This is my annual email of events, so inspired am I by Tom's bloggin'. That, and I have a week of vacation coming up this week (yay!). I was just in Boston for a conference. My job was to work a booth in the expo area. The day after arriving in Boston I came down with severe, croaky, raspy laryngitis. I could barely speak. So, one day in the booth, one day sitting in my $300 a day hotel room, then home to Jacksonville. The conference was not very busy so it wasn't a big loss. Now I have a cold coming on. It's the first one in a few years so I can't complain (too much).
Yesterday afternoon the Blue Angels (US Navy acrobatic aircraft) practiced for an air show right outside our apartment. It was spectacular. At one point a jet headed straight for our building and veered away about 500 feet out. The balcony was shaking (and that was from me). For those who know our apartment, the aircraft were flying about at our balcony height and about 1500 ft out (just around where the ocean starts). We had clouds of jet fumes on our balcony. I guess that's what it's like to be part of the show. There's a giant air show this afternoon and planes have been practicing this morning as well. They are thunderous.
I have a new boss and a new job (starting last week). I'm not exactly sure what the job is but I'll figure it out when I get back from vacation. It's in the same general area I've been in for the last 2 years. Fidelity merged with another company (Metavante) in October and there's a big purge coming next week so people were basically placed in "staying" and "going" buckets with the details being worked out post purge. Good time to be on vacation I guess. My new boss is good and I get along well with her so I'm looking forward to the next adventure. I think this is the Fidelity way - merge, grow, repeat.
Training for the Jacksonville marathon (Dec 21) is coming along well too. I had a weird sort of injury coming out of my training and the marathon last year. It was one of those hard to diagnose things that was looking like a sports hernia (essentially an inflammation of the tendons that connect to the pubic bone). The injury went up and down and I ended up reducing my running by about 1/2 for the first 8 months of the year (hard to tell from Lois's emails, but true nonetheless). During the summer the injury got worse, despite lots of therapy. A sports hernia (not anything like a normal hernia) is not only hard to diagnose, but you essentially need surgery (in Philadelphia) to even get a good idea if you have a hernia. That is not only a real pain (literally) but it cooks the running season too. So, it's a last resort. The second last resort is an MRI to make sure you don't have a tear in the muscle. By the end of August the injury was creeping up in intensity just as I was getting ready to substantially increase my training for the Dec marathon. Because the pain was getting worse I decide to go for the MRI and then, if there was no tear, I would give it a week or two and call it quits for the season. Well, well. The MRI found no tear. At the same time I started core work (strengthening exercise for the hips, abdominals, glute, etc) and miraculously (to me) the pain started subiding substantially. I increased my running from 3x/week to 6x/week and almost doubled my mileage, while also increasing intensity a lot. During this time the "sports hernia" started dropping in discomfort and is now almost totally gone away (not 100% but most of the way). I have no idea exactly what turned things around, but there you go. Another running injury mystery not solved.
Lois ran 16 miles this morning. Next week it's 18 miles! She and I are both getting ready for the Outback half marathon on Thanksgiving. Her running partner (Joan) is racing against her teenage son, who prefers surfing to practicing. We'll see if youth or experience wins (Jonathan knows a thing or two about this!). One morning while surfing this summer Joan's son found a (human) body floating near the pier. Yuck!
We're also preparing for our late-to-the-party visitors from St. Catharines. Nicole, baby Coral and Julie are coming to visit the week after next. Lois has ordered an official bed, so no more sleeping on the air mattress on the floor (oh, except for Julie, because we only ordered one bed). We've just renewed our rent for another year so we decided it's time to fix up the visitor's room. Should be 100% by the time Kira arrives.
Lois has taken up crocheting and has become a stitchin' demon. Good thing it's getting cooler around here (75F is our idea of cooler). Scarves and blankets are beginning to arrive from seemingly nowhere.
We're very excited about all the visits coming up. We've kicked up our restaurant hunting ever since Andrew helped us on our best-burger quest, so there's fine Southern cookin' in store for all who venture our way. Shrimp and grits anyone?
Schnitzel is still doing great. The operation to remove some teeth has done wonders and she's much more energetic. I think she's gunning for the longest lived Bichon award. She's nearly 17 1/2 now. The record is just over 20. Treats, sleeps and 5 walks a day are the magic elixir. Or so it seems.
The airshow is about to start so I have to sign off. Next note, next year. Ciao for now!
Gerry
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