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

So, I get this notice from one of my credit card companies. It’s the usual, “we’re changing the terms, blah, blah, blah,” type things, which people I guess usually just toss since it’s typically written in a lot of legalese. I decide to peruse the thing, see if there’s anything that pops out, and lo and behold, in the middle of the first page:

Your APR for [pretty much everything] is chaning to a corresponding ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE of 24.99% (Daily Periodic Rate (DPR) of 0.068465%).

We increased your APR due to the balances and APRs on this account.

Exsqueeze me?!?! I always pay off this account every month, there’s never a balance on it. The ‘new’ rate is almost 1.5 times more than the current (10.99%), not that any rate matters much since I always pay it off, but yeah, no, I don’t think so. I guess I don’t make them enough money as it is, so they want to squeeze more blood out of this stone.

Further down there’s a procedure to ‘reject’ the change, which involves writing to them, they won’t take just calling them (which has, of course, always worked in the past – to call and object and get any interest rate changes reversed or lowered below the current). I guess I’ll be sending a letter next week. If they up the rate, that’s the end of using this card, rewards or no. I won’t close the account as it’s my oldest credit account, but I certainly won’t give them any more business.

I guess the point of this is that it pays to read those standard notices (financially, at least – I won’t mention what it’s done to my blood pressure today).

At my last job I used to have this little routine. Someone would come into my office, frantic, saying something to the effect of, “Moose, I need help!” to which I would reply, “Well, my degree is in law, not psychology, but I’ll do my best…”

It usually slowed them down long enough to take some of the edge off the “ZOMGWTF!” attitude.

Today’s been one of those days. Everything has been ZOMGWTF!!! in intensity. And the one office still has not learned the phrase “admission against interest.” I swear, the brain needs to engage before the mouth. Or fingers.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is all perfectly normal.

I’m in the period commonly known as the “taper” for my race on Sunday (as well as “recovery” from the 1/2 marathon, but that’s another insanity). It’s when athletes ramp down their training time and intensity in order to give the body time to recover and be prepped for the effort of the race. And it’s perfectly normal during such a time period to experience feelings of depression, and let down, and anxiety, and just generally “blah.”

But knowing that it’s normal doesn’t make it any less annoying. Or make me any less grumpy.

But anyway.

So, I ran this little race last Sunday. The weather was near-perfect, with the start in the high 60s and slightly overcast. The boardwalk portion (a.k.a. the last two miles) was quite sunny and warm, however. Thankfully they had misting stations set up all down the thing, so one could run through the water for a quick cool-off. I tried to follow my heart rate for the run, knowing where my limits are for taking in nutrition, and trying to keep it lower for the first half. Mostly did okay with that, but definitely was slowing down by the end. Not nearly as much walking as the last time, though. Pretty much only walked twice (on the boardwalk) aside from the aid stations.

Oh, and lesson learned – carry water with me (like I did back in April). I can sip slowly when I want to, and not when they decide to put up a station, and I don’t have to gulp water down periodically, which was not pleasant. The water bottle stays with me for the upcoming race.

The bands were good this year, as they were the last time I ran this course in 2003. I finished faster (2:32:11) than the last time I ran it here (2:49:12), though slower than my overall best 1/2 (2:15:07). I wasn’t trying to kill myself, since I have another race (with another 1/2 marathon) a week after this one, though, so it was all good. I do recommend this race. It’s gotten bigger in terms of number of participants, but it’s still a fun course to run, relatively flat, and having a band every mile or so is definitely the way to run 13.1 miles.

BC and his sister also ran it and did well, with him at 2:20 and her at 2:12.

We had a perfect hotel for it, right at the end of the strip, and right where you got out of all the madness of the finish chute. Ocean views, and close enough to hear the stage but not so close that it was obnoxious when we closed the door to the balcony.

It was good to get a vacation weekend away with BC and friends. We did end up missing the concert Sunday night because dinner took for-e-ver, but that’s not unusual with holiday weekends in tourist spots. Not a bid deal to me, I’m not much of a fan of live music anyway, but you could tell there was some disappointment at the table when we realized how long it was taking to get food.

Since I’m originally from that area, BC got to meet my family as well, and they were out to cheer. Fun moment was BC’s sister running up to my Dad around mile 1 and asking him if he was my Dad (they hadn’t met), then BC running up behind, recognition, and her handing off a long-sleeve T for him to hold for her (she’d worn it to the start line). Dad’s version was more fun (“Suddenly this attractive young woman ran up to me off the course and asked if I was your father…”), but I can’t tell it as well as he could.

I do have to say, I’m glad the race season is almost over for me. One more month, four more races (1/2 iron, 5k, 5 miler, sprint tri), and that’s it. I need some down time after this year’s frenetic pace. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed all the racing, but I’m ready for a break.

I need a second drawer for my underwear. Not because I have so many that they can’t fit into one (almost, but not quite), but because I need to sort them. The categories: 1. Comfortable; 2. Not Comfortable.

After Jockey decided to do away with size small underwear (curse their oversized hearts), my underwear buying mantra has been, “Is it cute? Is it on sale?” If one or the other (preferably both), it’s in. This has lead to a great variety of undies, with few sets repeated in the collection. Contrast this to the days when I bought jockey boxer-briefs and the only difference between pairs was the color.

So, with a great plethora of underwear I tend to just throw them all in the drawer and then root around until I find something I think I might like that day. It’s mostly boxer-briefs, but the occasional plain boxer or brief or something else is mixed in with the collection. There are, of course, pairs mixed in which are, how to say, less comfortable than others. Either too tight, too loose, too high across the ass, too low a waist, too high a waist, the seam irritates my piercings, whatever. For some reason, they’re just not comfortable for wearing. And I tend to forget which pairs those are. Hence the need for a second drawer. Because heaven forfend I should throw out a pair. Then I might forget how bad they were and buy them again. Instead I just forget how bad they are and wear them again.

Which brings us to yesterday’s pair. A nice pair of black 2Xist cotton boxer-briefs. They fit well when I put them on. Not too snug, waist hit the right place, etc. Then they got worn for a while. Sometime around, oh, noon, the cotton in this pair had stretched out to the point where they might as well have been boxers. No support, no clinging to the legs/crotch, just limp cotton hanging around. But not like the nice thin cotton that boxers are, no, this was slightly thicker, with ribbing in all the wrong places. I couldn’t get out of them fast enough when I got home.

And since I did laundry last night, I know they’ll be dry tonight (cold wash, drip dry), and will go right back in the drawer, where they’ll sit unloved, until the next time I’m at a loss for what to wear and drag them out again, only to remember that I hate them. But by then it will be too late.

I don’t often remember my dreams, but last night was particularly bad.

The setting was a Stardust-like universe. Was in the company of some witches. Anyway, they were friendly, and I had shared bread and butter & jam with them earlier, but then as a result of some mishap someone bought the farm. The witches were quite pleased, and went about taking the body to boil it down into the self-same spread that I had thought was butter. I mildly protested, at which point the one looked at me, genuinely puzzled, and said, “But why else did you think we called it Squelches?” as she squished yet another part of the body down in the cooking pot. I had thought they were talking about the jam.

Yes, even in my dreams I make awful puns. Not even good puns, just awful ones.

Let’s see. Today. Bullets:

• Left work “late” (aka on time) because I got caught up in fixing something. Not a bad thing, it gives me something to write tomorrow. (I say “late” because it’s summer and I typically am the last one in the office, with an official quit time of 6pm, and it’s been dead after 5pm)
• Got home to a new obsession in the mail. It’s all BC’s fault for mentioning it. And Amazon’s for offering the full set for less than $10.
• Played said obsession until just now. Hadn’t evven checked email this evening, that’s how bad it was.
• Despite that, managed to get laundry done for this weekend’s trip and race.
• Ran briefly this morning (as in, less than 2 miles). Went okay.
• Discovered while doing laundry that my favorite big running shorts have a hole in the crotch. Thank heavens I have multiple pairs to choose from.
• Still recovering from the head cold, but getting better.

And that’s about it today.

Was up until 4am. Sleep was not to be found. Then, I was rudely awakened at 8am by the sound of a chipper/shredder taking out the limb that came down Saturday night outside my window. Called work, went back to bed. Just getting up now, and only up because I got hungry. Well, that and the half-awake dreams got really, really fucked up and I couldn’t take them any more.

I even hauled out my neti pot to help clear out my nose. I haven’t used that thing in years. It did do a good job of clearing some stuff out, so I’ll probably see about doing it as a regular practice. I think I got the head position better last night than I have (chin and forehead level – previously I’d had the chin too far down I think) after a lot of insominac reading last night. And hey, if it helps, water and salt are cheap, certainly cheaper than sudafed.

I sense much monster killing today, around napping. And a little bit of work, since I have a meeting with a political appointee tomorrow about his project and how to fund it in a way that doesn’t kill the thing.

Another week, another head cold. Wouldn’t mind so much if I could just sleep. And maintain a stable temperature. And breathe. Aside from that, it’s all good. Ha.

Left work a bit early to come home and nap. We’ll see if I go in tomorrow. I brought some stuff home to read over for a meeting Wednesday, so I can be missed if need be. It was important to get in today because an investigator was coming in for my latest background check and I had to confirm this, that and the other with him, as well as sicking him on all my friends for their confirmation that I’m a crack-smoking communist spy an upstanding citizen.

And yes, they still ask if you are or have ever been a member of an organization which has plotted the violent overthrow of the US government (though they do not name the communist party specifically any more, at least they didn’t today). A new addition was questions about membership in terrorist organizations. All of it was pretty bland, truth be told, but glad that round’s over with.

Finally bought a backup disk for my iBook this weekend, so I went ahead and partitioned that and backed up the important files this evening. It’s not automated a la the PC version, but a simple copy and paste worked just as well. Getting all the music backed up, as well as the quicken data, addressbook, porn, and calendar on there was a good feeling. The laptop’s coming up on 3 years old, I think, with a lot of data I consider pretty important, so ’twas well past time for this.

Not much else going on. Hoping the cold’s gone enough for the next two races (the last three I couldn’t care less about), this weekend and next. In the meantime it’s rest, try not to kill myself, taper, etc. Quiet time.

So, I’m texting back and forth with BC the other day and he casually drops in a text that he’s “Chilling out, playing some diablo.”

*cue screeching halt noise*

Quick phone call to BC gets made. “Wait, did you just say that you play Diablo (II)?” Yup, he does, LOD expansion pack even. And loves it. One of my favorite games of all time, and he loves it.

*cue geek squeal*

Yup, definitely infatuated here. More and more each day.

I just saw a woman wearing black Crocs with her pants suit. It’s a shame they don’t give us honorary fashion police ticket books, or she’d have gotten one.

I need to teach my clients the concept of “admission against interest.” Just because someone has asked for information doesn’t mean you have to divulge everything, only what they asked for, narrowly tailored to fit the request. This is not an opportunity to throw on a hair shirt and get out the scourge, folks.

Saw Stardust this weekend. Marvelous film. Will enjoy getting it on DVD once it’s out – this was definitely an over-and-over-again type of film for me. And Michelle Pfeiffer was hot as the witch queen.

Rode out to BC’s place on Saturday. If that type of commute is going to become a regular thing, which it may, I’ll need to get another bike. I rode the tri bike, which meant carrying a bag on my back. Not terribly comfortable for 2 hours. I need a bike with a rack for panniers, and the mountain bike simply is not up to that kind of riding. Maybe in the spring I’ll look for a road bike. And figure out where to store a third bicycle.

Getting back into the swing of things, post head cold and pre-races. The swim is still the most nerve-inducing part, but I expect it to go more smoothly than previous races. I’m less anxious about it than I have been in the past, and I think it’ll be fine.

I’m glad I gave up the morning paper, I am making it through more in the way of other reading, but the magazine pile hasn’t really diminished. I have made it through 1.5 books, though, and the last Harry Potter is sitting out, beckoning.