Thursday, August 17th, 20064:44 A.M.1+ milesHaving had a pretty lousy run earlier this week, I decided I would try running on the treadmill this morning. So I fired that up and ran on it for about fifteen seconds before deciding that that sucks even worse than the paperboy headlights and thousand-watt yardlights that ruined my run on Tuesday. It (the treadmill) is treacherously loud, and constricting, and boring. And I don't really know how fast I run on the streets, so I didn't know what speed to set the treadmill for, and it always seemed to be either too fast or slow. So I headed outside and ran a mile. Managed to avoid the paperboys too, mostly, which was okay. But yardlights still ruined some otherwise pleasantly dark streets. Why do people have to have such bright yardlights, and leave them on all night long? It was breezy out, and quite nice. It rained later this morning. Running felt good. I could maybe have gone two miles but didn't want to push myself too hard, plus I wasn't sure I would have enough time for it before coming home, showering, having a yogurt, making sandwiches, brushing my teeth, and leaving at 6:45 for work at 7:00. It sucks being hurt and not running. I want to get in shape, and lose pounds, and feel better about myself, and improve my health so I can live until Halley's Comet comes back in 2061. I missed it in 1985/6. So I want to run, but I'm paranoid about hurting myself by trying to do too much too soon, thus sidelining myself for another two or three weeks again. It's a delicate balance. "P" marks the spot where I saw the paperboy and decided I'd rather avoid him so that's why I turned around and went around the block. I should clarify, that what this paperboy does is drive his car from house to house, zig-zagging back and forth across the street, parking the car in front of each driveway so he can walk halfway up each driveway to toss the paper on each front doorstep. Usually this is what he does. Sometimes he actually pulls the vehicle right into the driveway before parking it and getting out and walking the last few feet to deliver the paper. I don't know what dictates which method he uses from house to house. Both methods make my life more difficult, as a person who has to jog past them in the pre-dawn hours. This is obviously the Pioneer Press delivery system, as the Star Tribune is delivered to little newspaper boxes mounted by the mailboxes out on the street, allowing the paperboy to stay in the car, like a mailman would. Except that a mailman has a British vehicle (British in the sense that the driver sits on the right), whereas the Strib paperboy just has a regular non-British vehicle and either has to reach across the passenger seat to deliver the paper to the little box, or drive on the left side of the street. And although I would rather get the newspaper delivered directly to my front doorstep too (currently, I get neither paper), the Pioneer Press system is definitely the least congenial to early morning joggers like me who hate jogging into blinding paperboy headlights. Least congenial, in that it takes him longer to deliver his papers and thus there's a greater likelihood that I will encounter him somewhere on my route on any given day. The Strib method isn't all that great of a deal for me either, but at least he goes faster, and delivers fewer papers (this being suburban Ramsey County, not Hennepin). Note: I'm sure they prefer to be called newspaper delivery persons or something politically correct and snooty like that (circulation management engineers?). But I stubbornly insist on the moniker paperboy, as it is demeaning and full of scorn. 
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