19 July 2011

dog days



It’s hot and humid. I don’t want to run but if I am to enter the Prince Edward Island Marathon in October I need to increase the mileage. My current ten or twelve miles a week is a decent enough base to build from and thankfully my injuries are lighter than last year.

I still suffer with sore ankles despite stretching, icing and resting after longer runs but not as badly as last year. I have a tendency to blisters on the little toe of my left foot but I am keeping them at bay with something I discovered at the Atlantic Superstore, a tubular piece of sticking plaster (that’s Band Aid in North American) lined with a firm clear gel. I slip it over the whole toe and it seems to do the trick. I know it affectionately as my “willy warmer.”

My longer runs take me out past the airport and there’s a house on the route which has four or five boxer dogs always untethered in the front yard. They bark ferociously and stand at the very edge of their territory. As yet they haven’t chased me up the road but as a precaution I slow to a walk as I pass their house. Dog days indeed.

Sunday was very hot but I set off on a ten kilometre run which takes in North River Road and Victoria Park. About halfway I was wilting but I pushed on. My pace slumped on the slightest inclines and I finished in sixty-two minutes, a good couple of minutes outside my norm. I was exhausted and sank into a cool bath.

Today I ran a short two and a half miles at a brisk pace in twenty-seven degrees Celsius. I sweated profusely for forty-five minutes when I got home, leaving puddles wherever I stood.

I had three teeth extracted last week and another three yesterday. More accurately I should call them “retained roots” as they were small remnants of once fine molars, filled and root filled over the years until there was nothing left to repair. I’m taking antibiotics for a gum infection in the wounds. Nonetheless I wanted to run and release some endorphins to ease the pain.

This afternoon I used the Rug Doctor on all our carpets, cleaning a year’s worth of toddler spillages. While some drying took place I folded the laundry and made copies of the BBC natural history documentary "Life" we got from the library on DVD. We’ve been immersed in Ewan McGregor’s “Long Way Round” and still have the extras to watch and we'll watch "Life" next.

I’m listening to Rosemary’s Baby read by Mia Farrow on Audio Book at night. A great story and beautifully written in a simple style.

I should be saving money as we have a few months of belt tightening ahead however I am keen to get into Blu-Ray and have earmarked a player which will play every type of disc and media I own. That is to say Regions 1 & 2 DVDs (both NTSC & PAL pictures), Regions A, B & C Blu-Rays, Super Audio CDs, DVD Audio, mp3 direct from external hard drive for starters. Watch this space.

8 comments:

Michelle said...

Hey, that's a nice little update on everything ordinary! I like these snapshots of everyday life. (Even though I already know all of it!)

And hey, thanks for cleaning the floors and putting the baby to bed.

Love you.

Perfect Virgo said...

If you can call a folded quilt a bed! She's singing twinkle twinkle little star to me and I might try leaving her to it for a while.

Love from the spare bedroom!

Russell CJ Duffy said...

i FEEL AS IF i HAVE ENTERED tHE wALTONS HERE.

gOOD nIGHT mICHELLE...gOOD nIGHT pAUL bOy!!!

Russell CJ Duffy said...

PS. That is one hell of an image. Looks almost Post Impressionist. I quite like the tittfer too!

Perfect Virgo said...

Those "hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer!"

I'm Imagining those lights winking out one by one...

(Titfer is a classic example of the kind of thing British producers slip into TV shows for me to explain to Michelle!)

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Apples and Pears.
Cut the Finsburys.
Rub a Dub.
And all that Cockney stuff

Perfect Virgo said...

Yep, and calling someone a berk - seemingly innocuous until you learn about(Berkley Hunt!)

S said...

LOL- Russel's "Walton's" remark is spot on!