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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Spent a chunk of yesterday finally getting all four tires replaced on the Mini. The local place was a lot friendlier than BJ’s, and apparently NTB is now Mavis, though the signage (and online) hasn’t caught up yet. Popped by the local carwash on the way back from picking up the car, so the beast looks (and drives) much nicer now.

Continuing to slowly build my running back up on the treadmill.

Up far too early this morning after Benjamin (male cat) decided to puke, twice, in the hallway outside our bedroom. Found it without stepping in it (yay?) and got it all cleaned up. Very grateful that I thought to stash some paper towels under the sink in the bathroom off that hallway so I didn’t have to go downstairs for some.

A good chunk of my office flooded last week. There’s a ledge outside the windows of about 2/3 of the offices (including mine) where water got backed up and came in though the walls. Nothing personal of anyone’s was damaged, and very few official documents were dampened since most of that is electronic now so there was only like one box on the floor in the suite (unlike a flood in my old office that was a nightmare of drying out old paper). While facilities swung into action while the flood was still ongoing thanks to one of our employees alerting them, it apparently still smells according to the few people who’ve braved the place, and they’re going to have to do all sorts of remediation. So who knows if I’ll be going back in immediately after labor day or not? That’s tentatively the plan since the local Metro stations reopen after that weekend, but not if they’re still dealing with walls and carpet and what not.

Not the shopping day I’d planned for, but hey. Started out early, with a 9am appointment at BJs to replace the front tires, because one of them has a giant bulge and a slow air leak. Get there ten minutes early, doors are closed. They finally bother to open at 9:25 (after calling the main desk twice to see where they were), get to the counter, they don’t have the tires I preordered and prepaid for. Then it was into the main club for a refund, because at that point I was done with them. Appointment made for another place Wednesday morning, and I’ll call Tuesday night to doublecheck that they have the tires.

So then it was on to get some food and planned haircuts. While eat we decided the husband needed some more shirts, so we picked the closer of the malls and headed there for wandering and shopping. I picked up grooming supplies, and he got a bunch of shirts. Ah, married life. Heh. Book shopping next, then a late lunch and gas for the car. The tire held up well, thankfully, and I didn’t have to reinflate it while we were out (I keep a pump in the car normally anyway).

Ran twice this week, very basic run/walk workouts on the treadmill, but the first such since covid last month. The fatigue is finally gone, thank heavens. Blood pressure is still higher than anyone would like, but some regular exercise should start to help with that, or at least keep it from getting worse. I’d really prefer not to go on drugs for that; I resent the allergy and reflux medications as is, so the thought of adding more just makes me grumpier. *phhhbbbbtttt*

Off to a brunch showing of Margaritaville at a local(ish) dinner theater tomorrow. Should be a hoot. I have a nice Hawaiian shirt with flamingoes on it for the occasion, and the husband has something similarly loud. We’re meeting friends for it, which will be nice as we’ll have a four-top table for the group, and no strangers to try and make awkward conversation with. Final show of this run, which is always fun to see.

The vacation was what we needed. Downtime, lots of reading (finished two books, though not the Grant biography I’ve been “reading” for three years now; I’m up to his run for President). The weather looked like it was going to be rainy the whole time, so a lot of people bailed on the town, but then we had a glorious, sunny Memorial day, so the husband and I got a beautiful day with not as many other tourists in the way.

One of the books was Born to Run 2, the sequel to 2009’s Born to Run, about barefoot running and other crazy people. The sequel bills itself as a training guide. There were a lot of stories mixed in with the training bits, which makes it a little difficult to use, but what is in there is helpful (100 ups!). So when we got back I pulled out my running shoes and got started again, albeit very slowly and very short distances (I did a mile this morning of 2 on/2 off).

Work wasn’t too bad. I’m still catching up on emails, which will probably take me another week or so as I respond to more urgent things that keep popping up. Still learning the new GC’s style, but am actively working with the Deputy GC to manage upwards there (and, frankly, to help the Deputy look good for the new GC).

One of my nieces asked about the new Diablo IV that’s out officially in 3 more days, but which is offering early play for preorders. She and I used to play Diablo III online, so I’m sure she’s looking forward to the new one as well. I know I’m going to dive in eventually, but I’m also in the midst of loving Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch. I’ll probably switch the Xbox One in my office for the PS5 in the living room, since the niece is on a PS5, and that way I can let the husband use the new, enormous TV he bought just before we left town (so far it’s mostly been used for my gaming, and while Link looks great on 85″, it’s kind of a waste of the TV).

The big surprise for the husband for the anniversary was that I got us a fancy washlet for the owners’ suite bathroom. I think I may have created a monster, but frankly, it’s been worth it. So much better than just wiping. I fear we’re going to get spoiled, which is okay, but will make leaving the house that much less attractive.

Interesting sights on today’s run included a few clusters of cherry trees that were in full bloom, a flock of wild turkeys, and some new signage on the trail. The cherry blossoms were notable because most of our cherry blossoms were destroyed after some freak up-and-down temperature variations last month started them blooming too early, then froze them out. So seeing isolated clusters of “late bloomers” was kind of fun. The turkeys were just amazing. They were across the road from me in Anacostia park, just wandering along. Spotted them on the way out, but they were gone by the time I turned around and got back. Right after them I saw some new signage on the trail, this time memorializing the Bonus Army at one of the way stations on the trail (a compass rose with a round bench and a bike rack). I’d seen new way finding signs on the trail for a while, but this was the longest run I’ve done this year, so the first time I’ve been that far on the trail. Now I can’t wait to build up and see what other signs they may have put up further down the trail.