Running, Garage Sales, and Red Hot Pokers

I ran 14 miles this morning. It didn't feel good. It wasn't the distance so much, mind you. It was just that mostly my body loves to be running, but every now and then, something goes awry and from the get go it just feels unnatural and all wrong. I could never get into a groove, my knees hurt, and I kept having a stitch in my side that wouldn't leave. I guess it is OK to have those days once in awhile training so long as you don't on race day, but I had big plans for being productive and weeding more of our jungle today, and now all I can do is lie here feeling weak, useless, and unable.

At least I can lie here all useless for now. Jesse is napping and Mike took the other kids to some garage sales. I have mixed feelings about this garage sale business. I despise having so much "stuff" around, and honestly my kids each have about 8 million stuffed animals now. But, the kids think it is the funnest thing ever. Even Penny will excitedly ask, "Garage sale?" when Mike's around in the morning. And, it gives me a chance to have a little time to clean up the house and relax all alone on Saturday mornings. And all alone is worth quite a bit.

Anyway, look at these "flowers." Pshaw. Flowers?! Amidst all our weeds, we had tons of these monocot style groupings that I just knew were some type of lovely Day Lilly. I've mentioned I love flowers, so I was quite excited for all these pretty lillies to bloom . . . but when they did bloom, they were not lillies at all. Even as I saw the bizarre triangles developing I kept refusing to believe they wouldn't somehow change into a traditional flower shape. I was out running one morning when I saw some that were further along than my own. I ran past thinking nothing but then stopped cold as the realization hit me. The things I had just run past were the same things that were growing in my yard -- everywhere in my yard. I didn't have lillies, I had RED HOT POKERS!! (Only I didn't know they were called Red Hot Pokers til my friend Kelly told me). I felt like I had been duped -- like someone had played a dirty trick on me. I don't want to offend anyone who thinks they are lovely, but I went so far as to call them "ridiculous." Sure I could see a few strategically placed in a well landscaped area looking alright (mostly behind other prettier things -- just to add a little drama), but all on their own they seemed totally inappropriate.

But that was before the birds came. It turns out birds love these little Red Hot Poker guys. It is like we have hundreds of tiny bird feeders in our yard. At all times of the day you can look out and catch various little birds landing on these things and looking for bugs or drinking nectar or whatever it is they are doing. I took this picture of one just to show you what I mean. I feel like we have a little wildlife bird refuge in our backyard now (patrolled by a giant and somewhat clueless dog). And oddly, these pokers don't look quite so silly to me anymore. I am maybe even starting to like them. It's just like Rudolph. Everyone thought he was totally ridiculous looking until Santa paid him a little attention . . . next thing you know, everyone wanted him to play their reindeer games (like Monopoly). Yes, that is how I feel. Thanks to the attention paid to these flowers by a few birds, I see them quite differently. I think I might even want to invite them to play Monopoly now.