Taking a deep breath

This photo, taken in the midst of a rainy, blustery run along Little Traverse Bay during our most recent trip to Michigan, is a fairly accurate depiction of my mood of late.  The past several months have been a challenge, physically and mentally.  Good times with visiting friends and relatives, but on a personal level, rather unsettled, meandering, drifting, no big goal to wrap my arms around and battling with issues not in my control.  Difficult for this long-time project manager...  And to top it off, running has been sporadic (in large part due to those issues not in my control) so running-related goals have had to be put aside, and I've not been able to consistently turn to my go-to mood enhancer, the long run.  I am hoping, however, that frowns will soon be banished from my face, shoes will be dancing on trails, and energy will be overflowing with jobs to do and goals to pursue.

In the meantime, a look back at late summer and early autumn activities.

In August, Kendall and I took a leisurely trip to Michigan to visit mom, poking around the backroads through the plains and making lovely discoveries along the way.

The western end of the Cowboy Trail, near Valentine, Nebraska

A delightful museum in Valentine, Nebraska with the most amazing museum collection I have ever seen: 1000 bells, all donated by one woman.  The pictures do not do the bell room justice. (I must apologize for the sideways cow bell picture.  It's one of my most favorite pictures but I just could not figure out how to get blogspot to keep it upright):

We also thought a visit to the corn palace in Mitchell, South Dakota was long overdue.  It did not disappoint:

From there it was on through Wisconsin (and another run on the Mountain-Bay trail), and into Michigan and Petoskey and a lovely visit with my mom.

 
While in Petoskey, we were also treated to days and nights filled with friends and music - including a Dixieland Jazz jam session at a friend's neighbor's house followed the next day with the Petoskey High Steel Drum band performing at the waterfront during the Festival on the Bay festivities that highlighted the weekend's activities.

No drive to and from Boulder-Petoskey is complete, of course, without admiring the Mighty Mackinac Bridge.

 And this trip even included a stop to explore the amazing wonders of a fiberglass creation artist near Sparta, Wisconsin...our second exploration of this astounding yard full of a plethora of creatures. 

Bear Creek, now coming down our street from blocks away

Then the calendar turned to September...and The Flood.  You may have heard about this deluge.  21 inches of rain in 5 days, every creek, ditch and river overflowing, few homes left unscathed...not to mention roads, bridges, trails, and towns.  It is now being referred to as the 100-year flood, but I do hope it is many hundreds of years before something like this happens again.  A couple of photos:

Bear Creek bikepath looking east - the creek should be on the right side of the wall.

Once we got past the flood, it was time to celebrate a running buddy's birthday.  Her big wish for this momentous 60th birthday was to run the Manitou Incline and I, of course, said I'd do it with her (silly me!).  As we were driving down, I turned to Kendall and said that I was nowhere near in good enough shape to do this and he, sensible fellow that he is (sometimes) replied with "Well, you'll just have to pace yourself."  He was exactly right.  We started up the incline, paced ourselves, marveled at our surroundings on a glorious blue-sky Colorado day, and marveled even more at ourselves when we arrived with smiles at the top.  The Manitou Incline, btw, is about 1 mile long, with 2000 feet of elevation gain including a stretch with a 69% incline.  Oooofdah!  Definitely a most worthy birthday celebration!

Starting out UP the Manitou Incline

Looking back down toward Manitou Springs

Connie all smiles at the top

Me and Connie.  We made it!

 On to October/November and another trip to Michigan to move my mom into Independence Village, a senior apartment complex, for the winter.  Meals prepared for her, maintenance and cleaning handled by the staff, friends old and new with whom to share the dining room, entertainment throughout the week.  This should be a much more enjoyable winter for her than the last.

Picture of the fearsome work gang at my retirement party

Now it is back to Boulder and 'tis time to tackle the question of how to get my motor revved up again and add a little spark to my life.  Maybe it's time to get the gang together and dust off the project management hat...






Oh wait!  That's the work gang.  No!  Maybe it's time to dust off the running project management hat!

Again my coworkers - but outside my old office two miles into my 1400-mile run to Michigan