The last long weekend
I’m in the homeland enjoying a four-day weekend before the start of my final (three-day) work week. And as it happens to be Pioneer Days Weekend (in celebration of Independence Day) there is a lot going on!
Yesterday was an annual barbecue at my eldest sister, Veronica’s, house – made so much better because it was the day after my 15-year-old niece, Krystyne’s, last radiation treatment! I can’t tell you how happy I am that my favourite Bug is cancer-free!
Then today I ran the Runner Stumbles 10K with my 12-year-old nephew, Haden, whilst my sister, Celeste, and 14-year-old nephew, Parker, did the 5K. It was a bit of a hard race for me since I’d not run at all (bad girl!) since the half-marathon distance I did just over a month ago, coupled with the fact that I’m not long out of a two-week battle with an upper respiratory infection – which meant I did a lot of coughing on the route!!
But still, Haden and I managed to run the entire race. And whilst I was disappointed with my slower-than-desired time, I was so proud of Haden for coming in first in his age group (under 14). He’s a bit bummed that he was the only person in his group, but I reminded him that whilst loads of kids his age did the 5K route, he was the only one who had the courage and determination to do the 10K. And he ran the whole thing. A feat to be proud of for sure!
Then this evening, I grabbed Parker and Haden to head out to the old South Cle Elum train depot where my 16-year-old nephew, Nick, was playing with his band, The Blast-Ended Skrewts. The band has been together for about eight years and really do rock! (The YouTube video below should serve as proof of that statement!)
I’ll head home tomorrow and will hopefully find some nice local fireworks to watch. Then on Tuesday, I will head out of a quick training run on the last day of my four-day weekend. A day that I’m also realising will be my last day off work – since you can’t count it as a day off work when you’re unemployed. I will be as of 5:01 pm on Friday, 8 July.
Wow! I’m beat just thinking about all the activities of the weekend and coming week!
Way to go. A race and a 3 day week to finish your job with. Awesome!
Wow you guys are all so impressive! Congrats to everyone on their races, to your niece on finishing radiation, and to your nephew for choosing the coolest name EVER for a band!
First of all you rock for running, and your nephew and his band were awesome. Secondly, my parents had this crazy idea when I was a kid of buying the old train depot and turning it into a house. I think some 2 x 4’s even went up. I think the realization that it would cost about a million dollars finally sunk in, and we abandoned the idea. Weird, huh?
So bittersweet, very proud of all o you but wish I coulda been there this year!!!