The grand confluence

Those that know me know I'm a bit of a loner. I do my thing, when and where it seems appropriate. For triathlon training this has meant a lot of solo rides and runs. Some of my buddies have asked how I do it. They need company. They need music. They need whatever.

When you go alone, you can get ready at your own pace, and go when it seems best. Sometimes that means bursting out the door to get in a run before something else. Sometimes it means dawdling a bit, waiting to see if the weather will or won't do something, or for a certain much loved fairy to arrive bringing the priceless gift of movement. Runners especially know what I mean.

Getting a work group together for a lunch or something is the worst. People hang around waiting for someone that has to email that spreadsheet, or print a document, or check their calendar. While we're waiting someone goes to round them up. Some eager beaver wants to get back to work, or do something else while we wait. How hard can it be to get somewhere at a particular time? This sort of gong show makes me crazy.

Mostly fitness people are pretty good, but there's a few bad apples I've learned about. Then once you get together there's the all important matter of pace. I'm not a fast runner, not at all. My bike is fast, but I'm not. All too often I get dropped, and that's just annoying. I'd rather have started alone. I've had a few runs with other people that worked out well, (hi Sophia!) but it wasn't enough to tip me over the edge.

This last winter has been a huge change for me. I've run more with another person in the last year or so, than I have in all the time put together since I started this. One thing is that we run at the same pace, and don't have to work at it. Well, a few times I have, but not much. And, the gift beyond price is that she's on time. Ready to go. I love it. (hi Michelle!)

So today a running buddy (hi Amy!) was going to meet at Michelle's house, run to my place, meet Sophia and me, then run back to her house for coffee and home made yummy goodies. I wanted to get outside and move a bit before they arrived. I was walking briskly around when I could see them off in the distance. As they got closer Sophia zoomed into the cup-de-sac and parked. They all arrived on my driveway at the same time, the exact same time. All dressed to run, and ready to go. I've never had such a thing happen before. So off we went. Not quite 4 K, about a half hour, nice and easy.

It was a lovely morning. A nice easy run, great coffee, yummy treats, and wonderful chatting with friends. Linda led an informal yoga session. There were rhubarb fashion lessons. There were sparkle skirts. Did I mention the yummy treats?

Then home and a bit of puttering around. I didn't mow the lawn this weekend, and should have. I didn't work on my year end business paperwork, and should have. Oh well. One must set priorities. BBQ. Wine. Cats. Naps. Runs.

The minimize Facebook exposure project is well underway. I've deleted it from my phone and iPad. No way am I going to let Messenger get access to all my contacts, and take photos/send messages/do whatever privacy violations that Zuck can think of, whenever it wants to. Bah. Easier to do without. And it has been easier to do without. I'm down to about 10 minutes a day.

So my current social media policy. Twitter is in. I'm @keithcartmell if you have a twitter account and want to follow me. This gets you a notification of when I blog, and access to the (semi) witty comments I sometimes make. If we follow each other, we have a way of chatting privately. Hmm, there is a follow me on twitter button on my blog. Has anyone used it? I can't tell where the followers come from, or how they find me.

I intend on blogging for a while yet. There is lots to say that won't fit into 140 characters. I love reader comments, and often respond to them. You do need an account to comment, since I've disallowed anonymous comments. This can be an Open ID, or Google account. A comment on an older blog goes to moderation, and I don't get many, so it might take me a while to notice.

There is email, of course. Yes I know, how primitive. You can find that in the about me section. No instagram, pintrest, tinder, tumblr, snapchat, or anything else. Oh, there's a LinkedIn account, but that's only for people I know professionally. And yeah, there's a Google+ account, but I never look at it.


Here's the photos.
There she is, taking a photo of us at the half way point. You can see it here.

The garden party in full swing, with lessons in rhubarb haute couture.

Outdoor yoga is the bomb. It was relaxing watching someone leading it, and other someones doing it, while I chatted. Maybe I should have done some of the twists.