Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Looking Forward To Spring

Spring may be here on the calendar but it's hard to believe. Usually, by this time of the year most of us are wearing t-shirts and maybe just a thin jacket on a regular basis. I haven't put my heavy winter coats away yet! Last week we dabbled with temperatures in the 60's for a few days and then we had a mighty cold day with some snow added in! Slowly, the winter is loosing it's grip and spring weather is fighting to bring on the warmer temperatures.

One thing about the warmer weather, I can run a lot easier. 8 miles on Sunday was pretty easy, in fact, I was running my 8 mile route as fast (in some cases faster) as I run the 7 mile route. Although, most of my 7 mile times were completed on cold winter days with wind and a fair layer of clothing... Once temperatures reach 70° all I need is a pair of shorts and I am set...although I do keep my shirt on these days, I do have some weight to lose and there's no need to prove that point! Hopefully by summer I will be doing better.

Just a short note today.

Until again

-=Nolan=-

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Spring Forward

Don't forget tonight is Daylight Saving Time (not savingS time)! Next weekend we welcome the spring equinox and hopefully that means some warmer weather as well. This winter has been a real downer for anyone who needs to see the sun and have a few days above freezing.

While the winter hasn't been too bad on my mental health, my physical health hasn't done as well. I am maintaining my weight pretty well, but I am not losing weight either, and that is something I intend to do once these cloudy, cold, rainy days pass. I am leaning heavily towards running the Lincoln Half Marathon in May, just to give myself something to work for and I might be able to even top my Spokane Half Marathon time back in 2007 - gosh I hope so!

The cold winter has also completely depleted our firewood supply. In fact, I had to cut more wood a few times during the winter and we still have been burning conservatively. Did I mention most of the winter the house wasn't above 60°F? Most mornings we wake up to inside temperatures around 53°. We have learned to live a little cooler this winter, that's for sure. I think we had the house above 70° no more than a dozen times from burning the stove (and most winters it wouldn't be below 65°! A few of the house plants are rather unhappy with me, but that's ok, Laura hasn't been all that thrilled either!!!

We have managed to save a few pennies and get ourselves a nice vehicle for traveling. As you know we love a road trip and it is time to have a vehicle that can get us down the road comfortably and safely. We were stuck between the Ford Freestyle (also known as Taurus X) and a mini-van. We spotted a Chrysler Town & Country that we really liked, but it was sold before we were able to do any research. A few weeks later we hit up Young Motor Company, the same place I bought my truck from back in 2003 (still running strong!) and test drove a 2006 Town and Country Limited. We were impressed with it and Al was right in our price range, so we bought it. We have been thrilled with it too - Limited Edition always has good stuff. It's loaded - leather, power everything, power doors, stow & go seating (the seats fold into the floor) DVD player, satellite radio, 6 cd changer, gps navigation - like I said, lots and lots of stuff I didn't even touch on. The important thing, it rides smooth and I know there will be plenty of room for all the stuff we take with us! We won't be driving it around too much, it's primarily going to be for our trips out of town or maybe grocery shopping when we intend to fill the pantry up. It's been hard to let it set in the driveway though, we have places we want to go!

Emryk is really starting to talk. He is growing up fast and becoming more and more independent all the time. He loves to climb as high as he can get, I do too so there's no surprise there. You can see, he's very resourceful when it comes to finding things to climb on. He wheeled his Mega Block dump truck over in front of the TV so he could get to the DVD player and play his favorite movie The Sandlot. He hasn't taken any major spills yet, but he is due up for a dozy one of these days.

That'll do it for me today. I have been trying to think of something to blog for the past month and I finally had time to sit down for 15 minutes and post something - I feel good to get that right now!

Until again

-=Nolan=-