Sunday evening. Last few loads of laundry are in progress. I've got Secret Window paused upstairs & Jason is doing a one hour slot of work.

I made myself an appt. to see if I have ADD, last Friday. Since I talk to everyone about my personal business (habit I got from Mom [thanks Mom!]) I got to hear a lot of different views from folks I know. Most people started talking about how productivity has been pushed beyond human capability & so this designation "attention deficit disorder" is a cover for the tightening economy asking for more from folks than they can realistically give. These folks recommended slowing down, vs. seeking medication or behavioral therapy. Some folks just dismissed it. No one in my sample has kids who have been diagnosed or have been diagnosed themselves.

My friend who works for a school district, dealing with special needs kids, has a different view. She's met with the spectrum of instances: parents who want to medicate kids who may not need it, parents who won't medicate even with their kids climbing the walls - and the various reactions of the kids themselves. Her view is pretty straightforward; she's seen the benefits of treatment & has seen behavior modification work, too. She's neither pro-medication nor against it.

The doc gave me a clean bill of health. No ADD for me. I get to check back in a month, to see if the circumstances that I'm seeing as symptoms subside.

I'm curious to see what folks think about this "epidemic"...

On another topic: My second run with the marathon trainers happened this weekend. Frankly, it kicked ass. I got to run through a trail for an hour and a half. Couldn't tell when I'd hit an incline or when to dodge horse crap. It was a hot day, but cool under the canopy of leaves on the trail.

I tell a joke, mostly for me - but I do it often when I run, to passers-by... if I'm running by someone taking a stroll & they look game, I say "ok, c'mon with me, we'll do windsprints!". It's a thing I picked up from Matt's antics, but tickles me no matter what the reaction is to the statement. The cool part this time was that I got to do it to a horse/rider combo - brushing the horse's silky nose as I called for them to run with me. That was good fun.

More along those lines: I start working out with a trainer again this week. I've decided that without personal motivation (which I seem to be sorely lacking)it'll take more than workout buddies to get me to the end of the course, come Oct. 3.

So, if it's not terribly obvious, I've been lacking energy lately. That means, no painting, no extra projects & a hell of a time getting to work out enough. Work for money doesn't seem to suffer in this mix. I am trying to cut back to a reasonable schedule, having dumped more responsibility on the folks working for me. Always though, some new project pops up to take up the extra time. I'm not complaining, but I better get to artwork asap.

Oh yeah, Jason and I are looking into buying a house. Undeniably grown up stuff. Of course, our dream house is a 2 story office building, refurbished to be liveable (2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen) - across from a field or some kind of open expanse. How I love to dream.

It's not organized, the sizes aren't uniform. I'm trying a script, to organize my image display. Check it out yourself: it's here.

Marathon catch-up: So, after the trip to Holden Beach in late July, I sort of got off track in my training. I began running the first of the long distance runs that would sharply increase as training went on. I got through a weekend where I ran 16 miles, two 10 mile runs on weekends following that & made 18 miles total throughout our week in N.C.

Then I stopped running. For a few weeks, I just rode the currents of how my body was feeling. My body primarily wanted sleep.

During our trip to Salt Creek, I talked out what I was thinking with Jason & Laurie. It was obvious that if I kept doing what I was doing, the marathon wouldn't include me this Oct. We kinda left the conversation there.

Last week, I signed up for marathon training with a group near work. The guy leading the class had sent 600 folks through the Boston marathon - by giving lots of information on nutrition & keeping the training doable, rather than leaning on true grit to get someone through the experience.

My first run was yesterday - a two hour run with about a dozen folks. There was water support & a few folks to run at different paces, so that everyone would be tracked as we made our way through local park trails.

So, I lagged behind even the slowest runners - the crowd lost me in the first half mile. I have no shame for my slow pace, because it's where I'm starting out and all. But, after an hour with no water, I started feeling a bit fussy about running all on my own. Fortunately, I spotted a water fountain and having water really took the edge of my fussiness. I figure I did 9-10 miles yesterday & faster than I have before.

In the best case scenario, I'll get to do the marathon & will complete it without feeling like I need to be hospitalized afterward. If I end up having to quit, that's ok too. Kinda has to be, in the end.

More camera work-fun.

The picture below is from our camping trip to the Salt Creek Recreation Area. Laurie & Lee pointed out that racoons had been to our table overnight & on the final morning, I took this picture of the racoon prints:



There are other photos, click the link above for the MSN Groups album, or check these out: crab, starfish, pearls and another crab picture.

Home, idling - after picking up food for a camping trip this weekend. We're heading to the penninsula tomorrow, after work. Should be fun.

I saw one of my favorite teachers from Cornish at Gorditos tonight, Ed Wicklander. His stuff is really well done & it was nice to get him up to speed on where I'm at - in the short time we spoke. He's showing at Greg Kucera's gallery, the website has great pictures of his work and is worth exploring in it's own right.

I've been enjoying the new camera - got a very good lens, here are some new shots - very big (100k or so):
After dinner walk
Mt. Stuart
Midday moon
Rainy day football