Happy Birthday & 12 Goals for My New Year

It's my birthday and I've been thinking about my next year.  What do I want to do and learn and get out of the next 365 days?  12 goals seems a nice number for the 12 months.  While there is definitely overlap, I have also been categorizing them in terms of body, mind, spirit, planet.  You could argue for some reclassification, but the are my goals so I can do whatever I want with 'em.

I can do anything! Especially if I'm silly!

Body
Run 30 minutes a day for one month: Deceptively simple but is hard to do every single day

Lose 10 pounds: It just needs to happen

Do a half Ironman: Why not? I like swimming, I like biking, I like running, I like experiments with physical limits. Especially in realms where I have little or no experience.




Mind
Illahee: The Illahee lecture series is very interesting, I don't know why I don't attend every year

Read 12 books on a new topic: Pick something to learn about and do it!

Start a business: Selling my step-mom's amazing art

Elephants are smart.

Planet
Volunteer at least three times: With Friends of Forest Park, the Freshwater Trust, Friends of Trees, etc.

No driving for one month: Gonna be hard to find a month where there isn't some special exception, but that is sorta part of the point

Buy nothing new for one month: Something I dabble in but haven't ever really done

Pearl in her garden

Spirit
Yoga for 30 minutes a day for one month: I always feel better when I'm practicing the yoga

Pottery class: Attempts at art are good for me

Be silly!! Hard to measure but vital to my spirit

Silver Falls Splendor

At the start & no rain!

Silver Falls Marathon & Half Marathon was a few weeks ago.  I am late in this post.  I am sorry.  I'm late because I was travelling for a week, then sick for a couple weeks (see Germ Warfare) and amidst all that had a sick puppy dog and then Thanksgiving.

Amigos who signed up for
the FULL Marathon

But Silver Falls was beautiful and I must babble about it.  I did it with sis-in-law Alicia and we had mom & dad-in law imported from Grass Valley to cheer us on.  And cheering was much appreciated.  When we left Portland it was pitch black out and pouring down rain.  Not inspiring.  But a few minutes before start the rain stopped and it ended up being a perfect warm fall day.  Temps were ~50's (perfect running weather) and much warmer than the 31 degrees we started off with the year before.

The race started with a little bit of nonsense (mileage needed to make it 13.1 miles) looping around the campgrounds and such. The next few miles went along the edge of the main canyon and I'm fairly certain there are a lot of gnomes that populate that part of the park.  Mile six starts the descent into the canyon and North Falls, the first of eight or nine main waterfalls that you pass during the middle five miles of the race.

One of the two or three waterfalls that we ran behind

The whole park was in full fall splendor. Rivers running, waterfalls falling and color everywhere.  My favorite tree was a gigantic monster draped with gobs of green moss.  Moss sheathed the trunk, covered every branch and dripped off every limb.  In bright contrast were thousands of small leaves that were bright yellow and had not started to drop yet.  

Slogging along in the distance.

My final time was 39 seconds slower than last year but compared to the pack I did "better."  There were more people this year, yet I finished a bunch of places higher overall and some places higher in my division.  Which was nicey.  I also burned past a dozen or so people in the quarter mile 100+ ft climb at mile 12+.  That was fun.     

The best part, though, is that I WON!  (Refresher course on the definition of winning: Finish, do your best, have fun!)   And I think I won more than last year even.  A big part of that was my cheer squad.  My Christopher managed to get to four different spots to cheer for me.  At one point he hiked in to cheer for me at the base of the long, steep, torturous hill around mile ten when we were all nice and tired.  He also scampered up a very steep shortcut to cheer for me near the end of said torture hill.  

Finished!  Showered! Won!
With my #1 fan!

On the couch at the end of the day with the Nenya Kitty
and my own personal bottle of Tequila

Germ Warfare

The Waywardian insurgence began last Thursday.  

Rebels guised as "dry air" infiltrated the throat.  The next morning, cloaked as "allergies," they shifted the assault to the eyes.  From there rebels spread, peppering the Princess with a constant, low grade offensive.  Attacks were focused mainly on the eyes and sinuses with an occasional rogue militant making a solo raid to the lungs.  Taking advantage of recently weakened defenses the attacks were largely ignored by the Princess of Waywardia for several days.

Saturday brought the first outright battle.  Rebels took advantage of the Princess's flight from San Diego.  During the airplane's descent into Portland forces burst into the sinuses and inner ear, peppering her entire head with a constant barrage of missiles.  

The next morning the Princess issued a plea to outside forces for aid.  Washington state responded with a delivery of Claritin D, in direct opposition to Oregon's ongoing embargo.  Monday morning it appeared the Princess would emerge the victor with only a minimal amount of disruption to her domain.  

Critics of the Princess have said the sovereign assumed victory too soon and should have spent Monday stamping out the last of the revolters.  Today it was clear rebel forces had not conceded the loss.  What this morning were thought to be lingering malcontents in the lungs emerged by the evening as a rebel stronghold.

A hotbed for revolt in the last decade the lungs are thought to be the rebel's most powerful foothold in Waywardia.  In a formal statement the Princess has dismissed the purported strength of the rebels and has refused to make any accommodations in her normal schedule to negotiate with or appease the insurgents.