Thanksgiving short recap

Igda, Leo and I had a really great Thanksgiving weekend at home.  We cooked a great meal.  Did a bunch of stuff around the house which we’ve been procrastinating. I got some riding in, but otherwise we just spent a whole lotta time together which was cool.

 

In one of the more playful (not really for me) times, Igda had a good chuckle at my expense.  I have never realized that I like to talk out loud to myself when I’m in the middle of figuring something out.  Well, that turned out to be some electrical work I had on tap for Saturday.  I was going to start replacing old painted over switches and wall circuits in some of the rooms.   I made my trip to Home Depot for all the supplies I *thought* I needed, put my apron on and headed upstairs to get to work.  Oh, yeah, I triple checked to make sure the right circuits were turned off first.  The short version of the story goes like this as Igda listened in from the other bedroom:

 

Me:  Hhhhhmmmmmmmmmm.

Me (a minute later): Hhhmmm, that’s weird.

Me (another minute later):  What the hell is this?

Me (another minute later):  Why are there more wires than plug-ins?

Me (another minute later):  How come I don’t have the right one?

Me (another minute later):  God dammit, what the F—k! (sorry Mom & Dad)

 

In the matter of 5 minutes, I went from a can do attitude to completely frustrated!  7 hours later and one more trip to Home Depot I was finally done.  Geez.

 

 

Training...

Coach was sending me some feedback on how I am progressing with The Plan. He said something that rang so true, "This time, it’s almost a gray zone, we keep pushing forward through the mist, never recovered, never worn down…"

That's exactly how I feel right now...staying patient...sticking to the structure. Body and mind are responding well so far.

Commuting...

Well, it’s a been about 3 weeks now since I’ve been bike commuting pretty much every day. I’ve learned a few valuable items:

The first item is gear. While commuting about 2 months ago during a pretty good rain, a guy pulled up next to me with what looked to be a great waterproof backpack. I asked him how he liked it and noted the brand. After doing some research, I finally located it. It can be found here: http://www.summithut.com/products/rkv-reykjavik/.


It’s made by Pacific Outdoors. These folks know WET. It’s a waterproof material and the zippers are welded so no water gets in. Absolutely no water has penetrated so far. I feel completely safe carrying my laptop in it during a downpour. I opted for the Reykjavik. It’s about the perfect size for carrying what I need on a daily basis. My laptop is 14”, but you may need the next size up if you are carrying anything bigger. It has lots of pockets for storing stuff. Most importantly, it has an upper chest strap and a lower belly strap which can be adjusted. It has some nice, vented padding on the back, too. When I wear this, I hardly know it’s on.

The second item is weather. Wow, it’s been pretty darn nice lately. I know it will end at some point but I’m enjoying it while it lasts. But, I’ve come to the realization that you CAN’T let weather serve as an excuse to be lazy and take the easy way out. Rain, no problem. Just pedal your ass off to work or home for 45 minutes and it’s over. I’ve collected enough various articles of clothing to get me through just about anything. Now ice and snow will require something special. Still not sure how I’m going to handle that one.

The third item is training. So far this has worked out well. It generally takes me ~30 mins to get to HP. That’s my warm-up. Then I usually bang out the workout for the day and commute easy home. So simple and the time savings I’ve added to my life has been great.