Still 117

Riding up in the elevator today with someone I had not seen in a while, and the conversation went like this:

Did you make it through Hurricane Irene, OK?

I did fine. I was in Oklahoma.

That's one way to avoid it.

They had lots of coverage. I watched. 

How was Oklahoma?

It was good. Well, it was hot. 117 degrees.

117? (image a sense of amazement and wonder in the tone of voice)

Yes. But it wasn't so bad. It was a dry heat. Not humid like here.

At this point, the elevator reached his floor. Now I realize that humidity matters. Matters a great deal. One of the things I like about northern New Mexico is the lower humidity. But . . . so as he left the car, I said:

But 117 is still 117.

(laughing) 117 is still 117.

Enjoying cooler weather and hoping it continues!

See you along the Trail.
 

Pots

It took me a while to get there. Several times I tried to visit the Coronado State Monument in Bernalillo, New Mexico - north of Albuquerque. Each time, the monument was closed. Finally, on a cold day last January, I made it. The visit proved worth the wait.

For some reason, among the landscapes and the history, these pots spoke to me. They simply hung on the wall - but they seemed full of meaning as they did.

Is that a sheet of ice covering the top? Or the inside of the pot? I can't tell. I don't remember.

See you along the Trail.

Sharing

The down side of using the fitness center at a motel is that when there is only one treadmill one has to share. As a result, I only was able to do 1.5 miles on the treadmill today, then had to hop off to allow someone else to use it.

An upside of travel is that there is lots of walking between gates. I hit 10,081 steps. That puts me over 200,000 steps so far for the month. Is 300,000 doable by January 31? Stay tuned.

I returned to the Shire today, leaving New Mexico behind. I left reluctantly - in fact I walked away from my boarding passes after they printed out. There is something about NM that truly appeals to me.

Tomorrow I will weigh in and see if all the walking that I did managed to compensate for all the eating that I did.

I definitely prefer snow on the Sandias to snow on the MDW tarmac.

A day for Saints

And the Saints win. Two weeks of waiting until they play the Colts. Looking forward to it. Note that the Saints do wear shades of black and gold.

The final day of this New Mexico trip saw me hanging out in Albuquerque. I overate again. That stops tomorrow. But I could not pass on the food here.

I got a hotel that has a fitness center. So I did 2.25 miles on the treadmill. I also went to the Coronado State Monument - not sure what I make of that name. It apparently is near the place where Coronado and his party of invaders wintered in 1540-42.

An ancient pueblo there - Kuaua is there. The pueblo was settled about 1300 CE and abandoned toward the end of the 1500s CE. It sits right along the Rio Grande. Despite the cold weather (which the wind that picked up during the early morning did not help), I did the trail along the river and the trail around the pueblo. Then I went to the Pueblo Cultural Center. Interestingly enough, it has an exhibit on the saints of the pueblos.

All that walking led to a step count of 12,807 - the highest so far!

Tomorrow - the return to the Shire.

The wins one gets

What has not gone well:
I have overeaten the last couple of days. It is easy to blame that on being in New Mexico and being overly tempted by the food that I love. There is truth to that. But the reality is that I need to be able to face food that I love and eat reasonably.

I have not walked 10,000 steps either of the last two days. I did not make 10,000 steps the last two days combined. 6740 today. I helped to lead an all day workshop each day and that just made it too easy not to get out and do the walking. Again the reality is that I need to learn to cope with that.

I did not do concentrated walking yesterday.

What has gone better:
A friend's comment on yesterday's blog inspired me to head back to the track today between the end of the workshop and dinner. I went 1.5 miles - not as long as I should have - but all the time allowed. And it is better to have missed only one day.

While the overeating included starches (chips and sopapillas), it did not include sugar based products. No flan. No fried ice cream. No chocolate chip cookies served on the breaks.

One takes the wins one gets.

Football tomorrow. And walking. Travel on Monday - but late enough in the day that I should be able to walk.