Down the Foggy Ruins of Time

I'm sleepy. I'm really sleepy. Staying up to watch west coast hockey games takes a toll. As does work. As does practice. On Tuesday it rained about as hard as I've ever seen it rain, and it did that for the entire day. We had a track workout that day. Warmup + Drills + 3x(600 + 400 + 200) + Cooldown + Plyos + Second Cooldown. Which isn't that bad of workout, if you do it in decent weather. Rain sucks, guys. We had no idea how lucky we were to grow up in Orange County. I can deal with the cold and the wind and the snow. Snow is fine. Snow doesn't soak you to the bone. But rain makes running miserable. Rain makes being miserable. I hate rain. I really hate rain.

On Thursday it snowed. Much better. That day, we had Warmup + 4mi tempo + Cooldown + 5x200 + Second Cooldown. Mathematically, that's probably a harder workout than Tuesday's. But it felt so much better.

Wednesday was the in between day. No precipitation, not too cold, but very muddy. We looked for a cave we in Weybridge that day, which took us to somewhere between 12 and 13 miles. We never found it, but we did talk to a local walking his horse down the road and he told us where it was. Now we know. We'll go back there, eventually.

On Tuesday night I went to a talk by Dennis Ross in which he addressed American foreign policy regarding Egypt, Syria, Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If I was a Palestinian, I wouldn't be thrilled with his ideas.

Last Saturday was the Vermont Chili Festival, which takes place on Main Street in Middlebury. Guys, chili is delicious. Every local business puts up a stand and hands out chili (you pay $5 to get in, but after that it's a free for all), and you're given three poker chips, which you use to vote for your favorite chili. And since it's Middlebury, yes, they had plenty of veggie chilis. None of which I tried. Just letting you know they existed.

Seb, Chuck, and The Fridge take in the wondrous aroma of fresh chili.

Yes of course I tried Ducati's (in the background) chili. I voted for it, actually.

Classic Vermonter, bringing pigs to the Chili Fest. Sorry I didn't get a good picture; I know these could almost pass as dogs from this angle. When they faced me and got close, I was petting them and admiring their simultaneously hideous and cute faces instead of taking pictures. There were a ton of cute dogs there too, hiding throughout the forest of legs, but I liked the pigs more. They were just so happy to meet all the people there. Smiling, happy pigs.

After a dozen or so cups, I started getting full. I ended up giving one of my voting chips to Ducati, and the other two to a company whose name evades me. They made some unbelievable chili.

Once we got our fill, we explored the area around Otter Creek Falls and made our way into the ruins of an old stone watermill, which we climbed around for a while.

That crumbly stone building below and to the left of the falls is where we were.

View from inside.

Taco contemplating the deeper things in life.

Taco's view.

Chuck just being kinda awkward.

Toldja this was a mill once.

Moral of the story: local history and exploring it are cool things.

I read the Pardoner's Tale and the Nun's Priest's Tale this past week. Good stuff. Much Ado About Nothing comes next week. I'm taking the part of Don Pedro, whom I know nothing about.

We've been learning about Chinese immigrants to California in the mid to late 1800s and the Mormon migration to Utah. Funny how people on the East Coast just don't know any Mormons. A lot of them just haven't met one. Weird.

I have three papers due next week, plus a test. And a week from today I will be in San Diego. What I'm trying to say is I'm almost there.