Photo Adventure Fridays - with a twist!

This week's Photo Adventure....




DDDAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. DEATHSTORM. An adventure in running panicked trying to get horses in from turnout as a giant storm literally develops RIGHT over your farm, lightning striking the trees on the property perimeter and thunder cracking so loud it sends all the horses into a terrified galloping frenzy. I think they said there were three tornados in all with these storms, one of which was the one that developed directly overtop where we were - thankfully it passed!! We've had something like six tornados in the state this year alone, which is five more than I remember ever having last year. Connecticut doesn't get tornados like we do in Michigan, but we're giving them a run for their money. Hell, even where I was in Ohio didn't get tornados like we've been getting!

Honestly though, this year's weather has all been so ridiculously stereotypical month by month. January it was FREAKING FREEZING with many random blizzards, February was cold and dreary, March was GORGEOUS and warm and spring-y, April was very warm and fresh and green, May was bright and beautiful with a rainstorm every day and massive plant growth and sunshine all around, June was HOT and very, very dry for three weeks, and July has been utterly terrifying with amazingly HUGE thunderstorms every few days and soaring humiditiy levels and temperatures in the 90's every single day. You can NOT get more predictable than that for this area. I'm enjoying being terrified every day of my life, but honestly, there is a limit to it somewhere. And I'm also starting to get a little sad because it's now 5:15 and it isn't totally light out anymore. We may be in the thick of summer, but it's still kind of sad to know that it won't be here forever.

Another reason I'm a little sad about losing my daylight hours is that I've been using the precious hour between five and six AM to go running in the Avatar shoes. I LOVE THOSE AMAZING THINGS. Because of them, my entire running form has changed. No longer able to land on my heel (because of the extreme pain involved if you run incorrectly in a shoe with NO padding), I've completely changed my stride, and find that by landing midfoot, I save my entire system from a painful shockwave. I'm running extra efficiently, and find that my recovery rates are far better and my body hurts far less. Where is that hip pain, those eternal aching knees and burning shin splints I used to live with every day of my life? Gone, unless I don't stretch properly. I spend most of my morning runs on one giant eternal hill, and find I can do it without getting utterly exhausted and winded like I used to. In fact, I still feel fresh as a daisy at the top.
The most exciting thing for me is that I plan on running my first every competitive road race on August 19th, a 5k. I've never run competitively before! I ain't no Stacey triathalon-ing her way across the universe but hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere! I was supposed to go to California that week, but that vacation plan got blown out of the water. Oh well... maybe in like.... December I can go. Sigh.
I also have plans to try eating more Primal like Tamara and more recently Funder. I am in no way going to be severely hardcore about this - damnit, if I want some ice cream that badly then I'm going to have some - but there is a lot to be learned here. There are things about the Primal diet that don't mesh perfectly with me, like the fact that I think coconut is the devil's food of death and I won't touch it, but there are plenty of other ways I can make simple changes for the better. Stay tuned for a little more on that.


I was just treated to the most magnificent pink sunrise rainbow out my window. I ran around the house trying to find my camera, but my honey appears to be sleeping on it in the bed. By the time I came back out to take a picture with my phone, it had gone. Sigh....




More on Gogo's week of boring-ness coming soon!