One step at a time...

Last November, on my initial physical therapy visit for the second flare up of my piriformis muscle, my physical therapist told me, "there is a reason why most elite women runners have bodies that look like men, a man's body is more efficient for running.  You are not built like a man"...

Okay, I get it, I have wide hips, too many curves and my weight fluctuates, widely, but I do love to run!  Unfortunately, I have been on the side lines since late last summer when pain from my piriformis muscle stopped me in mid-step.

This morning was the target date for my first real run since the summer of 2011.  The run would be short, just one mile around a flat area in our neighborhood.  As it turns out, I could have picked a better weather day!  A temperature of 24 with a blustry "feels like" of 15, sent me back to my early running days when winter overdressing was the norm.  Not long into the run, I had my jacket tied around my waist.

The run went surprisingly well.  I paid careful attention to stride follow through and keeping my legs loose.  As my anxiety subsided, my labored breathing became relaxed and I enjoyed experience.  The mile went by too quickly. I could have continued on but my promise to myself and to John was to take it slow so I stopped and walked home (no hills just yet).

Providing the hip discomfort remains minimal today, I will be back at it in the morning.  One more mile...

After the run, I took the opportunity to walk around the yard. Along with the cold temperatures, we had a bit of snow last night.  Daffodil leaves are about 8" above ground now.  My initial surprise quickly subsided as I remembered that the temperatures in Knoxville have been hovering in the 50's daytime and 40's nighttime.  The daffodils are as confused as we are.  
 

Daffodil leaves in the snow

The Lenton Roses looked cold.  Buds should be forcing their way out right now but on casual glance, I did not see any.

   Lenton Roses mingle with daffodils

A moment or two spent digging leaves away from the center of a plant netted this little treasure. The season of Lenton Roses is almost here....

Christmas Vacation 2011, the Travelers...

Several times since the New Year, I have been asked what my husband gave me for Christmas.  The short answer is Europe, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. The long answer involves six days, six travelers, six suitcases, six carryons, six planes, four trains, a couple of taxis, and a big spirit of adventure.  Interested? 

The Travelers
Planning for this trip began in late Spring.  I was contemplating cancelling on a backpack to Glacier National Park with friends.  John had cancelled several months prior due to work issues and I just had no enthusiasm for going without him.  One evening, during the middle of my 100th or so, "I think I am going to cancel" conversation, John looked at me and said "I have an idea."  Suddenly,  Glacier was forgotten and our Christmas vacation was born.

As the trip took root, the cast of travelers began to crystallize.  John's sons Daniel and Lee were first to join our adventure.  They took their first international trip with us in 2008 when we took our second trip to Peru. Both are curious, adventurous and good natured which makes them great travel companions.

John's mother, Bebe (Johna) joined our group next. She took a little longer to make up her mind.  At 81, the long flights, anticipated cold, possibly snowy, icy weather and hours of walking gave her reason to pause.  With some encouragement from John and her friends, she decided to embrace the opportunity. Her only international trip was some forty years ago to Brazil with her late husband. 

And finally, our six traveler was Daniel's girlfriend, Tory. At 21, she was the youngest member of our group.  She had met us only a couple of times and we were quite impressed that she was willing to travel for a week people she did not know particularly well.  Much like Daniel, she is curious, adventurous and easy to be around. We think this is her second international trip, the first being to Central America, Guatemala, I think.  

Our City Has a Christmas Hangover...

We claim downtown Knoxville as our own, our neighborhood within 2 miles.  Although we have looked at downtown condos and talked extensively about the possibilities, we haven't taken the plunge...yet.  Meantime, we continue to enjoy the short commute, the many restaurants, entertainment venues and shopping available in our little city.    

This morning we were up early for a walk and what better place to than the streets of downtown Knoxville...

We started walking in the Old City.  Today is Monday. the day after the New Year and most places are closed tight.  No one out on the streets of the Old City but us and a train blowing through the Old City behind Patrick Sullivans (wouldn't that building make for beautiful condos).

We found this pitiful poinsetta on some pipes outside the Jig and Reel. Someone was ready for the holidays to be over!

Us on Gay Street, nobody on this street either

Some variation of this sign could be found in many store front windows.

Hmmm, Christmas in the City is over, but this is a great sign!

John on Gay Street, no, nobody around here.

Wow, post Christmas these pink decorations are, well, bright. 

The French Market was open and we found several people here drinking coffee, talking and eating. A trio of young professional girls were even exchanging gifts (I love how Christmas lingers).  Although the yummies listed on outdoor blackboards tempted us, we went in for take away coffee to enjoy on the rest of our walk.



Trio's is still decorated with festive doors welcoming in the New Year.

No one at the skating ring, actually it didn't open for another hour.

Left over New Year's confetti still littered several areas of Market Square.  The City has done a nice job of getting most of it cleaned up for the big New Year's Eve party in the City.

I will be glad when the giant cotton balls are removed from the Bliss windows.


No one on Market Square but some guy carrying a vaccum cleaner.

Happy 2012 and Happy Birthday Sonya

Last night we celebrated the New Year with our friends the Cissnas.  New Year's Eve is Sonya's birthday and over the years, we have had several occasions to ring in the New Year and sing Happy Birthday together (most memorable is a camping trip in Cades Cove - cold, bitter cold, freezing comes to mind).

The festivities were quiet and cozy, snacks, pizza and a competitive game of Hearts. Sonya and Mac are pretty serious about their Hearts, John and I are not.  Some day we will be able to give them a run for their money but last night was not the night.  We lost miserably, 529 to 423.  I attribute our poor performance to the new deck of cards, stiff and difficult to shuffle .... I'm just sayin'.

Sonya and me in her new kitchen.  Mac has been remodeling in between his other activities.  He does the most meticulous work!!

John petting Barkley the Cissna's Weimaraner rescue dog as Mac looks on

Seems like the Smith family is not the only one with a tradition of ice cream birthday cakes.  Mac picked this one up at Baskin Robbins, white cake with vanilla icing.  It was delicious! 

Okay, let the games begin...

John studying his options

Mac doing the same

Sonya trying to decide if she can go "low 50"

Me showing my hand...."see I told you I didn't have anything good"

Today we took it easy, a short walk in the morning and took in a movie midday.  Our pick was "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  John had read the book, I have not.  We agreed that the movie was a 2 thumbs up , John was  surprised at the graphic depiction of the violent parts.

As our day winds down, we are looking forward to country ham, biscuits and black-eyed peas for dinner.  Southern food at it's best. 
  

Happy New Year from us!

Wednesday, wednesday...

Short work day today, I love these days!!  Wednesday Farmer's Market was in progress when I arrived on Market Square for my scheduled appointment a Salon Visage.  Yes, today is hair cut, er, styling day.  Picked up this beautiful bouquet for the incredible price of $10 but really didn't have a place to put it while I saloned so the girls behind the desk placed it in water and put it behind the desk until I was done. Nice...

New hair, all is good with the world!

Summer flowers...

My gardens have been neglected since the summer thermostat shot up so I slipped outside for a few hours today to return some dignity to the summer chaos. Gardening is my pleasure, my "me" time, my time to think (or not).  In return for a little effort, the gardens yield endless bouquets of flashy reds, sunny yellows, cheery oranges and oh, so cool whites. 

On my project list was replacing the white pansies that still inhabited the pots on each side of the front steps. This has been a difficult task for me and I have been putting it off for a month. The pansies were a gift from my neighbors a few days after the death of my mother, but the relentless sun had long since wilted them and it was time to say good-bye.

My morning started with a trip to a local hardware store where I picked up several pots of red petunias and white zinnas.  It is late in the season to be purchasing start up plants and the ones I picked up looked pretty pitiful.  A good potting soil, a strong dose of fertilizer and some warm sunshine is the only hope these plants have for the rest of the summer.   I have my fingers crossed.

Shrubs, weeds and watering occupied the rest of my morning, it was time well spent!  While I wait for the petunias and zinnas to fill in, I will share some pics of several other pots I planted last month. 

 

Another day, another incredible storm...

Around 8:00 PM  yesterday evening, we became one of 127,000 households in Knoxville who lost power during the latest series of storms that ripped through the city.  The storms started with what has become a familiar sight, rapidly moving gray clouds.    

Angry clouds on the move



Following the clouds, we heard the familiar roar of wind blowing in from the west. As with the April 27th storm we were storm watchers from the safety of our side porch.  Unlike the April storm, the wind lingered and we became anxious as a great, old oak tree at the corner of our driveway violently shook and swayed.   Finally the wind moved out and the rain began.  Hard rain, lots of thunder and lightening but no hail.  The lights flickered off and the rain moved out.  We could see  storm carnage from the porch... a neighbor's tree had split in two and many small branches littered the street and lawns.

As dusk faded into darkness, so did our house.  The candles and headlamps came out as we prepared for bed.  Without ceiling fans and air conditioning, the air in the house was so very, very still. We tossed and turned until the power finally came on, around 3:30 AM.  Along with fans and air conditioner, the lights and TV that had been on before the power failure, also came on.  What an early morning wake up!!

With that said, we are lucky.  Tonight 50,000 Knoxville households are still without power including our friends Mac and Sonya (they were without power for 4 day after the April storm).  Hope our luck holds out.  Gray clouds have rolled in again and we are waiting for another night of severe weather!!  And another on Thursday... 

Rainy day in the city...

We slipped in  Harry's Delicatessen ,  just before a heavy rain began falling.  We had read several articles about this newly opened deli and all the reviews were good.  The deli is billed as Jewish/Italian with emphasis on the locally grown and homemade.  Harry's is located in the space  once occupied by Harold's Deli.  Harold's was a Knoxville institution for over 55 years, serving kosher overstuffed sandwiches, crunchy oversize pickles and many Jewish delights. It closed in 2005 and the building stood empty until Harry's opened.   

As we stood in line to order, John's boss and his wife appeared from seats at the end of the counter and warmly greeted us.  He told us his son and daughter-in-law, both professionally trained chefs, moved back from Vermont to open this deli.  He is one proud "papa"!  We chatted a few minutes, ordered and grabbed two stools in the front window. A steady rain continued to fall as we watched people dash about on Gay Street.

Our food arrived quickly.  I ordered a traditional corned beef and John ordered a patty melt.  In the basket with each sandwich was a side of pickled cucumbers, cauliflower and beets.  I normally won't eat off a plate if a beet has touched the surface but these beets were delicious!  I am now a big fan... of these beets anyway.

Corned Beef

Vinegar based coleslaw and roasted fingerling potatoes were our sides of choice

Patty melt

The rain had slowed to a trickle by the time we finished lunch so we walked a few blocks south to explore Union Avenue Books.  The bookstore, which opened a week ago, was hosting a grand opening event.   Nice to see a bookstore in downtown.  

John in front of just ripe, a new grocery and prepared foods store located next to the bookstore

Flowers purchased at today's Market Square Farmer's Market

We finished our day back downtown for the final performance of "Forbidden Knoxville" at Theater Knoxville Downtown.  Like everywhere else in Knoxville, the road in front of the theater is shrouded in orange construction barrels and we had to make our way through the rubble to the entrance.

The play is a locally written satire touching on such topics as the Road Kill Bill, Lane Kiffin, Bruce Pearl and other UT sports figures, road construction, Tim Burchett, the Hillside Task Force, Pilot and the Haslam family, Pat Summit and so on.  We laughed till we cried.  Another good day in downtown Knoxville...

Spring is back for the moment...

Beautiful night in K-town.  The oppressive heat and humidity has pushed out giving way to a few breezy and cool evenings. Spring is back for today but summer is waiting at the end of the week.  Perfect time to be backpacking but these are workdays for us!

Tonight was a dinner out kinda night.  Because we are trying to respect our evening workout schedule, dinner was a late one by Smith-Dunlap standards.  We left the house clueless on restaurants.  The first few minutes driving included the usual "wherever you want to eat" conversation but John had to go to work for a few minutes and I had been craving sushi, so we ended up at  Chaiyo's Thai and Sushi ( just behind UT School of Law).

We split a couple of spring rolls, a plate of Pad Thai and 10 or so pieces of sushi. The restaurant has a laid back university kinda vibe and the food is delicious!  We ate, talked and caught snatches of a lively discussion going on behind us... the current and past state of raunchy politics, the Republican candidates debate and nuclear engineering (well that part wasn't so lively).  Soon, it was time for us to pay our bill and finish our evening tasks.   We got home just in time for "The Voice". Sadly, we are addicted...

Weekend recap...

A small milestone this weekend, I replaced my car.  After 15 years, 501,250 miles and one major hailstorm, it was time.  The once beautiful white Infiniti served me well.  We spent 10 years together my hour and 1/2 commute to Cleveland, TN and 2 years of monthly travel to Mt. Airy, NC.  In this car I have traveled to countless backpacks, day hikes and overnights in Asheville, Abingdon, driven highways, back roads and even some dirt and gravel roads.   On various occasions, the car has been packed full of gear, plants, family and friends.  Lots of fun and laughter in this car.

Somewhere about 5 years ago, I quit repairing body damage on the Infiniti.  The missing paint on the back bumper is a souvenir of a disagreement I had with Tom, one of the service writers at Harper. I was so angry that I backed into a stone wall at the dealership while trying to leave.  Then there  is the long dent on the driver's side where an elderly lady in a gray mini van hit the Infiniti in a Target parking lot.  I was not in the car at the time, but watched the lady speed out of the parking lot before I could catch her.  Of course there is the rusted space on the front passengar's bumper where a 20's something didn't look both ways when pulling out of a gravel turn around on a narrow road.  I remember sitting in the snow waiting for the police on that afternoon.  The list goes on.

Recently age has caught up with the Infiniti. The stabalizer bar needed to be replaced, the car was not responding as it should to the steering wheel and the check engine light was on. John and I had been out test driving cars on several occasions but I hated the process and  waffled back and forth about another car.  Then April 27th arrived bringing with it baseball sized hail. 

The insurance company made the final decision for me.  They gave me market value for my damaged car, much more than any dealership would ever offer for a trade-in.

So this (above) old, scratched and pitted mug has given way to the pretty, shiny mug below, a new Rav4.  Well, maybe not brand new, but new to me!  The Infiniti was towed away by the insurance company this afternoon, leaving a little more room in the driveway for the Rav4.

Sunday John and I went on a day hike in the Smokies.  We hiked about 6.5 miles out and back on the Lumber Ridge Trail.   It was really just a workout type of hike, a chance for us to get away from our usual workout routines.  We gained and lost some 1600' overall, not too bad. 

The day was sunny and warm but the trail was mostly in the shade so we remained as comfortable as one can hiking up the side of the mountain in high humidity.  We found a few great views along the way and saw only one other couple.  Very pleasant.

                                                                           
                                                             Dappled sun on the trail??!!

                                                        
                                                    A few flame azaleas were still in bloom

                          
                                                      Rhododendren is still in bloom!

Tree damaged in the April 27th storm