Shiloh

Once upon a time there was a black kitty named Shiloh. Shiloh was a Manx so among other things she was born with no tail (so she was never, ever afraid in the hypothetical room full of rocking chairs). Manx cats were originally bread as hunters and Shiloh was certainly no slouch in this department. She prided herself in leaving treats on the door step for her Mommy and Daddy to find. She also had the stereotypical Manx trait of liking to be higher in the room then everyone else. Her favorite spot in the world was an old duffel bag that sat way on top of a cabinet in her garage. It was no easy task for her to get to this spot as she would have to jump from the top of her little bed/house to a ladder then to another ladder and finally on top of the cabinet and safely inside her duffel bag. It was always easy to tell that Shiloh was there because her two little ears stuck up out into the air. Shiloh would stay up there for hours making sure that the activity below her did not involve anything that should be hunted down.

Shiloh had a friend named Gloria. They weren't always best friend but when they were they would chase each other all over and pretend like they were fighting. Shiloh loved to crouch down in the grass and wait for Gloria to come along and then jump out as if on attack. She also liked to do this same thing to people walking back from the mailbox which sat out at the side of the street.

Shiloh's daddy loved everything about her. He especially liked that she would walk him out to the mailbox, or greet him in the driveway when he came home from work, or jump on his back when he bent down to tie his shoes and then scramble up onto his shoulders when he would stand up straight and he really loved that whenever he whistled Shiloh would come running to find out what he wanted. Shiloh loved to hang around with Dad. She would accompany him on whatever task he was doing. One of Dad's favorite memories was when Shiloh sat with him in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night when he was trying to catch her brother Levi the dog who had once again got through the electric fence.

Shiloh loved attention. She could sit and be petted for hours, purring the entire time and look at you with that "is that all you got" look when you stopped petting her. She some times turned to the dogs if she wasn't getting enough pets and rub up against them until they showed her some love. Sometimes you would find all of them curled up together enjoying a little nap.

Sadly this story does not have a happy ending with Shiloh taking long naps in the hammock this summer with Dad. Shiloh is not with us anymore. She died mysteriously last week but at least it did not look like she suffered at all. The Doc thinks it may have been a heart attack.

Shiloh was the best kitty ever, she will be missed and never forgotten.

That's all for now.

Snow, Snow go away.....

Yesterday morning was a cruel reminder that I live in Northeast Ohio. They had been telling us for days that it was going to snow, and I had even been predicting one more storm before spring really started but there is no harsher reality then waking up and seeing a few inches of snow on the grass. I don't deny that i really do enjoy the different seasons but really...enough is enough! Did you ever notice that late season snow and cold changes everything...moods become irritable, training slides, energy levels drop and the overall desire to participate in life just about disappears. Just kidding...its not that bad but it sure will be nice when the weather breaks and we string a couple of warm, sunny days together.

Saturday was my Moms 83rd Bday so our whole family loaded up into the car and made the trip to Buffalo for the day to celebrate. i was thrilled that not only did we go to honor her day but the rest of my bros and sisters were there as well. Since there is seven us we are rarely all together at the same time (possibly a blessing) but it is nice when we do get together. A special treat for the day was the surprise visit from Dan who traveled up from Fla...always have a great time when we are together. When in Buffalo we also took the time to treat Jaime to one of the great culinary treats on the planet...a Teds footlong hotdog. If you do not know what this is...to bad I am not going to explain it but I will close out this topic with this advice...do not die until you have eaten one or your life will not be complete....they are that good. Almost as important as the Ted's hotdog was a special Starbucks Espresso that I received from D...man that was tasty..Bonsai Danielson...Bonsai!!!

Training has been going very well lots of good miles on the bike and on foot. No swimming to speak of. I did have a brief slip off of the Buffalo Marathon training plan that started with scrapping a run Friday evening and replacing it with a few rounds of Euchre with Jerry and Jaime...hey never say my priorities are not straight..and continued on all the way through Monday with a variety of other very creative excuses on my part. I am not overly concerned as if I continue on my current plan, even with the slip, I will have over 200 miles on foot and 400 miles on the bike more than I had last year when training for Buffalo.

That's all for now