The Gigantic Sauna

Imagine a sauna. The hottest, steamiest, most scorching sauna you can think of. Now picture that sauna stretching...extending...growing...until it has about a mile radius. That's one heck of a huge sauna. Now imagine you just got home from work and it's time to relax a little bit. And what better way to relax then spending some time in a nice sauna? So you open the sauna door...wow, that is scorching. The heat just pounds you in the face the moment you step in. You immediately start to sweat. Now you move to a bench to sit down and relax....but wait....there is no bench! All of a sudden, you feel something forcing you to run. NO! You don't want to run! You feel as though you're being pushed, tortured as you run. The mind-numbing heat dries up your throat and makes it hard to breathe as your legs move painfully under all the stress. You run in the awful, miserable, deadly heat of the hottest sauna you've ever entered. You run and run and run until you feel that nothing could be worth this. Not even the absence of love handles.
That last part may not have made much sense, but that scenario is exactly what happened to me the other day when I went running. If you've been reading my blog, you probably noticed that I have been running in the mornings at around 6:00. Well, after trying it once, I found that I have a great deal more energy at night. So I started evening runs. And two nights ago was the hottest run I have ever taken. I literally began to sweat before stepping off of the front porch. It was one of the hardest things I have physically ever done. But you know, it ended up being a really good run. And I haven't informed my blog readers of this yet (the two of you that actually read it), but I am now running a hefty 1.9 miles per day. And walking 1.1. That's up seven-tenths from what I had previously been running. It's getting a little easier. And while the pain during the run may be way worse than anything I've ever been through, the feeling I get when I finish is well worth it. There's nothing better than that feeling of accomplishment.
One thing I wanted to write about, though, was something that happened on that awful, sauna night of running. Out where I run, not a whole lot of cars pass by. Which is a good thing, the way I'm swerving all over the road. But once in a while, I will have a car pass me. And that night, as I was running back towards my house, a big black Buick passed by on the right, going in the same direction as me. As it passed, I noticed a tiny hand poke out of the halfway-rolled down back window and wave at me. I couldn't see the child it belonged to--all I could see was that little hand, but the child couldn't have been any older than a toddler. That hand just kept waving and waving at me until the car was out of sight. It actually made my whole night. It also made me greatly appreciate my 16-month-old daughter, Abby. She is so amazingly precious--honestly the cutest child I have ever seen (and I don't think I'm saying that just because I'm her Daddy, but who knows?). I feel so lucky to have such a special little girl in my life, and I hope I never take her for granted. I love being her Ga Ga.

Nice While It Lasted

Well, we're getting down to the last couple weeks before we move out of the ol' in-laws' house and into our new one. Sad. Very sad. And I'm not being sarcastic. I'm actually sad about leaving my in-laws' house. But it's not because I'm going to miss them. Not even close. We're going to be about seven minutes away. I'll probably still see them everyday. I'm sad because I won't have the lake anymore. Oh, yeah, did I mention they were on a lake? They are. A nice one. And they have a boat.
I've become so accustomed this summer with walking down to the lake, spending some time in the water, then laying on their boat and just relaxing. It's become my favorite quiet time (when my wife and daughter aren't with me--then, it's my favorite family time). I can just get away, relax, listen to my iPod, and get a nice, Mexican tan. I love it. It's also an excellent time to show off my buff body. Just kidding. I mean, it would be an excellent time to do that, but my body's not buff. Yet.
I love the lake.
I'm also going to miss my usual running route. Their neighborhood is so peaceful. The street is paved so nicely and easy to run on. Everyone that drives by (though it's rare) smiles and waves. When I pass anyone on the road, they always have something nice to say to me. I never hear it because my headphones are always in, but I can see their lips moving, and I'm sure it's nice. I usually just smile and wave. There's even a very nice neighborhood across the street I frequent on my run. It must be a requirement to have an in-ground sprinkler system in that neighborhood, because every single house has one. I enjoy running through the mist created by the sprinklers, whipping my hair back in forth across my face in slow motion as the water soaks it to create that perfect wet look. Well, I don't do that so much, but I always think about it.
I even enjoy the six-pound dog that chases me halfway through the sub-division. Though I have wanted to kick him in the face many times, I think I'm gonna miss the little 'fella.
So it's tough to move after all this time. There won't be a lake. Though the backyard near the fence floods sometimes after a hard rain, it's not nearly the same. And let me tell you--I like the road we're on--the houses are all nice-looking houses, but the pavement...GOOD GOSH, THE PAVEMENT! It's incredible. It's as though four or five earthquakes have devestated our road, and nothing else around it. Gigantic chunks of cement are laying all over the road, leaving thousands of potholes screaming for their next victim. I have to break about three driving laws just to make it to our house without losing my little car. How will I run on this? I guess I'll be doing a lot more now than just running. I'll have to learn the high jump to hurdle the cement chunks and the long jump to avoid the potholes. Or I guess I could just run on the sidewalk.
But I wrote all of this just to say that I will miss the luxuries of the in-laws' neighborhood. It's been nice while it lasted. Time to be a grown-up now.