Got the word that Clemson’s Bioengineering department will take me on as a part time PhD student! Yay!
Now to put in an application and sign up to take the GRE.
Blend: So long and thanks for all the sammiches
Heard someone mention Blend had some for sale signs up in their window, so I stopped by this morning to see. Sadly it seems their revival attempt with the new menu was not successful and there are indeed two large “Business for sale” signs in the window.
That’s too bad. Back to the cafeteria I suppose.
Green deja vu
All this “trendy” green/environmental stuff going on these days is giving me a serious case of deja vu. In fact there are a lot of things that I was doing back home that have only recently (in the last 5-7 years or so) become more mainstream in the US (debit card purchases come to mind).
Safeway was where I did most of my grocery shopping when I was living on my own back home. It was conveniently located between school and my apartment within easy walking distance. I carried my groceries home white nylon fabric bags with big red Safeway logos on them and only got the plastic bags whenever I had too many groceries or forgot to bring my bags. Got away from reusable bags when I moved to the US because I just got funny looks from the cashiers when I gave them my bags. Now I’m back to using them again and not getting funny looks anymore.
My early childhood was spent in the 70s, and throughout elementary school conservation was the big message. All the light switches had stickers on them reminding people to turn out the lights to save electricity. Walk to save gas, take the stairs, reuse things, etc. Then the 80s came around and most everybody seemed to throw it all out the window and continued to do so in the 90s and well into 2000. Now things seem to have come full circle and conservation is being encouraged again.
Funny how things always seem to repeating themselves.
Bai bai Blend again?
Blend’s reopening seems to have been short-lived. Their doors have been closed and the restaurant dark all of last week.
So is this the end for Blend?
Into a headwind
It seems like on all my jogs lately, I’ve been coming back against a headwind. Now that I think about it, that used to happen quite a bit when I went out riding back home as well. At least it wasn’t a very strong headwind. Enough for me to feel the extra effort, but helped cool me down a bit.
Took things out a little faster this morning (maybe about a 7:30/km pace), but didn’t last long. It’s a pace I can do on the treadmill for at least 10 minutes, but on the road I sputtered out in about half that time. Today’s run was a mix of jogging a little faster than I was last week (about 8:30/km or so) interspersed with walking breaks. Endurance is starting to get better after last week’s blood donation. With 10 days left until the run, I have no illusions that I’ll be able to run the whole thing. I’m nowhere near that yet, but I hope to at least not be the last one across the finish line.
Temp: 19°C
Distance: 2.4 km/1.5 miles
Time: ~25 min
Pace: ~16:00