Keep on keepin' on...

I am so very appreciative of all of the support I've gotten over the past week! My family has been amazing, and all of my dear friends have been wonderful with offers of time, resources, and anything I need for help.

Thank you Mom & Dad for providing a familiar & comfortable place to stay and the excellent home-cookin' all week. Thank you Cheryl for coming to help last Sunday - taking pics and writing down inventory was pure drudgery, but your help & just being there on that long day was such a blessing - I so appreciate it!

The outpouring of support has been unbelievably heart-warming - I have so much to be grateful for today. Yes, the fire could've been much worse, and I'm certainly grateful all that will turn out fine in the end. But I'm most grateful to have the wonderful, generous, and true network of support I am blessed with these days.

No updates on the house or my stuff yet, but for the time being "no news is good news". I'll be getting all settled into my apartment starting on Monday, and I'm looking forward to that - it'll be a welcome return to some normalcy.

The Twin Cities Marathon is still on as planned, but I won't be pushing for Boston. These last few weeks of training have just been too messed up (yeah, I know some of that is supposed to be taper, but I've never really been much into tapering ;), and I don't think it would be wise to push that hard at the TCM. So, I'm thinking the BQ attempt will now most likely happen at the 2010 Grandma's - it's a great course for a Boston push. If not then, then sometime soon enough... It'll happen eventually - that much I promise!

My plans for the 2010 Ironman Wisconsin are still on. Because of the fire, I missed out on the opportunity to register in-person, but I decided that paying extra (lots extra!) for a Community Slot was still well worth it. While I hope this won't end up being my only 140.6 IM-sanctioned race, you just never know... So, I decided making my push for that as planned in 2010 was worth the extra money.

I'm determined that this ordeal will not stop me from going after my big plans. Maybe a speed-bump here & there, but overall? It's time to HTFU & FIDO ;)

In the end, when all is said and done, and I'm back settled in at my house, I don't think much will have been lost as a result of all of this. And I hope my house will end up with a few improvements too! In the meantime, I admit this is all a hassle & inconvenience, but I'm grateful that's all it is - there's been no loss of life, no grave injuries, and no loss of anything that can't ultimately be replaced.

Big picture: all is still good. Very good! :)

THANK YOU once more to EVERYONE for your love, support, and well-wishes!
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Now playing: sublime - what i got