Thanksgiving Birds of 2010

No...we are not going to eat them.

5,4,3,2,1

5 Songs in My Head at Any Given Time
1) Shadows of the Night- Pat Benatar
2) Pink Houses- John Cougar Mellencamp
3) The Sound of Music- Rodgers and Hammerstein
4) If it Be Your Will- Leonard Cohen
5) O mio babbino caro-Gianni Schicchi

4 Movies that I can Watch Every Year
1) The Philadelphia Story
2) Fried Green Tomatoes
3) Best in Show
4) American Beauty

3 Places I Miss Living In from Time to Time
1) Boston, MA
2) Ashland, OR
3) Ocracoke, NC

2 Places I want to Live Someday, at least for awhile
1) Italy
2) Peru

The One Thing I Miss Most
1) My Mom

SPIN SPIN SPIN

So yesterday I decided I was going to attempt the entire 60 minute SPIN class. The Sunday class is for the old, fat, and/or injured... while I have managed to pick up at least 5 of the pounds I lost before the hamstring tear, I think I mostly qualified for the class as being one of the injured.

But here is the good news... I did the whole class. Sure I did it with very little tension on the fly wheel, and no I didn't push myself to an aerobic heart rate. It was just a good fat burn intensity... but I made it through the entire class without any pain.

I made sure to ice last night and I took plenty of Advil and 1/2 a muscle relaxer. But this morning at 5am the gym called again without pain. Yeah! Weak but not in pain... and seriously more flexible on the injured side than the healthy this morning. That could be a sign I was overcompensating on the right, but I tried to be very mindful of that on Sunday.

So my goal now is to do it at least once more this week. I might go to my regular Wednesday class!

The Digital Age and Sounding Like My Parents

I've been a bit overwhelmed by technology lately.

First, my laptop became horrendously infected with all sorts of viruses and worms and scary things. It had been running fine for years, but started acting really poorly after a friend used it to check their email. They happened to download some stupid photo presentation in PowerPoint without asking me, even saved it to my desktop. While this might be a coincidence, my machine went to the bad within a day of the addition of this file to my desktop. I had the entire thing swept up and cleaned- and the dude removed a small arsenal of malicious crapola... but then my hard drive completely died. And I lost everything.

So, here I am with a new hard drive, slowly rebuilding all my contacts, etc., mourning the fact that I hadn't backed up to my external drive in far too long and lost a ton of data. But all replaceable stuff- just a matter of starting over.

Like many people today, I was still using Facebook. And then something weird happened- I was working on a budget spreadsheet when Excel tried to access the internet- to go to Facebook. Thankfully my new firewall alerted me to this fact, but I was like, "WTF? Why would Excel need to go to Facebook?" So I quit... deleted my Facebook account and decided I managed to get by for 37 years without it before, so who needed it? And like Betty White said on SNL- it really is a colossal waste of time. My favorite part of Facebook was really Bejeweled Blitz, so I splurged and bought a copy.

For the computer geeks out there that may have something to say about this, let me know. My machine seems to be fine now, and as far as all my nifty new security programs can tell, I am handling threats well. A new and better encrypted router helped as well, but I tell ya, one more stupid series of crap like this and I will be tempted to drop off the internet entirely, move to a remote cabin in the wilderness, and hunt my own food.

I remember arguing with my statistics professor in undergrad about getting an University provided email account. This was back in the 90's...I didn't want one, and she required it for her class. I told her it was the beginning of the end of normal communication, that it would lead to a new generation of people that had no ability to talk on the phone, have a normal face to face conversation, and who found lying to be an extremely easy thing to do. It would lead to a decay of moral fiber I argued- and I wanted none of it. I felt the same way about cell phones that could 'text'.

I have several young friends, in their 20's. Many of them lack a solid moral compass, yet this is in part a function of youth. But nearly all of them have no ability to talk on the phone, have a normal face to face conversation, and find lying to be an extremely easy thing to do.

As we plan having kids of our own, I can only imagine the how much I am going to sound like my parents in the coming years.

Oh How I Will Miss This One

http://hoydenabouttown.com/20101010.8827/bitch-phd-closes-down/

Hammy with a Side of Eggs

So it has been six weeks since I tore my medial hamstring. Today in PT I realized that the improvement to leg curls that I had made a few weeks ago was really a bit of a sham... I am pronating so the lateral is doing most of the work. Which explains why it is so damn sore and tight.

So foot straight and in proper form... I can't do a leg curl yet from the flat position. You get me started though and I can keep it up. But it is really hard. Ugh. Ice, Advil, a muscle relaxer and I am going to bed soon. This is a long friggin' haul. It's a roller coaster really, and the emotions that go with it are even more intense. The other day I tried (without thinking) to run across the street before you know, I got ran over by a car. But I can't run. Forgot that. I'm glad the cars slowed down.

Every time I go into PT I am sort of stunned by the number of patients there.... There are many old women there with injuries much worse(or recoveries much slower)than my own. I try to be grateful that all things considered I am doing great... and I find myself wondering "how do they manage to get on by themselves? Are they alone?" as I watch some of these women try to move about for an hour of PT. So many of them come into PT alone, as do I, but some of them seem so frail I can't imagine them dealing with their recovery alone.

My physical therapist is so awesome. I was really sad today when I realized that after next week I have to tell them I just can't go anymore but like once a month and I have to do this on my own. Which SUCKS, but I blew threw my FSA account. It's all gone and it's all out of pocket now. These pockets are empty, or otherwise allocated... so I get to turn my basement into a PT clinic. Between there and the gym and the half a brain I have left in my head... I should be able to do this.

So where is the side of eggs? Well let's just say more on that later...

Like sands through the hourglass

Wow. Nine months later and I have given birth to a new self. Lost about 13 of the 22lbs with my new obsession (spin). I was moving along well towards the goal of 'fortress' until I tore my medial hamstring five weeks ago, doing what? Trying to have fun on water skis.

Today I walked about .60 miles and I am not, at the moment, having any muscle spasms.

Summer flew by. It was hot and dry; green and overgrown; wild and itchy like I had fallen into a patch of poison oak.

I crave the first hard frost.

Fitting Rooms

So this weekend was mostly good. We had a lovely time out on Friday for my gorgeous wife's birthday. And Saturday we saw an old pal and her adorable baby girl. All good... then came Sunday. I had to go bathing suit shopping.

There really is nothing more self-depricating than standing in a fitting room in your underwear, under the disgusting green-yellow glow of nasty fluorescent lighting. Try to squeeze your fat ass into pieces of clothing that are apparently designed to make you look even worse than you do naked and you have a recipe for a downward spiral of depression. And when that cheery fitting room lady pops in to ask "How you doing?"... it is hard not to scream out "How the hell do you think under this god-forsaken lighting with an ass as big as Montana?"

Ok, so maybe it is not that bad. But I have gained 22 pounds in 2.5 years. As far as I am concerned, I am a disgusting slob, a fraction of former self. And yet I am aware that I have been heavier. Tis true... before I became a body builder I was heavier than I am now. But I was 20 then... 18 years can do a number to your joints, your motivation, your overall sense of "go get 'em". While I have been working out more and taking the stairs, and watching what I eat... I can tell it's not quite enough yet, and I ain't no spring chicken anymore.

Time to put the shoes on and go for my run. Yes I am still sore from yesterday... but when I was 20 I believed in No Pain No Gain. I'm going to give it another whirl.

Wake Up

So this past week three people I know died. One was a 37 yr old woman I went to high school with. Heart attack. Another was a 57 year old woman I knew from the industry in which I work. Heart attack. And another was the mother of a dear friend... in her 80's and gone to Alzheimer's... it was her time.

I busted a move yesterday and got myself back to working out... taking the stairs at work... taking fish oil.

While that is all good, I can't get out of the funk. I hate the low light level time of year... all I want to do is hibernate and be grouchy.