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Blah de Blah Blah
2006-08-09, 3:25 p.m.

Day 717 Blah de Blah Blah

I can not get my butt moving in the mornings lately. My aim is to be at the Y, starting on the elliptical by 6:30am. Then I can do my 30 minute run, 5 minute cooldown and 3 sets of whatever weight machine work I�m due for. This will allow me to make it to work by 8 if I don�t dawdle in the locker room.

Lately, I�ve been lucky to leave the house by 6:45. If I hustle, I can get started with the cardio by 7am. The last 3 days I�ve skipped weights because there�s no way possible for me to do weights, shower and drive to work in 30 minutes. Weight work alone takes 30 minutes. Lack of weight work is bad. Gotta get the morning routine back on track. Going to mean getting to bed more consistently around 10pm Shockingly early, I know. Happens when you get old. But I did manage to stay up till 2am Saturday night shooting horseshoes and having a few beers with the cousins. Maybe that�s what�s slowing me down lately?

Anyhow. All that emailing Cindy & I did yesterday? Trumped by a phone call. Her car didn�t pass inspection. But not for tires. Instead, the mechanic found fault with the front brakes and a tie rod end. Guess what I did instead of aerobics last night? If you guessed that I discovered that the brake calipers on Cindy�s car were frozen instead of going to aerobics, you�d be right.

Tearing into things, I was confused at first. Outer pads looked fine. So did the tie rod ends frankly. But when I got a feel of the back side of the rotors and felt the ridges that had built up, I could understand the brakes failing. Still got the new pads & rotors installed, but will have to do the calipers this weekend. Now I need to find out about the tie rod ends. I�m a little suspicious. The ends I saw looked fine and had no play in them. It�s hard getting specific vehicle parts information when Cindy is the middleman.

What I have so far is: �The tie rod that connects from the tire to the main suspension on the left�

Would that be the left as you�re facing the front of the car or as you�re sitting in it? As far as tie rod ends go, the inner tie rod end connects to the steering rack, the outer connects to the wheel hub. There isn�t one that goes from the suspension to the tire. That would be bad for the tire, and also wouldn�t allow you to turn the car very well. See the source of my confusion?

What I want to know is: Drivers side or passenger side, inner or outer. Simple, accurate, no confusion.

Also didn�t have much of any �talk� last night. Apparently after telling her on the phone that I�d skip aerobics and fix the brakes on her car, she got her signals crossed and thought I was going to aerobics anyhow, even after I showed up at home with an armload of parts. Dinner got all screwed up too. Apparently that email I sent her asking her to maybe spend a few nights in a row at home sober pissed her off a bit. Good.

Tonight I�ll tell her not to plan on me for dinner tomorrow. Not because I�m going to the Y or �working late� though. Nope. I�ll tell her about Al Anon instead. Maybe that�ll piss her off some more, get her thinking about where the responsibility for her drinking really lies. Past time for me to be honest about things.

This is all starting to reach critical mass in my head. I�m tired of watching the same thing unfold 5 nights a week. Feeling a need to step back and examine this from arms length for a while. Detach a bit. It�ll be harder when the kids are off to school � no one to commiserate with. Have to make sure and hook up with another group after bowling starts. I kinda like the added anonymity I get from attending a group 15 miles from home. Going to a meeting only 3 miles from home increases the risk of running into someone I know. That could get awkward. Supposed to be anonymous, have to trust in that.

Kinda sleepy right now. Don�t dare have coffee though. Caffeine now will ruin me for sleeping tonight. Although that�s probably better than falling asleep at work. Hmm. OK, coffee it is. Just hope the Care Bears don�t attack.


Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 187 on 8/7/06 (one bad, bad, very bad weekend)
Next weigh in: 8/14/06

New target � 8/22/06 to be at 180 (right)

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 8/9/06: 634.75
Miles with cool down: 697.86
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 60+ miles biking so far.



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