Week 3, Day 18

I’m still staying with my sister, so I got up extra early this morning so I could head home and pick my mom up for swimming. For all our hurrying, we got there a half hour early because someone printed the wrong time for the arthritis class. So we sat in the lobby and read gossip magazines for 20 minutes.

Happily, the little pool (where the arthritis water aerobics class is held) wasn’t unbearably warm today. Mom was freezing, I was quite comfortable. After the class was finished, we sat in the hot tub and I pedaled my legs under the (unbearably hot) water. By this time, I was pretty hungry (I inhaled a granola bar for breakfast), so we cut the hot tub short, got dressed and left. When we got home, I slathered on the sunscreen and then sat down to eat some Rainier cherries cheeries. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am addicted to these things. I wait all year for them to come into season and then gorge myself on them. Well, I would if they weren’t so expensive. Lucky for me, the little girl who lives down the hill was selling them the other day. One pound for a dollar, as opposed to $4.99 a pound at the Safeway. I bought two pounds. How could I not? She had signs up saying “YUM! YUM! CHEERIES!” “CHEERIES 1 lb FOR $1!”


Cheeries. I’m not a sap, but that was damn cute. I could eat nothing but Rainier cherries all summer long and die happy. Oh, and my sister’s neighbor has a Rainier cherry tree in his yard. Last year I stood under that tree and ate those delicious little things for 20 minutes straight. And then went back and did it again the next day.


Anyway, cherries consumed, I headed down to the track.

I sweated my ass off the whole drive down, so I was a little nervous about how I would fare on the blacktop. Turns out I did pretty well for the first half (run 90 seconds/walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes/walk 3 minutes). My calves held out pretty well, too, and I wasn’t out of breathe. Then the second 90 second interval showed up and I did okay there, too. The last three minute run was doable. I finished, but it wasn’t pretty.

Turns out it’s 92° out there. If I had bothered to check that little bit of information before I left the house, I would have held off my run until this evening. As it is, once I got out there, I refused to leave until I was finished. The pigfucker weatherman on the news last night was all, “Ohhh, don’t worry about it! It’ll be in the upper 70’s for the next few days!”

WRONG.

At any rate, from now on (in the summer, at least), if I can’t run in the morning, I’m going to hold off until evening. It just seems like the heat sucks the air out of my lungs. Not a good feeling.

Speaking of bad eyesight (like how I pulled that segue out of my ass?), I’m going in for an eye exam on Friday. Hopefully. I should probably call and make the appointment first. I’ll have to have my sister drive me. Why? Because I love my glasses and don’t want to get different frames; I’ll have to leave them behind so the eyeglass people can put new lenses in them. Because my eyes are so bad, they usually don’t have my contact lens prescription in-house. If I have to wait for the contacts as well, I’ll be blind for several days and therefore won’t be able to drive myself home. I won’t even be able to find the front door. Or my sister. When it comes time to read the eye chart, I have to walk all the way up to it in order to read the big giant E. Yeah, my lenses just keep getting thicker and thicker. Eventually, the doctor said, ”Why don’t we start giving you plastic lenses? Glass might be a little too heavy for you at this point.”

In hockey news, Dallas Drake retired. Sad, but at least he went out on a high note, eh? And is it hockey season yet?! They’re releasing the 2008-2009 schedule on Thursday, so there’s that to look forward to. Not that it means anything to me, living out here in sad, lonely, hockeyless Oregon. Speaking of which, I got this book from the library the other day: Hockey in Portland, by Jim Mancuso and Scott Petterson. It’s mostly images, which is kind of disappointing, but still interesting. Portland was the first city in the U.S. to have a pro hockey team. Did you know that? Neither did I. They were also the first U.S. team to compete for the Stanley Cup. Not bad for a bunch of people who can’t drive. So what I’m wondering is, why the fuck don’t we STILL HAVE A PRO HOCKEY TEAM? I’m not taking this lying down. Must find evil plan way to get Portland into the NHL.

In happy news, I got a new camera! Except it's not new (seven years older than me) and I don't actually have it yet. For the past week, I've had recurring dreams in which I'm shooting all sorts of amazing photographs with a Nikkormat. I was introduced (by my friend Julie, who also got me addicted to hockey) to the Nikkormat FTn when I was in Florida earlier this year, and I fell in love. Depth of field lever. Shutter speeds visible in the finder. Sturdy enough to be used as a weapon. <3 <3 <3 So the other day I finally snapped. I saw one up for bid on eBay and went for it. I snagged it for $63 (shipping included), which is a lot for me but still a steal. Now all I have to do is get a replacement for the now extinct mercury battery that used to fuel the Nik's light meter. Hopefully the camera will arrive in the next week or two. Digital is convenient, but it's sucking the soul out of old-time photography.

See you Thursday. Don’t forget to watch Wipeout tonight. I fucking love that show. Somebody got horked on last week. Heehee. Ninja Warrior for the U.S. Finally.

Big Balls.