Rain, Rain, Go Away!

This is officially ridiculous. WHERE IS MY SUMMER?!?

Yesterday, I did the dog workout in the morning and put off my run until later in the day. Kid errands had me push it to early evening, starting somewhere in the 5PM area.

When I headed out, it was slightly overcast but clear–extremely humid, like having a warm, moist fuzzy blanket wrapped around me. Of course at my furthest point out, the sky became quite black. The temperature had to have dropped at least 10 degrees and then the rain came.

I don’t mind running in the rain–a friend and I talked about this last night, how it’s one thing to have to start in the rain but another different thing to be rained on once you’ve started–but the driving wind and pelting rain made some uphills pretty unpleasant. Then, it slacked a little bit. My final 2 miles or so were some of the most pleasant running I’ve done on the road in quite a while. The rain was coming down, the air was cool, nobody was out driving around. I was amazed at how quickly the water rose up in the streets and how lawns literally turned into frothy streams. I splashed through run off and had a grand time.

Later in the evening, I saw my first real rainbow of the summer–the full arc with all colors clearly present. I was on the way to meet some old high school friends to hang out and comfort one of us whose father just died, and it seemed a perfect symbol.

Now it is a total monsoon at my house. I saw in the paper today that a little girl got carried away in Bull Creek yesterday for about a quarter of a mile (safely rescued) when the water rose unexpectedly and quickly. When Marcia and I ran Ken’s Loop on the weekend, I thought the stream was on the edge of too fast to safely cross. I slipped, went down on my butt, and the water pushed me along the slick limestone bottom shelf–and I’m a fairly solid chunk–not far before I caught myself, but far enough.

I think the only trail I’ll run right now is St. Eds, but then leaving from Forest Ridge as I know they will close Old Spicewood Springs road today. Ken’s Loop will be out for me, as will the Barton Creek greenbelt, and then I just have no interest in mucking around Walnut Creek to run like a hamster in the maze of muddy trails (plus, there is Walnut Creek to cross there as well, though I don’t know how “raging” it gets).

Let’s not get started on biking.

I’m running out of things I want to do in the house.