Friday Quote Day

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

~Samuel Johnson

Oh, Samuel, I do hope you're right.

That quote may be a little overdramatic for how I'm feeling today. My difficulties are purely physical this morning.

I thought two days of road-running would have me feeling tip-top. I. Was. So. Wrong. But these aches and pains are a mixture – as most things are – of good and bad.

Good:

• I can actually run four miles without stopping. At my age!
• I'm moving around more once I'm home again because it hurts so much to get up after I've been sitting for a while.
• I know the pain is temporary, not chronic or debilitating.
• I don't need a prescription product to feel better. Aleve alleves it. Heh.

Bad:

• I. Don't. Like. Feeling. Pain.

Emotional difficulties are the ones that push me over the edge. Next time I get discouraged after months of staying the same weight, despite valiant efforts, remind me to come back and read Sam's quote, okay?

So some of you've had problems with your iPods, too, eh? Mine stays docked on a mini-speaker system that continuously charges it. But I figured out that it hadn't been charging. When it's charging there's a little battery icon on the screen; mine has been displaying the information for the last song it played … and that was a couple of days ago, probably longer.

I'm glad to know about the potential overheating problem, though, because I carry it in the pouch of my hoodie when I run, and if pockets or pouches cause it to overheat then I'll just stick with the Shuffle. My favorite running playlist is on it, but once I start going longer distances again I'll have to add some more songs. Jonathan, a phone that works like yours does sounds terrific! All you need to do is train it to chop vegetables and you'll have the perfect all-purpose tool, right? Unfortunately we have so many hills and mountains around here that my cell phone doesn't work once I get to the end of my own driveway.

More of the pure joy of living in the Middle of Nowhere. Heh.

May your difficulties be surmountable and your wishes gratified. And if not, may Aleve do the trick.

Sixty-four days until race day.