On the Road Again . . .

A few odds and end I've been meaning to post.

*We're headed out of town tomorrow for a "quick" jaunt to Bismarck, ND. A is heading off to Iraq later this month and is home visiting his mother, my ex-wife, who now lives in ND. So, 9 hour drive tomorrow, spend the day with A on Saturday, 9 hour drive Sunday to return home. Good thing I love to drive.

*Remember that ankle problem about which I've been complaining for the better part of a year? After cortisone, physical therapy, and reduced impact exercise provided little relief, we finally went with orthotics. I'm running again with very little pain. Do I still hurt a bit after a 7 mile run? Yes, but it's totally manageable. Switching my running schedule to no more than every other day--cross training & weights on "off" days--is also helping. I do have early onset of osteoarthritis in the ankle and there's not a whole heck of a lot that can be done about that. Thankfully, Naproxen takes the edge off on the days when the pain becomes an annoying distraction. My doc has given me the preliminary okay to run a 15K in July and a half marathon in late August. I'm presently up to the 7 mile mark on my long run day and I'm cruising 5-6 miles on moderate days. STK and I are also walking for roughly on hour every morning.

*I finally decided to take the reliable Civic in for some serious preventative maintenance. I'm replacing the clutch (it's been slipping a tiny bit for several years and I finally decided to replace the thing before STK gets stranded during her commute)and a couple valves that may be contributing to an undetermined idle problem (car is still running smoothly but does a slight idle surge at times--the problem has the Honda tech guys stumped). I think there may be a problem with the exhaust system, too. I noticed a new sound a couple days ago that smacks of "hole in muffler" or something. I crawled under the car but couldn't locate the problem myself. Time to leave it up to the pros. All told, I'm probably looking at $1500-2000 in maintenance. Love those cars, eh? Actually, I can't really complain. I've had the car for 12 years and it has 176,000 miles. Would you believe it still gets 45+ miles per gallon? Considering the car has had no serious mechanical problems beyond routine maintenance (belts, hoses, brakes, etc), I'd say I'm still running way in the black ::knocks on wood::

*The puppy, who we pick up on July 23, will be named Malcolm. That's the name TLO seems to like the best. Every time we give him the list of options, he usually says that he likes Mal. Mal it is. I bought Mal a brown collar a few days back. Geek world! Geek world. Party time! Excellent!

*Looks like we're making another run to Colorado around the 2nd of August or so. We need another shot of urban living before heading into the school year.

And with that, I'd better head off to bed. Lot's of driving tomorrow and we can't hit the road until around 3 PM. That means at least a few hours of late night driving. With a bit of luck, we should arrive at our hotel around midnight. I'm not sure we'll have internet access in the hotel so I may be out of internet contact for a couple days. I know all of you are just dying to reach me.