Hoo boy, this morning’s run was a bit sticky! We have had a relatively mild summer to date, but this week we are back to our normal late summertime in the Midwest weather. Normally not a problem for me as I train in these conditions in order to survive the July ultra, however, we all know what happened to those plans. Speaking (or more literally, typing) of which, I returned to the “scene of the crime” a few runs back…
I know some of you were worried about the fate of that tree per my last post. It is still standing at the moment. The Corp of Engineers caught wind of my late night plans and had their troops waiting for me when I showed up in my Ghillie suit and chainsaw. Didn’t fully think through the camouflage strategy with a bright orange saw. You get to live another day you bastard Ent, but I’m still coming for pulp!! I’m through the last of my heat races so heat conditioning is not as critical…miles are more critical as the “runway” is extremely compressed to the 100K. Translated, mercury bursting or not, lace up the shoes and minimally get 10 miles checked off. Got up earlier today in hopes of beating some of the misery (“feels like” is going to 115F) – didn’t help a lot, my face looked like 50 shades of …red.
Hit the jump to read more about this richly hued species and where you can likely encounter them.
Greetings everyone! Things are starting to rev up around here as we approach the 6 week mark before our annual Halloween Event (link here). It also means I’m about a week from getting very little sleep until the haunt is over. Adding to the chaos, my second 100k attempt is just two weeks after (Bri shall not fail again – link here). Basically when not finishing up the multitude of props that have been in construction since January, I’ll be pounding out miles and miles on the trails. As you would suspect, we are going to be relying heavily on Brad to make up for my limited availability. He has been working like a “black-tailed” dog over the past several months putting posts in the Intrigued queue that will surely keep you entertained. There is one to-do that needs to be addressed before the chaos begins and that is to sneak over to Farmdale and cut down a notoriously evil tree. While the saw chips fly, I’ll let Brad get into the swing of things.
Take it away Brad…
In retirement, Jan and I are trying to check off as many National Parks as we can. We were almost finished planning a trip to see our daughter, Allyson, in Denver this past April when we asked what else she wanted to do while we were there. We try to pick a location or activity Allyson has not done yet because it’s all new to us. We offered the southwest, since it is, after all, April in Colorado. She quickly said she’d like to see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills again. We said “Punkin’, it’s April in South Dakota, some stuff might not be open yet. It could be snowy and cold.” Allyson said she didn’t care and that Alec (her boyfriend) hadn’t been to the Black Hills yet. After spending the night near Denver, Jan and I picked up Allyson and Alec and started the 5 ½ hour journey to the Black Hills.
While we were there, we wanted to make the most of the location, you know, getting our money’s worth from our Annual National Park Pass. We decided to add Devils Tower National Monument to our trip.
Literally, seconds after entering the official park boundary, I hear from the back seat, “Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Stop the car!”
Hit the jump to find out the reason for the excitement!
It is not often I write up an entire post and then decide to pull it from publication at the last minute, but that is exactly what recently occurred. Pretty much everyone knows about my running mishap, so I am going to pretty much gloss over that setback beyond simply stating the recovery is going well and I’m doing my best to listen to Linda (she no longer frowns when I head out for a long run in the woods ha). There was, however, an unfortunately side effect that was probably worse than the injury itself and that is the “abundance” of time that it brought. Time normally spent keeping the country homestead up, working on Halloween props or the myriad of other physical activities that fill my normal days. I promised myself I wouldn’t do it and I still did it – the void ended up being filled with “the news”. I put that in quotes because I no longer believe we have resemblance of what that used to mean. It didn’t take long to become completely infuriated and without a good hard run to burn off the angst, it just continued to simmer into a full boil. My now shelved post (for the Mothership blog) outlined the hypocrisy that has inundated me for the past 6 or so weeks. As far as bodies of work goes, not too shabby of a post. Then I managed to sneak out and go for a long run – the same location and trail where the Ent broke me. While I was taking a picture (for posterity and future late night navigation when I revisit with a tree saw), it dawned on me I was smiling. Here I was at the scene of the crime and instead of being bitter and down, it was a feeling of relief and joy – I was back where I belong, standing in the dirt, surrounded by nature and thanks to the long time off, sweating profusely. No longer beholden to the lame stream media or political influencers my interest in reliving that crap had now disappeared. A previous run had already produced the title, just needed to repurpose it ha!
Hit the jump to learn more about today’s substitute feature!
Good news, had an appointment with my doctor today and the elbow is healing well. I was getting concerned as my range progress had stalled a bit and was worried the arm wasn’t going to achieve the mobility I wanted/needed. Doc is still confident on nearly full range once they get the rest of the swelling released and break apart the scar tissue. I predict some fun therapy sessions in the near future. The best news is they released me to start strength training in my sessions and ….wait for it … wait for it .. I can “start” running again. This brought an internal chuckle from me and a stern disapproving look from Linda. Thankfully she didn’t reveal I’ve been running for weeks hehehe. Going to let Brad take the helm today while I get ready for a celebratory, and now, guilt free training run. Just hoping I can get back to the running efficiency of his featured subjects!
Take it away Brad…
No one ever said bird photography would be easy. The Intrigued corporate employee handbook doesn’t mention it either. Yes, much of the time my subjects are sitting still, nicely perched on a branch or twig out in the open. A few are sitting on the ground as pretty as you please. Sometimes they are flying gracefully through the air on a predictable line so I can follow them easily. But more often than not, they are behind twigs so the camera can’t get an easy focus lock. Or flitting between branches. Or hiding in tall grass.
Not this time. This past February, Jan and I were taking a morning walk along Sunset Beach, adjacent to Bird Island, in North Carolina. The sky was overcast and the wind was blowing at a constant 15-20MPH straight along the coast from the South. With waves crashing ashore, and sand blowing in our faces (yes, I had a filter on the front of both camera lenses) we were lucky to find a rather spastic set of little birds. They are constantly chasing the surf line, running up and down with the waves in what should be a predictable pattern. In fact, “chasing the surf” is the precise behavior listed in the bird books to aid with identification. If you’ve ever seen a certain Pixar animated movie short, you will understand . . . it rhymes with “hyper”.
Hit the jump to read more about these spastic little birds!
Howdy everyone! Sorry, but I have to start with a brag. You’ve already read numerous agility accolades on Raven, our middle and smallest Poodle. He also happens to be my dog which may account for some of that boasting. Ruger on the other hand is still dealing with “Puppy Brain” and as I like to say..he’s the cute one (and officially Linda’s dog). Well, guess who became a star over the weekend!?!
Just a quick background, Ruger comes from a performance breeder out of NY, strong, too smart for his age and from day one..QUICK. Those are perfect for the agility ring as long as he’s “listening”. Unfortunately, he is still learning that element and if he manages to get ahead of Linda, the Poodle Finger (Linda’s term) comes out and that dog takes any obstacle his eyes lock onto. Imagine a little kid hopped up on Pixie Stix on Christmas morning. The laughter that causes from the crowd just eggs him on. Well, we found his calling – Fast CAT – basically a 100 yard dash event and this weekend was his first competition. Holy smokes, we had no idea he would take to this so well. We tried a few “fun runs” at performance weekends we were at and he seemed to like it. In his first official 4 runs last weekend, he ran an 11.214 s, 11.017 s, 11.0 s then a draw dropping 10.528 s (or 19.43 mph). I need to get to today’s feature, but I can definitely say our little Ruger is still cute..but now we can confirm FAST. Well done little buddy.
We here at Intrigued do our very best to bring you interesting creatures to enjoy and if we are lucky, maybe an interesting story or minimally some background to add a bit of educational context. To do that, we generally need to know what we are looking at..well, at least when it comes to post time. In the field we shoot every damn thing that moves hehehe.
Hit the jump if you want to learn more about whatever this is!
I would first like to welcome everyone to August…or as I like to say “holy crap we are now less than two months from our annual Haunted Trail Event” (link here). Being behind is standard operating procedure when it comes to the haunt side of Intrigued, but thanks to my little mishap I am doubly under the gun. The good news is I saw the therapist today and I’ve apparently made impressive progress in getting the swelling out and my flexibility has jumped considerably. At Linda’s insistence, the race last Saturday and my return to the scene of the crime for an 8 mile trail run last night were both confessed. His response…”I had no doubt after our first session”. We are going to get along just fine (Linda rolls eyes). With that said, today’s therapy work did push my limits and now replicating Caine’s branding scene with a giant bag of ice (link here). Grasshopper no like putting ice on elbow. With the inevitable hand numbing, thought this would be a perfect time to go with a post I’ve been saving for just such a time – heavy on pictures, lighter on words.
Oh, almost forgot! We wanted to wish Jan (Brad’s wife) well on her St. Jude run that launched today. Her team is running from Memphis, TN to Peoria. IL to help raise money for that great organization. Last I heard she had finished her first leg and her next one comes before the sun comes up tomorrow morning – and you think I am the crazy runner ha. Watch out for those evil trees.
Hit the jump to “see” more about what has this Pelican’s tongue so to speak!
Normally about this time I would be cursing Father Time for secretly removing days out of the month leaving me scrambling to get posts out to hit our quota. A little different this month as I am quite ecstatic to turn the page on this rather painful month. Although, yesterday morning I was wearing a grin from ear to ear. Linda and I kept a long tradition going for what is now the 19th consecutive year. Will cover this more thoroughly on the Mothership in the coming weeks. In short, the Quad Cities Bix 7 was held in downtown Davenport, IA (link here). This beast of a hill course was the first race I ever entered and thus holds a special place in my heart. Linda walked the Quick Bix (2 miles) and I was ordered by …hmmm, how did Wally (link here) put it… oh yeah SWMBO (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) to at MOST walk the 7 miles now being a mere 4 weeks out from surgery (truth be told, she was rather insistent I walk the 2 mile with her and glad she finally relented to accept the 7). With elbow brace in place, lined up with the other 10,000+ runners, cheered as the starter gun rang out and headed out to battle the hill demons. Crossed the finish line around 1:07. Now before Linda (and anyone else) does the math on that and figures out my “little secret” I am going to once again turn you over to Brad to close this month out properly. While scanning through his queue I noticed this title and it was an absolute prefect fit. Take care everyone, see you in August (assuming nobody snitches on me and gets me in trouble ha).
Take it away Brad…
It has been a few months since we visited South Carolina during a cold Illinois winter. I’m still sorting through photos and remembering stories about the birds we saw. We aren’t snowbirds like generations before us. We just needed to do something outside, during February, without having to wear a parka. Plus, South Carolina was a brand-new state for us to visit.
While passing dozens of signs for the next mini-golf experience (Myrtle Beach is mini-golf capital of the U.S.), we headed south from Myrtle Beach to find Huntington Beach State Park.
After paying our very reasonable entrance fee, we drove across the causeway and parked the car. I assembled the cameras and mounted the big glass on my monopod. We headed to the observation deck next to the causeway. Today’s subject was flying above the tidal marsh, but ended up banking in our direction near the brackish water pond.
Hit the jump to learn more about today’s featured guest!
I have to feel a bit sorrow for all the SoaRs out there (Spouse of a Runner) or more specific SoaIRs – Spouse of an Injured Runner. Clearly we can be a difficult lot as Linda continues to remind me daily. Beginning to think my full name is really “Don’t You Dare”, purely based on the number of times that is proclaimed lately and as far as I can tell..always directed at … well, ME. She caught me heading out to a pile of concrete with a sledgehammer the other day (we had some new concrete poured and the contractors left huge slabs for me to deal with). My excuse that it couldn’t be any worse than what the therapists were going to do me apparently didn’t hold water. The good news is Doc says the elbow is healing nicely, but wants to re-xray it in three weeks. Obligatory head nod while inner Bri goes postal “THREE WEEKS, is he crazy!?! I have a road race this Saturday and an ultra in October to train for – where did she hide that sledgehammer, I need to get on with building my strength back up …when Linda is away, of course”. While my accelerated recover plan germinates, thought I would see if I could get a quick post out. Brad was kind enough to take us along on his Huntington bird walk last we met. Unfortunately, my birding days are put on hold for some time – even decided to send The Beast in for some spa recovery time at a local Nikon repair shop – so, how about we take a walk of a different kind.
This adventure will be from the comfort (and safety) of my den. Yep, it is time for a hodgepodge of images that either didn’t make the first cut, one-offs or in some cases just some fun images that have been perpetually stuck in 5 o’clock traffic.
Hit the jump for a walk for those of us with no particular place to go.
Before I get too far, I just wanted to thank Linda for now 32 years of wedded bliss – well, except for the infinitesimally small fraction of time she scolds me because of a “perceived” bad choice on the trail – then she relents, puts me back together again and hops back on the “happy path” hehehe. I did admit she should get an extra year of service for what she has had to put up with these last few weeks. Restricted runners are a notoriously hard lot to deal with. The good news is the stitches are out of the elbow and everything looks really good. A ways to go before it is back to where I need it to be, but optimistic now that a lot of the swelling has dissipated and therapy has started loosening everything up. Unfortunately, photography is out of the question. Decided to take The Beast in and have it refurbished so it is ready when I’m able to lift it gain. In the meantime, we can live vicariously through another of Brad’s Huntington Beach State Park adventures. Take care everyone and thanks for all the well wishing and healing thoughts!
Take it away Brad…
This may have been obvious to many of you long-time readers of Intrigued, but Jan and I just started seeking out and photographing birds while we visit state and national parks on vacations. While we don’t necessarily chase them down, we will certainly take some time to look for what’s available wherever we are.
This is a sort of “greatest hits” post about many of the species we were able to see and photograph on a bird walk at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, not far from Myrtle Beach. Now, having said that, please don’t all flock there (pun intended) all at once.
We were visiting the boardwalk overlook for the seaside habitats, when we bumped into a couple that had been birding for decades. He was wearing a Boston Marathon jacket, and since Jan had run the Boston marathon a few times in the past, I went up to him and said, “Hi.” We started talking and I could tell he was a bit anxious to be moving along. He introduced himself as Jack and his wife Janet, and explained they were about to be late for the bird walk that morning. During the off-season, there is one bird walk per week at 10am on Wednesdays. It was 9:58am. Off they went with Jan and I in pursuit. When we arrived, the bird walk had already started. The guide was introducing himself and telling us about the walk for the newbies (us included).
Most people at the walk had binoculars, spotting scopes, checklists or all three. Jan and I had our cameras with intermediate and long-reach zoom lenses. As the guide is talking, there are a dozen types of birds moving about. Some are flying, some are floating, others are wading, and one keeps smacking into the surface of the water, at high speed, hoping for a snack.
Hit the jump to read more about Brad and Jan’s finds at Huntington Beach State Park
Howdy folks! My apologies, it has been a while since hearing from me. Been a bit of a struggle with my injury and the therapy exercises are pretty much wiping me out after the 4th session of the day. The thought of then trying to type with one hand turns into a frustration bridge too far. The good news is every day is an improvement and more of a check of my expectations than a criticism of the healing progress. Linda can confirm, I’m hard to handle when not getting my miles in – fortunately, I have been able to walk ~7 miles a day so that is burning some of the crazies off. A heaping dose of gratitude to Brad for holding down the Intrigued complex while I’m trying to get better. Figured we would give him a rest from having to deal with not only posting, but also keeping those pesky lawyers in line – like trying to get mercury back in the bottle. Note, did anyone else use to have quicksilver races on the school bus when they were kids? We use to put drops in the channels in the tread between the seats and bet on which one would make it to the back first – it was a different time for sure ha. I digress, how about we get to today’s feathered feature of the day.
Hit the jump to read more about this glamorous Heron.
Life Intrigued 