Day 20 - Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite!

Day 20: Knee still a bit pained at night, but significant improvement, as in pain much fainter and even quicker to fade in the morning.

Breakfast: 2 soft boiled eggs

Lunch: chicken and rice

Dinner: chicken, quinoa, spinach

I skipped the double-shot, since I had a Coke with lunch

Not a running day, but I did the stairs pretty much all day anyway. The knee was a little "full" here and there, a couple of twinges if I twisted it the wrong way, but otherwise, all right. Because "normal" motion isn't aggravating it and it is improving, I'm going to go on the hopeful assumption that something was momentarily swollen as opposed to actually injured.

But otherwise...there was the lovely discovery of a bedbug (literally) in one of my guy's homes. Even worse, it was an unfed nymph, which means there are more waiting to hatch out. The exterminator was quickly called, and hopefully the problem's resolved.

The work day ended on a frantic note - just the way most people expect to go into a three day weekend, right :-)?

Still though, it's the end of the week, not the beginning, and there's studio time, running, and family things to look forward to. All I need is for my knee to be 100% and it's all good!

Day 19 - Rain Rain All Dang Day

Day 19 - Thursday: Freakin' thunderstorms! Now, there's a difference between enjoying running outside in the rain, and running around when it's not necessary during a thunderstorm (hey, it's not a race day, and life and death are not involved. Getting myself sick or injured, however, for reasons other than that, is plainly stupid) and to compensate, I spent most of my work day walking flights instead of taking the elevator (since we're talking 5 or 7 flights UP as well as down, and figure I did the round trip a good 20 times, it's not a bad workout).

Ironically enough, it didn't rain while I was at work, it did pretty much as soon as I got home, so I was glad I'd had the prescience (and the ability) to work in something resembling compensatory.

Breakfast: 2 soft boiled eggs, orange juice

Lunch: pork fried rice & boneless spare ribs

Dinner: chicken, quinoa, & spinach

Yes-I-absolutely-positively-needed-my-espresso-double-shot!!!

Weight: 150

By the by, I not only knew it was going to rain, I could almost pinpoint the exact time. Why, you might wonder?

Remember the wonky knee? Not the one I'd originally injured, but the other, compensating one? Yeah. Hurts. Don't know why.

I found that while anticipating the rain (even on Wednesday, when the sun still shone), it began to hurt and swell. I left it alone, figuring that this will either resolve on its own, or not.

Overnight, well, it hurt, more than I thought it would, enough that certain movements would wake me. NOT COOL. Grabbed a pillow, slept with both legs slightly elevated (KNEE PAIN HINT: Don't just elevate your knee - get the pressure off it by having support running down to your ankle - and don't do just one leg! Do both, I don't know exactly why it works, but it feels much better with both elevated, than just the one. Probably because the way the hips twist and affect the spine or something like that).

By the morning, it hurt significantly less, and after the initial "do I have to get out of bed, really?" routine my body goes through, it was fine, even up & down the steps.

Still though, about an hour before it began to rain? Sharp, sudden pain, similar to what used to happen in the right knee, the pain that says: "Baby, it's gonna pour in under an hour - got an umbrella or a boat? You're gonna need it."

I wonder why the body does that - compensates a pain spot for weather warning. Hmmm... Maybe it's a primal survival thing. You know, as in, back when people lived in caves, if you had a boo boo and it began to ache, you knew to head for cover before flash floods and lightning got you, or that it was time to migrate before the snows or something.

It makes sense to me, anyway. And now that has me thinking (again, not for the first time), who invented bread? I mean, who got this great idea that if you mash this specific grain up, then mix it with water, then bake it, you could eat it? The SUMERIANS baked bread, I mean, we're talking knowing how to do this for a very long time!!!

I mean...what, did it happen like this: Were some Cro-Magnum people wandering around, hunting and gathering through the plains (let's call them Gar and Grr) and...

"Four foot thing I eat eats these leaves. I eat these leaves, too, no need to run after four foot, more time to spend sleeping and playing with self!" Grr thought. He picked a few grains. "Gar - come here! Eat this!"

Gar ate it and 20 minutes later puked.

"Gar, that was no good! Maybe...we try...wet stuff. We put in wet stuff next time!"

Gar groaned from his spot on the ground and seemingly agreed.

So...that's what they did.

"Funny sound, that make as you move it," Gar observed over Grr's shoulder. "It go "swish soak swish soak'."

"Done!" Grr pronounced. "Gar--eat this!"

Although Gar had a stomach ache, there was no puke. But oh, did he roll around on the dirt.

"Maybe, maybe make smaller next time," Grr considered. "Too big for body. "Hit with rocks, make smaller, more water go in when swish soak swish soak."

"That make sound like SMASH! SMASH!" Gar said from his spot on the dirt.

A little while later, Grr had some mushy stuff to share.

"Grr, that look like puke!!!" Grr told him. "Me make puke, me no eat puke--yuk!" and shoving it away, it fell with a glop noise, from Gar's hand onto a hot rock by their fire.

The puke looking stuff solidified.

Both stared.

Gar glanced at Grr, to find Grr staring thoughtfully back. "No way!" Gar insisted, "You get to puke, you get smelly waters from rear end!"

Gar gingerly picked it up, tossing it from one hand to another (since it was hot) and then...he bit. He chewed. He swallowed.

"Nice!" Gar said, chewing appreciatively.

"Me try, then!" Grr asked.

"All gone," Gar told him, having swallowed the last bite. "But...now we can make more--then we invent the village."

It could have gone down like that, right?

Day 18 - Hell Is...

as some dead French guy (or at least a dead European male) once said, "other people."

Today proved that in many ways.

Mind you, it's a rest day. No running. No real stretching. No yoga. No floor work.

Which I didn't mind, because my left knee's feeling a little...wonky. To be expected, sooner or later, because I'd really messed up the right one a few years ago (and the "rule of compensation" says that the healthy side suffers and gets messed up taking the load from the injured side). The right side, well, I had a few sharp spasms along the area where I'd torn the gastroc (same year as I screwed my knee), but otherwise, all is well.

What in the world do knees and Hell and other people have to do with anything?

Do I have a tale to tell!

One of the aspects of my job is that I take people on some pretty important medical appointments, the sort of things where diets and meds are decided, surgeries and treatments are pushed or discarded as options, basically, things that can really potentially alter life on a significant level.

Today's consult was at Bone & Joint in Manhattan. First...there was the ride in. Access-A-Ride. Access at your own risk. A coffee cup on wheels, a cockroach in a skin suit driving, faulty brakes and a homing device for every known bump in the road had my knees continuously slammed into the seat in front of me, and my ribs bounced, bruised, and jolted into the skinny pole things that pass for arm rests.

This...ride...took a little over an hour, since the cockroach didn't speak English and misunderstood the GPS. We took a lovely tour of Brooklyn...

Then, there was the clinic waiting room. Mind you, we get there two hours early just to sign in, so that when the docs (not the big kahuna himself - he's busy in surgery) actually see people, we'll be in the first half dozen or so.

The waiting room holds about 40. There were about 70. For the first time, people were actually talking with each other, and next thing I know, I'm looking at labs and bloods for various people, discussing their results, the critical role of water intake (especially with some of the meds some people are on), joint injuries and surgeries, and leading an impromptu lecture on the difference between replacement and resurfacing.

Since most of these people didn't realize there was a HUGE difference, and most were going for replacement, now, armed with knowledge, many of them are going to ask for resurfacing instead.

When asked what I did about my knee, I told the truth: two weeks before my scheduled surgery (not for replacement, but for removal of the cartilage. Which, by the way? Increases your chance of arthritis from the normal human range of 20-80% to a definite 90% or better - I really didn't want to do that!!!) I said: hey, try something alternative. Try acupuncture. Probably not going to do anything, but at least you tried, right?

So...I went in to the acupuncturist's office with a knee the size of a softball, a nasty hard lump (from effusion) on the outer side, and the usual pain. This had been going on for almost a year (I told you I wasn't in a rush for surgery!). Damn but if I didn't leave that office with the outlines of my knee clear for the first time in months, and the lump on the side reduced by almost two thirds!

A few more visits, and well...I can run, can't I? And without the pain I used to get. No scalpel, thank you very much.

Some of the people I told asked me for the number and address of the acupuncturist. Think there may be a few less surgeries!

An hour and twenty minutes after we get called into an exam room, an associate takes the x-rays I've carefully transported with us, as well as the labs and such, and finally does his job.

It's now time to go - or is it?

Yeah. No. We've a return trip scheduled, and we're 20 minutes early, so I grab us some dirty water dogs, and as each car comes, we ask if it's "ours."

Nope. Nope. Nope. We call. "5 minutes," we're told. Half an hour later. "5 minutes." Twenty minutes after that. "Oh, the driver said you were a no show."

Are you fucking kidding me??? Hey look, I understand this is an MRDD population as well as the frail and the disabled being serviced, but that doesn't mean you can fuck with them that way - and in fact, it made the cockroach from earlier upgrade to silverfish.

Bottom line: three and a half hours later, we got a ride home. Why didn't we do public trans? Because my guy's foot was swollen and aching from the exam and it would have been too far (and too painful) to walk the distance, the stairs, more distance again...you get the point.

The service was used for a very legitimate reason.

However, a driver from another vehicle came over to us (it was his return trip) because he remembered us from 2 hours earlier. He called his road supervisor, who came right over, and what a pair of nice guys! Between them both, they got us sorted on the soonest available vehicle - AND the driver was a real human being this time!

All right. I'll give it up. Hell IS other people, but sometimes, Heaven, or at least a slice of it, is other people, too.

Now I might actually get some rest...

Day 16 & 17 - Bitten

Mondays as a general rule are not a running day; they're for some yoga or stretching along those lines, and for rehearsal.

This Monday was no exception, except that since I knew the rehearsal would be a very physical thing (you'd be surprised, honestly), we got to that early, extended it past normal limits (it was highly, highly rewardingly productive - we've got the bones of a new song all sketched out!) and trust me when I say that even after it was time to stop, I was still jonesing for more.

Music's got me, that's for sure, but there are some days where I've got it much badder than others and yesterday was one of them. Playing, jumping, hopping and bopping definitely got my cardio going in a good way.

Tuesday's a running day - and so run I did.

Now, it's absolutely beautiful out, warm, sunny, bright, no humidity.

I set off to do my usual path.

Breakfast: tera chips and hummus, cran-pomegranate juice

Lunch: to be determined

Dinner: see above :-)

The one thing about the sun and the spring and the people playing and the dogs cavorting in the park is that it also seems to be a lovely time for bugs, as in the occasional cloud of gnats.

Now that I've swallowed a few, does that count as protein?

And...I finished my course in 14 minutes! That's 6 minutes faster than usual, and very unexpected, so I had to quickly course-correct (pun may be intended) and find another 6 minutes of path to use.

I'm feeling good for the rest of the day. I got some solid writing done, got a very good run in, and now I've got two things to think about: the rest of the lyrics for that song, and what my new running path is going to be :-)

Day 15 - Lost

Okay, so let's start with the fact that I got up waaaay later than I'd meant to.

Not that this was a bad thing - honestly, it was lovely; grey day, but not too cool nor too hot, light rain pattering out the window and a chorus of birds, all a wonderful orchestra while the most amazing person in the world slept peacefully next to me.

Breakfast became brunch, and caffeine was avoided (I do that every now and again) and the run -- as enjoyed as it is -- was not today's focus.

The season finale for "Lost" was.

And oh yay -- spent the time watching it. All I have to say is this:

It was incredible. It was confusing. It was thought-provoking. It was frustrating.

I might think about it during my next run, but more than likely, I'll focus on what I'm doing, while my "subconscious" mind takes a good look at the whole thing and sees what jives with ideas I have (about other things, including "electromagnetism") and what doesn't.

After all is said and done, I like having new questions to answer: it gives me new puzzles to play with. And sometimes, just sometimes, new ideas for new books :-)

Day 14 - Tweak the Tweak

Ok, so in the original schedule, Saturday was a rest day, it was tweaked to become a running day, but instead, it remained a "rest" day.

Why?

Whoa - busy, busy day, is why. One visit to the sick, one trip for a 3 year old's b'day party, and one guitar lesson to three very precious and adored younglings.

Of course, the usual "healthy foods" went out the window (after a protein breakfast, that is) but that's the price you pay when you carry said three year old around for several hours and attend their party.

Wouldn't have missed it - not a bit of it - for the world, twice over.

Besides, when else do I get to tweak my sibling about the fact that as much as she herself may have not wanted to be like me or my brother, her children take after one, the other, or both of us ? Ha ha, she's never gonna get away from us!

And...today...my oldest nephew (and her oldest child) very proudly took me by the hand and brought me to the mirror.

"Look at us!" he told me as he swept his hair the way I do then pulled my face closer to his. "I look just like you--cool, right?"

So I looked as he asked me to, and he was 100% on the money. "It's super cool," I agreed and hugged him.

"Mamama [that's what they call my mom, their grandmother] has to take our picture -- Mamama! Come take our picture!"

I laughed, and my mom, awesome as she is, did so.

"Next time, let's take another one with our guitars, ok?" he asked.

I know why he did.

See, we made a promise to each of those kids: at the age of 8, they receive their first guitar. It's acoustic, because that's the best way to start learning, but other than that, they get to pick whatever color and style they'd like.

My beloved, beloved nephew adamantly wanted the one that looks just like mine.

His mom told him about his aunt training for the triathlon and he's so excited, he wants to come bike riding with me. He will - not a long ride, but a small one, a fun one. And I'll bring him to the pool, too, since he asked so enthusiastically.

What the heck, right?

He may not directly be my son, but there is absolutely no mistaking that he is absolutely blood of my blood and bone of my bone.

I will take him running, I will teach him how to play, we will go out on bike rides (I gave him his first one, too ), and I will show him the difference between a dive and a racing start, and how to hold his breath through a flip turn.

Knowing just how much he looks to me as a role model in his life -- that was so very much worth spending the extra time with him and his brother and sisters and tweaking the tweak.

As important as the training has become, he--and the rest of my family--will always have a higher priority. And during tomorrow's run, I will focus, and I will push, and I will stretch myself, building from potential to actual.

And I will figure out how to teach that to those little ones.

Day 13 - No Ordinary Days

Today's not a running day, nor is it a rest day, either. It's supposed to be a yoga day, but honestly? I've kinda kicked it back a bit tonight: it's been a kinda "big" week in a lot of ways, with lots of lessons to incorporate, things accomplished, and new irons in new fires.

Heck, I've even started a few ;-)

It's good, it's all good and it occurs to me as I look back over the last almost two weeks, that not a single day has gone by where I haven't learned something, gained an insight, improved something - not only with aspects of my physicality, but in just about every other area, too.

That's a pretty amazing thing, the realization that there are no "ordinary" days, nor are there true "rest" days either, at least, not ones that have no growth, no insight, nor inspiration.

So tonight, it may seem like a "day off" but it's not: the schedule's been tweaked so that tomorrow is a running day (which makes tonight a "recovery" module) and while I've not run through a whole set of poses, I've run through some basics, done a few stretches, keeping everything limber and loose.

In just a few minutes, I'm gonna pull out my guitar and play and then...sometimes the insight is simply this: there doesn't have to be one every day. And that's all right. It's Friday night, I'm loose and ready to go wherever it takes me.

And I'm fine with that.