This is what you came here for.

82º? But ... it's 10 o'clock ...

Goodness. I forgot it was August.

Distance: 5.2 miles
Temperature: 82º
Weather: balmy and breezy
Weight: 171.5 lbs.

Lord. I just took a brisk, cold bath but the blood will not cool in my face.

We are not vegetarians in this house, but I believe we consume a higher percentage of vegetables and fruit in our daily diet than most Americans. I mean, we have to. Especially this time of year, when the wife picks up a big bag of City Fresh once a week. She is better at manipulating squash and zucchini than anyone.

Monday night she left it to me to create the creamy zucchini soup. You wouldn't know it was zucchini when I was done with it. Last night it was a faux beefaroni with cheese. We do eat a lot of cheese.

Tonight as I am halving the main vegetable in preparation for roasting, the girl sees what I am doing and delightfully squeals, "Butternut squash with butter! Okay!" It was an acorn squash, but she was so cute.

Do What U Like Genius Mix
Dust In The Wind - Gabriel & Dresden
Fire - Ferry Corsten
LA Ride - Tiësto
Closer - Gabriel & Dresden
Hi Friend! - Deadmau5 ft. MC Flipside
Smack My Bitch Up - Prodigy
Kalifornia - The Crystal Method
Dangerous Power (Gabriel & Dresden Extended Mix) - Gabriel & Dresden

You got the moves. So let's see them.

After more than a week, I was yearning to go for a run. I had become depressed and unhappy. But by evening last night, my eyes were aching, and my ears felt stuffed, my head full of painful density.

But I suited up, and headed out. The first ten paces were wonderful. Then I felt the weight of my stomach, I felt heavy and unwieldly. After a few houses I was overwhelmed by fatigue, and the pain behind my eyes, weighing on my head beginning to swell.

I knew that if I could just keep going, this would pass. I turned the corner, and my temples began to throb, and them my entire head was biting with pain. I slowed to a walk, pulled off my kerchief, rubbed the space between my eyes, breathed deeply and step by step I headed home.

Four pain relievers, two Benadryls, and a trippy night's sleep. When I woke the pain was still there.

Oh, the great turn of the season.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 66º
Weather: lovely.
Weight: 171.5 lbs.

Good Lord. That was much better.

Do What U Like Genius Mix
Do What U Like - Bad Boy Bill
Rocket Ride (160 bpm) - Felix da Housecat
Derezzed - Daft Punk
Feel It In My Bones - Tiësto ft. Tegan & Sara
Cascades Of Colour - Ananda Project
Gypsy Woman - Crystal Waters
The Launch (Rollercoaster's Pumped Up Mix) - DJ Jean
9 PM ('Till I Come) (Signum Remix) - ATB

Let the man go through.

What an amazing day! It is truly astonishing what my family and I can accomplish around the house when we have absolutely nothing else to do. I cannot remember a Saturday in the past several years when there hasn't been something to do.

...

... we forgot a birthday party, I know it.

Anyway, we were all sorting, bagging, putting things away -- in my case, safely getting mold off things. It was a great success. Then I whipped together garlicky kale and whole wheat pasta and we all watched Project Runway.

"Little House on the Gay-rie." How's that?

Distance: 5.2 miles
Temperature: 75º
Weather: Full moon!
Weight: 173 lbs.

Okay, he's something running relevant. I ache. Ever since I was running those hills and uneven roads in Maine, I have been hurting. My knees, my back, but in a very odd and unpleasant way, my hips. Not in the socket, the was it hurt during training for example, but behind the iliac crest -- I believe I have that right. Not my hip, really, my pelvis.

Um, should I be worried about this? Is it because I am carrying more weight these days? Or just because I am ageing?

Tonight's run was awesome, by the way. Full moon, not ridiculously humid (by Cleveland standards.) And people were sharing the sidewalk for a change.

The Distance Genius Mix
The Distance - Cake
The Sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
Super Bon Bon - Soul Coughing
Under the Milky Way - The Church
We're Going To Be Friends - The White Stripes
Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids
Jerk It Out - Caesars
Radio Free Europe - R.E. M.
Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
The Beginning of the End of the Beginning - Smashing Pumpkins
The New Pollution - Beck

What is up with all this rock-pop crap? Daddy needs techno.

Last night I dreamed I had burning hands.

I guess that this must be the place.
Running just before sunrise in the middle of a cool break in August. Cool as June (but not this June.) Getting up early enough so that there is time to stretch out there where it's nice before coming in to prepare for the day. Pack lunches. Make breakfast. Send everyone off to camp. Vacation is over for me, but summer isn't.

Dreamland Genius Mix
Dreamland - The B-52's
Other Voices - The Cure
Dazzle - Siouxsie & The Banshees
Like A Stranger - The Psychedelic Furs
That's Good - Devo
Hold Me My Daddy - XTC
Never Let Me Down - David Bowie

Distance: 3.35 miles
Temperature: 72º
Weather: cerulean blue skies (with white fluffy clouds)
Weight: 174.5 lbs.

Back and forth across the sea.

Five days. Five runs. Bright and clear, smelling of salt and low tide. My right hip aches, but you will excuse me for sounding trite, it is an ache that makes me feel alive.

Distance: 3.8 miles
Temperature: 65º

What You Need Genius Mix
Obsession - Animotion
Love Is A Stranger - Eurythmics
Rapture (Special Disco Mix) - Blondie
Don't Get Me Wrong - The Pretenders
Lay Your Hands On Me - The Thompson Twins
Burn For You - INXS

I see a ship in the harbor.

Me and my cousins, and you and your cousins.
It's a line that is always running.

Overcast and cool ... but deceptive. Humid. Waiting for the rain that never arrives. Waving hello to a passing truck or SUV or Prius. Calling out "Mornin'!" to dogwalkers and old people, even though I can't hear them over all the New Wave pop.

In North Carolina my neck seized and I developed a bizarre digestive illness, here my side aches. I am impressed I can feel my arms after rowing for an hour so the boy could fish.

The extended family gathers, my cousins and their kids -- and now their kids. The eldest of my first cousin's offspring was born in 1980, my brother's girl born in 2008. Their generation spans 28 years.

Distance: 3.8 miles
Temperature: 69º

What You Need Genius Mix
I Want Your Sex - George Michael
Overkill - Men at Work
In Between Days - The Cure
Poison Arrow - ABC
Blue Monday - New Order
What I Am - Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians
Psycho Killer (Live) - Talking Heads

That makes me sweat.

Every day's forecast says tomorrow it will thunderstorm. Yesterday was darker than usual, with threatening rumbles in the distance, but nothing but a little rain here, briefly. Right now, gorgeous, again.

Running, every day, is glorious, but wearing. The hills are exciting and I never get tired of this short route. But my shins are singing, and my back hurts. The wife reminded me to stretch right after the run, which I usually don't bother to do.

What You Need Genius Mix
Don't Stand So Close To Me - The Police
Need You Tonight - INXS
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
We Got the Beat - The Go-Go's
Saved By Zero - The Fixx
Call Me (Debbie Does Dallas Mix) - Blondie
Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
Why Can't I Be You - The Cure

Distance: 3.8 miles
Temperature: 67º

Captured here in my "quotation marks."

Martin's Point Run
Still a bit hazy out ... but a little late for the cool part of the morning. It was wondrous humid. Still. Delightful. Keep your head up, you might miss something.

What You Need Genius Mix
Driven To Tears (Live) - The Police
I Can't Wait - Nu Shooz
Watching the Detectives - Elvis Costello
Pump It Up - Elvis Costello
Everyday I Write the Book - Elvis Costello
I Got You - Split Enz
Fragile (168 bpm) - Sting
Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears

Distance: 3.8 miles
Temperature: 68º

Got motion.

Most of my running this summer has not been in the city in which I live. Discuss.

Following two days of highly effective and pleasant driving (my children are a blessing, they truly are) and reading almost half of Chamber of Secrets aloud (the first time I rolled out my Alan Rickman I made the wife snort) we arrived in Friendship, ancestral rental site of my kin.

There's a diner in Brunswick, one car, busted jukeboxes on every table but it's clean, terribly authentic, with one surprisingly hot waitress on at 7 pm on a Sunday night. I have been there a few times in my life, the wife had been looking forward to the place all day, and we made it just in the time, our only restaurant meal of the day. To jump the crazies out, she took them all out into the patio for calisthenics to the delight of the retired couple a few booths down. The American road trip continues to please.

Slept late -- the cabin is full right now, almost all rooms occupied, several with children. There was a bit of a mid-night circus happening for about an hour, odd snores, lone, single pleas from five year-olds, the grinding teeth of the girl. Trips to the bathroom. Another snore. I slept latest of everyone this morning, and hit the road after eight, just before the morning mist was about to burn off.

Fishing with the boy. Dogs. Sandwiches. The girl reacquaints herself with friends made last summer like they were never apart. Flood's Cove. The world continues to turn.

Distance: 3.8 miles
Temperature: 67º

What You Need Genius Mix
What You Need (Extended Mix) - INXS
Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
Kiss Off - Violent Femmes
Union of the Snake (The Monkey Mix) - Duran Duran
Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders
You May Be Right - Billy Joel
You're All I've Got Tonight - The Cars