Whoo! Hoo!

My longest running year was 612 miles in 2004. Today I have run 632 miles already this year, so it's looking like I might make 700 this year with ease. God's brought me a long way since 25 years ago when I walked with a cane!

23 mile week. . .

It's fall, and that means the temps are a bit cooler and the humidity lessened. And it's time to train for longer races again. The little girls stayed over Saturday night. After their baths I carefully curled their hair in tiny rollers. Magdalena's normally straight hair was a mass of tight curls in a halo around her head. Eliza had opted for a bit larger rollers, and hers was more wavy -- it's also longer so the weight pulled it a bit. I grabbed a skinny hot curling iron, and curled it tighter, as she so liked Maggie's hair and wanted hers more like that. When Mom and Dad came to pick them up for church, I took pony tailers and made "waterfalls" of the top section. They looked so cute! Eliza had this long banana curl going up through and down one side of her pony tailer. Magdalena's ended up being a curl popping out the top. So they went home happy -- having, the day before, done some sprints with Gramma, gone shopping for some art supplies, and spent an evening drawing, eating, and chilling out before crashing on blankets on the living room floor.

Nonetheless between the slumber party with the grandchildren and a race on Saturday, I was pretty tired when Butch and I headed out about 3:30 p.m. for an 8 mile training run. It couldn't wait till today because I have appointments all day. We weren't fast, but we did it. That 8- mile-run ended a 23-mile week -- the highest mileage week since the Dam to Dam in Des Moines on Memorial Day weekend.

Guidance systems for heart caths . . .

Ran a 5K Saturday beginning at the U.Va Campus. This race was in memory of a professor who came home from church feeling a bit ill. She went to the hospital a few hours later and was gone by evening. A virus attacked her system so fast nothing could be done. Our friend George told us the story as he escorted us to his lab.

I understand that the GPS system I've discussed before, the system that guides catheters into the heart is in use, and has actually been used about 20,000 times. Now he and the grad students are working on more accurate systems for treating heart arrhythmias. He has a heart and lung stimulator in his office, and is working on a system that will let a doctor know exactly when a needle has reached that thin layer of fluid between the heart muscle and the lining around the heart. His workbench and labs were neat and tidy, with tubes, rods and catheters in carefully labelled glass tubes. There was a magnet carefully placed beneath a glass bell jar, as the magnet is one of the strongest in the world.

Two years he's been working on the system for reaching the fluid around the heart. I asked how he managed to keep on working on a project that long, and he said something to the effect that you just keep thinking about all the people that will be helped.

It was a fascinating way to end the race. And when I got home there was a thank-you note e-mailed to me for taking the time to visit his lab. I hadn't even had time to write him a note thanking him, as I had had the little girls for an overnight.

I'd Rather be in Iowa

I can't think of a place I'd rather live than right here in the Shenandoah Valley where I can run free whenever I want without worry about weather or whatever. But then there are times when I'd rather be back home in Iowa -- like last summer when my birthplace and childhood home were inundated with floodwaters and I wanted to help; and like today when I'd love to snuggle this new grandnephew. He was about 24 hours old when the above photo was taken and then sent via e-mail. His coming out party was no picnic for his mama who had to push hard for 2 1/2 hours before Harper could see the world; but she did it and Grannie Annie (my sis) has repeatedly stated how proud she is of Aubrey, too.
Harper did NOT like his first bath but he sure seems to know and love his daddy already. The photo below makes me think of something I read years ago in a book titled, How to Really Love Your Child. The author stated that a baby's eyes will search crazily for eye contact; that almost immediately after birth it craves for the affection it feels when seen eye to eye. I found that to be true oftentimes when my girls and granddaughters were little -- just holding them tight, looking them in the eye and speaking softly would calm them. And Harper seems quite content there snuggled in Daddy's strong arms where they can gaze at each other eye to eye.

South River Overlook

Water only trickled across the falls off South River Trail Sunday, but the scenery was still mesmerizing and the 2.9 mile trek worth the view. Though contemplating the view in this photo, about an hourlier Butch was ecstatic as his "senior status" got him a lifetime pass to Skyline Trail and all national parks for just $10.

Natural Botox

The swelling from a bug bite Saturday temporarily removed the furrow that's normally between my brows. See natural is not always better! This bite itched. Besides that it removed not just the furrow but added a bump in the middle of my forehead as well. And the wrinkle remover was only temporary.

Grace or Community?

As I left a retreat Saturday, I saw this sign, did a double take and burst out laughing. For according to this sign grace is available on the right; community is available on the left; but both are not available at the same time. In a few judgmental communities, that may be true. But most of the time I have been able to find community AND grace amongst my friends; and this sign was actually abbreviating the names of two churches that were meeting on opposite sides of Brethren Woods Campground Saturday: Community Mennonite Church and Grace Fellowship.