There is only one workplace that I know of where employees are greeted by the sights and sounds of hot air balloons as they drive in one morning each year. This is yet another reason that working at JSC is cool. After being postponed in August due to all the rain and wet weather, the Ballunar Festival has finally arrived. (I can’t help but wonder if the switch to November will be permanent — the weather is certainly far more pleasant now than it would have been in August!) I got to work right as the majority of the balloons were coming over, after having taken off all around Clear Lake with the goal of ending up at JSC. It took a lot of effort not to crash my car as I craned my neck to see the sky. There were some low clouds, which gave the whole thing an ethereal quality, as some of the balloons floated in and out of the mist.
I’m planning to hit the festival either tonight or tomorrow night to get some balloon glow photos, but it all depends on when Jose feels most awake! He’s back on the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift until the shuttle undocks early Monday morning, which sort of sucks all the way around. While it is certainly cool that he is working the mission, we are sleeping on totally opposite schedules, meaning there are only a few hours each day where we are both awake and not at work, plus his hours are about as bad as you can get. No matter how much you sleep shift, it’s still hard to be awake in the middle of the night.
It’s National Blog Posting Month, and apparently as part of that you are supposed to make a post every day. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since I post at least 75% of all days already. The habit is definitely ingrained, and has been since my senior year of college when I posted every day for my last 100 days as an undergraduate. (Note to self: I need to re-post that site sometime. I liked it.) Anyway, the fact that someone made up a “national” month for blog posting strikes me as strange. I don’t think I’ll be particularly broken up about it if I miss a day, but I’ll give it a try.
After having such a good day at the half marathon, it’s been another rough week of running. Last night I got so fed up that I stopped after 2.5 miles and walked the last half mile back to my car. The leg pain — the same shin splint/Achilles tightness that has plagued me bascially every fall for the past few years — is back. I just don’t get it! It seems to somehow be tied to this time of year, which could indicate that it happens when I start to ramp up my running after a lazy summer, except I didn’t have a particularly lazy summer! I’ve been running pretty consistently since July, and even on the bad weeks, I’ve run a minimum of twice a week. So why the pain? And why now? I just don’t get it. It’s not so bad that I can’t run — it’s never so bad that I can’t run — but it’s enough to bother me, force me to walk occasionally, and leave me frustrated. Last night I ran a mile, walked a minute, ran a quarter mile, walked a minute, ran 3/4 of a mile, walked a minute, ran another half mile, and gave up. The tightness and soreness never went away, plus my right hip started to ache. ARGH. The Bay Area Fit schedule calls for 10 miles tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.
I realized that missing the HMSA 25K (I’ll be out of town) means that I will no longer be in the running for the BARC Ironfoot and the HARRA Ironfoot. Sadness. I’ve never gotten one — because I always miss a race due to travel.
Good luck to Jen and Cassie at the New York Marathon this weekend!
Gavin says
Yeah, it sucks. I only see Jen for maybe a few minutes each day.
Crosstrain says
BARC Ironfoot has Gold, Silver and Bronze levels, so you are not out of the running for it by missing one run.
barbara says
I am so glad you noted that the ballunar festival was delayed. I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was in Clear Lake for her son’s tennis tournament and mentioned the balloons.
I told her we’ve gone nearly every year since we have so much family in Clear Lake, but we hadn’t this year. At the time I was thinking it’s generally a warmer day that they have it. I couldn’t think of why I missed it this year. Obviously because of the weather.
I think I’m finally back on track for running. I missed the half but plan to be there for the 25k. In other words, guess I’ll see you in January!