08 August 2011

No more Pleasantville...

Friends who come visit me always remark on how my neighborhood looks like Pleasantville or the set from The Truman Show. Everything is "perfect"... manicured lawns, neatly-trimmed hedges, house colors all go well together, no cars up on blocks...

It always looks empty... except for the hired gardeners keeping the properties toeing the HOA's 'perfectness' line. My husband and I joke about how we never see anyone because they all are part of the Federal Witness Protection Program. In fact, I was so surprised to see evidence of life the other day that I took this picture... trash collection day and there are cans in front of every house! Trash=people, right?


I've written before about how this makes it feel safe to run at night. Sure, there is the olderwalkingcouple... hardly a threat. And once there was the hooptycarguy... but that concern was addressed. Since my husband left me... temporarily... my running and biking needs to happen at night. Usually not a problem. But as Murphy's Law would dictate, this past weekend night running saw its share of surprises!

Saturday was Dogs on the Loose and Party Central.

I started out with a run... and within moments was accosted by two free-roaming, yapping, fluffballs who almost took me out! They weren't biters, but they were trippers. Thankfully, I was able to leap over them. But after the last three weeks of mishaps, I was concerned :P A bit farther along, a very large, excited, and again, free-roaming golden retriever spied me running and wanted to 'engage.' I stopped dead in my tracks. As I said... after that series of silly mishaps, getting bowled over by a happy dog was the last thing I needed. Thinking The Force was working against me running that evening, I headed home and hopped on the bike.

Why did I think that would be safer? 

Some teenagers were having a kegger. Sharing the loop road on a bike with drunk kids driving cars... way safer than happy dogs... not. And then more dogs jumped out at me. All of this freaked me out. Maybe the fact that it was late (after 10 p.m.) and had been a long day played into that. I headed home and hopped into the shower.

Last night was single mommy hell before I even set foot out the door.

All the kids were going to have a slumber party in my room.

Why did I think that was going to work? 

After giving it an honest go, one person was banished... in tears, of course. Screaming, of course. And it wasn't me :P I needed to wait until the dust settled before I could start... 10:30. Yes, I went outside at 10:30 p.m. to get my workout on. You do what you gotta, right?

No one was out. It was awesome. I rode my bike the speed limit for 30 minutes. don't be too impressed... 15 mph  And then something surreal happened...

I decided to video it on the second pass instead of a taking a photo because I was worried the flash would startle him... sorry for the poor quality, but it was very low-light conditions....


I have no idea what was going on there. Maybe he was just getting his bike on, too? Maybe he wants a training partner? Maybe I should have followed him and asked?

***** dang it, that video is so dark you can hardly tell what it is... it is a guy riding a trike and wearing a headlamp!


***** and remember to enter my Hood to Coast DVD giveaway... click here! 

20 comments:

  1. I'm sure dog hurdling won't hurt your training. :)

    He was riding a trike?! Like a grown up sized one or the normal little kid version?

    Your neighborhood does look a little Stepfordesque... especially with all the matching garbage cans. :)

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  2. Looks like Pleasantville is more than a little exciting....especially at night!

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  3. Haha I know a man back home who rides a giant trike. It's pretty hilarious. Don't think I could handle a headlamp on top of it.

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  4. the trike...that is crazy hilarious! and creepy.....

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  5. You'll probably get mad at me for this one, but I don't mean this in a bad way at all. That said, I must admit the first thing that pops into my mind when you talk about running late at night by the keg party with rabid dogs nipping at your heels is Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club.

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  6. By the way, I analyzed the video of tricycle guy and he was averaging about 17 MPH. Just sayin'.

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  7. We have matching garbage cans in our neighborhood, too. Matching GIGANTIC garbage cans, which is hilarious for the older couples who live on our street and accumulate about one grocery sack of trash in a week.

    I'm impressed that all the obstacles didn't send you to a treadmill or a what the heck, maybe another time...although with craziness at home you must've NEEDED to get out!

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  8. Looks like you have a training partner ;).

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  9. You're cracking me up! I have had early AM run-ins with dogs... and you reminded me of them!

    And we have matching garbage cans in my neighborhood, but that's as far as it goes, there is nothing else picture-esque about it... unless you jump up and down and squint really hard! ;)

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  10. It's like the mullet of neighborhoods: Business in the day, party at night!

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  11. 1) To reply to your comment on my blog: Profanity is welcome and preferred in all blog comments. I try to keep it out of my writing so that my coworkers / family / etc aren't all totally appalled by me (it's hard) so it needs some spicin' up by you.
    2) Have you ever seen the show Weeds? Your neighborhood kind of reminds me of where they live in the show...
    3) Let's go on a trike ride. Sounds fun!

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  12. Ha!! So funny! I couldn't tell from the video, so I was glad you put the captions down. Teenagers do crazy things with keggers. Sometimes they get preggers. That was stupid. Sorry.

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  13. I wouldn't have followed and asked. Nothing says loving like a stranger guy at night riding a bike. And hey! You got selected as BlogHer's Voice of the Year! Did you go? That's fantastic!

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  14. Wow ... you totally live in pleasantville ... especially with matchy-matchy trash cans. Fantastic video .... loved the mullet comment.

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  15. Do you live in Piedmont?? I swear that street looks like my aunts street : ) I wish I could see the video! I'm totally intrigued now, lol.

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  16. At least they are little fluffballs, out in the country, the country boys like their dogs big, and they like to bite, and they dont believe in fences or leashes, so its a sprint to live, literally

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  17. Your night training will come up huge for H2C!! Huge!

    Do we need some hooptycars to really get you going?!

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  18. Hey, sometimes the only time we can exercise is late at night! Lol.

    Thanks so much for your comment, by the way. I have done elimination diets but with the intent of finding out what was causing my eczema. I 'll have to do it again and see if it affects my moods!

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