All good things must come to an end. I was riding high on the super-duper MIAC Meet-up with the ol' Cross Country Boys. Alf was back from China, Pete flew in from the west coast and the usual suspects, Paul, Ben and Derek were around for the fun. Many beers were consumed and then some frolicking, if we can call it that, ensued. Pete decided that there had not been enough "dog piling" going on recently. We quckly remediated the situation. Oh yeah, Mac did a good job at the meet. Roscoe and Dylan ran fast as hell and I was inspired, almost, to make a comeback onto the running scene.

Then, the very next day, after helping set up a halloween display in my parents front lawn, I decided to go for a run. It was halloween night and the kids were out. I was feeling genki so I decided to cruise. My parents' neighbor, Chad, was heading out of the house and I offered to take his dog on a run with me. As it turned out it would be the dog's last run. Tensing, named after the legendary Sherpa, was a really good dog, a Visla obsessively dedicated to his owner. Tensing was attentive enough to be taken for walks without a lead, or so I thought. When once I had taken my parents dog, Rudy, for a walk, Chad had told me that Tensing was so good as to not require a lead for running. True enough, he stuck right by Chad's side when they went walking in the mornings. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same sort of magnetism and while running homeward along a relatively quiet street Tensing, who was following me a few yards back, veered into the street to avoid some trick-or-treaters and was hit by two cars. The first car shocked him and caused him to yelp, at which point I saw turned around to see him laid out by a second truck. The people who hit him in the second car were very kind and drove us back home at which point it became clear that he was no longer breathing, nor was his heart beating. I tried CPR, but because of a dog's large mouth, you have to blow through the nose and seal the mouth completely. It didn't work out.

So, from a pretty good week, it has turned into a funky, shitty one. I gotta get out for another run, but it's gonna be difficult.