Sticking to a Schedule...or not

My plan for Saturday was to go for a run at sunrise. But I woke up well before sunrise, feeling (appropriately or not) that I had received adequate rest and was fully recharged. As is my usual practice upon such an awakening, I set about doing household chores. These include doing any dishes left over from the night before, putting away the clean laundry, and reconciling bank accounts. These are not tasks that I'm capable of performing at night; after a full day at the office I am incapable of accomplishing anything more than watching TV and eating peanuts. Well, maybe strumming the guitar for a while or reading a book, too...but nothing that involves detergents, heavy lifting, or mathematics. I am a morning person, I admit it. And while this condition robs me of the ability to accomplish all that the evening people can do at the end of the day, I think the advantages outweigh the negatives. I never struggle with waking up in the morning (have never once used the Snooze button), I don't need coffee to get the day going, and as with all morning people, am much better looking and more intelligent than the nightowls of the world.

Unfortunately, when I wake up too early -- with time to spare before I need to be anywhere -- I lose track of time. I can get so involved in my chores that I end up getting a late start on preparations for leaving the house. That's what happened on Saturday; I ended up spending too much time at the computer, and completely missed the sunrise. And once that happened, I figured "What the heck -- I'll just keep cranking on my domestic activities and go for a run after lunch."

Sounded like a good theory at the time. The problem is that I spent too much time sitting at my desk (thus stiffening up like a month-old breadstick) and ate enough to make me feel heavy and slow once I actually did try to run. Ugh.

Waterton Canyon is a lot more crowded at noon than it is at sunrise. The weather was gorgeous, and it appeared that everyone who owned a mountain bike had decided to take it out for a spin. Even the stupid bighorn sheep were enjoying the road. (I apologize for the poor quality of the photo -- it's actually a screen capture from a video. I thought I was taking a snapshot as I jogged by them, but actually took a short movie, complete with my tortured panting on the soundtrack and Cloverfield-style camera jerking.) The good news is that the alpha male, who usually gives you the threatening hairy eyeball as you run by, seemed content to graze today. He didn't look up, and I didn't have to do my Robert DeNiro "you lookin' at me?" macho posturing.

But I was pretty worn out by the end of the run. Tanner's band had a gig that started at 3:00, so I had just enough time to boogie home for a shower before it would be time to head downtown. I drove pretty fast, though, wondering (as I usually do) what makes slow drivers think that they belong in the fast lane. I got there with plenty of time to spare.

And by "plenty of time to spare", I mean that I got there over TWO HOURS before Tanner's band played. Ugh. The heavy metal screamer band before them hadn't even started their set when I arrived, so I got to listen to their entire set. Only I didn't listen to all of it because I kinda have this thing about thinking that I might need my eardrums in the future. I mostly stood outside and waited.

Tanner's mom was there, too, talking with a friend of hers who has a crush on Barack Obama. I didn't really want to hear the details of that particular obsession, either, so I spent the time just watching the traffic drive by, or talking with the slacker teenagers who were hanging around the record store.

Anyway, the big news of the day is that they had kicked the singer out of the band. Everybody likes Austin -- he's a good kid, and a talented singer/guitar player...but apparently his commitment to the music had faltered. So even though he came to watch the gig, he did not take the stage. Therefore, it was strictly an instrumental show. It wasn't even on a stage, either -- just a small space in the back of the store, about the size of my bathroom. The musicians didn't have a lot of elbow room, so it was a fairly static performance. And as their first appearance without Austin, well, the show received mixed reviews.

I liked it, of course, but I'm extremely prejudiced. I can't help but see the potential they have, and I recognize the complexity of the music. But it's not really going to make you dance or anything. Yet. Anyway, you can decide for yourself:


Anyway, it was a good Saturday, but I came home tired. On Monday, we're back in full proposal mode at the office, so I expect the blogging to be sporadic again for the next couple of weeks. I'll apologize in advance. But after the proposal is over, we'll have the opportunity to talk about snow, trips to Kansas, more music (including the ongoing saga of whether they let Austin back into the band), and of course, the celebration and/or lamentation of our new President and the new additions to the "More Government is the Solution to Everything" Congress. Sigh.

In the meantime, thanks for being patient with my intermittent blogging. Have a great day!