Runner Susan

Hugging Trail Air

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All of you who keep up with my blog know about our battle for clean air and water. These past few weeks the heat and the air have been particularly rank. We are on day 35 of 100+ degree weather – many days of which have been 105-110. On Tuesday of this week Peggy and I went to do our training run and were quickly over come by fumes that were so horrendous we were chocking back vomit and cyclists coming that direction were saying to turn around and run the other way. I can’t even explain how bad it was – worse than sulfur, tires burning and a boat load of vomit all mixed together. It was brain-numbing, to say the least. For days after that run my sweat smelled like ammonia and I was seeing spots. I’m guessing the combination of record breaking temperatures and a gas processing facility in the middle of a residential neighborhood are a bad combination. Go figure?

After filing complaints with TCEQ we were told the gas processing facility was repairing a compressor and during the process they were venting natural gas directly in the air. Mind you, these aren’t your everyday compressors. These are the big boys, the kind that make you pee your pants. Undeniably massive. Cannot. Get. Any. Bigger. Massive. Did you know that venting natural gas directly into the air is perfectly acceptable. Yeah, I know. It sounds like BS but this is Texas and it really is okay to do that here. Four hours after our complaint TCEQ investigators arrived and their toxic vapor analyzer was reading 223 ppb. Freaking shocking.

So what’s a girl to do when you can’t even run in your very own neighborhood for fear of being poisoned? You run someplace else, that’s what you do. So this morning Peggy and I loaded up and headed over to the trails for some fresh air. I guess I should say fresher air, since all the air around these parts are bad. But at least we weren’t running through plumes of freshly venting natural gas.

What can I say? It was magnificent and I fell in love with trail running all over again. I kept opening my arms to hug the air and the surroundings. The surroundings that weren’t filling our bodies with poison. It was wonderful. We ran happy, we ran cute and the trail twins are gonna do it all over again tomorrow. Hurray for dirt tans, fresher air and mostly, for not being poisoned!

 

Nothing will get me down

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Yesterday morning I went on a trail run with Cherry Berry. Foolishly, I took her off the leash and she ran through the brush, jumped into the river and got stuck on the muddy bank because it was too steep to climb. I had to go after her, and that involved climbing down the five-foot bank, which was covered in spider webs and littered with snake skins – all my favorite things. I waded out into the river, grabbed her and carried the 35-pound wet and wiggly dog up the bank, through the brush where a bee promptly stung me when we reached our original path. A really fun game for Cherry, very annoying for me.

This made me late for my car appointment, so instead of going home to change I went straight to the auto shop for my repair – and I looked awful and smelled like a sewer. Also, I noticed, as I was sitting in the waiting room while people were staring at me, that my arms were starting to itch. And I’m pretty sure by tomorrow I will have poison ivy scattered all over my body.

But I don’t care about any of that because I am still elated that Obama will be president in a few short months. For the first time in a long time, I will be proud to be an American, because soon the leader of our country will not be Asshole of the Universe George W. Bush, but a leader who acts with morals and responsibility, a leader who understands what is needed to repair and unify the people of our country. There is no instant fix, the task ahead is brutal, and it’s going to take a long time, and I’m willing to do my part – but I believe the entire world can now breathe a little hope. And I’m so happy I still keep crying.

Okay, I’m done now. We won. Now I’m going to go hide before the rest of Texas can beat me up.

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