junie's song

Almost every evening, June asks to hear "Junie's Song." Her song, according to her, is Hey Sah-Lo-Ney by Mickey Lee Lane -- the same song I used for this video. As soon as the song starts, she instructs Adrienne and me to "run fast!" Then we all run and dance frantically around the living room; it must be quite a scene from the street. Last night, June literally ran around our couch about 50 times. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I already get teary-eyed knowing that years from now we'll look back at these days with such fondness. The giggling, the running, the dancing, and the unfettered joy she exudes are almost too much to handle. I know she'll tire of these nightly dance parties before we do, but hopefully that won't happen anytime soon.

State Fair Affair 2008

I love state fairs! I always have. So many fond memories of the Michigan State Fair, where so little seems to change year to year. I especially always loved the huge refrigerated display box which entombed huge butter statues of cow and calf. There's no equivalent of that particular attraction at the North Carolina State Fair.

Nor is there a Miracle of Life tent here in NC, which allows one to hold a squirmy-squealy baby pig or a just-hatched chick. Or, to wait in vain for the eggs in the incubator to finally hatch a chick. The main attraction, though, is always a huge, wild-eyed cow in labor in a large ring with bleachers set around. Even having experienced labor myself, it never occurred to me that a cow might prefer to calve in private, perhaps in a hot tub or the comfort of a straw bed (a gal working at the state farmer's market in Raleigh made this point to me recently and described how the animals on her farm sneak off to mat down a grass bed to welcome their offspring). After some reflection, maybe it is better that North Carolina sees fit to allow its livestock to labor away from prying public eyes.

But the state fair! We hoped Junie would appreciate it as much as we do, and she really did seem to have a ball. Our game plan: skip the midway, head straight for the animals, take a brief tour of the prize-winning produce, and maybe scarf down a few unwholesome, inappropriately fried foods along the way. All I managed to eat was a roasted ear of corn smothered in butter this year, but the animals and June's reaction made the trip totally worthwhile.

First, a horse show:
Then rabbits, all different sizes and degrees of fluffiness.

Cute but vicious domestic animals emerged as a theme this fall.....
....as we also received this warning at Ganyard Farms pumpkin patch we visited earlier in the month.


But back to the fair--the wienermobile was there.

Here they are, the prize-winning pumpkins, very large indeed. But I think I heard the national prize-winner this year tipped the scales at about 1600 lbs. This guy here was a real peewee by comparison at I think about 600 lbs.


The produce just doesn't photograph well; believe me, this was more impressive live. A very large watermelon. I also took pictures of the 9 pound sweet potato, but that proved even less photogenic than the melons. Mama pig and a whole mess of babies, all sleeping in a heap.
As always, though, the goats steal my heart. It's true that my dream is to have chickens and bees, but as long as I'm just daydreaming, goats are a close third. Here, June generously tried to feed these goats in a trailer some hay from the ground. They declined, but June seemed unfazed by the rejection.
She greeted each goat in the building with a cheery "hi, goat!". The goats allowed themselves to be petted and were very gentle. I love their intelligent eyes.

This cow got a haircut in this scaffolding thing. They buzzed the hide quite close and she did look quite radiant. Another highlight: a young man meticulously trimming the hair at the back of the spine of another cow, then using a brush and hairspray to carefully sculpt just the right tufts back there. I love to see the 4H kids and think about what their lives must be like with their closeness to these animals and their life cycles. This gal here is due to calve in December, so I felt some solidarity with her, as I am due myself to calve in February. I asked the young man from North Carolina A&T how long cows gestate and he said 9 months. I was skeptical so I looked it up at home, but he spoke the truth. However, he left out the part where their babies are 80 to 100 pounds.
June's first taste of chocolate milk, milk provided by the cows of NC A&T and sold for $1 at the concession. Who doesn't love chocolate milk? I wish I had a huge glass of it in front of me right now.

June developed an instant and, in my opinion, excessive attachment to Smokey the Bear....

...as the only tears of the day were shed when he moved on from us to other fair-goers. Lloyd displayed some serious quick-on-his-feet thinking and told Junie that Smokey was tired and needed a nap. And at that, we decided there was one in our midst who really did need a nap. So we bid farewell to another year's state fair. And we hope to find it essentially unchanged one year from now.

sweet victory

No matter who you voted for, America has reason to celebrate.  The final count is in, and.... I did it.  108 beautiful push-ups.

shut-in

I had quite a time in Asheville yesterday. I left Durham first thing in the morning and made my way to the North Carolina Arboretum, the starting line of the Shut-In Ridge Run. The run travels on 18 miles of single-track trails from the arboretum up to the trailhead for the Mt. Pisgah summit. For the most part, the course runs parallel to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Shut-In is considered one of the "must-do" races in the Southeast, and it attracts many incredibly fast, elite-level runners. With 5000 feet of climb, and 2000 feet of descent, it's not easy. And the veteran runners that told me the final two miles are "horrible" were on the mark. The vast majority of the race was runnable, albeit slowly, and the terrain was great-- not especially rocky or rooty. There were plenty of beautiful views and many of the trees were showing their fall colors.

My friend Joel told me that if I finished within 15 minutes of my standard marathon time, I had done well. I haven't run a marathon in a long time, but I'd guess I'm good for a 3:25. Sure enough, I finished Shut-In in 3:38.

Some views from the finish:

My 3:38 finishing time was solid, but I didn't feel my perkiest along the way. For those looking for excuses, I'll oblige: (1) I registered for this race as an afterthought following September's GEER 100K, so I wasn't well focused for the challenging course (2) I've been training sporadically, at best, since GEER (3) Because of my sporadic training, I've put on five pounds. Five pounds is a lot when you're going up mountains (4) It wasn't a hot day, but I think I suffered from some electrolyte depletion. My quadriceps were twitching in the latter miles but, fortunately, never progressed to full-fledged cramps.

When I reached the finishing line, I learned that the winner, Shiloh Mielke, had crossed the tape in 2:17, a minute slower than the record he set in 2007. I was floored. I could not believe that someone could cross that terrain in such a short time. I did a little research when I returned home, and my findings made me feel a little better. VO₂ Max is an index of physical fitness and a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can utilize during exercise. I've never had my own VO₂ Max tested, but the average young male's is 45 ml/min/kg, while a well-trained club athlete's is typically around 70. Lance Armstrong's is a ridiculous 85. Shiloh, a member of the US World Mountain Running Team (who knew there was such a thing), has a 91.8. Only a few humans have readings that high. That's not fair. I'm putting this race under protest.

After the race, I caught up with a friend from high school. Austin and his wife, Abby, along with their four-year-old son, Gus, and their two-year-old daughter, Norah, live about ten minutes from the Arboretum. It was great spending time with them and getting a glimpse of their lives in Asheville. They have a beautiful house, and Adrienne would have been green with envy because in their backyard lies a community garden, bees, and chickens; in case you didn't know, having a vegetable garden, an apiary, and laying hens, is the trifecta for Adrienne.

Their kids are adorable. Norah has quite an opinion about her wardrobe. She was wearing pink pants under a pair of pajama shorts and a snazzy pair of pink cowboy boots. While we sat on the deck, Gus pedaled a toy Jeep around with Norah standing and waving on the back; as Abby pointed out, Norah looked like the queen in a homecoming parade.

Before I knew it, it was time to hit the road back to Durham. Asheville, as it always does, treated me well.

As I drove home, I heard "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" on the radio. Is Christmas music really necessary on November 1st?