This month I visited my family. I had decided to only go for one week. I planned accordingly. However, since I was working while I was there, I didn’t actually have to go back. I kept coming up with excuses to stay. In the end, I stayed for about four weeks.
I sort of wished I had planned for that. If I had known, I would have been able to handle my plants better. In the end, most of them have died. I’m sorry about that. The hot pepper and rosemary look like they have survived, and a few green onions might pull through. The oregano, thyme and parsley are not coming back.
I did do a few smart choices though; I brought an extra pair of running shoes. And I needed them. I did a lot of running down there. Mostly because there were new areas to run that I hadn’t seen before. I even did something I normally loath doing; I drove to places to do my run. This allowed me to range far and wide. I discovered that the area to the south east of my parent’s place is a lot hillier than their area. Which is saying a lot since they live on the biggest hill in the surroundings. According to my calculations, I have run more in the month of July than I have ever run before. But I could have said the same thing about June. And May. (This Tennessee run has made me competitive.)
Eventually though, I had to return back to Vancouver. Catalina is coming back soon, so I have to get the place ready for her. She will have to isolate, so I better have a nice home for her to live. This was my first time trying to drive from Alberta to Vancouver in one day. I’ve done the other way in a single day several times, but this was the first time trying to do it heading west.
I did the drive back on a Monday. I was hoping things would be easier by doing it on a weekday. There were more trucks on the road than usual. It made passing harder. The construction on the road was more active, which caused the occasional lineup. There was one stressful time though, when a single car was doing 20 under the speed limit in an area where there was no passing for a long time.
Because it was a really hot day too, I decided to stop at D Dutchman Dairy. It is a place we discovered in Sicamous. It initially got our attention because it was a petting zoo next to a fruit stand. But they have a lot of ice cream for sale too. On a hot day, I thought it would be nice to have some. Unfortunately, a lot of other people had the same idea. I was surprised to see it so busy on a weekday. Since I was travelling I got two milkshakes for the road.
They were good, but it was getting to 35° when I got to Kamloops, and it was probably not a great idea to have that much dairy in my stomach. I got a wrap there, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as my stomach was feeling a bit off.
This may have caused an issue later. By the time I got back home to Vancouver, I did not feel like eating much; I ended up only eating a bunch of cherries for dinner. I probably should have eaten more, because I was totally useless the next day. I forgot that my body needs a lot of calories to keep functioning.
The weather in Vancouver has also been hot since then. It is harder to stay motivated under those circumstance. I’m compensating for the heat by running later in the evening. Unfortunately, this causes me to stay up later as I’m still feeling a little wired.