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

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.

Got another run done this past weekend. One mile this time, still doing repeats of run up the block, walk back. But still no knee pain during or after. Huzzah. Plenty of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) this week, though, between the run and my regular workouts M/Tu. Whee.

I am working from home this week and next as my office building is reinstalling network cable all throughout our floor. The floor that was the first one occupied back in May. So while the last cohort of everyone else doing the whole Return To Office thing came in on Monday, half of the first folks back are once again at home because they didn’t have the cable done before we moved in. *snert* Whatever. I will say that I am terribly out of practice for working from home, and it definitely doesn’t give me enough other movement (aka steps) versus going into the office. I don’t miss the time for the commute (I do appreciate the uninterrupted reading time on the train), and the cats have enjoyed being able to bug me 24/7 again, but I think I’d rather have a mix of in-office and at-home.

Had my first crown done a couple of weeks ago. Aside from the gums feeling a little roughed up for a couple of days it’s gone smoothly. It helps that the doc has the printer for the things right in the office, so no more having to wait weeks with a temporary one – they fit it 20-odd minutes after he got done drilling. And while I’m not thrilled with the location of the office (Foggy Bottom), he’s a whiz at the anesthesia shots, so it’s worth it.

Starting to catch up on comics finally. I think I’m two months behind at this point? But I’m dedicating more time to get caught up, which isn’t easy when there’s a new batch every week. Plus trying to keep up with other reading.

The husband has some sort of bug. Here’s hoping it’s not contagious. Or that I just fight it off without actually coming down with symptoms. Poor guy.

But, in happier news, I ran this morning. Wasn’t long (11 minutes, 8 repeats of run the block of townhomes and walk back, 0.7 miles), but no knee pain while running and as of this evening, still no knee pain. I almost cried at the end. Fourteen months after the knee surgery, and eight months into an overall strength and conditioning program, and I was able to run without pain. Don’t get me wrong, I anticipate being hella muscle-sore tomorrow, maybe, but as of tonight I’m absolutely golden.

Up way too early this morning. Been a rough week for my gut, which has not helped my sleep. FODMAPs hate me, and I haven’t been able to eat at home where I can better control the food as much as I should.

I make it a habit to flip off the statute of the 40th President of the US every time I pass National Airport on the Metro (twice daily on work days). While I’ve found most presidents are a mixed bag, I have a particular dislike of that one because of his inaction on HIV and what it did to wipe out the generations of gay men right before mine.

The husband thanked me this week for insisting that we not look at any properties which were anywhere near a flood zone of any kind on the FEMA flood insurance maps, after one of his coworkers complained he was going to have to completely redo his finished basement in the house he’d just moved into 11 days prior.

Work has asked me to write up my second memo in six months on constitutional issues facing our agency for the folks at Justice to weigh in on. On the one hand, hey, they like me and like my writing. On the other hand, no pressure, it’s just the future of the agency and how it operates. Eeck.

Because of the lack of sleep my personal reading has been light – rereading the Cradle series by Will Wight, which is fun, but by no means a heavy intellectual lift. Thank you, Kindle unlimited.

The husband and his sister are bungee jumping off a bridge this afternoon. Her daughter and I will watch and make fun of the screaming. All good.

As with large swaths of the rest of the upper North America, the DC area got a return of wildfire smoke this week. It sort of hit Thursday, then it really hit on Friday. When I went out to drive to the Metro you could clearly see the haze in the air just looking down my short block. Smacked the ‘recirculate air’ button on the car AC as I headed out. At the Metro parking lot I got out, took a whiff of the charred smell and promptly put on a COVID mask, which actually helped a lot with the smell. Took it off once I got inside the train car, and noticed the smell fading as we rode through the tunnels through most of the District on my way to Virginia.

But each time the train exited a tunnel into the open air, the smoke smell returned.

The views on bridge over the Potomac were surreal. Couldn’t clearly see anything past the two bridges on either side of the Metro bridge – the airport was out of sight, as were any of the memorials and monuments, normally clearly seen in the background. It wasn’t quite as bad once I got down to Alexandria as it had been up at home in Maryland, but it was still pretty bad. The ride home in the evening was more of the same; Maryland was worse, and the smell persisted.

Today we went out shopping for some needed polo shirts for me and it was still hot and smokey. Big rainstorms on the drive home seem to have driven most of it away, however. Am hoping they’re able to take care of the source fires soon, for the sake of the local communities up in Canuckistan, as well as everyone else’s lungs.

The husband brought in a head cold, which has us both snotty and not sleeping well. Skipped the potluck, obviously, as I greatly prefer not to share such bounties with others. Took today as a sick day, might do the same tomorrow. In the meantime I’m reading fiction that doesn’t demand a lot of me (Dungeon Crawler Carl) and napping. Several good sneezing fits today, which typically means I’m on the mend in my experience. Blech. At least the cats are happy with quietly reading/napping Moose.

Odd because of the holiday, and the heat. It’s forecast to be in the low 100s F (38-40C) here around DC, and combing that and (for Federal workers) the observed holiday today, my boss told us all to telework yesterday. Meant I had to do some cleaning of my desk at home to relocate stuff that had accumulated on it. I am my parents’ child – if there’s a surface, stuff gets put on it, at least in my office; I’m better about the rest of the house because the husband won’t put up with out there. Yesterday was also odd because the local power company reached into our thermostat and set the temperature up 4 degrees, as they do from time to time to avoid brownouts, and in exchange for slightly better electricity rates. Normally those will go for 2-3 hours, typically 4pm to 6pm, but yesterday it ran from sometime in the afternoon all the way to 10pm. And they never sent a notice that they were doing it, even after the fact. Annoying,.

We laid low yesterday, but braved the heat today. Out to an Uno’s Pizzeria for a treat, hit Target for some toiletries (and a clay garden gnome on clearance for the back yard), Barnes & Noble to pick up the third book in a trilogy I’ve really enjoyed (Rebel Blade by Davinia Evans). Hit a theater on the way home to see the new Minions movie, which was cute. It was more an opportunity to do something outside that house that wasn’t impossibly hot than anything else. Remembered to put some internal window covers on the sunroof of our Mini so it wouldn’t get quite so hot inside the car. Also remembered to put bags over the (black) front seats where they’d get sunlight while parked so we didn’t fry our legs when we got back. Makes me ever so glad we bought a townhouse with a garage – that always makes the initial temperature setting easier when taking off from home.

Have a potluck on Sunday with the neighbors but haven’t decided what we want to make yet. Looking forward to meeting more folks in person.