I got up early this morning and it was still very foggy when I made it down to the road in our valley to start today's run.

Actually, calling it a "run" is rather grandiose. What we're talking about here is me jogging at speeds just slightly faster than those which would be achieved by an eighty-year-old woman with a walker. I "ran" for about three minutes, followed by two minutes of brisk walking and then more of my amazingly slow jogging.

I spent 40 minutes that way, enjoying the eerie sensation of being enveloped in fog and a completely silent space, the only sounds my breathing, my feet hitting the dirt road and my calves screaming toward the end of each running bit, "Excuse me? EXCUUUUUSE ME? What the HECK are we doing here? Aren't we supposed to be in bed?"

I'm telling you, I have the whiniest calves on the planet. I'd send them to their room for a little quiet time, only I need them for this painfully slow mime-like imitation of running I'm perfecting at the moment. Eventually they will learn to shut up. It will just take time.

As my three loyal readers well know, I am a cat person. I dote on cats. I have been willingly mistreated, ignored and abused by several generations of cats now. The fact I am a cat person, of course, makes me insanely attractive to dogs.

Actually, I should amend that. Not all of me is insanely attractive to dogs. For some reason only known to the world of dogs, my groinal region is the fido equivalent of catnip. Oh be quiet. This is NOT a hygiene issue. I DO shower at least once a day and yet, there are very few dogs who can pass me by and not try to, uh, Inhale The Wonder.

So this morning I'm running in the fog (and there are those who would say this is the perfect metaphor for my life) and of course ahead of me some dogs materialize. Everyone in the country has dogs, it's just part of the deal. Mostly dogs are about bluster so if you don't challenge their space by making direct eye contact or going on what they consider their turf you're fine.

I just kept on my pace on the other side of the road from them. The two dogs kept barking their threats about how they're lethal weapons and they're going to take enormous bites out of me if I come anywhere near their turf and I should be really, really, really, really scared of them.

Fine.

And then I got upwind of them.

They must have gotten A Whiff of The Wonder because suddenly the tone of the barking changed and there they were beside me, My New Best Friends. My New Best Friends who really, really want to jam their noses in a region that I have sworn before church and state to reserve for the exclusive use of the spousal unit.

Fine.

They followed me to the end of the road and all the way back to their own driveway before realizing that I'm Not That Kind Of Girl And There Was No Way I Was Giving It Up. We parted on amicable terms but I suspect I'll be seeing more of My New Best Friends.

Dogs. I am now occasionally hanging out with dogs.

If my cats catch wind of this, I'm toasted.

--Marn

Mileage on the Marnometer: 259.36 miles (417.31 kilometers)
Goal for 2003: 500 miles - 804.5 kilometers