Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Hello to Holidailies

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Oh what the heck — all of my friends (okay: Tamar and Pooks AND Toni) are doing this. I’m always saying I need to post more, and the best way to get people reading your page is to give them fresh stuff to read. (A friend of mine once had a website named Fresh Stuff — and the domain too, if I remember correctly. Then he must have discovered that it’s often very hard to have something each and every day.)

Today I have no brilliant thoughts to write an essay upon, so instead I’ll just give you a bunch of links to other people’s wonderful postings so that you can, at least, read their fresh stuff:

  • Toughest blog entry title to beat: Gawker’s The Zagat’s of Cocaine.
  • If you’re into drawing, sketching, art, or simply following your bliss, Danny Gregory’s Everyday Matters is a wonderful blog.
  • Site I can’t stop checking for new entries (and I do have an RSS feed for them — I just can’t stop checking!): Firedoglake, your go-to site for all things Fitzmas.
  • Speaking of Fitzmas, Patrick Fitzgerald: Ultimate TV Boyfriend. (Some blog I read pointed me to TBogg, which had a link to this, but I can find neither the original link nor the TBogg one.)
  • The Kung Fu Monkey (aka, John Rogers) always rocks the house, and his entry on Writing Action Scenes is a definite keeper.
  • The best site on the Web is the one where a best-selling author is tossing Ye Olde Career under the wheels of an oncoming train. And I’m not going to link to it, but if you can come up with the author described by the terms “paranormal,” “porn,” and “amazingly bad editing,” you’ll probably be close.

The Hardcore Merit Badge

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Last Thursday, when winter officially showed up in these here parts with some rain, Rob, Nina, and I dithered on iChat about whether we should go running. We finally met up at 7:30am at Rancho San Antonio, in the rain, but we did the shorter Farm Trail rather than the longer, with-hills-included Wildcat Trail.

Today we agreed to go running near my house, at 7am so we could get a nice longish run in before we had to start our days. I opened Dashboard to see what the temperature was.

32.

Fahrenheit.

In California (not the Sierras part)?

We had on our cold weather gear, which meant we were only a little cold as we ran. I have a Vapor-Dry Hoodie (from Road Runner Sports) that has the neat fold-over hand cuffs to keep my hands warm, but I discovered that I really need my running gloves too if I’m going to, say, hold a bottle of water as I run. (Brrr.)

Running in the cold definitely helps you keep the pace up, because as Rob put it: “Keep moving, or die of exposure.” I bonked when we got to the hill in the middle of the run, and couldn’t keep up with Rob and Nina for a bit, but that was okay, because soon they reached the actual halfway point and came back to collect me.

When we passed the high school (the front lawn of which was white with frost), I said, “Do you realize that between today and last week, we are that much closer to earning our Hardcore Merit Badges?”

“Woo!”

It’s true. I realize what we’re doing is not quite the same level as doing the Dublin Marathon in the Irish rain, but the fact that Rob, Nina, and I are committed to doing our running despite the temperature or the weather conditions is a wonderful development. I’m not sure I’d run in less than sterling conditions without someone to run with — I used to always run by myself! And I still do sometimes, but I’m not quite at the point where I’m slavering to go whether I have company or not — but less than perfect-California-day conditions are becoming less of a factor!

I might not slack on my exercise so much this winter. Which would be a good thing. Yay, team.