Single track

Somewhere in the past couple of months I've lost my ability to successfully multi-task. I used to be able to knit and watch television, now I end up frogging more than I'd started with. I used to knit while listening to music or while in company and the end result now is tangles. I could read while watching television and enjoy both the book or newspaper and the program in front of me. Now I have to re-read or re-wind. I run on the treadmill while watching television but again, re-wind. I can no longer even edit pictures on my computer while the television is on. All that is to say that I need quiet and a lot of time or I'm not writing at all. Which means I haven't updated in ages. Here's what's been going on this January:

- I had a cold. It went away. Then a few weeks later it came back in the form of rampant allergies. Doesn't matter what caused it, it all involves sniffling, sneezing and coughing.

- I ran some long distances. The big problem is I haven't run the short distances. See above sinus problems for that reason. Without the weekday runs, the weekend runs are nowhere as enjoyable as they should be. Yes, 20 miles is hard no matter what but I enjoyed my fall 20 miler much more than then one last week. Ditto the 18 miler. I have my fingers crossed for the 22 miles.

- I registered for one marathon (Napa) and made travel plans for another (Oz) and daydreamed about many many others. I'm trying not to plan too far ahead or put too many races on the calendar because I don't want to pay for something I can't complete.

- I spent a lot of time in Summitt Hospital's emergency room with my mom (she's ok now). Then I spent time with her while she was an in-patient there. Then back in the emergency room. Just when you think the worst is behind, it isn't. But I repeat, she's ok now.

- I knit a lot. I also ripped out a lot of what I had knit. I decided to keep one mistake in a shawl and called it "planned." I finally cast on for the second sock of a pair of socks since I'd love to wear them some day. Preferably while it's still cold out. I've dreamed of other projects I'd like to start but the shawl, sock, other shawl and scarf sitting on my counter keep me from doing that.

- I've started planning the end of my life. No, seriously. I was told that my view of "fuck-em, I'm dead" toward my heirs having to go through probate, etc. was a little rude. Since I'm single and childfree, without a will or any planning my sis and bro would have a major pain in the ass if I dropped dead in the middle of a marathon (I'd be pretty pissed off too). Not that I have Walton-type money, but I do have a house and some retirement accounts. Not to mention all that yarn, those bears and those books. So I've started talking with an attorney and planner about the documents and other stuff. Also, for those friends of mine who care, I've instructed my sis to hold a big yarn party for my friends and give it all away (but if you hate red or black or gray, stay home).

- I pulled out the huge box of historical family pictures my mom dumped on me gave me when she moved and started trying to find wall space for everything. I've hung a few of them and the rest are scattered on my dining room floor, like jigsaw pieces awaiting some final form.

- Each Tuesday and Thursday morning I continued going to the gym and meeting with my trainer for a killer workout. From weight bars to mountain climbers to kettle bells to TRX to push-up after push-up, we're doing it all. Dark, cold, fog don't matter. At 6:00 am I'm at the gym ready to go.

- I fixed my screen door that's been broken since last summer. I removed the square wheels and replaced them with spanky new round ones. Remarkable how much better the door rolls when you do that. Even if the door frame is old and warped, round wheels make a door move better. Then I replaced the door handle which has been broken for years. Now I can open/close the door no matter which side I'm standing on. I can even lock it. For added measure I cleaned up all the leaves that came off the trees this year.

- While I was on a roll I cleaned out all the dead leaves from under my jasmine hedge by the back door. As usual the jasmine fought back and I was cut and scraped all over. I managed to do it on one of the very few beautiful warm days we've had this year. Unfortunately the leaves were all rotting and dusty and see about about allergy problems.

- I changed out a couple of the broken landscaping lights around my house. I need to get to a hardware store so I can replace a couple of others too. A light bulb change worked for a couple, but others are just dead as doornails.

- Haven't lost any more weight but haven't gained any either.

- I've played way the hell too much Bejeweled 3. I warn you, do not even think about following that link. If you do, don't download the free trial. If you absolutely have to try the game, at least don't buy it! If you end up playing for hours and hours and hours while your health (and your blog) deteriorate to nothing, don't blame me!

That's about it. How has your month been?

Little of this, little of that

That didn't last long. I enjoyed our 4 days of summer, could use a little more. I feel like I should be wearing boots and a turtleneck with gloves and a scarf. I'm confident we'll have at least a day or two more of heat this year, but it'll probably show up mid-November.

The craptastic weather has been good for one thing only: running. Good thing that my favorite running conditions are overcast and mid-50's since almost every single weekend run this year has started that way (and most of them have ended that way). Last Saturday was no different. I was running alone since my running buds had better things to do, and I needed to get 14 miles in. Well, I needed to get at least 12 but since 14 was on the schedule I wanted 14.

Bright and early I met up with Nobody at the Lafayette-Moraga Trail and told myself that I had to at least get to the Commons and back. Unusually for me I listened to music almost the entire time. With one ear bud in, one ear bud dangling, I ran a little faster than usual and made it to the 7 mile turnaround with no problems. The return trip took more effort but I was very happy with my consistency and effort.

I'm only getting a little faster but running is much more comfortable to me these days. Go figure, running on a regular basis, cross-training on a regular basis, eating right and losing weight improves running. Who knew? Oh wait, I did. I don't get a runner's high, but I have great enjoyment plodding along. A couple of times I'd see graceful runners flowing along the trail and think that I look like that too. Then I'd see my shadow galumphing along and realize that I'm a runner of a different species. No matter, mostly I can ignore that and just stay happy within myself while I run.

Cross training is hard. The stronger I get, the harder it gets (my trainer makes certain that it gets harder, that's her job). But the results are so obvious that I bought another training package so I'll be going for another 4 months. There are days when I feel strong like ox, days I feel weak like silly putty. Today I felt like I could be pressed onto the Sunday Funnies and lifted with multi-colored pictures. What?? You never did that with silly putty? WHAT??? You never HAD silly putty? Sheesh. Kids today. Hmmph, go play with your electronic gadgets and get off my lawn.

What really makes it feel like fall to me, in addition to the lower angle of the sun and the fallen leaves underfoot (... and the cold air), is my list of races in the next few months. Look at the list over there, on the left. No, the other left. Yeah, that one, the one most people call the "right." I'm going to attempt to not race every single race and just treat some of them as fun 13.1 mile outings. We'll see how that goes.

I'm having house renovations done. Originally I was just going to replace some carpeting with tiles but then I saw the lovely work the tile-setter does and I had him re-face my fireplace. I've always hated the fireplace; the bricks were impossible to clean, even to dust, and they just looked dated. Now it looks spectacular. The process was messy and dusty and smelly but the result were worth it. I'm looking forward to new bathroom floors. I'm not looking forward to the process.

before, and

AFTER

Which do you prefer?

Random Tuesday

Bits and pieces of this and that.

Yesterday was a beautiful day to run, but I didn't. The sun was shining, it was quite warm, the wind was gently wafting through the grasses. But the pollen count was off the charts and I still had a sore throat so I decided gulping in great breaths probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Excuse? Possibly, but at least a good one. I've had my cold this year and I'm fighting off this next one for all I'm worth.

Saturday morning I ran 15 miles with Anita, again on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail. We went from the parking lot to the end and back and averaged about 45 seconds per minute faster than the week before. It was a scenic run, but there was lots of dodging everyone else who was taking advantage of the cold, sunny dry morning. We're still horrifically slow, but the nice thing about that trail is we finish running faster than we started. I take it as a good sign that although I'm tired after these runs, I'm not in the least bit sore.

I finished the feet on my second pair of socks. That's a good thing, because I don't really like the yarn. I have a blue streak across my finger, where I wrap the working yarn, so I have a strong feeling that I'll have blue tootsies when I start to wear the socks. There's still the leg to knit but I've decided to make these short, probably 3 inches of pattern and 1 of cuff.

I figured we weren't going to have any more hard freezes this year so I started cutting back my frost-burned jasmine. A little late, as it turns out. I had to carefully clip around all the new growth. I also decided that this year I absolutely have to find a new gardener. The current ones keep the grass short, but I think they do that by killing it. Anyone who knows a good, affordable gardener/landscaper in this area, let me know.

I took my nephew out on Sunday to buy his Hanukkah present. Yeah, we're a little slow but at least we did it sooner than last year. He's an enjoyable kid to be around and we have fun together on our little jaunts. I can't wait to see what he's going to come up with to get for his 13th birthday, this October. Knowing us we won't be shopping for that until the following January. He's going to be an interesting teenager.

I'm having my usual trouble adjusting to the spring time change. I like it being dark in the morning but I think it's going to take a couple of weeks to reset my sleepy switch at night. Right now I think I could sleep from about 5:30 pm to midnight very well. That's actually more than I usually sleep but then what would I do from midnight on?

That's all I've got for now.

I fought the lemon tree and the lemon tree won

In the past I've written about my craptastic gardeners. A typical mow-and-blow company, once in a while they'll get bored and try to pretend they know something about plants. Their biggest thing is taking a hedge trimmer to something that isn't a hedge. They've frequently mutilated my jasmine, which is almost a hedge but needs to be cut by hand because of the way it loops back on itself (and the way the leaves will die if there's any damage). The gardeners have also butchered my lemon tree, despite my telling them over and over to leave it alone.

For some reason they seem to think a nice, tight, round shape is suitable for a tree. Nuh uh. It's a tree dammit! A fruit tree! Where you have to be able to pick the fruit, let alone have sun and air for the fruit to grow. I've been busy enough this summer that I've rarely even looked at my garden, let alone done anything. I saw several weeks ago that they had attacked my tree but I didn't have time to do anything. Once again, insomnia to the rescue. I was awake early Sunday morning and decided to go spend some time in my garden before it got hot.

I wore long pants but it was already too warm for long sleeves. I wore gloves, but the thorns on the tree are long enough, sharp enough and strong enough that I think I'd need steel gloves for them to do any good. My arms look like I was attacked by a pack of feral cats. I had to reach into the interior of the tree to remove the last of the previous season's fruit (yuck - big and squishy and purple-ish green and moldy and diseased). Way into the interior, because otherwise the fruit had already been picked. Ouch. I had to reach into the middle to cut back the suckers, so overgrown that they were almost branches. Owie. I had to cut away some dead wood, and it needed to be cut back right to the main trunk. Youch. By the time I had the tree looking again like a tree (instead of some ornamental ball) I had blood literally dripping down my arms. Oooh.

Then, just to make sure I was grimy enough, I cut back a lot of the jasmine. Jasmine "bleeds" this sticky, milky fluid. I ensured that I'd have to scrub those new scratches just to get the gooey stuff removed. I wasn't able to finish everything since my garbage can was full, but my yard looks vastly improved. I'll still need to cut more and hopefully the gardeners will stay away from my plants.

You might be wondering why I don't fire the bums. This is the 3rd gardening company I've had since I decided that I didn't want to cut my lawn myself, about 9 years (oddly enough just about the same time I started running marathons; go figure). The last company was good, but the owners retired and sold the business to their workers. I've called around, tried to find another company that won't charge an arm and a leg but still understands plants, but apparently there is no such thing. I'll probably start looking again when (if) my life quiets down, but for now I'll just keep gritting my teeth, ripping up my arms, and hoping for the best.

Sitting at home watching the trees grow

This would more properly be entitled "Sitting at home watching the plumbing rot." Finally the drips went a-gusher and I had to call in the professionals. The quite expensive professionals. The quite take-all-day professionals.

The immediate problem was a leak at the pressure reducing valve outside my house. It was acting like a drink-all-you-can water fountain for my apparent pet gopher and that was just too much leakage on the foundation for me to allow. Since I've had a couple of drippy faucets and a won't shut-off toilet for several months (shhh, don't tell EBMUD) I figured I'd get those fixed too.

Turns out that the stems in the sink are rotted away into a sludge of metal and plastic. I was worried that might be the case since I'd been unable to clean up the rust around the handles since I moved in here (11 years ago). So I need a new faucet and of course it has to match the existing brass fixtures. Cha-ching! Also it turns out that my very high-flow old toilet would cost almost as much to repair as replace, so I'm getting a new low-flow toilet. Cha-ching! The only good news is that the valve in the shower is easily replaceable and I don't need to have a hole knocked in my living room wall. Uh, yay?

Since I needed to be at home for the plumber I decided it was a good idea to get another estimate from an arborist for trimming my two trees. In my front yard I have a very large Sycamore that's lopsided, growing onto my roof and filled with dead wood. In my back yard I have a very large Maple that's lopsided and growing onto my roof. Both are providing a lovely vermin highway to the top of my house (and thanks for pointing that out Mr. Arborist!) so they need to be cut back. The last estimate I got a couple of years ago was almost $1500 to prune both trees (seriously) and that's why I didn't hire those people and why the trees are so badly overgrown now. This time I was told it would be about half that. I don't know why I'm excited about spending $7-800, but I guess it beats (1) roof rats and (2) $1500.

All that and my water has been turned off for the past 5 hours. I gotta go!

Places to go, things to do

My plate was full this weekend. So full that I managed to accomplish only a teensy portion of the things that needed to be done. There was so much I wanted to do that I felt like I was spinning in circles standing still. Whatever that means.

I left work early on Friday to have some scheduled maintenance performed on my car. It was the only chance I'd get for about the next 1000 miles and I was overdue. The best part was that I got to sit in their waiting room with my headphones on, music playing, while I knit for over an hour. I miss knitting and at this rate I'll never finish the 3 4 several WIPs. For some reason, probably because it was over 100 degrees out, they didn't wash my car (one of the nice things that Saturn has always done). Or maybe it was because Saturn is bankrupt and the car industry is in the toilet and the dealership couldn't afford their water bill. Whatever the reason, I drove out of there disgruntled and with a filthy car.

Saturday was scheduled for a 18 mile run and although it was going to be hot as blazes we went ahead and did it. We started our run at 6:00 am, just as the sun was rising, and it was already about 70 degrees. No wind, not even a little breeze. I saw on the weather channel that the wind was calm at calm miles per hour in the direction of calm. I don't like wind in my face so I had high hopes.

Until I started running. There are days when my legs feel flat, like I'm dragging cement posts along instead of flesh, bone and muscle. Sometimes that's only until I warm up and after a couple of miles I feel better. Not this time. The entire distance was hard and the heat didn't help.

We were running on the Alameda Creek Trail in Fremont and headed first toward the Bay. Mostly we stuck with the plan of a 4:1 run:walk and we ran about 7 miles round-trip. I say "about" since, in the dark, I hit the wrong button on Mr. Garmin and it didn't start until I noticed about a mile later. Whoops. We switched out our bottles and headed in the other direction. Since there are a couple of fountains we figured we could refill along the way and back.

It got hotter and hotter and we got slower and slower. We kept to the 4:1-ish plan until we reached the end at 5 miles, but both the run and the walk were slower. We refilled, soaked our hats in cool water and headed back the other direction. It got hotter and we got even slower and walked more.

The 4:1 became 3:2 became 2:3. The sun was blazing, there was still no breeze and it was getting hotter. We amused ourselves by looking at the huge fish in the creek, by wishing we could stick our feet in the water like the egrets were doing, by watching other hot runners and walkers and cyclists. We detoured across the creek to refill our bottles at Isherwood and from there ended up walking. We had a good pace going, mostly because of forward motion, but it was still walking.

I was hot, tired and dizzy but there was no choice except to continue forward. We made it back to the parking lot with our mileage a little short and Anita made me continue on for the last quarter mile so we'd have the full 18. Ow. Dehydrated, overheated, exhausted. But 18 miles! No matter how we got there, it was still 18 miles, slow as molasses but still fast enough to make the time cutoff at Chicago.

I zoomed home, showered and managed to lie down for about a half hour before having to leave for a party. Each year my boss has a pool party for all the employees and this year we were happy for the pool. I would have been even happier if I had bothered to look for my swimsuit before I left. As it was, I sat on the edge of the pool and soaked my legs in cool water.

Several hours later I headed over to my mom's house to check her mail, cool it down for a while, then finally left for home. As I walked to my front door I noticed that the pipe that has my hose spigot and shutoff valve was dripping. Crap. It was dripping enough that I knew I'd have to do something.

After a mostly sleepless night (what else is new) I started cleaning my house, setting up the exercise room as a guest room, paying bills, backing up my computer and oh yeah, called a plumber. I was told he'd be there between 1 and 2, and he called at about 12:45 and said he'd be there just about 2pm. I did a little bit of everything around home, finishing nothing, and waited.

Plumberman showed up about 2:15. He was a chatty fellow and he slowly inspected the 4 dripping problems I have (the new leak was just the camel's straw). He very carefully and clearly explained what should be done and why, explained lesser alternatives, talked a LOT and after more than 2 hours gave me an eye popping estimate. Yep, didn't get anything done, just got an estimate. Ouch. I'm not pleased to pay that much (and it's going to involve getting a new toilet) (no, the leak in my garden didn't cause that) but I've put this off for so long I'll have to just suck it up. I'll have to make an appointment for the work to be done this week, but meanwhile the dripping will continue.

After he left I ran my errands and when I got home I realized I hadn't done the laundry, hadn't finished cleaning the house, hadn't visited my mom and hadn't finished setting up the guest room. I also hadn't eaten anything and I was tired, hungry and getting very cranky. So I ate a salad and decided nothing else was going to get done this weekend.

Tomorrow's another day.

Coo who?

It appears that the dirty filthy pigeon who had take up residence on my jasmine hedge has flown the coop. Monday night the bird was sitting there glaring at me but Tuesday morning the nest was empty. I saw two pigeons cavorting on my fence and thought that I should take the opportunity to dart out and knock the nest away.

Then I realized I'm basically a nice person and I couldn't do that if there were eggs or baby birdies present. Darn. The fence pigeons stared at me, took off and circled the yard, then settled back on the fence. I argued with myself and ended up leaving the nest alone.

I looked outside Tuesday night after I got home and the bird still, or again, wasn't back in the nest. I tried to see if there was anything in it, but it was above my eye level. I decided that it must mean that the birds were gone for good and this time went to find a broom.

Wow, sloppy nest builders! What I dislodged was less a nest and more a pile of pine needles, dead leaves, twigs, feathers and trash. It had no form and didn't stick together at all. How the bird sat on it without falling through amazes me. I checked the debris pile and didn't see anything resembling egg shells so I'm not worried that I disturbed a happy family.

From now on I'm keeping an eye on the jasmine to make sure nothing else builds a home there.

Coo

I've been going on lately about my yard; rhapsodizing about the beautiful flowers, the lovely citrus trees, the aromatic jasmine growing outside my door. Apparently I needed to look closer.


No, closer than that.


Can't see it yet? How about this?


Right. Dirty filthy pigeon has not only built a nest at the top of my jasmine, judging from that close-up there's a baby in there too. Or maybe I'm just imagining that lower eyeball and beak. If so, then there will be a baby or two within a few days. Mama is sitting still as a statue, giving me the stinkeye whenever I try to walk outside.

So you say it's could be a dove, right? According to all the sources out there it's the same thing. To quote the easiest source, Wikipedia (because it's most concise there, not because I believe it more than the other places I looked), "in general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the term "dove" and "pigeon.""

Oh well, I guess it's better than turkey vultures taking up residence in my yard.

Take time to smell the flowers

Spring is my favorite time of year. Although the East Bay doesn't have traditional seasons there are still plants that flower now and at no other time. The almost overwhelming scent of jasmine wafting throughout my house; the delicate smell of peonies on the other side of the yard. Deep greens, crisp whites, pink, red, purple and all shades in-between.


As I sit in my favorite knitting/reading/tv watching spot I only have to turn my head to the right to see this glorious sight:


A few feet across the yard I get close-up views like this:


Only one problem with spring: a-a-a-CHOO!

What's a bigger yard pest than a gopher?

I was all worried about the mess and destruction caused by my friendly neighborhood gopher and neglected to protect my yard from a bigger hazard:

My house is on a corner next to a court. There are about a half dozen houses between my house and the end of the court so it's a nice long, straight, relatively quiet street. My side yard is mostly an open hilly lawn with a flower bed along the house and my fenced deck sticks out at the back corner of my property. Because of the hill, the last owner built these funky little railway tie/rock/stone steps for access to the deck. The top of those steps is a little wooden platform, hidden from the end of the court.

This is a favorite hideaway of those other noisy destructive pests, neighborhood children. Oh, don't get all up in my face about calling them pests. There are perfectly good, sweet, angelic children in the neighborhood too, I'm just talking here about the little vandals. Over the past 11 years there have been many young kids who would sit at the top of the stairs, "hiding" from their parents at the end of the court (in fact, a parent told me that his son calls it his "secret spot"). The street of the court and the adjacent sidewalks are a favorite playground for all the neighbor kids since there isn't much traffic there. It only becomes an issue to me when they start to tear things apart. Normally I just quietly shudder at the continuous noise while thinking that in a few years they'll grow up, be able to drive and won't bother hanging around their home.

I have an ever-bearing lemon tree on the side of the house. For most of the year there is fruit, either green, ripe or rotten. Periodically a kid will rip off a couple of them and toss them in the street. No big deal, there's lots more where that came from. Denuding half of the tree by ripping off TWENTY of them, shredding them on my stairs, throwing the bits all over (including under the deck and in the street and on neighbor's lawns), ripping up the rocks along the stairs and kicking the small stones onto the lawn? All while shrieking at the top of their lungs in a tone just barely in the range of human hearing? Too much.

I caught them in the act but I was so stunned by the destruction and mess that I only got a look at one of the culprits, I boy I've previously told not to tear up the lawn and not to throw rocks at my windows. I yelled at them to get out of there, then yelled at them to clean up the mess. They all took off running except for the one little red-headed boy who tried to stare me down. It didn't work. I was so angry I went back inside my house to cool down since, after all, they are just kids and I can't go postal on them. By the time the flames quit coming out of my ears and the steam stopped pouring from my nostrils and I felt I could look outside again, they had "cleaned up" as shown in the picture above.

I grabbed a garbage bag and did the rest of the cleaning, picking up bits and pieces of lemon and peel from all over the place since I didn't really want to leave it lying around for those other types of pests. I couldn't reach the 3 lemons that had been thrown beneath the deck and I'm sure the gopher and mice and squirrels (and hopefully not rats) will be very happy with their treats. It took about a half hour to clean up, put the rocks back, try to scoop the little stones off the lawn. I stomped back in my house feeling very grumpy.

About an hour later my doorbell rang and I answered it, hoping it was the brats come to apologize (bwahahah - and people say I'm not optimistic!). It wasn't, it was a dad from down the court. He said he saw me cleaning, and since his house had been a victim of a "little prank" he wondered if the same had happened to me. I explained what happened and he assured me that his kids had been home at the time (... probably some of those angels). He asked if I could identify who had been there and I realized I wasn't even sure how many there had been. I told him I only got a good look at the one kid and he said "redhead?" and "boy?" and nodded his head sagely when I agreed. Apparently the little redheaded boy and his equally redheaded sister were the trouble makers down that way.

The good news is they're moving in June. The bad news is ... there are always more where they came from. Maybe this time all the new kids will be angels.

Mole or gopher?

During each of the first several winters of the years after I bought my house I planted dozens (hundreds) of flower bulbs. All different types and colors, lovingly plopped into the ground in the front and the side flower beds. I had 4 or 5 glorious springs with massive displays of flowers that lasted a couple of months each year.

That all ended a few years ago when some burrowing pest decided to make a smorgasbord of my beds. This mole or gopher, or families of moles and gophers, must have thought they had found heaven. It (they?) devoured almost all the bulbs, dug tunnels through the flower beds and deep holes in the lawn. I wasn't happy (actually, I was livid) but also wasn't going to poison the damn thing just to keep my yard pretty. Too many neighborhood cats and dogs made a habit of wandering through my yard and I didn't want to chance killing anyone's pet.

Gopher/mole finally decided he had eaten everything tasty and moved on to greener pastures. There were a few straggly, lonely bulbs left that would shoot up a flower in the spring but I decided not plant more; why put temptation in the way of a pest? Mole/gopher and I lived in a state of peace; I stepped around the holes on the lawn and it consumed someone else's yard. Until about 2 weeks ago.

I have a "mow and blow" gardening company take care of my yards, even though they're supposed to be full service. I never see them since they come while I'm at work. The couple of times I've happened to be home I was unable to communicate with the workers since they (at least pretend to) speak no English. A few weeks ago I got fed up with the state of my yards and wrote a long letter to the owners of the service. Part of my complaints centered on the fact that they had blown away all of the topsoil in all of the flower beds. I realized they would probably ignore my letter but then one day I noticed the ground around some of my plants had been disturbed.

It looked odd and at first I thought it had been a skunk; there were what appeared to be claw marks (but skunks would have torn up the lawn too). Then I decided it must have been a small garden rake since the lines went around the plants. It appeared first in the front, then on the side, and the next week I noticed it in the back yard. Since I've been spending more time in my yard, sprucing it up for the summer, I know what should be where and how it should look and it was definitely looking different. I had to face the sad fact that the pest had returned.

I've been fixing and replacing the outside lights around the house. I went to put a new one in the ground yesterday and an entire tunnel collapsed. Crap. Then I planted a small azalea and another tunnel collapsed. Double crap. On the one hand I didn't have to dig through the very hard dry soil. On the other hand, where the heck is the soil from the tunnels being deposited? There has to a spot with mountains of dirt that I didn't see it. On the first hand, nice aeration of tightly packed dirt! Back to the other hand, there's no soil around the roots of my shrubs! I don't know what to do. Any suggestions out there in blogland?

A taste of summer

I think Mother Nature is a big fat tease. Yesterday was warm, today was hot, tomorrow is supposed to be hotter and then cool weather and even possibly rain are supposed to reappear by the end of the week. It makes sleeping hard (as if I don't have enough problems there); until today I still had flannel sheets and 3 blankets (and a bedspread) on the bed. The warmth last night made me change today to crispy cotton sheets and 2 blankets, which will still be too warm tonight and tomorrow. But Wednesday night is supposed to go down to 49 degrees and I'll freeze.

Updating from last week, on Thursday I ran 5.5 miles to commemorate my 55 years. I had intended to only run 4 but that number didn't seem to compliment my age. So I kept running and ended up with my longest run in just about forever. It was very emotionally satisfying. As was the piece of cake I had afterward. Well, pieces of cake. Don't tell.

While this weather lasts I'm determined to spend lots of time outside. I ran a quick 5k fun run this morning, quicker because I think the course was a tad short (at least according to Mr. Garmin which said 2.96 miles). I still managed to run myself into an asthma attack since instead of the easy run I had planned, my brain thought "race!!!" and my legs followed. I finished with an average of 11:42 and we all know I don't run that fast ("fast" being relative). That included a very short stop to down a glass of water at the turnaround, and about 30 seconds of walking towards the end to try to stop wheezing.

I felt pretty darn good when I finished, so good that I went home and worked in my yard for several hours. I haven't used my sprinkler system since last fall when drought rationing began. Since it was toasty warm I thought it would be a good idea to make sure my sprinklers weren't shooting water off to the street, into the fence or on the windows. I don't know what I thought I'd do if they were; I don't know how to adjust or fix most of them (and my useless gardeners pretend they don't exist). But I plodded through and did manage to confirm that one spot in my drip system was fountaining 6 feet in the air; I fixed that problem and returned it to drip status. I readjusted the rest of the drip lines so that the plants, instead of the weeds, were being watered, and confirmed that none of the other sprinklers were broken. There are spots getting water that don't need to get water but despite my best efforts I was unable to adjust some sprinkler heads.

Then I thought it would be a good idea to try to fix the lighting system in the yard (... now that it doesn't get dark until later ... ) and see if I could change some bulbs. I determined that the lamps did indeed open and it was possible to change the bulbs. The problem was that the system is about 10 years old, the rubber seals on the fixtures have turned to cement and the rust has jammed the joins shut. I did learn one lesson: when attempting to clean out the seals with a sharp screwdriver, do it on the ground instead of on my leg. Note to self: remember to call and confirm that tetanus shots are up-to-date.

By the time I changed 3 bulbs and gave up on 3 more I was soaked (from a combination of the sprinklers and the heat of the sun) and covered head to toe in mud. I was frustrated that I was unable to fix everything and at the same time relaxed and happy from so much time in my yard. My shower felt wonderful afterward.

Although I accomplished NOTHING that I had planned for the weekend, I nonetheless finished other tasks that were just as necessary for -- um ... ok, not really. I'm very good at prioritizing according to my mood and I wasn't in the mood to pay bills or straighten the house or grocery shop to prepare healthy food for the week. It's a darn good thing that I'm only accountable to myself (... mostly). But as Miss Scarlett said, tomorrow's another day!

Happy noniversary to me

With one more day like yesterday I think I would be entirely caught up. Unfortunately by the time I get another one, there will be more things that need to be done so catching up is not going to happen right now.

Although Saturday was forecast to be cold and rainy and windy, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. My hoped for 15 minutes of gardening turned into 3 hours. Yes indeedy, that most certainly is a trend with me. Once I get outside on a nice day I find more and more that needs to be done. Since the early afternoon was clear I threw on a long sleeved shirt and went to wrestle with my jasmine and my lemon tree. It was not only intermittently sunny, it was warm. Wonderful day to be outside.

I clipped and pulled and weeded and cursed my so called gardeners and delighted in the spring weather. Then I headed toward the lemon tree. Despite long sleeves, gloves and long pants, I got scratched and poked and mauled by that little overgrown thing. I picked a couple dozen lemons, some so indescribably nasty that I gagged, thinned it out a bit and then called it a day.

What does one do with a couple dozen lemons? Keep in mind that (1) I don't cook and (2) I don't bake. What I do is drink, so I made ice cubes! I squeezed about a dozen lemons and poured some into the only ice cube tray I have in the house. I used to have many ice cube trays but darned if I could come up with them anywhere. The only other thing I had convenient was the top of the little thing that holds eggs that came with the fridge. Odd, but hey, it worked. Many hours later I discovered that I probably should have watered them down a bit before trying to freeze them, since even now they're not hard solid. I tossed one in a glass of soda, and other than reminding me exactly why I'm staying away from citrus fruits, it was a great idea. The rest of the lemons I'll attempt to give to my coworkers. Maybe hide them in their desks when they're not looking.

My house is clean, for the first time in -- well, I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been. It wasn't a true spring cleaning; I didn't touch the baseboards, the windows, the cabinets, etc. But it's dusted and vacuumed and the bathrooms cleaned. Much nicer to be in now.

I didn't get much chance to be in my house today, it's momday. Several hours helping with her paperwork and taking her to lunch so I didn't get done the one thing I've been putting off. I did take my tax stuff out of the filing cabinet and spread it all over my table, so it's a start. Baby steps, right?

While I was writing check after check for my mom I realized that today's date was familiar to me because 19 years ago on this date I was busy marrying my future ex-husband. For the first time. Don't ask me the date of our second marriage. Or either divorce. It's funny how some dates, some numbers will stick in your brain forever and some won't stay there for more than a minute. I remember my ex's social security number but it took me 4 or 5 years to learn my cell phone number. I know the very long i.d. number for my company's payroll but can't remember my brother-in-law's birthday without looking it up (and he's been my bro-in-law for over 30 years). I remember my very first telephone number (Vermont6-9219 -- I'm sure most of you young whippersnappers won't remember that phone numbers started with the first 2 letters of a word. And we didn't have no steenkin' area codes either. But I digress. Again) but can't remember my current license plate. And passwords? Yikes. Good thing most places give you 3 tries before shutting down.

Moving right along ... or not. I took a few days off my exercise routine to give my body a bit of a break after the century. Those few days have now stretched into a week and my body is getting very displeased. The gardening and house cleaning felt like a workout. Tomorrow I intend to arise early, since I won't be asleep anyway, and start the week with some cross-training. Let's see how that works, shall we?

It's really not Thursday?

This week, for some reason, is confusing the heck outta me. Yesterday I was convinced, convinced, that it was Wednesday. Today I'm carrying on the trend and can't remember that it's not Thursday. I'm not sure if it's because I was going to take Friday off of work and now I'm not, or whether it's because I'm a tad stressed these days.

Friday was going to be my go to Stitches day since Saturday I'll be on a bike all day and Sunday I'll be celebrating my mom's birthday with her all day. I was going to spend just a couple of hours yarn gazing (and buying), targeting toward some yarn I've been coveting since last year. But then I found out that I'll have to leave work early on Monday for a dentist appointment, and I'll have to take off the entire day on Tuesday (next Tuesday, which will really be Tuesday) to take my mom in for some minor surgery. Then the next week I'll be taking off Friday to drive to Solvang (so soon!) and the following Monday to recover from the ride. I'm very torn about missing Stitches. On the one hand I have enough yarn to last me my entire life; on the other hand you can never have too much stash. Those of you going, have fun!

This morning I had a lovely drive to work. It was lightly drizzling directly overhead with the sun shining from the east and low clouds floating through the hills on the west. The hills are finally green with lots of yellow mustard and they sparkled with the rain and the sun. Rainbows appeared here and there as the clouds moved. I had a lot a time to admire the scenery since people in California have no idea how to drive in anything except clear, dry conditions. My commute took twice the normal time today. Oh! And I saw an egret on the hillside! That bird was seriously lost.

I still haven't figured out what to do about my television service. I'll write a long post about it when it's resolved, but despite a very nice email from a Comcast representative, and despite calls with two other representatives (one of whom put me on hold for 20 minutes before I hung up and now won't return my calls) and lots of additional time on-line, I'm still uncertain of my path. I don't particularly want to put holes in my roof for a dish, so that returns me to the cable monopoly. Yes, I've thought of just disconnecting entirely, but I like watching local news and there are a few programs I still follow. Oh, what to do, what to do?

Comcast, that isn't my idea of "enhancement"

Dear Comcast:

I am not pleased by your "exciting news" about my cable service. Your "enhancement"* of your network, transmitting all standard cable channels 35-76 exclusively in digital format beginning March 9, 2009 is not good news for me, nor is it good news for what I hear is about 25 percent of your current subscribers.

Several years ago I tried your digital cable service and discovered that it rendered my recording device almost totally useless. Making me use a converter or set-top box which cannot be programmed to change channels at set times make it impossible for me to record any different programs on different channels at different times. I returned your useless equipment and happily used your analog cable service.

What's that you say? You provide access to a digital video recorder? How very convenient (for Comcast's bottom line) that thousands of people will now have to pay an additional (high) monthly cost to record the very programs that they recorded for free in the past. In my area this new "convenience fee" will only be $15.95 per month.

I find it highly suspicious that you are making this change right at the same time as the government mandated digital broadcast transition. It is likely that many of your non-technically inclined subscribers of analog service will believe that you are switching because you must, not because you want to sell more services to the customers who are happily spending less money.

I also don't believe that your company has seen any televisions lately. Calling this huge piece of equipment a "set-top box" is ridiculous. The top of my television is about 3" deep. Trying to balance a "set-top box" might be good for an initial giggle, but impossible to do. I'm sure that because of ventilation of heat issues the "set-top box" can't be placed underneath a set, even one of the lightweight modern flat panel sets.

And how convenient for Comcast that after a 6 month promotion my monthly rate will increase to $59.95 per month (plus the $15.95 per month dvr charge) for exactly the same set of channels I have now. I know you're hoping that I upgrade to a larger package, since I need to "upgrade" the equipment, and how startling that the cost to include HBO is $103.94 per month and the cost to include Showtime is $118.94 per month. Plus the dvr charge. And all of this exclusive of taxes which I can only assume will add another $10-15 per month.

In your next "Important" letter to me I'd like to see how many of your previous analog cable subscribers have switched to the AT&T service which is less expensive and (at the moment) less deceptive in their intentions to make huge bundles of money. I doubt that people will change every service they have to your "triple play" and will instead join the U-verse. I believe that I will stay with my phone, internet and cell provider and dump your company.

Comcast, I don't appreciate the additional time and aggravation that this will cause me. Consider me a former customer who will not be enjoying your "enhanced Comcast network" in my area.

Sincerely,
Disgruntled customer #1


*Comcast, your usage of the word "enhancement" confused me until I discovered the second definition in the on-line dictionary:
2. to raise the value or price of
Oh! You're absolutely correct! You ARE raising the price. I get it now. And thank you so much for the delightful browse through modern meanings of the term. I need to go scrub my eyeballs now.

Riding and running and cleaning, oh my!

Can I go to work please? This weekend has just been too tiring.

Saturday morning was a team buddy ride, meeting in Pleasanton, scheduled for about 50 miles. I was terrified that we would again be riding Palomares, but on a 50 miler this time. Oh silly me! That would have been the easy ride. Instead, we rode the Altamont. If there was a soundtrack to this blog there would be music of doom here.

The Altamont is the Pass between the coast and the central valley. To be precise, a mountain pass between the Livermore Valley and the San Joaquin Valley. We started in the Livermore Valley and went up, then down, the mountain. The Altamont Pass is home to wind farms - places with gigantic windmills (or turbines as these fancy modern monsters are called). This would be because it's so windy there; I believe it's because of the temperature differential between the cool coast and the hot valley. Very windy. Very very windy. And hilly.

I could tell how windy it was when we were riding downhill, pedaling as hard as we could in our granny gear, and still going less than 6 mph. Windy. Suffice it to say that it was a very hard ride and after 20 miles I was questioning my sanity. After 30 miles I was questioning my sanity and my body. After 40 miles -- actually, after 40 miles I got a second wind and was glad to be almost done.I ended up with about 49 miles, not quite the 50 barrier I had hoped to break. Yes, I could have continued for that extra mile and turned around and what, am I crazy? Whether 49 or 50 I was glad to be done and headed toward beer and fries a healthy lunch.

I love my cycling team. This past summer I never really got into the tri team, partially because I was having other issues. But the cycling team seems friendlier, warmer, more accepting of rookies. The coaches (those remaining uninjured, and what's up with that anyway??), the captains (ditto uninjured and healthy) and mentors (again, ditto) are all wonderful. The ones currently unable to ride still show up and support the team, especially our head coach (who is the only coach on any team I've been on who always shows up at the buddy trainings). I'll point out the coaches of our little group of not-quite-the-slowest-riders, Beth and Lorraine, for special mention. They are making this experience so much richer by their presence - thanks ladies! And almost without exception I'm enjoying my teammates who are all gaining experience and skills along with me. Now if only my sit bones would stop hurting so much ...

Saturday night I was just a teeny step above zombie-ism. I lounged on my sofa staring blankly at the television screen, unable to move, unable to sleep, not hungry or thirsty and just about as pooped as I've every been, including after running marathons. My hands were too sore to knit (deathgrip on the brakes coming down a couple of those hills) and I didn't have the energy to follow a pattern anyway. I couldn't concentrate on a book so I just watched episode after episode of NCIS; even changing the channel was too much of an effort. Finally about midnight I crawled into bed and stared at the inside of my eyelids for a couple of hours until I fell into a restless sleep. I'm just a smidge worried that I only went half as far and a fraction of the elevation gain that we'll be riding in Solvang.

Sunday I was tempted to call in sick to our run but Sandy was in town and I wasn't going to miss that! I met Sandy and Bree in Alameda and whined my way through our planned 6 mile run. Or 6 mile run/walk, as it turned out. I wasn't sore from the ride but I was very fatigued. It was a beautiful day, even if it wasn't clear enough to see across the bay, and I'm lucky that my knee and back were feeling well enough to carry me along out there.

Sunday afternoon was filled with normal weekend Mom stuff; no rest there.

Today I had promised myself I'd clean my house. It had gotten to the point where every time I'd walk in I'd shudder. I got up, started cleaning and laundry and more cleaning and managed to clean an entire 3 rooms (and cleaned them to sparkling!). Then I decided that I needed to do yardwork almost as much as I needed to clean the house, so I should do that while it was still light out. I figured one, maybe two hours would get the worst of the outside mess cleaned up.

Today felt more like summer than winter. Sorry to those on the east coast and the middle of the country, but it was sunny, clear, warm. Little or no wind, clean air, lovely day. I wanted to trim back my jasmine; I have 3 lattices that are overgrown with jasmine since I've been ignoring my yard since last spring. New growth is much prettier and blooms better than the old so I was just going to trim. I started trimming one along my fence. It was so overgrown that it was pulling down the lattice and growing through the fence. I trimmed a little, a little more, more, more and uh oh. I ended up cutting those suckers right down to the ground. It's 3 plants and now it's 3 -- um -- stumps. Oh, they'll grow back (probably). It's not like I didn't pay for it, my arms are all scratched up and bruised. After that I carefully trimmed the plants on the lattice by my slider - it's my favorite when it blooms and the smell wafts inside so I didn't want to take the chance of destroying it.

My planned one or two hour garden jaunt turned out to be four hours. Looks like the rest of my house is just going to have to wait until another time to get cleaned.

No resolutions

Happy New Year! Wow, I sure finished last year on a downer. I decided to stay home and kick back for the first time in -- uh, not sure -- decades? Since I only had Thursday as a day off I wanted Wednesday night to be mellow and calm. No crowds, no traffic, no police checking my blood alcohol level. I had a couple of dvds, my knitting, a good book or two, some food and a bottle of fancy champagne (hey, just because I was staying home didn't mean I wasn't celebrating).

It went very well until I saw the ants. I've had a few of the sentinel ants skittering around my kitchen lately; I smoosh them and that's it. Wednesday night I got rid of the couple I saw. Then there were a couple more. Then more. Then more and more and more and more and good grief they're all over the place. Since they seemed to be originating from one particular cabinet (where there isn't any open food, just my water bottles and containers of Ultima and a sealed container of jelly bellies) I pulled out every single thing.

And discovered what was making all those ants so jolly. It was a tiny package of caramels from Vermont Teddy Bear. When you used to order a bear they'd include a little bear-head shaped piece of chocolate but then they switched to caramels. Since I don't eat caramels (an incident with a crown leaving my mouth still attached to the candy) I apparently tossed it in the cabinet. It was swarming with ants. Dozens of ants getting their jollies with the sticky caramel. Yuckyuckyuck so I tossed it in the garbage (while ants crawled all over my hands and arms), wiped down the counter and shelves, searched out and destroyed the remaining ants, sprayed the area with toxic ant spray and finally was able to put everything back where it belonged.

Then I had a well-earned glass of champagne. I mean, sparkling wine, it was from California. No, I didn't drink the entire bottle. I was asleep by 11:30 and missed the entire cheering-in-the-new-year thing.

Thursday morning Bree, Anita and I met up for a run. We hadn't set a distance, decided we would go with the flow and see how we felt. It was cool to cold, overcast and humid, air filled with smoke from fireplaces. We ended up with a good 5 mile run through the streets and on the trail and felt great afterward. We followed up with brunch at the new Chow in Danville. I had read some good things about this restaurant and they were correct. We decided that in celebration of the new year we'd have mimosas. These were made with cava and fresh tangerine juice and lemme tell you, I could have had a gallon of them (but only had 1). The food was very good and by the time we left the place was full.

I spent the rest of the first day of the year kicking back; napping, knitting, watching dvds and tv, reading, talking with family and friends on the phone. Restful, relaxing, ready to face whatever the world had in store for me.

This is going to be a good year. Seriously, I'm starting positive and looking forward to a healthy, active, strong new year. A century, a couple of marathons, lots of yarn and books and good friends and what could be better?

Three bears are not better than one

Have I mentioned recently that I don't like being cold? Be prepared for me to whine about mention it frequently if this weather keeps up. I thought I was prepared for cold weather cycling but I was sadly mistaken.

Saturday morning I started getting ready for our ride and realized that my cycling tights were too big. This would normally make me happy since usually I realize my clothes have gotten too small. But they were my only long pants for cycling and I knew it was going to be a chilly ride. I put on my knickers, two tops and a jacket and hoped for the best.

Before our ride we had a clinic on nutrition yawn zzzzzzzzz. Oh, sorry. Since this is, by a conservative estimate, my gazillionth nutrition clinic I tend to stand at the back of the crowd and only pay attention when the speaker says something I find either erroneous or ridiculous or hilariously outdated. Why yes I am critical, thank you for asking! While during the tri season I was impatient for our clinics to end because it was getting hotter and hotter, yesterday I was impatient because I was getting colder and colder.

By the time we got on our bikes the fog had mostly cleared away, the sun was coming through hazy skies and it had warmed up to the mid-40's. Unfortunately by then my toes and fingers were already cold. I had glove liners and ear warmers and a buff for my neck but my toes were only covered by a thin pair of socks and my aerated cycling shoes.

I stayed with the same group I've been with the past weeks and this week we numbered about 15; way too big to stay together for long. I started in the front, knowing I was faster than some but I'd be slow on the upcoming hills. The Three Bears, to be exact.

This is a very famous cycling route in the Bay Area; almost every cyclist knows where it is and what the hills are like. I've ridden it before but not for at least 12 years so I've forgotten everything about it except that the hills are long and cruel. I had also forgotten how remote and beautiful it is. Part of the road is busy main street, part is back road with cows and farms and fields. And hills. Long, literally breathtaking hills.Even before we got to Mama Bear I was in my granny, my very lowest gear. We had a headwind and that wasn't helping, but mostly I'm just a wuss and not great (yet?) on hills. While I love my new bike, the old one had just a little lower gear that I miss. The lightness and responsiveness of the new bike makes up for that going uphill, but just barely. I pedaled up Mama and got slower and slower and tried to relax and even out my breathing and ohgoodlord can I stop yet? I made it to the top where we had our sag stop and was delighted to take a break, although I didn't stop long because my climb induced heat rapidly dissipated in the cold.

The downhill was interesting. On my old bike my top speed ever was 40 or maybe 41 mph, on a long straight downhill. On this bike I'm having trouble holding the bike straight on the same type of downhill when I was only in the mid-20s. I felt every crosswind, every bump in the road, and felt just a little out of control. Hello carbon fiber! Everything I love about the bike on the flats came back to kick me in the ass on the downhills; the lightness and responsiveness. I was right when I said it was too much bike for me, but I'll get better (oh yes I will!) and it'll be fine.

As it was, I managed upper 20's on the way down Mama. Very little flat riding then howdy Papa Bear. Holy hell climb Batman! I ended up treating that 6 hour climb (that's subjectively, it really only took about 15 minutes) as if it was a marathon. I went light post to fence post, telling myself I could stop at the next one if I needed to and take a break. I told myself to relax my shoulders, relax my face, relax my breathing. Then I'd tighten up again and have to tell myself all that all over again. And again. A few guys passed me and made comments and I tried to respond but I didn't have the energy or breath.

By the time I got to the top I was literally going about 3 mph. I was never able to hold the old bike upright going that slowly so this bike is an improvement. I took a break at the top of Papa Bear to look at the scenery (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!), then took off on another screaming downhill.

This one wasn't quite as straight as going down Mama; I couldn't see as far and I worried about careening around a corner and flying into a ditch. Nevertheless I hit just over 30 mph so I was definitely testing my limits. My brakes got quite a workout though.

It was mostly downhill from there except for one treacherously steep uphill just before the main road. An unexpected short wall that took every last bit of effort I had to get up. The ride back down the main road was a flat delight compared to the previous hills and it was great to get my frozen toes and fingers back to my car.

Unfortunately our team had two people fall, badly enough that there were two 911 calls. Double unfortunately, one of them was our head coach. We were told that they were both ok and I'm hoping that's really true; "ok" is relative. "Ok" could mean just a separated shoulder, or "ok" could mean only a bit of roadrash, or "ok" could mean conscious and no spinal injury. Until I hear more I'm going to assume that "ok" means the 911 calls were only just in case and the neck brace and backboard were only routine and that "ok" indeed means fine and dandy.

I think we were all shook up by the sight of our teammates and coach in the road and we saw them at the very beginning of our ride. Hopefully this will teach us all to be more careful, to be better about riding in a crowd or a paceline, to notice where we're going and point out obstacles to those behind us and not get too close to those next to or in front of us until we're more experienced and better riders. I'm hoping this won't happen again this season!

After the ride I took a nap. A long nap. Then I got up and knit a hat for a while, did some house stuff, finished knitting the hat, read a while, starting knitting mitts with the leftover hat yarn, read some more, went to bed. Didn't get any errands run but oh well, can't do everything.

This morning I met Bree at the Rudgear Park & Ride and man oh man it was cold! Even though we didn't get on the bikes until after 8:30 it was cold and foggy and never improved or warmed up. We considered blowing off the ride and going for bacon and coffee instead, but did the right thing and headed out. We had intended to ride about 30 miles but we never warmed up and indeed, I completely lost all feeling in my feet and hands. We turned around after less than 9 miles and called it a day with under 18 miles.

No joke, it took the toes on my left foot about 2 hours before I could feel them again. I was getting scared that I had frostbite, but it wasn't literally freezing out, just 40 degrees, so I didn't think that was possible. You have to have freezing temps to freeze, don't you? Hypothermic yes, freezing no. I think.

Since the coupon we had gotten from the Team for Sports Basement expired today, Bree and I decided to go shopping and get some warm stuff for future rides. Heh. Think of when you go grocery shopping while hungry and buy way too much food, unhealthy food, impulse food. That's what it's like going shopping for gear when you're frozen. Cycling tights: check. Shoe covers: check. Warm fuzzy pants: check. Uggs: not so check, they didn't have any I loved and I couldn't rationalize buying very expensive (fuzzy warm) boots just because I was frozen. Anyway, I couldn't tell whether they fit since I couldn't feel my feet.

Afterward I spent time with my mom, doing mom things. I then dragged myself to the hardware store to buy fluorescent tubes to replace the flickering ones in my bathroom, knowing I had to change them today while it was light out. Can't change a light bulb in a dark room and it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I return. I came home, changed the bulb, did some laundry, took a nap.

I finally warmed up too!

Reunion

It was great seeing Mary Ann again! Since she was in town visiting her family, on Saturday she joined Anita and me for a 10 miler on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail. We met up early, fearing that the forecast rain would drench us. We lucked out with the weather, it was warmer than expected and drier than expected and just as humid as expected. Although we had a couple of very mild sprinkles while we were out there, we stayed dry (from the outside, I was still sweaty and wet from the inside). Except for the times we got tree'd. The lovely trees that normally provide our shade also dripped on us when the wind blew.

We intended to run 10 miles and we ended up with just over 11. A necessary bathroom break added the extra mileage. I was tired when we started and my breathing was bad the entire time, even when we slowed down. Even when we stopped entirely. I almost asked if we could just do 8 miles but decided to keep my whiny mouth closed. I knew Anita and Mary Ann would do whatever I wanted to so I just went along with the plan. My plan.

We were running along at a pretty good clip, doing a 9:1 run:walk. Mary Ann was able to hear the watch beeping so it kept us on track. We never made it under a 12 minute mile, except for the very last quarter mile or so where we averaged just over 11. We ran the first 10 miles at a 12:28 average which made me happy. After hitting 10 we walked for almost a half mile but our 11 mile average was still 12:32. Slow to some but good for me for 11 miles. I'm hoping that translates to a decent average at Nike but I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of walking on the hills there.

My knee held up beautifully during the run. Not a twinge, not a twist, nada. It just felt plain old normal. My back wasn't quite as cooperative, giving the occasional twist and twinge. It didn't exactly hurt during the run, didn't even quite hurt right afterward. We hung out chatting for a long time after we finished running and I stretched everything that I needed to stretch. My back felt fine then. But then I walked around Sports Basement for a while and that must have been just the breaking point. My back hurt whenever I stood or walked for the rest of the day.

I thought that after this run I could make a decision about whether I can run a full marathon or not. I'm still up in the air. My body felt great while I was running but there was too much pain afterward. I think I'll have to defer the decision until after Nike. I'm hoping beyond hope that the race doesn't sell out before I can make that decision.

Saturday night Claudia and I got pedicures and margaritas. Great combination! No, not at the same time. First we pedi'd (and I mani'd) then we went to Amaranta in Danville. The food was fabulous (and since both of us ran and neither of us had eaten all day, we had big appetites). We had guacamole prepared freshly at our table, fresh muddled-fruit margaritas (I had blackberry) and then way too much more food. I enjoyed my stuffed cauliflower and just loved the frijoles. I liked it as leftovers too. What we didn't enjoy was the service. Our waitress was MIA most of the evening and left it to the different service staff to help us out.

Today was mom day again. I had to finish up all the paperwork I started last week and take care of things that had come in during the week. Then, since it was lunchtime and mom was starving we went out for sushi to Oishi in Walnut Creek. We tried 3 rolls that we hadn't tried before and they were all very tasty. I'm not fond of fake crab, which they use in all their "crab" rolls, but the rolls were still good. It took a few more hours than I had planned and I had to scurry to finish the other things that needed doing.

I fit in a bit of gardening. My yard is a shambles. What isn't brown from the drought is overgrown from me ignoring it. I clipped and pulled and trimmed and tried to fix one of the sprinkler heads (not very efficiently, it turns out). The lemon tree still has fruit from last season and they're very strange. Huge lemons, bigger than grapefruits, odd shaped, freaky. I thought I should probably pick everything yellow since this years' fruit isn't ripe yet and the old ones are gross, but the tree started attacking me with thorns and I quit. I didn't need more blood dripping down my arm. I'll have to continue the gardening later.

And I finally washed my wetsuit since it's been 3 weeks since the tri and it's been sitting in the middle of my dining room table waiting for some attention. Ew yuck, of course I rinsed it right after the tri, got the sand and grass and dirt and sweat and salt and kelp off of it. I just needed to really wash it properly with wetsuit cleaner, get it ready to stick on a shelf somewhere for the next several years (forever?). It feels nice finally getting that accomplished and out of sight.

Now I'm going to go knit for a while and then go to bed.

Eating and sleeping and running, oh my!

Nothing like a nice long weekend to refresh the batteries and be incredibly productive. That was the idea, although only partially successful in execution.

Thanksgiving morning I had a nice 5 mile run with Pam and Bree. We extended our usual route in Danville and then had to run around in a small circle to get the final bit of mileage. It was cold, crisp and a good morning for a run.

I spent the rest of the day at Ellen's house. It was a small gathering this year, just Ellen, her boyfriend, her daughter and me. There of course was enough food for about eight additional people. She had bought her turkey at Costco and it was 24 pounds. Yeah, for 4 of us. Way too much, even if if had been the only food there. Which it wasn't. We talked, ate, drank and had a great time. It was nice getting all caught up with everyone.

Because it was so big, there was still lots of meat on the turkey carcass so I took it home for soup. That hadn't been on the agenda for Friday but I just couldn't see it going to waste. Friday morning I chucked it in a pot with some water, onions and carrots and left it to simmer down. I skimmed the fat on Saturday, simmered it some more, skimmed it again on Sunday and added some lentils, veggies and spices. Yum, dinner for the whole week!

I spent Friday night at my bro's house. He was serving mostly leftovers, with a fresh turkey and fresh appetizers. I brought a salad -- ok, the makings for a salad, he threw them together. A few other friends came bearing even more food including an assortment of fresh oysters. My goal was to carefully watch what I ate and to drink only one glass of wine; I had noticed all the CHP's on the freeway and also knew I was getting up early for a long run. The food was incredibly good but I left before dessert was served -- too much temptation and it was getting late (late in relative terms, actually pretty early if I wasn't planning on rising at 5am).

And rise I did, feeling just a little off. I didn't think it could have been the food since I had been sensible about what I had so I chalked it up to lack of sleep. I did the morning stuff and headed down to the Alameda Creek Trail in Fremont to meet the other idiots sensible runners. Although I was exactly on time at 6:45 am they were all set and waiting for me. That doesn't usually happen, normally I'm the first to arrive.

It was cold (about 38 degrees according to my car), which I kept telling myself was good training for Rocket City. But I had a feeling from my first steps that it wasn't going to be a good run. I felt sluggish and stiff and heavy. I covered my mouth with my buff and breathing warmed air helped a bit. I knew the group wouldn't stay together for too long. Although I'm slowest, Anita will normally stay with me. Pam and Mary Ann start talking and running faster and faster, and which group Sandy stays with depends on how she's feeling. For the most part she stayed with Anita and me. By the time we finished the first 10 mile leg I was toast. I just wanted to crawl in my car, turn on the heat and go to sleep. But I didn't. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then Sandy and I headed off in the other direction.

I knew that running an additional six miles was probably a very bad idea. We went one mile, then another half, then another half, then called it a day and turned around. I was afraid that if I was three miles from the cars I'd never make it back. Actually, I knew I'd make it back, there wasn't any question that I could have run that extra mile, but I was afraid that it would take so much out of me that two weeks until the race wouldn't be enough time to recover. We stuck to the 9:1 run:walk the entire time, with only the last couple of uphills being an exception. We finished 14 miles and decided that would have to be enough. I think it was a smart move.

That afternoon I slept for four hours. Sound asleep in bed. I woke up stiff and a bit sore from the run, feeling like I had a cold coming. Great timing. Although if I get a cold now, it'll be gone by the race.

I've been wanting to pack away some of the items I have on display shelves in my family room. Although I love everything and love to look at all my stuff all the time, there's too much and it's a pain to clean. Don't tell anyone, but I haven't dusted those shelves for a couple of years, there's just too much to move and everything is tiny and delicate. First I had to find a good storage container and luckily I had one stuffed with cheap holiday decorations. Those mostly went in the trash, except for the lights I planned to hang outside (and never got around to). Then I spent several hours Saturday night carefully packing away delicate glassware and other things. Then I'd go through a couple of shelves elsewhere and sort those, then other sorting and packing and throwing away. I'm not done (and the shelves are still not dusted) but I made lots of headway.

I'm almost done knitting the Temescal Bag, I just have one strap and finishing and felting left. It's been nice this weekend having something simple to knit while I socialized but I'm kinda looking forward to knitting something else. Something more in my colors. Hmm, what's next?