A Blend of Sun and Clouds

That's the phrase that Tim Root, our local WHLC-Highlands weatherman, often uses, though it sounds more like cooking than weather forecasting.  That is certainly the case at the Outer Banks.  As we say in the mountains, if you don't like the weather, wait around for a little while and it will change.  The main factor affecting the weather here is that the ocean is right there, outside the window, and its impact is often powerful and mysterious.  The weather radar might show a green blob of rain approaching from the west, but suddenly it will dissolve into absolutely nothing, and there will be blue sky as far as you can see.

The other nice thing about being here in April is that there is no pollen in the ocean.  After our race in Edenton, I could feel the pollen from all of those lovely trees beginning to accumulate in my sinuses and lungs.  But here, that cool, fresh, pollen-free air is a balm to an allergy-sufferer like myself.

This morning started off with fog so thick that you could not see the horizon - fog and cloud merged into a gauzy ocean.  But in a little while, a dim sun began to burn a little hole through the fog:

And now the sun is brightly shining.  Didn't I just check the forecast, when I first woke up this morning, and it called for a 60% chance of rain?  I'll go in and check again.  Aha!  Some brilliant meteorologist looked out the window and decided to change it to 0%. 

So I'm closing this blog out for awhile and going for a run!

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Another great six-mile run - I was almost overdressed, it was a little on the humid side.  I saw so many people out running and walking - this is a place for active people.  I had told Martha that, if she felt like it, she might want to meet me at the Duck Park, which is a little over two miles from our house; that way she could run fewer miles and we could ride back together.  I didn't know whether she would meet me there or not, but just as I arrived she passed me in the car and parked.  She told me that she had been sitting at her computer, wondering whether to go or not, when she suddenly came upon this on Pinterest:

 Well that's a pretty clear voice speaking to you, isn't it?  You just have to listen.  And obey.

We had a great run, down the long sidewalk next to Four Seasons - one of our favorite places to run.   On the way, a pickup truck swerved off the road partially onto the running path along Highway 12, just in front of us.  The passenger got out and walked back down the road - had he dropped something from the truck?  No, he had seen a turtle making its way across the road, and he helped it across the sidewalk and up into the landscaping near Fishbone's Restaurant.  When we were running down our sidewalk, we saw another turtle, in the middle of the sidewalk and staring at a fence as if baffled by this obstacle.  So we did the same thing, carrying him down to a shady, mulchy area.

Log off, shut down, go run . . . but stop for turtles along the way.