A couple of weekends ago I went to Rhode Island. First I spent a few days in Providence visiting my college roommate, and then I went to Newport for the wedding of a family friend. It was my first time to Rhode Island, as well as Massachusetts (we went to Boston for an evening).

I took a few photos of the famous Newport mansions, which were built in the late 1800s by the rich people of New York as summer "cottages".

About a year ago I was running on the cross country course near our house when I did something to my right calf. I foolishly ignored it and went running agin a week later, when it happened again. This time I decided to take a couple months off, but as before, when I was right around the 30 minute mark, it snapped again.

It didn't really bother me otherwise so I put off doing anything about it. I finally went to the doctor last October. He said I'd probably torn a muscle, and prescribed phyiscal therapy. Well, I didn't get around to doing that until a few months ago. The physical therapist gave my calf a deep massage (ouch!) and had me do various stretches and strength exercises, and I slowly started running again.

I was pretty nervous when I got close to 30 minutes, but I'm happy to say I've moved past that and I'm running again. Last weekend I saw a rattlesnake on the course (first time I have ever seen one, despite being a native Californian) and earlier this week I spotted 15 rabbits. It's good to be back.