I finally finished 50 face masks to deliver to my mom's place! It took forever for the elastic to arrive, and then I think I made some of them too short. But today they were finished! I decided to take them down after work, and while I was down there go for a hike in the blue hills. Today was sunny and warm, totally hiking weather! I drove down the expressway to get to the blue hills right around 5, and was driving 60 mph. That's crazy! Usually you sit in traffic, it would take an hour and a half, today it took 30 minutes.
It was amazing being outside and hiking. Although I have been going to the fells, and the rock circuit trail is a little up and down, I hadn't really been up a mountain in a long time. According to the interwebs, the great blue is about 690 feet tall (I guess that's not really a mountain), but there's a lot of up and down, so it's over 700 feet of elevation gain. Which is respectable.
I tried to use what I've learned from parkour to be more efficient at stepping on the rocks, and going downhill without having to say "trusting your feet, one step ahead" the whole time I went down. I was somewhat successful. I'm trying to decide what to call it: hiking with parkour? Parkour stepping? Using your parkour? Parkouring? I feel like "using your parkour" makes it sound a little like a super power, so I might go with that.
Yesterday I went for 1.75 mile run. I really didn't want to, but I did pretty much nothing on Sunday, and Monday I didn't leave my place at all. So... I mapped a new route that is reasonably flat and mostly goes on side streets, though it does go on the bike path for a block. It took me about 18 minutes, something like a 10 minute 30 second mile I think, which I was pretty happy about. I was also happy to stop running. That's not really so far to run, but I don't think I could have motivated to go further.
Work is getting more serious about the furlough discussions. The new executive director (who started April 1, what a way to start) is trying to say that we are all critical and should be kept, but I'm not sure anyone is buying it. It sounds like there is talk about dropping everyone down to 80% (which I could live with, though I wouldn't love) or ??? I don't think she's going to be able to get away with keeping everyone at 100%, though maybe I'm wrong. We are supposed to find out in the next couple of weeks.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Monday, April 20, 2020
Zoom Parkour
My parkour place is holding 45 minute geriatric classes via zoom on Monday nights. I didn't do the first two because of rain, and such, but tonight I decided to join. There isn't really space in my place to do parkour, and I don't want to be jumping around because I don't want to annoy the guy downstairs. I decided I would try to do it in the park - of course almost all of the parks are closed, but a few are big enough that they can't close them. I was going to go to one of the athletic fields, but it's pretty public, and I wasn't psyched about working out there. So, on my way there I scouted out this other park, which turn out to be way better. It's pretty close to the train tracks, but also hidden away enough that not that many people go there. Except people walking their dogs. When I put my hands and knees down, I tried not to think about all the dogs....
It was super fun, and I will definitely have to do it again! We did all the warm up exercises, many of which I like, and many I don't like. Then we did some crawling around (again not thinking about dogs) and a little jumping. We had a few exercises where we tried to think of inventive ways to turn around and go in a different direction. But, it was mostly strength and balance training. It was nice to be back in a class setting, and to see some of the people I had taken class with! Also, we enjoy ribbing the coach, so we got to do that again.
The park is .8 miles away from home, so I could run there, work out, and then walk back home after. It's definitely more down hill on the way there, though there's some uphill as well :)
I've been working on facemarks for my mom's senior living center. So far I have 26 made, which isn't that many considering that they have room for over 200 in the place, but I feel like it might still be a little while before they allow people out. The goal is to have over 50 by the end of next weekend. And to hope that my elastic that I ordered comes soon.
It was super fun, and I will definitely have to do it again! We did all the warm up exercises, many of which I like, and many I don't like. Then we did some crawling around (again not thinking about dogs) and a little jumping. We had a few exercises where we tried to think of inventive ways to turn around and go in a different direction. But, it was mostly strength and balance training. It was nice to be back in a class setting, and to see some of the people I had taken class with! Also, we enjoy ribbing the coach, so we got to do that again.
The park is .8 miles away from home, so I could run there, work out, and then walk back home after. It's definitely more down hill on the way there, though there's some uphill as well :)
I've been working on facemarks for my mom's senior living center. So far I have 26 made, which isn't that many considering that they have room for over 200 in the place, but I feel like it might still be a little while before they allow people out. The goal is to have over 50 by the end of next weekend. And to hope that my elastic that I ordered comes soon.
Friday, April 17, 2020
20 Minute Run
I feel like I haven't been getting my heart rate up enough to really call it exercise this week - I went for a few long walks and did yoga, but nothing aerobic. Today I had a little more time for lunch, so I decided to go for a run! I wasn't particularly excited about it, but what can you do? I decided that my regular 5K was probably too far, and anyhow the bridge is still out, so I did a shorter route that has less hills - it's 1.88 miles, going on the first part of my 5K but then turning on the bike path and heading back. Everyone in the world is on the bike path - I'm glad I only took it for a block! It was pretty tough running, but I held on and didn't stop at all. Total time was pretty much exactly 20 minutes, which is about 10 minutes 40 seconds a mile. I did want to throw up at the end.
There's this little produce store at the end of my street, and when I got back I stopped over there and asked if they had yeast - they did! I went home and got money, and then scored a TWO POUND BAG of yeast! That's a lot of bread to bake :) When you really think about it, it's so weird that we have come to a place where standing in line to get groceries is normal, and being excited to have ingredients to bake bread is a thing. Who would have thought it in the US in this time?
My work is talking about furloughing employees - I think I'm safe because I have a lot of work to do, and it's my busy season. I looked an I'm in the top 5 for appointments for my office, and I've had the most in the past month. But when top colleges are looking at furloughs, it's a baad sign for higher education. Scary stuff!
There's this little produce store at the end of my street, and when I got back I stopped over there and asked if they had yeast - they did! I went home and got money, and then scored a TWO POUND BAG of yeast! That's a lot of bread to bake :) When you really think about it, it's so weird that we have come to a place where standing in line to get groceries is normal, and being excited to have ingredients to bake bread is a thing. Who would have thought it in the US in this time?
My work is talking about furloughing employees - I think I'm safe because I have a lot of work to do, and it's my busy season. I looked an I'm in the top 5 for appointments for my office, and I've had the most in the past month. But when top colleges are looking at furloughs, it's a baad sign for higher education. Scary stuff!
Saturday, April 11, 2020
38 Mile Bike Ride
Since I've logged about 5 miles on my bike since Africa, I decided that the perfect activity for today would be biking from home to Concord for a socially distant walk with friends, and then biking back. My butt is killing me! It was a nice day out, though a little windy, and I was feeling so cooped up and out of sorts, I knew I needed some good exercise. When my friends suggested Concord, I thought it was perfect! One end of the bike path is about a mile from me, and the other end is about a mile from Concord Center, although I wound up taking the roads for a little bit of the ride since it's shorter and there are fewer cars out.
I had forgotten how uphill it is on the way there, my legs were killing me and I was so tired. Fortunately the frozen yogurt place in Lexington was still opened, and I got a peach mango yogurt with a ton of toppings. They let you choose your own there, which I'm pretty sure isn't sanitary, but it was sooo good! I sat on the common and ate and people watched. A lot of people are now wearing masks outside - it's a big variety - some surgical masks, some home made, some even seem to have the fancy masks that are supposed to be just for healthcare providers. I brought my hot pepper mask, but didn't wear it outside, just for in stores.
We walked for a few miles in Concord and didn't talk about coronavirus, which was really good. I'm so tired of talking about it all the time. The way back was more downhill, which I greatly appreciated.
We had a virtual seder this past week. It was actually kind of fun, though not as nice as the real thing. The one thing that was nice was that my sister, niece, and my niece's kids came - my niece's second seder I think and the first for her kids. We did it at 4:30 because my brother is still in London and I had to make matzo balls for the first time! The first batch I made were pretty cannon ball like - you could probably bring down the Spanish armada, but the second batch was really good! Maybe I packed the first batch too much? My mom was supposed to join us by phone, but she left her phone off the hook by accident and missed it. We recorded it for her, but maybe we will wait to send it - it took her two days to find her phone, I'm not sure about her opening a video.
My brother timed us, and the "half hour seder" does take 65 minutes, and I read one full page because I was hungry :) I was able to find a lot of passover foods, but only found horseradish sauce. My sister gave me some thankfully, I can't imagine gefilte fish without horseradish! I will close with my favorite gefilte fish haiku from haikus for Jews:
Lacking fins and a tail
The gefilte fish swims upstream
With great difficulty
I had forgotten how uphill it is on the way there, my legs were killing me and I was so tired. Fortunately the frozen yogurt place in Lexington was still opened, and I got a peach mango yogurt with a ton of toppings. They let you choose your own there, which I'm pretty sure isn't sanitary, but it was sooo good! I sat on the common and ate and people watched. A lot of people are now wearing masks outside - it's a big variety - some surgical masks, some home made, some even seem to have the fancy masks that are supposed to be just for healthcare providers. I brought my hot pepper mask, but didn't wear it outside, just for in stores.
We walked for a few miles in Concord and didn't talk about coronavirus, which was really good. I'm so tired of talking about it all the time. The way back was more downhill, which I greatly appreciated.
We had a virtual seder this past week. It was actually kind of fun, though not as nice as the real thing. The one thing that was nice was that my sister, niece, and my niece's kids came - my niece's second seder I think and the first for her kids. We did it at 4:30 because my brother is still in London and I had to make matzo balls for the first time! The first batch I made were pretty cannon ball like - you could probably bring down the Spanish armada, but the second batch was really good! Maybe I packed the first batch too much? My mom was supposed to join us by phone, but she left her phone off the hook by accident and missed it. We recorded it for her, but maybe we will wait to send it - it took her two days to find her phone, I'm not sure about her opening a video.
My brother timed us, and the "half hour seder" does take 65 minutes, and I read one full page because I was hungry :) I was able to find a lot of passover foods, but only found horseradish sauce. My sister gave me some thankfully, I can't imagine gefilte fish without horseradish! I will close with my favorite gefilte fish haiku from haikus for Jews:
Lacking fins and a tail
The gefilte fish swims upstream
With great difficulty
Monday, April 6, 2020
Parkour Rolls
Today at parkour we learned how to do rolls! It was so fun. The secret, it turns out, is to tuck your head in your armpit and roll from shoulder to hip, as opposed to in gymnastics when you roll over your head and down your spine.
I decided to get a good workout in (very necessary since I baked the most delicious honey oat bread last night) so I ran to the park, climbed the wall 10 times, did class, and walked home! It's about 1.5 miles from my place to the park and it took me 17 minutes to run there. But, I put on my fleece when I left home and realized about 3 minutes in that I needed to take it off, which took a minute or two. So, I was running about a 10 and a half minute mile, I think. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It seemed pretty slow, to be honest, but I passed pedestrians and was breathing hard.
Climbing the wall, I did a few climbs where I had some moves that seemed almost a V0. One thing that is good about climbing it is that I don't feel scared at all, and I could definitely get hurt if I fell. So, it's keeping me a little in practice.
The parkour rolls were definitely the most fun part of the class. I felt a little dizzy, I'm not going to lie. It's been a long time since I somersaulted down a hill. I've kind of missed it!
After class I walked home and ate a lot of bread!
I've been working on making fabric masks for the family. I can now make them pretty fast. I have the ones for the mail pretty much done. The plan is to send them out tomorrow, and then do my sister here's next.
I decided to get a good workout in (very necessary since I baked the most delicious honey oat bread last night) so I ran to the park, climbed the wall 10 times, did class, and walked home! It's about 1.5 miles from my place to the park and it took me 17 minutes to run there. But, I put on my fleece when I left home and realized about 3 minutes in that I needed to take it off, which took a minute or two. So, I was running about a 10 and a half minute mile, I think. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It seemed pretty slow, to be honest, but I passed pedestrians and was breathing hard.
Climbing the wall, I did a few climbs where I had some moves that seemed almost a V0. One thing that is good about climbing it is that I don't feel scared at all, and I could definitely get hurt if I fell. So, it's keeping me a little in practice.
The parkour rolls were definitely the most fun part of the class. I felt a little dizzy, I'm not going to lie. It's been a long time since I somersaulted down a hill. I've kind of missed it!
After class I walked home and ate a lot of bread!
I've been working on making fabric masks for the family. I can now make them pretty fast. I have the ones for the mail pretty much done. The plan is to send them out tomorrow, and then do my sister here's next.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
New Circle in the Fells
So the 30 day yoga challenge only made it to day 5. I guess I can officially call that a fail. I think I'm better off doing longer yoga once a week than short yoga many days. So, yeah, I'll try to do that!
Today I went for an early-ish walk in the Fells. I decided to head over to the Rock Circuit because I thought it would be less crowded. It was a good decision because it seems that they've closed off the main parking lot in the shepfold area - there were two plows parked in the middle of the road! I started out heading in a circle, but thinking that maybe I wouldn't do the entire thing. By the time I got to fellsway road, I decide I definitely wanted to head back. I took the blue blaze trail - the crossfells trail. I thought it would be one of those wimpy paths, but it actually turned out to be a really nice trail! Definitely a nice little loop for a change. Total walk time was 90 minutes.
I came across three groups on the narrow trails, and each time there was space for someone to step off. Weirdly, at the bigger trails it seemed harder. At one point I came to an intersection, and this woman was just standing there, right in the intersection, looking at me. It was near the dog area, and there were a ton of people. It's not rocket science, just move over 6 feet lady, and I can get past you!
I've been sewing masks for the family since the CDC now apparently recommends that we wear them. It's really weird to see people walking around with masks on. I went to the supermarket today, and I wore one that I made, it's white with hot chile peppers on it :) With all this being at home, you would think there would be a ton of free time, but I feel really busy. Mostly with things like baking bread, sewing masks, and eating popcorn, but that counts.
Today I went for an early-ish walk in the Fells. I decided to head over to the Rock Circuit because I thought it would be less crowded. It was a good decision because it seems that they've closed off the main parking lot in the shepfold area - there were two plows parked in the middle of the road! I started out heading in a circle, but thinking that maybe I wouldn't do the entire thing. By the time I got to fellsway road, I decide I definitely wanted to head back. I took the blue blaze trail - the crossfells trail. I thought it would be one of those wimpy paths, but it actually turned out to be a really nice trail! Definitely a nice little loop for a change. Total walk time was 90 minutes.
I came across three groups on the narrow trails, and each time there was space for someone to step off. Weirdly, at the bigger trails it seemed harder. At one point I came to an intersection, and this woman was just standing there, right in the intersection, looking at me. It was near the dog area, and there were a ton of people. It's not rocket science, just move over 6 feet lady, and I can get past you!
I've been sewing masks for the family since the CDC now apparently recommends that we wear them. It's really weird to see people walking around with masks on. I went to the supermarket today, and I wore one that I made, it's white with hot chile peppers on it :) With all this being at home, you would think there would be a ton of free time, but I feel really busy. Mostly with things like baking bread, sewing masks, and eating popcorn, but that counts.
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