I became a sustaining member of MPR a while back, and I've decided to also become a sustaining member of Jazz 88. I listen to it all the time now since moving to the new pad (better reception here!) - it's what's on most of time in my house. Great stuff.
We are very fortunate to have the 3 excellent MPR stations and Jazz 88 here in the Twin Towns.
Support public radio!
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Now playing: duke ellington & john coltrane - in a sentimental mood
Had planned to run the last part of the TCM course today, but ended up not doing it. I'll do it some evening this week instead. I've decided to do some nice-n-easy evening runs this week, and use that extra hour of sleep in the morning to ensure I stay well-rested.
However, today was a very productive day - I finally finished hanging the last of my pictures & art. My one remaining project was to hang pictures in the front "hallway" I created using my freestanding bookshelf. It's a mishmash of photos and some art, all in different frames and just randomly hung along the wall. I think it turned out pretty well. Trying to take a picture of it wouldn't really work, but you can decide for yourself if you see it sometime.
It's definitely nice to finally have everything inside the house finally in its place.
Great dinner last night with some family. Good times had by all - thanks for hosting, Mom!
Yesterday's GPS Rundown:
Nokomis Loop mod
6.14 miles / 48:57 time / 7:58 pace
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Now playing: the cranberries - sunday
Looking forward to a great weekend!
GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis plus
7.03 miles / 54:36 time / 7:46 pace
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Now playing: fiona apple - pale september
Exterior caulking shenanigans are complete. Well, as much as I'm going to do this season anyway. Outside of ongoing yard & The Gardens cleanup, the last remaining sorta big job left to do this fall is to better winterize the basement. It's actually fine now, but I'd like to beef it up where it makes sense to do it. So, a little insulation and pipe-wrap here & there, and maybe putting on a hot-water heater blanket/wrap/cozy or whatever they are called.
There's a squirrel who thinks the yard is his (hers?), and he hasn't been a happy camper ever since I've moved in. We have some good stare-down contests, and when I'm around the yard too much when he has stuff to do (which typically consists of digging far-larger-than-necessary holes all over the yard), he likes to sit on the roof or low in my backyard tree and bark out his displeasure with my presence. He pooped right in the middle of my brand-new doormat when I first moved in (caught him doing that), and he regularly pees in the middle of my walkways and on my stairs when he knows I'm around & I'll notice. There's no other explanation for those sudden little puddles.
So. Yeah. That little punk is on my list. One of these days...
GPS Rundown:
No GPS today (on purpose). No goals, no objectives - just went out for a run.
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Now playing: echo and the bunnymen - the killing moon
Knee is still all good. Had lunch with one of my brothers today. It's always great to catch up with him; I really enjoy our lunch get-togethers downtown. He asked how the marathon prep was going (he's done several himself) - when I told him that I was considering doing a big-mileage run this weekend to test out the knee, he wisely steered me away from that idea. Sometimes, we just need that simple sanity check from someone else to know the right course of action to take. Thanks for the vector, big bro!
My plan is to keep on with my ~5 mile morning runs through next week (I enjoy them - Lake Nokomis is uniquely peaceful at that early hour), and to run the last part of the marathon course this weekend. From his own TCM experiences, my brother had some excellent insight on how that last stretch of the course is going to feel at various points. Good stuff!
Other than that, I've been doing some exterior caulking on the house (around the window & door frames, the basement block-windows, etc). A few more exterior things to take care of before the cold & dark of fall sets in, but I should be able to get the big-picture stuff accomplished.
Today's "Doh!" new homeowner lesson: Caulk guns do not have an off switch, so set it down in between beads - continuing to grip it will inevitably just ooze more out. And, overall, they require a much lighter touch than one may first imagine. Ugh.
GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis loop mod
5.05 miles / 39:45 time / 7:52 pace
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Now playing: pilooski - take care of business (nina simone)
Forgot to post yesterday, and lost the run data. Ugh. Knee still is feeling great, so I'm grateful for that. Otherwise, not much to report so far this week. Storm passed by and the house is still standing, so that's a good thing.
GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis loop mod
5.07 miles / 40:02 time / 7:54 pace
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Now playing: the smiths - there is a light that never goes out
Where to start?... It's been a while!
The knee feels good lately. No running there for a while because of it, but this past week, I've started to run a bit again. Lots of ice and a steady diet of Aleve has certainly helped. I did 10 miles today, and everything felt great. Barring a re-injury (fingers crossed!), I'm now back at the point of definitely planning to start the TCM. I'll up the daily mileage this week, and go for one last long run this coming weekend to test those waters.
The house is looking purty sweet. I'm trying to clear out the yard and what I like to call The Gardens (ha!) before the cold weather rolls in. Lots of little maples and elms were growing in The Gardens, all along the fence lines, and too near the house foundation. Those all had to go. What I couldn't dig up (which wasn't much - even the teeny ones have roots from hell), I just had to cut back & down. PITA. So, although I got a lot of clearing out done this weekend, I still have plenty more to do. Next on the list is some serious weeding, and then transplanting some ferns and hostas to better places around the homestead. The rest of the exterior plans will then have to wait until next year.
People have been bugging me for pics of the new casa, so I'll try to get some posted in the near future.
To my dear family and good friends - be on the lookout for an email soon with my updated contact info. I'll give y'all my new mailing address, and a new primary email address that I'm starting to use. I'll get that email out this week.
Otherwise, life is good. It's nice to have the whole "settling into the new house" scene finally down to a dull roar. For the past month, I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing new house. I'm looking forward to some great fall mountain biking (yay for night riding!), and just getting back out there in general ;-)
GPS Rundown:
Minnehaha variation
10.04 miles / 1:21:29 time / 8:07 pace
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Now playing: joe venuti & eddie lang - goin' places
No run yesterday - just didn't work out with some other things going on, so I went for a big run today. My last longish run was August 16th, but I've had a strong past week of running, so I figured I was ready to go large. In hindsight, maybe not a good idea given the circumstances. I wasn't quite as well rested as I usually am for big runs, and I didn't prepare very well with a good carbo dinner the night prior, nor did I front-load my hydration as well as I normally do.
I ended up with a left knee that's killin' me right now - I'm almost certain it's not in the joint, and doesn't really feel like a tendon issue, but something down there is not happy about today's run. I'm going to ice it more tonight, pop a couple more Bayer, and get a good night's rest. Also, I'm right now hydrating practically to the point of my eyes watering - I feel like my earlier lack of proper hydration has a lot to do with my feeling ass-kicked right now. And what's up with that? The infamous Hydro seems to be losing his edge! ;-) Lesson learned, and I'll definitely be better about it from now on. I think I've just gotten lazier about hydrating properly because of the cooler weather and I'm not sweating as much - but I know that being properly hydrated isn't all about replacing the sweat, and today was a great reminder of that.
Other than my gimpy knee inducing pained grimaces & hissed cuss words that resulted in other folks out on The Lakes' trails to go wide around me and nervously avoid eye contact, the run went quite well; I was happily surprised with how the pace turned out. No stops today, and I'm proud of that too.
No run tomorrow for sure; I'm on hold right now until I see how this knee issue turns out.
GPS Rundown:
Chain of Lakes variation
18.02 miles / 2:32:24 time / 8:27 pace
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Now playing: jane's addiction - price i pay
That's the crazy thing about time off work - days just start running together. Spent some time on the outside of the house today. I mowed and cleaned out the gutters. It's been at least a month since the yard was mowed, so that was quite a bit to chew through. And I'm very glad I did the gutters - they were completely filled with dirt, debris, and even baby trees. And I took down that stupid satellite dish that was on my roof. I left only the base of it on (since it may just damage the roof to attempt removing it now), but it's great to have that worthless eyesore gone.
Tonight, I'll start putting the living room together. All of the painting turned out really well; I'm very happy with it.
Good run today. I had some pent-up energy I worked out during the run - felt good.
GPS Rundown:
Nokomis loop variation
6.90 miles / 53:39 time / 7:46 pace
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Now playing: sonic youth - one hundred percent
I've been running late mornings or early afternoons this week (that works well with the painting schedule), and will transition back to early morning runs starting next week. In the meantime, you can't ask for much better running weather than the last couple of days - it's about perfect.
GPS Rundown:
Nokomis loop variation
6.26 miles / 51:17 time / 8:12 pace
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Now playing: electronic - tighten up
I'm finally back to blogging - I'll be better about updates now that I'm getting settled in more.
House news:
It's coming along very nicely. Slower than anticipated for several reasons, but all is going well. The move itself went great - everything arrived safely, but I ran into some unforeseen problems once it was all over here. My bed didn't fit up the stairway to the second floor, so that was a bummer. I had concerns about that fit ever since I first saw the house, but I figured there must be some way. There isn't. This slightly older house (1949 build) just has skinnier doorways and stairwells than more modern houses, and it just wasn't going to have any part of that bed's unique head/footboards or it's queen-sized traditional mattress/boxspring. So, I now have a completely outfitted spare bedroom on the main floor. And it is quite literally a bed room - that ginormous bed takes up just about all of the smallish room, but hey, at least it fits in there! Next, I wanted to set up my TV area in the basement rec room, and then get new living room furniture to have a real living room upstairs (no TV!). My couch and chair wouldn't fit through the basement stairwell. So, those are staying on the main floor too. No big deal there - those furniture pieces are still in great shape and will work fine in my living room. Otherwise, things are slowly finding their place here.
I'm painting right now - the office and spare bedroom are done (and put together), and I just finished the dining room (waiting for that to dry completely overnight now). Tomorrow, I'll paint the living room. Then - finally - I'll be able to get everything pretty much moved into place. Right now, the living room and basement are still filled with mucho flotsam & jetsam of moving carnage. And my kitchen isn't faring much better, although I can at least make my morning coffee ;-)
On the bright side, I did end up with a great new queen-sized mattress and bedframe from good ol' Ikea that I absolutely love. It's a latex mattress that was just barely pliable enough to mash & stuff up the stairway. So, my upstairs master bedroom is looking (and feeling!) good. I also scored a basic cheapie sofa arrangement from Ikea to use downstairs for the TV area; it's nothing great, but it does the job. I don't watch enough TV to justify paying for cable, so I got one of those HD boxes and an indoor HD antenna, and it seems to be working out fine. Reception down there is a tad sketchy sometimes, but I haven't really made a concerted effort yet to tweak the setup. It'll be good enough. I really like the notion of having an adult living room with no idiot box, so that thing is staying downstairs no matter what.
My washer and dryer fit downstairs fine (whew!). Getting the old ones out was an adventure though. I thought I could perhaps do it by myself, and I did indeed manage to get the dryer out, but I couldn't get the washer up even one step - that thing was a friggin' tank. Fortunately, the movers were able to get it out the next day just fine.
Some miscellaneous thoughts on moving:
I was struck over the past week or so with fleeting moments of loneliness and insecurity. Which is odd, since I have no reason to feel that way. I've come the conclusion that it's a Pavlovian response to moving - I've moved a lot in my life, and it's usually been to new places and new circumstances - basically, leaving behind a comfortable and "known" existence, so those feeling were a bit more understanble to experience. Just seemed strange to have them pop up a couple times with this move too. I also think it's just the overall feeling of not being settled in anywhere yet - when things are all packed up in various locations, and there's that transitional period where you don't really have a home, it seems to naturally breed some insecurity.
While thinking about all of that over the weekend, I asked myself, "What makes your home home?" Certainly, getting your things arranged & settled in their proper place is a big part of it. And then customizing the surroundings (painting, decorating, etc). But, when I was in that week-plus transition between the apartment and the new house, home was whichever place I had my computer set up. Oh, and wherever your bed is too. That's a big one. Those couple of nights spent sleeping on the couch while I was dealing with the bed debacle were quite dispiriting.
But I love this new place! The location is great - I'm a quick 3/4 mile from Lake Nokomis, and a jog over there and then around the lake will be absolutely perfect for my pre-work morning runs. Very cool!
And that brings us to: Marathon prep updates
Due to some packing buffoonery, my GPS was MIA for a while. And truth be told, my running has been ...errr... pretty minimal over the last two weeks. I'm back full-force this week though, and I'm feeling great, so I'm confident the marathon will go well as planned. When I went toe-to-toe with that old dryer and the stairs last Wednesday, I wrenched my back pretty bad. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to still run that night - somehow, that made sense to me at the time. Last week, I was running nights. Not evenings, but nights. Anywhere from 10:30 to midnight-30 starts. I was on a crazy schedule, and those night runs helped me clear my head at the end of the day. So, anyway, last Wednesday... That was the crazy stormy night, but despite my bad back and the storms, I wanted to have one last run in Mendota Heights. So, off I went at about 11:30. At that point, the rain was steady but still pretty soft. After about 10 minutes, all hell seemed to break loose. Rain started coming down in frenzied, wind-whipped sheets. I was unfazed - "Hardcore!", I reassured myself. And then the lightning started. And not just a little. A lot. Still I pressed on. The few people out driving who saw me must have thought I was absolutely out of my mind. They were right.
I was going past St Thomas Academy's athletic fields when it suddenly got very bright. Sort of bright like daylight, but much, much brighter. In daylight, there are still always some shadows that darken things somewhat. This sudden light was unbelievably bright, and there were no shadows. I knew that either I was about to be abducted by aliens, or there was going to be a lightning strike very close to me. Time slowed. Despite the pounding rain, there was a loud sizzling noise steadily building, and I could feel the electricity in the air. Then, the loudest noise I have ever heard in my life - the lightning struck a ballpark light pole about 20 feet from me. Being a military pilot, I've heard a lot of loud things, but nothing like this. I could feel the powerful concussion of that strike, and my ears rang for minutes afterwards. I watched the lightning bolt hit the pole numerous times in that brief split second - I could see the light race up and down the bolt, and then when it was done with the strike itself, flashing dots of light flickered on-and-off along the vertical path of the bolt. To say the least, it was awesome and very humbling to behold. I finished the entire planned run just fine - soaking wet and a bit shaken by the lightning encounter, but the experience certainly made for a memorable last run in Mendota!
Today's GPS Rundown:
Nokomis lap variation
5.69 miles / 45:40 time / 8:02 pace
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Now playing: opus III - it's a fine day
