(Edited to add: I forgot to mention, I got free Tori Amos tickets from work! Yay!)

Hey hey hey, I just realized I'm in town for THREE more weeks, not TWO. That's cool.

My next trip is to Clarksburg, West Virginia, about an hour and a half south of Pittsburgh where a lot of electronic information about you, me and criminals is kept in a big government agency. I'd say more but then I'd have to shoot you. :-D

Anyway, the trip will be 5 days of teaching, so 6 days total. There's not much in the way of fine restaurants in this town, so I have a hotel suite with a kitchenette. All of that is A-OK with me, though, because it's right in the mountains and according to the map, there are state parks all around. Should be easy to find places to go hiking after class each day. Even better, they want to run class early, which means I should have time in the afternoons to go and do stuff. Fun! About the only thing that would make it better would be if I had students in the class who wanted to go hiking with me and show me around.

But that's not for another 2 1/2 weeks. In the meantime, we've been grinding through some seriously hot weather. TOday the car thermometer says 105 degrees, which isn't quite accurate, but I guess it's about 101 for real.

I jogged this morning early because it's just too darn hot in the afternoon. It was a perfect plan, too: get up early, drink a glass of water, drive the car out to the trailhead (1 mile from the house). Jog on the rock-and-root trails for a 4-mile loop, come home, shower, dress, eat, go to work.

Best laid plans of mice and cats...

Not wanting to lug a big keyring, I tied the little remote control clicker for the car to the drawstring in my shorts, thinking that was the safest place for it (OK, bra would be good, but I didn't want it getting all sweaty). Attach iPod to my head and go. 3 miles into the run-- clicker is gone. Where? I have no idea. Since when? I don't know. Nearest phone-- about 1/2 mile upthe trail at the parking area. No, the OTHER parking area. So I head back to where there's a pay phone and call SNG, using my corporate calling card (only hope of communication). No answer. Call Again. No Answer. Call Cell phone- no answer. Again- no answer. Leave a message.

I decided it'd be best to find the darn thing, and if I couldn't, getting home would mean: running all the way home (1 extra mile), getting a key, running back to the car (another extra mile) and driving home. So I was looking at being pretty late for work regardless. So I backtracked. 3 miles back to the car. At the trailhead about 100 yds from the car is a gaggle of teenagers who run in the park every summer morning (part of a summer running camp) who had found it on the trail. PHEW! If only I'd seen them at mile #3... So, 6 miles and an hour 15 minutes later, I headed home to shower, make breakfast, throw b'fast into a tupperware and cruise up to work.

So why didn't I just jog to work again???

After work today I'm going up to the pool to swim. Beats the heck out of running in 101 degrees.

UNLIKE Texas... tomorrow a cool front moves in and we'll get a week of highs in the 80s. Let's see THAT happen in Dallas or Austin in late July!