Our First ER Visit

I have 2 observations this fine Monday morning:

1. The sun is rapidly rising earlier. This time of year it rises earlier by 10-12 minutes a week, so week to week you see a real difference in daylight.

2. It's freezing out there. 12.4 when I woke up.

Let's get the bike stuff out of the way first. Saturday was Walter's F29er at Round Valley where the takeaway is that I was able to clean 3 hills I've never *ever* cleaned before as well as Puke Hill for the second time ever. I'll offer a full write-up for the forum. Later that day I spent some time at Halter's shop where no fewer than 10 MTBNJers made an appearance at some point. I got my roadie fit properly and took it out Sunday. I was tooling along at a solid 18 mph clip for 90 minutes then the bottom totally fell out.

If you looked out the window yesterday and saw the snow coming down sideways, I was riding into it. At one point my speed drooped from 20 mph to 8. On the flat. This was the strongest headwind I've ever experienced. The storm was coming in at this point and 5 minutes later I was in the snow. A few minutes after that I was being blinded by the snow, visibility 10 feet, at best. I was going west, the snow was driving east. The temperature dropped 11 degrees in about 5 minutes. Subsequently my average went to pot. When I got home I literally knocked 1/4 inch of snow off my helmet. Then I took a warm shower and the world was a happier place.

Then this morning knocked out 3 sets of 20 minute threshold intervals. Today's pace felt stronger than a normal Monday probably based on Ben's talking about intervals and semi-pro pace and whatnot. I wish I could justify a power meter. But then, what sport racer uses a PM?

Made our first ER visit yesterday as well with the little girl. She's 22 months almost so that's been a long ER-less run. She had an ear infection, which we suspected. And the ER was dreadfully slow, where we sat for 2+ hours for a 3 minute doctor visit. I felt so bad for her because she was sick and scared of being there. She kept saying, "Julia. Bye bye. Daddy, bye bye." She desperately wanted to leave and I can't say I blame her.

As soon as we walked out the door she was fine. But when the doctor examined her all hell broke loose, which is par for the course. We know this is going to happen and we warned the doctor. So of course both the nurse and doctor say, "No problem, that's normal." But we warn them, our child is different. And as soon as the screaming starts, both the doctor and nurse look at us as if to say, "Holy shit you weren't kidding." I have to laugh.

The guy who just sat down next to me smells bad. Not BO bad but like Old People bad. Hard to put my finger on it exactly.

Jason told me my posture basically sucks, essentially opening my eyes to something I already knew. Sitting it's really bad, which is what I do most of my life. So now I'm conscious about how I sit at home, and currently on the train. I've gotten to the point that sitting up straight actually hurts my back. My desk job doesn't help I imagine.

I have comments to get to. But I need to read a little on the way in. This concludes my Monday morning brain dump.