9/19/10

Well, today is officially the start of my adventure as a single person with two dogs. At 1pm today, I watched as Cheryl boarded a bus bound for Logan. Cheryl starts her long journey to the most isolated place in the world, a trip that will take her at least 24 hours to get to Christchurch, New Zealand, then on to Antarctica. It was a tearful farewell, but I managed to hold it together long enough to see the bus take off. And as I always do to keep my emotions in check, I went over to Lowe's and got some supplies for home improvement activities.

Hopefully Cheryl will keep up with her blog this year. That's right, I'm already calling her out on her duties to keep everyone informed as to her well-being. As like last year's blog, I will make my entries every morning reporting on what I did the previous day. Usually it contains what I ate, how long the dog walks were, and any other random occurrence. I will try and make things interesting this year, since I enjoyed the company of so many 'followers' last year. If you have any suggestions as to content, please send them along and I will do my best to incorporate it into my daily life.

So, until tomorrow...

Here is my morning entry as to what happened in my life yesterday since Cheryl left. As I indicated above, after dropping Cheryl off at the C&J bus stop, I went over to Lowe's for some home improvement supplies. I picked up a piece of 1/2" quarter-round that I intend to fill in the gap between the door trim and tile in the upstairs bathroom. I also got two new gate latches. Since installation of our fence gates, both Cheryl and I as well as countless people we have had over all agree that the ones put on are the toughest and most aggravating gate latches known to man. I also got a new trim piece to try out on our recessed lights, I don't like our current trim pieces because you can see right up into the can light.

After Lowe's, I came back to the house and spent some time with the pups. They seemed to not notice any difference so far. I held it together while in front of them, I want them to think everything is normal. As promised to Cheryl, I went out for a run. Instead of my typical 3mile run, I decided to do the New Castle loop. After all, I signed up for the seacoast half marathon in November, so I need to get some long runs in. Did the 7.34 mile loop at a 7:01 pace! After a shower, I walked over to the grocery store to pickup some lunch meat for the workweek, Sara Lee ham was on sale for 4.99/lb.

When I got back to the house (4:30pm), I took the dogs for an early walk because my dad is coming over at 5pm to hang out. I am getting use to walking both the dogs, something I did so easily the last time Cheryl was gone seems so difficult this time. I'm sure it will get easier with time. As usual, Reece went after every squirrel she could see. When we got back, I put on the TV to see the Pats score, which looked good at the time.

My dad came over around 5:15pm, and we walked to downtown for a bite to eat. Market Street was still closed down for the Criterium race, but crews were just cleaning up. We decided to try Foobar, my first time there since it use to be Muddy River Smokehouse. Walking in, quite a bit yuppier than Muddy River. Black outfits for the staff, white paint on the walks, all the table clothes and napkins are black. We sat at the bar area, I had a beef brisket and my dad had the pulled pork. And of course, I had the Sam's Octoberfest on tap, man I love this time of year. I won't say too much about the restaurant, I think some people might like it, but it isn't a do-over for me. We stayed long enough to watch the Pats suck it up, then left for home.

Lastly, my dad left around 8:30pm, and I went over to talk to my neighbor Paul about tree trimming tomorrow morning. We had some good laughs and then it was time for one last 'outside' with the pups. Made it to the couch to watch two episodes of The Family Guy with some chocolate pudding dessert.

Total walking for the day: 6.5 miles
Total running for the day: 7.34 miles