Operation ÖSTERREICH
This has been an odd week. I set a deliberately leisurely pace during Monday's daily constitutional, finishing a full four minutes behind Thursday's & Friday's record-setting pace. In retrospect, this was a mistake. I "bonked" yesterday, & bonked hard. My shins were on fire for two thirds of the distance & even though my stride looked normal my left foot felt as if was flapping about, as if my ankle was made of soft rubber. The pain was so bad at one point that I stopped to retie my sneakers, hoping that loosening the shoelaces would provide some succor. (I never claimed to be a sawbones.) In kneeling down & shifting about, I must have quite inadvertently depressed a button on the stopwatch in the right-side pocket of my gym shorts, because when a got back to the start/finish line & withdrew the stopwatch to check the time, I found that it had stopped at about 60% of a normal lap time. Curses! Today began in the baleful shadow of yesterday, but I eventually found my stride & set a time that would have been a new record before Thursday's & Friday's blistering pace. I am hopeful that the ship has been righted, but only time will tell.

I am open to the possibility that yesterday's & today's struggles are psychosomatic. While not quite "Indian summer," we are experiencing a dreadful heat wave. The air is hot & muggy (high fives all around, "Hot & muggy! Hot & muggy"), & the Accursed Sun's death rays beat down uninterrupted by clouds, & opposed by an ever-dwindling supply of shading leaves. This is indeed an anti-autumnal nightmare.

The Rebel Black Dot Hallowe'en Song of the Day
The Aquabats!, "Attacked by Snakes!" from The Fury of The Aquabats! (Captain Thumbs-up)

Commentary: We always begin the R.B.D.S.O.T.D.'s celebration of Hallowe'en with The Aquabats!, & we always will as far as I am concerned.

"My perilous fate, I see no escape
As serpents lay siege to my country estate,
The Devil must have opened Hell's gate
And called up millions snakes
To take me from this place.

"Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinnies one,
Protect me from their venomous drug
That springs from the needles of fangs
Attacked by snakes! By snakes!
So many snakes you could fill the Great Lakes with snakes,
Ha ha ha! Run! I try to hide,
But snakes bites on my face testify I've been
Attacked by snakes! By snakes!
So many snakes it would take a thousand crates
To contain the snakes after me,
I'd rather be burned at the stake than be
Attacked by snakesssss!"