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

Took about a week off to work on my calves and otherwise let myself rest. I’m intrigued that while my calves were cooked from the start of running, my quads have been fine. I’m chalking it up to a combination of paying more attention to my form, and 9 months of strength training. Before this, the spot on the quads right above and to the outside of the knee (the head of the rectus femoris muscle) would always work itself into a knot that was a bear to untangle. But I’ve heard not a whisper out of it of late. And I’ll take that, even as I spew out a steady stream of curses whenever I work on the sore calves.

Work is work. As I called right after the Mad King’s UN speech, he’s issued an executive order this evening directing agencies to switch from calling it “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence”. Po-tay-to, to-mah-to. While I’m not a fan of the super left-wing of the opposition party I do hope they wipe his party out in this fall’s election.

The husband’s birthday weekend went well. We attended Baltimore Comic Con on Saturday, ate at his favorite pizza place afterwards. Sunday was Avengers Endgame on the big screen, which was even more fun because the two of us and a friend were the only three people in the theater, so we could point things out without disturbing anyone else. The pinnacle was of course getting the new Lego Enterprise bridge set that came out earlier in the month, though the flat (no rim) serving plate that he’s been asking for for years was a close second (it’s useful if you want to decorate or cut something like a cake without hitting the rim). Oh, and I tried some non-alcoholic beer Sunday night, which I quite enjoyed as a nice option, with no hangover after.

My own birthday this weekend will be quiet because I’m kicking him out for an out-of-town work conference (for him) starting Saturday. LOL And no shut down this time, which is a pleasant surprise.

Metro extended the track work they were doing this weekend into today, meaning I got to take the long way around to get to work. I don’t subscribe to any alerts, so it was a surprise when I got to the station this morning. Just took it as more time to read my book.

It might extend into tomorrow, and Wednesday they’re single tracking part of the way, so I’m just planning on longer commutes.

The husband and I met up on Metro on the way home, mostly avoiding the rain. Got him home in time to grab some packages he needed to send out from UPS and FedEx, got those dropped off at their respective outlets, and then to Mod Pizza for dinner. That was fun – I’ve ordered delivery from them many times (they have vegan cheese), but never eaten in the actual restaurant. Was a pleasant change getting the pizza right out of the oven.

Over dinner I started a discussion with the husband about what retirement for me in three years might look like. I’d be open to moving for his work, so I planted that seed with him. All depends on finances, of course, but if we’re no longer tied to DC for my job, why not? Also had him think about that that might look like in eight years versus three. Or perhaps somewhere in between.

Friday, while still full in my rundown at work feels, I wandered into my supervisor’s office after lunch and asked if he minded if I went home early, “because I really just don’t want to be here.” Heh. He understood, we chatted a little about the current craziness, and I took off for home. Laid on the couch for a bit with cats (the husband was working from home, but between his regular job and his various side teaching and writing gigs he’s swamped at the moment), and generally just vegged for a bit.

Saturday we had plans – the city had one of their occasional bulk trash drop off days that we wanted to take advantage of. Hauled out a ton of old, broken deck furniture, as well as our old bed frame (finally!) and a bunch of paint. Felt very cathartic to get rid of it all. The top deck is now half furnished (an outdoor couch, two chairs, and a coffee table over a rug), but in better stuff that we’re taking better care of (it’s all covered when we’re not using it). Took our friend who helped us haul the stuff to lunch, then the three of us walked over to an arts festival just south of where we live. It was a lot larger than what we were expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. It was also populated with local folks, so not just the same vendors you see every week at the permanent weekend markets in DC. Picked up a drop bowl for the husband, for keys and what not for his dresser, and just enjoyed running into neighbors.

This morning I met up with the local running group, in the same general area as the arts festival. Before we ran they asked us to introduce ourselves and what we were looking forward to later in the day. Favorite answer was the poor parent saying they were going to go home and watch K-Pop Demon Hunters with their small children, as they had been doing since the movie came out. Heh. I said I was looking forward to my knitting group, which led another guy to come up afterwards and give me his email so I can have the other organizer add him to our group. Sweet. The run was a little shorter for me than I have been doing (2.27mi), but given all the rain we got this morning (so. much. rain.) that was fine. Got cleaned up, bought some vegetables for the week, then off to knitting where I made some progress on a scarf for the husband that I had put down several months ago. Back home to make fried rice, start watching Monarch with the husband (I’m intrigued after the first episode), clean up the kitchen, and shortly to crash.

No word back from the financial advisors yet, but it’s also the middle of several jewish holidays so I expect they’re busy and I’ll hear back after those wind down. Which is just fine.

The past few days, and especially today, I’ve just been really down about work. I’ve also been really tired, physically, from all the work I’ve been doing with exercise and running, which is probably contributing. But in reading Brene Brown’s latest (Strong Ground) I’ve been thinking over some of the lessons from the predecessor book, Dare to Lead. There’s one particular exercise she recommends, where you drill down to the 2 factors that really motivate you as a leader. Mine were “Learning” and “Making a Difference”. And in thinking about those this week, I’m really struggling to see where those are kicking in. There’s a little bit of learning, but making a difference? Under this administration? Ugh. And given the direction and partisan polarization that both parties are indulging in (thanks, social media) I don’t really see where it’ll get better any time soon. The Mad King is sure to be nuts, one way or another, and if they retake one or both houses of Congress the other party will just make our (Federal employees) lives miserable as they try and undo some of what the Mad King is doing by flooding us with information requests. I fully expect he’s going to fire all of the “Schedule F” employees (or “Schedule P/C” as it’s now known) on his way out the door. That’s one bullet dodged, since I’m not on that employment schedule, but really, this isn’t what I signed up for when I signed on to public service.

And yes, I know this is exactly what his party wants, to drive off good people, but at a certain point you have to wonder if it’s worth dealing with the dysfunction on a personal level. I really don’t know. I also don’t know what else I would do, but I think it’s time to sit down with a financial advisor who knows Federal benefits and map out what an exit might look like.

In the meantime, I also need a rest day from exercise, so that’ll be tomorrow (and Saturday – I want to check out the local running group on Sunday morning). Based on the stream of curses I let out when I barely touched my calves with the Hypervolt massage gun this evening, they’re a little overworked. That may be contributing to the mood; it certainly isn’t helping.

Sharing some photos of the finished dancing droplets scarf in color way Gloria (as opposed to the previous one in color way Sunfish).

I bought hair clips today. Not because I need them for my hair; I’m far too lazy to keep and/or style much more than the inch (2.5cm) or so on top of my head. No, I bought them for yarn. Specifically, for holding the end of a yarn ball in place so it doesn’t unravel. And once I wind up a new ball or two I’ll let y’all know how it works. I also finished the dancing droplet scarf, but it’s still blocking downstairs, so no pictures quite yet, mainly because the towel I have it on as it dries clashes badly with the colors.

Rest day today from exercise because my male cat uncharacteristically slept on the bed last night and managed to find his way into the middle of where my legs normally go. Not wanting to disturb his majesty (the things we do for pets), I contorted myself into shapes that were not conducive to the most restful sleep. Ah well, it was probably a needed rest in any case.

Comics run this evening, then tried a different branch of the TGI Friday’s chain. The food was good, but we almost left because there were only two waitresses who were both slower than a bowl of molasses in January. A Target run after that, then home to wrap up the evening. Work officially extended our telework through the end of this week so they can finish the cable work, and the husband should be home the next two days as well (which is good because a sewage pipe burst in his work building this morning, and it sounded like the smell was pretty bad). We’re planning on catching Practical Magic 2 this weekend, and hoping it has fewer plot holes than the original (which I love, but which has plot holes you could drive convoys through).

A little further, and a little more consistent on the one minute on, one minute off. 1.3 miles was a natural turn around unless I wanted to wait for a crossing light and run across and intersection for a hot minute before turning around at 1.5 miles. Still feeling okay, knee is still good.

Knitted a lot this afternoon. Getting down to the last few repeats on the dancing droplets scarf, but took a break with the husband for dinner and catching up on yesterday’s Lanterns. Still kind of annoyed at the changes hey’ve made to the personalities of Hal and John in the show. I get that it’s a new story, new universe, but the personalities are just grating. And just when you think they might be likable, they go and do something irritating.

The DC Men’s knitting group met this evening down in Alexandria at Fibre Space. Two new(ish) folks – one who’d been before, but only sporadically, and another gentleman who had intended to go to another knit-in-public thing that the store sponsors on the second Sunday of the month, but who we quickly coopted into our group as well. ‘Twas fun, and got through another round of decreases on the scarf I’m currently working on. Also picked up some yarn for another scarf I want to make when the current one is done. I had tried ‘stash shopping’ for the new one, but alas nothing in my rather scattershot stash was appropriate.

Frustrated with my yarn winder, though. I broke my old one, bought another of the same variety, but it keeps causing some sort of catch, such that when you’re pulling from the center (the whole point of winding them up) it snags and you end up having to pull out and unwind a bunch of yarn to keep it moving. Spotted a fancier one that seems to be highly regarded and put it on my wish list for an upcoming birthday or Xmas. I just want the yarn balls that work properly. In the meantime I’m pulling from the outside instead, which I find a little fiddlier, though it does work. I should also grab some cheap hair clips from the local pharmacy at some point – they hold the end of the yarn on the outside of a ball so it doesn’t unwind, and you don’t need to knot it or try and slip it under.

I managed two miles today, mostly one minute running, one walking. Out to the trolley trail that runs on the far eastern side of our development, down to the local courthouse, and back again. A route chosen because it would be easy to bail and walk home if anything happened. Nothing did, I just ran (and walked). Hal-le-lu-jah.

Now I want to build up to 3 miles, and then up the running time to make that whole. Step-by-step. I’ve also incorporated a lot more warm up into my runs. No more making the first part of the run the warmup. No, now it’s a ten minute walk plus five minutes of rope flow (which thoroughly moves the shoulders, spine, and torso), and maybe some couch stretch, too, to avoid the back thing I did when I first tried running a couple weeks ago. Then I go run.

The husband was feeling restless and cooped up, with a heavy dose of all work and no play from both his full-time job and some side writing projects he has going, so I dragged him out to go comics back issue hunting. He found a bunch, including thirty in the dollar bins at one place, so he was much better after that. We both came back and plopped down on separate couches to read after that. I finished Howl’s Moving Castle, a favorite of my librarian Mother and my nieces. I’ve seen the anime movie several times, but hadn’t read the book, since it came out while I was in high school. Next up is There Is No Antimemetics Division from the local library.

Got all my workouts in this week. Got the silly thing done for and sent back to the lord high muckety-mucks in the Mad King’s administration (redrafting part of a draft rule that they got a shit ton of negative comments on because, surprise surprise, they wrote it badly, and ended up farming out edits to a bunch of us in the agencies, which I got stuck with at my agency). Got half a day off from the career guy in charge of the agency for the holiday on Monday, and checked out at lunch time. Done and done.

The husband was not so lucky, though he was also working from home today. Did knock off a little early, so I ran him to the post office to mail a package off (he’s been selling collectibles we’ve gotten over the years and no longer need or want), then to the local Whole Foods for some staples. I especially wanted to get some gluten free bread from their frozen section because I have a recipe to try and the dough for it starts with commercial gluten free bread that you grind up, rather than trying to fiddle up your own ratios of obscure flours to make a home made dough. The cookbook is about ten years old, written before commercial gluten free flour mixes became as easy to find as they are now. I’m fascinated by the concept, so I can’t wait to try it.

Still plugging away at comics, still. Made a sizable dent this afternoon, hoping to continue that through the weekend.

Thankful that Congress passed a continuing funding resolution so early and the Mad King actually signed it, so we know we have funding through early December. it’s anyone’s guess how they’ll react after the election this fall, so all bets are off for a lapse in funding after this runs out, but at least we’re good until then.