78745: Keeping Austin Weird, One Neighborhood at a Time...

If you know Austin, you know Austin's motto (see title). In our new little 'hood, the neighbors are doing their best to uphold the Austin lifestyle...

I was making dinner last night at about 8:00 when went outside to do something... I cannot recall exactly what, but I saw this HUGE turtle moving quickly into our neighbors yard across the street. I freaked out and yelled to Derick to come see, and I then called up Courtney who lives across the street to 'come quick there is this big ass turtle that is walking right up to their house!' I heard her say something about 'oh that's Hank', but by this point I was in her yard and then she and her husband Mark (and daughter Freya) had all come outside already. What exactly was I talking about?
Come to find out his name is TANK. He lives about 3 houses down from us, near the end of the street and his owners also have 20 chickens, a few dogs, a parakeet and a baby turtle that can be held in your hand. He likes bananas, as you can see here; when Tank's dad Brian told us this, I ran inside so that I could feed Tank. Derick was very worried that he may run away, so he picked Tank up to carry him back home; but, he did not get too far as he was very heavy and his reaction to fear is to pee. Right when Derick picked him up, Tanks's dad showed up (and proceeded to pee on Brian, not Derick).So, this was the excitement for the night for us. I have to say that my life has been rather boring this week, really. Starting to rest for Canada but blah, blah blah... training gets quite boring to hear about. I have been taking advantage of a pretty quiet week, as work has been minimal and training has scaled back, to get in some naps when I so feel the need. We take off next Wednesday, fly to Seattle then drive from Seattle to Penticton. We'll stay overnight in Chelan, WA, which is supposed to be beautiful. Quite an adventure ahead of me; but for all of my friends doing the Leadville 100 Trail Run tomorrow morning, I have to say that their task seems much more daunting than does mine! Puts things into perspective... on that note, good luck to Cindy, Jack and Joseph in Leadville! Um, what kind of advice do you say for a 100 mile trail race? I guess, 'just keep on running...', kind of like Forest.