That feeling of feeling

Today it was 27 degrees when I started my run at 5:20, and 25 degrees when I finished at 6:10. Above zero! This is big news, it was almost Florida hot in the great state of Minnesnowta. Okay, I shouldn't get too carried away, but it was nice not having to wear two jackets, thermal tights, and a hat. Of course, when there's a good foot and a half of snow on the ground and it warms up even a little bit, you get the snow melt. That kind of sucked a lot since St. Paul doesn't do the best job of shoveling off their footpaths in the winter. But nonetheless, it was nice not having to thaw out after a run. For example, on Sunday I went 14.5 in -2 degree temps (not windchill), and after I got back I couldn't really do anything. It even took me a while to lay on the couch because I was literally frozen. I had ice everywhere, it was great. But I mean, today I came in and I had sweat dripping down my face, and usually those are icicles.

Also on Sunday I went computer shopping with my grandparents. Their computer crashed a few days ago. Actually, the motherboard went bad. I offered to replace the motherboard for them, but they said they'd rather get a new computer. A new motherboard would take a while to get here anyway. So we went to Best Buy, and then Staples. I might have mentioned before that I work for St. Thomas' tech support department, and unfortunately my granddad pointed that out to everyone in the store when they asked "do you need such and such a support package?" That kind of got on my nerves, but whatevs. So he picked out a computer and a wireless printer and we went home. After 4 hours of shopping though! are you kidding me?

Anyways, I networked the wireless printer, fixed his wireless router, and set up his computer. I also recovered the data from his old hard drive and put it on his new one. You know what that would have cost him? $425! for an hour and a half of data recovery! that's highway robbery. I should start my own computer repair shop. Honestly though, if you have a computer question, you should let me know, since I do that stuff for a living.

I'm watching the show "I used to be fat." I think that show is hilarious. Maybe that's not the right word- amusing, there you go. Let me explain myself though before you go and tear me a new one. I think its great that people are getting into shape. Thats great, good for them. What's funny is when they're surprised getting in and staying in shape is hard work. There's a reason they call it "letting yourself go." I think a lot of that is how I was raised though. I'm a big fan of the "play the cards you're dealt" philosophy.

But anyways, I'm rambling, and I've got to find my phone that I lost earlier today.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run

And so it begins. That's part of a quote by Rudyard Kipling, but I hope you know that already. I actually know that quote by heart- every year we have a packet of readings each day for our pledge process for Sigma Chi. That quote is from one of the packets we had to read during our pledge period, and we had to chose one reading from each packet to discuss in front of the actives each night. I chose "if" (that poem) and talked about OAR and Quenton Cassidy and Bruce Denton and all that. Of course, no one knew what I was talking about.

The moral of the story is that I started reading Once A Runner again for the third time. Actually, I downloaded it on audiobook from the library and loaded it on my iPod. It works pretty nicely, although I do have a complaint. OAR was only available in Windows Media Player format, and it wasn't playable on a mac since you needed a certain codec not available on mac to play it. No problem right? I started up my virtual machine and downloaded the book. After installing the apple usb drivers on my virtual machine, I was ready to roll. I plugged in my iPod, but had to reformat my ipod for windows, which erased all my songs. That was kind of a headache, but whatever. Im already on chapter 7.

On to the actual meat of the post, right? Well, I ran a little over 7 miles in about an hour. Slow, but peaceful. It was nice to go out there in the light snow and just slog through a couple miles. granted, it was a little difficult footing, but its all good. Night runs are awesome, and snow running is awesome, so put both together is really awesome. My knee felt really good too. I could feel it a little bit in the last mile or two coming home, but not a problem.