First Boston was a big city. Then a cool band. Then just a city again, for a long time. Then I started to hear about BQ and this marathon. I'd known there was a thing called the Boston marathon, and I even knew how far it was. Not that I could ever run that far, until the day I ran and walked that far. I looked up the BQ for my age, and am dubious I could ever do so. Now it's a tragedy and a crime scene.
I hadn't paid much attention to it this year, since I hadn't heard anyone I know saying there were doing it. Then this afternoon I was frantically racking my brain. Hoping that nobody I knew, or the friend of a friend had been injured. Already knowing that some of the people in a community that I'm part of have been killed or injured.
My real hope out of this is that the USA doesn't go invade someone to take out their collective anger, however justified it might be. In a bigger sense, and not to detract from the horror of Boston, it's a very slow weekend in America if cars or guns don't exact a bigger toll.
Watching the snow fall, and shoveling it was the sum total of my activity yesterday. Today was better, with a strong 40 minute swim, a few minutes of water running. Then dance this evening, which is just killing my knees. Stretch and core after, including plank stability stuff.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Monday, April 15, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
A snowy quiet day with proof
The forecast said it was going to snow lots today, maybe 5 cm or more. In Calgary that means one part of the city can be clear and sunny, and other parts are digging out. It's a good bet that the higher you are (hello NW) the more snow you get. One morning driving to work up Deerfoot I was surprised to see a line of snow across Nose Hill park. Snow on top, nothing below, and the line between could have been drawn with a ruler.
We zoomed out fairly early this morning to get to the market as it opened. There's a new bakery vendor in Kingsland, but we already have a couple of excellent suppliers for bread, and they didn't tempt us. The bakery treats looked ok, but our standards are very high. We didn't try, since I'd picked up cinnamon buns from La Boulangerie. Maybe another time.
The market was very quiet, which was a bit of a surprise. Once home we had coffee and the buns, reading and relaxing. It snowed off and on. I napped with the cats a bit. Stereo purrs are very relaxing. Later on I was on the bike for 30 minutes. There was no pain, but my left leg certainly felt weak. I could maintain cadence with the right alone, but the left alone quickly fell off to essentially nothing. Lots of stretching after, especially the ball on the left IT band. There were some ooooo! spots today. Plank. Pigeon.
I finished Proof of Heavy by Ebon Alexander, though I'm still mulling it over. In my traditional fashion, I'm going to write about it to see what I think.
He was attacked by a rare form of bacterial meningitis and fell into a coma for 7 days. Normally this sort of illness eats your brain till you die, but he appears to have recovered fully and with a remarkable story.
The book is an easy and straightforward read. There's a bit of detail around his illness and what the impact on his brain was. The essence was that his neo-cortex was completely off line.
There are many people upset by accounts of near death experiences. They say it's an elaborate hallucination. Other people just as fervently believe it's proof of God, their God in particular. Lots of people are like me, somewhere in the middle.
I haven't believe a word organized religion has to say for itself since I saw what most people professed to belief, and how they actually behaved. One of my major rules in life is when confronted by what people do, and what people say, believe what they do every time. Then I started reading about the horrors of the Catholic Church over the many centuries up to the here and now. Anybody that thinks they've changed their spots on child abuse is fooling themselves.
So, God as constructed by old white men of Western thought is out. The various gods of the Greeks, Romans, and Norse were no better and often worse than the men worshiping them. At least sometimes afterward there was a good barbecue of fat bull to chow down on. All those gods are long gone.
I'm much less familiar with the God worshipped by various Jewish sects, and with Allah as worshiped by various sects of Islam. What little I knew of them strikes me as a God consumed by minutia and willing to smite anyone who disobeys. Or maybe that's the priests in charge of determining God's will. It's difficult to figure out.
I'm even less familiar with the Gods worshipped by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and many others, and won't go into it. If they made any more sense than the other religions they are competing with, there would be a lot more people holding those beliefs. I take the position that if a religion accurately described a real actual God, one who responded to prayers or demonstrated some tangible evidence of it's existence, and gave rules for living that resulted in everybody having a better life, it would be so compelling that almost everybody would join it. There would be very little dispute.
I firmly believe that almost every one of the people in positions of authority in all those religions are in it for themselves, having discovered a tool to help keep them fed and clothed for doing little more than talk. In some cases they use religion as a club to beat anyone that disagrees with them. Every once in a while you find a kind and gentle soul that really believes, and really tries to do good.
Yet I believe there is more to ourselves than what we see and touch on a daily basis. There are a great many anecdotal accounts of a great many experiences that cannot be explained today, at least not in terms that our science understands. Many people take the position that if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist. That seems short-sighted to me. There are many things we couldn't measure until recently, like light diffraction, yet that rainbow existed all along.
We don't know much about dreams, or the paranormal accounts of people from comas or near death experiences. They might be hallucination, or be the outcome of something that we don't understand acting on our brains, and the similarity of stories comes from the similarities of our brains. If we knew that the presence of condition x produced people giving accounts of NDE, and without it there were no accounts of NDE, we'd be on the way to getting ourselves sorted out. It's just that our brains are exceedingly complex, and the things that could be condition x are very numerous. I don't think we're going to get a definitive answer from science any time soon.
Or, they could be real as our world, in a way we don't understand yet. We don't have the language, and our sensory organs are limited. What Dr. Alexander tells us could be completely true, and we lack the language to accurately describe it. That the universe is love, and an extremely complex entity, complex beyond human understanding, loves each of us warts and all.
Our religions may have started off with someone having a mystical experience, one they couldn't explain in the terms available there and then. If they were sufficiently charismatic about describing the experience, it's easy to see how a religion could be born.
My position is that if you have an extraordinary claim, you need to be willing to provide extraordinary proof, or at least submit to conditions that will rule out cheating. I don't think I have to account to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates for every action or non-action in my life and he decides if I go to heaven or elsewhere.
However, I do think we are here for a reason, and that after we die, we are re-united with a greater part of ourselves, and that more complex entity. I think there is a self evaluation, to look back on your life here and see how you did, in a place where there is only honesty and love. Maybe you didn't learn what you wanted to learn, and you feel you have to have another go at it. Or you did learn, and it's on to the next thing.
Or you go to help someone else, or others in general. We've all met people wise beyond their years. A few words from them can have a profound impact on someone. I've had people tell me, sometimes years later, that I had an impact on them, from something I said or was doing. It's an amazing compliment. I've had people straighten me out with a few words, or I see an example of someone leading a good life.
I'm of an age where I can look back and reflect on life, while still being young enough to look forward to much more. There are things I've said or done in my past I'm ashamed of, and I've tried to do better. The book doesn't prove to me that heaven exists, though I hope it does. One of my goals is to live as if it was true. Not that going to heaven is a reward for being good. It's being able to look back on a life well lived, and present yourself to a greater being with dignity, even if that being is you in some senses.
What do you think?
We zoomed out fairly early this morning to get to the market as it opened. There's a new bakery vendor in Kingsland, but we already have a couple of excellent suppliers for bread, and they didn't tempt us. The bakery treats looked ok, but our standards are very high. We didn't try, since I'd picked up cinnamon buns from La Boulangerie. Maybe another time.
The market was very quiet, which was a bit of a surprise. Once home we had coffee and the buns, reading and relaxing. It snowed off and on. I napped with the cats a bit. Stereo purrs are very relaxing. Later on I was on the bike for 30 minutes. There was no pain, but my left leg certainly felt weak. I could maintain cadence with the right alone, but the left alone quickly fell off to essentially nothing. Lots of stretching after, especially the ball on the left IT band. There were some ooooo! spots today. Plank. Pigeon.
I finished Proof of Heavy by Ebon Alexander, though I'm still mulling it over. In my traditional fashion, I'm going to write about it to see what I think.
He was attacked by a rare form of bacterial meningitis and fell into a coma for 7 days. Normally this sort of illness eats your brain till you die, but he appears to have recovered fully and with a remarkable story.
The book is an easy and straightforward read. There's a bit of detail around his illness and what the impact on his brain was. The essence was that his neo-cortex was completely off line.
There are many people upset by accounts of near death experiences. They say it's an elaborate hallucination. Other people just as fervently believe it's proof of God, their God in particular. Lots of people are like me, somewhere in the middle.
I haven't believe a word organized religion has to say for itself since I saw what most people professed to belief, and how they actually behaved. One of my major rules in life is when confronted by what people do, and what people say, believe what they do every time. Then I started reading about the horrors of the Catholic Church over the many centuries up to the here and now. Anybody that thinks they've changed their spots on child abuse is fooling themselves.
So, God as constructed by old white men of Western thought is out. The various gods of the Greeks, Romans, and Norse were no better and often worse than the men worshiping them. At least sometimes afterward there was a good barbecue of fat bull to chow down on. All those gods are long gone.
I'm much less familiar with the God worshipped by various Jewish sects, and with Allah as worshiped by various sects of Islam. What little I knew of them strikes me as a God consumed by minutia and willing to smite anyone who disobeys. Or maybe that's the priests in charge of determining God's will. It's difficult to figure out.
I'm even less familiar with the Gods worshipped by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and many others, and won't go into it. If they made any more sense than the other religions they are competing with, there would be a lot more people holding those beliefs. I take the position that if a religion accurately described a real actual God, one who responded to prayers or demonstrated some tangible evidence of it's existence, and gave rules for living that resulted in everybody having a better life, it would be so compelling that almost everybody would join it. There would be very little dispute.
I firmly believe that almost every one of the people in positions of authority in all those religions are in it for themselves, having discovered a tool to help keep them fed and clothed for doing little more than talk. In some cases they use religion as a club to beat anyone that disagrees with them. Every once in a while you find a kind and gentle soul that really believes, and really tries to do good.
Yet I believe there is more to ourselves than what we see and touch on a daily basis. There are a great many anecdotal accounts of a great many experiences that cannot be explained today, at least not in terms that our science understands. Many people take the position that if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist. That seems short-sighted to me. There are many things we couldn't measure until recently, like light diffraction, yet that rainbow existed all along.
We don't know much about dreams, or the paranormal accounts of people from comas or near death experiences. They might be hallucination, or be the outcome of something that we don't understand acting on our brains, and the similarity of stories comes from the similarities of our brains. If we knew that the presence of condition x produced people giving accounts of NDE, and without it there were no accounts of NDE, we'd be on the way to getting ourselves sorted out. It's just that our brains are exceedingly complex, and the things that could be condition x are very numerous. I don't think we're going to get a definitive answer from science any time soon.
Or, they could be real as our world, in a way we don't understand yet. We don't have the language, and our sensory organs are limited. What Dr. Alexander tells us could be completely true, and we lack the language to accurately describe it. That the universe is love, and an extremely complex entity, complex beyond human understanding, loves each of us warts and all.
Our religions may have started off with someone having a mystical experience, one they couldn't explain in the terms available there and then. If they were sufficiently charismatic about describing the experience, it's easy to see how a religion could be born.
My position is that if you have an extraordinary claim, you need to be willing to provide extraordinary proof, or at least submit to conditions that will rule out cheating. I don't think I have to account to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates for every action or non-action in my life and he decides if I go to heaven or elsewhere.
However, I do think we are here for a reason, and that after we die, we are re-united with a greater part of ourselves, and that more complex entity. I think there is a self evaluation, to look back on your life here and see how you did, in a place where there is only honesty and love. Maybe you didn't learn what you wanted to learn, and you feel you have to have another go at it. Or you did learn, and it's on to the next thing.
Or you go to help someone else, or others in general. We've all met people wise beyond their years. A few words from them can have a profound impact on someone. I've had people tell me, sometimes years later, that I had an impact on them, from something I said or was doing. It's an amazing compliment. I've had people straighten me out with a few words, or I see an example of someone leading a good life.
I'm of an age where I can look back and reflect on life, while still being young enough to look forward to much more. There are things I've said or done in my past I'm ashamed of, and I've tried to do better. The book doesn't prove to me that heaven exists, though I hope it does. One of my goals is to live as if it was true. Not that going to heaven is a reward for being good. It's being able to look back on a life well lived, and present yourself to a greater being with dignity, even if that being is you in some senses.
What do you think?
Friday, April 12, 2013
The before, a disaster area
Another week zoomed. The water feel is coming back, which makes me happy. Amazing how a simple thing like not swimming for 3 weeks turns you into a floatie. Swam 40 minutes feeling stronger, but no water run after.
Core in the evening, with two plank sessions. First was 125 seconds, the other was 90 seconds. Rolled my legs with the ball. The spots that used to be ooooooooo! Are now feeling much less tender. I could contemplate running now, and if it's not too crappy this weekend I might. I'm much more likely to get on the bike.
I had Celina curled up on my lap for a nap after work. I napped a bit too. When I look at the full sized version of this I'm amazed all over at the resolution of a phone camera.
Not as pretty as a Neil Zellor shot, but I caught the sunrise for this one. Slightly tweaked in Snapseed.
Saving the worst for last, this is what I'll be working on this spring. The box to the left has essentially rotted away, and has to be removed. The other boxes are fine, but the contents need work. A lattice has to go onto the framework. I'm seriously contemplating renting a power thatcher to get all the crap off the lawn, and that's if I don't rent a bobcat and strip it out entirely to be replaced with nice clean white gravel. There is much weeding to be done, and day lilies to be moved.
Core in the evening, with two plank sessions. First was 125 seconds, the other was 90 seconds. Rolled my legs with the ball. The spots that used to be ooooooooo! Are now feeling much less tender. I could contemplate running now, and if it's not too crappy this weekend I might. I'm much more likely to get on the bike.
I had Celina curled up on my lap for a nap after work. I napped a bit too. When I look at the full sized version of this I'm amazed all over at the resolution of a phone camera.
Not as pretty as a Neil Zellor shot, but I caught the sunrise for this one. Slightly tweaked in Snapseed.
Saving the worst for last, this is what I'll be working on this spring. The box to the left has essentially rotted away, and has to be removed. The other boxes are fine, but the contents need work. A lattice has to go onto the framework. I'm seriously contemplating renting a power thatcher to get all the crap off the lawn, and that's if I don't rent a bobcat and strip it out entirely to be replaced with nice clean white gravel. There is much weeding to be done, and day lilies to be moved.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
One of the shortest on record
Blog posts, that is. Yawn. Many things pending, but bed is calling me. Especially after this. Light and smooth, with a great wine taste. Easy to drink lots of, especially with a big cat purring in your lap. Bottled July 2010.
Even money if I get to plank before bed. Oh, and must pack swim bag for an early start.
Even money if I get to plank before bed. Oh, and must pack swim bag for an early start.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
pain-free core yoga sunset bliss
Our yoga studio has nice windows, and with a bit of luck we can see the mountains. Tonight, in between poses, I was enjoying the sunset reflections in the big windows of the building opposite the studio. It was very pretty, and I was managing to enjoy the subtle changes without being distracted from the class. The yellows and golds and russets exactly suited my mood. I told our teacher I had been tempted to take a few photos, but didn't, since I was enjoying the class so much.
Trying to do this class last week would have been brutal. But this week it was just what I needed. A nice workout for my legs, some good stretches and twists. My legs are feeling better by the day, with the quads and IT bands relaxing more. The aggressive rolling and core work seems to be helping.
Speaking of core, in yoga we did plank, so there's my plank-a-day thing done. This was with an interesting twist. Literally. Start in plank position. Rotate your hips so your feet roll onto their sides and you face sort of sideways. Then back to normal plank and over to the other side. Plus bicycle. Another really good yoga class in the books. This was a class that I wish could have gone on longer.
The swim was pretty good this morning too. The water feel is coming back, though I'm a bit tired from working the paddles. Water ran with Katie again.
Have you ever been so in the groove of a yoga class where you could enjoy what was going on around you without being distracted? That the surroundings enhanced the class?
Trying to do this class last week would have been brutal. But this week it was just what I needed. A nice workout for my legs, some good stretches and twists. My legs are feeling better by the day, with the quads and IT bands relaxing more. The aggressive rolling and core work seems to be helping.
Speaking of core, in yoga we did plank, so there's my plank-a-day thing done. This was with an interesting twist. Literally. Start in plank position. Rotate your hips so your feet roll onto their sides and you face sort of sideways. Then back to normal plank and over to the other side. Plus bicycle. Another really good yoga class in the books. This was a class that I wish could have gone on longer.
The swim was pretty good this morning too. The water feel is coming back, though I'm a bit tired from working the paddles. Water ran with Katie again.
Have you ever been so in the groove of a yoga class where you could enjoy what was going on around you without being distracted? That the surroundings enhanced the class?
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Nearly popped a gasket
I'd forgotten I'd taken this photo, almost by accident last weekend. This is the sun bouncing off another house, coming through our back window, and casting a shadow from our hibiscus on the wall. I've played with it a bit, of course, since it was pretty faint.
After I leave work traffic normally isn't too bad for us. We park near City Hall, zoom out 9th, duck under the new underpass, right, then left onto McLeod Trail, and we're well on our way home. Today there was an incident of some kind on 11th, slowing down traffic trying to get out of downtown. There I was, walking WITH the walk sign, dodging cars in the cross walk, keeping an eye over my shoulder for people turning right, and sure enough. The two normal turn lanes are blocked because an idiot scooted across the intersection on a red. A guy from one of the left lanes decides to be opportunistic, and make that right turn he hadn't been able to get over for. I'd just managed to get around the guy blocking the intersection, when the guy turning right barreled into the far left hand lane (it's a 4 lane one way onto a 4 lane one way), which just happened to be the lane I was about to walk into. I gave hime a glare and shook my finger at him. He at least had the grace to look startled, and gave me a placatory wave. If he'd had to stop I'd have had some words with him, but he had some room, and I didn't feel like chasing him down on the road portion of the underpass. That got my heart rate up a little. You can never, ever take your eyes off the traffic here.
Sushi for dinner, and some awesome chocolate cookies! Then a core workout, and this is where the gasket straining happened. Doing the plankaday thing, going for time. It was getting tough, so I opened my eyes to see how long, and it was 1:45. I gritted my teeth and decided to go for 2 minutes. That took the better part of forever, panting, trying to clench every muscle that might possibly contribute to the cause, and then collapsed on the 120 seconds. Yay me!
In other news a buddy of mine wants to sell some Zipp 808/1080 race wheels. Maybe 450 K on them. Contact me and I'll put you onto my buddy. Here's a pic of her bike cuddling mine.
After I leave work traffic normally isn't too bad for us. We park near City Hall, zoom out 9th, duck under the new underpass, right, then left onto McLeod Trail, and we're well on our way home. Today there was an incident of some kind on 11th, slowing down traffic trying to get out of downtown. There I was, walking WITH the walk sign, dodging cars in the cross walk, keeping an eye over my shoulder for people turning right, and sure enough. The two normal turn lanes are blocked because an idiot scooted across the intersection on a red. A guy from one of the left lanes decides to be opportunistic, and make that right turn he hadn't been able to get over for. I'd just managed to get around the guy blocking the intersection, when the guy turning right barreled into the far left hand lane (it's a 4 lane one way onto a 4 lane one way), which just happened to be the lane I was about to walk into. I gave hime a glare and shook my finger at him. He at least had the grace to look startled, and gave me a placatory wave. If he'd had to stop I'd have had some words with him, but he had some room, and I didn't feel like chasing him down on the road portion of the underpass. That got my heart rate up a little. You can never, ever take your eyes off the traffic here.
Sushi for dinner, and some awesome chocolate cookies! Then a core workout, and this is where the gasket straining happened. Doing the plankaday thing, going for time. It was getting tough, so I opened my eyes to see how long, and it was 1:45. I gritted my teeth and decided to go for 2 minutes. That took the better part of forever, panting, trying to clench every muscle that might possibly contribute to the cause, and then collapsed on the 120 seconds. Yay me!
In other news a buddy of mine wants to sell some Zipp 808/1080 race wheels. Maybe 450 K on them. Contact me and I'll put you onto my buddy. Here's a pic of her bike cuddling mine.
Monday, April 8, 2013
That was good, while it lasted
My legs have been feeling better. The swim was good this morning, considering I felt tired and slow. The water feel is coming back. I can feel myself tightening up and my stroke going to crap, so I've been working on staying relaxed and breathing deeply. My legs won't let me do as much dolphin drill. Lots of pull today, with the new hand paddles. Water ran after with Katie. She is yet another person that loves Night Circus. If you're a reader, and haven't read it, go get it. Now. You can thank me later.
Doing the regular walking after the swim and during the day was great! I felt almost back to normal, almost like thinking about considering going for a run.
However, dance class is tougher on me than just walking. Waltz and swing, two tough dances for knees. There were lots of complaints by the end of the night. I went straight downstairs after for some stretching and lots of rolling. And plankaday! Front, left side, then with leg up, front, right side, tried the leg up and collapsed. Boo.
Our book club is taking a metaphysical bent this month, reading Proof of Heaven, and Beyond Belief, in addition to the one I reviewed yesterday.
There were lots of people choked about the snow here last night. Weenies. It's April, after all, and it has snowed in Calgary every month of the year. Suck it up. Spring doesn't really come until late May, at best.
I missed telling a cat story that happened on the weekend. You might remember that both of our cats are very interested in coffee, to the extent we have to guard our cups. Linda unfortunately relaxed after she fended off a sniffing Celina. Her nose went the other way and it looked like she was going to settle in. Then the tail dived into the coffee cup like it had radar. Then out, and Celina sat there licking it off her tail with a smug expression.
Zero spam since I set my commenting preferences like this. I mean zero! I have no idea if there are hordes of real commenters dying of frustration they can't comment, but I doubt it. I've got the moderation set to a fairly small number of days.
Doing the regular walking after the swim and during the day was great! I felt almost back to normal, almost like thinking about considering going for a run.
However, dance class is tougher on me than just walking. Waltz and swing, two tough dances for knees. There were lots of complaints by the end of the night. I went straight downstairs after for some stretching and lots of rolling. And plankaday! Front, left side, then with leg up, front, right side, tried the leg up and collapsed. Boo.
Our book club is taking a metaphysical bent this month, reading Proof of Heaven, and Beyond Belief, in addition to the one I reviewed yesterday.
There were lots of people choked about the snow here last night. Weenies. It's April, after all, and it has snowed in Calgary every month of the year. Suck it up. Spring doesn't really come until late May, at best.
I missed telling a cat story that happened on the weekend. You might remember that both of our cats are very interested in coffee, to the extent we have to guard our cups. Linda unfortunately relaxed after she fended off a sniffing Celina. Her nose went the other way and it looked like she was going to settle in. Then the tail dived into the coffee cup like it had radar. Then out, and Celina sat there licking it off her tail with a smug expression.
Zero spam since I set my commenting preferences like this. I mean zero! I have no idea if there are hordes of real commenters dying of frustration they can't comment, but I doubt it. I've got the moderation set to a fairly small number of days.
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