What an exceptionally good Saturday!  Joe and I went to the gym this morning, and I did a 45 minute cycle “class” -- again, by myself but using an on demand video my club provides.  I pushed hard and according to the console on the bike, burned 600 calories.  I know that’s extremely imprecise, but I also know I was sweating profusely and breathing very hard so at least by the measure of my perceived exertion, it was a good workout.

In the afternoon I finally made it to my local outdoor gear and clothing store to get new top and bottom base layers (Smartwool for the win!), a new pair of gloves, Smartwool socks (yes, I do love Smartwool) and a couple of hats.  The base layers I have been using are beyond falling apart and thankfully no one can tell I’m wearing those rags because they’re under my clothes.

I had intended to go to the bookstore and stock up -- I’ve actually read through pretty much my entire stash that I bought around Thanksgiving.  But the day was so beautiful -- blue skies, temps finally have risen into the mid-20s, light breeze so I decided to walk to Lake Nokomis to watch the Pond Hockey Championships.  And so did several thousand others!  What a great crowd and what fantastic energy there was on the ice!  Hockey is, by far, my favorite team sport -- something about the sound of the stick hitting the puck, the skate blades biting into the ice, and certainly the athleticism of the players.  Probably good this is the final weekend of the competition.  I’m beginning to hear we may have a Polar vortex coming with some models showing air temps as low as -28 by February 8 or 9.  It probably won’t be that cold, but sounds like -20 is possible.  Sigh.

Here’s a little photo spam from my walk to the lake.  People walking their dogs on frozen Minnehaha Creek.  I just missed several cross country skiers skiing the other direction:

Tonight probably just salads and a movie, which sounds like a perfect combination right now.  We’re still doing Dry January, though we did break our dry streak this past Wednesday and Thursday.  The wine I had tasted fine, but honestly, it didn’t taste as good as I thought it would, and my less than stellar sleep those two nights remind me how well I sleep when I don’t drink.

I steadily worked through all my tasks by 3:00 today and decided to take advantage of the stunningly bright blue skies to visit Lake Nokomis near my home to see the progress they’ve made building the hockey rinks for this weekend’s National Pond Hockey Championships.

I couldn’t quite get an accurate count, but I’m guessing they had at least 12 rinks laid out. It extended half way out into the lake. I used my fitness app to track the walk I took on the ice to the furthest rinks before making a beeline for shore.

Kind of chilly out there though. About 5 degrees and a 15 mph wind. I’ll trek down there this weekend to watch some of the games.

These canoes will just have to wait a few months before they’re useful for anything more than a windbreak.

Decent day

There are some days when you’re just in the flow.  I had a list of to-do items to move several projects along that I’m managing and they all got done.

Then to the gym for an on-demand cycle class which I stream through my phone into my Airbuds.  I do these “classes” alone, but they’re surprisingly engaging and motivating.  45 minutes just below my anaerobic threshold. From there rowed 1800 meters, which isn’t a particularly long distance, but after 45 minutes on the bike it kinda kicked my ass.  I liked it though!

When I arrived home I saw that the city had plowed the alley so there was a big ol’ windrow that I had to clear. It was tall enough that to drive over it could cause me to bottom out the car so some unexpected aerobic and upper body strength work there.  Even beyond not wanting to bottom out the car, the day was quite warm -- 42 degrees -- so the snow was kind of slushy.  Tonight a big ol’ Arctic front is going through so our temperatures will fall to around zero by tomorrow morning, then teens below over the next few days.  That would have turned that windrow into ice and could really do some damage to the car if I drove over it!

I kind of enjoy it when we get an Arctic front move through.  The wind is howling between 20 and 40 MPH and the windchill is brutal, but the house is cozy and warm.  I love the feeling of a storm raging outside, while it’s inviting and comfortable inside.

Sylvester is playing hide and seek and being vewy, vewy quiet so we can’t see him...

Looks like a running inside kind of day.  We’re under a mask mandate again in Minneapolis and St. Paul so I’ll need to wear a mask when I work out at the gym.  But I wear a mask outside when I exercise in the cold, so no big deal.  Tomorrow looks nice though and then back into the freezer.  Such a weird winter.

And hey look!  Just noticed the sun will be setting after 5:00 pm in a few days for the first time in ages.  Yay!

Goodbye, sweet vacation

For the past few days, Joe and I, who are both on a two week vacation, and aware the vacation was winding down, put lipstick on that particular pig by saying things like “hey it’s Thursday and the beginning of an awesome four day weekend!”  Then on Friday, “damn, I love three day weekends - they should be the norm like they are in Iceland.”  Then yesterday, “we have the whole weekend ahead of us.”  And so on.

So here we are, Sunday afternoon, with the sun sinking in the southwest sky and lengthening shadows.  I hated this particular hour on a Sunday when I was a kid with its promise of school the next morning, and I’m not overly fond of it now.  Still, we’ve had a great vacation, have managed to stay healthy, had plenty of good food and drink, saw lots of friends and family (not in a big group though) and we’re both getting our heads on straight to begin the work week tomorrow.  I really don’t mind returning to work.  I like my job and where I work.  I will miss the slow mornings and extended workouts, and watching movies on TCM in the evening.

We’re having a Dry January, I already have scheduled all my workouts for the upcoming week, and have rekindled a still-fledgling habit of journaling in the morning.  Just keeping those things up will make me feel good and may help me keep this vacation glow going for a few weeks. 

Different approach

So, it’s been a long time since I’ve done New Year’s resolutions.  Besides not necessarily being very successful, it was all about what I will do rather than what I did do.  These things lasted about two weeks then fell away.

So I’ve been trying out a different approach. Over my two week Christmas vacation, I made decisions about my workouts throughout the period.  Nothing over the top, but I had made a decision about what to do on any given day, and my job was to actually do it.   I decided it was more important to keep promises to myself than to be swayed by whatever I was feeling I’d rather do (or not do) on any given day.  It was kind of like deciding I didn’t want my body to be disobedient to my mind or my will.  While I know it will be a bit more difficult to keep this up when I return to work, the idea for me was to get used to honoring my own decisions, and doing what I had committed to doing.  Not for someone else, but for me.

As I’ve gotten older, I am more and more aware of how time melts away.  My propensity to say I’m just so danged busy that I can’t do that (whatever “that” may be), withered in the face of looking at how much time I actually spend on my devices.  No, I’m not that busy - I regularly fritter away two hours doom scrolling and I am none the better for it.  Actually worse off since social media is mostly toxic and seems designed to pit us against each other and after doing it my mind is unfocused and reactionary.

So back to the past two weeks.  I hit every goal - I kept every promise to myself.  Sometimes it was really hard, but mostly it just felt good, especially after I finished up something I had almost convinced myself I wasn’t going to do.

Not sure I have much more of a point to this post, except that this feeling.... is new.  And I like it.

Already Wednesday and etc.

Wow, this two week vacation is just melting away.  Thankfully we didn’t over plan anything, so it has mostly been a relaxing change of pace from the normal routine.  Still I think I’ll be ready to go back to work next week.

A friend of mine is in the hospital with a MRSA infection.  I’ve mentioned him before.  He has end stage Parkinson’s and will not be able to return to his apartment when he is discharged from the hospital.  I think he’ll have to go into rehab somewhere, then we’ll have to figure out an assisted living or long-term care situation for him.  I’ve visited him a few times and boy howdy the hospital is jumping.  When he was admitted, he was on a gurney for five hours in a hallway in the emergency department until they found a room.  Covid, of course.  The doctor told him 93% of the Covid patients admitted to this hospital were not vaccinated.  I found the hospital staff very helpful but clearly quite exhausted.  I can’t believe what they’re having to go through.  They are owed a huge debt of gratitude.

It’s looking a bit like winter finally:

That predicted 44 degree swing from Sunday morning to Monday afternoon is going to feel like whiplash, though.

Joe has very kindly agreed to go clothes shopping with me today - woo hoo!  And once I get at least a few pairs of pants and other things, I will be doing most of my shopping online - many thanks to my cousin, Dianne, for turning me on to Amazon Fashion.  I generally don’t shop online (or in person very much, obviously) but I will gladly shop online, at least for clothes.  

Have a good hump day!

Christmas Review

It was a really nice day. It was a very leisurely morning and ended up taking a long walk for an hour or so.  The lack of traffic and activity in general made it delightfully quiet. I decided on my walk to pull out my bike for a ride since all the snow pretty much melted earlier in the week leaving the streets and paths mostly clear.  There was a bit of melt ice on the trails, but I thought I could avoid most of it.

It was about 19 degrees with just a slight breeze, and I just bundled up for the ride.  It was great!  Ended up heading to Minnehaha Falls for a nice 10 mile round trip.  Not a long ride by summer standards, but for a late December ride, not too bad.  The falls were cool - very ice-sculpture-y:

How you doin’

I have this week and next week off from work and feel very fortunate to have this time.  I am amazed, though, how fast the week goes on vacation compared to a regular week.  Thursday already.  Yowsa.

No complaints otherwise, though.  Very low key this week.  I’ve hit the gym everyday but one, and am trying to get into a habit that will be sustainable once I’m back at work.  Covid weight is real, comfort eating and a couple of glasses of wine a night are also real and doing me no favors at all.  

Next week will entail some clothes shopping, as my clothing situation is now critical.  I just detested the thought of fighting Christmas shoppers to do clothes shopping this week (well, any week actually, but I think I’ve already mentioned that in a previous post) but next week I just have to do it.  I have continued to wear a pair of jeans with a broken zipper and just try to keep my belt cinched so tight it closes the fly.  That’s only moderately successful unfortunately, so I’m constantly checking it so it makes me look like I’m always trying to cop a feel.  Charming.

Tonight we’re having a high school buddy of Joe’s and his wife over for dinner.  I’ve made my signature chili and we’ve cleaned the house.  Joe is decorating the tree and we’re listening to Donna Summer’s Christmas album.  Sylvester the Cat is cuddled up next to me as I write this, so the scene is quite cozy and domestic.  Joe and I are both missing Athena mightily, but it has been almost two months since we lost her so the sadness has mellowed a bit.  We were so lucky to have had so many years with that wonderful dog.

Hope all is well wherever you are!

Push has come to shove

I truly hate shopping for anything except food.  I especially hate shopping for clothes.  When Covid hit, I was in need of getting new clothes, but then it seemed ridiculous to get anything when all I really needed was a Zoom-worthy shirt.  That my pants were ripped or otherwise worn (or not worn at all 😂) didn’t really seem to matter.  Even after I returned to the office, most people didn’t return so I still could get away with the old ratty clothes I had.

Well.  We’re going to a wedding this evening.  I have three pairs of pants.  The black pants been wearing are ripped in the inner thigh.  The zipper in my blue jeans is completely broken.  My one pair of dress pants fit well pre-covid, but there’s a bit more of me now and, uh, they are really tight.  So I really have to go buy a pair of pants today.  I planned to hit the gym, which I did, then head straight out to the Mall of America and shop. (Note:  Mall of America is our closest mall, and a place I detest beyond measure.  Truly soul sucking.  But they have clothes.  Damn). I made it as far as home and here I am, blogging about it.  I am seriously considering pouring myself into my too-tight work pants so I don’t have to go shopping.  It’s insane, though, because I know I’d feel better in clothes that fit and aren’t worn out, but here we are.

In other, happier, news, Joe and I have a new cat:  Sylvester.  We did not plan to get a pet for awhile after Athena died, but a friend of mine who is very sick could no longer care for his cat -- i.e., Sylvester -- so we agreed to take him.  It’s been years since we’ve had cats so I forgot how long it takes for them to get used to a new place.  But we’re a week in now, and Sylvester is getting much more comfortable.  I wanted to take a picture of him for this post, but he must be shy, so here’s a picture from a few weeks ago over at his old house:

Snow handled like a boss!  Great synchronicity too:  our neighbor across the alley was getting out his new snowblower just as the city plowed the alley.  Whenever someone gets a new snowblower, they are absolutely gung-ho to use it, so just after the plow passed, my neighbor looked expectantly at me.  He asked if I’d like him to snow blow the windrow the plow left, and also do our driveway.  Yes please!  He was like a kid in a candy store and I felt like the winner in the whole deal.

Still plenty of shoveling sidewalks, etc.  And one of the things a wet storm like this one that will be followed by a warm week, is the threat of ice dams.  So here, for your viewing pleasure, is Joe raking the roof.  If you turn up the sound you can kind of hear the snow hitting the ground.  And Joe grunting.  LOL

Weighty plans

So my planned trip to the gym to lift has been changed by the twelve reasons piled up in the yard overnight.  A cool foot of wet snow that we need to go out and get bossy with this morning.  Plenty of weight lifting opportunities right in our own yard!

I actually love this.  I just wish the weather outlook for this week was for colder weather.  It’s going to warm up significantly and will turn a lot of this into slush followed by rain on Wednesday, followed by sharply colder weather resulting in ice everywhere.  Ice underfoot is the one thing about winter I detest.

Delightful yet distressing

I took an amazing 15 mile bike ride over lunch today. 

It’s November 30 and it was 45 and sunny and completely dry with the skiff of snow we had a couple of weeks ago long gone.  There’s no ice on the lakes and plenty of runners in t-shirts and shorts.  Tomorrow is going to be 55.  On December first.  It’s delightful!  It’s distressing!  For the same reason.  It just shouldn’t be like this now.  I’m definitely ready for snow and cold.

The sun is really low in the sky, so these prairie grass tassels in our backyard were backlit by the sun and absolutely luminous:

The neighbors on the south side of us moved out yesterday and today.  We haven’t met the new owner yet.  With our neighbor on the north side of the house gone and the new neighbors moved in, things feel so different.  Not bad different - I am sure these new neighbors will be great - but after such stability for so many years, two new neighbors at one time does change the feel and energy of the block.  It’ll be good to get to know these new folks, though.  We’ve always lucked out with the great neighbors we have had over the past 24 years.

Thanksgiving and such

With Joe in Virginia for Thanksgiving this year, I went to my friend Julie’s house for Thanksgiving dinner last night.  It was a bit uncertain whether it would occur because of the critical nature of her sister’s illness, but it turned out to be a lovely time.  I feel 100% comfortable just being myself completely around Julie and her partner, Regina.  Certainly there was some sadness about her sister’s illness, but ultimately we spent the evening telling stories and laughing in a way that you can only with people you’ve known for 35 years.  While I would love to have been with Joe and his family, I am grateful for the warmth, love and deep ties I have with J and R. 

This morning when I went outside, I saw that the squirrels utterly destroyed Joe’s pumpkins.  Up until last night the pumpkins were on the little table, but now shit’s all over the yard.  Oh the humanity!

And with the weather warming into the low 30′s, and the winds not blowing quite as hard as they had, I took advantage of there being no snow and took a quick 9 mile ride on my bike.  With the holiday and the cooler temps, I practically had the trails to myself:

And apropos of absolutely nothing, you know how tv shows you’ve seen in the past that you really, really liked but haven’t seen in ages show up again, and you think, yay! I’m going to have great nostalgic binge afternoon!  And then you watch one episode and want to open a vein because it’s so bad?  For me earlier this afternoon it was “Sex and the City.”  OMG, I hated it so much I couldn’t even recall what it was I liked about it in the past.  Sheesh, I guess people (and by people I mean me) do change.

Early morning ramblings on Thanksgiving

- Joe is in Virginia for Thanksgiving with his mom and his brother and his family. I am staying home because I’ll be in Arizona next week helping my parents move and I couldn’t swing both trips.

- I really, really, really miss Athena. I think it’ll be four weeks tomorrow that we said good bye to her.

- I have been invited to my friend Julie’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, though it’s possible it will be postponed because her sister is in critical condition in the hospital with heart, lung and kidney failure and may not make it.  It took 11 hours for her sister to get an ICU bed in the hospital because of the number of COVID patients, 90% of whom are unvaccinated according to the hospital. I’m sure that delay had absolutely nothing to do with how quickly she went downhill.  🙄

-  The neighbors on either side of us have sold their houses.  The first set of new neighbors moved in yesterday and seem really nice.  They’re a young couple with two kids who have just moved here from Washington state.  My current neighbors on the other side will move to their new house near Bde Maka Ska in the next few days and we’ll meet the woman who bought theirs soon.  I told both neighbors that selling at the same time makes it look like we’re the problem. 😂. Going to miss them - we’ve been so lucky to have such great neighbors over the years.

- Knocked it out of the park at the gym yesterday.  Full sets of weights and a 55 minute spin class that I did on my own.  The gym is open this morning.  We’ll see what I end up doing, but I imagine rowing will be on the list.

And this is Thanksgiving of course, and I am thankful and grateful for Joe, for my parents, for the years we had with Athena, for my friend Julie, for overworked hospital personnel, for good neighbors and for my health just to name a few.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I keep surprising myself

I really do!  Today I left work planning to come straight home but I got in the car and told myself the gym is 6 blocks away.  Just GO.  And I did.  I’ve come to realize I’m kind of bored with my usual gym activities, and after such a good experience rowing on Saturday, I thought I would do that again.  But first, I thought I would run.  

Damn I really didn’t want to though.  I’m really don’t enjoy running all that much, which is why I bike, which I do love.  If there had been a cycle class right then, I would have taken it.  But hold on!  The club I belong to has an app with on demand cycle classes that I can just stream while I use one of the spin bikes they have out in the main part of the club.  So, quite unexpectedly, I did a full cycle class all by myself.  I would prefer to be in a group of people, but still, this was different and it changed things up, and it felt good.  

Then I rowed.  Still killed me after ten minutes, but I had gone about 400 meters further than Saturday in the same amount of time.  Baby steps.  

But I’m feeling kind of good about doing these new things.