Living an EXTRAordinary Life

In my last post, I mentioned briefly a carpenter who came to the house to estimate some work that we had here for him.  That day, he ignored his promise to be there first thing in the morning.  Then he promised us an estimate later that day (Thursday) or the next morning.   Fast forward to the next Wednesday, and still no estimate.  So I called him and asked for it.  He called me back promptly and gave me the price which was about half what I expected, so I was anxious to give him the job.  I don’t really know why, as he already had two strikes against him.  During that call, he said that he would be by first thing in the morning with a work order for us to sign so that we can get on the schedule and said that he could start at the next of next (this) week.

If you are intuitive, you know where this is going.  He was NOT there first thing in the morning on Thursday.  Again, I gave up a run to wait for him.  Finally, I had to leave and I did.  He did not come by the next day either.  I called him on Monday.  No return call.  I called on Wednesday and told him that if we didn’t hear from him by the end of the day, I was looking for someone else.

Matt and I seriously wondered if he died.  Honestly.  I mean … to not even call us back!  Rude!  And rude is not tolerated.

And the carpenter is not the only one who ignored me this week.  I have been trying to reach my doctor to get an appointment.  The phone never gets picked up.  Again, unprofessional.  I’m looking for a new doctor.

So while I am dealing with trying to get these supposedly simple things, I am also trying to train for a half marathon, plan a few trips.  I was feeling stressed out. And then, last week, I went to the basement to put some stuff away and when I went to put the items on the table to keep them off the floor and therefore from getting wet, I noticed that the table and all the things on it were soaking wet!  PUDDLES!

Arrgh.  Thought it was the dishwasher.  Since I was in the midst of 20,000 other things, I waited to investigate further until Matt came home, who very easily diagnosed the pipe under the sink leading to the dishwasher as the culprit and turned the knob off.   A few winters ago, our pipes burst, and there was damage and repairs to the plumbing to the dishwasher made, so we assumed it was that.  Then we did some clean up work.   And went for a walk.

Fortunately, the plumber did not ignore us and came out within 3 hours of our call.  It was not the dishwasher, but a pipe under the sink.  Easy fix.  The ironic thing is that I was hand washing dishes, thinking I was doing a good thing, when actually, I was making the problem worse.  The bottom of the cabinet under the sink sustained damage and needs some kind of repair.  Too bad the carpenter ignored me, or I’d have another job for him!

Oh, I made reference to a trip being stressful.  That is because we sent an e-mail to an owner of a house in Kauai that we wanted to rent.  And he totally ignored us!  Matt found us a wonderful condo.  I e-mailed the owners, and they did NOT ignore us.  And now we have a beautiful place to stay, closer to the beach than the house was, still with views of turtles for a FRACTION of the price.  I guess in this case … being ignored worked out.

I know this isn’t an exciting blog entry.  But it does explain why I have been ignoring it.  If I wrote more often, I know I could say this much more interestingly.  And for this week, at least, I am ignoring house repairs until we get back from our trip.

Last Thursday, May 28th, I went out for a run.  It was about 74 degrees outside, with an equally high humidity.  But, you know, I had to run.  That marathon is getting closer, I had no choice.   Naturally, this being Pittsburgh, we really haven’t had these temperatures stick around long enough to be acclimated to it yet, so that made it difficult.  I was doing reasonably well, though, making decent time, feeling pretty good and relatively pain free.  It was on the way back, about 4.5 miles into the 6.2 mile run that I suddenly had pain.  The pain was in my right leg … and I’ve been having trouble with the left one.  It started at the very top of the inside thigh, and then moved to the hamstring/glute area.  I could run a small amount, then needed to walk.  I pretty much walked only at the very end.  I thought this was odd, but wasn’t too worried at the time.

The next morning I got up and went to yoga.   Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t even do a forward bend without pain.  Not even downward dog.  This being vinyasa yoga with all its forward bends and down dogs meant that I was in real trouble here.  I could actually bend with a lot less pain if I kept my knee bent.  I muddled through the class.  The only pose I ended up sitting out, well, I actually stood, was “twisted triangle” which for some reason was the worst.  I nearly yelped when I tried it.  I left the class feeling better though and could straighten the leg in down dog by the end of class.

Saturday, I was signed up to do a level 2 yoga workshop.  My glute/hamstring whatever, was still bothering me, but the pain was about 50% of what it was on Friday.  So I went.  I learned so many cool things.  I still couldn’t do twisted triangle, but forward bends were permitted.  I learned a new way to take flight in crow, and I am so close to being able to stay in that pose, but still can’t, its pretty frustrating!

Sunday was our scheduled long run.  Um, yeah.  I gave up at around mile 3.5 (and I was crazily thinking I would be going 15 miles) and walked the rest of the way. I did manage to walk 10 miles, but it got really slow at the end.    Hills are not my friends.

At this point, it is looking like the full marathon is out of the question, and that I am going to have to do the half.  The only good news there is that I am way ahead in training for that.  This really makes me sad, remembering how great it felt to complete the full 26.2 miles.  Maybe if I can learn to not be so hard on myself, I might allow myself to walk the second half of the marathon … I’ll have 7 hours to complete it.  We’ll see.  It will be a game day decision.

So this week, I took the week off from running to allow my leg to heal.  It’s been tough.  It’s funny how I fight with myself to get out there and run normally, but then when I “can’t” there is nothing I would rather do.   I just got back a few minutes ago from picking up my CSA farm box (all greens, I guess I’ll be eating lots of salads) and saw many people running.  It made me happy to see them, as running does make me happy but it made me want to come home and put on my running shoes.  But I know I can’t do it until Sunday … that is the smart thing to do.    A walk on Tuesday (in flip flops because my blisters would crack open in shoes) made it very clear that I am not quite ready to run.

I took off my coward hat and tried the South Side yoga studio this week and I loved it.  The noontime class is great as I don’t need to get up early, or rush in the morning and can even go if I run early.  I just don’t like the rest of the day starting at 2:00, by the time I get home, so I guess I’ll have to work on being productive before the class.  Let’s not kid ourselves, its not like I usually get started on things earlier than that most days! Four classes in six days whetted my appetite for more yoga.  So that is good I got the yoga bug back.

Today … I finally finished the seasonal wardrobe conversion.  I had time … waiting for a handyman to come by to give us estimates on some work we need done.  We thought he was coming by at 9:30 but it was after 4:00 before he got here.  Funny how much more time I have when I don’t have to workout.  It was frustrating to have no idea when he would be here and Matt gave up his run because of it.  The handyman didn’t act like I was crazy for having so many cats, he just asked if they all got along, just as Blossom decided to terrorize Fuzzy.

Cole did not sleep one minute all day.  I don’t think Fuzzy, Blossom, or Willie did either.  They were too interested in me.  Cole is very mischievous in general, and more so today.  He was getting on my nerves.  He should be glad that he is so sweet at other times!

And, finally, an update on Hallie.  She is doing fine.  No weird leg pop-outs and she is eating very well and neatly, at that.   If you stuck it out, thank you for reading this very post.