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Monday, February 28, 2011
An Argument Against Minimal Footwear.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Quick note while the muse is with me...
Today I knocked out a pretty excellent 7 miles (11.27 Km). I've figured out a loop which is about 2.45 miles long on relatively quiet roads (it's hard to call anything quiet here though). 3 laps and a brief out and back got me to just about an hour.
I'm starting to feel like I can add more days to my schedule. I've been really focused on staying relaxed while running and taking short but quick strides. My (Ache)illes is feeling better for the most part. The last time I ran I felt some pain in my right plantar tendon, but that didn't bother me today. I did gimp around a bit post run, but simple movement afterwards loosened everything up.
In a couple of weeks my wife and I will be moving out to where we will be spending the next few years. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of living out there.
View Property @ Km 14.kml in a larger map - let me know if this sucker doesn't show up well.
For some reason, Google earth is sweet here, but Maps sucks.
Explore around a bit and maybe you mightwant to come visit - shoot me a note on the Twitter or the FB and I can email you a Google Earth Kml file for you to check out the surroundings.
All are welcome, we'll be living in a 4 bedroom (allocated as: 2 bedrooms, 1 guest room/office, 1 tv room) house. Grapefruits are just about ripe. We will soon have more avocados than is humanly possible to eat. We are actually going to cut down 1 of the 3 mango trees and there are tangerine trees and one bitter orange. That one, I can't wait to use for marinades...
Alrighty then.
Thanks for reading, I'm still working on another "Retrospect piece" but it's being tough to get time to write during the day...
Jay
I'm starting to feel like I can add more days to my schedule. I've been really focused on staying relaxed while running and taking short but quick strides. My (Ache)illes is feeling better for the most part. The last time I ran I felt some pain in my right plantar tendon, but that didn't bother me today. I did gimp around a bit post run, but simple movement afterwards loosened everything up.
In a couple of weeks my wife and I will be moving out to where we will be spending the next few years. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of living out there.
View Property @ Km 14.kml in a larger map - let me know if this sucker doesn't show up well.
For some reason, Google earth is sweet here, but Maps sucks.
Explore around a bit and maybe you mightwant to come visit - shoot me a note on the Twitter or the FB and I can email you a Google Earth Kml file for you to check out the surroundings.
All are welcome, we'll be living in a 4 bedroom (allocated as: 2 bedrooms, 1 guest room/office, 1 tv room) house. Grapefruits are just about ripe. We will soon have more avocados than is humanly possible to eat. We are actually going to cut down 1 of the 3 mango trees and there are tangerine trees and one bitter orange. That one, I can't wait to use for marinades...
Alrighty then.
Thanks for reading, I'm still working on another "Retrospect piece" but it's being tough to get time to write during the day...
Jay
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Freaking Bolivia.
Today I went to Interpol to get some silly piece of paper to prove I am no criminal. We stopped along the way to pick up the last few pieces of paper I needed from one of Nataly's cousins and headed over to the police headquarters where Interpol is headquartered. I was reasonably confident that all of the ducks were in a row and then...
"Sorry we won't take your money - you're wearing shorts."
Huh?!
Last I checked it's 30C (cloudy) - which is something like 88 degrees - with 75% humidity. It's not enough that they're rationing sugar for some shady government purpose, they force you to wear inhumanly uncomfortable clothes in brutal conditions. Ugh.
"Sorry we won't take your money - you're wearing shorts."
Huh?!
Last I checked it's 30C (cloudy) - which is something like 88 degrees - with 75% humidity. It's not enough that they're rationing sugar for some shady government purpose, they force you to wear inhumanly uncomfortable clothes in brutal conditions. Ugh.
Retrospect Piece #2. Vermont.
What has gone before
I've had 24 hours to think on what I did in VT while I was there, but for some reason it's all pretty foggy. I arrived on Monday evening and left Friday morning. In between I visited with my Mom, my Brother, his new girlfriend and slouched around Rutland for a little bit.
My Mom had to work on Monday so Jackson and I visited with Alex for a bit and I had a few post-long-drive beverages. Eventually Mom got home and we chatted for quite some time. How was the drive kind of stuff, weather forecast kind of stuff, stuff kind of stuff...
Otherwise, the rest of this post is going to be pretty much a stream of randomly organized memories and so...
I drove to VT before heading to Miami because we thought I'd be leaving my Subaru with her to sell. We spent some time during the week trying to determine the feasibility of that and discovered that renting a car (big enough to haul my crap+dog) would cost almost as much as I still owe on the loan for the Cruck. It'd cost less to fly my Mom to Miami and spend a couple days touring the Everglades than the rental and the Cruck is now paid off...
So after a couple of days of deliberation my Mom decided it'd be fun enough to see her Grandson and Nataly in Florida to make up for the 3 day long drive she had waiting for her after she departed. Thanks so much Mom!
I emptied out a good chunk of my extraordinarily disorganized car on Tuesday, but left the 400 lb sculpture in the back and headed over to my Brother's house in the morning. There I got to drop off the block of rock that cost me 3 miles per gallon on my drive East and I also got to visit with Charles's new girlfriend.
Holly is apparently terrified that I don't like her. Whether I like her may or may not be the case. The truth is I don't actually know her. She did anger me, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. She seems pleasant enough and she makes Charles happy I suppose. Maybe some day I'll hear a good explanation of why she did what she did. Anyway...
On the running front, I came nowhere near knocking out 3x2-A-Days. I seem to remember only one actual run. Part of the problem? My brother is more than just kind of a bad influence (or perhaps it's the other way around). Whatever the case, put the two of us in a room together and you'd best hide the hoppy frosties. Was it sailors who coined the term "Groggy"?
Another part of the problem. I've been logging alot of my miles in VFFs recently and (this issue is still bugging me) my left achilles tendon has been troubling me in the mornings. It loosens up throughout the day, but in the morning I move around like someone in desperate need of a knee replacement. It's been getting better with days off, but not 100 percent.
I haven't said much about this injury, but it's been bothering me since November probably. I will chronicle it's evolution or (hopefully) devolution as time goes bye. Perhaps this is the problem - I'll see about modifying my form on my next run and see how it goes...
My Mom made my favorite dinner one night which inspired me to revisit some songs from Sweeny Todd. Anyway, she has made this really delicious meatball pie since I was in grade school I think. Meatballs, garbanzo beans, marinara sauce, so good. I think that that day I had made some bread to go alongside dinner too, but I'm not positive.
I did make another batch of bread in my mom's oven and it came out very well. Down here there are rumblings of a wood fired bake oven made from clay being built in our yard. That should be exciting. I'm looking forward to catching a yeast and baking regularly.
Somewhere in here Nataly and I finally pinned down the date for my departure to Bolivia. One way ticket. Woah. I'd be flying out with Jackson on the 27th of January. Ok away we go then.
That's all for now I suppose. I could go on, but this somewhat Joyceian diatribe has probably gone on long enough.
thanks for reading
J
I've had 24 hours to think on what I did in VT while I was there, but for some reason it's all pretty foggy. I arrived on Monday evening and left Friday morning. In between I visited with my Mom, my Brother, his new girlfriend and slouched around Rutland for a little bit.
My Mom had to work on Monday so Jackson and I visited with Alex for a bit and I had a few post-long-drive beverages. Eventually Mom got home and we chatted for quite some time. How was the drive kind of stuff, weather forecast kind of stuff, stuff kind of stuff...
Otherwise, the rest of this post is going to be pretty much a stream of randomly organized memories and so...
I drove to VT before heading to Miami because we thought I'd be leaving my Subaru with her to sell. We spent some time during the week trying to determine the feasibility of that and discovered that renting a car (big enough to haul my crap+dog) would cost almost as much as I still owe on the loan for the Cruck. It'd cost less to fly my Mom to Miami and spend a couple days touring the Everglades than the rental and the Cruck is now paid off...
So after a couple of days of deliberation my Mom decided it'd be fun enough to see her Grandson and Nataly in Florida to make up for the 3 day long drive she had waiting for her after she departed. Thanks so much Mom!
I emptied out a good chunk of my extraordinarily disorganized car on Tuesday, but left the 400 lb sculpture in the back and headed over to my Brother's house in the morning. There I got to drop off the block of rock that cost me 3 miles per gallon on my drive East and I also got to visit with Charles's new girlfriend.
Holly is apparently terrified that I don't like her. Whether I like her may or may not be the case. The truth is I don't actually know her. She did anger me, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. She seems pleasant enough and she makes Charles happy I suppose. Maybe some day I'll hear a good explanation of why she did what she did. Anyway...
On the running front, I came nowhere near knocking out 3x2-A-Days. I seem to remember only one actual run. Part of the problem? My brother is more than just kind of a bad influence (or perhaps it's the other way around). Whatever the case, put the two of us in a room together and you'd best hide the hoppy frosties. Was it sailors who coined the term "Groggy"?
Another part of the problem. I've been logging alot of my miles in VFFs recently and (this issue is still bugging me) my left achilles tendon has been troubling me in the mornings. It loosens up throughout the day, but in the morning I move around like someone in desperate need of a knee replacement. It's been getting better with days off, but not 100 percent.
I haven't said much about this injury, but it's been bothering me since November probably. I will chronicle it's evolution or (hopefully) devolution as time goes bye. Perhaps this is the problem - I'll see about modifying my form on my next run and see how it goes...
My Mom made my favorite dinner one night which inspired me to revisit some songs from Sweeny Todd. Anyway, she has made this really delicious meatball pie since I was in grade school I think. Meatballs, garbanzo beans, marinara sauce, so good. I think that that day I had made some bread to go alongside dinner too, but I'm not positive.
I did make another batch of bread in my mom's oven and it came out very well. Down here there are rumblings of a wood fired bake oven made from clay being built in our yard. That should be exciting. I'm looking forward to catching a yeast and baking regularly.
Somewhere in here Nataly and I finally pinned down the date for my departure to Bolivia. One way ticket. Woah. I'd be flying out with Jackson on the 27th of January. Ok away we go then.
That's all for now I suppose. I could go on, but this somewhat Joyceian diatribe has probably gone on long enough.
thanks for reading
J
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Retrospect Piece #1. Drive: Colorado - Vermont.
Whew.
That was rather excruciating.
Last I wrote, I was just about to leave Colorado. Well...
It took me something like 2 weeks more to finally leave. I eventually just bailed, leaving the final cleaning and trash hauling to professional types. There was a storm coming and I wanted to be out of CO before it arrived.
I left Friday the 14th of January from Denver and motored out of CO with a Cruck ('03 Subaru Baja - for sale) full of the last remains we would be keeping, including a sculpture my brother made several years back at the Marble Marble Symposium. Darn thing weighed something on the order of 400lbs. My neighbor Dave graciously helped me get it into the back of the otherwise I'm not sure what I'd have done with it - I have a rock hammer...
Anyway, I totally plushed out the back seat for Jackson. Camping mat folded in half, comforter, 3 pillows. Dude was riding in style. He actually gets car sick so anything I can do to encourage him to sleep while we drive is good stuff.
Friday I wanted to log some miles on the road so we motored the entire day just stopping to pee, grab hideous fast food and that was it. We eventually made it to a Motel 6 I've stayed in before in Avoca, IA. It's clean and fairly hospitable, but despite Motel 6's promise of pets welcome, this specific Motel 6 makes you stop as you're leaving for a "room check" if you're traveling with a pet. I think that's idiotic, but...
I usually make the drive from CO to VT in 3 days, with stops around Council Bluffs, and Cleveland, but this time I wanted to stop in Buffalo and have a visit with my Stepfather and my Uncle who lives very near by.
So, Saturday I stopped in Davenport, IA for a run with Homey. As I was churning down the highway, I noticed a dude walking his dog on a trail and decided I needed to find it. That turned out to be easy as the next sign I saw said, "Somethingorother State Park next exit". We only did 30 minutes, me in VFF, he bare. It was cold and there was some fluffy white stuff on the ground. We only stopped a couple times to clean out our paws. It was a pleasant place for a run, but overall not too spectacular.
We eventually made it the better part of the way to Cleveland that night and would be able to meet my Uncle for lunch on Sunday. I hadn't seen him since I'd re-done my wedding in the States something like 8 years ago. It was good. I met his horse barn full of horse tennants, whom Jackson wasn't sure what to think of up close. We've met some on the trail before, but I've never put him into such close proximity to horses before. He was nervous. My Uncle had made a Lasagna which we ate with much gusto and around 3 he had to take off to go skate with a girl. Nice. An added bonus, his daughter stopped in and I got to see my youngest cousin for like the 3rd time. Faith is now a Sophomore at University of Buffalo. Man...
I had some slack time in the day, having told my Stepfather I'd be over in time to catch the kickoff of the Patriots game, so I popped open my phone and tried to locate a park to get in a run. Google Maps found a pretty good sized one close by and we went over there. This was a heavily used park which permitted snowmobiles and skiers and snowshoers, but it was big with dedicated trails for the noisemakers so Homey and I could get out without being run over.
There was snow, but no need for snowshoes, though by the throngs of people clumping around with the ungainly things on you'd think them a part of the uniform. Jackson and I just looked at them and smiled as we passed in our minimal garb. I expect we got some weird looks. I was wearing a t-shirt, gloves, Eagles Cap, jeans and 5 Fingers. All in all the park was really quite nice. After logging 30+ minutes running through the forest, Jackson and I headed over to my Stepfathers to watch some football.
There we had a very nice visit. Walter (my stepfather) had made a vegetarian version of Spaghetti with clam sauce. I'm not particularly a fan of Clams, or seafood of any kind found more than 25 miles inland, so the new take was intresting to me. He used my favorite bean, the Garbanzo, in place of the clams. It worked really well. I'll probably make it with a bit more butter, but mmmmm Tasty!
We watched a good chunk of the Patriots game, but Walter wasn't enjoying it too much as the Jets really seemed in control throughout the game. We ended up shutting it off, even though I was quietly rooting for the Jets, there was other stuff to talk about, you know like the impending move. Eventually we called it a night and said good bye - Walter leaves for work really early in the mornings and I expected I wouldn't wake up.
The next morning I spent a few more minutes visiting with Walter's wife Michelle and then hit the road to go visit my Dad in Ithaca. We were planning on a luncheon. Dad and I spent a couple of hours together talking about the move as well as my brother's new girlfriend. It was good.
I finished the drive to VT eventually arriving at my Mom's house around 7PM on Monday. Jackson and I didn't get a run in that day, but I expected I'd be able to make the missed workouts up during the days I was in VT. Oh well.
I'll have more tomorrow during Deneb's nap time.
Thanks for reading.
J
That was rather excruciating.
Last I wrote, I was just about to leave Colorado. Well...
It took me something like 2 weeks more to finally leave. I eventually just bailed, leaving the final cleaning and trash hauling to professional types. There was a storm coming and I wanted to be out of CO before it arrived.
I left Friday the 14th of January from Denver and motored out of CO with a Cruck ('03 Subaru Baja - for sale) full of the last remains we would be keeping, including a sculpture my brother made several years back at the Marble Marble Symposium. Darn thing weighed something on the order of 400lbs. My neighbor Dave graciously helped me get it into the back of the otherwise I'm not sure what I'd have done with it - I have a rock hammer...
 |
| Stuff is weirder in Nebraska. |
Friday I wanted to log some miles on the road so we motored the entire day just stopping to pee, grab hideous fast food and that was it. We eventually made it to a Motel 6 I've stayed in before in Avoca, IA. It's clean and fairly hospitable, but despite Motel 6's promise of pets welcome, this specific Motel 6 makes you stop as you're leaving for a "room check" if you're traveling with a pet. I think that's idiotic, but...
I usually make the drive from CO to VT in 3 days, with stops around Council Bluffs, and Cleveland, but this time I wanted to stop in Buffalo and have a visit with my Stepfather and my Uncle who lives very near by.
So, Saturday I stopped in Davenport, IA for a run with Homey. As I was churning down the highway, I noticed a dude walking his dog on a trail and decided I needed to find it. That turned out to be easy as the next sign I saw said, "Somethingorother State Park next exit". We only did 30 minutes, me in VFF, he bare. It was cold and there was some fluffy white stuff on the ground. We only stopped a couple times to clean out our paws. It was a pleasant place for a run, but overall not too spectacular.
We eventually made it the better part of the way to Cleveland that night and would be able to meet my Uncle for lunch on Sunday. I hadn't seen him since I'd re-done my wedding in the States something like 8 years ago. It was good. I met his horse barn full of horse tennants, whom Jackson wasn't sure what to think of up close. We've met some on the trail before, but I've never put him into such close proximity to horses before. He was nervous. My Uncle had made a Lasagna which we ate with much gusto and around 3 he had to take off to go skate with a girl. Nice. An added bonus, his daughter stopped in and I got to see my youngest cousin for like the 3rd time. Faith is now a Sophomore at University of Buffalo. Man...
I had some slack time in the day, having told my Stepfather I'd be over in time to catch the kickoff of the Patriots game, so I popped open my phone and tried to locate a park to get in a run. Google Maps found a pretty good sized one close by and we went over there. This was a heavily used park which permitted snowmobiles and skiers and snowshoers, but it was big with dedicated trails for the noisemakers so Homey and I could get out without being run over.
There was snow, but no need for snowshoes, though by the throngs of people clumping around with the ungainly things on you'd think them a part of the uniform. Jackson and I just looked at them and smiled as we passed in our minimal garb. I expect we got some weird looks. I was wearing a t-shirt, gloves, Eagles Cap, jeans and 5 Fingers. All in all the park was really quite nice. After logging 30+ minutes running through the forest, Jackson and I headed over to my Stepfathers to watch some football.
There we had a very nice visit. Walter (my stepfather) had made a vegetarian version of Spaghetti with clam sauce. I'm not particularly a fan of Clams, or seafood of any kind found more than 25 miles inland, so the new take was intresting to me. He used my favorite bean, the Garbanzo, in place of the clams. It worked really well. I'll probably make it with a bit more butter, but mmmmm Tasty!
We watched a good chunk of the Patriots game, but Walter wasn't enjoying it too much as the Jets really seemed in control throughout the game. We ended up shutting it off, even though I was quietly rooting for the Jets, there was other stuff to talk about, you know like the impending move. Eventually we called it a night and said good bye - Walter leaves for work really early in the mornings and I expected I wouldn't wake up.
 |
| Ithaca is Gorges! |
The next morning I spent a few more minutes visiting with Walter's wife Michelle and then hit the road to go visit my Dad in Ithaca. We were planning on a luncheon. Dad and I spent a couple of hours together talking about the move as well as my brother's new girlfriend. It was good.
I finished the drive to VT eventually arriving at my Mom's house around 7PM on Monday. Jackson and I didn't get a run in that day, but I expected I'd be able to make the missed workouts up during the days I was in VT. Oh well.
 |
| Winter Wonderland |
Thanks for reading.
J
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