Family & faith. My secret power.
- Not sure how/when, my next direction – FAITH
- Who I am, what’s ‘life’ important – FAMILY
Don’t waste a lotta time wondering what/if. Lucky that way. My core is solid.
Happy Birthday!
Day & a half in Connecticut. Short trip. Time much appreciated, funds well spent – celebrating Michaela on her day, in her surroundings. Nothing like S’mores on Divine M’s outdoor deck. YUM!
Pizza take-away, birthday dinner in Willimantic, walk over the Frog Bridge. Play with the new grandpup, my first gran-DAWG-ter. Zelda. Whatta cutie! 🐾
Awesome watching Mick grow & flourish – and EVERYTHING around her grow too. Kiddo’s got a green thumb. Scallions, pumpkin, cucumbers, basil, spring flower overload.
Late nite finish. SO MUCH food, birthday’d well past bed time.
See ya later alligator for MY birthday in August. Goodbye NOT. Flights/hotel/excursions already booked – a Reykjavik family adventure. Icelandic ponies, geothermal soak. Volcano hike.
Tough letting go – allowing ‘em to escape the cocoon, grow, butterfly away.
Miss ya Misha. You make my HEART full. Happy 26 ❤️
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- Willimantic Brewing
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- Christmas in May
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- Frog Fight of 1754
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- evening FUN
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- S’MORES!
CT Fur Babies
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- Zelda
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- new gran-DAWG-ter
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- birthday LOVE ❤️
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- Dany 🐱
Green Goddess 2019
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- Catnip blooming
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- Scallions progressing
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- Pumpkins peeking
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- Cilantro explosion
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- Spring Flower overload
Dave-Dave Christmas in May
M. Michaela, May and…marathon.
Black Friday sale on Southwest last November – my score? Quick in-n-out airfare to celebrate Michaela’s Happy 26th in Connecticut. Kiddo’s got her own digs now, whole lotta happenings since holiday season last. SUPER excited to see M’s Coventry home. Country treed & seasonal GREEN.
Post-work flight to Hartford, hotel arrival midnite+, Friday a.m. alarm. Crazy quick turnaround. Shower, change of clothes, bib pick-up in Goodwin Park. the New England Challenge: 6 days, 6 marathons, all 6 NE states. For me, dropped in just for Connecticut Day, the Nutmeg State. 6am start, 5-hour finish goal. Over-n-done, re-showered, Michaela’s by noon. M’s also for Multi-tasking 😊
Two-marathon weekend: CT on Friday, Denver’s Colfax Marathon Sunday morn. Good practice. Registered for my first QUADZILLA over Independence Day break. 4 marathons in 4 days. Sauvie Island, Tigard, Vancouver & Beaverton — coastal communities ’round Portland (Oregon). July summer marathoning, gonna be a challenge. Today however…weather, runner perfect. Forecast’d rain would hold off ‘til 1. Pizza & wing-feasting early afternoon (pie from UConn’s Husky Pizza).
Lap course. Half-mile trail. Handsome city lake, perfect time of year. Leafy tree cover, water birds, wetlands. Path butts up against a golf course. Sunrise, last-minute race instructions.
One hill. Not horrible, I ran UP while others walked (Day FIVE of their challenge). But one hill, TWELVE times. Downhill trail, leafy green stretch, wetlands, golf course, HILL. And repeat 12x.
Birthday party motivated, I kept at it. Finished with a smile. Think I dig running laps. Enjoy the camaraderie of other runners. Feel less isolated, less ‘in my head’, better manages the crazies.
Check, done. 12 laps plus a short loop, that’s 26.2 in the Nutmeg State.
Shower, pizza & Bloody Marys – let the games begin. May is Michaela month. Whoop, whoop! Celebration!
New England Challenge: Nutmeg State Marathon
Goodwin Park & Golf Course in Hartford, Connecticut United States
Friday, May 17, 2019 6:04:27 AM
Place Bib# Name
13 126 K R Haga M 04:52:50.36
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- New England Challenge
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- CT Day
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- City Park wetland
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- LEAFY green
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- 12 lap REPEAT
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- downhill TRAIL
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- Nutmeg State 26.2
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- May is Michaela Month
Nutmeg State Marathon
Laura vs Nellie. Ingalls & the Olesons. Little feud on the Prairie – Monday nights on CBS.
Charles & Caroline, sister Mary, the mercantile’s matriarch, Harriet. This was my TV family. Forty years later, I still remember. Mary losing her sight: “Pa, help me! Pa, I can’t see! I can’t see!” Laura selling Bunny (her pony) to buy Ma an oven for Christmas. Looking back, these moments still tear at the heart.
I also grew up on a farm. Chickens, rabbits, cows, 2 ducks. An outhouse, metal tub for bathing. No plumbing, water from an outdoor spicket. No, I’m NOT 150 – our family was crazy poor. Two TV stations on a black-n-white set. PBS, CBS. The Ingalls saga helped me ‘childhood’ escape – and BOOKS. I read a lotta books (library card/4 book limit). Elementary, Mrs. Wooten read aloud a chapter from Wilder’s ‘Little House’ series. It started there – before Nellie, before the Prairie – ‘Little House in the Big Woods’.
Pepin Wisconsin: birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. There the ‘Big Woods‘ sisters shared a slate, Laura learned to read. The family tapped maple syrup, Pa played the violin. 45-minute rural farm-road drive from Sunday’s marathon in Eau Claire. Not by chance; Internet-searched, I planned/I knew.
My THIRD ‘Little House’ museum – by now, almost have the whole collection. LOL> Quilts, dresses, Charles’ fiddle, an original wood-burning oven. VALIDATION. Truth to my TV family’s Walnut Grove existence. Someday I’ll make the pilgrimage to Independence (Kansas Prairie) & Mansfield (Missouri). Laura adult-settled in Mansfield (1895) & wrote the childhood series which early-inspired my adventures.
[Hear husband Almanzo built the kitchen to match her stature. My own grandfather did the same 🙂 ]
Eau Claire 🚜 Pepin 🚗 Minneapolis 🛩️ Denver
Colorado HOME, weekend next. No run plans. Feelin’ a high altitude HIKE comin’ on ❤️
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- Little House in the Big Woods
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- my THIRD ‘Little House’
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- Pepin (2019), Walnut Grove (2017) & De Smet (2015)
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- first ‘Little House’ book
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- birthplace of Laura
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- Wisconsin 1871
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- flag in ‘Big Woods’ house
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- horse hair coat
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- Pa’s fiddle
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- INGALLS family
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- go WEST!
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- author at age 65
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- Welcome to Pepin
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- Wisconsin’s Great River Road
