They all can't be "easy" runs.

6 on the trails. surf is up to 2 ft. The kids want to go surfing, but there is soooo much red tide out there. 

I took Tommy out in the afternoon. The beach was packed with surfers. Tommy got some good rides in, but the red tide stink was overwhelming for me. Eyes burning, sneezing, coughing. When he got out of the water, his entire belly and chest was red-chafffed. I'm like "Aren't you worried about something that kills all these fish swimming up your urethra while your out there?" He may never recover from hearing me say "Urethra"!

Me at the walk in clinic this morning: Yeah, I need to get covid tests for me and my sons.

Them: What symptoms do you have?

Me: None, other than my wife tested positive last Wednesday.

Them: Well, we're only testing people with symptoms.

Me: My wife told me you would try to send me somewhere else. I need a negative test to send these guys back to school.

Them: I'll check with the head nurse - she walks away - comes back with a piece of paper with other testing sites on the paper (exactly as my wife said she would, BTW). and says, the head nurse says we're only testing people with symptoms.

Me: I have to drive to North Port to get tested? All of the places on your list have a 3 day turn around on results. Since they are eligible to go back to school on Thursday WITH NO TEST RESULTS, what is the point of getting tested at all?

Them: You wouldn't have got our test results until tomorrow anyway.

Me: No Crap! We weren't eligible to get tested until 5 days after exposure, which is why we’re here today. I have certainly learned my lesson - I have 2 options: 1. Lie to you and tell you we have symptoms, so we can get tested, or 2. Ignore CDC recommendations and get tested IMMEDIATELY after learning of exposure.

Then I had to go home and explain to Spouse why we couldn't get tested. 

I am watching my kids get lazier and dumber.

6 am start. 1/2 mile out, then home for a bathroom stop. then 10.8 miles, hood route to legacy trail on north side of laurel, over the SWOM bridge to colonia and back. Started rough, finished strong. Super duper hot and humid. 

10.8 miles. HoodRoute to Legacy Trail on north side of Laurel over SWOM bridge to Colonia and back. hot and sticky, but nice running today. I did accidentaly cause a cyclist to wreck, though. we were passing by each other on the same 4' wide sidewalk. I guess he thought he couldn't safely pass me, so he went in the grass. after we passed each other i heard him wreck behind me trying to get back on the sidewalk. I ran back to see if he was okay. i think his pride was hurt more than anything else. he was an old guy- late 60s i'm guessing. 

In non running news -

1. all 4 of us tested negative with home kits last night. The kids go back to school tomorrow. I am still quarantined from the office and off site visits until the 26th (my company protocols are different from the school. I work from home now anyway.) the boys and I never tested positive. 

2. the boys surfed for 3+ hours yesterday. small but consistent waves. they had a really good time. I went to see them at the end of it. It is amazing how similar that red tide symptoms are to COVID symptoms. 

3. Took the boat back to the mechanic yesterday. Good news I had wrongly assumed that my inability to start the thing waas due to my own incompetance. I found out that my frustration was all from a loose fitting gas line connection that was installed at the last minute by the mechanic. No gas to the engine = no running engine. I was so happy to find out that I wasn't as dumb as I thought i was, that i actually tipped the mechanic for his error. (Which is also dumb. So I kind of went full circle on that one.)

10.8 miles. Hood route to north side of laurel legacy trail over SWOM bridge to Colonia and back. 6:30 am start. I had a collection of songs from Pete Yorn's music for the morning after album stuck in my head. 

4 on the trails. 8:30 am start. Wisely avoided conversation with overly talkative tire dragger guy. 

20.75 miles. hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen beach and back. Hot and humid.

I met a guy named Dan at halfway. 60 year old. nice dude. He asked if I swam across the ICW. Yes, I was that wet, but No, I did not. Most of our talk was about the Sarasota County School Board meeting last night. Regardless of where you stand on the whole mask or no mask thing, that meeting was chaos. The school board member that was in charge of the rules of order was only there through a computer, so she could not get the room to follow the correct procedure. Further, The school board decided that any time there was an outburst from the crowd, that they would take a recess, essentially putting the parents in "time out." I was not there, but the whole thing just makes me feel ashamed for our community. 

In happier news, Boy #1 and I started the boat and ran it to snake island last night and back. He did almost everything by himself, including hooking up the trailer and backing the trailer in. his first time backing a boat in! On the way back, it was super low tide. Since I have been running a boat up and down Curry creek for the last 35 years, I have a pretty good idea where the deep water is. So I had to instruct a little bit in that regards. But it was mostly Tommy. Big smiles on that kid last night. Today, I go out with Boy #2 for the same drill. If I'm satisfied that they know what they are doing, I might send them out later without me. Happy times.