There are all kinds of dire predictions going around about what Winter 2010/11 is going to be like in these parts, though I haven’t tracked down specifics. Something along the lines of ‘harsher’, so maybe more storms, colder or something. More colder storms, perhaps. This is according to the farmers’ almanac, squirrels gathering nuts and other proven scientific methods. In any case, my own observations have been that the snow on the mountains arrived earlier this year (in October) and we are getting a dusting of snow here even as I type, which is often not the case for November, so the possibility of More Snow (compared to the almost zero we had 2009/10) seems a distinct possibility.
I will endeavor to take some pictures tomorrow for my own cursing pleasure, but in the meantime:
When I changed my diet back in June 2008 I pretty much swore off sugar-filled snacks and since then have rarely indulged (the occasional strawberry cheesecake mini-Blizzard for example — mmm!) and when I do it’s usually with something unsexy like an apple or one of those Lindt 99% cocoa bars which, to the average person, tastes a lot like chalk with a vague notion of what they imagine to be chocolate added in somewhere.
My current workplace has a Starbucks on the ground floor of the tower. This is not surprising, as there will likely be a Starbucks in every building in every major city at some point. They have an oat fudge bar and from days of yore I remembered it as being quite yummy. When I espied several sitting on a plate in the glass display case, I felt a nostalgic yearning and ultimately caved in to the urge, buying one for the low price of $1.95 (HST not included).
I’m pretty sure the bar contained enough sugar to keep me on a sugar-filled bender for the rest of my shift, the evening and part of my shift the following day. To say the bar was sweet would be akin to noting that Jupiter is a big planet in comparison to Mercury. It was so sweet that it went from yummy straight over into gross. My nostalgic craving was cured, forever.
As I write this I am eating fat-free cottage cheese. Times — and taste buds — change.
Ah, public washrooms, the places you go when you can’t avoid not going.
My pet peeves, from the male perspective:
People who do not wad up paper towels before throwing them in the waste bin. This means the bin fills to overflowing much sooner than it otherwise might. Wadding up a damp paper towel is not a difficult task. It is not something that is likely to result in a pulled muscle or other injury or to cause mental anguish. And yet people don’t do this and the waste bin fills to overflowing and there’s a bunch of unwadded paper towels being trampled on all over the floor. Wad your paper towels, people!
Speaking of the floor, people who pee all around the urinal. The urinal is a trough designed specifically to pee in. Strangely this is insufficient for many people who, instead of peeing into the urinal, water the floor all around it. We’re talking real puddles here. I am not sure how one’s aim can be so very not true.
And speaking of puddles, the sink counter is likely to resemble a flood plain, with every bit of its surface covered in water because people cannot wash their hands without getting copious amounts of water splashed all about the counter. Some of it may even manages to get into the sink itself.
People who leave toilet seats unclean. I will say no more.
People who hog the hand dryers. If your hands are cold, stick them in your pockets. Or your pants. I don’t care, just get away from the hand dryer before you short it out from over-usage.
People who talk on their cell phones while engaged in #1 or #2. These may be the same people featured in points #2 and #4.
The smell. A clean washroom is okay, any other has a smell that is just wrong.
As always, there is probably more but that seems like a good starter list. I wonder if public washrooms would be nicer if people treated them as they would their own.
Or maybe I don’t want to see what the average person’s washroom looks like.
I said I was going to post more this month and then the opposite happens. Ain’t that always the way?
Actually, no, it’s not. But in this case it is!
After the last post on the 7th I ended up getting a job, so my schedule has been a bit nuttier than it had been previously. I do plan on posting more for the last week of the month, though. Really!
A little over a week ago I went to open a can of beans to enjoy with my dinner. Beans are full of protein and yummy and strangely do not give me gas. Opening a can for dinner is about as mundane an event as you can get.
But not this time.
My can opener, which is a fairly good one, seems to have been getting a bit dull lately, talking about soap operas and going on about the weather. Worst, though, it was also not as sharp as it once was. This meant that sometimes after a full rotation around the lid it would not have pierced through the metal, requiring me to go ’round a second time. Not a big deal, it’s not like I’m going to blow a muscle doing it twice.
However, one of the side effects of the repeat at opening is the lid will sometimes have strands peel off. Since these are very thin and metal, they are most comparable to piano wire.
You may see where this is going.
After cutting the lid a second time, I lifted the can opener slightly while it was still gripping the lid. The lid pulled up, indicating all was well. I then released the opener and put it aside on the counter. I carefully pulled the lid off as always but this time I failed to notice the metal strand. This was a very generous strand, kind of like a King Strand or something, but still so thin as to be almost invisible. I rammed my thumb into it.
As the pain registered, I jerked the thumb back, momentarily puzzled because I still could not see what I had cut myself on. The thumb did not care, as it bled in copious amounts from a small but deep wound on the tip. I jammed it into my mouth to suck away the excess blood. Not wishing to sparkle and become otherwise vampiric, I took the thumb out of my mouth, at which point it continued to bleed with great vigor. I tried staunching it with a paper towel. My plan was to get the bleeding to settle down then apply a bandage. The paper towel quickly soaked and was generally not effective. The cut had formed a line that went around in a 3/4 circle. Had it completed the circle that fleshy little bit of my thumb would have been on the counter, in the can of beans or somewhere other than on my thumb where it belonged.
As I dabbed with the paper towel I noticed the would formed a kind of flap that could be opened (gushing blood) or closed (gushing blood, but less so). I felt a bit queasy. I decided to put a bandage over the thumb and then wrap another around that one, sealing off the top of the digit like one might cover up a cursed tomb. A cursed tomb that would not stop bleeding.
The thumb was tingling but after a few minutes there was no blood seeping through, so I vowed to leave it for 24 hours before having a peek.
When I did look it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I kept bandages on it for about a week and a half before finally removing them and I’m pretty sure there will be a small scar when the healing bit is done. I have my ‘wrestled a mako shark’ story ready to go.
And the can opener? The next time I used it it created another impossible-to-see strand that I jabbed my index finger on. This time it wasn’t enough to draw blood. I calmly walked the can opener over to the garbage can, its new and permanent home. I have a new one now. It’s called the Little Beaver. As long as it doesn’t bite me, I think we’ll get along.
September was a pretty lousy month, weather-wise, being one of the ten soggiest on record. More positively, the first day of October was sunny and summer-like. It’s partly cloudy today but I may yet get proper closure on summer before The Dark Times (ie. winter) arrive.
I also plan on writing more regularly this month as I gear up for National Novel Writing Month in November, so more inane blog posts shall be on their way. Hooray!
After finishing the run on September 20th my left leg felt sore but I incorrectly surmised it was my shin again. However, while it was a little tender, that was not the issue. Rather, it’s the ankle, which is new. I can still feel it some 12 days later, so I’m not going to be running again for at least a few more weeks. I’ve read that there is a small chance that regular running on a track or oval can lead to each leg getting a slightly different workout and can increase the risk of injury. I wonder if that’s what has happened here. When I do resume running, I am going to try switching direction every other time, so I run counter-clockwise one day then clockwise the next. I may also plan out my first runs away from the park.
Next week, with the ankle feeling better, I’m going to resume my free weights workout in the interim, so all of my other muscles can be sore and share in the fun, too.
An early afternoon run today with the temperature rising from 15C-17C, breezy and about an equal mix of sun and cloud. It had showered hard in the morning so this was the first run in a long time where I had to navigate around puddles.
It was not a very good run, alas, plagued by a number of issues:
rust from five days off
when the sun came out it felt very humid and muggy
my left leg was clearly bothering me partway through
a persistent cramp in my stomach in the second half of the run
That said, I finished at a pace midway between my two previous runs, clocking in at 5:27/km with a total time of 55:03. I ran a little farther than intended because the glare on my iPod was so bright at the end I could not read the display. It also seemed that clicking the menu button did not, in fact, present me with a menu the first few times I tried it. I suspect Apple wants me to upgrade to the shiny new nano that just came out. Total distance ended up being 10.08 km.
The midway point of the run was ‘highlighted’ by a muscle car revving its engine as it went down nearby Glen, causing a car alarm (apparently on the ‘go off if songbirds are present’ setting) to start wailing and it was that car alarm. You know the one, the worst car alarm ever, the one that has four different alarms, each one annoying in its own way. Fortunately the owner turned it off in short order. Or maybe it was an act of God. Either way I was glad.
There was not much else noteworthy on the run. I found a burst of speed for the 7-8 km stretch but the cramps and general soreness prevented me from maintaining that to the finish. I iced the left calf for about 50 minutes afterward and will see how it feels in a few days. The way things have been going I suspect I will be taking another forced break from running. I may look into some kind of cheap physiotherapy, if such a thing exists.
Chart (red denotes running in especially warm conditions, green denotes cramps during run):
One of the random things that pops up in The Sims 3 are Opportunities. These can come from work, an acquaintance or based on your reputation/skills. They give various rewards when completed, sometimes including good old-fashioned moola. As Ferris has continued to cook, his skill has improved to the point where he actually successfully prepared waffles that were not burned black. Hooray!
Waffles, not scorched!
This, in part, led to him getting asked to make a group dinner for some neighbor and deliver it. I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I think I lacked a proper group recipe or ingredients or something. All I know is Ferris never runs out of cereal or waffles but neither is apparently acceptable for a group of party guests at the neighbor’s. Oh well.
Eating and dousing flames
Continuing on the food theme, Ferris’s eventual success with waffles may have made him overconfident, for his next meal ended up with the stove on fire. As you might imagine, this is not a good thing, as expressed by Ferris’s reaction below.
A little too well-done.
Fortunately, Ferris keeps his cell phone in his boxer shorts and called the fire department immediately. He then ate ice cream on the couch for dinner instead.
Today was the first time in awhile that I attempted a run with only a day off in-between.
Fortunately, it was a success!
The temperature was 19ºC but dropped a degree or two over the course — not that I noticed, because despite the sky being overcast, it still felt a bit warm. It began spitting partway through but didn’t turn to light rain until the run was over and I was heading back. The spitting did clear out most of the park by about the 6 km point, though.
The only discomfort I felt was some light cramps on my right side but they didn’t affect my pace.
After another slowish start (5:05) I again finished with a strong back half, though I could clearly feel the effect of only having a day off. The second half of the run left me feeling pretty tired, even as I worked to maintain my pace, but my consistency from 5 km to 10 km was probably the best ever — I only dropped my average pace by 7 seconds in that span (compared to 12 in the first half). I finished with an overall time of 54:03 — a full minute faster than Monday and an average of 5:23, my third best pace to date.
The titular tire (say that three times fast):
The top of the photo is the gravel of the kids play area, the bottom is the path I run on. I continue to be baffled at how things like this end up where they do. What is the story behind someone rolling a tire, complete with rim, into a public park? People are weird.
Chart (red denotes running in especially warm conditions, green denotes cramps during run):
