This Is What Good Days Are Made Of

To tri or not to tri? I think I may be trying to tri, although I’m not sure I want to tri. It’s not so much a matter of whether or not I could complete the tri, and I surely wouldn’t win the tri (or even try to win the tri, for that matter), but do I want to try the tri? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

The Golden State Triathlon: 0.5-mile swim, 15-mile ride, 3-mile run. It’s on October 9. Today is September 4. That’s a little over a month, and I’d save 10 bucks if I were to decide to try and sign up before September 13. Aw, shit. What’s my hang-up? Well, there are two, to be honest. I’ll get to that in a bit, though.

I got out of bed at 7:24 this morning and went out to the garden to make sure the sinosad hadn’t killed any of my plants right off and I neglected to water anything, and I can hear some of those plants yelling at me as I type. It’s 4:18. I came home to an empty house because my wonderful wife took my son out to run some errands with her and I had some energy to burn off. I’ll get to that in a bit, though.

I came in from the garden and was really feeling much better today. Yesterday…yesterday was not a day of good feelings.

~~Now I’m cooking dinner. I’m typing through the day today.~~

Anyway, today was a better day, feeling-wise. All-around-wise, to be honest. I came in from the garden and made myself some coffee (finishing off the Mexican, essentially [finally]) and steel-cut oats. Liam had already eaten breakfast but ended up in my lap eating my oats, too, which is fine with me (‘cause I make a little extra for that purpose, otherwise…).

I may have also written yesterday’s blog around then. I did, as a matter of fact, while eating and drinking coffee and having Liam in and out of my lap, also eating. Not long after that, though, Angie asked me if I wanted to go for a run and I did, so we did. It was a nice, leisurely run. We took the Elbster along because it was pretty early (about 10:30?) and cool, and I pushed Liam along in the stroller. We ran down to the river—or the start of the trail to the river, because it’s too hard to push the stroller while running on the trail thanks to river rocks, and that’s just the way it goes. It’s only about a 1/4-mile hike from there, so we did that and got to the river.

We freed Liam from the stroller and Elba was in swim-and-fetch mode, which was great because she has had one hell of a stink on her lately and this helped make that go away. That was a big reason for the trip to the river, because bathing our big dogs sucks. Anyway, Liam played all about and was stepping out into the river (which is super cold, by the way) because he had sandals on and hence the freedom to do so, unlike me and Angie in our runners, and he ultimately got soaked walking and falling and otherwise playing, and that was good. Elba got goodly tired. We stripped Liam down to his soggy diaper, put him back in his stroller, and strolled back to where we could run, then ran home. The River Loop, plus diversion. We put in about 4.25 miles total.

When we got home we were getting hungry but there was a farmers’ market to attend, so we loaded Liam up in the stroller once again and took Nosta to the market. We walked it, of course—hence the stroller—and I made a point of stopping at this one stand of this guy who grows all certified-organic-like and he’s the one with the super good peaches and nectarines and this week I got more white peaches AND he had APPLES! I sampled everything he had that I could sample and I also bought some gala apples. We made our round and walked on home. Nosta got lots of stranger love, as she tends to do. People love that dog. I love that dog.

We were still hungry, though, and I was really slow about going to get groceries because I’m kinda obsessing over these damn caterpillars in the garden and I like to find them and squish them and watch their heads explode with green goo. Little fuckers. They look like this:

and mine are mostly greenish but also some are brownish, but mostly greenish like that one and they ooze green.

~~And now dinner is over and so is Bubba Ho-Tep and my stomach is SO full.~~

I did go to the grocery, but I declared my intention to swing by the going-out-of-bidness nursery to see if they were still open, assuming they weren’t, and see if they had anything I needed, assuming they didn’t. Well, they were still open (barely) and they DID have things I needed. It was a pretty great stop, to be honest. Upon walking in there was a cart that said “Free Fertilizer” and on the top of the cart was some Fox Farm Big Bloom, a big ol’ jug of it, and although it’s not STRICTLY organic, it was a big $56 jug of a naturally-based nutes (I like Fox Farm nutes [nutrients] in general) and sure, it was only half full and it had no cap, but it was free and now it’s mine. I also got a concentrated version of spinosad and some acidic fertilizer (for some of the natives and maybe some future blueberries) and a fungicide for the peach tree that I didn’t know was a peach tree the first year we lived here (because it had been chopped down and was just a bush of little twigs coming up from the ground) that has peach leaf curl and some fish-based organic fertilizer…and I think that’s it, but I got it all for 40 bucks, which is hard to complain about, except that place is going out of business.

So then I really did go to the grocery, and I got our grocery shopping done, and on the way home, since I was so hungry, I ate some almonds and drank a blue machine. I’d planned on a turkey sammich when I got home but wasn’t all that hungry for it, but I WAS hungry for some more activity. Liam only napped an hour, which was odd, but Angie had some errands to run and I had some energy to burn so I biked to the gym, then I swam, then I biked home, both bikings in round-about ways. All total, I ran the aforementioned 4.25 miles, biked 6.66 (devilish, I know), and swam a good 42 laps, which is nicely over ½ mile.

This takes me back to the tri. The triathlon. What are my hang-ups?

1)      I’m not big on the river swim. I don’t mind the river, and I’ve been in it aplenty, and iv’e even swam it some, but it’s not my favorite thing. It’s cold, for one thing, and although I can wear a wetsuit, that water is still cold and there’s a hole in the back of my wetsuit. It still keeps me warm…except at that hole. I think I could deal with that, though.

2)      This knee thing. Sure, it seems to be gone. But then, it also still hurts a bit. And to push it through 15 miles of biking and 3 miles of running…I fear I may push it a bit too far too fast. I may have to do a brick workout or two and see how things go.

~~A brick, if I’ve never explained and I’m not sure why I would have: Bike-Run-ICK. It’s one of those slang things that pretty well sums up how it feels when you go from biking to running: icky. Going from the fast to the slow. It’s fairly terrible. Hence, brick.~~

Goodness I’m sleepy.

Angie got home with Liam and we goofed around a bit, I went out to kill more caterpillars, I showered, and we skyped with Angie’s parents. I opened a bottle of malbec during that and started cutting up some ‘taters for fries—burger night.

The call ended. I started up the charcoals on the grill (chimney starter, lump charcoal [I’ve typed it before: avoid the briquettes and lighter fluid]), picked some corn from the garden (we really DO have some good ears in addition to the tiny ones I’d picked before), wetted those down and tossed ‘em on the grill. I mixed the hamberguesa with…soy sauce, diced red onion, garlic, paprika, ground pepper, and some chopped up oregano from the garden. Oh, parmesan cheese, too. We deep-fried the fries and I cooked the burgers on the grill and topped ‘em with swiss cheese and it was all very good. I ate too much. I drank wine with dinner. I have wine now. But this is a gap of a long time. Many hours. I’m on my third glass of wine. I may pour a bit more, but I’m also sooooo sleepy. So maybe I won’t.

Okay, just a splash more. There’s still a quarter of the bottle or more left. Honest.

We finished the movie. Liam was all wound up. He only napped about an hour today. That’s the way things go sometimes.

I’ll be playing single dad for the next few nights. Angie has work travels. None of us are excited about this, but it should be an interesting challenge—her to be away and me to do it all around here…plus try to get all my work done when I don’t have enough time to do it. If I were smart I’d try to work some tomorrow, but I’m not smart and I love my time off. It’s necessary.

I read to Liam. He rolled and played in his crib. The crib I made him. It still makes me proud, I can’t deny it. It’s holding up. It stands through his kicking and climbing and thrashing. It’s solid. At least so far.

I kissed Liam goodnight and came out here to finish this blog entry, which I’m about to call finished.

So good night, two-parent household. I’ll miss you over the next few nights. I’ll enjoy the time with my boy, and I’ll hope I can get him to sleep at night as well as my wife. I’ll have my work cut out for me, but I know the routine and there are those who do this all the time. I’m in awe of those folks. I do love my family so. They’re the best, and they’re what I live for these days. What else is there, ultimately?