Leaving Babies for the First Time

So we're heading out of town this weekend and I'm leaving all of the seedlings in the tender care of my sainted father. But here's the thing - my dad's a very good gardener of larger plants. But when it comes to these tiny little delicate guys. . . delicate is not so much his thing. So I watered and turned and fussed over them all this morning and then said a little good bye - see you later guys, it's been a lot of fun knowing you, but I'm pretty sure a few of you won't be here when I get back. A friend of mind pointed out that maybe this is just a Darwinian winnowing out of the weakest at an early point - if you can't survive my dad for a few days then you probably weren't going to be the strongest of the lot anyway. But I'll still miss them. [Or maybe my dad will surprise, and they'll all be flourishing when I get back - but he is the person we refer to as the "Horse Hollerer" (as opposed to the horse whisperer), so I'm not holding my breath.]

Signs of warm weather were all over the farm - the barn cats were having catapalooza out in a sunny spot in front of the barn. There's quite the convention when they're all out sunning themselves. And this despite the fact that I put on my crocodile hunter hat a few years ago and trapped all of the feral ones and had them spayed and neutered - there's still a bunch of them. No doubt it's the free cat food - but I can't resist a cat. Which explains how El Diablo came to live in our house, but that's a different story. Also enjoying the sun was my retired horse Taylor - he lives underneath a giant waterproof blanket all winter, being quite the sissy about cold weather, so seeing him naked is like the first sign of spring. He looked pretty happy about it - or as happy as it's possible to look with Finn, my young horse, wanting to stand thisclose to him and chew on his hocks. Turns out there's no dignity in retirement.

Think I might finally be getting over the funk - ran the last few days and felt pretty good, although I did sleep 11 hours last night so I'm maybe not quite back to normal. I missed a long run last week that's making me a little antsy, and I keep doing the mental "what day am I going to feel like running 18 miles " debate. So far no magic answer. Maybe Monday? In swimming news, the dream almost died. The Y told us that the tri club couldn't have the lanes to work out anymore, and I was about to have to put on my big girl pants and call up the Masters swim people, but then a reprieve - turns out we have the lanes through May then they'll "reevaluate." Whatever - at least that buys me a couple of swim workouts a week through the marathon and then I may want to join up with the Masters group anyway - in the summer they swim outside at the JCC, which sounds lovely and is also about a quarter mile from my house - rock on.