I’m beginning to feel better, thanks for asking. It is now later in the day before I feel sapped. It takes a bit more exertion to feel weary. These are important progressions, signs and portents of recovery summer. Don’t think I’m not frustrated by having been laid semi-low for three weeks and change from a sinus infection. We’ll see how I hold up this week.
I will demand refunds. I will not get them, but I will demand them.
But I am improving!
Here’s a bit of proof. I had a nice long swim on Saturday. It was ugly. I think I wrote, in my tracking app, that it wa ragged. Or raggedy. It was at least one of those things, if not both.
But I got in 2,000 yards. I jumped in the pool fully expecting I would soon be frustrated, but about a third of the way through I began to wonder if, instead of dying in the water, my shoulders would ever warm up. And then, finally they did. About two-thirds of the way through it finally turned into an acceptable swim.
That usually lasts about 500 yards for me, even on a normal day.
Tried a bike ride, just my second ride of the month and my third ride in … a while. (That’s how you know I’ve not been goldbricking, I suppose.) I had a little ride last Monday and it turned into one of the weirdest, hardest experiences I’ve had in years. So waiting was the new plan, and I did that until Friday.
My lovely bride invited me on a 25-mile ride. Then she told me the route she planned, and I knew this was not a 25-mile ride. I didn’t say anything, because some things have to be learned, and re-learned, for yourself. This is how it went.
Started out great! Tailwind! Much fast, many pedals, happy mood.
Then, for an inexplicable reason, I saw this guy in a corn field.
I rode well for the first hour, and then struggled for 20 minutes or so. And then, at exactly 25 miles, my legs had a talk with my mind and soon after I was left to sweat and struggle my way through a humid half hour.
When I got back, I received a cute little apology that the 25-mile route was, in fact, a 34-mile ride.
We’ve done that route, a combination of our two default rides, several times before, but some things insist on being learned in their own time. I’m sure, in time, we’ll have that same experience again. I’ll just fuel better.
In the meantime, I have to get back in better shape.
I sat outside the other night and listened to the noisy, noisy birds. Usually they blend in, but they were adamant at being noticed at midnight, when good birds should be sleeping. And then I remembered I have this app on my phone that listens to bird song and tells me who is violating noise ordinances.
These were our Friday night birds.
On Saturday morning, we had another visitor. He’s been by before. This, I assure you, is a sturdy, thick, frog.
No idea where he comes to us from. I always try to make sure he’s got good coverage. I wish I knew his pond or stream, so I could help him get back there. The closest water is about 900 yards away. That would have been quite a few hops, even for a frog of this size.
Sunday afternoon posing.
And speaking of posing, as we check in on the kitties, it’s the return of … Super Phoebe!
When she’s done taking a nap like that, she will push off with her back legs and spin herself down to the floor. Super Phoebe is a hopefully, an excellent nap.
Here she is in her secret identity, Posing Phoebe.
Every now and again Poseidon rediscovers the exhaust installation over the stove.
Thankfully, he leaves the spice cabinets alone. Perhaps surprisingly so. That’d be his sort of chaos, really.
As I often say about him, it is a good thing he can be charming.
But that’s not fooling anyone.