Weight I have lost

Monday, August 1, 2011

The Strangeness that is the 'hood

So Friday night I mentioned to D that our neighbor's other flower pot got stolen. He asked me about the flowers to which I had no clue...a colonic or a colossus or something, and no I didn't know what it looked like. He said it was across the street in another neighbor's trash (no, no one thinks that neighbor did it, more of the pot was too heavy and thus it was discarded).  So, we now have car break-ins, shootings, naked men hi-jacking school busses, kick-ins, copper theft, and flower pot thieves. Yay!  D notified the neighbor where the plant was, and he got it back.

So Saturday, this didn't deter us from getting up and taking the dogs running.  The temp was 77 (630am) when we left with disgusting humidity.  Scuttlebutt and I were going for 2 miles.  For those 2 miles, I cussed at him, yelled at him, pulled him, and watched him sniff every scent known to man.  We averaged 15:30 minute miles.  It was stellar.  At about 1.9, I realized it was awful because he didn't have his Halti on.  No wonder! I dropped him off (McMenamin was already home, because D said he didn't even make it 1.7 miles), and continued my run for 4 more miles.  I ran up the street and noticed I hadn't seen the 2 men drink beer and play chess.  I did notice a man and a woman outside. The woman had a red Solo cup and the man gave her a brown paper bag.  He returned to his home. I went down Stolen Car Hill and came back up to see the Solo cup on the ground.  I went on my new route praying not to get hit on Prison Rd, and passed the woman. She was now drinking out of the brown paper bag.  She was staggering all over the sidewalk and nearly fell on me as I passed her on the road (I don't run on the sidewalk because there are live wires and my hip issue).  So yes, I ran into a drunk at 7AM.  Woohoo.  I ran to German Shepherd Pass and continued my usual route.  Nothing exciting except that the people who have a Yard Sale EVERY Saturday did have some nice chairs. I actually ran to that road twice to get a better look.  D did not seem as interested in the chairs when I told him about them later. I finished the run.  This was the extent of excitement for Saturday.

Sunday we got to a late start (7am). It was only 76 but it seemed hotter than Saturday. I got Scuttlebutt ready with the Halti and off we went.  He was doing better. We had passed a Hispanic man (HM) twice. When we were coming back down Friday Hill, we saw D and McM.  Of course SB went haywire. So I stopped the Garmin, and let D and McM pass.  D yelled that McM had been looking for us and they had gone a sub 8 minute mile.  He (D) didn't look happy.  After they passed, we resumed our run (with Garmin on). The pass before Terrorist Dog hill, the HM was behind us again.  We ran up Terrorist Dog Hill and returned. No HM.  But when we turned to go to German Shepherd Pass there he was. He said something.  He said it again.  I stopped Garmin, and myself and asked, "What?"  He stumbled and asked what we were doing, I think, because I don't speak Spanish.  I said, "Running."  He slurred a whole bunch of words and not a clue what he said, but I'm pretty sure he was drunk from the way he was carrying himself.  SB didn't like him and back arched and teeth bore.  I turned back on Garmin and PULLED SB down German Shepherd Pass.  We turned around and HM was cutting through the church parking lot.  WTF is up with drunk people walking around at 7am? Don't they know they should be in the house on the couch watching stupid movies?


I dropped SB at home and finished my 4 miles rather quickly (not really) but totally aware of my surroundings which luckily proved to have nothing going on.  Then I came home.

6 comments:

Carolina John said...

wow, you found a really interesting part of atlanta to run in. There are lots of interesting parts of the atl though! haha, at least you're getting your miles in. Good job!

Aka Alice said...

I just snorted when I read about the "colonic flower"

I bow to you for running in the heat. You rock!

- said...

You always know how to make me hate Atlanta. But just be glad you live in the oasis of civilization. Georgia gets way worse the further south you go (I know, my family is from near Dublin)

Becca said...

ha! Colonic.....

I have Cartman's "in the ghetto" running through my head right now ;)

Yeay running...I haven't posted about it in forever, but I reached a point recently where I was so tired of running 12 min miles in all of my races that I went back to lifting weights and doing all speed work and barely getting any miles in. I must be some kind of weirdo because it's the only thing that makes me faster (not running as much)...no idea...

Christina said...

Girl! Sometimes, I want to run with you to see all these "interesting sights." But I must say, it is also scary at the same time.

Delane said...

The heat finally broke here. It's has just been gross.