OK. We're going to give this another shot. Again. I use 'we' in the royal sense, because I doubt seriously anyone is actually reading this (aside from Beth). It's become apparent from my last few posts that this has become less about my running and cycling and more about my everyday life. So, the title has changed even though the URL remains the same. Just in case there is anyone out there that a.) actually reads this, and 2.) has it bookmarked. Plus, I don't want to have to edit my signature files on the various forums where I've included a link to here.
So, what's been happening? A lot of the same ol', same ol'. We went to Disney World a few weeks ago with Beth's family. It was Jack's first visit and he LOVED it. (will follow up in a separate post) Work has been, well.. work. Nothing really changes there. I DO need to start working on some certs and taking some management classes to make it easier to transfer/find a new employer so we can make the move to CO after Spud graduates. I've also started bike commuting to work. Halfway, anyway. It's a 30 mile trip one way, so I drive to a mid-point and then ride my bike the rest of the way in. The original plan was to do it everyday except for our 2 busy days a month, but it's working out to about 3-4 days a week. I'm saving money that would normally be going in the pockets of the oil companies, reducing my contribution to pollution and dropping some weight to boot. to make sure that the money actually gets saved, I continue to fill up weekly, but I subtract the number of gallons it takes to fill the tank from the number of gallons it used to take to fill after a week and multiply that by the price. Then we just set that difference aside.
Not much else to add at teh moment, but again, I hope to keep this updated much more regularly going forward.
Well, it's been a while since my last post. What's been going on?
The roof is done; we were able to get an equity loan to pay for it and the roofers were able to finish it in a couple of days. It looks very nice and seems to be shedding water nicely. So we've got that going for us.
June and July were fairly uneventful. I posted for a couple of positions that I wasn't sure I wanted and didn't get either one; I wasn't really broken up about it because as previously stated, I wasn't 100% committed to either one. I think the biggest reason I posted was for the networking possibilities.
August wasn't too bad, except for the problems with the car. Pulling into the garage at work one morning, the shifter suddenly went slack. Turns out that one of the cables connecting the shifter lever to the transmission broke. Well, not the cable itself, the $2 bushing that connects the cable to the shifter. Unfortunately, our mechanic couldn't just replace that bushing, he had to replace the entire cable. It's a dealer part, so of course he couldn't get just the cable; both cables come as a unit. A $250 unit. That cost around $200 for him to install because it's a FWD car, the engine sits sideways and the transmission is far from the shifter.
September brings football season and the Bucs are 2 and 1. YAY!! So far. It also brings us Lightning training camp; HOCKEY SEASON! WOOHOO!! I took vacation and we went to training camp. Only one day though, the rest of the time, we were remodeling the front bathroom. Which is still a work in progress. We're hoping to have it finished - or at the very least, functional - by the end of this weekend. We'll see. At least our lives aren't dull.
I've been cycling off an on throughout the summer, but haven't been running at all. I finally picked up a new pair of running shoes in June, but still had some knee pain. I'd like to say that I was taking it easy to rehab my knee, but I was a lazy slob. I started running again yesterday and starting today am going to be cycling regularly. Hence, the update to the blog; I'm making myself publicly accountable again. HA! Like anyone reads this thing. I suppose that's about it for now.
I haven't been able to ride the last few days because of all of this smoke. It lightened up on Tuesday, but came back at the end of the week. It's starting to lighten up a bit today though. Looks like I'll be able to get out tomorrow. Here's a picture Beth took yesterday.
No, that's not a view up the street on a misty morning, that's about ¼ mile visibility through the smoke at noon. Definitely not conducive to outdoor activity.
It appears as if the winds are shifting a bit and we may start to see some relief this afternoon.
Well, I need to take a break from running. I simply can no longer run in my current shoes; it hurts too much. If it's not my knees, it's my hips or my back and I can't really do more than 2 or 3 miles. Since we can't afford to replace them right now, I'm going to take a break until we can. I'll just concentrate on cycling and get my cycling muscles back in shape. Coincidentally, I won a $25 gift certificate to a local running store in a raffle at our company's "wellness fair" yesterday. I'll hang on to that and check the place out; if the prices are good and I like the way they do shoe fittings, I'll get them there. Otherwise, I'll just use it to buy some running gear and get the shoes at the place where I originally planned.
The whole Tampa Bay area is covered with a cloud of smoke today. We have a fairly steady north wind that is pushing smoke from fires in Georgia and north Florida down on us. It's starting to clear out, but this morning it was horrendous; it looked like we were socked in with fog. The smell was overpowering and it worked its way into our building. Everybody has been coughing , I've had this nagging sinus headache all day; it's terrible.
Here's a picture from the newspaper that shows what it was like:
Hopefully, the weather will change tonight and everything will clear up; the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week and we'd love to be able to keep the windows open and the AC off.
Had a nice run yesterday morning. 2½ miles and felt good afterward. I wanted to go a little further, but just didn't have the time. That's it for the running portion of this post. Now, on to the miscellany.
Minor rant #1:
What the heck is up with old people and traffic lights? What possesses them to stop a car-length (or more) back from the white line? Over the weekend, I got stuck in the left turn lane behind a guy who refused to pull all the way up and get on the pressure pad to trip the light. So, we sat there as the cross traffic continued on their merry way, until somebody finally pulled up into the straight lane and forced the green light so that we could finally move. We live outside a fairly large retirement community so I know from experience this isn't just an issue with this guy; a vast majority of the older drivers do the same thing. There have been times where I've had to pull around in front of them to get the light to change (when there are no other cars around to trip the light).
Minor rant #2:
That must've been some badass pair of pants. Look up 'whiny bitch' in the dictionary and you see a picture of this guy. Ok, less of a rant and just more of an observation of just what a punk this judge happens to be.
Random observation:
The 4th floor men's room in our building has smelled like maple syrup for the last 2 days. Had to use it yesterday while the 5th floor one was being cleaned and it was really strong. Today I had to use it when the 5th floor one was full; it wasn't as strong as yesterday, but it still smelled faintly of maple syrup.
I got out for 6 miles this morning and had another cruddy run. I was fine for about 2 miles and then had to walk a bit. That was a big mistake; I wound up walking between ¾ and 1 mile of the total 6. I think that part of the problem was starting off a bit faster than I wanted. Normally, I'm pretty good about my pacing, but I was having issues this morning. I also seemed to be having some form problems as well; I kept hunching over, making it harder to breathe. With that in mind, I'll pay a bit more attention to it and see how I feel on my long run next week. Also need to start some strength training for my back. It will help my back problems and should help my posture during my runs.
Update to the link I posted a few days ago about the "poodle scam" in Japan. It's apparently a hoax that's been debunked by Snopes. I normally don't fall for stuff like that, but I saw it on an actual news site, so I assumed that it had been verified.
