Beep Beep!

I was a no-show at a 5K scheduled for this morning.

Though it looked to be a huge event —a multisport Triathlon (swimming, biking, running), simultaneously with a 5K and Kid’s Triathlon, it was advertised in such a way that it only came to my attention four days ago.

I haven’t been keeping up with training for 5Ks — heck, I haven’t even been out walking since last on the college campus in February, but figuring I could muddle along, finish slow but complete the course, I registered for the event.

The race site was close enough that I could drive to but, once I began reading the package pickup and parking instructions, it became readily apparent getting there was going to be more trouble than it was worth.

Inasmuch as the organizers suggested arriving before 6:00 AM in order to get parking, I began looking for a hotel near the site so I could do an overnight stay, walk to the site, not have to get up at 3:00 AM in order to get dressed, fed, on the road, arrive, park, then wait around for my 7:00 start time.

With no hotels near enough to make getting there any easier on me, I nixed the 5K, ate the registration fee.

So instead of doing 3.1 miles on a race course today, I got my steps in going up the stairs down the stairs, up the stairs down the stairs, up down, down up, walking to/from the laundry room doing laundry.

In the course of doing so, I opened the door to head down and saw a roadrunner stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

Before I could snap a photo, it took off, so I went looking.

If you’ve never tried videotaping a roadrunner in motion, let me tell you — those suckers are fast. So, forgive me if the tape is jumpy because walking and filming, while trying to keep up ain't easy. Plus, it was windy outside and I was being careful not to stumble and fall because the last time I saw a roadrunner on the property, back in 2018, I failed to pay attention to where I was stepping and managed to fall backwards over a bush.

Luckily, I didn't break any bones during that fall, but I felt like I'd been hit by a truck for a long time after.

I lost sight of the roadrunner as it rounded the corner, but caught one last glimpse as it hung a left.

Then it was gone for good.

The only times I've seen a roadrunner, other than as a cartoon on TV, has been on this property. Twice in 2018 and again today. As I continued on with going back and forth to the laundry room, I kept an eye out should it return.

It didn’t return but, on one of those trips, I did see the Talker and her Karen neighbor in the same space at the same time.

Talker didn’t seem to be in any kind of danger — besides she was using a cane today and could have used it as a weapon if need be. The two just seemed to be talking, but I kept an eye out in case things looked to be going bad.

Bad didn't happen. It appeared to be a friendly conversation, though Talker did later seem to be trying to walk away, get to wherever she was going. As their conversation continued, Talker did began walking away.

Karen stuck to Talker like glue, walked along with her until they were out of sight.

That was slick. Karen can’t be accused of following Talker if she’s walking along with her, lol.

I think she followed, oops, I mean walked along with her all the way to Talker’s car.