Thunder of Wade

I finally got up to 20 laps with a combination of crawl and backstroke. My arms are getting stronger, but it still wears me out. I had to drop back down to 12 last Friday since I was pressed for time. I’m headed to the pool again today, we’ll see how it goes.

I visited my folks and my sister and brother in law for the weekend for my sister’s birthday. We went out to Olive Garden for lunch and played some games – including a grueling game of Shanghai Rummy. Had a pretty good time just hanging out with the crew – but in the middle of a shopping trip to Menard’s, my room-mate called on my Dad’s cell phone for me. (my own cell phone was roaming and had 0 bars in the store and I’d turned it off).

He’d been using my computer and clicked on a pop-up that “looked” like the norton anti-virus requested to download an update. So, he did – and got the computer infected with some spyware. It’s a pretty nasty program that claims to run a virus scan, displays a bunch of phony warnings, then prompts the user for a credit card for to download the full version.

I got my room-mate stopped before he put in his credit card in – and when I got back, I spent the rest of Sunday evening trying to remove the spyware – with no luck. I managed to kill it in the short term, but it keeps coming back.

So, I fired off an email to one of my colleagues to see if he can help. I hate asking for computer help, but I don’t want to make things worse with an untested removal program – or damaging the registry files.

Also, confession time. Last week I looked for, download, and read the manual for some of the software we have on campus. It fixed the problem I was having, but I still felt bad about it. I joked with some people that I was going to start asking for directions when I’m out driving. Yeah, it was that bad.

that’s it for now…

I hit the pool again yesterday and this time got in 12 good laps. I think I got the breathing down for the crawl – though it’s not natural yet and I have to pay attention. I alternated doing the crawl and the backstroke and while I wasn’t fast, I did okay with some short breaks.

I was pretty disappointed on Friday when I could only do ten laps -but yesterday shows I’m on the right track and with time I should be able to get back up to my 30+ laps.

Not much else going on. Work has been stressful recently but I’m getting through it.

I’ve been playing “de Blob” on the wii. It’s fun, but the constant shifting angles gives me a headache after a while. Not as bad as Spyro the Dragon or Katamari Damacy, but still significant.

Oh, I also finally got up to 1/2 priced books. Got about $40 back from my books – and then spent about $53. So, saved a little money and got some new reading material.

Better get back to work – later…

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.   We finally had our first injur-wii – that is, an injury involving the Wii.     It started off with a round of bowling on the Wii – I totally skunked my room-mate.   Like, I started the game with three strikes in a row.  I’d also kicked ass in the golf game, of all things.   

The sky was glowing last night – all the reflected light from the snow was making it look like dawn even though it was almost 10:00 when I looked outside. I was out for only a few minutes to put a bill in the mailbox, but stopped for a moment to appreciate the light and the quiet. But I was wearing my flip- flops and it quickly got too cold for that.

My room-mate has been going through some issues with his siblings and has been more stressed out than usual. When I’m around someone stressed, I find myself getting more calm and quiet. I guess it’s a way to find a bit of balance and maybe bring a little perspective to things. I also tend to get more excited about things when people are down – and inherently distrustful of hype. Might be a little zen and if so, that’s not a bad thing.

Today I hit the pool and switched over to the crawl and backstroke. I was only able to do 10 laps and I was exhausted. No power, no speed. Just… a crawl. Disappointing, but I’ve been told that this is normal when a new set of muscles are being used. I suppose that’s a good thing, but I felt… slow.

I’m hoping for a quiet weekend – with a bit of Wii to keep me occupied.

that’s it for now… later…

I got in my 32 laps yesterday and finished up my first 200 miles swimming.  Took me a couple years to do and I’m sure my next 200 will go much faster.   I joked with someone about how the English channel is next, but that it 21 miles (at a minimum) and has to be done all at once. 

I went and saw my FRM’s son play basketball on Saturday. I sat with his other two son’s and with his mom – there’s a long-standing feud going on and though FRM did stop by and shake my hand and say hello, he didn’t stick around. The game was fun to watch and I had a good time. It had been a long time since I’d see his other son’s – they are now both taller than me and one has a kid of his own.

On Sunday, I decided to set up a wireless network at home. A quick trip to best buy and I had the components I needed. Had a little trouble with the card for the computer and had to do that a couple of times to get it right. And then was a little cranky when I realized the router had extra slots for a wired connection to the computer. Which is not a big deal, just makes it more flexible later on. Once those were in place, I connected the Wii and set that up to get the news and weather and watched a video of a wii game I might like to buy.

Riding high on that success, I decided to hook up my PSP. That went much smoother than the wii and I was able to visit the university’s home page, then do a search on google for new PSP themes – and downloaded one. It was pretty cool in a really deeply geeky way.

In about 20 minutes or so, I’ll head up to the pool and swim 32 laps – putting me exactly at 200 miles total. Kind of a big deal for me – but I’m not sure what I’ll do to celebrate. Cheesecake, perhaps? 🙂

That’s about it for now. Later…

I’ve been trying to drink a lot more water, just in general. As a consequence, I’m headed to the bathroom more frequently than I used to be. Not normally a big deal, it’s not like I get my pay docked or anything. Today, however, both bathrooms here in the building have contained a most unholy stench. Eye watering, choking, pore clentching stench. I have never peed so fast in my life.

I had a dream the other night that I was living in Upper Arlington, Ohio and was looking out the window at a huge storm coming in.  I could see a hot air balloon show being swept along towards the house – some of the balloons had cars where the baskets should be.   I stepped outside to get a better look and after a moment I noticed a static electricity  feeling in my hands.  I raised my hand, brought two fingers together and when I drew them apart I saw blue electricity arc between.   The feeling got worse and I ran back towards the house.  I took about three steps and a bolt of lightning struck right behind me.  I realized I had actually run into and through the spot where it was going to strike.  I woke up then, a little shaken.

On Saturday, I went out to dinner with some friends for an early birthday celebration. I made them promise not to mention it was my birthday coming up to the server since I despise the false hoopla that these places try for. We had a nice time and talked a little about an upcoming trip a couple of them were taking to Europe. I had the simple salmon – which was pretty good, but over-grilled a bit.

On Sunday, after checking a variety of stores in the area, I finally found a Wii at Target. It was the only one in stock and I stopped my shopping at that point and quickly bought it before someone else scooped it up.

I got it set up at home without too much trouble – though it’s not well integrated into the rest of the electronics set up at this point – and played a game I also bought along with the Wii sports. I did pretty well with the boxing, but my room-mate won all the bowling matches.

My tempur-pedic pillow – that I got a few years ago as with some money I won as part of an award at work – is starting to let me down. Or my head was too warm last night. In any case, the pillow didn’t support my neck and head well and I woke up with a horrible neck pain and headache. I took some motrin and went into work anyway since today is the first day of class and I was needed here. I’m much better this afternoon, but still happy that the day is almost done.

I’m also glad I’ll soon be able to put my hat back on since my hair has grown out enough to be affected by the combination of a wet head and a stocking cap – which occured right after my swim today. I’ve been avoiding a mirror so i don’t know how bad it looks, but I can feel that it’s not behaving – especially in the back.

Finally, my birthday is tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it, exactly, but I don’t feel how I expected 36 would feel. The gray hair and bald-spot make me look older than I am, but the swimming and other exercise keeps me from feeling it. Except for last week – I felt really old last week. Dunno why, must have just been tired.

Well I guess this is one of those posts where not much happened. Hey, they can’t all be amazingly well written. Anyway, time to go home.

later…

So, I’m swimming along today with a goal of 32 laps and I’ve got about 4 to go when I see a girl at the other end of the pool get into the lane next to mine. Which is no biggie, though I think spreading out is a little better since it cuts down on the wake. Moments later, another girl gets into the pool – into my lane.

Now, see, this is awkward. While there’s no assigned lanes, I always check carefully to make sure I’m not getting in someone else’s lane. And I’m not casual about it – even with my not great vision without my glasses, I never usurp anyone else.

But here she is, with her little kickboard, all ready to go. I’m charging down the lane towards her at full power, then come to a stop not far way and wait to see if she notices me and her error. Either she was really, painfully, clueless or she just didn’t care. So, I dove under the rope and switched lanes.

Now, I’m pretty sure she wanted that lane so she could swim with her friend since they spent part of the time at the wall chatting. If she had waited a moment until I got down to the end of the lane and asked if I would move – I would have without any problem. Instead, she just took over the lane.

Next time, unless I’m sure the person is visually impaired, I’m not giving up the lane and they’ll just have to share – and stay out of my way.

In other news… my boss is considering having me take over the webmaster@uakron.edu email account. Hugh increase in responsibilty, no increase in authority or pay. 🙂

Even though it’s more work, it’s still pretty cool. I think I’ll forgo the title – Master of Space and Time is far better anyway.

I’m headed out early today to go give blood, so this is it for me.

later…