Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Week So Far

Sunday, MomTook came over and we spent several hours planting the stuff I bought on Friday at the farmer's market. We also added two more buckets of horseshit for fertilizer as most of the flowerbeds are in sand. In addition, MomTook brought some evening primroses and a whole bunch of irises, which we used to fill out the south bed. I also went for a short paddle with Dr. Z. It was supposed to be two full laps around the lake, but I wore out too quickly. Guess those two weeks off affected me more than either of us thought.

Yesterday was work and karate. Nothing much of interest happened. (Except Sensei seems to be pushing more and more towards self-defense, which is making me nervous as I don't want to change schools, especially with the next-nearest ones so far away, but I don't want to be miserable either.)

Today is HOT. I mean, 88 degrees hot. My run was really tough, even though I went at 9:30. (It wasn't just the heat - it was very windy AND I stupidly didn't hydrate or eat beforehand.) Tonight is paddling - I'm sure the lake will be super-crowded with this weather, but it will still be awesome.

Oh, and just found out - CrazySis's bun in the oven is a BOY! Hooray and congratulations to her!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Strongest Woman I Know

Okay...so...

Went hiking today with Dr. Z and JewishMother. It started off as normal, although it was my first long hike of the season.

About a third of the way up, a guy coming down tells us that a woman has seriously broken her leg near the summit and that the bone is nearly breaking through the skin. Dr. Z of course takes off at a dead run, having medical training. After clearing things with JewishMother, I ran up a rock face to catch up with him, figuring it would do no good to have the one person on the mountain with medical training injuring himself while rushing to help someone.

After sprinting about three miles and 2000 vertical feet we get there and a guy with at least first aid training has nicely splinted her leg and the group of a dozen hikers have covered her with coats. Seeing that she's shivering from shock, I add mine. Now, this woman has a tib-fib break so nasty it's nearly a compound AND SHE'S LAUGHING AND JOKING WITH EVERYONE. I mean, god DAMN. You'd need to hook me up to a morphine drip to be that comfortable with an injury like that. And this is a SIXTY YEAR OLD WOMAN. Wow.

Anyway, there were very high winds today, so we didn't think that they'd be able to Medivac her out, but low and behold, the chopper came. After some of the most impressive piloting I've seen, they get close enough to drop a guy out with a gurney. We get her in and then he has us basically line up along the trail and hand her up until they get to the copter. I'm at the bottom of the line so I don't see them get her in, but when they take off they have her HANGING OUT ALONGSIDE THE CHOPPER. Craziness. I thought they'd at least have her IN the copter with her head and feet hanging out. Afterwards, Dr. Z saw blood on his hands and think it might have been a compound (i.e. piercing the skin, i.e. VERY much worse). (Not that we were going to remove the Ace bandage to find out.)

We actually did end up finishing the hike after they flew her out, but even the amazing views were anti-climatic after that. All I can say is that I hope to be half as tough as this lady. Oh, and this mountain that took us almost all day because it's so long and steep? She told us that she does it as a "morning walk" in an hour and forty. WOW.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Randomania

So far it's been a fairly quiet week. Such is how it is for me in the summer. Just the nature of the job. Spent most of yesterday getting ready for next week's trip down to Atlanta. Now that I'm prepared I'm looking forward to it rather than dreading it.

Had sparring at Karate last night. TattoedButSweet and I went to kick at the same time and got tangled up. I ended up landing right on my lower back and pelvis and am still paying for it today. On the bright side, Sensei finally was free to help out the adult class and gave me mondo instruction on the art of fighting taller opponents. (He himself is only 5'4".)

Ran my 5K in 29:05 today. That was WITH high humidity and a stiff back. Unbelievable. Once I break 29:00 I'm going to slowly lengthen my run. I'm also bringing my training shoes with me to GA. (I called the hotel yesterday and confirmed they have a free gym with treadmills. It's going to be too damn hot and humid to run outside.)

Will hopefully be paddling after work seeing as I have a 9 mile race on Saturday. Don't know though - we had thunderstorms all afternoon and although they've left, the wind is still pretty fierce. We shall see.