Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Because it’s positively gorgeous outside here in DC (officially it’s 67 – my balcony temp gauge says 72), I went for a run. Outside. Figured if I ended up having to walk, at least I wouldn’t freeze out there.

It went okay. Heart rate was okay until about 1/2 way in, then it was up and wanted to stay there. Ran the entire thing, slowly, save for a period right at the end when I had to walk to bring my heart rate down to a reasonable level. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow (yay delayed onset soreness), but at the moment the light muscular soreness feels like heaven. Foot’s doing okay, and I made sure to take the yoga strap and stretch it thoroughly at the end of my stretching routine (which, courtesy the pilates/core class I took last week, now includes a lovely deep stretch for the IT band as well). So far so good. Again, will sleep in the brace as a just in case, but this is definitely heartening.

It was so nice to be able to run outside, too. I really do dislike treadmills. Did do one thing which was not normal for me – I took the new shuffle out for a spin and ran with music on (though turned down fairly low). It wasn’t bad, but I did find that my brain tended to disengage more than I’m used to doing on a run. Running was active meditation time for me, letting my mind wander as it would. Mainly I got the shuffle for use in the gym, and when I have to run on a treadmill, and I think perhaps that’s where it needs to stay. I’ll need to create a more customized playlist, too – while I had it load the thing with 4 & 5 star rated songs, I need to be pickier about putting on more up-tempo stuff if it’s going to be on while exercising.

Still busy with the stimulus bill here. I’m “on call” this weekend, meaning I actually have to carry the work blackberry around if/when I go out. Sort of annoying, but not overly burdensome, as long as I’m carrying other things. And as long as they’re not sending me .pdf attachments and actually expecting me to read them.

I made a PT appointment for my foot for Thursday. It should be an assessment of where it is, what other factors might be contributing, and what else I can be doing to help it. It still twinges on occasion, and I’d really like to be done with that. Hopefully with a PT assessment I’ll get better advice than just my (non-running) podiatrist and his ‘well, you just have to rest it’ attitude. Love the doc to death, but he doesn’t get it sometimes. And I’m tired of not feeling like I’m in control of the foot and its recovery; I want more options for what I can be doing with it.

I must be mellowing in my old age; I went to a Superbowl party at a neighbor’s apartment, actually watched large segments of the game, and didn’t hate it. Made veggie chili which was well received, even if it was a last minute “OMG, I totally forgot that I need to cook something for the party and what can I scramble together out of the cabinets” type affair. And hey, I got rid of some of the five gazillion tomatoes I have in my freezer courtesy Mom & Dad’s garden.

Not looking forward to another week of 9 am meetings, but you do what you’ve got to do. At least I have a core training class to look forward to tomorrow evening after work.

I can tell I’m fighting off a cold, and not just sniffling from allergies, because I’m in full “OMG, must eat and eat and eat some more” mode. Stoopid body. Probably caught my friend’s cold from Monday night. No good deed going unpunished and all that.

I finally started knitting on the hat I was requested to make by my friend K for her chemo treatments. Of course last night as I got past the initial ribbing and into the cabling I managed to goof two rows, one of which I couldn’t tell was goofed until I got up a few rows. So, I ripped out four rows at the end and called it a night. Redid them this evening, and they’re correctly done now. Have to say, for a non-wool yarn, Calmer is pretty darned nifty to knit with. Definitely a different (and better) experience than with other non-wools I’ve knitted with.

Work continues to be insane this week, and the early morning insanity continues into next week as well – I’m scheduled for 9 am meetings again all next week. I know most folks don’t think anything of that, but I don’t normally report until 9:30, and adjusting my sleep and waking schedule hasn’t been easy.

Almost forgot to mention the foot’s progress. Had a wee bit of soreness this morning when I took the first few steps, but I had slept in the brace, and made sure to stretch it before I got up. By mid-day I remembered to focus in on it and realized that I hadn’t felt any pain since I’d walked in to work. There was a very mild twinge or two if I paid attention to it, but otherwise didn’t notice it at all. Score one for rehab. I’ll likely try another short run on Wednesday, provided I get enough sleep tomorrow to make the attempt in the morning.

Got a random text from a friend this afternoon asking if I could do him a favor. He wasn’t feeling well, and needed to go to urgent care after work (both to get looked at, and to get a doctor’s excuse so he could stay home – yay stupid HR policies). Said yes, of course, skipping my swim workout and heading down to the wilds of Alexandria. Left home around 6, just got back in now (post-11pm).

I’m a wee bit tired.

Got him checked out, he’s got some non-specific bug that tested out as bacterial, so we got him some antibiotics, some dinner (at almost 10 – we were both pretty darned hungry by then), then I got him home, walking him up and making sure he got a fever reducer in him before I left.

On the upside, since I figured any “after hours” visit to a doctor (read: urgent care center) would involve a waiting room of some sort, I came prepared and managed to knit about 3 more inches onto the leg of a sock I’m working on (bringing the total on it to 5 inches [out of 8 planned], more than doubling the length while I waited). Yes, we were there that long. But at least I managed to be semi-productive while we/I waited.

Very glad I could help, but tomorrow is going to draaaaaaaaaaaag.

This afternoon I ran for the first time since last August 5th. Almost six months.

Headed over to the gym with my running gear, got changed, and headed upstairs to the treadmills. The area was empty, but for two other men, one of whom spent more time talking on his cell phone than actually walking on the treadmill (with a body to match the lack of actual exercise). Warmed up for five minutes, then did three minutes on (running), three off (walking), for half an hour (2.56 miles). During the exercise the foot did fine. My legs protested a bit, which was expected, but the foot itself did fine.

It’s a trifle sore here this evening, but I’ll be sleeping with the brace on, so I’m hopeful that it’ll heal/recover well in the stretched out position. Won’t be rushing back to the treadmill immediately, but will attempt to ease back into it as the foot permits. A good first step, though, and hopefully just the first of many runs this year.

I left a party early rather than overdrink tonight. I knew the hosts (I had thought I only knew one, but it turns out I had met the other, also at a body electric event, a few years earlier), and a few guests, but not many of them. It was starting to get crowded in the house and I could tell if I stayed much longer I was going to end up drinking too much, so rather than do that I gave the excuse of an early morning to the hosts and absented myself from the gathering. Not perhaps the most socially adept thing I’ve ever done, but it was the right thing for me tonight.

I think this has to be one of the most difficult periods to be a fed – we’ve got new management, but only a few actual political appointees (only one, in fact!), a handful of political non-appointees, and they’re not fully integrated yet. We know they want to go in different directions, and on the major things those are clear, but on the details they’re definitely not. We’re trying to react to the various provisions proposed in the competing stimulus bills, and despite the fact that the same party is in charge of the two branches, it’s not a given that we in the Executive will be completely on board with what Congress proposes.

Oh, and at some point they’re going to give us our actual budget for FY 2009 as well. You know, the fiscal year that started back on October 1st. So there’ll be that to deal with soon, too.

At the moment, though, I’m running around like mad getting stuff together, analyzing and reacting, and generally trying to be helpful to management. With little to no clear direction, and a lot of guessing. Fun, fun.

While I am glad we have now inaugurated a new President, the last week at work was somewhat bittersweet. In doing the type of law I do, I come into contact with a lot of the top political office holders at my Big Government Agency, and over the last five years there I’ve worked closely with several of them and gotten to know them well. As with the last change in parties, there were some I was happy to see go, but some whom I will truly miss. I will especially miss the leadership in our General Counsel’s office, they were fantastic to work with and for, and were consummate professionals.

My BGA will have a lot to do, and as will be the case with many other BGAs, there will be changes in direction to absorb and run with, and new faces to have to learn and get used to. I only hope that the political appointees chosen to lead us are personable, fair, and competent, and that they do a good job to support and promote the common welfare of us all.