In which I've been too busy to talk about myself

I've been so busy lately.  Doctor visits, physical therapy, hiking, preparing for hiking, birthday, work.. there aren't enough hours in the day.

I'm happy to be in physical therapy, but at the same time I can't wait to be done because of all the time it's sucking out of my waking hours.  Man, I hope it's worth it!  I hope my back ends up stronger and more functional as a result.  I'm really not sure if that's happening or not.  I've been doing the same exercises for weeks.  Shouldn't they be getting more tough?

I went hiking this past weekend.  If you recall, I fell down on Wednesday and kind of roughed myself up.  Skinned knee (still scabby), roughed up palms, whiplash, back all kinds of unhappy.. but good enough to hike.  DeLee, unfortunately, was not that lucky.  Her doc said no hiking until she got an MRI.  So she was on the sofa with an ice pack all weekend.  Me, I went on.  Perhaps foolishly.  But I needed the mental break.

JD drove me out to Bears Den Hostel Friday evening so I could get an early start on Saturday.  It was nearly deserted when I got there.  Soon, however, three people I sort of knew showed up.  Total coincidence.  They went out and had hijinks, but I just went to bed, since I wanted to be gone around dawn.  And I was.

It was lonely without DeLee, but still beautiful.  The weather was about ten degrees colder and 30 mph windier than forecast, but I managed all right.  Part of the point of the weekend was working on my cold weather camping technique, and that I did.  Cold weather hiking technique, also.  It's a little tricky to wear enough warm stuff in windy weather while not wearing so much that you soak yourself with sweat.   I didn't get it right the whole time, but I managed to dry my clothing out while hiking so it worked out okay.

It was cold enough Saturday evening that my mug froze right away when I set it down with a few drops in it.  I pulled out most of the stops - I made a hot water bottle, I wore down slippers to bed, I opened up two "hotties" iron filings packets, and I started out wearing my down jacket in the sleeping bag.  Oh, and I slept in my down skirt.  First time ever that my butt didn't freeze.

I was able to take off the down jacket relatively quickly.  After that it was just a long, long night.  It was too cold to stay out of the bag after sundown, so I was in from around 6:30 to dawn.  The dawn was gorgeous, btw.  No pictures because the camera was still off from the night before.  I just lay there in my sleeping bag and sleepily gazed.  I had deliberately set my tent up just at the very edge of the ridge so that I would have an unobstructed view of the dawn, and I reaped the reward of that in the morning.  At night, I had the unexpected effect of seeing all the lights in the valley, which was pretty in its own way.

In the morning I got moving shortly after sunup.  It was below freezing when I started but warmed up quickly.  I saw hikers, which was pretty different from Saturday.  The day passed quickly as I bopped along the ridgeline.  Unfortunately, Saturday had been quite rocky (as was Sunday for that matter) and my arches weren't too happy with me.  I think I may have stepped on some of the rocks wrong, with weight on the arch.  At any rate, my feet kind of hurt on Sunday.  In fact they still kind of hurt now.  JD hiked in on Sunday and walked the last mile and a half with me, and was treated to the sight of me wincing and mincing as my feet completely gave up and just started screaming "eff you!" with every step.  They were happier once we got to the car and I changed out of boots and into crocs.

JD and I had celebratory pizza in Harpers Ferry, and then we drove home.  I had a shower and then a nap.  My nap lasted twelve hours.  It was a good nap.

We had dramatic clouds on the way out

I got the best bed in the bunkroom

There was a mysterious banana at Bears Den overlook

Rocks.  Rocks are cool.

Hey look, I'm in West Virginia!

The view from Raven Rocks.

Annnnnd there's the rocks

Lunch - peanut butter on pilot biscuits.  Delish.  I even found a warm bit of sun to sit in.  That's a log, btw, not a table.

I got water down at Blackburn Trail Center.  Probably should have just left the filter home, as now I'm wondering if I left it out long enough to crack or not.  I don't think so, but..

I never did get an exterior shot of the tent.  It got a little crowded inside after my pack explosion.

Rockdancer hat:  check

I didn't stay in the shelter, but I did use the nice chair (with back!) to retie my shoes and add some tape to my feet.

Hey looky, a town!

And a husband.  And pizza.

I so deserve dim sum tomorrow

Woohoo!  I did it!  I finally had the fortitude to walk the park twice. I've had the strength for a long time, but I've never been able to face the boredom of retracing my footsteps for another two hours.  Today, I buckled down, listened to my podcasts, and did it.  I had motivation.  Guilt free dim sum!  I am so there.  Tomorrow.

I did around eleven and a half miles in around four and a half hours. That's pretty close to what I'll do next Saturday, but I intend to take a lot longer to do it then.  It'll be prettier terrain, it'll be tougher terrain (we'll be starting in "The Rollercoaster"), and I'll be carrying significantly more gear.  Plus, it's hard to charge ahead while gabbing, and much of the point of going backpacking with DeLee is the conversation.

I had a nutritional plan for today, and it worked pretty well.  Cereal and a banana for breakfast, high carbs snacks on the trail, regular low carb for dinner.  After having cereal (high protein, high fiber cereal) and a banana, I was on some kind of crazy sugar high.  Man, my body adjusted to low carb very quickly.  I decided I better not add caffeine to the mix, and swapped my Keurig cup for something decaf.  And then I charged off to the park.

Isn't that a nice little trail?

I find bridges to be very inviting.  It's nice to cross a ravine / stream with little effort and dry feet.

After that, mildly triumphant, I drove down to check on Pluto.  I had intended to blanket him against the incoming snow, but it was still nearly sixty degrees!  Instead, I fed him cookies.

This was the best picture I could get.  Cookie shark wouldn't leave me alone.  I'll be keeping an eye on the weather and possibly dashing out to blanket him, but as you can see it was still gorgeous out.

JD suggested a nap after I got home, and it sounded like a genius idea to me.  Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep.  I have two more chances, though.  Three day weekend woo!  I realize that some people have more exciting plans than napping, but I really like napping.

Achievement unlocked: napping

I finally got a nap today.  I'm not sure how long it's been since I've had a nap.  Weeks if not months.  I fell asleep on the sofa with my shoes on.  Andy the cat was pinning me to the sofa by way of my lap.  DeLee and I were supposed to go out today, but she got some horrible bug bites while we were hiking on Saturday so she was taking it easy and trying not to scratch them.

After I established that we were not, in fact, going anywhere, I wandered into the living room.  I wasn't really thinking nap.  I wasn't thinking much of anything.  I sat on the sofa and invited various cats up to get petted.  However, being cats, they snubbed me as soon as they realized I wanted to pay attention to them.  So I was just reclining there, not thinking about very much, when zzzZZZZZ.

At some point Andy curled up on me.  And then later I felt chilly and took off my shoes and dragged a blanket over me.  Of course Andy left while I was in the shoe-taking-off process.  Only Dori has the fortitude to stick around for that.  But as soon as I was reclined again, I felt the weight and needle pricks of a cat navigating his way around a prone body.

I fell asleep again only to wake up sweaty.  There is no middle ground.  Some day I will probably discover clothing which will keep me comfortable, neither too chilly nor too warm.  Guaranteed the clothing will be too expensive to afford, fragile, ugly, or all three.

So, basically, I got nothing done today.  I haven't left the building.

Although, I *did* swap out the air filter up in the attic.  I think it's the first time this year, which is ridiculous.  What's more ridiculous is the athletic routine required to swap out the filter.  A) I'm not tall enough to reach the rope to pull down the attic door.  B)  Once you get up there, you have to duck walk under a roof support.  C) Once you've gotten under the support, you have to edge across a couple of wobbly boards spanning the chasm over the front hall.  And then of course after you've swapped out the filter you have to reverse the process in the opposite direction.

I wanted to take a look at our gable fan, which has gotten insanely loud, so I didn't reverse the process right away.  First I clambered over the ductwork (which thank goodness can hold my weight, because there is no way to just step over it), then held onto the rafters as I stepped from beam to beam.  The gable fan, is, of course, at the far end of the attic.

I determined that the gable fan is all rusty, but that's not why it's loud.  One support was screwed into one of the 140 year old vent louvers, which has finally come loose after a couple of decades of stress from the fan vibration.  Now whenever the fan comes on it rattles that louver, and the vibration transmits itself throughout the structure of the house.  Even JD's closet door vibrates, at the other end of the house and one story down.  It's delightful.

Still I figure it's time to replace the fan, and we'll attach it to something more solid.  I spent some time shopping online for a replacement fan.  They all look pretty much the same, but the price ranges from $45 to $400+. It's crazy!  How am I supposed to figure out which one to get?  My googling hasn't led me to any independent reviews which might help me decide.  There are actually a bunch of attic gable fan websites, believe it or not.  They aren't helpful.  They say things like "attic gable fans reduce your electrical bill by reducing the heat load in your attic!" as if this were news.  But actually comparing different fan manufacturers?  Not so much.

The most expensive fans have 10 year warranties, and the cheapos have 1 year warranties.  I really would like something that would last 20-30 years as this one appears to have, but I guess people don't really build stuff with the intention of having it last anymore.  I mean, how would that benefit them?

So my Labor Day was spent napping and not buying anything.  You're welcome, economy.  Anytime.

Federal Shutdown 2011: temporarily off

So I got used to the idea of a shutdown, made some plans, thought I had it all figured out, and then they came up with an extension.  Not for a week, mind you.  Until Thursday.  Why Thursday?  Why not 3:15 Wednesday afternoon?  I have no idea.  All I know is I don't get to sleep in and I'm bitter.

Although for my friends' sake I am happy.  They like getting paychecks.  I do too but I am obviously more cavalier about it or I wouldn't have taken six months off to hike last year.

However, not using up all our vacation time on the government's whim means that DeLee probably is going to hike with me on my week long hike in May, and that's awesome news to me.  Also, we both get to retain health care coverage in the near future, which is sometimes useful.  Maybe not for me, as I have never had health care that covered either chiropractic or naturopathy, but maybe for other things.  Broken legs.  You know.  That.

JD and I took our regular lap around the local park this morning.  I wore my new trail shoes to try them out.  I think they are an adequate replacement for my old shoes, so I won't feel bad about sacrificing the old pair to Run Amuck in a couple of weeks.  However, I must say (and I told JD repeatedly) that I felt ridiculous jogging while he walked next to me.  I know I'm slow, but that really rubbed it in my face.  There's nothing to be done about it, however.  JD offered to jog with me, but his tiny little jogging-in-place gait made me wallop him, so that's out.

I had hoped to get in a nap this afternoon.  Really that's one of my favorite pleasures, the nap after the exercising and the eating.  You can't buy naps better than that.  I had almost drifted off when the phone rang.  I wasn't awake enough to answer it, but when I woke up a little more and checked the message, it turned out I needed to be somewhere this evening a little earlier than planned.  So no nap for me.  Grrr.

Since I couldn't nap, I went all crazy and had a coke.  JD stocked us up with 7.5 oz cokes, for some reason.  They look cute, all petite and winsome.  And they are just about the right size.  I feel awake without being overly perky.  Also I had a piece of chocolate.  Because I missed my nap, that's why.

I hope that I can be social this evening.  I will try not to bite anybody.  I'll say right now, that I really can't be held accountable for anything that happens on a missed-nap day.

My kitten-enhanced long weekend comes to a close

Today was a big day of exploration.  For the kittens, anyway.  Dory woke me up at six by scraping her cone against the door of her room and mewing.  So I got up and we went out and explored.  After a brief runin with Andy, (during which no violence occurred), she decided that was enough exploration of the first level and went back upstairs.

We let her stay in with her brothers today and that went well.  We hope that they follow her example and come out and look around a little more.

This evening I removed Dory's cone.  The vet's office said it needed to be on two more days.  It's been three days and two nights.  So good enough, right?  I hope.  I guess we'll see over the next couple of days.

We're trying to slowly reintegrate the household.  This evening I cracked the kitty room door open and went downstairs to watch tv.  All of them, even Nazca, at least came out and looked down the stairs.  Beauty and Andy wanted to go upstairs but I decided the arm's length view from different floors was probably for the best tonight.  They got to wander around for an hour before we called it a night, and all are now sequestered back in the kitty room.  Shew.

I felt pretty tired after my early wakeup so I took a nap this morning.  It was awesome.  I haven't had a nap in so long!  I've tried, but haven't been able to fall asleep.  So I was thrilled to drift off.  Napping time feels so much more intense than regular sleeping time, don't you think?  It's the "screwing around when you have work to do" factor.  If you have nothing to do, just sitting around is boring.  But if you're supposed to be busy, sitting around is *the best ever*.  Hence the awesomeness of napping.

My long weekend of not stressing or seriously exercising has felt nice and lazy, but I'll be happy to get back to work tomorrow.  I'm starting to get kind of achy from the sitting around.  I mean, I haven't just been sitting around, there's been walking and carrying and stuff.  But not several miles worth, you know what I mean?

There is a light at the end of the tunnel

That light might be an oncoming train.  Or it might be the end of the tunnel.  Alternatively it might be one of those little one-car dealy-bobbers with an engineer on it.  Or a medic.  At any rate, the light and I should be intersecting on Monday and ONE WAY OR ANOTHER the last several weeks' frantic journey will be over.

First I have Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday I'm meeting Tara, not very early, and we are going to trailer our horses to somewhere where, we hope, we have a minimal chance of getting shot.  Unlike the environs of the farm, where it is fairly likely due to it being hunting season.  Frankly this makes me very nervous, but the hunters seem to be pretty good and so far no horse has ever been shot there.  That I know of.  And the horses are fairly blasé about gunshots now, so that's good.  When Playboy lived near a skeet range he heard gunshots all day and could not have cared less.  I, on the other hand, get a little jumpy.  I've never been shot but I've been shot *at* and it made an impression on me.  On the psyche part of me.

Anyway we're going somewhere else to ride.  I hope very, very much that nothing exciting happens.  Or that if it does, Pluto keeps his shit together and I keep in contact with the saddle.  Because after the riding I plan to have a nap, and that's harder to do if you're bruised all over.  I figure our most likely suspects for excitement are a) joggers%, b) loose dogs%%, c) bridges%%%, or d) road noise.  The park has big roads on all sides and Pluto isn't really used to a lot of road noise.  I hope he's too busy being in a new place to really focus on the tractor trailers going by at 75 mph.

Then we take the boys back to the farm, and then I go home and nap.

Sunday, my coworkers and I are shutting down the server room and securing everything for travel.  Everything is only being shipped one building away.  Fifteen years ago, we moved most of it by rolling it downhill.  But we have a lot more stuff now.  Also, I'm fifteen years older, and it's all uphill.  So we're using a moving truck.  Also, professional movers. 

Monday morning I guess I'm getting up early so I'm there when the movers arrive.  I won't have much to do on the near end, I hope, but on the far end somebody needs to tell them where to put things.  And then, the fun.  Finding out which machines jiggled something loose in transit, or took their opportunity to mysteriously quit working for no obvious reason.%%%%  Also, which ones I was successfully able to change the IP on before they shut down, and which ones didn't take.  Or DID take but won't talk to the network anyway.

I've moved machines before, and I've moved networks before.  So I've seen a lot of failure modes.  I can only wonder what new problems I will surely encounter.  And hope that my temper holds until the end of the process.%%%%%

% I mean hell, I do that myself.

%% Which will either be terrified of Pluto as the biggest dog they ever SAW, OMG, or potentially growly.  Pluto is not scared of dogs so far.  He has tried to stomp one before.  I think if Pluto stomps a dog it could lead to incivility, so I will try hard to avoid that.

%%%For some reason Pluto hates to cross running water.  Maybe he's a witch.

%%%%You know it happens.  It's the dang server gnomes' fault.

%%%%%I'm sorry, coworkers.  I'm sorry, world.  Somebody is going to get yelled at.  It is inevitable.  If you're all lucky, the one getting yelled at will be the ancient VMS machine.  It's used to it.

Unfortunately, I had to go outside

Pluto was due to get his feet trimmed today.  I was sadly forced to leave work during the middle of a perfectly gorgeous day and go stand outside and chat with Bonnie and our substitute farrier.  It was quite a strain on me.  Us computer nerds aren't very familiar with sunshine or fresh air.  I may have to spend some time recuperating.  Possibly with chocolate.

I hadn't planned on riding because I have an owie on my leg, right about where the stirrup leather hits.  It was just as well.  Strange things were afoot at the Circle K.  There were approximately one million gnats hanging out in a large cloud between Pluto's field and the barn.  They drifted with the wind.  Since it was gusty,  I never knew when I was about to inhale gnats.  They were in my hair, my nose, Pluto's mane and crawling on my skin. It was beyond gross.

Gusty is a whole other problem when you're riding a horse with any Arab in them. I value my skull, so I try not to ride on gusty days.  Even Steady Eddy type horses find the wind disquieting.  And Pluto has never been an Eddy.  (Eddy is, in fact, my car.  He doesn't mind the wind.)

I hope my owie settles down quickly, because we have a three day weekend coming up (woo!) and it would be nice to ride a couple of times.  And go hike around the park.  And cement some bricks.  And maybe run a little.

Gosh, I'm tired just writing that.  Maybe I should consider napping instead.

You would choose napping over me?  I shall snub you.