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

Long runs in the evening are teh suck. At least, they are when I haven’t cooked and don’t have food ready and waiting to eat when I’m done. Did six and a half miles, relatively slowly (though the pace picked up as I went along). Heel was not happy with me as I got done, so I’m sitting in the night brace here, making sure I’m stretching the plantar fascia. I had gone to the grocery store yesterday with BC, so had food to prepare, but then there was the preparation part. Finally eaten, but was nigh starving before I ate.

Feel like I need a massage. I hope it’s not BC’s cold coming on, and is just soreness from the run. He stayed over last night and was burning up a good chunk of the night.

Not sure which project I’m going to do next, knitting wise. I think I need to do some samplers to learn a few more skills for the next ones (increasing & decreasing, specifically) before I get started on them.

I’m feeling, hmmm, unengaged at work these days. The Project From Heck is in abeyance, stuck in our front office for noodling, so I’m working on a variety of smaller projects, none of which are terribly interesting or engaging. So I’m just feeling a bit adrift. I’m sure it’ll pass, but it’s damned annoying while it’s there.

I’m a week overdue for my normal haircut, but have an appointment tomorrow evening. So looking forward to that. It’s too shaggy at the moment, so it’s time to get shorn.

The blasted scarf is done, just in time for summer:

Next!

Had a really nice Memorial Day weekend. I zipped down to see my parents and my brother and his family. The drives both ways were relatively relaxed, and I was able to keep the mini on cruise control at a reasonable speed for most of them (which very much helped my gas mileage – not quite 38 mpg each way). I’ve started going down to Petersburg and cutting over on 460 to 64 rather than taking 64 down the Peninsula, and I find it a much more pleasant drive. The Peninsula always drives me nuts with it’s constant construction (I’m not kidding – they’ve been widening or fixing or doing something on that damned highway since before I learned how to drive; I hate driving there). Picked up the eldest niece on the way in and had fun scandalizing her with bad singing to Madonna. Fun times.

The parents are doing well, as is my brother (aside from meds-related weight gain, that is). Took the brother to get his belated birthday gift – running shoes. Poor guy has my feet (which is to say, flatter than the proverbial pancake), so got the exact same shoes I wear. They were on sale (yay!) at the local running store, so he got a top and socks, too. He’ll have to find his own shorts. Now I just have to find a 5k for us to do down there this November to get him going.

Past the shoe shopping trip, it was an utterly unscripted weekend. We had no need to be anywhere, no race to do, etc., so we did projects around the yard (or, rather, they did projects and I watched and/or entertained my nieces). And that had to be the best part of it – just hanging out with my family and getting a chance to just be together, without the need to be running hither and yon on someone else’s schedule.

Went through Mom’s knitting stuff. Didn’t steal any of her needles (though she has all these nice old aluminium ones which were tempting), but did take a lovely 1941 “Knit for Defense” booklet with some relatively easy patterns in it (sweaters, gloves, socks – stuff “for the troops”). Copied a couple other easy patterns on their copier/fax/scanner/printer/coffee maker/nail gun/etc. machine. Might try the baby hat pattern before I do BC’s hat, just to get in some practice. Part of the just hanging out included a ton of knitting on the scarf, with the result that I have a couple more hours and it should be done finally. It’s looking pretty good, now that I have a better idea what I’m doing.

Not a lot went on past that. Some gaming on the eldest niece’s Wii with her and my brother. A couple of movies and other bad television. Planting flowers and putting up the blueberry bushes’ bird netting. All in all the perfect little vacation, and exactly what I needed.

20 minutes better. Racing the Columbia Triathlon 2008 I managed to shave 20 minutes off my previous olympic distance triathlon time (Mooseman 2006 – 3:53), which I’m sure says more about my lack of preparation for the previous one than my admittedly more able participation for Columbia, but regardless, it was a happy, happy thing to see.

The day started out a bit out of sorts. I’d not gotten to sleep as I’d have liked to, so I woke up almost 40 minutes (!!) after my alarm started going off. Thankfully I had set it to give me an hour to get ready, so I was only about 10-15 minutes later out the door than what I’d planned. Packing the night before was a huge help for that.

Got all set up in transition in plenty of time to get out and drag my stuff over to the club tent. Get wet-suited up, and hopped over to the dock to get into the water for the swim start. It had been so long since I’d been in my wetsuit I’d forgotten how much more buoyant they make you. I’d been practicing swimming out into the pool to tread water for a bit, then start swimming without a wall to hang onto, and in the wet suit the treading part was a heck of a lot easier. The announcer told us to go and off I went. The leg to the first buoy was interesting – I was swimming pretty well, when I decided to try flipping over into sweet spot for a brief rest and orientation. Mistake! Flipped over and immediately got dizzy. Dunno if it was the waves or the cold water in my ears, or maybe I was a little dehydrated, or what, but that was not exactly fun. Just like Diamondman last year, though, once I was about halfway through the swim I found my groove and it was great after that.

Oh, and this time I had prescription goggles for the first time at an open water swim. Best. Thing. Ever. I could actually see where the heck I was going without having to guess based on the other swimmers around me. That alone was a major factor in calming me down in the water. Result: I shaved 9 minutes off the swim time and came out of the water much more relaxed than I ever have.

Calmly went into transition, got changed up and out on the bike (lost 1.5 minutes here). I have got to work on uphills this year because those all kicked my butt. Downhill and flats I was flying along – I’m much more comfortable now at faster speeds, especially on downhills, and it showed. But man, put me on an uphill slope and I’m down to barely a crawl. Regardless, I shaved 13 minutes off my bike time, a large part of which I attribute to the better, more relaxed swim (though riding the course two weeks before helped a lot with that, too.

Once in off the bike, I changed quickly (made up the minute and half I’d lost in T1), and headed out. Did a run & walk, but more confidently than on previous tris. Again, having run the course two weeks prior I knew I could do it, and I knew what to expect. Saw a ton of DC Tri Club folks out on the course, both running and as volunteers, and that was a huge boost. Getting and giving high-fives, thumbs up and/or shout-outs was wonderful. Funniest moments were entering and exiting the neighborhood north of the park, where neighbors had set up an aid station for the “Dollys” – all of them were dressed out in blonde wigs and/or fake chests, a la Dolly Parton. Absolutely hysterical to go past, and another great boost on the run. I actually lost 2 minutes on the run from Mooseman (which surprised me), but didn’t consider it a bad run. I might’ve been able to run a bit more and walk a bit less, but I’m still happy with the results. Finished in 3:33, as I said, a full 20 minutes better than my last olympic distance race.

And I wasn’t dead at the end, or injured, so all in all it was a great race for me. I know some things I need to work on that’ll make the next race even better, and I’m very much looking forward to that next one, the Nation’s Triathlon here in DC in September. Gonna be a fun one.

Haven’t done up the full race report, but it went very well – I shaved 20 minutes off the time it took me to do my last Olympic race (Mooseman in 2006 – did that one in 3:53, did Columbia in 3:33). So I’m quite pleased with the results, but haven’t had any time to write up the race yet!

In 12 hours, hopefully I’ll be done with my swim and be out on the bike course.

Popped up to Columbia this afternoon for packet pick-up, bike check and back racking in transition. I have a hospital bracelet plastic wrist band on, so I can get into transition in the morning, I’ve laid out my gear and gone over transition in my head. Tried on the wet suit again (it still fits, thankfully), got out the bags to haul stuff out there. The car is full of gas, so I should be all ready to go.

The goal is to finish in less than 4 hours. Doesn’t look like I posted a race report for the Mooseman two years ago, the last Olympic race I did, but I seem to recall I was just under 4 hours there. Or maybe it was 5 hours, I don’t remember, past that I was sloooooow. In any case, I feel better prepared this time around, especially for the swim. And having biked and run the course two weeks ago, it’s not an unknown quantity this time, which should help a ton.

In any case, it’s about time to crash here. I’ll try to remember to post a race report soon.

Wanted to jot down some quick “day after” thoughts on the in re Marriage Cases decision that was handed down yesterday in California.

Procedurally, the case is now remanded back to the Court of Appeals for action consistent with the Court’s opinion. Clearly, part of that action is the invalidation of the parts of the marriage law, both for in-state and for recognition of out-of-state marriages, which limit “marriage” to opposite-sex couples. Same-sex couples will be able to marry once the Court of Appeals takes action. What is less clear is the status of those who have entered into domestic partnerships under California law. The Court did not explicitly address the domestic partnership statutes in the final part of their decision. It’s now unclear how the Court of Appeals and/or the legislature will address the issue.

From my limited view of California law (culled pretty much entirely from the decision), part of the elligibility for a domestic partnership was inelligibility for marriage. If the courts were to read the new availability of marriage as invalidating current domestic partnerships without making the partners go through the usual 6 month process for dissolution of the partnership, that might not be a bad thing. What I don’t see them doing is automatically converting partnerships to marriages, at least not by the court alone. The legislature could make such a thing a possibility, and I would hope they would do so for partnerships where one of the partners has died (since other rights and responsibilities for partnerships were added retroactively even for partnerships where one member was deceased, according to the decision), but I would not impose the full structure of marriage on those who entered into a partnership without their express consent.

The other thorny issue is those partnerships where the main reason was for support of the elderly, and not for “marriage light.” Not even going to touch that one, but it would be good if they kept that part of the partnership law in place.

In any case, those folks who are in valid domestic partnerships under California law now find themselves in a legal limbo, not knowing where they’re going to come out. Will the courts declare them de facto married? Will their partnerships get dissolved without being married? Will they have to go through the six month process to dissolve the partnership in order to get married? The Court didn’t address this, which was a weakness of the decision, in my opinion.

The other interesting note in the decision was the Court’s explanation of how the Governor was correct to veto the two attempts by the legislature to pass full gay marriage statutes. In essence, because Prop 22 was passed by initiative and because it did not allow for the legislature to change the law without putting the change to a vote, as is required by the California constitution. The statutes would not have been upheld by the courts, and as such the Governor was simply exercising his constitutional duty to veto legislation which he (properly) did not feel was constitutional. See footnotes 16-17 and the surrounding text. Knowing that puts his veto in a much better light, especially viewed together with his opposition to the current attempt to amend the state constitution to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

I won’t get into the classification of “sexual orientation” as a suspect class under California law except to say, “Wow, that was unexpected, yet quite, quite cool.” Smarter folks than I would better address all of the ramifications of that.

For all my California friends in light of today’s court news, another oldie but goodie from The Onion.

The slip opinion (.pdf file there) of the California Supreme Court in in re Marriage Cases is a doozy – 172 pages.

But let me tell you, reading the summary in the first 11-12 pages is a joy.

I feel irrationally nervy about today’s announcement from the California Supreme Court in their consolidated same-sex marriage cases.