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

Switching between the medications for reflux ain’t all that fun. My body seems to want about a two week adjustment period before it evens out. Given that I’m in the third adjustment period (prescription samples, over-the-counter, now back to the prescription), it seems to be a regular thing. The first week has some unintended side effects (consistent across the three), and then it all kicks in at two weeks. Given that I’m in the middle of week one, life in ye olde gut is interesting.

At work, before we went on vacation I cleaned a large part of my office. My desk is clear for the first time in years (no piles of files/paper/books), and a good chunk of the bookshelf got cleared out and organized. The credenza behind me has the books I use most, and no more excess paper. It’s been illuminating, both in terms of my own work processes, and in terms of the reactions from my office. Everyone has commented on it. I’m loving having space to spread a project out to work on it, then put it all away when it’s done or I have to switch gears. Only drawback to date is there’s no place to hide something easily if someone comes in and they don’t need to see what I was working on (no files to flip over the paper, etc.). But I’ll take the calmer work environment.

That combined with the lack of caffeine (and hence the lack of energy spikes and lows) has, I think, meant a more even-keeled Moose at work. Gut issues aside. I had forgotten about how early I need to get to bed when not depending on a steady caffeine source during the day. Probably better on the whole, but it’s another adjustment.

Training is interesting. I’m trying more things like hill work, tempo runs, etc. this time around. Still too early to tell the effect, but I am looking forward to workouts more when they have more of a purpose, and more of a structure. Still need to lay out strength training in a more organized fashion, but I know where I’m going with that.

We’re headed off to see the boy’s family in another week, and in anticipation of the drive up, and to take care of the check engine light that popped on just before vacation, I dropped the Mini off at the shop to get it all adjusted. A couple thousand later it drove more smoothly on the way home after I picked it up this afternoon. Not exactly what I wanted to drop that amount of money on, but it’s worth keeping the car going. After driving the newer model loner car, I have to say I’m happy with my 12 year old car, so I’m glad I can keep it running well.

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.

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.

I found another reason to haul out my porta-sling: it makes a nice pull-up bar.

The combination of stuff is going better now. We added several new bookshelves, and are gradually moving his books over, bag by bag. Also in the process of converting an old, large bookshelf into large dressers. Yay convertible Ikea furniture. It’s gonna be cramped, but it’s doable. And it’s getting better than the last entry when I was going nuts. Still haven’t found the yoga strap, though.

Injured my back twice this week, once while biking and once while lifting a large water bottle for the office water cooler. Not the lower back, strangely, but the mid-back, lower ribs, on the outer back. Guess it’s past time for more strength training. Phhhbbbbttt! Letting it recover a bit, then will work on strengthening the area. Past that, training has been almost non-existent, again. Commuting and his work schedule are completely non-supportive of doing any training. Blech. I may still be able to do the tri in May, but the half marathon in March is out at this point. Ugh. I hate wasting the money on the race fees, not to mention the loss of health and weight gain. Another thing to look forward to when he moves in – no more driving across town twice a day, and time to exercise.

One of the major disadvantages of combining households into the existing dwelling of one half of the couple is that that person already has a mental map of the place and where everything goes. It might not be perfect, but in general they know where stuff is. Then you introduce a second person and all their stuff, and suddenly neither one can find any of their own stuff.

He hasn’t even moved in yet, and he’s already losing my stuff. *sigh*

Tonight it was the yoga strap. Wanted to do some nice, quiet, end of the day yoga. Pulled out the mat, the blocks, a bolster, but the strap was nowhere to be found. It *used* to live with the blocks, but those got moved up to a different shelf, and it seems the strap didn’t move with them. At least not that I can tell.

Last week it was my winter cycling gloves and ear covers. Finally dug those up not from any of the usual places where I keep my winter gear, but rather in the linen closet next to the sheets. *double sigh* At least my hands and ears are warm now on the commute, but it was a cold couple of days before they were found.

It’ll get better, I know, but in the meantime I think I’ll be doing more yoga to try and let go of the frustration, strap or no strap.

You know you needed to clean when doing so sets off your allergies (from all the dust that’s kicked up).

Yesterday I sent the boy off to a conference for the weekend, and dropped the dawg off at dawggie day care. Got the oxygen sensor in the mini replaced this morning. Been cleaning off and on since, and I think it was the vacuuming that pushed my allergies over the edge. Ah well, at least there aren’t obvious dust bunnies all over the place now, even if my nose is going nuts. We painted last weekend, putting black chalkboard paint on half the entryway hall (and it works; it’s not like that hallway could get any darker, so the black doesn’t detract), and a nice green (“Douglas Fir”) in the living room:

Plus we moved around some furniture, and with all that it stirred up a lot of dust and carpet fuzz. So today has been putting things away, finding new spots for things, and rocking out to Queen’s Platinum Collection.

But now I think it may be time to goof off a bit with the Playstation.