Banished to the Cave

Yesterday I read the excitement in multiple posts on Facebook and some e-mails I got about people getting into this year's Badwater race. That is such a great feeling, and I had just a tiny bit of envy, because I truly wish I could run it every year. There are so many races and adventure runs out there to do, and I will do as many as I possibly can find the time, money, and energy to do.

My friend Paul Grimm got in, he was delirious when he e-mailed about it. He has what is shaping up to be a dream team of a crew.

I've been home the past couple of days not doing much of anything. I have some kind of upper respiratory thing going on. I did my long run on Saturday and then Sunday I had a sore throat going into the evening. I wondered if I was getting sick. Dennis was starting to get the sniffles and was coughing, he said he didn't feel so great. I considered calling off work for Monday but I wasn't sure if I really was sick. So I went to work Monday.

That was a mistake. It was a busy, crazy, chaotic day and I ended up staying late because we were so busy- we still had 6 patients at 8 pm and several of them were far from being done when I was supposed to go home at 8:30. By then I still had a sore throat and I was trashed. So I called in sick for Tuesday. Tuesday I slept most of the day. I slept until 8 am and then napped from 2 to 5 pm. Funny how you can feel worse after sleeping so much. My voice was a little raspy and soup and tea felt pretty good, but my brain was nonfunctional.

Wednesday I was still tired, snotty, and raspy. More napping, though I did get a little writing done. Just as well, we had killer winds, with gusts being reported up to 80 mph. Not a nice day for running anyway.

Today I feel pretty decent but just a little extra snot, a sore nose from blowing it. It snowed a bit overnight and it's cold and windy this morning. Good day to hang out in the woman cave. I'll go out later bundled up and take the girls for a few miles.

The big news is this morning I just took a jump in phone technology. I've been increasingly annoyed with my old Blackberry and have been envying the smartphones everyone has. I also needed something that was capable of taking decent pictures and videos on the run, and the Blackberry can't do that. The pictures were grainy, and there's no video feature. I got tired of lugging both my camera and Blackberry along on runs when I wanted both.

I went to the phone store and looked at different phones. I had a hard time deciding between the iPhone 4 and 4S, there was a $100 difference in price and the thing that annoyed me about the 4s was the Siri feature, which talks to you. Cell phones should be seen and not heard, as far as I'm concerned. I don't really use mine as a phone anyway, except when I'm out of town. It's more of an e-mail, camera, occasional texting or browsing device. But the thought of having something yakking at me, even if I can turn it off, seemed excessive. I'd be saying "Shut up" all the time. I don't like to be around TVs, and I get annoyed with anything that talks excessively.

The 4S did have very nice video and photo capability, and that was the only place where I hesitated. I think I'll be satisfied with the iPhone 4 for now. I figured if I really want to upgrade I will just do it in the future. I am so bad at upgrading to new technology, I always wait to see what else comes along. It took me forever to get this new laptop, and I've been cussing at my Blackberry for too long. Eventually it's time to give up the old coal-fired technology with the 8 track drive in it.

The only running news I have for today is that tonight I'm going to be talking with Skortman Ed about our plans for adventure running this summer, and then I'll post more about it soon.