One of the reasons we live here

This is a shot I took last week at 5:25 AM while on a before work bike ride. This is Lake Washington and it was another great day. We are so lucky to have gobs of daylight. Go to your favorite weather website and check our sunrise and sunset times. Yeah, winter is grey, but it is grey in most of the world, so not too much of a loss there. These summer days are amazing.

I didn't know he was running....

For a couple of weeks on my way into work I would drive under an overpass where a man stood in the sun, wind and rain holding a blue sign that said "JESUS" in white letters. If the sign had said Mariners, or Packers maybe the reaction would have been different. People would have likely honked or waved. Pretty much everyone just ignored the poor fellow. One day, from the car in front of me, a hand shot up through the sun roof with a single finger extended, but not to say, "you're number one." That was a little different. Then one day, he wasn't there anymore.

During election season the overpass is consistently populated with sign toting locals. When the Jesus sign first appeared, I joked to myself, "I didn't even know he was running for political office." I expect the election sign folks to fade quickly and don't miss them when they go. I had come to count on the blue sign that wasn't asking me to do anything, just saying, "Jesus." No great vision had come, no deeper meaning, but in a life where we all take comfort from predictability in all kinds of things, I was bothered when I didn't see the blue sign anymore.

I don't expect to see the blue sign anymore, but I do look every time I drive by and wonder where Jesus went. If I see him, I'll let you know.

Runnin on empty

Summer is going full speed and I've been catching up since returning from Syria-Egypt-France. To prepare for the team trip I started riding before work on Wednesdays. I have been spinning on Mondays and Fridays and those are pretty intense, but are short. I've been going 32-42 miles in the early mornings. For those of you who don't tickle the 48th parallel, it gets light about 5AM (sunrise 5:15 or so these days). I am able to rise, ride, shower and make it to my office before anyone notices I'm a little late. I feel pretty good until about 11AM when I feel like eating my desk.

As an added bonus, since returning my back has been strong and I've been running a little bit again. I heard from an old running friend who confessed to running a marathon not too long ago. It brought back some memories of my old running days. This is where you connect the photo to the text. While I am passionate (OCD) about cycling, it is fun to run a bit again. And since Zach is willing to run at the crack of dawn, we've been logging some miles together.