Pringle Panoply: Fall is upon us

Before last week, there are only a few things to report. We bought my Honda Civic new Michelin tires. This is evidence of our belief in that car's longevity (may it live another 50,000 miles!). We had a GGNA happy hour. Remember that GGNA is the neighborhood volunteer organization that we lead. About 15 new faces showed up, and so we have hope that GGNA will grow. Lastly, since the renovations of the D.C. temple finally finished after a whole month, we went to the temple. It was definitely the right thing to do.

Recently, I got back into form with my camera. I started taking it places I don't normally take it and coming up with interesting photos to take. On Saturday, Lauren and I ran in the Baltimore Running Festival, and we participated in the 5K race. I brought my pocket point-and-shoot with its little tripod attached, and I carried it with me through the race. Gripping it around the tripod legs, I shot some video and took some pictures, kind of like how some people do with a pole for their GoPro camera. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. The race went well (and the course was fairly easy: running easy uphill for a little less than half and then a gradual downhill until the finish line). I stuck with Lauren for her support and encouragement. Around the halfway point, we noticed two runners just ahead of us, and I told Lauren, "Let's not lose sight of them." Lauren got a time that took a good deal of work, and I think the reason why is that she did not fall far behind those two runners. At the final sprint, she even passed them. It was definitely a victorious race for us.

The Marathon started just before the 5K started. We are waiting to get running at the start line.

I love the Baltimore Running Festival t-shirts.

This is what 4,500 runners looks like.

After the 5K and some recuperation time at home, Cindy, Lauren, and I left for Luray, Virginia. It was a quick vacation, but rural Virginia is such a relaxing place to be in. On the drive there, however, we had an unexpected, nerve-racking thrill. We were on the freeway, cruising along, with me driving, and Lauren asked me to hand her her phone. It was in my pocket, and as I was stretching and reaching to pull it out, suddenly the car's power cut out. All the needles turned down to zero. The gas pedal didn't work. The car was coasting, slowly losing speed. It was frightening. I hit the emergency lights and crossed from the left side of the freeway to the right side. By the time I made it to the shoulder, the car was crawling along at 20 mph. When I stopped, I was wondering how long the tow truck would take to arrive. When I touched the key, I realized that it was not in the correct position. It was slightly turned away from "on." I restarted the car without a problem, and I realized I must have bumped the key with my knee as I was getting Lauren's phone. Silly me! There must be a first for everything, I suppose.

At Luray, we had a grand time. First, we went to the Luray Caverns, a big attraction in the area.

This is probably the creepiest picture that I took.

The reflection of the stalactites creates wonderful, diverse landscapes.

I love that my camera excels in low light situations. This is a great picture that would have been ruined by flash.

I didn't take a picture of it, but there was an organ built in the cavern, too. It is called The Great Stalacpipe Organ, and it is integrated into the stalactites of the cave. An electrical engineer tested the resonance of some 3,000 stalactites to find ones that resonated well at various frequencies. He kept about 60 of them, and those 60 notes can be played to make music. It was very interesting.

After that, we went to a cute cafe for dinner and then to the movie theater to see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We enjoyed the movie for its (nearly 100%) clean and rapid-fire humor.

We stayed at a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad hotel. It looked like it was converted from an old motel. The walls were paper thin. We could hear/understand our neighbors' conversation next door. We could also hear them use the toilet. No bueno. Then in the morning, when I opened the front door, a cockroach fell off and scurried away over our carpet. Yikes. I'm glad we got out of there.

Since we stayed Saturday—Sunday, we were pleased to find a branch meetinghouse in Luray. To our surprise, there was a harp and a bassoon that played a duet of "Jesus, the very thought of thee" in sacrament meeting. It was incredible to find this musical talent in a branch of ten people. The branch president was very happy to have us there visiting along with two minivans full of visitors from Utah. He said jokingly that he hoped to see all of us there next week.

After church, we took a peaceful drive along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. Word to the wise: do not enter Skyline Drive from the north at Mount Royal. The lines are terribly long. We got on the road around the middle of the park and drove north. The views were beautiful. The leaves were at their peak colors (on our stretch of the park, those colors were primarily orange and yellow). The sky was pristine. What a lovely why to spend a Sunday afternoon!