who appear to have been wearing every piece of clothing they own.  Although getting in and out while walking on ice and changing in an outdoor changing room with icicles coming off the faucets is slightly less than inviting.  As was that big sign out front informing me that "Toilets and showers are frozen."  Fortunately, After a quick change I was home two minutes later and in my own warm shower. 

Hmmm... that's about it, I guess.  I continue to cringe every time I see more bad weather heading to the northeast, knowing how I'd feel if I was there.  Except maybe I'd be getting some good skiing in, not sure.  I'd probably mostly be watching bad movies on the trainer in my basement and wondering why I do what I do.  That's about it from here, a little training, a little freezing, and a little boredom. 

One month down, and still no rain

It's kind of amazing to me that I've been here for a month already.  Even better, this week I really felt like I was making progress.  That is especially good considering the fact that over the past, um, many months I've felt as though I was going nowhere and sometimes even going backwards.  I can't tell you the last time I saw a 1:25 run on the schedule and didn't approach it with absolute dread, but that was finally not the case this past week or so. 

Swimming has even been going well, which is another amazing feat considering the fact that back in 2004 I made some great strides in swimming, as evidenced by the fact that that year at Timberman, after the race my father told me that he could no longer pick me out of the crowd of swimmers from fifty yards out in the water because I no longer looked like a flailing mess.  My Ironman swim time then was better than it was this year, and pretty much the same as it's always been.  So to see some good splits in the water is quite encouraging. 

As for the bike, well, that's coming around, too.  It's a very different kind of terrain than what I normally ride.  Back home it is usually quite rolling, punctuated by some sharp, steep climbs and maybe a few slow, steady ones here and there.  Here it's either flat or very long sections of slightly up followed by very long sections of slightly down.  I'm sure I could find some serious climbs, but I believe the temperature is in the 20's atop Mt. Lemmon right now, so I think I'll wait on that.  Anyway, the point is, biking is starting to feel pretty good, too.  Biking has always come pretty easy to me, and while the first bunch of rides out here were less than stellar, the last couple of rides I've gone on have been quite encouraging.  The only annoying part is that my heart rate is pretty low which means I have to work a lot harder.  Annoying at times, but also means that I'm becoming stronger and more aerobically fit, so I guess I'll deal with it. 

These first four weeks were all big training weeks, so I am very, very ready for a rest week.  I'm definitely getting plenty of rest between workouts because I don't really have anywhere else I need to be but my legs are definitely starting to feel the cumulative fatigue of the near-100 hours of training I've put in over the past month.  But it should also be noted that coming into this season I don't think I've been more well rested since I started training in the first place eight years ago or whenever it was.  Maybe nine now?  Of course I did not enjoy the reasons for the extended physical and mental break, but as a result I just don't feel the same kind of burnout I'd been feeling for quite a while.  I don't think it's normal for me to be able to say that when I'm doing weekly six-hour long rides in January already, but even yesterday I felt like I easily just could've kept on going. 

The last time I did this, coming out to Arizona to train, I was coming off what was and still is my most successful season ever.  I thought it was going to kick-start even more improvements and set me even further ahead.  Well, it didn't.  I got a little bit overly focused on high expectations and wound up being disappointed in my race at Ironman Arizona.  When I look back on it now, it seems ridiculous that I would've been disappointed in a result like that, but I was.  But I also remember starting up with that big training in January when I was in Phoenix and wondering why the heck I was doing so much so early in the season.  I was already burnt out after racing Lake Placid, Hawaii and Clearwater and not really taking a break at all.  It's nice to be starting out much fresher, even if I am way less fit now than I was then. 

Also, in case I hadn't mentioned it before, I vastly prefer Tucson to Phoenix.  I picked Phoenix last time because that was where the race was, so why not train on the course?  The truth is, find any stretch of barren, ugly highway with a slight incline and maybe that goes past a dump and you have the Ironman Arizona bike course.  You don't need to train on it to do well on it.  There are no tricks or turns, just desert.  Not even pretty desert, really just dirt.  But on that trip I did ride my bike down to Tucson one weekend and decided immediately that I'd picked the wrong city, and I knew if I ever returned, that was where I was going to go. 

I still see on the news every morning how bad the weather is back east and it makes me wonder how I ever make it through with my sanity.  This week alone I spent over 16 hours on my bike.  Can you imagine trying to find 16 hours worth of entertainment to fill the time while pedaling nowhere in your basement?  I've already exhausted almost every movie I ever even thought I might want to see on Netflix.  I vastly prefer the outdoor version, even if it means that currently I am sporting a tan only on the lower half of my face.  It remains to be seen though whether or not I make this a yearly event. 

Now, of course Tucson isn't perfect.  Like I said, some of the roads are in pretty bad shape and there is an extraordinarily large amount of broken glass scattered on the shoulders of the roads.  Not to mention the dead coyote I've been riding past in the same spot all month long.  Oh, and while the outdoor pool is nice and all, I did just see that it's supposed to be in the 20's at night this week due to a little cold front, which means I will be getting in and out of the pool and using the outdoor (well, unheated, of course there are walls and stuff) changing room for my morning swims.  That's not going to be super fun.  But, well, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.  After all, it still hasn't even rained.  Supposedly it might tomorrow, but we'll see. 

Anyway, everything is just going really well.  I spent most of my last excursion like this sort of waiting for it to be over, and this time I'm just sort of amazed at how fast it's going by.  My mom and my aunt are coming out to visit in a couple of weeks which should break up the trip nicely.  Maybe I'll even venture by car past the 4-mile perimeter that includes all of the grocery stores and pools I need.  Whole Foods is four miles away, Trader Joe's is two, and any number of others are even closer.  The pool takes about a minute and fifteen seconds to drive to.  I might walk there, but you know, there's a big hill and the fact that it's really cold in the morning.  Besides, even with that I still haven't had to put gas in the car since the day I arrived in town.  And I believe I already told you what terrible gas mileage the Xterra gets. 

I apologize once again that there are no pictures to go along with this.  When my mom comes I'm having her bring my camera cord so that you can finally see where I've been.  Hot air balloons every Saturday morning when I start my ride, mountains in the background, pretty sunsets, not bad.  Don't get me wrong, I love New Hampshire, but I'm currently really, really glad that I came out here.  Especially when I almost changed my mind back in the fall.  I saw four coyotes this morning on my run again, all separately at different times.  Considering the fact that back home I've come across bears these little guys seem a lot less intimidating, and equally as uninterested in me. 

I guess that's about it.  Very excited for my rest week and my once-a-month day off.  I just have to come up with something interesting to fill that time with.  So far what I've come up with is washing my sheets.  Very exciting.  I never said I led a glamorous life, but it's getting me back in good shape which is really the entire point of this excursion.

New swimsuit and warm weather

Last week I had an 800 time trial in the pool scheduled for Tuesday.  I pushed as hard as I could and wound up with a time about a minute slower than my best.  Now, while that time would usually come well into the season after lots of speedwork, being a minute off seemed like a bit much.  I recorded the time in my log, noted it was slow, but my coach told me it was not bad.  After all, it was about 15 seconds faster than the one I did last month.  But then I thought to myself, maybe it's just time for a new swimsuit?  So, after my workouts on Wednesday, I made my way to Sports Authority and checked out which suits were on sale, found one in my size and took it home.

Thursday morning I hopped in the pool for a set that began with an 800 steady.  So, off I went.  And, without working particularly hard, that 800 was a bit faster than my all out 800 on Tuesday.  Yep, sometimes all it takes is a new suit.  And I know you're wondering, and I saw the old suit in the mirror and it didn't look that bad, it was just that the outer layer of fabric had really started to create sort of a parachute effect, apparently.  But at least swimming has gotten a lot easier now and that suit is definitely in the trash.

What else?  Well, I have been watching the news in the morning and noting how much of what I'm seeing is based on the weather and how unbelievably cold and snowy it is all over the country.  Then I look out my window and wonder why I ever bother to put up with that.  Ok, I get it, I enjoy a good snow storm every once in a while and didn't even mind the blizzard that occurred right before I left to come out here.  Actually, it's probably good that it postponed my trip a day to prevent me from getting here too early.  But when you log onto facebook and at least four of your friends back home have posted pictures of their car thermometers reading -9 or whatever and you go swim in the outdoor pool and know it's supposed to be 70 again today, well, it's hard to argue that this is the much better place to be right now. 

I honestly almost feel guilty about it, even though it's not like it's my fault it's so cold there and it's so warm here.  Of course, the trade off is that you have to remember I am completely alone out here.  I'm doing fine with it so far, although I know eventually it will really start to get old.  But hopefully by then it will be time to come home, and I'll get a bit of a reprieve because my mom and my aunt are coming to visit in February.  I think after all of this next winter my mother might be the one who spends next winter somewhere warm.  Seriously, if all you have to do is find somewhere warm to go, why do we even put up with it at all?

Other than that, lots of training going on, of course.  Also on my run yesterday I got to add coyote to the list of wildlife I've come across while training.  At this point there's not a lot left for me to run into.  Fortunately he did not appear interested in me at all, and after we made eye contact he just trotted off leisurely in another direction.  Been logging lots of miles on the bike, a decent amount on the run and lots of time in the water.  I will say that I am definitely looking forward to my rest week next week, though.  Although I do notice that I definitely am much more aware of how alone I am on the days with less training, but maybe I'll try to think of something fun to do. 

Anyway, that's about it.  Enjoying the warm weather, not feeling like I'm missing out on the snow and cold and training, training, training.

Tucson is much warmer than New England

I have toolbar on my internet browser that includes a little weather icon that shows me the temperature and a sun, clouds, rain, snow, whatever the weather may be.  Of course it was originally set for New Hampshire, and I didn't bother to change it when I got here.  On Saturday morning I woke up and saw that it was two degrees out.  By the end of my long ride it was in the low 70's here.  And today, when once again it was snowing and sleeting and freezing raining back home, it was about 75 on my ride.  That's actually a bit unseasonably warm for this time of year around here, but I will definitely take it. 

So, as you can imagine, things are going pretty well.  It's quite apparent based on the weather reports and 20" of snow in one storm that I made the right decision by coming here.  I'm already working on my funny tan lines, most notably the one on my face, where you can certainly tell which part of my face is covered by my helmet and sunglasses on every ride.  I'm getting used to riding the rough pavement that is the only downside really to riding in Tucson.  It's not the entire ride, but some good stretches.  I've found some roads that have made me feel like I'm the only person left on Earth, been chased by a couple of stray dogs, and on Saturday mornings I usually see some hot air balloons out for a ride early in the morning. 

Of course, I'm sure everyone has heard by now what happened here in Tucson just over a week ago.  I was long gone on my bike ride and had no idea anything was going on until I returned that afternoon and turned on the TV.  It's definitely strange to think that that morning when I was riding out that shooter was at the Walmart down the street trying to buy his ammunition.  And a reporter came by the pool one morning because apparently the judge who was killed swam there in the mornings, and the little girl who died was also a member there.  Both of their funerals were at the church about a half-mile down the road from me.  In fact, an ill-timed run of mine had me dodging hundreds of early arrivals and news vans. 

Anyway, enough about that.  I'm sorry I don't have pictures to upload.  More accurately, I don't have a way to upload them.  I will say that it is pretty here in a very different way than New Hampshire.  And I like it a lot better than Phoenix.  I had a decent swim this morning and a good ride this afternoon and now I'm very much enjoying having my feet up.  Yep, things are going pretty well.