St. Croix Thaw

I've been sad the past two weeks as the temperature has warmed. Yes, sad. It means that my good friend, the frozen St. Croix River is thawing.

I have been watching the areas of open water grow larger. Late last week, patches of ice began to flow in some areas.

If I were single, with no responsibilities, I honestly would have attempted running on the ice flows. Images of Ernest Shackleton were in my mind.

This week, I spotted an ice damn forming up near the boom site and have watched it work its way down river all week. Today, early this morning, it passed under the lift bridge. The entire river north of the lift bridge has thawed.

I'm sad. My running gateway is gone. A beautiful, silent, desolate trail is gone until next year. I regret not running the entire distance from Stillwater to St. Croix Falls/Taylors Falls. It was possible for the river was frozen the entire 25 some miles. What saddens me is that it is not even possible to attempt until next year.

Today, Marty mentioned that she knew I was sad about the river trail "passing away." She suggested I try running on the water. I told her that I had actually given it a thought.

Going Potty in a Foreign Language

I've blogged here in the past about the trials and intricacies of visiting the biffy while out on a long trail run. Well, maybe I haven't...maybe I should. Of course, one doesn't actually VISIT a biffy out in the woods, but that will be for another blog post.

Before Marty left for Ethiopia to pick up our two new daughters, she did something brilliant. She learned a few critical words in Amharic in the likelihood that she would need to communicate with Lizzie, the two year old. Marty learned how to say in Amharic such things as:
come,
no,
lunch,
sit down,
thank you,
coffee,
I love you, home, and
do you have to go potty?

These proved to be very helpful to Marty.

When Marty and the kids got home, a few of these words have continued to be used such as "buna" (coffee) and "shint te bayt" (do you have to go potty?). So, when Lizzie comes running up saying "papa" and rubbing her pants, I am able to say "shint t bayt?," she nods her head, and we go to the bathroom.

Well, the last few days, we have been using the word "potty" instead of the Amharic. Lizzie understands completely. However, Zeke is now correcting us by saying "shint te bayt!"

Marty in Ethiopia

Here

PHOTOS

See some recent photos of the girls here.
Emma is taking care of uploading photos right now.
Marty and I are pretty busy: me catching up at work from being out of the office last week; Marty with the major part of taking care of kids.