Today I registered to submit artwork in the
Quote of the day:
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
April 30, 2008
Bike+Art=Show
April 27, 2008
No mow!
Just mowed the back lawn. Not sure why. Obviously, it was an effort to comply (at the eleventh hour) with the lawn laws of our municipality. As I was mowing, I was thinking one thing: "mowed lawns are terrible and ugly." Compared to the scattered clumps of uneven grass, dandelions, and common violets, a mowed lawn is a lifeless carpet; a barren desert. It offers no habitat, no food, and no refuge for almost all native Ohio wildlife. I say "almost all" because I realize there are some invertebrates at the interface of topsoil and atmosphere, protected in the dense forests of turf grass, and in the tangled mats of roots there. Dandelions [interesting note: the name comes from the French phrase, dents de lion, or "teeth of the lion"] offer nourishment for bees and other insects and are well adapted for frequently mowed lawns that don't have frequent applications of pounds of herbicide.
The other evil half of mowed lawns is the air pollution caused by conventional gas-powered mowers. Supposedly, 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend and use 800 million gallons of gas annually (
Anyways, this rant won't be very conclusive. I wanted to vent my disdain towards mowed lawns, and the bitterness I feel toward out-dated suburban tradition...
In other news: I lost my phone on a bike ride! (Call me so I can add your number to my contact list!) Also, we are finally plugging plants into our gardens. Currently, the tomatoes seem to be settling in, a few pepper plants have claimed a spot, and yellow summer squash have been given copious space to stretch out and soak up the sun. A ton of strawberries plants now have flowers and I'm excited to think of all the fruits we'll be able to use in smoothies, ice-cream, and yogurt.
April 9, 2008
Run = done
Well, it's about time I write this overdue entry about the marathon. This past Sunday, C and I, together, finished the full Athens Marathon in just over 5 hours. Here's a photo of proof: C was pretty miserable throughout the last 21.2 miles, but I'm proud that she stuck with it and am impressed with how strong she finished. I'm glad I ran with her too: first, she was my inspiration to run; second, I was worried about her either being in too much pain to finish and/or not finishing and being disappointed with herself; and third, I had a stronger desire to run with C and share the experience with her and to act as a motivator for her than I did to find out my best finishing time. Overall, we finished 192nd and 193rd of 213 full-marathon runners.
My recovery has been better than I expected, although I must have twisted my ankle when I was hobbling around after the race, 'cause now it's killing me.
I think this is ridiculous, but I will admit, I kinda' want to run another one. But seriously, the training sucked. Rather, it sucked up all my time. But honestly, I don't think I've ever been as healthy as I've been during the past several months of running 4 days a week. I hope I will keep running, often, and with some long runs every now and again.
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In other news, Spring has sprung in all its conspicuousness around our home. The big shrubby tree is flowering beautiful white and good-smelling flowers. Small bulbs have busted out of the ground and flowers have appeared there too. For as much as I like plants, I really don't know anything about ornamentals. Alden is really digging this weather too, and it's fun to lay in the grass with him on these sunny afternoons. I've transplanted some strawberries to a pot and the tomatoes in the basement are really pushing for a bigger container. Now that the race is over my mind is turning to road bikes and skateboards. I really hope to build a good road bike, up from a frame I recently acquired. Stay tuned for that project...