Don't think I blame them in any way, but the family puts a crink in the training. Was doing good the week before last. Had a Brick planned for last Saturday. Long Run on Sunday. All came falling down when I was doing a brake job on the car Tuesday night (that would be May 1). Brakes/Strut job, decided to throw the strut in because I thought it would be easy. Well, the nut on the ball joint was rusted, so rather than say let's not do the strut, I broke the bolt with my 24" breaker bar. This made the car non-drivable, because at 6:30 in the evening the auto part stores don't have a ball joint for a 1992 Volvo. I rode my bike to work and home on Wednesday. Wanted to start doing this just not this soon, but Tamara needed other vehicle. Wednesday night, my father-in-law picked up ball joint for me. New problem, old Ball joint will not come loose from control arm (if you don't know what this is, trust me, big pain in the rear). So I disassembled control arm, sway bar, and other arm thingy. Still could not pound ball joint out of control arm. Soaked in what seemed to be a gallon of Kroil Oil (penetrating). Nothing got penetrated, no come loosey. Tamara gets home 8:30. Too late to take anywhere. Below is a picture. It was bound up just below the rubber seal shown here. I know you probably are not that interested, but it was my obsession for three days.
Thursday: Rode bike to work. Tamara comes to get me at noon. Brings control arm assembly because I couldn't carry the extra 20 pounds on bike. Mechanic at work helps me over his lunch break. We put it in the 20 ton press. Took 10 minutes to setup, 22 seconds to come loose, and only three tons of pressure. (I have ordered a small 6 ton press for home off of EBAY this week, this $60 may save my marriage). Took half a day off to go home, put car back together. Just in time for Maddy to get off the bus. Tamara claims I become some what obsessive about finishing jobs I started, I get some tunnel vision by not giving up and sending it to the garage. I really couldn't understand her until I saw the light at the end. I'm working on it.
Did I mention I was getting the car fixed to travel to Hinton, WV for Maddy's Academic Bowl. Well, that was what I was doing. I take car for 10 minute test drive, I shower, I pack clothes for the night, and Maddy and I drive 4 hours to Hinton. Car ran great, if it had broken down, I may have been calling someone here for a non-voluntary sabbatical from my family. Academic bowl was at a summer camp, so I spent the night on a bunk I thought was two mattresses stacked on top of each other, in the morning I would have sworn it was two box springs. I currently am making appointment with chiropractor.
Kids did great. The third and fourth (Maddy's group) grade took 1st in the scavenger hunt. They didn't place in the oral/math competition but were solidly in the middle of the pack (8 schools). End of day, we drove back home 4 hours. Got home around 9:30 PM Friday.
Woke up Saturday, finished setup for annual community yard sale. Did this from 8 - 4pm. Tamara said no food in the fridge, so we went out to dinner. Got home from dinner, I fell asleep early. Sunday went to church, then traveled to Pittsburgh to IKEA for all day shopping trip. Got home about 8 PM. Fell a sleep early again.
This was a little out of control for me over the last week. This week is a lot better. I'm glad my job was mellow. I backed off on the work outs to keep a little sanity. Planning to ramp it up. I have to get a good three weeks of work, then tapper for a week before Rocky Gap Triathlon.
I hope you all are living a stress free, probably not possible, so living with stresses you can handle. I know I went on a little, but it is very therapeutic to write about it. Thanks.
Thursday: Rode bike to work. Tamara comes to get me at noon. Brings control arm assembly because I couldn't carry the extra 20 pounds on bike. Mechanic at work helps me over his lunch break. We put it in the 20 ton press. Took 10 minutes to setup, 22 seconds to come loose, and only three tons of pressure. (I have ordered a small 6 ton press for home off of EBAY this week, this $60 may save my marriage). Took half a day off to go home, put car back together. Just in time for Maddy to get off the bus. Tamara claims I become some what obsessive about finishing jobs I started, I get some tunnel vision by not giving up and sending it to the garage. I really couldn't understand her until I saw the light at the end. I'm working on it.
Did I mention I was getting the car fixed to travel to Hinton, WV for Maddy's Academic Bowl. Well, that was what I was doing. I take car for 10 minute test drive, I shower, I pack clothes for the night, and Maddy and I drive 4 hours to Hinton. Car ran great, if it had broken down, I may have been calling someone here for a non-voluntary sabbatical from my family. Academic bowl was at a summer camp, so I spent the night on a bunk I thought was two mattresses stacked on top of each other, in the morning I would have sworn it was two box springs. I currently am making appointment with chiropractor.
Kids did great. The third and fourth (Maddy's group) grade took 1st in the scavenger hunt. They didn't place in the oral/math competition but were solidly in the middle of the pack (8 schools). End of day, we drove back home 4 hours. Got home around 9:30 PM Friday.
Woke up Saturday, finished setup for annual community yard sale. Did this from 8 - 4pm. Tamara said no food in the fridge, so we went out to dinner. Got home from dinner, I fell asleep early. Sunday went to church, then traveled to Pittsburgh to IKEA for all day shopping trip. Got home about 8 PM. Fell a sleep early again.
This was a little out of control for me over the last week. This week is a lot better. I'm glad my job was mellow. I backed off on the work outs to keep a little sanity. Planning to ramp it up. I have to get a good three weeks of work, then tapper for a week before Rocky Gap Triathlon.
I hope you all are living a stress free, probably not possible, so living with stresses you can handle. I know I went on a little, but it is very therapeutic to write about it. Thanks.
1 comment:
I can relate to part of that. The Noreaster that hit a few weeks back brought up all sorts of new basement projects. The pressure on the walls pushed out quite a few old patches.
I had put drain pipes in my yard and my uphill neighbor's. Sadly it's not enough.
Anyhow, We never said we were going to be upset about not finishing in the top of our division in these Triathlons. Enjoy what you can from it. That's what I'm doing.
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