Monday - NYC, early freaking train, conference call on the train, no nap, even fouler mood than I went to bed with on Sunday night.... After a lovely Turkish dinner, I did take a very long walk around the streets of midtown in my work shoes and dress. Perhaps I should have put on the running shoes I did bring and change into something a little less weird to take a 2-mile walk in. I was kind of on a roll, so I went with it. The blasted joint pain started poking around, I assured myself this was because of the draft.
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| This is a 'vision board' as a team project to define "Head, Heart, and Guts" It was an interesting exercise. |
Tuesday - NYC in the rain, always a good time... between the neighbor slamming their door constantly and what sounded like rearranging furniture for most of the night and HVAC that was noisy, I slept okayish. My mood was a little less sour, but it was clear a nice long walk to Whole Foods on 57th to scoop up some Bells beer was not going to happen (rain). I got home to more rain, torrential after I got in the door (awww thank you weather gods, you are sweet) and two dogs dying to go on a walk... sorry guys.
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| I finally had to delete WTF (What The Forecast) from my phone, lack of using it and not a lot of space, This one was pretty funny though. |
Wednesday - Hills with Ro. OMG the weather gods were so kind, again, squeeee, we were clear 11 - 1, the time we fit in our hill workout. Ahhhhh..... poor Ro's eardrums are probably still ringing as I unloaded all my crap on her. She said she did like running with me better, she got to control the conversation. HA! Love her!! That worked out a lot of crazies and anger and general grouchiness I seem to be in the midst of lately. A couple acetaminophen pre hills and the joint pains that are actually for real (craptastic) subsided and we kept up a super great pace! I hate medicating like that, why be miserable? The rain continued on and Gus and Jax vowed to get even, great a fourth night of crappy sleep.... I really can't blame them.
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| The cat in the antique shop downtown. He saw Jax, Jax did not see him. |
Thursday - The second shot in the series. I wasn't as nervous as this was the second time. I wasn't able to get to Dr. Coppes office in Westerly and had to drive to Wakefield, in the rain. For whatever reason I grabbed my umbrella as I left the car to walk into the office. I was glad because when I left it was raining buckets like it was on my drive out there. Pshew. All went well and he noted that again the right didn't bleed and the left now had a nice bruise from the site of the last injection and bled. He appreciated the spot of blood so he knew where to stick the bandage. The man is a great ortho however not much on the personality side. Unless you get him talking about his dog, then he lightens up.
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| Round #2 |
Work was uneventful and very strange going in without my backpack of gym clothes, and not going to the gym. There was a break in the rain and I took Gus out for a short walk just as the sun set. We saw neighbor Jeff with Shep and Trixie, Gus acknowledges them and then goes back to sniffing. I've finally figured out why we have to walk by Jeff's house, it isn't walking by Jeff's house it is walking by the neighbor's house to get their dog Blossom barking and to keep an eye peeled for that crazy orange cat Yuko, or Yoko, or whatever it's called, the Crazy Orange Cat who likes to barf on my front step. Someone told me that means he likes me. Yippieee...
Friday - A perfect afternoon to get a bike ride in. Work had other ideas and when the temps were nearly 60 the eMail went bananas. Oh well, this does pay the bills and I kinda need to pay the bills. The morning was started with quite a shocker, my buddy Tanya accepted a job (in the company) in Australia. Well that blows to hell our biking trip out to Lake Placid next summer, ha ha ha. I sent her a quick eMail but have to talk to her. I guess she is going to have the year with two summers? Her girls are both out of college and working. Her husband is a FEMA contract architect. I can't wait to hear more about this new adventure she is going on. I'll miss working with her terribly, she was an ounce of midwestern sanity and clarity in the midst of tons of New York lawyers.
Got Gus out to Wahaneeta, we haven't been there since he passed out and I haven't been there since falling at the start line for the race. It was a success, no passing out or falling!
We ran into not the neighbor Jeff, I saw someone running in an orange shirt, but they were going the opposite direction and Gus was really not interested in going that way, he wanted to go to the car, he wanted dinner... Dogs, right? We had a nice chat and I am a bit over protective of Gus and his many ailments. Jeff probably thought I was a bit looney.
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| Not the bridge Jeff broke |
Saturday - After hemming and hawing and not hearing back from Bob I decided I wasn't going to volunteer with the RI 6 Hour 2.0 or go up and cheer on Crutch like I told his wife I was going to do I would absorb what has to be the absolute last perfect biking weather day, and take the time to have a decent length bike ride with the temps in the mid 60's. I cobbled together a route that led me by Clyde's Cider Mill, then up to through the Eastern Pequot Reservation, and back down to the shore. This ride gave me such a feeling of freedom and happiness, I haven't felt like that in awhile. I was glad to be out there under my own power and enjoying a beautiful day soaking in the sun and the colors and the simple beauty of New England. It really was grand, or maybe I had a sugar buzz from the donuts and cider at Clyde's?
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| Clyde's Cider and Donut (ok 2, I had 2, I could eat a whole dozen, but the bees would have been too overwhelming) |
Then something felt funny? Shoot a flat, on CT 184. Oh crap, I didn't inventory my bike seat bag or put in the tube that was on my seat. That was the tube Dave took to PA, right? Pshew, yes there was a tube and tire irons in my bag and I flipped the bike over and took off the back tire and wrestled the tire off and got out the tube and didn't do a super job checking the inside of the tire for debris (I discovered this later). Re-assembled it with the new tube, pumped up the tube with my old fashioned hand frame pump, no fancy dancy fix a flat (ha ha - ask Mikey about this) CO2 cartridges. A man stopped to offer his compressor to blow up the tire and I assured him all was fine, he asked a couple more times. I said, "Thank you for the offer. Thank you more for stopping and offering, you've given me hope in humanity." He smiled, sort of like, good grief that woman is a lunatic, glad I didn't get any closer! and got back in his truck.
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| In Ledyard (kind of hidden behind a tree - but it is progress) Yes this is a narrow road, as you can see no shoulder. It's a 35 MPH speed and lightly traveled. I saw 5 cars in 3 miles. |
The directions were a bit tough to read with my old eyes, but made enough sense. Finding the hole in the first flat was fun. Eventually I did find it and patched it and the patch held air while I got the tire off and the freshly blown tube out. But there's a story, there's always a story....
During the hole finding process a very nice Australian couple stopped and asked if they could help, and did I know there was a bike shop a few miles that way (pointing). Funny, Tanya is moving to Australia and this is who stops first. Huh... They were lovely and said they'd let me get on with my project and I wished them a nice day. Finally I found the hole! Yeah me!!!
A horn blares and it startles me, I look up, lose where I found the hole and some man grumbles "Where's the Velvet Mill?" I said "Huh?" "The Velvet Mill, where is it?" I pointed to my left and said go that way and turn at the first, or is it the second left. "That's where the Velvet Mill is?" Muttering to myself about people, I finally said "Or you can get on that main road you just got off and go to the stop sign and make a right, follow that to the end. Don't you people have GPS?" They drove off in a huff. Serves them right, humanity. I went back to re locating the hole.
While patching the hole a couple other people slowed down to gawk at the biker and one lady stopped and said she couldn't help but I had her moral support. The same car drove by about 3 times (they had a peculiar sounding engine). They wanted to know how to get to the Borough. Again, no excuse me or looks like you are having trouble can we bother you to help us. Common courtesy people.
Then the final crabby lady, stops, cracks open her window, starts shouting asking where such and so dock was as her father docked a boat back in the day. I said "I don't know." and went back to pumping up the tube, now securely in the tire and completely checked for debris and holes in the tire. "Are you sure." comes the gravely quite accented voice "it's gotta be down here, Sandy Point don't you know it?" "Um, yeah, yeah," I say, "go down that road and take a right at the intersection where it T's. It should be at the end there." Then she can bitch at the man looking for the Velvet Mill down that same road. I'm evil. Maybe the spirits in the graveyard will be more accommodating than I?
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| Tried to take a selfie, too much work I had bigger fish to fry! |
I got myself home, contemplated stopping at Grey Sail for a beer, but really didn't want to risk the patch blowing and then I'd really be walking Ruby home the last mile. Or me home to get Eddie to pick her up... So I went home, two very happy dogs, wondering why they weren't getting adventures - later boys, later, and where was I and where was Dave. I couldn't tell them where Dave was, I couldn't remember.
Gus got a nice long walk, he was speedy, it was an hour for a 5K (3.1 miles) that's pretty spectacular for him, this includes pee poop and sniffing breaks. Jax went out after dinner for a short walk, he gets bored on in town walks, half an hour is pretty much his max before he has to stop and sniff every leaf blade of grass or even just the sidewalk.
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| Handsome drool bubble He wanted a bite of apple, and yes, he got a couple pieces. |
Sunday - We knew it was going to be crappy, the dogs, not so much, they did let us sleep past 6, but not much. This was not going to be a fun day for dogs, we had house chores and rooms to swap around. After 18 years we've given up the ghost on the dining room being the dining room. It is now the bike room and Dave's office. There is a wonderful room with a bay window in the back of the house that is perfect for a dining room, we bought a silk rug on our first trip to China in 2002 (the second trip was in 2006), and it fits perfectly under the (oh it's some fancy name, not my thing, Dave's thing) dining room table Craig's List find, and 6 chairs. The china closet will, well, be in the bike/office. So this meant Dave had to get all his music crap out of the front room and that also goes in the bike/office/music room. I'm delighted! Less crap for me to look at. The dogs, well this was all very upsetting to them, they do not like change nor do they appreciate not getting out of the house for an adventure, no matter how short it may be.
The picture isn't great, it all finally looked and felt right! Still a few things to tidy up and curtains to hang!
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| The dining room! |
Mileage:
This was a pretty low mileage week, which is fine. I'll not be seeing many weeks north of 25, it is what it is. I did notice that when I cut my running way back my weight dropped! It's stayed pretty consistent too. That is odd, must have been fluid retention from all the over use?
Feet: 14
Saddle: 47
Reading:
Almost done with "The Penderwicks at Point Mouette" by Jeanne Birdsall, nice light story, well it did get a little heavy with one of the girls friends finding out who his father was, and of course one of the girls had a summer love with a boy who wasn't very nice. Still and all a very sweet story I am enjoying immensely as there is some heavy stuff going on around me. I should start the 4th, and last book tomorrow.
Knitting:
Made a bit of progress on the tan with flecks baby sweater and found out one of my friends is expecting! She is 41 and due in March. There was some talk about going to DC to run Marine Corps, completely out of the question for me, but I'd run the 10K or cheer. And Andrea piped in her world was changing in March. I was hoping her husband wouldn't be deployed, nope, a baby! I'm so happy for her, it took her a long time to find the right guy and didn't expect it to be possible to have her own baby. It will be fun to pick out just the right sweater from my collection for her.
All in all not a bad week, it had some low points, me being mean, and some high points, me feeling like I'm on top of the world. It all balanced itself out.
Sincerely,
Beth, who will solemnly swear to not be too spiteful even if someone really deserves it.
