I am totally exhausted -- but in a good way.
I've been busy -- really busy -- during the dozen days since I last posted
an entry here.
I've been bugging my manager for quite a while about my work computers
being too old and underpowered for the increasingly more demanding software
that we use. I tell him that one machine is an obsolete antique -- and
the other one is even older. Okay, perhaps a bit of hyperbole there, but
I have needed a more powerful machine for quite a while and the newest
versions of the software we are now switching to really demand more power.
He's been working on this and two weeks ago UPS delivered the new computer
(8 GB of RAM and a half-terabye hard drive).
So, as I have been telling people, this is a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that I have a new computer -- the bad news is that I have
a new computer. This means I have to download and install and configure
a lot of very complex sets of software. And, after a decade or so working
with Windows XP, I now have to work with Windows 7. This has all been keeping
me busy installing and trouble-shooting and tweaking things -- and I am
sure it will take me weeks more to finally settle down with everything
-- but this week I've also been able to really use the new versions of
the software and it has been a good experience.
Oh, and a week ago we had a little bit of snow.
I opened our garage doors and measured the snow at 18 inches -- but as
I moved down the driveway -- shoveling and shoveling and shoveling -- I
began to realize that the snow was deeper, at least two feet deep. And
it was not fluffy stuff, it was heavy snow. Inland had greater depth of
snow, but here along the coast the snow was heavier in weight. Hours of
shoveling... The shoveling came on Saturday -- the power outages were on
Friday. That is, for us personally, the loss of power was a Friday thing.
Ours was only out for three or four hours, but thousands other people in
our part of the state were without power until Monday and Tuesday.
But today's exhaustion is not from shoveling snow or working with computers,
it is from a really intense workout. I signed up for some personal trainer
coaching at the Y and I had my first meeting with my trainer today.
For the past three or four years I have been thinking about attempting
a triathlon. Not an iron man triathlon (that involves swimming two miles
or more followed by a 100 mile bike ride and then running a full marathon)
-- I've been thinking about a sprint triathlon. The one in particular that
I have been thinking about comes late in July and requires swimming a quarter
of a mile, an 11 mile bike ride, and then running a 5K. I can run a 5K
(well, I could back in the fall -- I'll have to work back up to that after
I can begin running again -- my next post-surgical podiatrist appointment
is in a week and a half), and I can ride a bike 11 miles (although racing
implies going a lot faster than merely riding), but I am not much a swimmer.
I would not only have to swim the quarter of a mile (in the ocean), I would
have to have enough strength left for the biking and the running.
So my trainer had me doing twenty minutes or so on an exercise bike so
he could check my stamina, heart rate, etc. Then off to the swimming pool.
When we finally finished and I got back to the locker room all I could
do was sit on the bench in front of the lockers for three or four minutes
before I could gather up the energy to change. When I got home I went upstairs,
took a shower, got dressed, and then just dropped down on the bed for half
an hour or so.
I was that exhausted.
And it felt great!
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