Another semi-useless spot on the web…
Growing up, people have always had trouble pronouncing and spelling my name, my last name. This week we went to get some food and I think it is the first time that someone has misspelled my first name as “Scoot”! It was pretty funny. Click on the image for a larger version.
I’m a fair weather kind of person; I’m happier when it is sunny and warm. Lately this has started to change a little bit (not the sunny part, the warm part). Since getting back from vacation, I’ve gone on 3 training runs where it has been over 70 degrees out. I’m not sure if it is that I haven’t trained in a week (I went on 1 out of 4 runs while on vacation), but my performance was pretty poor. Yesterday’s run, I had over a 9 minute mile which isn’t the norm for me. I think I need to get up at the crack of dawn (when my wife leaves for work) and run then otherwise training is going to be a nightmare as the temperature increases.
The other day, I wrote about taking breathing for granted; the story doesn’t end there. My wife decided to book us on a tour of Mauna Kea. I said, “whatever” as I usually do when she wants to book something. It wasn’t until the night before that I looked at the tour website and got a little panicked as there are numerous warnings about the high altitude and the inability for rapid emergency response in case something happened. We made it to 9200 ft and I was still breathing without difficulty. Then we climbed to over 13000 ft where I was still able to breath, but felt a little light headed. You really don’t think about breathing until it becomes difficult.
The view from the top was definitely worth the trip.
View from the top of Mauna Kea:
We really were at over 13000 ft:
It seems that in many places we visit, tourism is so rampant (if you will) that there aren’t enough tour guides that are native to an area. We went on a kayak trip the other day in Kona, Hawaii where the guides were from Long Beach and Colorado, so we didn’t get a flavor of native culture. On the flip side, my wife and I just got back from a tour of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with Warren Costa of Native Guide Hawaii. It was an excellent tour where we learned so much that my head is about to explode! If you’re on the Big Island of Hawaii, we definitely recommend a tour with Warren.
I rarely think about breathing through my mouth and nose, except when I am congested and can’t adequately breath through my nose. Today we went snorkeling and when I first put the mask on which prevented me from breathing through my nose, I almost couldn’t handle it. After a few minutes in the water and some heavy mouth breathing, I got used to it for a little while. I’m not sure how people can SCUBA dive and strictly mouth breath.
One of the things that makes vacationing uncomfortable is sleeping in beds that are usually uncomfortable. Why do hotel beds have to be so uncomfortable? Going back home to my own bed is the best thing about vacation 🙂
When I was growing up, my dad taught me to read a map, so I’ve never had a problem navigating to an unknown location. With the advent of GPS navigation units, is there a need to learn how to read a map? Possibly, but it is significantly diminished.
Several years ago, I got a Garmin iQue 3600 to test compatibility with our product and started using it for navigation around town. I soon started depending on it for getting to places I didn’t know. I had to send the unit to a co-worker and soon realized that I couldn’t get along with out it. After looking at a few alternatives, I determined that the device was the lowest priced portable GPS navigation system I could find. Last night we arrived in Hawaii for our vacation and I had already put in the address for where we were staying. It was very dark and the signage wasn’t very good, but the iQue got us close to our destination without incident (the street addresses seem a little weird and the exact address wasn’t in the device). It took us on what I’ve now determined to be an odd route, but it got us where we needed to go. I also entered a few other addresses and it, as usual, has performed flawlessly. I’m not sure what I’d do without it.
(It now seems that I’m a Garmin household with the Forerunner and the iQue 3600; I even convinced my dad to get an iQue 3600.)
When I first heard about Audible.com and other companies capitalizing on audiobooks that have been around for years for those that have difficulty seeing and for those that drive a lot (typically), I didn’t think much of it as I thought books should be read. I’ve always associated audiobooks with older people and could never see myself listening to one. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were at a party and I was talking to a fellow runner. She said that she listened to audiobooks while running and that got me thinking. Somehow I had collected The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Lost Light from audible through some free promotion. I loaded both books on my iPod, and was almost instantly hooked. I wanted to run even more to keep listening to the books. Now I’m on a quest to find more audiobooks either from the library or through audible.
I was sitting at my desk around 8:45 AM and heard a loud sound. I thought it was an earthquake, but the floor didn’t shake. I checked the earthquake maps and didn’t see anything. I then searched the house to see if someone was in the house, but luckily didn’t find anyone. Then I spoke with my dad later and he said he heard the same thing; we concluded we heard it at the same time (he’s about 30 minutes from me), so I poked around and found an article about it. Not sure if it really was a sonic boom, but it really scared me and the dog. I think it is the military; of course they’ll never tell us anything.
I know that I said I wouldn’t pay the $4.95 extortion fee for signing up online, but thanks to a post on SlickDeals, I used a $15 off coupon which saved me $10.05 even after paying the fee. I guess I no longer have a choice, but to run this marathon!