Nuke it from orbit

Yesterday was not fun. All weekend my computer had been running slow, freezing up, and generally acting sick. I backed up all my files and sent up the bat signal to ask for some help from the Geek Squad. Nothing is stranger than seeing your cursor move around and open up files when you aren't touching the keyboard.

Over the course of 4 hours, 3 different agents discovered a virus, a strange file in my registry, some weird files labeled in Chinese, and the fact that I was missing important updates for Vista. The final agent suggested that I reboot the whole system from factory specs. Ouch! Then he told me that he does this every six months to prevent the kind of stuff that was affecting my computer. I mean even Firefox 3.0 wasn't working properly. I guess that should teach me not to visit skeevy websites.

I then spent the next 3 hours wiping my laptop back to the stone age, I mean factory specs, and downloading all the freeware that I had lost. I must have restarted my laptop more than 20 times over the course of the day. The Geek Squad did a good job wiping out the weird stuff, I just wish I hadn't had to wipe the slate clean.

Running on the 4th

As a kid, I loved the 4th of July. For me, it was about waving our nation's flag as a soldiers (both veterans and currently enlisted) and marching bands paraded by, getting together with neighbors and family for picnics with watermelon seed-spitting contests and grilled hot dogs, and finally getting to stay up late to watch the fireworks. Later, I got to march in the parades as part of a high school band and play taps at the Military cemetery. But somewhere along the way I lost my joy in Independence Day. It didn't seem so simple once I was old enough to figure out that the government didn't always work the way we were taught in school - the way Constitution said it should.

Last year I didn't celebrate Independence Day at all. The US Embassy of Mozambique did have a celebration and invited all Americans, but I was in the field working.

This year I got an opportunity, completely out of the blue, to run in the 39th annual Peachtree 10K road race in Atlanta, GA. Thanks for the number Stephanie! It doesn't sound quite patriotic, but there is a certain amount of red, white, and blue fever attached. Some run in red, white, and blue, some spectate in those colors. The national anthem was sung at the start. A group of soldiers ran the Peachtree in Iraq as we ran the streets of Atlanta. A couple of thousand people volunteered to help the race run smoothly, 55,000 people ran 6.2 miles/10K, and thousands more watched and cheered us on. A mega-parade if you will.

Waiting for the MARTA at 5am to take us to the start
55,000 people is a whole lot of runners. I thought I'd post a mini-photo essay on what it was like to run the Peachtree. I apologize in advance for some blurriness in the photos. I took them on the run.
Last minute pee break.

Lining up to start

At the start
The first mile - check out the billboard
A water station
Getting blessed and cooling off
Cardiac Hill - a slow, long uphill from mile 3 to almost mile 4
Just married
Some of the many spectators. Not all dress so silly. Lots of live bands too!
A final cool-off near mile 5.5
Taking the MARTA home all hot, sweaty and stinky

There's no finish line pictures. At that point I was exhausted after waking up at 3am to drive to Atlanta and run at 8:15am. I was also starving. With the picture taking and having fun my 6 miles took 50 minutes, but I did not walk any of it.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, one of the sponsors has more pictures online - including some really cool bird's eye view shots of thousands of runners at the start.

June

June has passed all too quickly and now I wonder where the time went. I certainly wasn't moping around, although I did feel tired of just being on occasion.

I got back into the swing of running every day. This Friday I am running the Peachtree 10K. A footrace in Atlanta that attracts over 65,000 runners and just as many if not more spectators. I'm thinking of running with a camera. I've never done that, but it could be fun to take snaps of the crowds and the runners along the route.

I also started a kickboxing class. It is something I have always wanted to try. This morning, I'm in a little pain. I pulled/strained my right tricep doing hooks and upper cuts. My teacher, Ms. Carter, says it was probably because I was trying to punch too hard. Punching a bag is excellent therapy for all sorts of emotional upset. It felt worse last night.

I now have about a week to get my paper on fire ethnoecology under control so that I can present it at the Conservation Biology meetings. Ugh. Text analysis is painful.