Summer of Refinement

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I made last summer the “Summer of Self.”

Basically I the goal was to read books, draw, get my finances in order, and get in better shape.

On the read books goal, well I’ve read a few books over the last year, but sadly not as frequently or in whole as I wanted. I more or less end up reading half a book, stop at a natural break in the story, and end up picking up another book a few weeks later. So I’m reading (and I read the news and various comic books daily). So I’m a nerd more than a literary fiend. It is ok.

Drawing – I’m about a month behind in drawings, which, all things considered, is pretty good. At one point I was 100 drawings behind. I’m slowly catching up. We’ll put this one in the “ongoing progress” category.

Get Finances in Order. Well I have no credit card debt, but do still pay student loans and have a car payment. But those are manageable. Getting rid of credit card debt was huge. Its been a goal for years. So that’s a check in the done category.

Getting in Better Shape. Well, January 2012 I weighed almost 200 pounds. Which is nuts for my frame and who I am. Today I weighed in at 170.5. Not bad. I weighed 185 in July 2012 and 170 by the middle of October 2012. Which is when my regular biking ended. So the fact that I’ve maintained 170 (ish) since then is really good. I’m back to biking regularly and my goal is to get to 160 and maintain there. So I’ll put a check in the done category (being that exercise is a routine as opposed to a rarity now) with some more refinement to be done.

I think I did pretty good with my goals. I’ll have to keep working on them as I figure out some new ones for this summer.

The Closed Fist

May 6, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I think I slept last night with a tight closed fist.

Not that I’m positive it was all night long, but I woke up with the fingers on my left hand hurting and needing to be cracked. Just stiff. I know I woke up once during the night and straightened my hand out. I don’t know how long it was in a fist, but half asleep I felt how stiff my fingers were and straightened them. Even now they are still sore. Just my left hand though.

Strangely though on my bike rides I have the same thing happen. My fingers feeling stiff after being wrapped around the handle bars for 30 – 40 mile rides. Lately I try to keep my fingers open more that closed and that seems to be helping. The handle bars on the new bike are slightly thicker than the handle bars on my old bike and I think that leaves my fingers in an awkward spot, slightly more open than they normally would be closed around something.

Maybe I’m just getting old…. older that is.

My father… or Cause I’m a Charpentier

April 30, 2013 meisajDaily Life

So I find that I do best biking when I listen to either talk radio or a book on tape.

I know… you’re not supposed to listen to music while biking, but I can’t help it. I don’t turn it up loud, I can hear cars coming from way down the street, and have never had someone say something at me while biking that I didn’t know. N0w I’m listening Dune on tape. I’m loving it. I haven’t read Dune in years, and for some reason Sam brought it up last week and we watched it (the SciFi Channel Version) over the weekend.

So I’m listening to it and I come across this quote:

There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man — with human flesh.

So he’s obviously talking about the death of his father, or the idea that your father is mortal. It got me thinking.

My father may not be the Kwisatz Haderach, but damned if he isn’t a Charpentier. Not that being a Charpentier carries the same notion with others of my family as it does with me. I always use the excuse “I’m a Charpentier” to push myself further. It’s a reason to trust my body when I get sick, that it would let me know if I needed to see a doctor (Charpentier Genes!!!). It’s a reason to exercise, and not be happy about being out of shape. It’s a reason to bike 50 miles completely unprepared for. It’s a reason for getting frustrated when someone passes me while I’m biking or running. I’m a Charpentier, I should be able to keep up. And overall, I’m a Charpentier I’ll get by, I can do that regardless of not being prepared. I’ll persevere.

Cause I’m a Charpentier.

This is in no small part because of my father. He’s a pretty aged (65) and still looks like he could kick my ass. Or at least take me in wrestling. He’s been a role model for a lot of my life, like I assume many fathers are. He’s also pretty indestructible. He survived Vietnam, the 70’s, having his knee tore up, being run over by a Jeep Wrangler and 5 children. FIVE Kids. 3 of them girls. He’s still sane, in good shape, and can follow conversation with someone without even looking like he’s paying attention (its a pretty impressive ability).

My dad rocks. And while I’m not sure where I’m going with this post, that quote in Dune made me think of him.

Cause while he has shown signs of aging, and is probably mortal, I’m not entirely convinced yet that he isn’t immortal either. And that only adds to all the other stuff that already makes him pretty amazing.

My brother, Dad and myself.

Biking to work

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 meisajDaily Life

Last year I biked to work several times.

Of course by this time last year the weather had changed to consistently warm and sunny, where as this year it’s been warm and sunny one day, and snowing the next. I’m not kidding. This has been a year of bizarre weather in Cleveland. Last Thursday we set a record for the high temperature. 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Saturday morning it was snowing when I drove into work. That’s messed up. Weekends in particular have been either wet, or really cold limiting the distance riding I could do.

So its been hard to get bike rides in consistently. I had done at least one 50 mile bike ride at this point last year. My longest ride has been 18 miles this year. And I’ve only been biking for three or so weeks. Which is probably about the same time frame as last year. But I’m not sure I’m in the same biking shape I was last year. Although I weigh less than last year and I have a new bike which is driving my enthusiasm. I just need the weather to catch up with my enthusiasm.

Monday I think is the day. Sunday night/Monday morning its not supposed to dip below 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Sunrise is 6:26am – so it’ll be light quickly after I leave. Only a 10% chance of rain and very slight wind. In the afternoon it’ll be low 60’s. Perfect biking day. So this morning when the 5:30am alarm went off and I couldn’t fall back asleep (I’m certain its vengeance from my brain for trying to sleep more yesterday… see my last post), I was thinking about what it would have to be for me to start biking to work temperature and weather wise, and when I would have to leave. It is a 24 mile ride to work. Not that far. It should really take me 90 minutes or so bike it, and that’s being pretty fair. That’s 16 miles an hour riding. Not a crazy pace by any means. but I would give myself a little less than two hours. Get up at 5:30am (packed the night before) and hit the road at 5:45am and I should be good. That gives me 1 hour and 45 minutes to leisurely bike to work. No problem.

Last year I jump started my biking with a 50 mile ride. To kind of prove to myself I could. I don’t need that this year. But I need to do something that guarantees a longer ride for me. I think biking to work is it. And I’m excited about it. I like that. Makes me smile.

Snooze

April 25, 2013April 25, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I am not normally a fan of the snooze button.

That’s not exactly true. I set two alarms instead of using a snooze button. One for 5:30am and one for 5:50am. Nothing in between. If I don’t get up at 5:30 then I sleep until 5:50. And I never get up at 5:30. But that’s a sneaky 20 minutes. I use it to trick my brain into thinking every weekday I’m going to be up at 5:30, and those 20 minutes are special and it only gets them on occasion.

This morning I tried to add another ten minutes into the situation. When the second alarm went off at 5:50am I set an alarm for 6:00 so I could sleep a little longer. My brain apparently didn’t appreciate this attempt at more sleep. I ended up laying awake for 7 minutes until I decided to just get out of bed.

I think my brain is in on the trick of setting two alarms.

Elephant Dreams

April 24, 2013April 25, 2013 meisajDaily Life

What does it mean when your dream consists on trying to get a baby elephant onto a train to go to work with you?

In the dream it seemed like I spent an hour or two trying to keep the elephant hidden and get it on a train. It was a cantankerous elephant, and every time I tried to get it to move it went the other direction. I think it charged at me at one point.

Weird and Bizarre.