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

I was cleaning up some stuff in our entry hallway, putting away bits from having a smart lock installed last week, replacing a battery in a running accessory, and in doing so I had to go into the drawers in our little hall table, which I apparently need to do more often. Found the battery I needed, put the lock bits away, but also found some netting for a bike basket that I’d been looking for (should’ve been with the bike accessories, but why would I be consistent?), and then dug up one of the first, homemade masks we made out of a T-shirt at the beginning of the pandemic. It makes sense that it was in the entry hallway table, since you’d need them to outside, but what a throwback.

Not the shopping day I’d planned for, but hey. Started out early, with a 9am appointment at BJs to replace the front tires, because one of them has a giant bulge and a slow air leak. Get there ten minutes early, doors are closed. They finally bother to open at 9:25 (after calling the main desk twice to see where they were), get to the counter, they don’t have the tires I preordered and prepaid for. Then it was into the main club for a refund, because at that point I was done with them. Appointment made for another place Wednesday morning, and I’ll call Tuesday night to doublecheck that they have the tires.

So then it was on to get some food and planned haircuts. While eat we decided the husband needed some more shirts, so we picked the closer of the malls and headed there for wandering and shopping. I picked up grooming supplies, and he got a bunch of shirts. Ah, married life. Heh. Book shopping next, then a late lunch and gas for the car. The tire held up well, thankfully, and I didn’t have to reinflate it while we were out (I keep a pump in the car normally anyway).

Ran twice this week, very basic run/walk workouts on the treadmill, but the first such since covid last month. The fatigue is finally gone, thank heavens. Blood pressure is still higher than anyone would like, but some regular exercise should start to help with that, or at least keep it from getting worse. I’d really prefer not to go on drugs for that; I resent the allergy and reflux medications as is, so the thought of adding more just makes me grumpier. *phhhbbbbtttt*

Off to a brunch showing of Margaritaville at a local(ish) dinner theater tomorrow. Should be a hoot. I have a nice Hawaiian shirt with flamingoes on it for the occasion, and the husband has something similarly loud. We’re meeting friends for it, which will be nice as we’ll have a four-top table for the group, and no strangers to try and make awkward conversation with. Final show of this run, which is always fun to see.

I think half the fun of home ownership is the little things that have to be taken care of. For example, one of the GFCI receptacles in the kitchen died sometime yesterday. There are two in there, and one died about two years ago. They’re original to the house (2010), so it’s unsurprising that they’re wearing out now, but it’s always a surprise. Had to look up the electrician we used last time, and they’re now scheduled to come out middle of next week to replace it (as I told them, inconvenience, not emergency, so I was fine with whatever they had). In the meantime the toaster oven has been moved from one plug to another, and I’ll move the electric can opener if we need to open anything. The kitchen Echo has been relocated temporarily to the island, and I’m debating whether to move the coffee maker or just stick to french press for the next week or so. The funny thing is that I’d bought some beans on a lark yesterday before knowing the GFCI was dead, so I had fresh ones for this morning. Maybe the keurig sensed them and killed the GFCI out of spite. That or Amazon decided I wasn’t spending enough and hoped I’d use them to book an electrician.

Today was a catch up day for work, especially catching up to a couple of thorny things where I needed time to sit down and actually be able to read up on 1) what the problem was; and 2) potential solutions. The craziness of email and meetings do not lend themselves to lengthy consideration, so was nice to have time to actually sit and ruminate on a couple problems, as well as coming up with the solutions.

We installed some new accent lights on the Ikea bookshelves in our respective offices, and now I feel the need to reorganize said bookshelves, at least the ones in my office, to make them a bit less cluttered. Since that’s my usual video conferencing background I like to have it clean but fun (books, legos, pop vinyls, and other toys abound). I always get nice comments on how much fun it is to see all of the toys, but I think it needs a bit of curating at the moment. And more storage space for some of it.

The husband and I finally got appointments for this morning for the monkeypox vaccine here in PG County, a process that should have been done and over with months ago, but a lack of vaccines and a screwed up scheduling system meant long delays. But, fast forward to this morning and I drove us over to a local county health center for it. While we were there they offered to give us both the seasonal flu vaccine and the latest, updated Covid booster, so we figured why the heck not. Finished up, drove the husband to the Metro so he could go to work, then headed home.

A couple hours later and I’m slightly nauseous in the way that the flu shot often does, and perhaps a little body sore, but the poor husband is definitely feeling it worse, so he grabbed a cheap uber home. I made him some lunch and he’s crashing on the couch in front of some fluffy TV. No itching on the MPX shot site for me. I did go ahead and take the rest of the day off – I had originally taken just the morning, but with the three-fer-one deal we got I decided lawyering while vaccinated was a bad idea.

Life can be such an interesting experiment. After putting off seeing a specialist for ages, I finally got tired of a consistent belching that I had going on. Turns out the reflux that my mother and her father have/had was passed to me. Yay! Long story short the excess acid production was/is causing me to swallow too much air, so that’s what was/is causing the belching.

Had samples of a prescription drug, got it under control, then the samples ran out. Tried the over the counter (OTC) version, which didn’t give the same results (the samples I had were a newer form of the drug, and 4x as high a dose as the OTC stuff). So, saw the doc for a follow up today, got a prescription for the fancier stuff, and now we start the food experimentation portion of the treatment. I already know that coffee sets it off, so I gave that up a couple of weeks ago (the boy’s expression wasn’t quite one of horror when I told him I’d been off coffee for two days when I first started, but it was close – I had trained him well that coffee was the first thing I needed in the morning). Tea eased the withdrawal, but I’m mostly off that now, too. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been caffeine free – did that once before from ’00-’01, but then we had that little airplane event in the fall and I went back to regular coffee drinking.

I already know that pizza is out, as is falafel, sodas, and beer. Spicy foods seem to be a no-no as well. But the experiment will continue as I figure out what does and doesn’t work. It’s a fun process, actually, and I get to eat a lot of different things as I figure this out.

In other catching up, the anniversary trip to the shore with the boy went well. Didn’t get burned at the shore, had a good time relaxing and reading, and just catching up with each other outside the norm. We walked all over the place, which upped the numbers for both of us on the step count on our vivofits. I think it’s been fun to have those together and to have something of a competition going with them. He wins outright on pure walking, but I tend to go over when you factor in my running. And we both beat his sister regularly (got her one for xmas), which is what really counts.

I’m training now for the marine corps marathon this fall. I got in last year, developed runner’s knee, and postponed the race to this year. While not quite where I’d have liked to be in terms of a base, the training is going well. Related to that, I’m going to take a break from the tri club. There’s been a bit of drama with regard to the newbie program I’ve help run for the last decade, and I’m just not willing to put up with it at this point. I’ve never been one that enjoyed training with a large group (I like the meditative aspects of training), and I’m not really drinking at all (see the reflux discussion above) so I don’t get out and see club folks very often, and I think the club has just moved on, as have I. I’ll maintain my membership, but I don’t see myself doing a lot with them in the immediate future.

Got the new tires on the car with no issue. Hadn’t realized how rough the old ones had gotten. Nicest part was just popping in and having it done, and not having to worry about the cost because they’d already been paid for.

Past that, getting back to swimming, and trying consciously to improve my swim stroke and speed this year. Taormina’s Swim Speed Secrets has been pretty good thus far, and I’m seeing a bit of improvement, which is nice after years of steady state mediocrity. But swimming’s been it thus far this season, mostly because of how cold and gross it’s been. I’m unmotivated to sit on the bike in the trainer in the living room, and it’s been just plain ugly outside between snow and cold (and a head cold) so I haven’t wanted to go outside to run in the morning, either. Hopefully today was the last of the cold snaps this spring, and the last of the snow as well, so I can get back to running & biking.

This week is the first set of evaluations for my minions. They’re all doing well, so it’s thankfully been an easy process. New minion #1 started this week (my first hire!), and new minion #2 starts in a week and a half. Haven’t scared off the first guy yet, so I suppose I’m doing okay there. The hardest part of this management thing is learning what to let loose from my own portfolio and give to one of the minions to handle. And after almost 15 years of handling ever more matters, I’m not yet in the comfort spot when it comes to handing things off. But I’m getting there.

It’s been hard for me to stay motivated with triathlon stuff. Commuting between my place and the boy’s place had put a definite damper on it, as has his work schedule (he has to go to meetings for work that are well after what I would consider my optimum ‘go to bed’ time). College students suck – if you want to participate in things on campus, do them at normal hours like a real adult, not at 10+ at night, ‘you hosers’. I’d happily smack the lot of them upside the head and welcome them to real life. And naps.

Nonetheless, I need to do more, after straining my mid-back TWICE this past week. Ugh. So there’s been a lot of soul searching re: what do I want to do with my training. And, you know, making my body worth more in the sack. Getting married and all that. Wanting to perform better. Yeah. ‘Nuff said.

Not quite done with the uberlist for 2012. Working on it. Overall, the year was not so bad. I didn’t race, but I did get engaged. And I’m now a certified coach. So, not so bad.

Not yet November here, but it’s been snowing off and on today in DC. Interesting. Let’s hope it’s not a precursor for the rest of the winter season, especially since I drive so much more now.

Spoke with my realtor this afternoon, looking to see where the market is in comparison to my own apartment and mortgage, as at some point I’d like to live with the boy (my cult co-op doesn’t allow dogs, and the beagle is part of the package). He’s going to pull some listings, but it doesn’t sound like I can yet afford to sell. Annoying, but I’ll deal. I had originally planned on the selling being part of a ‘five year plan’ rather than more immediately, so it simply looks like it will remain on the five year plan track. Did also chat about some punch list items that will need to be done in any case, but now I have more time to get them done. Yay economic depression.