Word of the day: thwarted

Quote du jour: Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
- William James

Thwarted sums up the day I had yesterday. People think a tech writer spends her day writing. Ha. Most of the time you are a detective, trying to put together all the pieces of a jigsaw by asking questions of people who only know how their own piece works.


Site du jour: My Marrakesh tells a tale in photos about shopping in Kabul. If you want to talk about people being thwarted, there's a good place for the discussion. And yet, what beautiful things they can create!

Exercise du jour: Jog 2 miles. Hopefully, around the Nike campus, which has a nice soft trail and people don't scoff if they see a fat chick running trudging.

Update du 7:58 am: Ha. Got up early this morning, jumped out of bed and laced up the running shoes. I was going to do a quick (well, for me) two miles around the neighborhood. Then I sat down to read all your blogs. Now it's too late to jog before work. And since I'm running late because I was catching up on your doings, it's clearly all your fault that I'm not getting the jog done first thing. I hope you feel guilty. A little.

Update du 8:10 am: Remember those guys with the bulldozers? They're back. Yes, I know this has been going on for months now. I think they've been having problems with the work they did and they're having to re-do it all.

The road is completely blocked in both directions.
If you're keeping track, this is now the fourth time since October that they've dug up the street in front of the house. Wait -- I think it's actually the fifth.


God really wants me to walk to the Max today.

Done! In broad daylight, I ran jogged. 2 miles. And God threw in some uphill sections of the trail, which for some reason were a lot steeper than they'd been when I walked them. Plus, walked 4 miles, thanks to God and the Water Department.

Half inclined to go back to bed and forget it

Need to bear in mind that it's natural to feel less inclined to work out when it's bloody cold outside. (And inside, unless I wear 20 sweaters or crank the heater up to $$$ levels.)

Even so, it's sad/scary how easily I went without exercise for two days straight. Just didn't wanna. Too cold. Too dark outside. Blah, blah, yada, blah. Too much of that and I'll just get back into the habit of hibernating under a nice warm blankie until March.

Also, I'm wondering about those dang contractors. Yesterday they came by and dug up the street in front of my house for the third time. They keep digging it up and paving it over and then digging it up again. Maybe that's why this time they just left it open and put a metal sheet over it instead. I'm not sure they know quite what they're doing. (Or it's all part of a plot to freeze my pipes, dang it.)

I'm recording all this (well not the water pipe woes, that's just me venting, I mean about the exercise blahs) because I want to track the bad aspects of exercising as well as the good. Off to do some yoga before going to work. Watch this space for a gold star that indicates I've been good.

(There, that should guilt me into working out.)

Finally! Got in a half hour's worth of yoga. Now a bit late for work, but that needed to get done. Plus, an hour's worth of brisk walking just to be a show-off, Marste at lunch and a half hour's worth of yoga to close the day.




Bear cut in half by the painless process of refraction courtesy of

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucumari/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Statistics? That's some kind of math thing, right?

Math? No, sorry, I was an English major...

A lot of blogs that I go to include the blogger's vital statistics, e.g. their weight, height, how much they've lost (or gained, in some admirably honest cases). I thought about doing that, but quickly realized it would depress me. Progress is going to be slow, some weeks there won't be any. I don't think I want to be looking at reminders all week that I didn't lose as much as I wanted. It would bring me down.

If you want to know more about me, well, that's easy. This is the Internet, right? No two-way video setup yet. So I feel no shame in telling you that I'm tall and slim, with lithe nubile blond tresses that cascade over my lightly tanned and elegantly clad long and shapely body. Oh yeah, and I've got legs that go on forever, sapphire-blue eyes, and naturally dark and lush eyelashes.

(Thank you God that there is no two-way video monitor system set up yet. I mean, it's possible that someone out there bought all that description and is now totally smitten.)

Update du water pipe: Just had a contractor knock on my door suggesting I leave a water faucet dripping because "there've been some problems with pipes freezing." No, really? It's 9 degrees outside and I've got a piece of plywood covering an exposed water pipe.

Exercise du jour: 60 minutes walking, 60 minutes yoga.
Semi-fail. Or, semi-success, depending on your point of view. Did the c25k run from yesterday and 30 minutes yoga. Trust me, you haven't seen puzzled until you've seen a German Shepherd trying to figure out why her human is attempting pigeon pose.


The Photo: Went looking for a Flickr photo of a typical blond model, but became fascinated by a series of geisha photography from the early 1900s. I'm not sure if they're artistic or autistic; first I liked this photo, then I thought it was strange, then I couldn't decide one way or another.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Water way to go

This is a vent.

This is only a vent.

If this had been a real blog post, you would have been notified. Please remain calm.

This is only a vent.



Okay, so here’s the thing. For the past couple months, the city has been digging up my street so I’ll be forced to walk to work they can put in a new water pipe. A couple weeks ago, they dug a hole in my lawn, bless their hearts, and exposed three or four feet of my water pipe. According to a contractor, some plumber is going to come by, temporarily turn off the water, then turn it back on again and go away.

Note the big black tarp, next to the open hole.
The tarp is covering up a pile of dug-up lawn rather than the exposed water pipe.

Meanwhile, autumn has been progressing to the point where it’s getting down to freezing at night. This weekend, it’s supposed to get down into the 20s, and only get above freezing during the day. So I call the water department to ask what I can do to keep the pipe from freezing.



Me: [Having repeated the above to an official of the Water Department] So, I was wondering what I can do to insulate the pipe so it doesn’t break.

Official: Well, I’m not responsible if the water pipe breaks.

Me: I wasn’t blaming you; I was trying to find what I could do to insulate the pipe.

Off: The contractors insulated the pipe.

Me: Well, no, actually they didn’t.

Off: I drove down that street the other day, and they’d covered the holes on the two houses next to the construction.

Me: My house is one of those two, and it’s not been covered. What can I do to stop the pipe from freezing?

Off: If you go near the hole it could be a liability issue. You know, we’re not responsible for the construction. The contractors had subcontracted to subcontractors. And the last time I went down that street, I saw that the four or five houses near the construction had the holes covered up.

[If he’d repeated that another time, it probably would have been the ten or twenty houses nearest the construction.]

Me: So, what can I do to make sure my pipe doesn’t break?

Off: You should talk to the contractor. It's not our responsibility. But you know, if the pipe breaks, we’ll fix it. Call the non-emergency number. Do you know what that is?

Me: Yes, it's the number that I just called to talk to you.




Bless all beady-eyed sue-phobic bureaucrats and their blame-shifty behavior. Stop something from becoming a problem? Not a chance. And if the pipe does break, they’ll probably ‘apologize for the inconvenience.’


Actually, it does have a funny side. This guy was so busy telling me that it wasn't his fault/responsibility/problem, it's a safe inference that he was very well accustomed to people yelling over the phone at him. I might well be the only person in the history of the Hillsboro Water Department to have called up asking for advice rather than yelling about a problem. What a distinction!


Exercise du jour: Couch to 5k Week 2 Day 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Plus, a trip to Home Depot to ask their advice about insulating a water pipe without getting down into the hole.



Update du 9:15 am -- I saw little elves guys in orange hard hats come by my lawn this morning. Went out to look, and what to my wondering eyes did appear? A piece of plastic covering one of the water pipes. Wow. Asking (no, not yelling) for advice seems to have done something. Hope it helps. It's 27 degrees out right now.

Update du 9:56 am -- Now a guy in a bulldozer came by with a big heavy piece of something that he threw down over the hole. He kinda glared at me. Should I feel bad for worrying about the water pipe? Honest, guys, if I were trying to be a bitch about this, I would've been a lot crankier. (Yes, I can get crankier.)


Update du 8:08 pm: Okay, it may look like I haven't done my jog/walk for the day, but that's only because you're extremely perceptive. I really don't want to work out tonight.
It's late...
I just got home...
I'm tired...
All true but not good enough to excuse me. Would be nice if somehow I could find a surrogate to run for me.
Yes, I am writing this all down and posting it up here so you can all see how whiny I am I will feel compelled to get up and go out there and Do The Exercise already.
Done! Not a great workout, I was too tired, but a done run is better than none when you weigh a ton, honey bun. (Okay, I know. I'm sorry. I really am very tired.)