Double Rainbows

Well this is a day late, but hopefully not a syllable short. I'm participating in the PerPoTues at The Little Stuff of Life.

Double Rainbows

Faded hues. Reflect

yet another, more vibrant.

Hope fades. Then returns.

We've seen a lot of these double rainbows this year. It's been a couple of weeks since this photo was taken from my back porch. We haven't had many storms as of late. Not outside anyway.

Rainbows of course are used as symbols of many things - peace, unity, a promise between God and man. The storm is winding down, the sun's face is showing. It's supposed to get better now.

I personally like storms. I love the energy and the excitement of thunder and lightening. There are just times I need that energy to come from outside of myself.

I always think of a book I used to read to my kids where one of the main characters is glum and stays glum until a good thunderstorm comes along to shake things up.

I feel like Toot.

It's the same during the winter. I like to see the snow falling, making the ground white. That means that today is going to be a little different than yesterday. And probably different than tomorrow.

But's it's also nice when the storm stops. On summer days the air is still cool, damp, and fresh. Often when it's still stormy to the east we're treated with the luminous arc of colors that makes us just stop for a moment to look. We usually share the moment. And it's quiet. Calm. For a moment.

Figure 8 Crazy

The N's Cub Scout pack held the flag at the opening ceremony at the Colorado National Speedway last Saturday evening. Racing here is small time. The 24 car didn't have Jeff Gordon in it or anything. But The N loves to watch races so he was pretty excited about being able to go down onto the track with his Scout buds.

For me racing is okay, but I'm good for about the last 10 laps at Bristol. And that's on the television. Once the excitement of a spin out is passed you still to wait a long time for the green, green, green. And then you are lucky if you get 4 more laps before another caution goes into play. But I thought, hey, it'll probably be fun for a couple of hours anyway.

There were a variety of races. Some were stock cars much like the NASCAR cars that are on the big circuit. This is a NASCAR race track, just a lower (much!) tier of competition. A couple of the races I picked a fave car and routed for it (they ended up in 2nd place both times). Most of the time I was pretty bored with it all. It's just like the R says - "a bunch of bubbas going in circles". Except...

For the crazies who do figure 8 racing. What is up with that? It's like the normal crashing into the wall and spinning out is no longer enough. No! We want to see people racing through an intersection and hopefully really have a smash-up. This is the configuration of the speedway:

During the Figure 8 race the cars don't drive the oval, they drive the ends and through the crossover (which isn't actually over, there is no over). So it all starts just fine when the cars are all bunched up, but of course after the first couple of laps the fast guys get ahead and are soon over a half of a lap in front of the slow pokes. I watched this race with hands over my eyes, because I REALLY didn't want to see a wreck. That's not excitement in my book. I look away when I see ambulances and firetrucks at an intersection. I watch anything resembling a horror film through my fingers. The idea of a train wreck makes me want to run the other way. I won't even watch Jon and Kate + 8 (minus 1, or is it minus 2?) or any other reality type TV. Frankly, they scare and depress me.

The rest of the time at the track I just watched people and wondered. Why are you here? What pleasure are you getting from this? Is watching the tow crews pull a car out of the wall some sort of a highlight for you?

I just don't get it.

Only 13.1 miles to go

We are approaching the end of summer vacation at an alarming pace. During our first hour after school let out last May I wondered how I would survive the summer. 3 months. 3 potentially hot months (though it didn't turn out that way). The boys were bored, maybe feeling the let down of not being busy all of a sudden, not having anything they had to do, and thus not knowing where to begin. I wasn't bored. Not by a long shot. I was still recovering from all of the end of the year activities, doing some Dreamweaver and Photoshop work, and still trying to figure out how we would spend summer.

Well. We figured it out. We just lived it. We hung around. A lot. We had a lot of baseball. A lot of baseball. Some golf. Some swimming. Lots of burgers, hot dogs and popsicles. Lots of green ice tea and IZZEs. Lots of salads, berries, and melon. Grilled chicken. Yum! Skateboarding and bike riding. A bit of hiking, with more to come next week. I ran 2 10K races and 1 5k race and decided somewhere down the road that I would train for a 1/2 marathon, 13.1 miles of running.

But almost 3 months have gone by. We've had fun. The kids have wound down. I've even wound down even though really I'm always on edge, wound up, trying to figure out the next move. What. Should. I. Do. Always in the back of my mind. Send a resume here. Send a resume there. Hopefully the summer has been fine for the kids. I'd hate to think that they are so aware of my internal struggle. There are days I feel like I have a plan of action. There are days I feel like I'm starting from scratch with no idea of how to proceed. My only consistent focus has been on running, getting ready for Sept 6th, a 10 mile race, then Sept. 20th. the 13 mile event. Most of my other self improvements have gone by the wayside.

I would've expected more off of my waistline given running more. Last week I ran over 20 miles! That's almost twice as much as I was running at the beginning of the summer. Obviously I'm not really seeing what I'm eating because my stomach is still out there. I see a difference all over in terms of my muscles, but the fat is still sitting there. The mirror always surprises me, because I feel so much better than I look. I didn't want to start school as the frumpy mother again. In spite of all of my physical activity I still have the look of frump. Sigh. That's not likely to change in the next 2 weeks before school begins.


On the days I feel good I feel like I'm able to start over again, anew. On those other days, I realize that not everything is in my control and I can't plan those things.

All I can control is my eating, my running, and how I reevaluate my next steps. Only 13.1 miles to go.