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.
I got out for my run again this morning. It's nice to finally show some consistency. It was a pretty decent run; a little over 3 miles at an easy pace. I felt really good, especially considering how my run went on Saturday. I definitely need new shoes though. I've been feeling minor aches here and there for a few weeks or so, but today I felt what may be the precursor to shin splints. Hopefully I can hold that off with some extra stretching and some exercises I found on Cool Running. I was planning to replace my shoes in the very near future, but the leaky roof put that on hold. Hopefully, we can get a home equity loan to cover that cost. If we can't, I'm not sure what we're going to do.
Of course, I could always become a "poodle breeder" and export them to Japan. It wouldn't take me long at all to pay for the roof that way.
Well ok, it wasn't that busy, I'm just a slacker.
Let's see... I had an incredibly crappy run on Saturday. I planned to do 6 miles, but wasn't really feeling it when I woke up. I made myself get up and get out anyway and said that if I still felt the same after a mile, I would stop. I actually did feel motivated once I got going, but about a quarter mile later, it felt like someone poured sand in my lungs. I decided to hang it up and just go home. Saturday was also prom night. Here's the dashing, young doofus:
The prom theme was 007 Diamonds are Forever, so Beth took him down and had him pick out the white jacket as opposed to the traditional black. When he got home he said he wasn't wearing a white jacket ever again. The reason? "I don't know if it was the color or what, but it was really heavy!" Yes Spud, it's well known that white is the heaviest color in the spectrum... we should have warned you.
Sunday was Beth's birthday and game 6 of the first round of the NHL playoffs for the Lightning. We hit the bike shop so she could pick out what she wanted for her birthday. (she wound up with a trunk and a pair of gloves) Then we had some people over to watch the Lightning get schooled by the Devils; the bastards. They had so much momentum going but blew it in game 4. If they had played games 4 and/or 5 with the desperation they showed in game 6, they'd be getting ready for the 2nd round right now rather than getting ready for rounds of golf. As they say, there's always next year.
Monday brought a dentist appointment for Beth and another trip to the bike shop. She had more birthday money to spend and Josh's bike was due for its 100 mile tune up. Tuesday was fairly uneventful; a trip to the mall and Beth and I were able to sneak in a bike ride. This was the first time we've ridden together in almost a year and it was fun. She may be getting some weekend days off in the near future and we can do it more often. YAY! For me it was the first time on the bike in a few months. I've been focusing so much of my energy on my running; maybe this will be a catalyst and help me revive my cycling in the same way.
