Estela is happy, but my legs are weenies

Sunday, no workout for me. Watched other people working out big time, particularly my buddy Katie doing IMCDA. It was a tough windy day, and I only saw her a few seconds at the finish line. I hope she was happy with her day, but I didn't see her turning cartwheels or anything. I wasn't impressed with the video coverage.

Then there was the dog meeting. Ostensibly it's a book club meeting, but there were more dogs than people. Greyhounds in particular. They contributed nothing to the book conversation, and were bullies about converting the conversation to be about them. It was amusing, especially one particularly pungent comment. The next book is WTF to OMG by my buddy Jenna Sparks.

There was some wine whipping in the evening, along with some stretching and core. There was some patio sitting as well along the way. Linda is getting more plants.

Today I was getting a pump from this great hardware store in Okotoks. I still need to get an adaptor, but holy cow are some of the parts cheap! I think they're foamed aluminum, or plastic, poorly painted. I hope the pump actually works. Linda got yet more plants. They look very nice, but I'm beginning to wonder what the tax treatment is for greenhouses and plant nurseries.

Afterward went for a coffee with a buddy. Scoped out the Road to Nepal on the way home, seeing several cyclists along the way. This led me to looking at Estela, still trapped on the spin trainer, which I haven't been on in months. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was outside on my bike. She was so sad. So that's what I was going to do in the afternoon. For some reason there is only one tire iron. No idea where the other is. No doubt the cats have hidden it after doing unspeakable things to it. No issues getting the road tire on, which I took to be a good omen.

From there I was out. The idea was a nice easy ride around the neighbourhood to see if I could remember how to ride a bike. So far so good. It was a lovely ride, nice and easy, only got nearly run over once. Only a short little ride, covering hardly any distance, and no hills to speak of. This used to be barely a warmup. Now, my legs were knackered or nearly so at the end of it. Stretched out.

Even so, I've been invited on a 35 K ride on Friday. I think I'll try it, though I'll have to warn my buddies there might be some whining on the way back. And I think I'll be a total weenie about the draft.

The new grass is growing like gangbusters. I got a full big garbage bag of clippings. I had to cut it down to size using the weed whacker, then rake and rake and rake. Then relaxing. Look, there is a weed whacker hiding in the grass, see it?

For once in my life we are planning Canada Day stuff. No idea quite what yet, or where, but that's the idea. Probably downtown somewhere. And you? What are you doing Canada Day?

Not so exhausted anymore

Here it is, mid afternoon of a beautiful day, sitting on my patio in the shade, drinking wine, sniffing the breeze, looking at the new grass I really need to cut again. Fair warning, I have no idea where this post is going to go.

We've been pretty busy the last little while, dealing with the patio, getting followup details done, and generally dealing with life. Plant life in particular, though Linda has done all the planting. I've just toted and carried. Work life, in particular, which I don't much talk about here. As most of you know, I work in the oil and gas industry here. Let's just say that this workplace has it's own challenges. I like what I do, and I've particularly liked where I've been doing it, and I've especially liked the boss I had for the last two years. Note the tense there. She was "no longer with the company"-ed last week, along with her boss, and the other manager in our group. To say the herd is spooked is a fair statement.

This happens here. Re-orgs, downsizing, purges, divestitures, whatever the resin, the result is the same, people don't work there anymore on really short notice. It's happened to me several times, though this is a first to have my boss be fired, and me not. In spite of the company hot air about them "needing and wanting us", many of us contractors do not expect to be there in August, though stranger things have happened. We might be kept on. You don't have to be a rocket surgeon to predict the next steps people are taking.

So what with all that I've been dragging my butt for the last week, and the last couple days have been brutal. Friday night I was in bed by 8, after a bit of a nap after work, and I was still in bed at 7 this morning. That's one of my longest sleeps ever, though I was awake a bit in the night. I'm still tired, but not as bad as I was yesterday.

There was nothing fitness related for much of last week. Even the stretching and such has been low key. But this morning, wow! Michelle and I got ourselves sorted out for a run this morning from Glenmore Landing up to Sandy Beach. It was a hair over 10 K, and we had a wonderful run. We weren't in a rush, the weather was warm and sunny without being too hot, there was a nice breeze, and there weren't too many people on the path. The map is boring, and the pace was pretty even so that's boring too, so I won't put them up, unless Julie gets on my case about needing a numbers fix.

I wasn't sure about my legs, but there were no problems, chugging along at our regular chat chat chat place. The Sandy Beach bridge is still out, but at least there were construction workers down there doing construction things. The bike path from Glenmore Landing up to the Heritage Park ax is being twinned, and about time too. Stinky diesel smell for the start of our run. We were trying for an unusual selfie this time. This is what I got, hers is better. She says it's a shoe selfie.

The fun part of last week was getting a laser pointer for the cats. You really need video to see how quick Curtis reacts to the twitches of the light. We also got a couple harnesses and cord for them. They have often wanted to go out, but we want them out only under our supervision. After a few minutes being timid, Curtis strolled around, then hopped up to the fence, then up on the roof briefly. He seems quite accustomed to the harness, so I wonder if it's happened to him before. Celina promptly tangled herself up and needed rescuing several times. So the rest of the post is the cats doing their thing outside.

Now that the blog is done, I think I'll go back to work on the novel.

My brain got lost for a moment

What a day. What a week so far, and there's two more days of potential roller coaster yet. Vacation next week cannot come soon enough.

Monday swim was so-so at best. Water ran with Katie.

Tuesday was massage therapy, spending (for a miracle) most of the time on my traps and low back. My legs were pretty good, though there is lots of achy in there. No running so far this week.

Lots of stuff happened at work today, but we need not get into that. I was off to IKEA to get one more planter box. Linda had thought she got 4, but only got 3, and we needed 4. So I was off. In the middle of the store I had a bad moment where I totally lost my orientation to the world. Normally, I've got a really good sense of where north is. At almost any time you can ask what direction something is, and I can point towards it.

But tonight in IKEA I got turned around, and for a couple minutes I didn't know if I was coming or going. I didn't even know which direction was the parking lot. It was very disorienting. I console myself with the thought that they deliberately make it disorienting so you have to walk through the entire store and look at everything. What you look at, you might buy. Very clever, these Swedes.

It used to be, in the old IKEA store, I could walk through it almost blindfolded. I knew where everything was and where all the shortcuts were. Then they moved to the big store in Deerfoot Meadows, and I've been kind of lost in there ever since. I try not to go there much.

But it makes me wonder if this is how senility and dementia starts. We've all seen people wandering around lost. My one grandfather stopped driving after he took a detour around some construction, on the way to a place he had been a great many times, in a town he had lived much of his life in. He got off track, and couldn't get back on track again. He was found several hours later, driving aimlessly around.

Lately it seems like there is much for me to keep track of. It used to be the idea of simplifying your life was an attractive concept. Now it's becoming a necessity. I've already had to start building systems. My car and house keys always go in the same place. When I started wearing sunglasses, and hearing aids, I had to think about where they were going to live when I wasn't wearing them. I didn't wear my wrist watch to work today because it wasn't beside the computer where I keep it. Today I had to think about it for a moment, but I remembered I'd put it in my pack before the massage. There are times it takes me a while to recover that train of thought that tells me where I've put something.

And heaven help me if I was clever. There is a little counter weight that goes on the BBQ rotisserie. I do not have a clue in the world where it is, because I know I put it someplace after the last time I used it, so I'd be sure to find it again. Not. Sigh.

I sure hope this is just because I'm really tired and not sleeping well.

Have you ever been disoriented, and wonder if you've lost your grip? Parents need not answer, we already know.

What weekends are all about

It's been quite the adventure! A bit of a recap here, lots going on, and you get played out with a great reflection cat picture. What more could you want?

Friday we collapsed in a heap, except for the stroke of lightning about a mile away that blew up a deck in my neighborhood. That was very loud. Otherwise a quiet evening. I got this great double rainbow shot.

I also got a nice photo of a thunderhead from underneath, and snapseeded the heck out of it.

Saturday started with coffee, nice and easy. The very last bit of eavestroughing was done. They couldn't do anything till the fence was installed. Then off to Black Diamond for an art sale in a greenhouse. I found this great sunflower made from an old taxi that I just had to get. I'm not sure if this is where it's going to live for sure, but this is a good starting place.

Then lunch in Black Diamond at a place we've been wanting to try. The food was excellent, but the service was slow, even if it was just after lunch. I sat in the sun much too long, and ended up with a pink head and face.

I love me an old fashioned hardware store, and found one in Okotoks. What we bought there has to be delivered. Stay tuned.

Bison burgers on the BBQ. Awesome! Worked on my novel a bit while Linda reconnoitered plants.

Sunday I was up bright and early for another trail run with these two. You remember them.

We started from South Glenmore park near where the 37 St trail meets up, then left the bike path and ran through some trails Michelle had scoped out. It was beautiful.

Not all is as it seems, though. How many trail runs do you go on where you have to consider the possibility of UXO?

I'm not sure where these duckboards came from, but they made an interesting obstacle.

Looking at a bunch of swampy bit, near where we were planning to turn around anyway. Discussions.

 The obligatory post run shared selfie.

Tending to our social media fans. The things we do for you guys. Or maybe we were just dealing with our GPS stuff.

It was a lovely run, my legs were happy about it. Not too far, just over 4 K, and nice easy pace. The trail was mostly in pretty good shape, only a few puddles.

Then more shopping for us. Linda choosing plants while I guarded the already captured ones.

Then a deal on a patio table, with some adventures getting it home. Our very first ever lunch in the back yard!

Lastly, the promised shot of a cranky Curtis. He's on a bit of a diet these days. The vet gave me the stern eye, and said he's still gaining weight. So we have to be a lot more strict about how much food he's getting. Plus spending much of the weekend outside means he isn't getting the lap time he wants. I think he's made his feelings clear, don't you?

How was your Solstice weekend?

OK, so you guys aren't interested in my mojos

But that doesn't bother me. The swim mojo came back happy, but worn out. My swim started really well, then kind of fell apart at the end. This was after a 15 minute water run to let the swim pool clear out. The entertaining part was watching the girl in the next lane practicing her synchro swimming moves.

It stopped raining by the time we got home. I wasted little time, other than being stuck on hold for a while, getting changed and out for a run. I was a bit worried about this. I haven't really run since the half marathon, and the couple of K earlier this week didn't really reassure me. But I headed out anyways. The first K was brutal. I chugged along, out of wind, tired legs, wondering.

But it got gradually better. Everything settled down, and while it won't go down as one of the best runs ever, I'm not going to try to forget about it. I didn't have anyone to keep me on track, so I just ran along. It felt slow, and I was breathing harder than I thought I should be. Missing my run buddies. Since I haven't done a graph for a while, here you go.

My mojos said they were out looking for their buddy the bike mojo who has been missing for a long time. I think they were out partying.

At least my yoga mojo isn't out for a 3-some

After the almighty thunk yesterday,  I could feel my legs were much happier with me today. I was looking forward to yoga class even more than usual, and not just because our lovely instructor lets us choose the poses. I had a feeling I'd have a good class, after struggling with it much of the year.

Sure enough. Yesterday each side of my butt had a huge knot in it that I could feel as I rolled over it. The feeling was exactly like I had a lacrosse ball in my pocket, or an extra hip bone had grown. That's essentially gone tonight. Doing a forward bend has been a slow, careful process, and often I didn't get anywhere near my toes. Tonight, not just finger to toes, not just fingers to floor, but knuckles to floor. Something in my back has sure loosened up.

The yoga mojo was there for me tonight! Which makes me happy. Last we all heard, my swim and run mojo were off somewhere. Maybe they were looking for my bike mojo, I haven't seen that in months. I'll find out tomorrow morning if the swim love is there. If I get a good night's sleep, I'm thinking so. Pity it's flooding down rain, the temptation is to go for a run. This weekend for sure.

I'm going to miss our yoga class over the summer. It's been a good part of my Wednesday routine for many years now. Somehow I always say I'll do yoga during the summer, and usually I don't, at least not regularly.

Did the earth move for you?

It just did for me. In other news, Linda is home from Ontario.

Monday was a messed up day. Someone scheduled me for an 8:30 meeting that needed a bunch of prep to get my head into the right space. Then they cancelled it at 8. Sigh. So I missed a water run with my buddy Katie.

While it wasn't raining I went out and marked a bunch of rocks with chalk, and then pressure washed them. The elusive last two that had escaped all washing are now washed. Then it rained. There was a break in the rain this afternoon and while not completely dry, they look pretty good. Meanwhile the grass is growing like crazy. I'm gonna have to weed whack it before I can cut it.

I spent a lot of time stretching and twisting, trying to get something to click and relax. No luck.

Tuesday morning I was in the pool, but wasn't feeling the swim love. I think the problem was that I hadn't eaten enough breakfast. After water running 10 or 15 minutes, I sort of mostly swam about 15. My head wasn't in the game at all. Maybe my swim mojo, and my run mojo are off doing something illicit or immoral together.

More time stretching and twisting tonight. Almost. So close. Then while I was shifting position between stretches there was an almighty thunk. A good one from my low back somewhere. I can already feel muscles relaxing. All is good. No, I didn't have a cigarette after.