Mornin' everyone.

Holly, with all you do, I'm not surprised that it becomes a challenge from time to time. You've got some great admirers/supporters/friends here, and I encourage you to consider the advice offered yesterday, including running the relay with Aamos and RCG. Whatever path you take, I hope it gets you back to smiling inside and out. And I hope you have a good afternoon with DD today.

RCG, I'm sorry that the RS is still sick, and hope he bounces back quickly.

I'm glad the second eye surgery, seems to have gone well, Tselbes. Keep up the good recovery work.

7.1 fartlek RW miles in 32F temps this morning. I kept getting quicker on my pick-ups, and it felt good. I've had some lower back pain over the last few days, but racewalking (believe it or don't) has helped, as has doing a lot of work with my foam roller. It has been a while since I had any appreciable back pain, so I am glad to be getting rid of it fairly quickly this time. I've been pleasantly surprised and relieved at how doing regular core strengthening exercises has really helped to stabilize my lower back.

Have a greta Thursday Wednesday!

Jay

........good one tet//.............Bazinga......

jay//...I must have really overslept, Thursday already??

==========

survived the hike,

planning a bigger one next week,,,,,,,,,,everyone is bringing Tonic Water

(I'll explain about V-8 to them later)

,,,,,,,,,another Tune-Up hike today,

hopefully beating the ThunderBoomers moving in

..............Good Running guys

0534

43F

6.5 miles

1:01:42

Sonya and Bob and I started at P3 and ran across the railroad tracks, onto Penniman Road to Parkway Lane and then around the duck pond and back by the Visitors Center and under the bridge and by the windmill and past the Governor's Palace to Matthew Whaley school where we patted Mattie's head for good luck and then ran Sonya back to her car. (She teaches math at Thomas Nelson Community College!  I should ask her about cross multiplication HAHAHAHA!)

Then I ran to the School of Business by myself. And then I came back to my car and changed my clothes and made it to 0700 daily mass. After mass, I went to Wawa and then over to Howard's where I was first in line to get DS2's (Stretch) car inspected. Nothing like waiting til the last minute for that, Stretch! Since I was first in line, it only took a half an hour for the Vibe to be inspected. So I waited. Fortunately, there was an older gentleman waiting for his wife to pick him up because his car was going to be a while. He and I had a lovely conversation. I asked him about his life and he shared a portion of it with me. I had to ask questions because he didn't offer a lot but, I was happy for what he shared. He also asked about my life and that was kind of him. Isn't it nice when the television is off, the cell phones are stored, and the sun is shining through the waiting area window?

Life is made of the small connections we make with our fellow travelers.

Howdy Folks

This marathon training isn't going so hot. I'm struggling just to get thru 7 miles...long runs are non existent. Legs are tired and sore.

These next few days will be a little light. I have a 100k Gravel Road bike race on Saturday which will leave my legs dead. Forecast for Saturdays race...46 degrees with 21mph sustained winds and 44 mph gust.

7.6 miles with some walking and some up-tempo paces.

4.2 miles, slow but unstoppable!   Yay!  You know, I wanted to get up at 5:30 so I could get in 7 to 8 miles before work, but I refuse set my alarm clock that early, and will only get up then if  I wake up naturally at that time and feel semi human.  Which not surprisingly, did not happen this morning.  Then a nice BBB commute into work and will B to MBE's house after work for DNW (date night Wednesday).

Lovely day here - will go up to 66F and so so so sunny!

You people are really, really wonderful, you know that?  Thanks so much for everything yesterday, and you have given me plenty to think about.  Today I am feeling oddly much happier, even in the face of the fact that DH said he would be moving out Saturday for a while.  (I actually doubt that he will, although a part of me wishes he would, just to give us some time apart to ponder things.)  At any rate, the sun is shining brightly outside, I get to leave in a few minutes to spend the afternoon golfing, and I am leaving for a couple of days in the morning for a conference at a nice hotel, so I am feeling fairly cheerful, if only for this moment.

6.1 miles for me this morning on the TM.

Today I am feeling oddly much happier, even in the face of the fact that DH said he would be moving out Saturday for a while.  

(sorry, this is going to be long!)

Well, perhaps this is why you are oddly (or not so oddly) happy?   I haven't shared this with anyone outside our immediate family but my parents separated after 48 yrs of marriage a little over a year ago. They had been unhappy together for a LONG time, nitpicking at each other, just getting on each others' nerves, etc. BUT they said they still cared for each (they'd been together since they were 17/18 yrs old!) and decided to make a change before they really grew to hate each other as that was not the legacy or the memory they wanted to leave on their family and especially not how they wanted David, their only grandchild, to remember them.. So, my dad moved into an apartment in town but he still went out to the house to help with the stuff that still had to be taken care of - yard stuff, etc. They still went out to dinner about once a week and still even went to church together (although I think that was more for "appearance" purposes because they didn't want anyone knowing they separated and people would start talking if they went to separate church services, yk?).  We still had family holidays together, family meals regularly, etc. They actually got along BETTER once they separated.

This past Sunday at Easter, they announced they were going to sell the house (it's a big house, on alot of land, so it's too much to take care of at their ages (67 and 69) and they also announced they were going to buy a smaller house in town together (like live together again).

SOOOOO, my whole point in sharing this is two fold really. First my parents had been unhappy in their marriage for a very long time, like 15+ yrs or so! and I'm kind of saddened they stuck together just because they didn't want to disrupt the family. Life is too short to live in a situation in which you are unhappy, although I do respect them for maintaining civility and not growing to really despise each other. But I also wanted to share this much too long story to show that their trial separation worked for them - they had about 14 mos of living apart to figure things out and what they each really wanted and are now making a decision that they do want to stay in their marriage.

yeah, not exactly sure why i'm sharing this - it may or may not resonate anything with you as every marital situation is unique to your own dynamics. I just hope that whatever you and your husband decide to do is what makes you both individually happy. If you aren't happy as an individual, then you aren't going to be happy in a marriage (and vice versa!)  and you can only 'go through motions' for so long in life, yk?

Thank you, Tammy.  And kudos to your parents for making staying civil a priority.  Sadly, too often that is not the case.

One thing I have always treasured about our "space" in here is the ability to open up and let it all hang out and feel secure in doing so.  It may be the fact we aren't actually seeing other face-to-face, but I don't think so.  I prefer to believe it's because no matter where we are in relation to one another, we have grown to care for each and care for each others' well-being and we've made a family here.  When Shorty and I were going through our "Crap Episode of Life," it sure was comforting to know I could come in here and let loose.

And Holly, for what it's worth, a few years prior to Shorty's downfall, I spent about a year in counseling - first working out if I wanted to stay in the marriage and when I decided yes, second, working out HOW to stay in the marriage.  I couldn't have asked Shorty to go with me at that time because he was a practicing alcoholic, but it helped me gain my own mental ground, gave me perspective, and helped me figure out how to establish boundaries.  My counselor also made me take a good hard look at myself - which was uncomfortable at times - and I ended up working through a whole mess of issues I'd never really dealt with. Best money I ever spent.

On the practical side, if you are sincerely considering counseling, look at your medical insurance plan.  A lot of them will help pay for counseling, just as mine did.  It wasn't covered 100%, but it helped.

The tree outside my office has been trimmed and HOLY COW!!  There's sunshine out there!  And all along I thought I need glasses . . . . 

I finally finished up a transcription last night that had me wanting to pound my head into the desk for at least the last hour of transcribing.  Ugh!! Talk about an egomaniac!!  I need to start charging double when it's that bad.  And maybe assess extra charges for the number of times I have to listen to "YouknowwhatImean?"  "YouknowwhatI'msayin'?"  and "Youknow."  I'm beginning to think that contrary to common believe, each phrase is not made of separate words, but is one big word as typed here.