Lessons Learned This Weekend

As March slowly rolls toward April in upstate New York and the hope for calmer, warmer weather continues, Jan and I made some interesting discoveries over the past few days.

1. We learned how to make our own deep-fried dill pickles. Sunday, after a triathlon training day of grocery shopping, running and biking, we had a hamburger cookout. We decided to turn no-calorie, no vitamin, really having no redeeming nutritional value at all, dill pickle slices, into a greasy, tasty treat. Our first time having deep-fried dill pickles was at a barbecue joint a few miles from our daughters' home near Clanton, Alabama. The pickles tasted great, so why not replicate them at home?

I looked at a few recipes online and then Jan and I kind of winged it. Dipped the pickle in egg, then into a bowl of flour, seasoned salt, ground pepper, garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes. Drop into a hot oiled pan and three minutes later a tasty treat! We didn't even use dip, which typically is a ranch flavor. We are sure the spices added tons of vitamins, along with a hearty serving of grease.

2.Never discount the craziness, I mean dedication of long-time running friends. Saturday was 37 degrees, slight cooling breeze from the east, and a drizzle. Two running partners showed up to run with me. We did keep it short, six miles, but it was nice to have company on the muddy Erie Canal trail. Jan waited until 9am to run, by which time the rain had really started to come down. Hah!

3. The NCAA basketball tournament is much more fun to watch when you have a couple of teams still in the pool from work. Jan picked her final four teams, I filled in the rest of the games and she is in second place in the pool! We were cheering loudly for NC to beat Kentucky Sunday and knock about 10 people out of the top of the standings. We have never done so well. If Gonzaga wins the tournament Jan wins first place. Go bulldogs.

4. The Roberts Wesleyan college pool was empty at 5:30pm Saturday. Strange how people must go out to dinner, parties, or have "better" things to do than swim. Lucky for us our social life mostly consists of exercise.

5. March has been one long month. First a wind storm knocking out power for days to many homes and closing schools, then twenty-four inches plus of snow, closing the area again. Let's hope April brings some nice weather to our area. January, February and March should each be 30 days. Same number of days but March would end sooner. It's all psychological.