Some Pig

A friend of mine sent me a link to a story, it was about this guy who saw a Beaver, walked up to the Beaver and took its picture with his iphone because he thought the beaver was cute, then the beaver bit him on the leg, cut into his artery and he bled to death. Funny, right? How often does that happen? The American beaver was hunted to the brink of extinction 200 years ago by men making hats, so this beaver apparently decided to turn the tables, good for him.

I didn't think about that story for a while because my daughter and I decided to clean the fridge out. We threw out seven or ten tupperware containers full of leftovers that had gone bad. There was some mashed potatoes that nobody ate a month ago when it was fresh.  We had turkey and mashed potatoes. The turkey was gone in a flash because it tasted good. It was meaty and juicy and smokey tasting. I cooked it on the smoker, which explains why it was smokey tasting.  De-Lish!  The mashed potatoes weren't very good because my wife made them. Her mashed potatoes are lumpy. I saw Julia Child make mashed potatoes once on TV and the ones I threw away didn't look anything like Julia's.

We threw out a tupperware full of celery sticks that had turned. How long does it take for celery to go from edible to rotten? The answer is four and a half months. We put that celery in the container the day after Christmas.  

Then we threw out some chip dip. I mean, who eats chip dip the day after? I do, but there was a lot and honestly, it was a little too salty.

There was a link of chicken sausage in a baggy that we threw out. It was still in the shape of a sausage, but when I picked it up, it mooshed flat. What happens to food that makes it lose it's ability to hold it's shape? I am not sure, but you shouldn't eat it, so we threw it out.

So we threw all this stuff into the garbage can, then I walk to another room and I hear this noise behind me. It sounded like “chu chu shumpa shump chu chu shumpa shump”. I turned around to see what the noise was and there is my dog with his big fat thieving snout in the garbage can, eating old salty chip dip and lumpy potatoes and a formless chicken sausage in a baggy. I kicked the dog and threw him out the door, which in retrospect, was the wrong thing to do. I mean, he likes it, so why not feed it to him? Lumps don't bother the dog and really, is it any better or worse than dog food from Costco? Who knows.

Now, it occurs to me that my garbage eating dog and the man killing beaver have something in common. They are just doing what is in their nature to do. Who am I to say it is wrong? The beaver was defending himself from an iphone, the dog was eating something he found delicious that nobody else wanted.

Nobody told Charlotte not to save Wilbur. Who am I to kick my dog? Who am I to condemn a fiesty beaver? It is in their nature to do what they do.

So what does that have to do with Ironman? It's this; it is in my nature to hate running. Running sucks. I wouldn't do it but for the Ironman thing and there's the rub. It's in my nature is to sit on the couch and eat ice cream, but I choose to run, even thought it is against my nature. I choose. If you choose to sit on the couch and eat ice cream, go ahead. I choose to run. Four times a week. Tomorrow is a run day and I have four miles on the calendar.

But I am just telling you right now, if some ass with an iphone crosses my path while I am running, I might lash out and bite him on the leg.