Not a bad week, the weather really does play havoc with us mere mortals, doesn't it?
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| I prefer the darker beers.... The rest are flavored water... ha ha ha |
Monday (0) What a crazy weather day! Congratulations to all who ran Boston! Far more impressive accomplishment during a monsoon!! Unfortunately, capitalism has hit NBC and the race could not be streamed online unless you were hooked up to a cable company, or at least not that I could find. I'm not anti-capitalism, had I known I may have 'worked from home' *SMIRK* I carried over 9 vacation days from last year, I need to use them!! I could see the finish line camera but who knows how that was against the finish times of the runners I was tracking. I am really disappointed to not see the start of the race. One of these days I’ll be able to watch the race in person, Monday was not that day.
My weekend was an experiment trying to see how much I could do and not get sick. While I felt run down on Monday and a bit on Tuesday, I’m chalking a bit of Monday's lethargy to the weather and Tuesday because I didn’t get any exercise on Monday… all in all not bad. Guess if I slowly amp up the activity and make sure I schedule rest I’ll be less frustrated with myself.
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| This is the way Beth. OUT let's go OUT! -- Jax Funny I can still see Diesel's scratches on the door! He was a wild child we have scratches on damn near every door in the house! We really need to finish it!
And in the background, because I know some of you study these things,
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Tuesday (15) Got on the spin bike to pedal to one of the CTS videos on Strava, the Amgen Tour of California, this was an endurance ride with some intervals. I did manage to get my at work bike shoe cleats adjusted so I can point my toes out a bit and take the pressure off my knees. This is what works for my kinetic chain, yours may be different. Definitely did not feel the pressure on the left knee I was feeling. Yippiee. Took a while to dig out all the crud in the hex bolt to get the Allen wrench in there, worth it!
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| Sunny Sunday, Jax, who NEVER just sits in the front yard, hanging on the front walk and admiring Dave and his Evil Wreckoning. |
I’ve been seeing more and more articles about the accumulating trash, poop, and bodies on Mount Everest. What a shame. I get wanting to do something few others have the ability or resources to do, but to ruin it in the process. What will be the long-term ramifications for the environment? Will there be a clean-up day on Earth Day? Probably not.
Wednesday (5.7) Hills with Ro, and we were back to our 14:30's pace! Yeah! Only took a few weeks. I guess I haven't lost a lot of fitness since I did rebound to the usual pace during the workout, plus I didn't feel as exhausted. I'm pleased, ok, thrilled, some semblance of what I feel is normal returning.
The evening was spent mostly driving to and from Worcester MA to take the MIL and FIL out for the MIL 77th birthday. I'm glad my husband asked me to join, I enjoy their company more when it is the four of us rather than the rest of the crew. I believe he feels the same way. Since I seem to be causing more pain to my shoulder by knitting I didn't bring it with me for the drive up (I drive back) the Imaginary Husband had my undivided attention to let me in on what he's been thinking about. Always a fun time. Usually when I say "I've been thinking Dave sits down and says, oh good grief." Sarcasam.
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| WVA Mountain biking coal country - 1998 |
Surprised the hell out of me when he said he's been thinking about trailer campers! I think it sounds like a good idea, we haven't vacationed together since we were dating nearly 20 years ago, and that was camping and mountain biking or white water rafting or going to bluegrass concerts, with one horrible ski trip (the people we went with and the house - clearly not camping - was not so much fun) so it's about time we went retro (ha ha) for a change of pace. I'll bet I can use up my carried over vacation days quick!!
I'm pretty psyched about this, I haven't been psyched about something in a long time. It really is a nice feeling. I forgot what it felt like!! Woo hoo!
Thursday (0) Tired lethargic achy my watch kept telling me it was time to move, lunch meetings, new computer to set up, blargh. The most exercise I got was grocery shopping and hauling the stuff in the house. Whatever. I slept like the dead on Thursday night so I'm good with that.
I had a great dream about Gus, it's the second one I've had. I was glad he finally started visiting me. In this one, he talked to me for a bit. Hey, it's my subconscious, don't judge. It was nearly a month since Gus passed that I had my first dream about him. With Gizmo it was pretty immediate. I can't honestly remember with all the rest of the fuzzy family members, but I do know I had dreams with them, some we did stuff, some they talked to me. It is all rather comforting. I'm glad Gus decided to visit me, I was getting a little worried he really wasn't telling me it was time to go. I think maybe he needed the time to recover from how bad he felt before he passed?
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| Gus and me at Quonnie Beach April 2012 |
Friday (3.1 + 3.3 ) Got myself out for a run at lunch, when will the icy wind let up? Nothing peppy about the run, I needed the movement, seems my shoulder feels better when I move it while running or walking or hiking, good to know. I should probably start taking myself out for a walk after dinner. Maybe I can find a podcast to listen to or something. That seems lonely and boring though.
Made sure Jax had an open dance card so I could take him on a hike. Dave was glad to know he could ride without guilt. Jax found a new trail!! Well it's always been a trail but I never noticed and Gus never veered that way! So that was very cool. There were a few sharp drop-offs which Jax enjoyed peering over.
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| Let's go down this way, it looks quicker - Jax |
Saturday (36.5 + 2.5) Second group ride, upping the miles and the hills. OMG. I was nervous. I know even on my best days I can't truly keep up BUT the group regroups and we all BS for a bit and continue on. That's how it works. I don't know if there will always be this gap in my fitness versus the groups. It definitely takes me 10 miles to 'warm up' so I'm not sure what that is all about, or if they just slow up after 10 - 15 miles.
Relive the ride here. I love this app and totally forgot about it!
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| 9 of the 10 from Saturdays - "Rolling hill ride" I'll screw up the names: Me, Bill, Jon, Martha, Betsy, Cord, Joy, Kim, George, missing is Cory (you can see him veer off towards home in the video) |
After Dave got back from his ride we took Jax to Riverwood and slowly hiked the flat trail, we were both feeling the days activities and poor Jax had been alone for nearly 5 hours. I don't think the dog crack (greenie) really made up for it but the hike sure did, he loves having both his peeps undivided attention.
Sunday (15) A short bike ride, the wind is still whipping, but it was nice to not feel like crap after OR have a blowout during a ride. I think my streak of blown tubes is really over! Crap, I'm sure I jinxed myself. I was going to stop at the new bakery in Watch Hill, but the wind got the best of me and I was more interested in getting the day progressing and my chores were done because we were going to look at an Airstream Cloud in Scituate, MA
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| Bargain basement pricing, better hurry the lots getting full!! |
Darn if those things aren't easy to find. The closest dealership is 3 hours away in NJ, that seemed a little frivolous of a road trip. There aren't many used ones for sale. We did take an awesome virtual tour of a trailer and all the trimmings, but still, that is not the same as seeing and touching.
On the drive up Dave had to remind me we were there to look not to buy. He knows me pretty well.
He went on to tell me his buddy Bill was all, so are you going to buy it? Dave said, No we are looking. And after that he told Bill he was pretty he would never send the two of us anywhere to 'just look'. He recalled the first trip we took for me to 'just look' at bikes at Stedmans, we came home with a bike. I liked the sales guy and the guys in the shop and the bike, what was the big deal? Other than it didn't come in red. Dave was mortified when I asked 'So does it come in red?' And other trips where I was just going to just look for a couch and a new car and well... Pretty sure when I'm 'just looking' my mind is already made up the thing just needs to speak to me. Pretty much like the house we live in. The picture in the real estate listing drew it to me, and when I walked inside, despite it being wrecked, it smelled and felt like home. And truth be told, even the night I met him, the Imaginary Husband, complete with the girlfriend (or were they engaged at that point, I can't remember) Andrea in tow, I knew.
Since the Imaginary Husband knows me so well there was a lot of research done before even committing to look at. The burning questions we answered:
- Will the town let us keep it in the driveway? Yes
- Will it fit in the driveway? Yes
- What does it cost to insure? Reasonable
- Would Dave's truck be able to tow it? Yes
- Would I be able to sit closer to the dashboard in the truck so Jax had room? Yes, BUT I'd be willing to take one for the team and get a new vehicle so Jax could be more comfortable.
I'm sure there were others; those were the big deal-stoppers. We have enough battles with the neighbor we abutt, and he's always looking for something to drag us back in court so he can do just one more thing to make his 2,500 sq foot (you read that right) two-story garage capable of being lived in. So we thought, what would the troglodyte think, and went from there.
We had a long talk on the way home, figured out where we could go for the first few trips, and he called and made an offer and the buyer accepted it!
It has been so long since I've had something to look forward to.
Training for my second ultra (2016) was when things started becoming unraveled. I think if I hadn't decided to do the traditional Pan Mass Challenge in 2016 I may have completely imploded. I need a challenge. As arrogant as this sounds, century rides have become passe, something to do on Sunday. It really is time for the next stage or something like that. The planets aligned, and here we are. It isn't a physical endeavor it is an endeavor of us actually getting involved in this marriage we entered into 18 years ago. Doing the things we talked about in that tent in the rain (yeah, I apologize in advance, every time we camped it rained, we even had a tornado once! ) and so many other places. Time to make all the talk reality. And there you have it.
Mileage:
Saddle: 67
Feet: 15
Books:
American Gods
By Neil Gaiman
Good a little hard to follow at times, but that's my scattered mind. I like it, the mysteries wrapped in enigmas and trying to figure out why the author has gone on a side track to then have it BOOM pop up and make sense.
Knitting:
Hooo boy what a week. Dave mentioned the toes and heels looked too pointed. I said, but that's the formula. Well no, ding dong, it wasn't. Well, it was but I flipped it. How many fricking socks have I made, like 20 pairs? 30 pair? I should just do and not think.
So I did something I've never done and unknitted the toe to make it correct! Mostly this was ripping out the starting stitch and tink (knit in reverse - cool eh?) or froggin (ripp it ripp it) Ok so many knitting humor doesn't fly with more than two people who read this, ha ha!
After weaving in a #1 needle into the row I wanted to be the start of the toe, I clipped out the end of the pointy toes, think Madonna or 1960's bra, see Seth you were on to something!! and tink/frogged back to those needles. And did the OMG, dreaded Kitchener Stitch. They look pretty ok, no?
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| Top left - too pointy Bottom right - the process of tink Bottom left - No I had no idea how to reorder these. Everything ready for Kitchener Stitch Top right - Done! |
I started some for me that are supposed to work up into an American flag pattern. Not a BIG fan of anything but an American Flag looking like an American Flag, but we shall see how these turn out. I THOUGHT when I wound the skeins into yarn cakes I had them set up so the dye on the yarns matched and the pattern would evolve the same on both socks, not so much. Whoopsie doodle doooo...
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| At least they are for me. |
Sincerely,
Beth, can I say we are both excited for Spud (he comes named) to join our family. I hope I don't jinx it by saying it before we have him home!
I want a yarn bra! Haha.
ReplyDeleteWhat An Update, Well Done!! I appreciate all the humor as well.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Congrats on your new shiny home on wheels! Who cares what the neighbor thinks? Give him something to talk about...you could always model your knitted bras for him...
ReplyDelete