Sour Particles

I've put more miles on my free rental car in a week than my actual car has total. I guess it helps that mine doesn't have that many miles on it, but I'm still proud of pushing 1500 miles (so far, return it on Monday so I have over 24 hours left, but they said not to go in to Mexico with it...) on a rental car that I didn't even think I'd have to begin with. And I get a free tank of gas with it.

The first exercise in ages, ten kilometers at a mile above sea-level. Dirt trail with some hills, as you can see from the elevation profile to the top left corner of the photo. Maximum elevation is 5500 feet, and the minimum is right around 5250 feet. My time last week was pathetic, but I was happy, fresh air and relaxing. Then decided instead of once a week, why not twice. Wednesday I lost six minutes, even more pathetic. But I feel redeemed now because I shaved nine minutes off my first time (15 less than last time) and that means there is hope. Stay posted for an overly dramatic webpage with performance / heartrate / bodyweight / etc graphs, gps tracklogs on maps and maybe some conclusions on my get in shape in 10 weeks or less experiment.

Done walking for the day, walked over 10 miles. Started in downtown San Francisco where we saw some protesters laying in the street get zip tied and put in vans by Police in riot gear. I got the feeling the most of protesters were really fake, the kind of people who just like attention and acting. Well the ones who covered themselves in fake blood and were running around and screaming at least. Protesting seems pretty trendy. I wonder how many of them (the ones who were being really dramatic, not the ones chanting and holding up signs off of the road) got are failed actors / actresses. Honestly I would be much more affected by photographs that a lady running around and screaming about something horrible happening to her. I actually do not even know what she was trying to convey with it. Was she supposed to be an Iraqi woman? It didn't seem like she was supposed to be a solider's mother. She was calling out to Americans for help, did she want American citizens to pull out our troops because they are the ones who attacked her? The signs said impeech Bush, pull our troops out. Maybe I am just really stupid and everyone else who looked confused around her really understood what she was supposed to represent. Word to anyone who wants to protest, I'm open minded but stop the horrible acting and make sure your message is clear and not a confusing drama class gone bad soap opera. Anyways, next we walked down to the curvy Lomard street via Union square and some really big church.. Then to the warf for a beer and snack. And ofcourse we needed some sweets, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Then the almost final leg was all the way to the vista point on northern side of the Golden Gate bridge about six more miles. And then back across the bridge, it was dark by then so taxi to the BART station. Never a dull moment.

I was showing a friend the local natural foods grocery place, which by the way doesn't even have wild salmon. Most of the people shopping there are pretty much hippies and do not look like the kind of people who would use a good soap. But my friend found his secret soap there, I was reluctant to try it because I associated it with the dirty hippies (by the way, I have no issues with most clean hippies) because that market carried it. My friend assured me that they sold it at Trader Joe's back home, which eased my mind a bit. The label was insane, you have to read it to believe it, religious babble it seems mostly.

Here is a quote,"Each swallow works hard to be a perfect pilot-provider-builder-trainer-teacher-lover-mate, no half true hate! So each day like a bird, perfect thyself first! Have courage and smile my friend. Think and act 10 years ahead! And the man without fault? He's dead! Do one thing at a time, work hard! Get done!" And it keeps going, that's only a small fraction of the stuff written on the label.

As far as the soap goes, I like the peppermint cool burn it has, and it isn't a harsh soap. It does seem to make the water bead off my skin after a certain point during my shower, so I use a normal body wash every few showers, because I'm paranoid of some kind of oil buildup.

Ingredients: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut & Organic Olive Oils (w/ Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil, Organic Mentha Arvensis, Citric Acid and Vitamin E.

If anyone has any opinions or facts regarding its cleansing abilities, let me know. Or if you are interested in it, visit their website.

When you are a mile above sea level, running is quite a chore. I am ready for a nap, but first I will take a nice relaxing shower. By the way, I had made major progress on my room, but I started to slack and it started to fade back in to that "watch where you step" category. I am confident that by Friday I will have some photos of a nice pristine spotless room for posting here.