And I don’t need no damn Foursquare to proclaim it.
Wow, talk about good intentions paving the way to Hell. Even with this long weekend I managed to get next to nothing done. I did make an attempt at doing some yardwork on Sunday (I really should have asked everyone to come help) and got almost nothing accomplished. I’ve taken Confucios to heart by believing that even the longest journey begins with one step, by taking said step. My journey this weekend was trimming/obliterating one of the two massive holly bushes at the end of my driveway. Now I need to find the motivation and time to continue taking steps along the way.
Other major yard projects for the ITP-Estate:
- cleanup of the entire back yard
- bush/brush cutback
- ivy/privet pulling
- Sweetgum ball raking/bagging
- ivy/privet pulling from trees
- branch trimming (I think I might hire professionals for this
- front flowerbed clean-up / replating
All of these exist in addition to the other projects which plague me.
Remind me why I bought a house again?
On top of it all my upper back has been hurting since Sunday. I’m hoping it’s merely a pinched muscle/nerve.
Internal Clocks Are Great
Let’s meet at 5:00am a Cheshire Bridge and LaVista; that was the plan for shooting yesterday’s Peachtree Road Race. With Media credentials acquired by my friend John (aka HamWithCam) which would allow us complete access to the start and the course we were psyched to be out shooting. Of course a 5:00am meetup meant a significantly earlier wakeup call, especially when I realized that I’d need to stop at QuikTrip for some gas and early-morning coffee. I dutifully set a 4:00am alarm on my iPhone and a backup for 4:10am on the Chumby.
I awoke on my own, startled, wondering how much more time I could sleep. I looked at the clock and was in shock and awe when in read 4:01am. WTH? How was that possible? Surely my iPhone’s alarm would be sounding if that were the case. But it wasn’t. I’m not sure why the alarm seemingly never sounded, but I was glad that my body’s internal clock was working properly (hey, at least something in this aging mass is not completely screwed up!).
A quick (relatively speaking these days) leap out of bed and I gathered all of my necessities and was gone. As I always do I made it with plenty of time to spare.
ITP Flickr Pic
How do you spell “Photo Fail?”
P-a-u-l-i-e
Sadly my photos from yesterday’s Peachtree Road Race were horrendous (I know, I’m always critical of my work but these are seriously out of focus). I’ll post a couple of the less-than-handful of shots I’m sharing with the world and will move on.
Clearly I am not shooting enough to hone my craft.
Out With The Old, In With The New
On Sunday I put on a (much snugger than I’d like them to be) pair of old “yardwork/camping) jeans and a trusty old pair of sneakers in order to do my yardwork. The plan was to do some tree limb maintenance (which turned out to be out of my league) before heading to the front yard for Holly hacking. I immediately noticed the difficulties with the jeans and within two steps I noticed that the sole of the right sneaker was coming off the shoe. After a quick tour of the roof (“Local man falls to death from roof because he was wearing faulty footwear” the AJC headline would read) when I determined that I was unable to do the tree maintenance I descended from the roof. By the time I walked around to the front of the house the entire sole had separated. Back into the house for my work boots. I retired both the jeans and the sneakers on Sunday.
On Monday after a post-Peachtree trip to The Majestic my friends thought it was time to introduce me to Menchies. For the uninitiated Menchies is a construct-your-own-paid-by-the-weight frozen yogurt joint. What I had, a melange of “cake batter”, “angel’s food cake”, and “dolce de leche” was very tasty, but I doubt that I’ll make the drive to find Menchies often as I don’t really need to be ingesting such things currently.
I Need To Do Laundry, But That’ll Have To Wait
It feels like forever since I’ve done laundry, maybe because it’s been forever. My dirty laundry pile is getting sky-high and while I’d like to tackle it today that’ll be impossible since I have a late (10:00am) physical therapy appointment before I have to put in a full eight-hour day at that place which helps me pay my bills.
Speaking of bills, I paid a late fee for one of my credit cards for the first time in life. Why? Because I somehow managed forgot to set up my payment online. What the hell is happening to me? I used to be such an über-organized person…
Back to the lavanderia. Tomorrow night’s schedule looks “empty” so I guess I’ll be slumming with my dirty laundry. Pity there’s no laundromat near George’s so that I could drop in to see if anyone I know still runs on Wednesday nights.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – 10:00am PT is going to kill me today, I’m really not looking forward to it
Current Music – listening to the latest Country Mice cd. That’s right. I’m listening to music instead of a podcast. Weird.
Website Of The Day – When people ask me “What type of women are you attracted to?” I’ve had a standard answer. Now, I’ll just point them to Harto & Co.. Hannah Hart is adorable, has short hair, wears awesome glasses, curses, and cooks — while drunk. She’s probably way too young for me, but I can overlook that. Oh wait, it appears as if she’s a lesbian. Dangen!!!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – Wednesday (and from the appearance of my midsection this morning I don’t think I’m going to like what I read)
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 4
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
July Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Buy a bicycle and start riding again
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose three pounds
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Don’t sell yourself short, you did take the first step by starting your yard work.
Weather permitting I’m going all in next weekend. Renting a dumpster and a small bobcat to dig out the rest of the wood chips from the trees we cut down, remove the shrubs from the back of the house to prepare for a deck, and dig the foundation for the new shed. I can’t wait to be done with this project.
Hopefully by next year we will actually be able to use our back yard.
I know, but it was a baby step and finding time / good weather for continued baby steps could prove to be difficult. The holly bush is a bit of an eyesore right now, so that might help.
Good luck with your work.
It was good to see you yesterday, too bad I had to leave but the heat was brutal on the way home…then I made things worse by doing ‘1/2 Murph’ at the gym. I was done for the rest of the day, I think I’m still a little dehydrated.
Credit cards…ugh…I hate it when I make a silly mistake, like pay the wrong one *sigh*, done that before.
Paulie, it looks like you will be getting unsolicited diet and exercise advice from a professional trainer soon, the owner of my gym has asked me if I’d like to start coaching. I need to get settled into my new ‘real’ job first, hopefully I can get started in a month or two.
I’m going to spend today getting things organized and ready for when I’m back to work, hopefully in the next couple of days!
Ah, so you did even more than your run yesterday. No wonder you were tired!
Very cool about being asked to train. Best of luck. One of my regrets was being too shy to become a Spinning trainer when Jean (of Jeanne’s Body Tech) asked me if I had interested (oh those many years ago…)
oh yard work, I hate it, but the deck is ready to be built now. Saturday Allan & his dad poured cement to make a nice walkway part way up the side of the garage, while his mom & I put down borders & weed stopping fabric on the area that will be under the deck. Then Sunday was the really fun day, we (just me & Allan) moved close to a truck load of gravel to cover up all that fabric. It does look good I have to say, but damn that was a lot of work.
You started the yardwork, and that is a big step. And yes, cheap friend labor and beer is a small price to pay for getting the work done. And we would have had fun..
I think the running gods are telling me to ride my bike. I needed to exercise Friday evening and went for a run at home. My calf was a little tender, then about 3/4 of the way through, it decided to full-on cramp up. I enjoyed my mile walk home, but the damn thing is still tender today. The compression sleeve I’m wearing is helping, but I’m probably going to stay on my bike for the time being.
Trying to frame shots of moving runners isn’t easy.. cut yourself some slack.
Martha, what is a 1/2 Murph?
-FP
Yep, if you want some help from me in the yard, better ask before fall and I’m back training/running all the time.
Steve, Murph is a ‘Hero WOD’, done in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan. It consists of
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run
I did 1/2 of everything….still took me close to half an hour to finish.
My last couple of runs have felt pretty good, none of the nagging calf cramps that have been troubling me for months. Not sure what I’m doing different but I’m glad.
Paulie, over the last few years my confidence has grown by leaps and bounds. I give a lot of credit to running, crossfit and a great group of supportive friends. There is no way I would have accepted a coaching job (or my new job for that matter) only a few short years ago. It’s never too late, if it’s something you would want to do, take the steps to do it.
I think I did at least 300 squats this weekend- getting up & down working on the yard. My aching legs tell me I did 😉
But – can’t do the rest of that workout.
BTW Martha – do you have a work startup date yet?
Barb, my yard work pales in comparison to yours. You guys are crazy! But on the other hand, you will have one kick ass place to hang out when you are done.
I can’t imagine moving all that rock up that hill.
Finally into work.
Finally getting to watch a little cycling (in replay).
Barb, I saw the “before” yard and photos of the gravel spread. Kudos to you and Allan.
Martha, even at my best I couldn’t complete a 1/10 Murph. The total number of pull-ups that I’ve done in my life is zero.
I’ll keep cracking away at the yard work. Perhaps I’ll make a work party day. Watch here for updates. 😉
Oh, and…
– I’m making this a vegetarian day. Bread/butter for breakfast. Portobello mushroom burger with pretzels for lunch. Taco Mac for dinner (predicted).
– I’m surprised no one’s commented on my link today, and my confession that I like a lesbian.
I have a confession to make… I AM a lesbian!!
Paulie, before I started CF I had never done a pull-up either. It took 6 to 8 months for me to be able to do pull-ups unassisted. I would still not be able to do one if I had never tried.
I wasn’t going to say anything but its Harto & Co…you asked 😉
Barb, I’m hoping to hear something today, I submitted all my paperwork Thursday and they want me to start ASAP.
Other than the mushroom, I don’t see a lot of veg in your vegetarian day
Whoops, missed the ‘o’. I should give you honorary title of ITP-Editor, Martha. 🙂
Mushroom burger also had lettuce, tomato, and pickles. 😛