Bovine adventures

Attentive cows east of Burwell, Nebraska - June 30, 2007

Cows continue to add entertainment to my life. When I lived on a farm on the island of Nord Hidle, Norway (spring and summer, 1971) I herded cows, milked cows, fed cows, shoveled after cows and, most excitingly, outran a bull. Several years later, as a young mother, I experienced the adrenaline rush of warding off some charging cows while Kendall whisked our boys out of harms way as we hiked along a trail that, apparently, a herd of cows did not wish to share.

During my run to Michigan I startled many a cow along the way. I suspect runners are not as common on the backroads of the heartland as we are here in Boulder. The cows pictured above were the exception to the typical skittish prairie cow. Rather than stampeding away from the oddball runner as was the norm, these cows gathered along the fence as I ran past with Paul. My theory is they were eavesdropping on Paul who was giving me a play-by-play account of the latest Spiderman movie. Either those cows love a good movie narration or Paul is a closet cow whisperer.

Today presented an entirely new cow adventure. I was running around the eastern boundary of CU-Boulder's south campus (home of the CU cross-country course) through a herd of cows - a mix of moms and juveniles - when I noticed one of the youngsters was playing with a long strip of tyvek that had blown onto the property. He'd toss it around then chew on it...and chew some more. Figuring that tyvek was pr'y not the healthiest snack for a young bull, I decided I'd best get it away from him. So I wound my way through those moms and juveniles, yannering on in my calmest voice, until I got up to the young fella. I looked him in the eye and told him I really needed to take his plaything away. He looked back at me none to pleased but, what with sign language and forceful chit chat, I convinced him to move on, leaving the tyvek behind. With many glances around to all the watching bovines, I bundled up the tyvek and marched my way out of the herd. No charging cows today. Whew!

Defunkin/grumpin'

I don't know what set it off, but my-oh-my I was in a grumpy mood today. I don't like being in a funk, nor do I like being a grump. So, what to do, what to do.

Here's the pjv method for chasing away the blues (today's version):

1. Go for a run (what a shocker, eh?!). To break the routine/rut of late (and hopefully break the funk), I went to the track and did some drills and ran some quarters. There's a whole lot of rust that needs to be busted; at least today was a start.
2. Go to exercise class for a big dose of sweat, movement, muscle, music, and friendship. It definitely takes one's mind off one's troubles.
3. Stay after class with one of your buddies and shoot hoops. Ahhhh, now you're talkin'!
4. Run back home (good) and make a hot bowl of soup for a cold almost-winter's day (good) and get interrupted by the painter who's coming to paint your house tomorrow (bad).
5. Chow down on luke warm soup and sit down at the computer to work (not helping!).
6. Jazz things up by adding some Baileys to that first cup of coffee you're just getting around to drinking. Yeah!
7. Go back and forth on whether or not to go to class and decide, yes, it would be good to get out of the house...and yes it was.
8. Being the first cold snowy day of the season, put on your spanky (almost) new hat. Now that is what absolutely turned the tide. It's just not possible to wear that hat without smiling.

And now we have a de-funked de-grumped kind of day!

Addicted? Apparently so!

Phil, Joe, and AndyE near this morning's turnaround point
my phone camera leaves much to be desired...

October, as mentioned previously, was a very low-mileage month for me. Today, I burst out of that mode ...somewhat unintentionally. The plan was to meet up with the satboys gang at Coal Creek Golf Course where Joe would lead us out onto a new trail. Joe is famously navigationally challenged, but he had already thoroughly explored this trail plus we all knew roughly where it was so we had a high degree of confidence that we'd find our way there and back. And, when we were deciding on the plan for the day, Joe gave us options of a 6 mile out/back or a 7.5 mile lollipop loop; we chose the 6-mile option. To that 6-mile option, I added roughly 8 miles by running to the rendezvous point from home.

After arriving at the golf course and taking a boat-load of ribbing for all my blinky lights and reflective gear (at least I arrived unflattened after having left home at o-dark-thirty and running on high-traffic thoroughfares!) we set out to find this new trail on a glorious balmy autumn day. We first followed a familiar trail along a creek through a bit of town and into a quiet valley where we arrived at the new trail. Up and up, zigging and zagging we went across high dessert prairie and lo and behold, what a view opened up in front of us - the Continental Divide with snow-covered peaks hovering over the flatirons and foothills. Stunning....and just exactly what I wanted to be doing this morning...running, smiling, wind in my face, friends by my side. Perfect!

And, oh yeah, that 3 miles out/3 miles back? Not unless it took us 47 minutes to run 3 miles. Joe is no longer in charge of distance - in addition to directions. But it was a most excellent not-six-miles!

So why did I title this "Addicted? Apparently so!" ? I arrived back home in the best mood I've been in in ages...singing, laughing, dancing around the house. Yep yep, give me a long morning run any day!