Busy Doing Nothing

I didn't even keep track of my miles this week. Back to melancholy this week, it wasn't very hot temp wise but it's been humid as they called for thunderstorms everyday. Temps have been in the low 80's so I had been looking forward to walking the boys on Sat and Sunday mornings. Saturday morning we got up early and were out of the house by 7:30am. It was cloudy, and gray with a slight drizzle, but I figured we would chance it.
I love walking in Atlanta on gray days, it reminds me of Anchorage in the wintertime. The clouds here when they cover the sky look like snow clouds, a thick covering that almost looks low enough to touch. A gray sky gives Atlanta a completely different look, I'm so used to the shiny, fresh and bright coloring of the daily sunshine here that reflects from the beautiful tall buildings. The contrast of being outside in the monochrome grayness gives me the same feeling of being in Alaska and the sun comes out on a snowy day. It something about the contrast just as you grow used to waking up each day and living each day with cloud cover, then bam! the sun comes out. That's what the gray feels like to me in Atlanta. Just I get used to sun every day, bam! cloud cover as far as you can see.

The drizzle only lasted a few minutes and I thought we'd be safe to continue on for a couple hours as I had planned. The boys seemed comfortable in the humidity and I had the camelback and a water bottle full for us. I was hoping to make it to Decatur about 8 miles away from the house. But I wanted to take my time and play with the camera and the boys too! We stopped at a park not far from our house that the neighborhood has adopted and planted a nice garden area in several spots. Great for taking pictures!

A gentlemen (in the blue shirt) was watching me take the boys pictures and couldn't believe how well behaved they were. I told him they were my muses. He really got a chuckle out of the whole thing. He offered to take my picture with them...
I wish I would have remembered Fatty's advice about sucking in my gut in pictures. But at least I remembered to position myself straight on the camera. Don't look too close!!!!!

Just as I was packing it up to continue on, it started drizzling. I wrapped up the camera in the plastic grocery bags that I carry for picking up "doggie waste" just in case. Within minutes we were caught in a torrential epic downpour of cold rain. It felt wonderful! It was colder than the cold water out of my faucet! But it was coming down in buckets. Luckily once it was starting I stopped again and wrapped up the ipod, phone and the camera in every plastic bag I had and put them in the camelback, which I wasn't sure if it was waterproof or water resistant. We were about 2 miles from home with no shelter and the rain didn't look like it was going to stop.

As we walked on down the street in the pouring rain I was looking for maybe a house under construction to hang out while it rained. There was one but there was a whole crew there on the porch, dry, and yelling "ola bella" "Come on" motioning for us to come inside. I said thank you and continued on. It was uncomfortable enough being soaked, I didn't want to hang out with a bunch of guys that don't even speak english staring at me in wet clothes. But it was nice of them.

Down the street I found us a covering outside an old empty storefront along Ponce and pondered on whether we should wait it out or run home. After about 5 minutes I made the choice to just run home it was only about a mile at this point. Water was running down the streets in flash flood depths and pouring out of the gutters in waterfall fashion, we'd be waiting a long time for it to stop.

So we ran. I hadn't run a mile in about a year and half, if not longer. It felt good to not be hot, but I was worried about the camera and I was soaked 100% through. We made it home running. It was kinda fun in the end. I was hardly out of breath from running, and I was soaked through. The camera and everything was fine, turns out the inside of the camelpak was dry- so I guess it is water PROOF after all- good to know.

So I worked on the bike. I took the tires apart and lined them tape to hopefully fix the flat issue once and for all. (knock on wood)

With the rubber off you can see the rim 'tape' a loose plastic thing was pulling so much that the spoke holes are showing- THIS has been causing the flats over and over again.

A little velox tape and wall-ah! She is riding great, the tires feel so much sturdier now. Something about working on your bike yourself makes you feel so powerful and super cool. Even when no one is around to see it. That's why I took pictures!

Later that day I rode my bike to the movie theater and saw Sex in the City the movie. It was ok, I'm glad I finally got to see it, but it wasn't as good as the series was. It was like a quickie catch up. Regardless I get a kick out of riding my bike to the movie house, it also makes me feel cool. Everyone else gets in their cars and drives away, and I hop on my bike and smile as I pedel away under my own power (not to mention pedeling off the popcorn)!

It's been 20 days now without driving. I'm itching for an adventure. I might not make the whole 30 like I planned. I need to get out of town for a couple days and find something fun to do. I read other's adventures and it's making me feel a little ..itchy if you know what I mean. Here in Atlanta there is I-285 that circles the city, so people say we live ITP (inside the perimeter)/OTP (outside the perimeter). Since moving ITP I don't go OTP very much. ITP is closing in on me. It feels like an island, or being stuck in Alaska all winter with no vacation planned. I need to get WAY OTP.