Progress

So my experiment is working the way I hoped it would. I've now run four days in a row. A little jaunt on Christmas Eve, two 25 minute runs on Christmas and the day after and today I did 3.2 miles, half of which on trails. I was going to go to the gym today, but it was in the low 50's when the sun popped out this afternoon so I said the hell with it and had my best run since last June 25 (literally).

Each day things seem to improve so I'm going to do my best not to over do it and keep building and making progress. But I have to tell you...it's pure bliss to be running again. I missed it, but I didn't realize how much. I absolutely love tying up the shoes and just leaving the front door to get in a great workout. A set back at this point would be just an awful turn of fate...but one I can't control. So I'm taking the optimistic view and hoping that it continues to go well.

I sing...poorly.

Check me out singing and screwing up other people's songs!

King Kong On My Back

Cover of the Pondering Judd tune (my fave by them).

Silo Song

Cover of the Chris Pureka tune.

Solstice Hike

So we're not a very religious crew, however if there is an established religion that we are drawn to and dig their ideals it's Paganism. Pagans worship the earth and most of and the best of Christian practices were lifted from the Pagans. Yearly, there are two big days in the Pagan calendar; Samhain (Halloween) and the Winter Solstice. Every year on the Solstice, the family and I get outside to celebrate the Earth and then following some traditional Pagan guidelines we have our own Solstice ritual celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Good times!

This year we have to head to Scranton, PA for some family business on the Solstice (tomorrow, the 21st). So with the Nor'easter raging outside we decided to have our outdoor celebration today (20th) and then do our ritual on Christmas Eve. Like I said, we're not dedicated to the religion just yet, but we do love our traditions.

We woke up this morning to 7 inches of fresh out our door. Carli was out in the storm by 6:30 to do a Starbucks run and shortly after her return we had loaded the car with snowshoes, poles and Kennebunk and we were off to the Middlesex Fells.

This was Lily's second time on her snowshoes and she rocked it! She was all smiles despite the still fast falling snow and the wind whipping it into our faces. We have to leave for Scranton by Noon so we kept the hike to about an hour, just a quick out and back, but enough to enjoy nature and remember that it's because of this amazing place called Earth that we can be who we are and do what we do. Happy Solstice.

"We are men of action, lies do not become us."

-The Princess Bride

My left ankle. New strategy. I've spent the last year and a half doing rehab, pushing too far, setting back, pushing too far and resigning myself to days at the gym with no running or cycling. I'm not nearly patient enough to endure this any longer.

Intuition reveals itself in funny ways. Religious folks believe if they pray hard enough, the answer will come to them through the mouth of God (or sonny Jesus to quote the toughest screw every to walk Shawshank). Some say it's the fact that they've given birth that allows them to see what needs to be done or know what will happen. Not sure what it was with me, but the other night as I was walking to my car in mesh shorts and a tech tee on my way to the gym, I decided that was going to jog around the block, just to see what would happen.

Until that moment my strategy was going to be rehab, strength and stretching for another 3-4 weeks to see what kind of improvement I was experience. If it was little to none I was going to head back to the doctor for a referral to a specialist and perhaps a second MRI. So this decision to run around the block was contrary to what I had laid out for myself. But the little voice spoke and I didn't argue. I didn't go back in to change into more appropriate running clothing or put my keys away; I walked down the driveway, and starting a light jog around our miniscule block.

As expected the ankle hurt in all the usual places but I figured if nothing else it would feel good just to feel my heart rate up and all the usual running perks. But over the course of the 2-3 minutes it took to round our block, my mind formulated a new strategy: to start running regardless of the pain. I'd go every other day and in between I'd continue to strengthen and do all my PT exercises. Not sure why this makes sense, it just does. The only time my ankle has felt good recently is after stretching or working it, so why not run through the pain?

I ran a little bit longer the day before yesterday, last night at the gym I did a few laps on the track and today I got out for 15 minutes. There are moments that it hurts, but it's nothing I can't run through. The bottom line for me is I don't want to wait around and see if it gets better. The way I figure it, there are two possible outcomes from this experiment:

1. The running helps, the ankle heals and before long I'm back to normal and no longer posting long winded, whiny posts on my blog about my damn ankle.

2. It exasperates the situation. It gets worst, blows up, something tears, it becomes so sore I can barely walk. In this case I go back to the doctor, but at least I'll have something to show her. Even if doesn't get this bad, if it doesn't get better I'm back at the doctor's office.

I'm not waiting around any longer and let this thing linger into 2010. Time to take action.

1:49pm

...and then, without a moments notice, I saw from the corner of my eye the French Press go spiraling end over end off of the kitchen corner. I could barely react before the deafening shatter of glass filled the air. I simply stood; standing in disbelief as I took in the small yet far reaching pile of shards and coffee grounds. What once had stood to become a pleasant afternoon cup of coffee was now an angry mass of brown with a twirl of twinkling glass mocking my astounded expression. All of this at 1:49 in the afternoon.

WHOA!

Damn nearly a month? I need to post something...so here are some random pics from the past few weeks...

The girls!

Coolest boss of all time! Driving around Heber, UT

Outside the coolest coffee shop ever. Pretty sure Canice is now engaged to owner who was once a happening roller skating...

Halloween ala Zombie

IMDB

As I get caught up on movies released in the past few years, I finally got to see Rob Zombie's 're-imagining' of the classic "Halloween". People who don't appreciate the genre may not realize or have forgotten that John Carpenter's original 1978 "Halloween" is a classic. It was the first true movie of it's type and at the time very scary. We've become so saturated with horror flicks copying it's style (Jason and Freddy don't exist without Michael Myers coming first) that we've forgotten that these types of flicks can be original and scare the pants off of you. The horror genre needs more movies like this after going on a several year run of simply spitting out 'torture porn' which isn't scary, just nasty. We watch horror movies because we want to be scared; in the right way.

Despite what most purists say, Zombie made a super fun movie without disgracing the original material. He took what John Carpenter produced and expanded several story lines while maintaining the big scares. This time around when you see Michael wandering out in the open, during the day, on the streets of Haddonfield, you have deeper understanding of what makes him the way he is and what he is capable of. Dr. Loomis went from being the obligatory white knight who would show up shortly after Michael had done his thing and make a profound statement to being a conflicted man who potentially is only involved with Michael to land a book deal. Yet despite his possible ulterior motives, he alone knows Michael's make-up and what Michael truly is.

The best part of the way Rob Zombie makes a scary movie (and I believe this to be the case with "The Devil's Rejects" as well) is that he's able to marry the disturbing and gory elements of what you see in horror a lot these days, yet he does it with a grin and an air of campiness. The movie is, for lack of a better word, fun. You are scared, watching some scenes through your fingers, but at the end you are completely satisfied and leave with a smile on your face. Zombie's affinity for old-school scary movies makes it's presence known in the way he pieces together the film. This makes me want to see more movies from him because let's face it, yes we're there to see something scary, but don't we want to have as well? He also maintains several of the important elements found in most typical slasher flicks: gratuitous nudity, having sex gets you kill and the chaste protagonist makes it through to the end.

If you are into scary movies and have not already, see this flick. Put aside the importance of the original and don't go into Zombie's flick ready to compare the two. That's not fair to this one, which can stand on it's own. Definitely looking forward to seeing the sequel...on DVD of course.