Some Tough Days

The last two weeks have been tough from the beginning to the end.  Monday week before last was the only OK day.  After that was down hill really fast.  Tuesday morning started with an email from Sidney's swim coach notifying us that the team was dissolved.  We started swimming just over a year ago, about the same time we knew Kirk would not get better and not come home.  Coach is a former marine and a strong leader.  He helped to fill a male role model void left by the loss of her dad.  And now he too is gone from our lives.  Sidney was heart broken.  To her coach had very nearly died.  She loved him and respected him beyond measure and this was another loss in her life.  We both cried for a good long time.  I think even a week later we are still mourning the loss of the Sharks.

Wednesday was not any better for me.  I have been fighting tendinitis in my left hip for several months.  I tried to wait it out but it got the better of me.  I can't sit for any length of time, am in pain when I run and wake up frequently in pain.  So I tried a cortisone shot.  The shot was ultrasound guided through the gluteus and into the tendon from the hamstring to pelvis.  It hurt like the devil.  I had a hard time even walking after the shot.  And based upon how I feel now, I don't think it helped.  I still can't sit and have all the same pain.  And to add insult to injury I have pulled my left tricep and have shin splints.  

After my shot on Wednesday I didn't feel very well.  I was in the field on Thursday and by then I was really miserable. Headache, nauseated, weak, confused.  I took my blood pressure when I got home and it was high. Not as high as before but still higher than it should be.  I made an appointment with the doctor for Friday.

Thursday brought sadness to my side of the family. My half sister, Dorina, lost her husband, Ralf, to cancer. He has been fighting for many years but finally lost his battle.  They live in Germany and the distance is difficult.  I want to be there and I know my dad does too but it's just too far and hard.  I so wish I could be there to love her in person.

Sidney was in a singing contest where she sang a solo and ensemble for a judge at school on Thursday.  It is the culmination of the year in choir.  She sang "The Song that Nature Sings" for her solo and "All Night, All Day" with three other classmates for her ensemble.  She got a superior, the highest rating, for both performances.  That at least made Thursday a little better. 

I went to the doctor Friday and the doctor said he thought I had a migraine.  He gave me some migraine medicine and I took that.  I did feel better Saturday but no where near my normal self.  I still don't feel like I am back to normal but the headache is under control.  I go back to the doctor Monday. 

Mother's Day was more or less another day.  I read in church and then we were planning to go to Fiesta Texas.  The weather was a bit too cold and wet so I just went over to some friends for a while.  Sidney was a touch sassy in the afternoon.  I guess she forgot it was my day.....

We started tryouts for new swim teams on Tuesday.  We started with the Wave which meets at UTSA.  The tryout was fine but the pool is only so so.  Wednesday we tried Alamo Area Aquatic Association at the Northside Aquatic Complex.  It's a really nice pool.  Both pools are less than 10 minutes from home.  Sidney liked the AAAA coach right away.  The last team we tried was Lifetime.  After the practice we knew that wasn't the team for us.  And after deliberations and discussions we settled on AAAA.  I am really proud of Sidney for being open minded and mature about the change. It wasn't what we wanted to do and it wasn't easy.  AAAA is a really big team and we have always competed against them.  But we think it is the best team to get her ready for high school which is what we need.  She'll practice Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 7.  I had to move piano but we'll sort the new schedule.  It also seems several other former sharks are moving to AAAA at various pools.

Friday afternoon was fun. Several of us at work volunteered for 2 hours at a place called Pets Alive. It is a shelter in town that is trying to get San Antonio to be a no kill city.  They have succeeded with cats but aren't there yet with dogs.  We spent the two hours taking the dogs for walks.  They aren't the easiest dogs to walk. I am actually sore from holding onto my dogs.  It was interesting that most of the dogs are dark colored and male. They are also large.  They have had some dogs for a year or more trying to find them a home.  They need volunteers to walk dogs, play with them and socialize them. All of those things make them more adoptable.  I think Sidney and I will commit to a day a month now that we aren't swimming on Saturdays for a while.  

Sidney spent most of Saturday singing in something called Together we Sing.  Kids from all of the middle schools in Northside ISD, over a dozen schools, participate in a Disney themed performance.  They learn the songs ahead of time and learn the choreography on Saturday.  I spent all day taking her to and from.  160 miles with all of the round trips.  Love my car but seriously.  They performed in the evening for a packed house and it was surprisingly fun and impressive.  There must have been a thousand 6th through 8th graders there. They did a really nice job. 

In the middle of running her back and forth I took the dog to the vet for some follow up blood work after her annual visit in April.  She had some abnormal blood work on her annual visit.  I didn't realize how bad her blood work was.  She isn't acting sick but all of her white blood cell values and her platelets are really low.  The vet thinks she might have acquired a tick borne disease, possibly before we got her.  I have never seen a tick on her and she has been treated since we got her.  But she spent her early life on the street.  We are getting a set of tests to see if it is a tick borne disease and we started a month of antibiotics.  I am not going to lie that I am worried.  She came to us just two days before Kirk's accident and we need her.... 

I am typing most of this while sitting at a swim meet on Sunday.  We were able to still get in the meet as unattached.  Sidney warmed up with her new coach, Coach Bahr.  I can tell she has been out of the water a while.  Times aren't great and form isn't either.  She hasn't swam in three weeks. But the experience is valuable and she gets to see some of the former sharks.  And it appears she is already in love with her new coach.  I have one of the most sociable children on earth. 

Sidney has a singing recital on Monday, and we start with the new team hopefully on Tuesday if everything gets processed.  Next Saturday we will be in San Marcos for another piano competition.  Because she got a superior during her competition here she can go to this State level competition.  It will be a good experience. 

Busy

Coming out of River Walk Day 1

Has anyone tried to grow a Venus fly trap from seed? It is harder than keeping a fish or parakeet.  First you have to read the directions....otherwise it will be a fail (and it still might be).  Step one, put the two tiny little seeds (think flea size) in their bag into ice water for 24 hours.  Step two, put the tiny little seeds into the refrigerator for three weeks.  Step three, soak peat moss in water and mix with sand.  Step four, put mix into tiny little pot and and put seeds into mix (no directions on how deep to put them in the dirt).  Step five, put the whole thing into a Ziploc bag and put it in a sunny place.  Wait six more weeks and maybe you will get a baby fly trap.  Maybe not.... We are two weeks into the wait.  It will take two more years of loving care (the right light, water, food and other care) for have a mature fly trap.... Really

Barbed Wire Day 1

We have had a ridiculous amount of rain.  Not as much as our Houston friends who have really gotten wet.  Unfortunately parts of San Antonio have been hit by serious hail.  The biggest we had at the house was marble size.  Many friends in San Antonio had much larger, up to softball size.  A lot of damaged cars, roofs and windows around.  All of the big insurance companies have set up large claim centers in the parking lots of stores and parks to manage all of the claims.  Supposedly the most costly hail storm in San Antonio ever.  All of our pool cars at work received some level of damage.  Entire lots of new cars were damaged... It has been bad.  Sidney's pool was closed for a few days because of holes in the sky lights.

Dunk Wall Day 1 - NOT HAPPY

A funny though.  In the middle of one of the storms we saw "fan bird".  There was a small song bird on the ceiling fan blade outside on the porch.  The fan was turning and so was bird.  He was going backwards but apparently was content.  He hung out there for at least five minutes.  It was pretty funny.






I suffered through my 40th birthday.  I really didn't intend to have a bad day but it wasn't a very nice day.  Not because of my friends of course.  They all loved me through it.  But stress, stuff at work, and fatigue all contributed to a rather blah day.  But Sidney got me the BEST GIFT EVER... The rainbow ball.  Several months ago there was a small rainbow colored ball on the other side of the neighborhood in a yard.  It was there several days and one day it disappeared.  Every day that I walked Stormy, I would see the ball and comment to Sidney how much I loved it.  Sidney bought be one for my birthday.  It's a bigger one, the size of a beach ball and I love it.  We have been playing with it a lot.  One day we played with it in front and she overshot me on a throw.  Down the street it went, and I mean really down the street.  We live on a generous hill and it rolled 10 houses down to the bottom.  With me chasing after it.  I gave up after two or three houses and walked.  It was hopeless.  It was funny.

Background - trying to figure out how to get out of this

So my mid-life crisis was two Spartan Races, in two days.  The first race was 8.5 miles with 29 obstacles and called the Super.  The second race was 5.5 miles with 24 obstacles and called the Sprint.  I have never done one before.  The course was beautiful, in the hill country northwest of Austin.  It was also challenging with some good running spots and some tougher hiking spots.  The list of obstacles that I can remember, in no particular order were, Over-Under-Through, hurdles (6 feet off the ground), a variety of walls with heights from 5 feet to 15 feet, two varieties of monkey bars (made of the biggest bars with widest gaps ever), barbed wire crawl, several net and A-frame climbs, atlas carry (carry a big rock), sandbag carry, bucket of rocks carry (really hard), mud pits, muddy water pits, culverts, tire flip, javelin, inverted wall, slip wall, rope climb, bridge, hoist, drag a sled of rocks, dunk wall, and fire jump.  And I am forgetting at least two or three.

Love from Sidney on Day 1

A beautiful area

I also had a few lovely fails.  The first was on the monkey bars.  I love monkey bars so I was excited. Until I saw these.  The bars were 2 inch pipe and the gaps between the bars were much wider than my wingspan.  I couldn't keep a grip and I couldn't swing far enough to not fall off.  And when I did fall off, I backpedalled into the hay bales used to get on the bars and proceeded to do a perfect (OK not really) back somersault.  The other two fails were your basic falls on the trail.  Skinned up my knees and elbows.  The skinned up knees didn't help when it was time to crawl.




Easiest - Barbed wire and culverts (really, I am small).  Tire flip and some of the smaller walls as well as all the A-frames and nets were pretty easy.  The Atlas carry and sandbag carry were pretty easy too.  The javelin should be easy but it has nearly the highest fail rate.  You have to get the javelin into the hay bale and it has to stay.  The mud and water weren't fun, but they were doable.

2/3 of the Trifecta

Hardest - Dunk wall as far as fear factor.  It was all I could do to talk myself under that wall in the muddy water.  All of you, including your head, have to go under.  Terrifying for me.  Physically the bucket carry and hoist were the hardest.  The fire jump is also more nerve wracking than I expected.  Mostly because of the big muddy water feature you jump into.  But it's the last obstacle... So the reward, the finisher's medal, is at the end.



The two races were one of the harder things I have done.  They weren't terribly long like riding the bike for hours for the MS150 but they were whole body and mind challenging.  I have never been as sore before, even with all the crazy things I have done.

I signed up for the third race in the series, the Beast, which will be October 29.  The Beast is 14+ miles with 35 obstacles and will be near Dallas.  I figure I am 2/3 of the way to the Trifecta by number of races.  I have 2/3 of the three piece medal set you can get in a year.  I am half way by distance as the two races combined were 14 miles.  I am way over half way on obstacles.  I did 53 obstacles in the two races.  Two races in two days was tough....Fortunately the second day I had my friend to help push me along.  I also didn't crash on the second day and I made it over several more obstacles without help.  And my friend and I both made the Javelin.  We couldn't believe it.  No one around us made it.  I skipped for a little while I was so excited.  I tried a different strategy on the barbed wire.   I tried rolling.  That was fine except I got so dizzy I couldn't stop and almost crashed into a pole.  Then I had to get un-dizzy.

Sidney did the 1 mile kids race.  She had a blast.  They had mud, logs, walls, A-frames, ramps, cargo net, crawl under a net, and they carried a big metal pole.  She is excited to try another one when we go to Dallas.

On day 1, for the Super, I was 34th of 201 40-45 year old females, 265 of 1697 females overall, and 1524 of 5535 people overall.  On day 2, for the Sprint, I was 61st of 221 40-45 year old females, 515 of 1951 females, and 1727 of 4600 overall.  I went into this worried I was going to die, or be last.

River Walk Day 2

Sidney volunteered to bring pond water to school for the pond water lab.  We like to go onto the golf course via jumping over our back fence, climbing down the stone wall, and getting through the trees. I am not sure if that is trespassing or not.... anyway there is a pond down the fairway that she likes to go to.  So we went down and got a liter of pond water, silt and three tadpoles (and a few snails).  I caught the tadpoles for her and I got the A+ mommy award that day.  The tadpoles are hanging out in science class in an aquarium the teacher has so they can grow into little frogs.  It was actually a lot of fun.

We had a minor cat problem.  I let her out one evening and kind of forgot about her... I remembered right before we went to bed.  She had escaped and was in the front of the neighbors house.  Through much stress, chasing, bribing, growling, hissing and scratching she was finally caught and brought back home.  She is only supposed to be on the back porch but her bird TV shut off when the sun went down so she escaped to find trouble.  And she had already eaten dinner so she wasn't food motivated. I was pretty terrified for a while and feel terrible guilty.

Dunk wall day 2

We had another round of hail last Monday.  We were on our way to piano when it started.  I got under an overpass and waited.  Glad I did.  When we got to the piano studio, there was really big hail on the ground.  Golf ball size and slightly bigger.  I saw several cars with broken windows.  I would have been pretty upset to have my new car damaged.  I am not sure yet if we have made it through hail season.  I sure watch the weather like a hawk.

The last note... We have a rat.  I don't mean a real rat (like the one in our attic) but a squirrel who for now is named Rat.  Said squirrel has taken many of Sidney's tomatoes and now is proceeding to eat into my storage box on the back patio.  The bird food is in there but it is in another container too.  He didn't try this last year. Rat.