Fitness – Page 6 – Zing Blog 2

Change in the Weather

Rewinding a bit, St. Patty’s day was sort of an unusual day. We’d had a lot of stormy weather, and it was really cold that morning, and I had to get up early for physical therapy. The road there was still closed from the big storm, so I had to take a different route. By the time I was on my back home, it was already warming up outside and turning into the first really nice warm spring day. I’d been waiting for a while for my back to start feeling better, and that turned out to be the day. Such a relief.

My train was late, and when the door opened it smelled like booze. Partiers headed into the city to enjoy the parade. I was probably the only one in the car going to work. Some guy on the train noticed me folding a color-change stellated octahedron that I’ve been working on. “Dude, is that origami? Cool! Did you get that from youTube?” The parade goes right thru my neighborhood, and it’s like that the whole day, drinking and partying, like it’s Mardi Gras or Halloween or 1999. At least I was able to cross 5th Ave. without any altercations with the police this time.

At work it was all about deploying the first release candidate of our project to the Q server. This is a major milestone on what has been a really long strange trip. I was mired in config files all day, or as I’ve come to call it, configgy pudding. Our company has a mandate to try and do more thru configuration and less thru code. But it’s already becoming hard to manage, and we haven’t even deployed to live. So I need to write a config management tool so we can have instant congfiggy pudding. Anyway, we got it working, and deployed to QA, where we’re already finding bugs.

After work was a corporate happy hour function at a hotel bar which was smack in between two Irish pubs. I made friends with a management consultant who was part of a team engaged by our overlords to hang around and analyze out office’s dysfunction and presumably figure out who to fire. She seemed pretty smart and interesting/weird with a possible MIT vibe. She told me, “You don’t look old enough to have been writing software in the 90’s.” Hell, I was writing software in the 70’s. Hopefully this means I won’t be the one who gets sacked.

The mild weather continued and by the weekend we were able to get started on the spring yardwork and enjoy the season’s first barbecue. I was really tempted to get on my rollerblades or see if I could start up my Mustang after a winter of sitting in the garage, but neither one seemed like a wise idea given the condition of my back. After the weekend the weather reverted to a more typical state of dreary cold and rain, which is pretty much how it’s been for the past week. I’ve gotten a bunch of new exercises from my therapist, and have developed a new workout routine to incorporate those along with most of the stuff from my old workout. I’ve been able to bring back most of the exercises now, and am back up to 70 percent of the weight, and some of them still have limited mobility. I did go ice skating that past Saturday with my kids, and did fine, as my back continues to improve.

The kids are going thru a Beatles phase right now, which is fun because they’re one of my all-time favorite bands. It started back in January when we were watching Anthology. Then Jeannie found the DVD’s for A Hard Day’s Night, and Magical Mystery Tour on sale. (Yes MMT is as bad as everyone says. Three or four excellent music videos and an hour of filler showing people riding a bus.) At first the kids were into all the early boy-band pop stuff like “She Loves You” and “Please Please Me”. Now they progressed to the weird John songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Am the Walrus”. Michelle learned how to play “All Together Now” on the ukulele.

Trouble with the Trees

The first part of March was pretty mild, but all that changed on Saturday. We had a major rain and wind storm that lasted the whole day and into the night. Trees fallen over and down power lines all over town, and lots of ‘em. All day long the trees out our window swayed menacingly, but we were pretty lucky. Every couple blocks a major tree is down, having blocked a road, taken out a power line, destroyed a car or damaged a house. I went for a walk Sunday and everywhere was the roar of chainsaws. Our whole yard is strewn with branches, our patio furniture, and a even few shingles off of our roof, and the neighbor’s yard is a pond. Today the kids had no school because the building had no electricity. Two days later and everyone is still getting back to normal.

My physical therapy was cancelled today because the clinic also was without power, but my back is improving. I’ve taken to pacing around the room during meetings at work, which seems to be tolerated. I’ve introduced some weights to my workout again, which feels good, even though it’s only about half the exercises (still have to avoid some kinds of movement) and about half the weight.

Promises of Spring

The weather has been really nice the last few days, with sunshine and temperatures getting up into the 50’s. Despite this there are still snow piles stubbornly clinging to existence. We had so much snow they haven’t completely melted yet. My back injury continues to improve slowly but steadily. I’m no longer doing my regular workout, just the exercises my physical therapist prescribed, plus plenty of walking. I’m hoping to reintroducing some parts from my regular workout this week. With luck I’ll be pretty much back to normal by the time the weather is good enough to start doing things outside.

Meanwhile I finished updating my Friends and Family photo galleries thru the fall and the holidays. This year I may have a few videos worth sharing, so look for that update soon. And as always, contact me if you need the password.

http://zingman.com/fotooz/
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2009-08/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2009-09/index.html

More Complaining About Winter

I went shopping for a snow blower today. I haven’t gotten one up until now because we only get enough snow to make it worthwhile a few times a year, and some years not at all. But now we have snow and I really shouldn’t be shoveling it by hand, and it’s a lot for Jeannie to do solo. So there it is. A few weeks ago we went to Sears to look at dishwashers and refrigerators and they had a whole field of different kinds of snow blowers. I went back today and it’s all lawnmowers and barbecue grills. What the heck?!? It’s still February and there’s over a foot of snow on the ground. Also looked for a new winter coat, but as usual they have nothing in my size. I hate shopping.

I started working out again yesterday. I made some adjustments to the routine. Doing more stretching and far less weights. I’m going to reintroduce the weight and reps gradually. By the time I get back to full weight it will be spring, but I think next winter I’m going to make it a policy to seasonally adjust my workout balance with less strength training and more yoga and stretching stuff.

Snow Daze

Well I’m surviving the winter. I feel better about the season now that there’s snow on the ground. Last week we got a big snowfall, enough to pretty much close the entire New York City for a day. The kids had the day off from school and I helped them build a snow man amid interminable shoveling. But that was nothing compared to my friend John in D.C., who’s endured a few big snow falls, a power outage and a week of from school (He’s a teacher).

I was scheduled to another mixing session with Erik, but that got postponed. We ended up doing it a couple days later and now I have two songs done and sounding totally awesome. One of them, an R&B number with a horn section, almost sounds too clean. Once I get one more in the can I’ll post some audio files for you to hear.

The kids had off from school yesterday and we took them skiing. Another round of fresh snowfall made for a slow drive, but the best conditions I’ve skied on on the East coast in years, maybe ever. As an added bonus, we met our friend Seth on the mountain and it was his birthday. It was snowing so hard we had to stop and buy the girls goggles. It was Michelle’s first real day off the bunny hill and up to the top of the mountain. She was a little nervous abut it, but she did just great, and soon felt confident enough to try some blue trails. At one point there a was a steep spot and I skied a bit ahead, stopped and turned back to see if she could handle it. She just blew right past me going “Wheeeeeee!!!”. Now we can all ski together as a family, which is great, cuz it means we can plan a ski vacation out west in a few years.

Things have been contentious at work recently. My project is behind schedule, mainly due to the Bad Manager, not giving us requirements to work against in a timely fashion. This in turn stems from the fact that he does not have a technical background and is out of his depth trying to manage this project. Last Friday we had a meeting to work our requirements for a particular feature set and yet again he wasn’t prepared, didn’t take notes or understand what he needed to meeting, questioning obvious points but unable to contribute to the actual issues that need to be worked out. So my boss kind of lost her temper and the two of them got into a rather heated argument. Today was yet another meeting, and my boss’s boss and the Bad Manager’s boss showed up, and everyone was on their best behavior and in the end we hammered out the design of the panel resolved. Yeesh.

We’ve been watching some Olympics and been enjoying it pretty well. I like the winter sports, but I must say I haven’t watched regular TV in a long time and I find the pacing and constant interruptions and 50-50 ratio of ads to sports makes it kind of a drag, and my enthusiasm starting to wane. Most people don’t seem to mind or notice this, but TV ads have been out of my system and it’s kind of a shock.

Ski Season Woo Hoo!

We just got back from a great weekend skiing with our friends Seth and Cathy and their daughter Erin. Thanks guys for a great time.

We went up Seth’s place Friday night and got up early and skied all day Saturday. The grownups skied on our own in the morning while the kids were in lessons, and in the afternoon we all skied together. The snow was really good and Lizzy and Michelle both did really well. Michelle went up the chair lift for the first time, and skied down the mountain a few times with good form and control, doing nice S-curves. I spent my afternoon mainly with her. One run we tailed along the end of a lesson of two other kids who were at Michelle’s level, joining in their train.

Sunday only Seth and Lizzy I and went skiing, while Jeannie and Cathy and Michelle and Eric hung around the house and plated in the snow. Seth, who used to be a ski instructor, gave Lizzy a lesson and I followed along working on my form, which was a good thing to do. Lizzy is getting good, skiing blue trails and even some diamonds, to the point where I have to work to keep up with her sometimes.

We only skied a half day Sunday, and as an added treat we got to see an awesome Jets game. I haven’t watched much football this year because: 1. I’m generally pretty busy and usually have things to do on Sunday, 2. I generally don’t like television cuz of the ads, and football on TV is like one giant commercial, and 3. I’m still down about the Buffalo Bills losing four Super Bowls in a row. But if there’s ever a time to get into it, it’s when your team makes the playoffs.

Right around the kickoff I was loading the car for the trip home, but we decided to stay until it looked like the game was getting to be a blowout. It turned out to be a real game, and we ended up staying for the whole thing. The Chargers made a few mistakes for sure, some stupid after-the-play penalties and some missed field goals. And while no one on the Jets made any spectacular plays, they really showed some discipline and came together as a team. Good defense, good running game, the classic way to win a football game. So now we’re all getting psyched about the possibility of the Jets making it to the super bowl. Still one game to get thru before that though.

And now, it looks as if our month-long frozen streak has abated. The weather this week looks to be mild, with highs into the forties. Feels positively balmy.

Fall Groove

Well it’s more of the same over here. Nonstop busy. Work work work, making Jack a dull boy. My job situation with the clueless manager seems to have sorted itself out at least. The fall has come. Leaf raking season is upon us, although I expect I’ll still have to mow the lawn one more time. It’s getting darker and colder. We have to turn the heat on every night these days. Starting to get up before the sky is fully light. Ugh. And it’s no longer light or warm enough to go skating in the evening when I get home from work. So I’ve switched to using the Nordic Track indoors, which is not as much fun but I can listen to music while I’m doing it, so it gives me a chance to listen to the mixes from my record. Continuing to chip away at that, thank you very much.

I did some cool origami stuff. I made some “megafauna” models to donate to the American Museum of Natural History for their holiday tree. More on that soon. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow in the daylight. I’ve also started diagramming my Medieval Dragon. It starts with dividing the paper into ninths, which is something I always used to eyeball, but for the diagrams I worked out how to do it the legit mathematical way, which is pretty cool.

Jeannie and celebrated out Crytsal anniversary last week (I looked it up). It was a school night and so we did laundry and helped the kids study. Ah, married life after 15 years. We did meet for lunch in the city and go to a nice Thai place called Yum Yum. Afterwards we went to Toys’R’Us in Times Square and I bought her a lego dwarven catapult.

Denis and Sarah came to visit last weekend. We all had lots of fun. Carrie and Michelle always get on great and little Anna is walking already. Saturday Mary’s all came over and Jeannie’s parents too. Jeannie made a fantastic dinner for sixteen people. Chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan and pasta. I was surprised to discover we had enough tables and chairs for everyone to eat once.

New Skates

I bought a new pair of rollerblades last week. My old ones are 17 years old and from another generation of rollerblade technology, and though they are well-nigh indestructible, they’re at the point where they need new wheels and bearings, and the boots are pretty worn anyway, having been repaired once already with duct tape.

I generally hate shopping (apart from our local grocery store, which is nice and small and easy to get around). I don’t really understand how some people really enjoy it as a form or recreation; it’s usually a big pain. I do as much shopping as I can over the internet, or just leave it others. But some things you have to actually go to the store for. I did some research online first, but rollerblade.com is one of the worst web sites I’ve ever seen. No useful information, and hard to navigate and slow respond to boot. Ah well, off I went to the gigantic mall one day on my lunch hour to the giant sports store. The store was dead, no customers, but somehow the people who worked there were slow and unresponsive. They had a whole wall of skates, so I asked a rep to explain to me why one is $50 and the other $300. He has some vague ideas, but no real detailed technical knowledge. His beeper went off, an he excused himself, saying he had to go help some other customer, and complaining he can’t get any time to himself. “Well you are at work.” I reminded him as he shambled off.

So looked thru the selection and tried on a few pairs and picked one that had a comfortable boot, no obvious design flaws, and cost $150, marked down to $100. I got them home and tried them out on the street, and they worked nowhere as good as my old skates. Much less maneuverability, much more friction. The skates didn’t seem to roll and pick up speed on a gentle slope, which is a problem.

One big reason was the skates weren’t rockered. Rockering is when you raise up your front and back wheels so that only two wheels touch the ground at once. I originally rockered my skates up about 7 years back when I was playing alot of hockey. At the time I also put on new high-performance axles and bearings, spacers and mounts. Well, apparently rollerblade doesn’t make skates anymore that you can rocker, and the chassis on my new skates use a totally different system of parts that are not interchangeable. What people do nowadays when they want to rocker their skates is put on different sized wheels. So I ordered some smaller wheels and the other night I put them on the font and back, and while I was at it, I took out the middle wheels and oiled up all the bearings, and removed the brake. There doesn’t seem to be any analogue in the new setup for the bearing spacers, which seems like a potential weakness down the road for stress and wear and tear, but there’s nothing to be done about it for now. I supposed I could look into replacement axles in the future.

Yesterday I went out after work and the good news the performance is much better. So on we go into a new season of skating. I doubt we’ll get 17 years but we’ll see how these new skates hold up.

Skating Season Start

Another sign that spring is approaching is that the other day I was able to go out on my rollerblades after work, marking the official start of skating season. The earlier shift to daylight saving time is good for something after all, allowing me to take advantage of a mild day. Felt great after a whole winter of the Nordic Track. But I need new wheels and my skates are more than 15 years old and pretty beat up, so this spring might be time get new skates.

The next day it was cold and rainy. Lousy Smarch weather.

Update: the next day, today, the eve of the equinox, we had a freak but intense snow flurry. Giant fluffy flakes. I had to brush an inch or two of rapidly melting slush of my car this morning!

Enter The Lion

You can forget what I said about spring being in hoping distance. We got walloped with an unseasonably late snowstorm yesterday. The endless winter continues.

Ironically, Sunday, the day before the storm, we went skiing. It had been a bit warm last week, so we were keeping an eye on the weather report, figuring this would probably be our last opportunity for the season. It was our third time this year, which is pretty good. We took the kids and everyone did a good job of getting up early, so we were at the mountain by 9:00. We put the girls in a lesson so Jeannie and I got the morning to ski on our own. It was a bit icy but not too bad. The girls both did great in their lessons. Lizzy is now skiing blue trails with confidence, although her style is not super aggressive. Michelle can make it down the bunny hill under good balance with control over her speed and direction. She’s ready to go up on the lift next time out.

It was a good time and we were glad we went. But Sunday evening we were checking the weather again and saw a major snowstorm was on the way that was not in the forecast the night before. Kind of late in the year for this sort of thing, and by morning the whole city was under a good 6″. School was cancelled and alot of people didn’t come into the office, so all my meetings were cancelled too and I might’ve just as well worked from home. Had we known, it would have been the perfect day to hit the slopes. Ah well.