A Rainout Helps Me Through the Day
Thursday, May 15, 2008
10 Days Until Bolder Boulder

Getting up was tough today. I thought I had missed the soreness I deserved from my weight workout on Tuesday. Yesterday (Wednesday), I hardly felt anything so I figured I was in the clear. Wrong, Mr. Once-A-Month-Weight-Workout! I was more than willing to stay in bed for another two hours when 4:15 am hit.

And, on top of the soreness, I had a terrible headache. Headaches were very rare for me. I had no idea what the origin of this one was but drank some water as a possible antidote to the source of the pain. It wasn’t a big deal. I knew many people who had migraines and other headache-related challenges. I figured that, if I got a headache a dozen times a year, it was no big deal. And they always seemed to clear up in a matter of hours anyway so I really couldn’t complain.

After forcing myself up, I got ready to run. Then, at 5:14 am, Angela called to inquire if I wanted to skip running today because it had rained last night. I didn’t realize it actually had precipitated because, when I arose, I looked out the window and didn’t notice any moisture on our brick walkway.

I looked at the skylight in my bedroom and, sure enough, there were some raindrops still on it. If it had rained even a small amount, it definitely would be muddy so I agreed to Angela’s proposal that we run tomorrow. I knew that probably would make it unlikely for me to run on Saturday but I wasn’t giving that up… yet.

Most normal people would have dived back into bed. No, not me… After all the eating I had done last night, I knew I needed to do something. Plus, I still had nine of the 17 weight machines at the YMCA I had failed to do on Tuesday so I headed out at 5:24 am.

The air was as fresh as it could be and smelled great. The rain had cleansed it and, even though I was ten miles east of Boulder, the pine trees of the foothills west of the city had added a delicious fragrance. It was another reminder why it was do great to live in Colorado.

At the YMCA, I gritted my teeth and convinced myself that, if I worked out, the soreness and headache pain would go away. I didn’t feel terribly motivated but hit the machines anyway. I was doing OK and actually was completing the same number of repetitions as I had when I worked out regularly. That lasted until I got to the leg press machine. I had worked up to 1,000 reps (my reps were only partial so they actually were quite easy to do) but today I ended up stopping after 300. That was disappointing. I ended up completing 7½ of the remaining 9 machines. I decided I would find a way to return and do the leg press again and the bench I used for mini-abdominal crunches. These mini-ab crunches involved almost no movement so it was easy for me to do a lot of them. Heck, I didn’t want to strain myself, right?

At home it was back to the usual routine – get Holly up, get cleaned up, make breakfast for Holly, make and pack her a lunch, drive her to school, return home and have breakfast while reading the newspapers, feeding the dogs, taking out the dogs, cleaning dishes, et cetera. My weight was at 202 and, although that didn’t surprise me, I was disappointed I had regressed three pounds. I resolved to do better… again.

I got to work and answered messages. I was still having e-mail problems and found almost two dozen messages had been sent but never arrived at their destinations so I had to resend all of them. I wasn’t making progress booking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but I decided to keep trying. She would be a fascinating guest.

During the day I listened to Mike Doughty’s song, “27 Jennifers.” I just loved that song. This week, I had been listening to Mudcrutch’s “Scare Easy,” another great song. I ate a fair bit – six English muffin halves with cream cheese (2) and butter (4), quarter pound of Muenster cheese, several glasses of milk, some apple and cottage cheese, a carrot, more milk, and three Micky D’s apple pies which I nuked. That ended the run of apple pies – which was probably best for all concerned. I just hated to waste food but it ultimately ended up on my waist anyway so I was wasting it after all.

Much of the day was spent reviewing the first cut of the show with the Iraq War’s top blogger, Michael Yon. There were numerous problems but, with the footage of the interview I did having been shot in front of our tent on the desert at a U.S. air base right when a sandstorm was moving in, there was little we could do. The show can be seen at www.HarberTV.com. Michael definitely is an amazing and gutsy guy. I would never do what he has done and what he still does.

Having gone to Iraq definitely reminded me of how much I loved being back home in the United States. I always felt that way when overseas. It just was great to be back and I knew I should appreciate every day I had on the planet.

I also had to deal with the challenge of whether or not Holly should have a special dress for her promotion ceremony at school. Leaving the 8th Grade these days often was a big deal but she wanted a strapless dress and I was hesitant to have her (a) dress up and (b) dress up like that! I decided to consult some other parents and the school’s Middle School Guidance counselor. My guess was I would end up buying a dress.

The day also was filled with farm-related issues. That was only one of my six full-time jobs but that came with the territory. The ditches had not been cleared and water was about to start running so it meant, if it didn’t get done, I would spend a good part of my weekend clearing the ditch. Hopefully, I would succeed in getting help to do that.

En route to pick up Holly, she called to say she had office hours with her Math teacher. I decided to keep going and run a couple of errands. I ended up getting a regular-size Inta Juice smoothie for her and a giant “Tsunami” Inta Juice for me. I loved smoothies and enjoyed every ounce of my “Cranberry Craze” or whatever it was called.

At home, I made Holly a snack and decided to join her. One thing led to another and I realized I had consumed far too much food. I ate a salad with an entire sliced cucumber added to the half cup of Caesar dressing with which I had doused it. Then I had three slices of pizza – after I added several extra pieces of pepperoni – and three glasses of milk. I munched on a couple of pieces of carrot for good measure. I knew I needed to stop and somehow managed to do so.

Later, I took Holly to Cheer and returned home to work. Afterwards, I made her dinner and almost kept my promise to not have any more food. I had some cottage cheese and pineapple and thought that was almost the same as not eating. I knew I really needed to be good.