Ending August with a 10K

    I aim to post this missive this afternoon since we're heading to Chicago in the morning to celebrate Rebecca Zielke's (Ray's great niece) wedding in the afternoon. We'll stay overnight and return home on Monday. 

    We've had a long string of 90° days. We may complain, but other parts of the U.S. have had hotter days and other weather events. We feel fortunate to have had some rain on Thursday and this morning.

    I signed up when I learned that the Indiana Women's Running Festival offered a 10K in addition to the Half Marathon and 5K. The Indiana State Games in June did not provide a 10K, but I had to find a local one to qualify for the National Games next summer in Des Moines. Yesterday afternoon, we drove to Carmel to pick up my race bib.

Beautiful Flower Pots in front of the
Renaissance Hotel

Ready for the race! 
I was impressed with the well-designed shirt.

        I set the alarm for 5:15 last night but had difficulty sleeping. We had a thunderstorm that wouldn't quit. It didn't bring much rain, but I heard wind and rain on the window. By 6 a.m., Ray and I were driving to the race site. It was dark and overcast, and the sun never showed up. We had free parking and walked to the start as it started to drizzle. I'm not familiar with Carmel. It's considered an upscale community, and I can see why. I saw lots of art and beautiful buildings during my run. I would like to return and get a close-up view of the art.

    I received a butterfly-designed finisher's medal, a long-stem rose, and a bottle of water at the finish line. The usual bananas and chewy bars were also available. Runners could pick up a small glass of wine at another tent, and the next tent served grilled hamburgers. Two kinds of cookies were also given away. I checked in at the timing tent and received the results of my run. There were 274 runners in the 10K, and I finished at #217--first in my age division with a time of 1:26 for a pace of 13:54. For my first-place finish, I received a wine glass to add to my collection.

My Everyday Life - August 25-31, 2024

    Have a safe and fun Labor Day Holiday, everyone. 

An Early Fall Feeling in the Air

This was not an ordinary August week. Although the temperatures were in the 70s most days, this is a new week, and they are back in the 90s. The days last week felt like late September. Since we haven't had rain, I watered the planter on the patio.

Several times a year, the Greenwood Senior Center is closed on Thursdays for a fundraiser, so we can't play bridge there. One of those days was last week, but we found an alternate place to play. One of our regular members recently dropped out because of an accident and is now living in an Assisted Living Community. We used their community room, and he was so happy to see everyone and play cards again.

We watched the Colts' last preseason game on Thursday evening. The Colts played starters, but the Bengals played second—and third-string players. The Colts managed a win. Our quarterback only played four games last year, so he is inexperienced. I hope he lives up to his expectations. He is a work in progress.

My Everyday Life - August 18-24, 2024

Halfway Through August

    This past week has been a blur as I spent all week helping prepare for our annual church rummage sale. We had a great team working together to prepare the donations for the two-day sale. For the effort, we were rewarded with the largest sale anyone can remember. 

    We usually play bridge on Thursday afternoon, but the senior center closed on Wednesday and will not reopen until tomorrow due to COVID concerns. I don't know anyone ill, but the closing allowed me to spend more time at church sorting clothing donations. I've worked exclusively with setting up the clothing area for several years and avoid sorting all the other "stuff." I even gave up playing pickleball but plan to return to the court tomorrow morning.

    Speaking of pickleball, Ray and I attended the "Making Memories" tournament last Friday evening. Greenwood built a beautiful 16-court pickleball complex that opened in June. We hadn't seen it since it was finished. A local food vendor had food available, and Mashcraft Brewery served beer. We watched a few matches and visited with several pickleball people we hadn't seen in a while.

This is one-fourth of the new complex.
(Photo from the dedication -- the largest in our county)

 

My Everyday Life - August 11-17, 20224

Lessons Learned!

    Last week, I wrote about our TV problems and that we were expecting a tech to come on Tuesday to fix them. Fortunately, I looked at the setup again on Monday and realized I failed to insert the cables correctly. Because of my mistake, we would have been charged a $100 house call. I canceled the order, and we are enjoying our former setup. 

    Have you noticed the proliferation of self-checkout lanes, especially at the grocery store? Yesterday morning, I stopped to pick up a few items. I went to this particular grocery store because they had sent me some good coupons, including a dozen free eggs. I chose the self-checkout lane and scanned them without any problems. Then, I scanned the coupons by inserting them into the provided slot. I didn't see the discounts on the screen and asked for help. The attendant asked if I had clicked on the button to select coupons. It was apparent at that moment that I had made a big mistake. I had to pay the total price for all my items and lost the value of the coupons. That was another lesson that I learned.

My Everyday Life - August 4-10

        We watched the Closing Ceremonies for the Paris Olympics and saw Tom Cruise's surprise appearance. Now that we don't have the games to watch, what will take their place. Oh, I almost forgot. The NFL season is about to start. We'll watch the Colts and the WNBA Fever when they begin playing again.

A New Month/New Problems

    This past Wednesday was the last of the weekly concerts in Franklin. The Indiana Wind Symphony provided an entertaining program with many lively marches. We learned that the Symphony was organized seven years ago, with the founder recently retiring. The new director and the assistant director shared the podium, each directing half of the numbers played. The new director has been the director of the Purdue Marching Band for the last 19 years. This will be his last season at Purdue. This concert was one of our favorites of the season.

This is a large orchestra, filling the chancel area.

    The rest of the week wasn't much fun. On Monday, I contacted Xfinity to see if they had any promotions to reduce our monthly fees. I chatted with an agent who suggested signing up for NOW TV, a streaming service with a significantly lower monthly payment. I agreed and learned it would work best if I had their Xumo box. We stopped at the Xfinity store and picked up the box at no cost. However, I couldn't connect the box and talked to an agent for some time, but they couldn't get it to work either. They decided a house call was needed, and an appointment was made for Monday (tomorrow). When I learned that local channels weren't included with this service, I canceled the house call, returned the box on Friday, and signed up for our former service. All I had to do was plug in the TV box we still had and insert the HDMI cable into the back of the TV. That sounded easy, but it didn't work. After talking to their technicians, we have an appointment for Tuesday when someone will come to the house.

    I've learned not to interfere when something is working OK. Just pay the price! Fortunately, we have  Roku, and since I signed up for Peacock (to watch the Olympics), we are not without TV service. 

My Everyday Life - July 28-August 3

    
    I appreciate your patience in reading about my problems if you've read to the end. I hope to have a good report the next time I post.