Last night in NYC

Michelle and I were extremely excited about one final day in NYC, exploring great shops, food, and relaxing. Unfortunately we did not count on the weather, which happened to be cold and gray, encouraging us to curl up in our hotel and not leave! The highlight of our day (other than picking up our taxes from our accountant, who happened to have a number of mounted animals up on his wall - that was a bit surprising, although you do want your accountant to be willing to tackle any animals, even those from a division of the govt most of us dislike ;)

That evening we went running with Achilles track club, which was the group of visually impaired runners I used to run with in my last year in NYC. A few of my old regulars, Eddie and Hakan were both there that evening, I ran with Eddie and MIchelle ran with Hakan. As it was, I was not sure that the goal of 8 minute miles was something I could handle, but company is more important than hurting legs, so I figured I would try. Turns out we ran 7:30 miles in the end, so much for his tapering for the London Marathon! It was so great to see this group, all of them have such a zest for life, and don't seem to be at all slowed down by a loss of sight. It reminds you to be a little more thankful (or less grouchy when you get a paper cut for example). Eddie did admit that paper cuts bothered him a lot though ;)

To end the night, we talked with a few of the other runners there. There is continual banter back and forth, both on the run and off the run. Cracks about who is more popular with the ladies to who has the fewest brain cells. Dull this group certainly is not. One of them had a guide dog, and I had learned in the past to not pet them (these are working dogs, not playful dogs). Apparently Carmelo's was not quite as well trained however, as he started licking my leg after the run. Of course he shared his love around the group of runners as well. What exactly is he guiding again?