The Birds!!!

Date	Place	Duration (min)	Pull-ups	along lake	Final sprint	Time
9 Oct	through park	44	13,11,10,7	1:08.44	58.12	06:44

Date	Place	Duration	Pull-ups	Dips	along lake	Final sprint	Time
11 Oct	through park	1 hr. 20 min.	13,13,11,5	13,13	1:09.28	51.42	15:50

Date	Place	Duration	Time
12 Oct	Bike to TIS	45 min. to school, then around town	08:37

     On Saturday, I was running down Myslim Shuri street, listening to some podcast, when into my ears came a huge racket.  I looked around, up and down, and realized it was birds.  I looked up and could hardly see any.  The sun and the leaves were in such a position that they were nearly camouflaged. 

I took a video.  The birds are practically invisible, but their noise is deafening.  You can here a bus and a car horn—the birds compare quite favorably with those.  You should be more impressed when you understand that the noise disappears after one block.  All these insanely noisy birds are concentrated in about 40 feet of street.

     This is my first movie made with iMovie.  It is a colossal pain in the rear, but once I get used to it, maybe it will be better.

     On Wednesday, I took the boys and their mother to the airport. I had ridden my bike to their place and put it in the garage.  I probably didn’t need to put it in the garage because I could’ve locked the chain around the tire and the frame so now one could ride it away.  But…I had the key to operate the opener and I just figured, “What the heck?”  Everyone here is super careful about their stuff even though I have a feeling that there are few criminals here.  

     OK, so I drove to the airport, dropped off my charges, and drove back to the apartment.  I stuck the key in the spot that operates the opener, and nothing happened.  Again. Again.  The dude who lives on the bottom floor, we are great friends because he’s old enough that he speaks quite a bit of Russian, called out, “Нет света!” (No lights)   The electricity was out. 

     “When’s it going to be back?” I asked stupidly, like anyone would know.  He shrugged his shoulders.  “Well, I can’t wait,” I said and walked away.   I actually had a couple hours so I walked into a shop that does photocopies and sells that kind of stuff.  For some reason, they had tables and chairs opposite the counter behind which were paper, pens, ink, etc.  I was stupid again as I rattled off, “So what can I buy here?  Ah, can I sit down?  Do you mind?”  They weren’t stupid questions, but I was speaking in Russian.  When I’m not sure of myself or doing something a bit weird, I drop back to the only foreign language I know.  I did the same thing in Hungary this spring.  I'm trying to remedy this situation...I've begun to take Albanian.  Except during my classes, I'm engulfed in it.

     Anyway, the two guys who were working didn’t understand a thing, even after I made my case in English, so I sat down for 10 minutes.  Then I went back to the garage—still no lights.  Walked 45 minutes to the office—I arrived in plenty of time.

     The next day, that’s Oct. 9 above, I ran back to the apartment.  I relived the old days when I used to run through the park and do pull-ups nearly nearly everyday.  I didn’t remember the final sprint marker, though, because I finished in nearly a minute—15 seconds behind my record. So…I must have began at the wrong light pole.

     Saturday, I ran a similar route in that I went to the park, but I ran all along the lake until Wilson School—another route I used to run at times.  What a great time!  The weather here is fabulous now.  Not too hat, not too cold—Goldilocks’ paradise.  

     As I may have mentioned once, I am exercising on Tues, Thurs, Sat. and Sun.  So on Sunday, I rode my bike to the school, spent time at the office planning lessons, and then rode around town to some areas where I had never visited.  Delightful!