— छह हज़ार इकसठ —
I rode my bike to work again today. After riding my bike home on Friday, I felt like I was managing to find other gear combinations between the left and right that approximated what I had long preferred—historically I was at 2 on the left; 6 on the right. Now I think I was at 3 on the left but 5 on the right, that kind of thing. The chain jerking forward with my pedaling seemed to stop. Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as before, but did happen more this morning than it had on my way home from the movie I went to see on Friday (
The Invite, which was fantastic). I'm clearly going to have to take the bike back in to the shop, I'm just not sure now when I'll do it. I didn't bother over the weekend, both because of how busy I was and because I
thought I had figured out a way to make it work on my way home on Friday. 20/20 Cycle isn't open on Mondays and Tuesdays, so now the soonest I can even consider it is Wednesday.
I think I had some real naivetée regarding getting back on the horse with exercising once my six-week period ended. Before the accident, I was doing three sets of 34/33/33 pushups every other day, so that I had totaled 100 by the end of the day. I've been doing this since, like, 2012. I think I need to ease back into this more than I was thinking. I got up Friday morning and managed 33 push-ups okay, and even managed another 33 okay later in the afternoon. But when I tried to do the third set in the evening, my lower belly muscles couldn't take it. And I'm not stupid enough to "push through" anything like this; I still need to take it easy until I can do this stuff easily.
My inner thighs were killing me for like two days, Friday and Saturday in particular. They were better yesterday. But I think I strained these muscles due to the combo of going to Steamworks Thursday night, and getting back on the bike on Friday. I've been back on the stretches I've been doing for a couple of years now, every other day on the push-up off days. I re-started those in the middle of last week; I don't want to stay off those either because those prevent the nerve pain I had previously been having in my right arm. It hasn't happened since I've been doing the recommended stretches and so I don't want to stop a very effective preventative measure.
I did the 34 push-ups again yesterday morning. But even when I tried to do the afternoon set, it hurt my lower belly muscles too much. It wasn't excruciating or anything, but I could tell that if I kept going I could really cause some damage again, so I stopped. I'm thinking now that I should stick to the every-other-day schedule, but start small: maybe 10 push-ups at a time the fist day, up to 11 at a time the next time, and so on. I've had very good upper body strength due to the push-ups for many years before this, and I want to get back to it, but I can't rush it.
I'm sure there's a lot of factors here. The accident itself. Having to stop any exercise altogether for a solid six weeks. The fact that I'm 50. That last one is the most depressing. But, it's also why I want to keep it up. I don't want to get older and weaker than I need to be just because I haven't done the simple things I can do to keep my strength up.
— छह हज़ार इकसठ —
— छह हज़ार इकसठ —
I met up yesterday with Laney, her daughter Jessica, and Jessica's boyfriend Mike, for Happy Hour at a place called Pono Ranch in Ballard. This had been a suggestion from Jessica back when Laney had Happy Hours scheduled months out; it was sometime last year that we scheduled this. Apparently it's a place Jessica used to hang out and really liked. Unfortunately it turned out to be a minor disappointment, because it seemed to be under new ownership since Jessica was last there somet time ago; a lot of new stuff had been built; and we got there at 3:00 but had to leave by 4:30 because of a special event—billed as a "Lezztalkaboutit Bikini Day Party." This seemed to be a ticketed event, and we were just there for drinks and food.
They open at 2:00, but only one other party was there when Laney and I arrived a few minutes after 3:00, having met downtown to get on the RapidRide D Line bus, which took us from there to a stop in Ballard all of a block away from Pono Ranch. Jessica and Mike came over on the ferry which apparently a bit delayed, and they must have arrived maybe 15 minutes after Laney and I did.
Jessica declared she wanted a Moscow Mule, and I decided that was a great idea. That was what we both had to drink. What I ordered to eat was a Gardenburger with tater tots, and while Gardenburger patties are among my least favorite types of veggie burger patties, this burger was unusually good—even though the sauce they put on it was slightly spicier than I would have preferred. In the end neither thing I ordered was on their Happy Hour menu, but my order still barely came in under $31, which by Seattle standards these days is actually reasonable. I would have ordered a second drink there actually, but then we had to leave by 4:30.
So then Jessica and I both set about finding another place nearby where we could go for another drink. I used key filters on Yelp to find some places, but when we walked to them they were either not actually open yet (Yelp lied!) or the vibe was not to our liking, such as one place with an outdoor area but dance music blaring too loud. We just continued walking up Ballard Avenue NW, and in the end we wound up at a place called Lock & Keel, with an appropos nautical theme given Jessica's long professional history with boating.
Jessica ordered another Moscow Mule there. Unlike at Pono Ranch, this one was not served in a copper mug, and came in just a tall clear glass. She offered me a taste, and it was objectively the worst "Moscow Mule" I have ever tasted. And this is arguably my favorite cocktail because they are always slightly different at different places but nearly always refreshing—not this one. We couldn't even tell if any ginger beer at all had been used. It tasted like lime water. It was so gross.
I, on the other hand, ordered a Lemon Drop slushie, and this is pre-made so our server had no chance to fuck it up. It was actually delicious. I smartly ordered the small size though, and with tax and tip it came to $10.20. My total for yesterday was $41.08 and I had budgeted $50, so that's pretty good, especially for having had two cocktails in addition to food.
Shobhit would have been welcome to join us, but he was behind on his steps and went on a long walk instead. This was all after he and I went out shopping in the late morning, at PCC and then Safeway and then QFC, in all cases to use a paper coupon (PCC) or clipped coupons for things currently on deals. Laney and I took the D back downtown, and she had to pee so she went over to Pacific Place to use the bathroom and I caught the #12 coming just after we got downtown. I was home around 7:00 and soon thereafter Shobhit and I watched this week's excellent episode of
House of the Dragon on HBO Max.
Speaking of the D, Laney and I kept joking about "riding the D." On the way up there, a gay guy heard us talking about Tacoma vs. Seattle Pride, and he talked to us a bit about it. We learned that his husband works for the Humane Society and they marched in the parade with their new puppy; he showed us an adorable photo of the three of them together. After he got off the bus, Laney said she should have asked him to let her take a photo of him pulling my hair so she could post a photo of us "riding the D." Ha! This was funny, although I noted that had she done that without telling me beforehand, I would have been baffled, like "What the fuck?" Honestly I can't imagine asking a total strange to pose for a photo pulling my hair.
— छह हज़ार इकसठ —
[posted 12:31pm]
