365 Days and Counting

Another day, another day to recuperate.  I'm still hurting from the fall.  I thought it was going to be better today because trash pickup went just fine and there was little pain.  However, perhaps I slept wrong or something, but I woke up with a lot of pain.  The Tylenol seems to help but I certainly am in no condition to run. I did go see the third installment of How to Train Your Wagon .  I saw it in IMAX (there were perhaps only 10 people in the theater).  It was a beautiful movie to watch and pretty predictable, but it was very good. The Trolley ride to and from was uncomfortable because of the back issues and I didn't take my coat--what an idiot I was. Not much else.

Well, this was a sad day.  I am down with this injury from falling down.  I expect to take today and tomorrow off in hopes of completely healing.  On the good side, I was able to sleep.  When I first laid down, the pain was horrible, but after the day and taking some Tylenol, it was better though the only way to lay without pain was on my right side.  This morning I can certainly get around and breathe easier, so it appears to be on the mend I did manage to get some of the trash pickup chores done. It seems this will now be the routine picking up some trash on Mondays so as to make Tuesdays easier.  I also go my haircut and used my annual Costco refund money to stock up on my vitamins and othr goodies.  Aside from that I just stayed home and tried to recuperate. 

I knew it was just a matter of time, but this morning I took a spill on the asphalt after stepping into a pothole.  I did tumble and tried to roll but it was too sudden.  I did scrape up my knee and bruised my left side (it's sore when I breathe in), but fortunately I was wearing gloves which prevented me scraping my palms, which would have been bad.  I did hobble back to my place and was actually able to jog a bit, but I thought it better to call it a day in case something was more serious internally.  I managed my swim just fine with a little soreness.  Interestingly, I scraped my left knee and it was bleeding a bit, but my sweatpants didn't rip at all.  Good material. I didn't do much today but am a little proud of myself.  I needed a new chair for my desk and I had mentioned I found one at GMT here in Santee.  So, this morning I went online and found a site that allows me a 30% discount on one item.  I filled out the information and i...

It was a strong morning for my jog and the swim was great as I didn't have dodge the cleaning crew this morning.  I'm having problems once again with my left foot nerve.  I have no idea why it has flared up again, but like before, I hope it's only temporary. I was going to get gas at Costco, but Hugh called and wanted to have breakfast.  We went to Jimmy's here in Santee and had a great meal.  He's having some drama with his third son and he and Val gave me the story.  Josh has some serious problems that I hope he can get through.  Cindy called and asked me to help the residents of the newly purchased 137 space.  I got their microwave and heater going fine, but I couldn't get their water heater started.  They will need to have SDG&E come out and take care of it. I stayed home the rest of the day and caught up on TV shows. I did go to GMT and found a possible chair to buy for my computer desk.  It's not perfect, but I can deal with i...

Back to it this morning.  Run and swim went just fine.  I'm debating about the distance of my runs lately.  As I've reported, I've brought my distance down from 5 miles per day to just under 4.  I do believe that since I'm running pretty much every  day, that should be sufficient.  I am having some problems once again with the left foot pain.  I know I'm going to have to switch shoes eventually, but I haven't found a pair that doesn't have less pain.  It's a problem I will need to solve. I went to the movies via Trolley and saw Fighting with My Family , which turned out to be pretty good.  The father character all but stole the show.  I'm fighting to get through this month's book club selection.  It just isn't capturing my attention.  I'll get through it, I just wish I enjoyed it more. Nothing else to report aside from that during the swim this morning, the band aid with the wart medicine came off and to my surprise, the ...

No swim...no run.  Rain, cold, sleepy. Okay...I took the day off. I went to Papa's and returned his phone.  I reset the brightness for him and set the auto stop for five minutes, so it won't run out of charge.  I cancelled the appointment for a new battery.  Truth be told, it's time for him to get a new phone and if the old one acts up more, that's what we'll do. It's really the only thing I did yesterday aside from some more shopping.  Today marks a crossroads of sort for me. I can feel the urge to stop all I'm doing.  I need to FIGHT this urge.  Tomorrow, I will hit it with anticipation.

The rainy season continues.  There was no run today, but I did get in the swim.  I remember last year when there was no rain whatsoever during these two months.  I marveled that for the first year, I think I may have missed only one or two days as rainouts.  This year, I've already missed five or more.  And that's with my getting in the run just in time before rain started coming down.  Quite a season. I went and saw What Men Want , and it was exactly what I assumed it would be.  I don't mind predictable romantic comedies. I'm there to be entertained and enjoy a couple of laughs, and this movie did just that.  It's nothing to remember or see again, but it was fun. I took the Trolley and didn't take my umbrella.  I got lucky as there was some rain while I was in the movie theater, but none while walking from the Trolley both places.  Dinner a the parents.  Some kind of chicken casserole that was good.  Mom was in good spir...

Yes, I know about the Day count.  I screwed up AGAIN.  I forgot to make a post a couple of days ago.  I know that I do these things.  Something grabs my attention, and I get diverted.  Later I tell myself, "Don't forget to to you daily post" and then I forget.  Old age?  Oh well, I at least want to keep the number of days correct. Trash pickup went fine though it was cold, cold, cold.  We finished at 7:30 AM.  The residents seem to be adjusting to our early pickup time.  It's SO nice to have it over with so soon.  The run and the swim went just fine, thought the swim was a bit more labored than usual.  As noted in yesterday's blog, I went to take care of my mom for a couple of hours.  She HATES that I do it.  It has nothing to do with me, it's that she gets upset that she can't be left alone and she feels she's a burden.  It breaks my heart because she cries over this.  Donna says the same thing.  B...

Did a decent run this morning and the swim went well as well.  Temp was in the high 30s, but my sweatshirt and sweatpants always seem to do the job just fine.  Yesterday was President's Day, so not much to report.  I met Martin at Jamul Casino and played.  I did hit a quad and was up a buck at lunchtime.  Then I used my freeplay and $20 in a Buffalo Gold.  No bonus games...lost.  Not much else to report.  TV and computer.  My sister called and wants me to Mom-sit from noon to 3 PM tomorrow.  So with trash pickup, that will pretty much kill my usual movie day. 

I did get my ass back on the road and did my run this morning as well as the swim.  It began raining for a bit, but stopped.  When I returned from the gym, it began raining steady...I got lucky. The day was a complete bust.  Weather people and Alexa told me it would rain today, but it was sunny the entire time.  I stayed in...never left the house.  I did watch a couple of Netflix shows, Russian Dollhouse  and half of The Umbrella Academy.   The first was very good and latter, which I'm still in the middle is not as good, but I still have hopes.  There are many questions and I do intend to finish it today.  We shall see. Other than that, aside from eating ALL day, nothing happened.  I'm going to regret this later. 

The rains are still here, so I took the day off.  I could have gone swimming, but decided to take the day off from that as well.  I slept 10 hours. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but we'll see.  I did get to the movies via Trolley and saw the long awaited Alita , which turned out to be just as good as I had hoped.  The one problem I had with it was that it was not concluded but a set up for the next chapter.  That can be good or bad, but it was a disappointment for me.  I'm sure I'd like to see it again.  I saw it in a Dolby showing, which the seats vibrate with the sound--not my favorite.  I prefer IMAX, which I thought I signed up for, but it's all good. Nothing else to report.  The rest of the day was You Tubes and TV.  Oh, I did start our new book club selection.  So far...not a fan.

I did manage to get a little run this morning along with the swim.  The pool was heated properly again, which is a relief.  The run was short, but I was trying to get it in during a break from the rains. It rained ALL day, so I just stayed home and watched TV.  The problem with staying home is that I eat too much, and this day was no exception.  When the weather turns this spring, I'm going to have to jump back on the wagon BIG TIME.

This will be short.  The rains have come and are expected to be here through Sunday.  I may or may not get in a run.  It depends on just when it will rain or not.  So, no run today.  I did make my swim at the gym, but the water was a bit colder than usual.  Hopefully, that's not a trend.  One of the things I love about the swim is how warm the water is and when it's colder like this, the workout is the same, but my love of it isn't. With the rains here, I simply didn't do much.  I watched TV, played on computer.  I did have dinner at Mom's where Papa made pork, mash potatoes and gravy with carrots. It was delicious.  They also bought a cherry pie for me and celebrated my birthday and gave me a Starbucks gift card.  It was very sweet.  Mom seems in a much better mood of late.  She is going places with Papa now--a huge change form a month before.  She wanted to let me know that she went into the store and picked out...

Okay.  I decided I was tired and could take a day off from running, but going through my mind was that rain was expected Thur through Sat, so there's a chance I won't run for a few days soon.  So, I thought I'd let my body tell me.  I wouldn't set my alarm for the 2 AM wake up.  Well...I woke up at 1:55, so there was my sign.  I got up and ran.  There was a problem:  my body didn't want to and so even taking an abridged route didn't help.  I did job for a bit, but walked too much.  It was just a bad day.  I am glad I tried and did get some of it in.  The swim, on the other hand went very well.  Trash pickup went just fine.  I want to the movies via Trolley and saw Cold Pursuit.  It was totally predictable, but still very enjoyable.  It was interested to see how they incorporated some comedy in a clever way considering the death toll was so high.  I didn't do much else, but it was nice to see 15 K steps...

The run and swim this morning went just fine.  I was a bit more worn out than usual, but still managed.  The pool was the perfect temp this morning.  It felt great. Being my birthday, I got call from the family.  I'm very lucky to have to whole family still with me and with the exception of Mom, all healthy and happy.  Being Monday, I did pick up as much trash around the park, as usual.  I then went and met Martin at the Jamul Casino for some gamble and lunch.  As usual, I lost $40 but one day... I had dinner with Cindy at Black Angus and the food was fantastic.  I had BBQ ribs and brought half of it home for later.  I ate WAY too much yesterday, but hell...it was my birthday!

So, the alarm goes off and I'm secretly hoping the rains that were promised came; however, they never did.  Then I was tempted to not run because it's my birthday and who would blame me?  Well, I would.  So I got dressed and hit the streets.  The run and the swim went just fine. A reminder that my run and swim is of today and my report is about yesterday.  Because I write these after my exercise and are about yesterday, I'll be writing about what I did for my birthday tomorrow. My new computer came a day early...nice.  However, I had to completely wipe my old one of which I'm giving to Martin.  To get it back to factory specs, I deleted everything.  This took about three hours.  I then needed to reload it so Martin could begin using it.  After I finished that, I installed my new computer.  The jury will be out on whether I made a good or a bad decision.  The screen is a tad small (that's okay) and all my web pages look diff...

The run this morning was a good one.  I changed it up just a tad going a different direction but the route.  I did manage to run much more than walk.  Listening to podcasts make SUCH a huge difference.  I'm so glad I bought the earphones (they work great and keep my ears warm at the same time) and started it.  I credit that with keeping me on the go and not getting too bored.  I was very tickled that one of them Two Morons on Gambling and other Stuff gave me a shoutout during my run.  Very cool! I had quite a day.  First, in the morning during my Facebook watching, I got a request from some girl, who I didn't recognize but rather than do what I've done in the past (go to the web page and see if she's a Mountain Empire graduate), I just confirmed.  In no time, I get a person message.  It was the usual small talk, and then she turns it to sex.  She sends me a Facebook video to my phone (didn't know you could do that) and starts undr...

This morning's run/jog/walk was not my best.  My body and head just weren't into it and I'd say I walked 50% of route.  It was just one of those mornings.  At least I finished it.  The swim went just fine. I went to Papa's and met with him and Donna.  He was worried about a guy who came to door about electricity hook ups and we figured out he was just some guy trying to sell him solar paneling.  We told him that when he calls back, that we kids (owners of the home) said flatly no and to hang up.  Drives me nuts how these salesmen try to shame the elderly into buying things they don't need.  From there I was able to go to the Walmart down by their house and I found the crackers that I like and also got some more omelet making ingredients.  I didn't do much the rest of the day other than finish the book club reading Educated  by Tara Westover.  It was a book that pisses someone like me off because of the religious stranglehold on ...

Well...I've chosen a NEW route...again.  I jog down to Cuyamacha then up to Prospect (as I did before), but I turn on Fanita back to Mission Gorge and then home.  Granted, it's a bit shorter and makes my jog about four miles, but it pretty much eliminates all hills, so I'm pretty happy about it.  Depending on my mood I could always take the other paths occasionally, but for now, this is just fine. The pool was open again and it was worth missing the one day for cleaning. It was clean and very warm...in other words...perfect. I knew I needed to get out of the house today and I didn't want to see a movie...well...to be honest, there was no movie I wanted to see.  AMC Theaters are terrific but my one complaint is that they don't show the lesser blockbuster type of movies.  I wish they'd add some indies to their showtimes.  I decided I hadn't been to Balboa Park for a while and drove down there and went into the Museum of Art when they opened at 10 AM....

Got my run in this morning--just fine, but was disappointed when I arrived at the gym that the pool was closed until 2 PM today.  I could have driving down to the Santee gym, but decided to just go home.  The swim is great, but I continue to question how much it is really doing for me.  Of course, that doesn't mean I'm considering dropping--hell no.  I really enjoy it and I'm happy to have it on my daily routine. Jose had not finished to my stairs to my surprise and finally did finish.  I couldn't be happier.  They look amazing!  I am so glad I had this done.  I did go to the movies via Trolley to Fashion Valley.  I saw Miss Bala .  I wasn't expecting much, but I end up really enjoying it.  I also did some more shopping...I'm over-doing it on the snacks. I should be careful. Had dinner with the folks.  Mom was in an unusually great mood.  We had chili and shells, which turned out to be really good.  Papa made up...

The rains went on and on and so I skipped the run.  I might have chanced it, but they've been so unpredictable, I just didn't go.  I did manage the swim, which went just fine and is always refreshing.  Because of the rain, I didn't do a lot.  I did manage to go shopping at the Mall so I could get my favorite crackers that seem to gone from the Santee Walmart.  The one in El Cajon also didn't have them.  So I settled for some Blast Cheddar Fish crackers.  Whenever I'm in that Walmart, I check out the Clearance section and they still had some Christmas candy canes left with 90% off, which makes them 15-cents a box.  I went downstairs to get the crackers, came back...and they were already cleared off by the staff.  Perhaps a good thing for me. Trash pickup was a wet one.  Though there were periods of clearing, we also had two bouts of storming, so keeping dry was not in the works.  It's okay, once you're wet, you just go with it....

There was a break in the weather and I was able to get in my run and swim.  It was a bit hard after a couple of days off, but I did just fine. Again, it rained all day.  I did manage to get some trash picked up.  Other than that, it was a day of TV and computer play.  Boring...but there ya go.  These rains should abate soon.

This is a bit of a milestone, Day 400 and I wish I had something better to report.  The rains continue so no run or swim today.  On the plus side, I got a good 10+ hours sleep, which I have no doubt my body needed.  I have felt a bit of a cold trying to get the better of me, and this, I'm sure, helped. Aside from that, it rained pretty much all day so I stayed in and watched TV including some of the Super Bowl, a truly boring game.

Got back on the road today finished up my new route.  I did walk a bit more than I'd like but I did finish strong.  The swim went well.  There's another swimmer who tends to arrive as I'm finishing up my laps.  She introduced herself as Paula.  That was nice of her. A day of nothing!  Jose came and worked on the stairs. He got the new screen door installed and almost finished the stairs, but the rain was simply getting too intense and I told him to finish it up on Monday.  He didn't argue with me at all.  The stairs are looking GREAT.  He is really good at what he does and at $800, a total bargain. As it rained ALL day, and rained hard.  I didn't do anything other than watch TV and computer and honestly...ate too much.  Tomorrow will be better.

It's one of the unusual days where I did not run nor swim.  It's raining and yes, I could still go swimming, but I chose (and think deserving) of a day off...might be two, we'll see how the weather holds up.  Even though this is the first time to have missed in over a month, I'm still feeling those pangs of guilt.  That's a good thing. With the rain, I didn't do much other than go to Costco where I bought some more of those chicken snacks, which with $5 off is 40%, a great deal.  I also bought a bag of Costco hot dogs.  That might have been a a mistake...we'll see.  My freezer is now packed.  I won't need to go shopping for a few weeks, perhaps the rest of the month. My hoses came for the washer and I changed the one that looked bad. I did a load and damn it if it still didn't leak.  I checked the hoses and they were not wet, so it's something else in the machine. I'll have to call a repairman which SUCKS.  Oh well the cost of home owners...

So...it's weigh in day and I have GAINED three pounds.  Now, normally this would depress the hell out of me, but I'm not concerned.  I know that I have run and swam EVERY DAY this month.  I've also allowed myself to eat much, much more.  I do not feel heavier.  I am pretty sure a couple of these pounds are do to muscle mass in my legs and arms and shoulders, so no one is pushing the panic button.  I'm feeling very good.  I can...and will...make some eating choices to have a better showing.  Truth be told, if I don't lose another pound, I'm okay with that; however, if I find that I've gained more on March 1, then I will go into full diet mode.  We will wait and see.  The run this morning wasn't great though I did get it finished along with the swim.  It rained HARD yesterday afternoon and evening and I really thought I wouldn't be running this morning but it was just foggy and obviously not going to rain.  I wanted to get th...