Not all that much to talk about today, it was Monday and work took up most of the day. For some reason I did not sleep well last night, Res was sort of unsettled, and I am trying to figure out why. He is out like the proverbial light bulb right now, but last night he kept getting started and boofing overnight. I didn’t hear much from Climber, I think she was letting Res take care of business.
But, got up this morning to a bunch of email and work projects. Yup, that pricing project I thought I got rid of last week…. it came back. I had to spend most of my morning to make it go away again. Hopefully it is gone for good this time. After I finished that I did a few Cause of Loss Determination requests, some pricing, and by that time it was 12:00pm. Lunch time, or should I say swim time.
Got to the Central Recreation Center, and found the pool disaster from yesterday was not done yet. The only pools that were open was the lap pool and the hot tub. Thankfully as I was coming in someone else was wrapping up their workout. I got a lane with only about 5 minutes of waiting. I didn’t swim as long as I wanted to today, but I did OK. I got in about 1200yards, a little short of the 1700yards I was hoping for. But, people were waiting and when they are having pool issues I try to be nice. I will make it up another day.
Also, as usual my watch is missing some pool lengths. When we look at the stats I can promise you I never end on a x75 yard. It is always on the 50 or 100 yard mark. I never end on the other side of the pool from where I started. I am not sure why all of a sudden my watch has decided to not count every length.
Of course the Garmin App has it a little different, which is OK.
After my swim I came home and worked for the rest of the day, while I was away from my desk someone left the Cause of Loss request queue and pricing requests alone in the dark and it had babies. I was buried for the rest of the day and worked until 4pm and then again for another hour or so when we got back from walking the dogs.
Dogs had their full walk around the park and then they had their dinner and now it is nap time.
I am working on getting caught up on Greyhound Data race entry, and once that is done, I am going to call it an evening. I may not upload them all this evening, but at least the time consuming part will be done.
Anyways, I am going to wrap it up for today and say Goodnight! I will see everyone tomorrow.
Started off the day with a wake-up “call” from Climber. She was getting inpatient. The sun was up and her people weren’t. OK, I got up, let Res and then Climber out. Got them their snacks, and had my coffee. Spent some time trying to figure out a problem with APRS on my handheld radio, it will not auto beacon and it’s supposed to when it has a good satellite fix. After that I read for a while and went down the social media / YouTube rabbit hole. I really like the Savannah Bananas, I think they are the best thing that could ever have happened to Baseball. What a boring ass game, and they have brought life back to it.
After Jesse got up and I had another cup of coffee it was time for walks. Weekends are lone walks, I always take Res first. Res gets to go as far as he wants, within reason. He just hasn’t figured out yet that no matter how far away from the house he goes, he is required to walk back home. He also hasn’t figured out that we cannot stop and smell and pee on every clump of grass or tree he comes across. Doing so becomes counter-productive for this length of explorations.
And once Res and I got home after 2.8 miles, it was Climbers’ turn. Climber and I always do longer walks, she’s younger then Res and she is full of energy. Today she was a little bit skittish, the fire engines and loud car yesterday scared her a bit. But, we did a little about 3.8 miles, up along the park, down Buckley to the Power Line Trail, up the hill, around the school’s soccer field, and then back to the house. She did OK, but I am not 100% sure she was into it today. Once we get back to the park from the Power Line Trail she knows exactly where she is, and pulls me back to the house.
We spent a little bit of time cleaning up the backyard today, I think the painters are coming sometime next week and one of the first things they are going to do is power wash the entire house. Had to put a bunch of stuff away from the patio and around the shed. I think we may be tempting the snow Gods by putting away the snow shovels, but then again we could use the snow.
As I was wandering around the yard I found some new flowers and signs of Spring. Take a look here….
I just hope the apple tree is not flowering too soon this year. Last year it started blooming early and we had a frost while we were at Spring Meet in Abilene, KS and we didn’t get any apples. The Fall before, our first year in the house, we got tons of apples, we just didn’t know what to do with them. We found out near the end of the year that they made awesome apple sauce.
I did get a chance to go for my swim today. I was sort of crossing my fingers that I would get a lane, so when I came in I went and checked with one of the guards first, as 1 lane was closed for a swim lesson, another lane looked like it was also being used, and the two other lanes were questionable. He told me that the center lane was about to open up so I had a chance. OK, run to locker room, get changed real fast, and just as I was getting in the water all hell broke loose. They had to move a lap swimmer from the other lane to share mine (OK, that’s fine it happens) and then they had to do an emergency closing of the main open swim pool. Someone dropped a dirty diaper into the pool and left. So, it takes them about an hour to sanitize it, and make sure the water is OK. In the meantime they took two lanes of the lap pool, opened it for open swim, and then gave 1 lane for us lap swimmers, and left one lane for the one kid that was having a swim lesson.
Added another personal record on the 500yard today, still not where I want to be, but getting better. My main goal right now is not speed but rather endurance. I have 11 weeks until the start of the Mountain Swim Series with the Summer Solstice swim, and I need to get myself up to a 2 mile continuous swim. If I can do it in a pool I know that I can do it in open water. Actually, I know I can do it in open water, I have done it before, but doing it again after 3 years of being away from it is the issue. It’s a self confidence issue more than anything else.
Evening walks were cut short a little bit. Res really didn’t feel like it, I think he was still done from this morning’s walk. He did spend some time laying around in the back yard today, his favorite activity of all time, sunbathing. I always know when he doesn’t want to walk because he stops in the driveway, looks around, and is like, “OK….. maybe I’ll walk down to the park and back.” Only did 1/2 mile with them this afternoon.
I spent some time working on updating the SSL certificate for the mail server and all of my *.cmolnar.com domains. I am going to start dropping domains as time goes on as the costs are consistently rising to maintain them. Now it looks like we are going to have to be updating SLL keys every 200 days, and this is too much work for something I don’t get paid for.
Had an awesome dinner of salmon, asparagus, shrimp, and shrimp cocktail. Sunday dinners are always a good way to wrap up the weekend.
Now it is rest and relaxation time. I will see you all tomorrow.
Yes, I am a bad blogger, I missed yesterday(Day 086 of 2026) for some reason. I just ran out of time. Anyway, today started off early for a Saturday morning. I got up my normal time and did the dog out, snack, and watch them nap routine.
Jesse got up early as he is doing the No Kings rally today with an old friend of ours. But, first I needed to get the dogs out for their walk as I have a PT appointment today for my shoulder.
After I got back from their wal, Jesse got all of his protest stuff together and went to pick up Jennifer and I relaxed for another hour and went down the YouTube rabbit hole. I also started a Virtual Box installation of Ubuntu on my laptop. There are a few amatuer radio things that I would like to try but Windows is not behaving all that well with some of the tools.
I wasn’t able to finish the installation before I had to leave for my appointment. This involves crating Res and Climber, and putting the extra Houdini latches onto Climber’s crate. And off I went to UC Health. Where I sit now waiting for my appointment.
Reed V, my physical therapist, decided to try dry needles (acupuncture) with some electrical pulses, almost like a TEMS unit to loosen up my shoulder muscles. Felt really good. Interestingly enough the right side was in worse shape then the left side. And the right side is not the group we have been focusing on. We set another appointment for mid May, but I will need to evaluate if I am going to keep that. There are other people in much more need of Reed’s time and expertise than I am. PT resources are limited and I feel really guilty taking his time when I have a feeling I can manage this on my own now that I know what is happening.
On the way back I drove over to Vesa fitness on Quincy Avenue because I have been playing around with joining them to improve the pool situation. This is a big no! I couldn’t even find a parking space in their lot. I doubt very seriously that this will he an improvement on scheduling.
Got home from that and gave the dogs some outdoor time. Climber is eating grass for some reason. Res is sunbathing, he loves being outside.
And then I had to break up the races around the yard. Res went inside, but Climber wanted to do some more zoomies.
And then it’s time for me to work on the irrigation system. I found the leak! It really helps when you use PVC glue to put pipes together. Come on folks!
No wonder why water use was high last year. Its a good thing I was abandoning that section anyways as that is where the micro and drip system will start. I still have to bury the connections, but I am considering putting an access cover here so I can find this in the future.
I have one more of these I need to do because we have another water leak right about here:
And based in what I found in the last pit, I can tell you exactly what is happening here as well. Also this is going to become drip and micro sprayers as well because I am not going to be watering just rock.
While I was working outside Res and Climber decided to come outside for some more supervised sun bathing.
Time to do laundry and try to do something about getting my HF antenna a little higher off the ground. I decided to put one of our poles from Florida up, but not extended all the way. It is not anchored into the ground but just tied to the fence post next to it. Really not the way I want to leave it. I need a good post on two sides of it that I can anchor to. I am sort of hoping this is stable enough for the moment. While I was working on this, Climber decided to dig a bit, this is something new.
I think I am just about done with the outdoor stuff for today. The dogs will be walked around 4pm, maybe Jesse will be home by then. In the meantime I am going to sit down and see if I can make this Bluetooth connection on the Ubuntu virtual box work. Nope, still not working properly. I give up until tomorrow.
Jesse got home and it was walk time with the dogs, took them around the park. Poor Climber got scared again as there was a very loud car and then there was a fire truck, and then there was more cars, and the there was her ultimate nemisis…. pickle ball. Ouch, she pulled all the way home.
We had dinner, Jesse is off to the store. And I think I am going to call it quits for the day. We will see you all tomorrow.
Today was a vacation day!!!! Took the day off so that I could go explore Red Rock Park a bit, there were two hiking trails that I wanted to do and today was forecast to be a beautiful day and I decided to take advantage of it. So, got up at my normal time, let the dogs out, gave them their snacks, and waited for Jesse to do their morning walks. We have a routing that we do not mess with. Once Jesse got back with them it was time to get the day started.
I packed a bunch of water, some snacks and did the hour drive out to the West to Red Rocks Park.It took me a while to find the right parking lot for the trail I wanted to start with. For some reason things are not marked very well, but a quick download an a full years’ subscription to All Trails, I was able to find what I was looking for. And, yes, I think All Trails was worth it because there were a couple questionable trail markers on the loop and I was very happy to have the maps downloaded onto my phone.
Ignore the distance on the above screenshot. I must have clicked start on the trail before I was even at the parking lot. The app is a little strange, but it is good. Don’t put in your pocket and expect it to provide a good map, it doesn’t. But once you have it out of your pocket and let it get a GPS fix it will re-orientate itself and show you where you are vs where you should be.
I started off with the Red Rocks and Morrison Slopes Trail loop. This is a 3.5 mile loop with a total elevation climb of 853ft. The trail is a bit rocky, and there are areas that you have to have really good footing. But, let me tell you, it was worth it! The views along the way were awesome, and it was sort of neat to look down and see how far you have climbed.
Enjoy the photos I took along the way. this is just sort of a camera dump, no editing has been done. The day continues under the album.
My Garmin provided a pretty good track of the trail.
Total distance: 3.83 mi Max elevation: 6789 ft Min elevation: 6207 ft Total climbing: 1087 ft Total descent: -1079 ft Average speed: 2.93 mi/h Average cadence: 50 Average heart rate: 114 Average temperature: Total time: 01:29:45
After I did the Red Rock and Morrison Slide Loop trails I got back to the car and changed parking lots. I didn’t hike over because the next trail had some steeper climbing sections and I wanted to car closer. I parked at the start of the Geological Overlook Trail and decided that I was going to turn that trail into a loop.
The Geological Overlook trail starts at the base of some red rock formations and continues up towards the amphitheater and then you can either turn around and do the trail in reverse or walk the amphitheater and do a loop around the lower parking lot and back to the start of the trail. I chose the loop as I hate backtracking on trails.
And I am going to bore you to death with another photo album that I took on the hike. This is not edited and is just a photo dump. I think it is more fun that way, hey, I don’t know what you want to see. The day continues under the album.
I did walk up and down the few hundred steps of the amphitheater, it looked like they were getting setup for a show, the vendors were setting up and the stage area was roped off. Not sure who is playing there tonight. The loop I did was 1.91 miles with a 614 elevation climb. Of course the mystery is how I went up 614ft and only down 420ft and ended up at the same place I started. I guess we will never know.
The Garmin track from my watch was decent in case anyone is interested.
Total distance: 1.94 mi Max elevation: 6676 ft Min elevation: 6260 ft Total climbing: 684 ft Total descent: -655 ft Average speed: 2.67 mi/h Average cadence: 51 Average heart rate: 115 Average temperature: Total time: 00:52:47
Anyways, I am back home now. It’s 89 degrees outside, and it is way too hot to do much of anything else. I am going to relax with the kids (Climber and Res), and enjoy the rest of my day off. I will probably wrap up this post a little later this evening.
Very busy day today, but also a very rewarding day. Got up around 6:30am MT with the dogs, did the outs, the ins, and the snacks. Sat down with my coffee and previewed my email for the day. Not too bad first thing in the morning. After I heard Jesse get up I migrated to my downstairs office and got the day started. Downstairs office is important as I have two additional screens for my laptop and it gives me the real-estate I need to work in this paperless environment.
Spent most of my morning working on pricing requests and finishing that large pricing project that has been lingering. It’s DONE! (For now) and submitted. I think I did it right, I can support all my numbers and I was somewhere between the engineer and the contractor when I finished everything, and that is always a good place to be. And, in between those projects I also had some tech support issues that came up.
I was able to get away today and spend some time in the pool. Thankfully I had a good workout and was able to get my mile swim in. I also decided to toss out that workout written by someone else and do my own thing, this has always worked for me in the past, I don’t think I cam going to change it. I am about 11 weeks out from the start of the Mountain Swim Series and I need to be ready. The goal is a 5K (3.12 miles) with 0 rest breaks and as much freestyle as possible, using breakstroke to give me my sighting and rest breaks. I am not sure how will this will go, but if I can do that I should not have any issues with the 2.4 mile swim in June.
Got back to my desk in about an hour (including swim time) and spent the rest of the day getting caught up with my exploding list of cause of loss determinations, pricing, tech support, resolution reviews, and so on. I spent a little bit of extra time making sure everything was caught up at the end of the day because I am taking tomorrow off. I want to do some exploring. Where you ask? Well, let’s wait until tomorrow evening and I will let you know.
Anyways, I am here, relaxing with the dogs, and enjoying my evening before a day off.
Res and Climber say, “See you tomorrow”, they do not know they are staying home for the day while I go out. Maybe next time I will take one of them with me, but not this time as I haven’t been there before.
Who’s the innocent dog? You get one guess. The easier question may be who’s the overgrown puppy?
This is going to be a short post. Today was just another day. It was a workday and for some reason I wasn’t feeling 100%. My coffee didn’t sit well with me this morning, not sure why. It happens occasionally and there isn’t much I can do about it. I got up with the dogs around 6:30am, got everyone out and then snacked and say down with my email. I had a bunch to start the day off.
I spent the morning working, and I did make real progress on my pricing project. In fact by late afternoon I got it finished. Unfortunately that meant that I was not able to get to the 50+ tech support issues I had. I will get to those starting tomorrow. I hate being in double digits through no fault of my own.
I went down to the rec center for lunch to try and swim, lap pool was closed for some reason. So, I did get in a 6 mile walk to get my steps in. I am still not sure if my watch is counting properly, but that’s OK, it’s just a guide anyways.
Total distance: 5.57 mi Max elevation: 5662 ft Min elevation: 5559 ft Total climbing: 380 ft Total descent: -371 ft Average speed: 4.17 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 107 Average temperature: 26.6 Total time: 01:20:28
Got back from lunch, finished my day and now I am sitting here typing this and watching the dogs sleep. They have to get in their beauty sleep 🙂
Anyways, I am sorry that I can’t really think of more to write today, it was just a normal day.
We had a busy but good day today. I got up as normal around 7AM which is normal for a weekend. My internal alarm does not vary too much between weekdays and weekends, so it’s normal. I let the dogs out, gave them their treats, and sat down with my coffee and email. I was again surprised to find not too much. Why surprised? We did our Winter 2026 software release and app update at work and I was expecting some fall-out. One or two emails, but not the quantity I expected at all.
Anyways, once Jesse got up I started the dog walk process. First comes Res, who is for the most part such a good boy on his walks. His only issue is that he wants to sniff every tree and respond to all the Pee Mail left by other dogs along the way. Yeh, that takes a while. But, he decided to go past our normal turn around point and we did almost 3 miles today. I was surprised he wanted to go that far but it was a little cooler than normal.
After Res it’s Climber’s turn. She started out her walk great, but when we got to the end of the park, she wanted to cross the street and do our normal walk past the credit union. Nope, today we were turning left because I wanted her to do a different walk. But, what no one realizes is that while this plan was well thought out. Climber is stubborn. For the next 1/4 mile it was almost like purposely missing a turn on Google Maps. “Make a U-turn” 15,000 times and then finally “Re-routing”. It took us to get to our 3/4 mile point before Climber realized that we were trying something new and then she decided, “cool – let’s go!”
When all was said and done Climber and I did a little over 4 miles. And, then she ran around the house like the puppy she pretends to be before Jesse and I had breakfast. Climber has unlimited energy. After a great egg, sausage, and croissant breakfast, Jesse went out to the yard to blow the leaves off the yard, while I went and did my Sunday swim at the rec center. I walked the 2.25 miles down and back, did a 1000yd swim in-between. I had wanted to get my steps in for one of the Garmin challenges, but I also wanted to get back into the pool, this was the easy solution for both. Tomorrow will most likely be a “pool only” workout because of time and not wanting to overdo it, which is always a danger.
I got back from my workout and then went outside and joined Jesse in Spring yard cleanup. Today was the day to put the irrigation line that I laid out yesterday under the rock so the dogs don’t trip over it or the squirrels don’t eat it. As I may have mentioned yesterday we think there is going to be some serious water rationing this year. By reducing the spread and gallons per minute of the irrigation for the gardens we can decrease our water usage. We really like the micro-mist irrigation and have used it before in Florida.
Jesse ended up helping me put the rack back into the trenches I had dug as this was really a two person job, and then it was time to wrap it up for the afternoon. It doesn’t all have to get done on a single day. After a little bit of down time it was time to take the dogs for their evening walk, dinner for them, and then dinner for us.
Now we are done for the day, sitting down and relaxing for the evening. And with that another day is done. We will see you tomorrow. Goodnight!
Today started off as most others did. Got up my normal time, let the dogs in and out and in and out. Climber must have had an emergency, she never goes out twice in the morning. Res was having a good morning, he woofed at me to hurry up in the bedroom before I brought them downstairs, there may or may not have been a play-bow involved. As I said, he was having a good day.
After I found out I forgot to set the timer for the coffee maker last night and started that, I worked through my email and got the rest of the project in Visio I was working on yesterday pretty much done for the first version. I was happy with the initial version. I know I am going to have to make some changes further down the line, but that’s OK. Everyone including my manager expects that. My boss is one of the best I have ever worked for, provides guidance when needed, will tell me if I mess up, will tell me if I do something great, and is more likely to take a hands off approach unless there could be legal consequences to material made public, all of which I appreciate.
I got out for my lunch break about 11:00 and went and did a 7 mile walk today. I am having trouble getting my 10K steps per day in without spending a bunch of time with walks. I will finish this month doing it this way but am going to change things up in April and do smaller walks as breaks. If I do 4 walks around the park I can get my 6 miles or so in. I am also still considering the rec center walk with a swim in the middle, but I have to have enough time in the day to do that. I am trying very hard not to drive places if I really don’t have to. The price of gas has gotten ridiculous again.
I got to see my Prairie Dogs again at the bottom of Power Line Trail. There are hundreds of them out here just sunbathing and looking our of their holes and digging more tunnels. They are so cute.
Total distance: 7.04 mi Max elevation: 5646 ft Min elevation: 5461 ft Total climbing: 461 ft Total descent: -461 ft Average speed: 4.64 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 124 Average temperature: 30.5 Total time: 01:33:16
I am taking a day off next week and am going to go explore Red Rock Park. That should be fun, I know many years ago my brother took me there when I visited him, but I have not had a chance to go back since. And, it really is not that far from the house here, drive out in the morning, spend most of the day, and then home in the afternoon. There is a hike I want to do there. I really do need to get back into the pool as well because the Mountain Swim Series keeps getting closer.
I may next week trade off some swimming for my steps also, I am not sure yet, I need to talk with my PT tomorrow. There is a chance that I will also decide to hold off another week or so to give my shoulder a chance to heal a little more. I really messed it up when I was shoveling snow that last heavy snow we had. It was too heavy for the snow blower and we needed to make some space in the back yard for the dogs. This last snow we just left it. I really wanted the water on the lawn and we are going to be under some serious water rationing this Summer. A little bit concerned about that.
Back to work for the rest of the afternoon. I was able to finish most of my pricing, I have one large pricing project left that I would like to get done by Monday, but if it goes over a bit it won’t hurt anyone. It’s a two claim in one project, one for electrical pricing, and one for the HVAC pricing. The electrical pricing will be the difficult one as I have to work from photos and an adjuster’s documentation. It is so much easier when I can go to the site and see it as I am pricing it. The HVAC file is easier as it’s based on sq ft and use of the building. I’ll get it done.
Anyway, I am here watching the Aves on TV playing Chicago, hockey is the only team sport I will watch. Unfortunately ticket prices are so expensive I can’t afford to go see them live. TV has to do. And, I am watching the dogs nap. Not sure how long that will work.
And Jesse just got home from Costco, he only had 4 items in the shopping bag. Sort of amazing, and with that I think I am going to call it a day. Tomorrow I have a PT appointment in the morning, and then I am going to go for my Saturday walk and explore a park that I haven’t had a chance to explode yet, and then I am going to maybe go to REI or Sketches and see if I can find a decent pair of hiking/trail shoes that won’t break the bank. And then this weekend I have a bunch of other things I want to get done around the yard.
Started off the day at my normal time, getting up around 6:30am and letting the dogs out and giving them their treats, and then watching them do their post snack, pre-walk morning nap while I was having my first cup of coffee and checking my email for anything urgent. It started off as a pretty calm day, and pretty much remained that way. It was already about 50 degrees this morning.
I took my lunch about 10:30AM [I work on an Eastern Time schedule so it was 12:30PM ET] and went out for my long walk/hike that I am trying to do every day. My stride length is so long that it takes about 6.25 miles to get my 10,000 steps in. Then anything extra I walk during the day is just excess. On my walk today I saw the cutest and friendliest whippets, 3 of them and one of them looked a lot like Peanut and jumped up and gave me a few kisses.
Then I saw some geese in one of the creeks, it looked like one of them is the fun police sitting up on the bank and overseeing the children.
Then I finished up by heading up the hills on Power Line trail and back to the house. Took a little longer than I wanted to, but I will make up the time later in the evening by catching up on some training and procedural documentation that I am trying to get done. Wasn’t a bad hike at all, reasonable time and some elevation.
Total distance: 6.46 mi Max elevation: 5657 ft Min elevation: 5509 ft Total climbing: 407 ft Total descent: -407 ft Average speed: 4.35 mi/h Average cadence: 58 Average heart rate: 119 Average temperature: Total time: 01:30:45
I sat back down at my desk and spent another four hours getting my work done. At around 2:30PM I cam back upstairs and started letting the dogs out and in for their sunbathing time while I was working on email, pricing, and document review. It’s going to be really tempting this Summer to setup a table outside that I can work on while supervising the dogs in the yard. Anyways, both Climber and Res enjoyed some outside time. Climber has a leash attached to her because we are still working on “yard manners” when they are out together. Climber likes to get Res worked up and at time it gets wild enough that we worry about vet visits from someone falling. We don’t think they would ever go after each other, so that is not the concern. Anyways, they enjoyed their outside time.
After some out time they had their afternoon walk in the park, about 1/2 a mile and then it was time for dinner (for them and then us) and relaxation time for everyone except me. I still needed to do my resistance band workout to try and get my shoulder stronger so that I can perhaps eventually stop having this shoulder discomfort/pain that I am having.
I am still looking forward to Mountain Swim Series starting on June 14th and I really need to get back into the pool for a little bit. I am considering combining my walk and pool time tomorrow by driving down to the rec center doing a 3.2 mile walk to meet my Garmin walking challenge for March and then swim for 20-30 minutes and then continue on with my day.
This afternoon we broke temperature records and it isn’t even Spring for another few days.
And I think that will be it on my computer today, I am trying to cut back on screen time before bedtime. Today was a good day, there was no reason to complain about anything. I was able to solve several problems, I was able to use past skills in my current position. I never thought I would use Visio again, and yet, I spent a few hours this evening re-learning Visio. The biggest change is that now it’s a web version rather than the desktop version I was always used to. I didn’t forget that much which is a good thing. So, not only am I grateful for the nice weather, my health, my ability to judge my own fitness, Jesse, Res, and Climber, I can be thankful for things I taught myself years ago that keep coming back in my current role.
Goodnight everyone and I will talk to you tomorrow.
What’s this? 80 degrees in Aurora, CO at 4:40pm MT in the afternoon? We are almost breaking records today. Started off this morning when I got up around 45 degrees. Has slowly increased all day.
I was able to take a nice 6.5 mile walk for my lunch break today, it was a perfect day for it as it, my little Prairie Dogs were out enjoying the nice weather and warming their bones.
These guys are brave, the do not care at all with anyone walking near them on the path. It’s sort of awesome to see, but makes you wonder also. They are all over along the Power Line trail.
Total distance: 6.64 mi Max elevation: 5639 ft Min elevation: 5499 ft Total climbing: 531 ft Total descent: -529 ft Average speed: 4.43 mi/h Average cadence: 59 Average heart rate: 121 Average temperature: Total time: 01:31:18
I am still not getting into the pool, this is concerning me a little bit as I am 12 weeks away from the Mountain Swim Series, but I do want to talk with my physical therapist at my Saturday appointment before I really push it with the shoulder. Right now I have a mild aching sensation, but I don’t want this to get painful again. I am working on my endurance and leg muscles with the walking I am doing, but my shoulder and upper body strength is a problem. Most of swimming is with upper body and my shoulders get a real workout.
I spent the rest of the day doing pricing research and answering questions from technicians on an upcoming release that is coming out soon. I will probably work a few hours this evening on tech support issues. I am finding something out that I knew, but have not really taken into account in recent years. Technicians do not read email anymore. They just don’t. If the email includes instructions they skim it but they do not actually read it. I am also finding out that text messaging is the quickest way to get someone’s attention. That seems to work every time. If I can’t get hold of them via text message they are not going to respond. Very few technicians deal with phone calls, and that sort of makes sense. It’s an interruption while they have their hands full. A text message they can usually answer fast while they are doing other things, but a phone call is distracting. Now, having said that, some of our older techs appreciate the phone call over email and text. All things to keep in mind when working with 3-4 different generations.
There are several things that I have gained skills on in the past that make my job easier: I can find just about anything on the internet because I know how the search engines work; my education in education allows me to provide training and coaching when possible, and also know when to give up; and over the years I have significantly grown in my ability to not react when pushed, twenty years ago I am not sure I could do the job I am doing now. These skills are all ones that I am thankful for.
This afternoon Res and Climber got some outside time.
Res loves being outside and Climber is learning to like the outside world. She is still a little “????? What’s that noise???? Nope, let’s go in!!!” And, I still can’t really let her and Res out at the same time because she tries to annoy him and get him to run, she is a little faster and can take turns much more sharply than he can. We worry about him getting hurt as he is just a little older, a little more uncoordinated, and a little slower to turn and stop than she is.
Also, Res is giving us a little problem with his food. We are not 100% sure what is going on, but I think he is going to need a check-up one of these days just to make sure nothing major is wrong. We honestly are not sure if he is having stomach issues, nothing bad is obvious going on (at the end of the cycle), or if he is just being picky. His teeth and gums look good, he eats the good stuff. We have never had a dog as picky as he is, and a male Greyhound as well normally is not that picky about food.
I spent some time this evening doing my resistance band workout that I am supposed to be doing every day. It’s supposed to take 15 to 20 minutes but it takes me longer because I can’t remember what some of the exercises are. But, every little bit is supposed to help. Today’s workout looks like;
And with that our day is basically over. I am going to sit here and read a little, and eventually call it an evening. Today was a positive day, nothing bad happened, just life, nothing to complain about. Goodnight all!
