Karma

Did I mention that I love weekends?  Well I do.  The weather here has been so great this week and yesterday GB and I spent an hour or so tossing a frisbee around in the back yard.  It really is the simple things, sometimes.

My In-Laws were in town briefly yesterday so we all went out for lunch.  But not before a not-so-quick stop at urgent care to see if they could access and remove my contact lens from the upper rear recesses of my eye socket.  Mostly, I wanted confirmation from a doctor that my contact would not work its way into my brain or end up in my lung and somehow kill me.  She assured me that although it was pretty well lodged (so much so that she couldn’t see it), but would not actually leave my eye socket since the thing is closed off to my brain.  Phew!  I can handle a contact lens irritating my eye, but my brain?  That’s another story.  They tried all manner of flushing and reaching and things in the dark and things in the bright light but no luck.  All the interns were thrilled, however, at the exciting learning opportunity.  You can count on me to be able to provide valuable education to the medical field.  Anyway, after enough eye baths to complete drench my upper body and hair, I emerged to greet GB looking like I was in a wet t-shirt competition.  Apparently I had been in there a LONG time and GB thought they were removing my eye for access.  The doctor said the longest she had seen a contact lens take was 5 days.  I have to laugh at this irony.  For months I have had eye infections that prevent me from wearing contact lenses.  Now I can wear them again but I can’t get one of them OUT!  Hilarious if you look at it from the right angle…  So now I am back to glasses while I wait for it to emerge.  Truthfully it’s more irritating than painful, so I’m not that worked up about it.

In other news, I went to a yoga class yesterday morning.  I was thinking that with all the biking I’ve been putting my body through, I should probably find something to nurture my legs.  I’m not sure I found that.  What I did find, was a class where a woman told us to sit on our big bouncy balls and bounce and then had us flapping our “wings” and “flying away”.  It was sort of an odd combination of dance and pilates and fantasy world so I felt like they had falsely advertised by using the word “yoga”.  Especially because there was no lie-on-your-back-and-have-a-nap time at the end.  And it is worth noting that I have had unpleasant experiences with dance classes throughout my life, so am somewhat averse.  That said, it was good to spend some time focusing on feeling my body and I did feel like I gave it some love.  Perhaps my contact lens got lodged behind my eye from so much rolling my eyes during the class.  Karma.

The ‘F’ Word

I swear to you, it couldn’t have been more than 10 minutes after I sold my truck that both gas prices and the temperature suddenly dropped.  I’m thrilled, however, that I managed to unload my truck on somebody who was willing to give me money for it!  So now I am officially committed to this winter bike commuting thing.

Today was my seventh day of bike commuting.  Last week I rode 150 miles (which is a lot for me).  I didn’t manage to squeeze in many of my regular workouts last week since I thought I should give my body a chance to adapt to this 2-a-day biking thing.  I have more or less overcome the fear associated with riding into the darkness and am now getting used to the cold.  This morning was our first morning of the F word (frost).  It was not much above thirty degrees when I hopped on my bike.  I was grateful that the roads were dry since my soon-to-be-tricked-out-for-winter mountain bike is still in the shop getting tricked out.  I’ve decided to try the fixed gear route so as to avoid derailleur and cable issues in the snow and salt.  I suspect, however, that those will be replaced by ‘needing to walk up the hills’ issues instead!  I will say that after only 7 days of this, it is so much easier to ride up the beastly hills around here.  It’s amazing how quickly the body adapts!  Not to mention how much better my mood is at work and when I arrive home due to having an hour to unwind and get some head space.

Other than that, not much is new.  The colors are amazing this week and I should probably rally and get some photos posted.

I would like to draw a little attention to my friend, Trendy Casual, who had a great race in Dallas this past weekend.  Way to go, Beth!

Fall

It is definitely Fall around here.  The hills are headed towards their annual peak coloring and things are starting to look amazing.  Today was my third day of bike commuting and when I was riding home I was really appreciating the details I miss when I drive.  Maple leaves were falling and the occasional one would drift right in front of me so that it actually made contact with my body.  I must have looked like such a fool biking along with a big grin on my face.

Although I still do not love launching myself into the darkness at 5:30 in the morning, it seems to get a little less scary every day.  I say that, but I didn’t feel that way on the first hill when I heard a rustling in the bushes next to me and started hauling to get away from the noise and whatever creature was making it.  I’m sure I hit my max heart rate pretty much right out of our driveway.  After the first two miles I come to the center of “town” and there are a few streetlights – amazing how much you appreciate those when you need them!  This morning it was raining, although not the kind of rain that is bothersome; just a gentle drizzle – perhaps the weather gods have decided to break me in gently, which I appreciate.  I talked to my bike guy (read: mechanic and all-round knowledgeable guy) yesterday.  He’s going to make some changes to the mountain bike I have to make it winter commute-worthy.  He also seems to think my plan to ride all winter is possible in spite of the weather and hills.  Studs.  Studs will be my magic.

A few people have expressed concerns about my visibility in the dark.  Rest assured that I have reflectors on my ankles and my red blinking light.  I also plan to pick up a reflective jacket for when the weather cools down (which hopefully won’t be too soon).

This evening the dogs and I went on a fabulous Fall hike which was enjoyed by all.  GB was out doing grad school things so afterwards I watched Dan In Real Life which was actually a really cute movie.