Mid October Life Crisis?

Haven't send any messages for a while because there wasn't an awful lot going on but I have got some loose ends to clear up.

Talk about fresh food. The other night when we were at our restaurants, one of the fish jumped right out of the tank and onto the floor. Almost hit Jennifer as it was heading to the floor. The waitress just grabbed it, after several slippery misses and put it back in the tank. It would be dinner for someone.

Also when I went out for a jog, on the roadside just outside our enclosure, a man had his sheep grazing along the roadside....Clearing off the tall grass..Something like I wanted to do with the golf course in Chaplin...natural lawn mowers.

Forgot to tell you about the fight in Boatao, Inner Mongolia. Just as we were leaving, a car pulled up alongside two bikers and tried to butt in to a line...not to be allowed, the man and lady did not give way and something was said by the lady in the car to either one or the other or both. The biker man pulls his bike directly in front of the car and forces it to stop. I don't know what was said but it wasn't that your mother wears army boots....pretty soon some shoving and the two ladies are trying to break it up...the guy pulls out a cell phone and I don't know who he was calling.....just about that time we had to leave....would have liked to have seen the conclusion of it.

Kind of funny thing happened as I was getting food at the local grocery store...Wumart....the clerk says something to me and I have no idea of course to what he is saying. Find out later he was asking me if I had a card for the store...something like a Safeway card....I just laughed out that.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and then had another this Monday at the Canadian Club here..liked our own better ...better atmosphere. Chinese do not celebrate the day at all.

After our Thursday one, we took a joint trip to a mountainous region with the other Chinese teachers ....sort of bonding I guess....we didn't do a lot of it.....had a joint dinner ...some karaoke with mostly Chinese songs...but we did sing two of ours....I Wanna Dance With Somebody and another one....we had most of the people up and dancing...then bed time at 11:00

Next day off to the mountains...which were not so much..more like foothills..but there were shrines and temples and a couple of interesting things...I did not go to the top as it was a lot of walking and I was going to run the marathon the next day.

This is a picture of the welcoming pine that is no longer living as you can see by the two metal posts holding it up..plus there were some other wires holding the branches on...but they were tourist attractions.

I meat these guys on an excursion behind the tourist sight. It was a rock quarry of sorts....the truck was taking away huge boulders, there was a track hoe knocking stuff down to the guys to split, they would notch the large rocks then use an air drill to start some holes, then drive in some punches along the holes and the rock would split and then they would load it on the truck....none of these guys knew a word of English and I know I was like a tourist sight to them...the one fellow had to feel my bald head as shown in the photo. They tried to sell me some rock...I guess they are real entrepreneurs.



This string of jeeps is to take people up or down the mountain.....whichever you want...apparently the trip takes about 40 minutes and you are looking over the edges as you go...and no one seems to care about seatbelts.

I took this one to show you the contrast of culture and development. This is supposed to be the resort area and the air is clear and fresh and the grass is green....get the picture. Look at the smog and fog or whatever it is. You could not see anything from where I was, after about 2 km...it was that bad.

Some greenery and pogodas and some of our group getting ready to go on their jaunt.

Me and my thinker pose...whenever I get to a nice place to think.....I don't do it enough.
The scene behind me as I was getting ready for the marathon. There were about 20,000 people entered...6,000 in the full as far as I know....I was somewhere at the front...the elite were ahead of us and the mini, 10 k and 1/2 marathoners behind us.....some music and entertainment prior to...long lineups to the potties.....soome refreshments.....reasonably well organized...I think they are trying out some stuff for the Olympics.
Me in front of the start sign....notice the shorts...Sask flag...Canada flag....and even had a Rider tattoo on my face...all along the route...every 50 metres or so either a cop or a member of the army and they were not letting anything cross the road....period. ....buses...you name it, it was not going anywhere.....it was on tv and several kids said that they were watching it and that they were looking for me.....nice brownie points....lots of spectators and seemed to get a kick out of cheering on a bald headed white guy with funny shorts......
My fan....Kirsten made up some signs and the group were at the end to see me finish....they could not get into the finish area and tried to manouever around...apparently they almost got arrested.....but was great gesture to come out and cheer me on..waving the Sask flag and yelling...the Chinese wondered what had hit them.....

My time was a personal best 3:44.15 which means that I gualify for the Boston Marathon in my age category...I needed to get under 3:45....I finished 882 and I think there were as I said 6000 marathon runners....I was very pleased with my time.....today...Monday...I had a very trying time getting down stairs....up not so bad.....down damn tough....but the lactic acid will wear off. I did recieve a certificate, a towel, a t-shirt and a medal ( which I had on Friday when I got the registration).

Now I will relax a little in the mornings and only go out for occasional jogs......hope to get my bike this weekend and start some more trips...maybe further afield...

Later Dudes

Spra and Zone 3 people.....have fun at the conference...have a Twisty for me