The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Mile 1090, Tempe, AZ - If you don't know who Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is, than the above poem is by me. Honest. OK, maybe not. But, it is apropo for today's run. We knew it would rain, the only question we had was about the VW in the picture. Is it brighter than Lisa's shorts?


The day started with me forgetting my garmin. Luckily Karen and Lisa had theirs. Our plan was to do 11 miles and then for me to do some extra running around Kiwanis Park. When we got to the lake we saw the path was flooded. No way to run around the lake, so we hit the canal and ran north toward the interstate.

We had to go thru the tunnel above, but that just got us into the cloverleaf with no where to go.

Yes, we were in the part of the clover leaf that the exit circles around. We turned around and headed south past our cars and on to the Ken McDonald Golf Course. Can you believe there were crazies playing golf in this weather. I overheard one crazy golfer say to another, "Can you believe there are crazy runners out in this weather."

Lisa, Karen and I finished 11 miles at the cars and then I reloaded with water and headed back out. Not having my garmin, I had to guess at my mileage. I went north out of the park into the neighborhood heading east til I got to Rural Road. That was the first mile. Then I headed south to the canal below Guadalupe Road for my second mile. West on the canal took me to the golf course clubhouse. A short bathroom break and a purchase of one Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut bar and I was heading back north towards the car. I ended up doing 14.21 miles and was drained. That puts me in good position to get an 18 miler done next Sunday.

So Pat, what did you do on Friday afternoon?

I attended a Real Estate Blogging 101 class in Scottsdale. It was put on by Grand Canyon Title and the speaker was Shailesh Ghimire of CTX Mortgage. Shailesh was great. He has several blogs to help get business in the lending industry, as well as, several personal blogs.

Here's the 10 things I'm going to do for my blogs:

1. Test my blogs on firefox and other browers, so that I know you all can see them clearly. If you can't let me know.
2. Check and install these plugins if I find them useful: Askimet, Ultimate Tag Warrior, Relevant Posts Plugin.
3. Register with Feedburner, Technarati, Mybloglog.
4. Make sure I always answer questions in comments and with an email to the person asking.
5. Place a legal description on my blogs.
6. Subscribe to RSSpieces.com, Daily Blog Tips.
7. Not Plagurize. If it's written by someone else, I will give credit to them.
8. Create a Real Estate Blog.
9. Register with Google Analytics.
10. Ask lots of questions about blogging with those that know. (you guys)