50: Bats and boxing

This morning was cool, which made me realize that summer is now officially behind me ... always a bittersweet reality for me.

I walked through the brisk breeze and into the office before 9 a.m. this morning. Just moments later, I was happily sipping a mug of hot chocolate, in-between bites of home-made gingerbread cookies. Makes me long for the cool winds that wintertime blows through--though briefly--in Florida. So, this morning, Star Bucks was on the company and a co-worker brought some homemade treats.

Since this is our busy season, I think they're spoiling us a little. We had Happy Hour on them last Friday and this Friday, were having a cookout at the office.

Yummy days.

But, yummy days also mean forcing myself to work out and burn off those "yummy" days.

So, let me just tell you about my jog on Friday ... that ended with me dodging live, little flying bats! So, I was running about an hour late to J's house for our usual three-mile walk. But, I stopped by Happy Hour that evening for a drink with the co-workers.

By the time J and I actually started our walk, which was to be our fist "jog", the sun was setting and the sky's warm colors were quickly become chilly, darker ones. We jogged--walked--jogged--walked--ran!

It all started out smoothly. We had planned to jog--walk--jog--walk ... the entire three miles. It all began with a spider web--I stepped right into it and felt something on my arm. Egh! And this dog started barking at us and running right into our direction. He was in someone's yard with a wide-open gate.

So, we escaped the wrath of Fido and we started heading back. At that point, J and I saw these tiny little black things dive almost all the way to the ground and swoop back up. At first, we noticed two, maybe three. And then there were 20, maybe 30. "Run!" I said. And we did ... we ran until we got "through" the bats.

That was a bit much. "It's a whole different walk at night," J said. She was absolutely right.

So, that was my Friday evening scare. My Monday morning scare came in the form of an e-mail from L, a fellow editor, who is also a sports columnist. See, on Friday evening, my hubby had gone over to his house (although they had never met before then) so that he could watch a boxing match on TV.

I saw the subject line: "Odd question."

And then it started out somewhat like this: "So, your husband is a good man and his friend was cool, too. But, I have a weird question to ask you."

I was immediately thinking ... "Oh no, what did hubby do? What's this guy about to ask me ..."

"So, can you tell me how to spell his name."

Oh, whew. He wanted to get his name right because he was using him as a source in his column. Cool. A little while later, he had sent me a link, and then another and another. He writes a column that is picked up by multiple outlets. It was nice to read about someone other than me writing about him:-)

Here's the link if you want to read: Oh, it's about boxing because you'll be confused if you don't know it.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/boxing/story/733700.html