Reading (and Eating)
Well, I can’t say I’ve done a TON of reading these last few days, but I have been thinking a lot about books. On the drive to Waco, my son and I listened to a history podcast about the lead up to WWI, and when we were done I said “I wish I had a map of Europe in 1914.” That night I started Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants and this was the first thing I saw when I opened the book: I’m REALLY enjoying the book so far, but I haven’t had a lot of time to read. That should change tomorrow, when I spend the entire day traveling back to Florida. I’m glad I have such a long, involved book to keep me company. I’ve been to Waco five times now, so imagine my delight and astonishment when I found out there’s an INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE HERE, Fabled Bookshop and Cafe. I spent the morning happily browsing and drinking tea. Look at this area- I love how there’s a puzzle in progress! I sat in one of these chairs reading for a while. I eventually bought one book and several souvenirs: It was one of my favorite things I’ve done in Waco. I put “eating” in parenthesis in the title of this post, because although we’ve been eating some delicious food, I failed to photograph most of it. On the first day of our trip, we had about eleven hours of driving- we were SO GLAD we brought dinner along! When we got to our hotel we microwaved our pizza, and ate it happily while watching the Olympics. On the road, we ate the famous chickpea salad for lunch, and on the second night we arrived in Waco in time to heat up Nora’s Marry Me Chickpeas for dinner. The only problem was, in order to fit everything into our cooler I had to store them in ziploc bags. We offered to share the Marry Me Chickpeas with my son’s roommate, and then proceeded to pull out a ziploc bag of something that looked like vomit from our cooler. Ha ha… he politely declined and went out to get his own dinner. But really, it was delicious. Do you ever buy books? What was the last book you bought? Have you tried this chickpea salad yet? – My son likes it so much, he asked me to make another batch for him before I leave.
Texas-Style Gratitude List
On Sunday, Engie had a guest post by Kae. Kae posted “20 Things I’m Grateful For.” It’s SO easy to focus on what’s wrong in our lives, but in fact we all have so much that’s good. I was inspired to make my own gratitude list. Now, if it really were “Texas-Style” it would probably be 100 items long, because everything is bigger in Texas! I’ll just stick to 5- but since I’m in Texas I’ll go ahead and call it Texas-style. I’m sooooo grateful that we got out of Florida when we did! We started driving on Saturday- straight up the state and then over through the panhandle. Had we left a day later we would have hit some really bad weather, and had we left two days later we wouldn’t have been able to drive at all, as Hurricane Debby slammed into northern Florida. Although I’m not running right now, I’m very grateful that I can walk. This morning I had a lovely walk all over the Baylor Campus. I have to remind myself that some people can’t walk- and I was one of them a few months ago! If this trip had happened in March, I wouldn’t have been able to walk on my sprained ankle. So, I’m lucky. I’m going to copy Kae on this one- I’m grateful for indoor plumbing The book I’m reading (Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants) opens with a family living in South Wales in 1911. They do NOT have indoor plumbing, and use a communal “bathroom”, which is a brick hut down the street from their house. There’s a compartment for men and another for women, and each compartment has a double seat, so people use the toilet two by two. ACK!!! Very grateful for my nice, private toilet in my house. I’m grateful for podcasts! On the twenty hour drive to Texas, my son and I listened to Andrew Huberman, Ezra Klein, and a new-to-me podcast called “The Rest is History.” We listened to six episodes all about the buildup to WWI, which was a perfect prelude to the book I’m reading now. There’s a wealth of information out there and it’s all FREE. I’m grateful for money in the bank to buy groceries. We went to the local HEB to stock up on groceries for my son, and we got a lot! As much as we complain about the cost of food, at the end of the day we can fill our carts, swipe the bank card, and come home with all sorts of delicious food. Since this post is Kae-inspired, I’m including a photo of Charlie’s look-alike!!! My son’s roommate is taking care of his parents’ dog right now, so I get to play and snuggle with Baxter! What would be on your gratitude list? Anyone else grateful for indoor plumbing?
Weekly Rundown- I’m Outta Here!
Well, I had a frustrating week. I thought the calf pain was finished and then it came back. But we have to keep moving, right? I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this Weekly Rundown. Let’s get right into the gory details. Sunday It all started out so hopefully. Last week I had two pain-free treadmill runs so I decided to take it outside- what could possibly go wrong? Somewhere in the middle of the run I felt my calf, but I just focused on my form, tried to relax my lower legs, and lift my heels up behind me. It seemed to help, and I finished this run encouraged- 3.5 miles. Later I did the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout and my piriformis exercise (the one I hate.) So far the week is going great! Monday This was a strength day at home- Carline Girvan deadbug workout, an upper body workout from Sally McRae’s app, and all four of the hip stability exercises from Brad Beer. Feeling good! Tuesday Here’s where it all fell apart. I ran again on the treadmill- everything felt good until about 2 miles in, when I felt that painful pull in my calf again. OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Is this ever going to end? Let’s just see what happens if I ignore it and keep running. I finished 4 miles, but it hurt. Sigh. Later I did my hip exercises. Wednesday Leg day at the gym WITH MY SON! He made us do some hard things, like the hack squat machine. I hate it so much! He insists that the whole point of it is to go down all the way (when he does it, his butt actually touches his heels.) On my last set, I was going down so low that I finally couldn’t push back up, and had to crawl out from under the machine. Ha ha, well I definitely worked to failure on that one! We also did deadlifts which went a bit better. Thursday Okay fine_ I’ll do a pool run. As I was going down the steps of the pool, I felt a jolt of pain- so now I hurt my calf doing a pool run??? I give up. Friday Back to the gym. 40 minutes on the stairclimber, and I had to fight with myself to keep going for 39 of them. I followed it up with the abs machines and called it a day. Saturday As you can probably tell, I wasn’t too happy with how the week went, but guess what- I’m leaving my troubles behind and blasting off to Texas!!! It’s the 4th annual mother-son road trip, and as I’m writing this on Saturday night we’re over halfway there- spending the night in Gulfport, Mississippi. Sunday On tap for today- a workout in the hotel gym! I already checked it out- the gym has four pieces of equipment, but I’ll make it work. And by tonight we’ll arrive in Waco. Do you like road trips? – I love them! Any advice for me? –Maybe I should just get my leg amputated and run with a blade. Those athletes run FAST. Top photo by Mithil Girish on Unsplash
Ultimate Coffee Date!
Uh oh… it’s the return of the Dumpster Fire Mug! We’ll get into that in a bit. But first, it’s August. NOOOOOOOO!!! I don’t want summer to end, but it’s drawing to a close. Of course I’m talking about the summer schedule, NOT the summer weather. More on that later as well. Since it’s the first Friday of the month I’m linking up with Coco and Deborah for the this coffee date. Let’s do it! There’s good news and bad news. The good news is, I’ve set a new PR! The bad news is, it’s a PR for the most frustrating injury ever. Once again, I had two glorious pain-free runs, and then on the third run- BAM. The calf pain is back. Just to mix things up, it’s in a slightly different place. What the…??? My husband, innocently and foolishly, suggested that maybe it would go away if I just “took some time off.” YES I KNOW THAT. As a matter of fact, why don’t I just stop running altogether? Then the problem will be solved forever. Just a word of advice- never suggest to an injured runner that the problem will be solved if they stop running. You might get your head bitten off. I’ll go into more details in the Weekly Rundown on Sunday (bet you can’t wait for that!) so let’s move on for now. My son and I are leaving for Texas tomorrow! That’s right- we’re leaving the Florida heat for somewhere even hotter. The forecast for Waco next week is around 98 degrees every day, which is actually over ten degrees COOLER than it was last year when we were there. This will be our fourth annual trip to Waco for the beginning of the school year, and the first year where we won’t be running all over campus with a mini fridge, getting my son’s things out of storage from his friend’s attic (did you know attics get very hot when it’s 110 degrees outside?) or moving a bed across town. No, this year my son is going back to the same house he lived in last year, where all his things have spent the summer. All we have to do is… arrive. After the drive, I’ll have two days to relax and goof off in Waco before flying home. I’m psyched. Let’s talk about THE OLYMPICS!!! Are you watching? I want to see more medal ceremonies! I’m pretty much just watching the prime time coverage, and maybe that’s the problem. But I remember back in the old days, all we had was prime time coverage and we used to see ALL the medal ceremonies! We even saw medal ceremonies where a USA athlete got a silver or bronze. I remember watching with my mom, and commenting on some of the other countries’ national anthems (my mom especially liked “O Canada.”) Are you watching the Olympics? – Track and Field is starting!!! Is it still summer for you, or are you in back-to-school mode?