We woke cool weather this morning, autumn in July. As it turns out, last week in Knoxville was unusually cool and pleasant. Last evening’s local news reported people huddled under blankets for the weekend performance of Shakespeare in the Park and donning fleece for boat outings. Our Icelandic escape from the heat and humidity was poorly timed!
Although time zone changes had me awake by 6:00 AM today (10:00 AM on the Iceland clock), I didn’t go for a run until 8:30 AM. I know better than this. Humidity had started to build and the sun was peaking out from behind the clouds. The run was short and pleasant, though a bit of a reminder that I haven’t run in 10 days. At the time it didn’t seem like we had much down time for running, in retrospect, I could have eked it in.
Iceland was brutal on my weight. Ten days of Ballerina Cookies (Swedish chocolate, hazelnut cream filled), potatoes, desserts with fresh whipped cream, rich coffee loaded with cream and real sugar (we saw no substitutes), blocks of Scandinavian cheese with fresh baked bread, Icelandic hot dogs (rumored to be the best in the world)…well you get the picture. The story from the scale was not pretty. I have work to do and discipline to find. Since Ballerina cookies are only available by mail order (in our area anyway) we have some hope of breaking our morning, noon and night addiction.
Today will be spent washing clothes, shoes, suitcase, watch and anything else that traveled with us. Dust was present all overall Iceland and especially wicked on the gravel roads that took us through the Highlands. As a result, dust has permeated into the cracks and crevices of our bodies and belongings. Most abused are the clothes we wore horseback riding which are coated in a mixture of gray lava dust, horse hair and slobber. Burning maybe the only option here 🙂
