Of goals and other things....

So fall is officially here in Florida. This means we had two whole days where they high didn't reach the 70's. I think tommorow its gonna be back into the actual 70's and low eighties by the weekend. However this is still considered Fall in Florida. This is why you should move here. I have terrible problems with seasonal affective disorder (get gloomy in the fall and winter) when I live up north. Down here I can still feel the seasonal shift but its not anywhere near as pronounced as up north. So for many people Fall is a time to shift life indoors and start all those projects they put off over the summer. I have 2 projects that are lurking in the wings. Both have been fliting around the edges of my life for years, picked up and dropped periodically as life gets in the way of the best of intentions. So here's to yet more good intentions. We shall see how successful I am this go around.
The first project im working on is running. Or maybe that should be Running or even RUNNING!!!! As in im going to torture myself for fun and profit... oh wait.. theres no profit (in a financial sense) and at least at the beginning there is likely to be little fun as well. So running. I need to get into some sort of habit of exercise. My joints and muscles start to hurt if i stop exercising for about 2 weeks. I get grumpy(er) as well when Im not getting any exercise. So.. ive toyed with running over the years. It hurts like the dickens when i start... then about when i kind of/almost/sort of start to enjoy myself I find some reason or life finds some reason for me to quit. I have several family members that run. My parents both have gotten pretty serious about running over the last several years. I have siblings that are in dramatically better shape than I and im jealous. Especially of their ability to climb stairs without huffing and puffing. But there's almost no stairs in Florida so why should i worry right? Er... right.. Running is good for you. If you take it slow enough it shouldnt hurt. Serious runners can eat (almost) anything they want. I should do this cause im not getting any younger and now (or last year or the year before) would be a good time to start. So im starting. Ive had minor luck conning people around me into joining me. My goal for right now is to be able to run for 30 minutes straight by mid december (two months). However Im going to be on a cruise in mid december so im hoping to push it slightly and be able to run 30 min by thanksgiving weekend. To this end I think Im going to sign up for a 5K race that weekend. It may be the slowest 5K in history... but the goal is finishing, not running fast so it might even be an achieveable goal.
The second project invloves a more under the radar hobby of mine. Writing. Im going to try (again) to participate in National Novel Writing Month.. which is when hundreds of thousands of people all over the world each try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The goal is not quality, its quantity and being able to say i finished. Editing comes later for some, but since its impossible to edit a blank page, first comes the writing. No im not likely to show anyone the results, and yes i acknowledge it will most likely be complete crap... but it will be 50,000 words of my very own, written in a month. Wish me luck.

bloggin

So for years there was a steady group of us that maintained (more or less) active blogs at a lil place called bloghorn. It has long since shut down and I find I miss the activity. Jes still blogs some and it would be nice to get some of the old crowd back into blogging.
Jeff and I just went down to Key West for the holiday weekend. All I can say is its a good thing that he now has his spiffy new job here in town cause otherwise we would both be looking for work down in the Keys. Not that here in Florida isnt wonderful, it is... but the keys... wowsers. Jeff's brother and his fam just moved down there and I can solidly say im jealous. Ask me again after they get clocked by a few hurricanes, but ill bet ill still be jealous. Its that nice. We went snorkling (spelling?) twice, shopped a bunch on Duval street, hit the pubs and participated in the drunken revelry. We also went on a ghost tour which was wicked cool. Spooky stories and neato locations. We did the traditional sunset in Mallory Square. I even went running one morning (im so proud of me).
In other news Jeff and I are doing well on our plot to eat better and exercise more. Of course he's dropped a serious chunk of weight and the scale hasnt moved much for me...but its about health and not the numbers right?
The dogs and the birds (3 dogs and 4 birds) continue to do well. Ruger (the shepherd with kidney problems) continues to surprise us all and still has no idea he's sick so we're happy about that. Overall I really dont have much on the deep and meaningful side of things to say... but wanted to get back in the habit of blogging so I guess I gotta start somewhere.