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

Doing laundry is so much easier when the load is cut in half. Without the boy here there was a decided lack of stuff to clean, nonetheless, it’s done.

Today at work was a full day of “I can and should pass this work along to someone else and they can do it because I’m a manager now and that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.” And then there was the flip side of that, actually reviewing their work, giving feedback, and passing things back up and down the chain. And a lot of cleaning out old emails, mostly in the “this has been taken care of but I forgot to file it away” category. I am still somewhat annoyed that there isn’t more training for managers, or at the least some good recommendations for things to read. And not just the latest trendy bestseller but things that might actually be useful. I got the basic stuff, and there are classes about particular processes, but less than would be satisfying. So I stumble through, hopefully doing more good than not. Yay management.

Missing the boy muchly. We talk nightly, but it’s not the same as having him here.

Knee is still doing well. No pain, keeping up activity levels, all seems to be good.

Saw the boy off to the airport this morning. He and a coworker are off to a conference for the first part of the week. After dropping him off I picked up a surprise for him – plants from the local garden shop to go into the two big planters on the balcony, and a pot to repot our third pothos. Hopefully he’ll enjoy the healthier looking balcony, especially since I hauled a ton of gross, dead plant bits out, too.

Otherwise it’s been a day of video games and trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to do with myself until he’s back. It’s odd how you become accustomed to having your life revolve around someone else, and when they’re not there, even temporarily, it leave you out of sorts. Did finally bother to make dinner, kept it healthy. Debated going to the store for ice cream, but am feeling too lazy for that. And I have the last of the blueberries from my parents’ garden to nosh on, anyway.

Haven’t fixed the commuting bike yet. Maybe tomorrow after work. Maybe.

I didn’t quite make it an entire month, but that’s okay. I’ve done two short (2.4 mile) runs this week, both slow, both careful, and both without pain. The weight routine, though not as much as I was intending to do, has definitely helped, as has the time off from running. No pain after the runs, either, so I seem to have licked this case of runner’s knee. Thank heavens.

So, with this coming back, I’ll be looking at what kinds of training I want to be doing to better build up my fitness base for racing next year. Never did try cycling on the trainer, though I will try it out on the road next week. I finally got my commuting bike fit done, in time to realize that when the bike shop added the rear rack they did in a way that prevents me from easily getting the bolts off the rear wheel. Did get them off, but I think I’m going to have to go ahead and put quick-release skewers on there instead of the screw on bolts. As much as I enjoyed knowing you couldn’t remove my tires without a wrench, it’s not worth the effort now. And it’s not like I don’t lock up the wheels when I lock up the bike if I leave it somewhere. So, another trip to a bike shop this weekend to pick up quick release skewers so I can ride to work again.

While I enjoyed seeing our guests over the weekend, I was also very glad to send them on their way back home this morning. Living with two other people in your apartment, which already feels cramped as it is, even when those two people are related to you, is draining as all fuck. Didn’t help when the 3.5 y/o would get cranky because her uncles wouldn’t put up with as much of her shit as her mother would.

Did get a little bit of sun out in a paddle boat in the Tidal Basin. That was fun, and it showed that the case of runner’s knee I developed back in March/April is finally well on the way to being healed (the boy and I were the paddlers). I’ve been taking it very easy the past few weeks, canceling this race season and letting the knee heal properly. Didn’t want to repeat 2008’s year of the plantar fasciitis goof but continuing to re-injure the knee again and again. While it’s definitely better, I’m still going to take this entire month off from swimming and running. I haven’t tried cycling yet, but I will do so soon on a trainer in the living room, to see how that does. In the meantime I’m doing weights and core strengthening to give myself a good base to come back to when I do start back up with tri training. It’s been annoying as all hell, and my hips are incredibly sore from the strengthening, but the knee’s healing, and that’s the important part.

I want more coffee, but I’m trapped by a cat in my lap who’s purring up a storm, and burying her head in the crook of my arm. I feel bad for the lack of attention she’s gotten, and the disruption to her routine over the past few days with visitors in the house, so I stay seated, surfing the web and occasionally scratching an ear.

Got the new tires on the car with no issue. Hadn’t realized how rough the old ones had gotten. Nicest part was just popping in and having it done, and not having to worry about the cost because they’d already been paid for.

Past that, getting back to swimming, and trying consciously to improve my swim stroke and speed this year. Taormina’s Swim Speed Secrets has been pretty good thus far, and I’m seeing a bit of improvement, which is nice after years of steady state mediocrity. But swimming’s been it thus far this season, mostly because of how cold and gross it’s been. I’m unmotivated to sit on the bike in the trainer in the living room, and it’s been just plain ugly outside between snow and cold (and a head cold) so I haven’t wanted to go outside to run in the morning, either. Hopefully today was the last of the cold snaps this spring, and the last of the snow as well, so I can get back to running & biking.

This week is the first set of evaluations for my minions. They’re all doing well, so it’s thankfully been an easy process. New minion #1 started this week (my first hire!), and new minion #2 starts in a week and a half. Haven’t scared off the first guy yet, so I suppose I’m doing okay there. The hardest part of this management thing is learning what to let loose from my own portfolio and give to one of the minions to handle. And after almost 15 years of handling ever more matters, I’m not yet in the comfort spot when it comes to handing things off. But I’m getting there.

Was on the way to the not-so-local comic shop that the boy has adopted when the back passenger tire decided to start making Very Loud Noises. Seems the thing had finally decided enough was enough and it was time for tire replacements. Visited a couple of places, everywhere had to order tires for the poor mini (none had them in stock), so we limped to the comic shop (thankfully I have a car-lighter-powered air pump in the car, so we were able to inflate the tires a couple of times), then to BJs where we ordered tires to be done some time this week. Had a bit of fun there trying to get a coupon printed off their web site ($70 off the set, so was worth the aggravation), ended up having to track down the boy’s zip code from three-plus living places ago to get into the site, but eventually got in and got the coupon. Shopped some at regular BJs, though not as much as we might have otherwise, then off to an auto parts store for some fix-a-flat. That seemed to work pretty well for the ride home, and I picked up an extra can to keep with the other emergency stuff in the back. But definitely the most expensive car trip I’ve taken in a while.

The latest trick of the little demons kittens is to decide to play with anything and everything that isn’t nailed down or might possibly make noise. At 3 in the morning. For the most part we’ve adjusted stuff in the bedroom to handle this – my wallet and coin dish live in a drawer now, for example – but last night Benjamin managed to find everything in the room that might possibly make noise. Belt buckles. Random paper. Electrical cords. Claws on the drywall (!!!). Ugh. So today is a low-sleep day, which should bode well (not) for meetings at work. Little monsters.

As I approach nine months of married life, I find it treats me well. We’re mostly into our routines of living together, with the occasional bump, but for the most part we’re handling living together in a far-too-small-for-two-people-with-all-the-stuff-we-both-have apartment pretty well. Having an external storage unit has helped somewhat with the level of stuff, but there are still regular discussions about how much more we could do with, say, the kitchen if we had a larger place.

Tri training hasn’t been my largest priority, though I am starting to settle back into a routine, with two races scheduled for this summer. I do need to figure out a strength training routine, which isn’t new, but given that I’m starting over with an extra (far too many) pounds, and I’m over 40, I need the extra support and strength that a strength routine would add. It’s more a matter of finding the time to fit it into my daily/weekly routine so that I’ll do it than it is a matter of knowing what I need to do – I know how to train, it’s getting myself motivated to actually do it that’s the difficult part.

Let’s see, what else? The kittens we adopted last summer (Benjamin and Ezri) are doing well. They’re just about a year old this month and next. They’re definitely more attached to me than to the boy, much to the boy’s annoyance, since he was the one who wanted to adopt them. They tolerate him if I’m not in, but they glom onto me if I’m home. I’m the one they like to sleep on, both at night and when sitting still. They’ve grown up nicely, not as large as my previous cats (Boris and Natasha – they were HUGE for house cats), but nice and healthy. It’s been nice having cats again, and I’m glad the cult co-op changed the rules last year to allow them in legally.

Work’s okay. Settling into being a supervisor, still trying to get a handle on the new areas of law I’m in charge of now. I’m finally booked for the mandatory training they require of new supervisors, which will be mostly a repeat of training I took three years ago, but hey, the rules are the rules, and I’d prefer not to get dinged for not doing something so simple. If only learning the new legal areas were as easy. The personalities are relatively easy to deal with, I like all the folks on my team and they do good work, which helps a lot.

So, yeah, not bad for now, and drama free life doesn’t make for the best writing, hence my quiet of late on here.

I’ll start this by saying I had a chip on my shoulder this morning the size of Cleveland, owing to a bad night of sleep, but I still think this morning’s commute was a weird one.

I should also add that I usually bike to work (10 minute ride!) and now that it’s cool out, I’ve broken out my bright gold cycling jacket with the reflective patches on it. Hard to miss me in something that bright, especially in full sunlight like there was this morning.

First, I get out onto the cul-de-sac, dodge a car idling in the middle of the road, ride 20 feet, and an old woman on another bike wobbles out of her driveway, heading in the same direction I was, and proceeds to ride 3/4 of the way across the lane to the left. I kind of gave her back a look and proceeded to ride gently past her on her left. She then yells at me (!!) that she ‘wouldn’t know I was there if I didn’t say something!’ I admit I yelled back, telling her to look before she rode out into the road (see “chip” above).

Second, got to the stop light at the end of the cul-de-sac, red light, so I stopped and waited for the green to go across. Couple walking down the street walks up to the corner, looks up at the cross-walk light as it turns into a red hand (i.e., “don’t cross”) and then they proceeded to walk in front of me. I went behind them and yelled, “Thanks for following the cross walk light!” (see “chip” above).

Third, I get across the intersection into another cul-de-sac, where at the end I’ll pop across a driveway and down onto the road on the other side. Get to the end of the cul-de-sac, watch a truck pull out directly in front of me, then stop right in front of the driveway I needed to ride up. Had enough room, barely, to get by without hitting his car, but once again yelled, no expletives (miraculously), but I think it was something to the effect of ‘look where you’re going!’

Morons.

Rest of the commute was blessedly quiet, but this was definitely a weird morning.