Even the Best laid plans . . .
2006-03-16, 9:54 a.m.

Day 571 Even the Best Laid Plans . . .

One nice thing about real estate transactions in Florida � generally there are no attorneys involved. This saves cash for folks on both ends of the transaction. Here in New York, buyers or sellers can expect to pay upwards of $300 to have an attorney represent them at any real estate transaction. The more complex the deal, the more the fee. This can be a good thing, because your attorney is there to primarily keep you from getting boned too bad in the deal. The $300 is really, really cheap. Most folks pay near twice that without batting an eye.

The bad thing about not having an attorney represent you at a real estate transaction is that you must be present to sign all the documents. No attorney acting as proxy for you. The really bad part about this is that it will have a huge impact on when we start our journey north out of Florida.

We are trying to arrange to have the movers there either the 29th or 30th. Closing is supposed to be the 31st. That means that potentially, by the afternoon of the 29th, all there will be to do is wait for the closing to arrive. Whoop-tee-do. We�ll do little errands like fill out change of address forms at the post office & bank, notify the pool guy and the lawn guy that we�re closing up shop, get the utilities changed over (probably just a meter read on the closing day), little things like that. Might take half a day.

Wayne (the Bro-in-law) is trying to impress upon the realtor that we�d like to schedule the closing as early as possible on the 31st. If we hit the road even as late as 10am, there�s a reasonable shot that we can still make the trip in 2 days. Any later than that, and we�ll have to take 3 days for the drive. That�s just another night in a motel and another day of food on the road. Ugh.

Wayne is flying back tonight. His daughter will be there some time this weekend and will stay till the 27th. That�s good. She�ll keep Bob (FIL) occupied and hopefully out of trouble. I�m due to arrive around noon on the 28th and hang out till we get closed on the house. That will leave only a few days where Bob will have to be alone and fend for himself.

Got stuck on elliptical #9 again this morning. I really dislike that machine. Seems I always have a bad day calorie burning wise on that machine. I�m wondering of the heart rate monitor is maybe a little off. Maybe it is measuring my heart rate a little higher than it really is, then is adjusting the resistance to be a little lower than I could really tolerate. My calves also felt really tight this morning, that may have contributed to my apparent slothitude.

Tonight�s bowling session is the last one for team points. I think we�re in second place, 8 points out of first and 8 points ahead of third. That means taking even just 1 game guarantees us no worse than second place. If we manage to sweep all 8 points from the first place team, we�ll end up tied with them. To break the tie, we�d have to bowl them again next week during our leagues singles tournament. I�m glad this is a �fun� league and the prize money isn�t a huge motivator. Cuz really, if we were bowling for a couple hundred bucks a man difference in prize money � there�d be a little tension. As it is, we all enjoy a little competition, really enjoy good bowling (even by the �other� team), and all spend as much time cheering and razzing the other teams as we do ourselves. By good bowling � I�m mean some pretty high falutin� scores too. We�ve had 4 or 5 300 (perfect) games, at least one 299, an 800 series (266+ average for 3 games) and 6 guys averaging over 220 (including one of my younger brothers). The overall league average is probably close to 200. Me? I�m down for a 196. Not bad for this league, and WAY over anything I�ve bowled in the past. This is easily 20 pins a game higher than I�ve ever averaged for a whole season. Why? Not a clue. I�m just going with the flow.

Still trying to work out some kind of work out routing for when I�m in Florida. Looks like jogging is going to be high on the list. Might need a stopwatch. Hope the right foot holds out.

Speaking of jogging, I committed to a 5K race yesterday. It�s the 10th annual �Run for the Young� � a fundraiser for the St. Lawrence Church youth ministries. I�m not big on religious activities, catholic specific things even less so, but the date worked out nicely. It�s May 13, so even in New York the weather ought to be reasonable. I�m not worried about finishing, not worried about being at the front of the pack. I�m just picking a number and hoping to make that time. What I�m shooting for is to finish the 5K in 24:00 or less. I�m going to do a little treadmill work at the Y, plus the running down in Florida next week. That ought to tell me if 24 minutes is a reasonable goal. If not? Well, I�ve got 2 months to train and make it a reasonable goal. It�s be really cool if I trained for a month or so and realized that 23 or 22 minutes is more reasonable, but I don�t think my lungs & heart have quite recovered that well from years of abuse through smoking. But what�s the point of establishing a goal if it doesn�t make you stretch a bit? Exactly. None at all.

I may enter a few more races through he course of the summer. Especially races that offer free T-shirts. I really need to build up my work out wardrobe, and this is as good a way as any to do it. At least I�m working for them.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 199.25 on 3/10/06 (More progress!!) (not weighing myself again till Saturday � I�m skeered a little this week)
Target: 180 by 7/1/06
Next weigh in: 3/18/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 3/16/06: 203.90
Miles with cooldown: 224.60
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

Might have to add a little something for the 5K training too.

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