Working Dog

At the end of October I introduced a new family member. She came to us as a 17.5lb black fur ball with the sweetest little tri-colored face. Her official name is Werlwind’s Picture Perfect. How do “they” come up with those names? She was part of the “p” litter thus her official name had to start w/ a “p” to designate what litter she is from. I picked it out, because after all I really did think she looked perfect. My girls picked out her calling name, Miley and yes the Disney super star did have an influence over the choice by my younger daughter (her only claim to being a girl at heart with her very tomboy exterior).

Now 5+ months later our little fur ball is 75lbs and still growing, has a gorgeous coat of shiny wavy fur, big brown eyes and what seems to be a constant smile, Smiley Miley. Since the first week we have been following a morning routine when the girls are with me. Miley wakes me up at 6:00-6:30am to go outside, then breakfast and then she waits for my older daughter to come up to go to school. We go out and she gets in the car, I used to pick her up and put her in back. While driving I could only see a small tuft of fur every once and a while moving about in the back. Now she jumps right in and takes up most of the rear window. She often rests her head along the side window and watches the world go by as we drive to school. She watches my daughter until she is out of sight around the building and then she settles in while we drive home. Once back home she goes in to wake up my younger daughter by leaping up onto the bed and laying ½ way across her, wagging her tail and giving a couple licks. We get ready and when it is time to go I open the closet and grab her leash. Over the last few months the routine has resulted in her new behavior, excited and wagging her tail she waits for me to affix the leash to her collar. I fold it over a few times and she gingerly takes it in her mouth and goes to the front door for our departure. Once out the door she waits until both my daughter and I are walking and she trots a few steps ahead looking back and waiting every few seconds. She holds her head up high and stop at every corner to sit and wait for us when I say “stop”. We used to get about a block this way then I would take her leash and we would do a normal dog walk. Now we are up to 6 blocks until we turn and hit a busy street. Miley trots in front doing what I now understand is her job. She is taking my girls to school this is now what she knows she should do. I honestly believe this to be true because on the way home when it is just the two of us she stops and sniffs, she chases after leaves or follows birds and squirrels as far as the leash will let her and she pulls me a little and looks to me for treats. I am amazed by her, at any other time we go for walks she really acts like any other dog on a leash. But every morning she is waiting to work and she leads the way. When the girls aren’t there I actually see a change in her smile, she is missing a very special part of her day, just like me.

HUGE sigh of relief!

Doc's have decided that the nodule they found is not a threat at this time and that just watching it by ultrasound is fine. Whew, the though of more blood draws and fine needle biopsy from my 9 year old had me very worried. Even though I tried to say it is nothing everything will be fine, I really was fearing the worst. So glad they don't think it is an issue and can be monitored non invasively.

My Doc decided that after my complaint of leg weakness and failing the leg pressure test that the second spinal injection needs to happen, today. Yesterday she stuck ~25 needles in my back, hurt for a while but actually feels a little better today. This hopefully will get me back to were the doc says I need to be, square one, no bike riding, PT and stretching. Then slowly add swimming and biking. Is Saturday slowly? Prolly not...

Speaking of Saturday, Walla Walla! Good luck everyone who is going I am jealous to not be there. I will keep my fingers crossed that the report for very cool temps and precip are wrong, wrong, wrong!

VP Breakdown

First and foremost, life has a way of putting everything in perspective very quickly. My daughters are the number one important thing in my life and when one of them gets sick its scary, when the docs don't know what's wrong you realize how quickly everything can change. After Tuesday night in the ER all night with my little one and calls later in the week with somethings they need to look at more closely I realized that nothing I do in life is more important then caring for my girls. Keeping my fingers crossed now as I wait for what the next steps I am hoping with everything that I am that it is really nothing and they are just doing their jobs to be sure of that.

It is a very good thing to have outlets and friends, especially when there is stuff on the horizon that scares you. This is why I LOVE the cycling community, it was so nice to be greeted by so many friendly faces. Regardless of how I did the day was perfect, sun sun everywhere and I finally got to shed the arm warmers and I got to spend the day involved in my favorite sport with my girls, friends and our puppy. What a glorious day.

VP:

I got there at 7:45 to set up a spot for our cat 4 team to warm up and get out on the course for the pre-ride that Gina is always kind enough to wake up and do with us. Not sure what happened with the warm up many gals didn't show til later and never saw them for the warm up but I tried. Watched the 4/5's race while warming up and then went around a few times before the line up. I went around one too many and ended up starting at the very back of what ended up being a field of 53 women!

Starting position was not ideal but I didn't really care since I figured I had very little chance of surviving the entire race. At the gun I was pretty much DFL around the water tower I could see the front of the race disappearing down the hill before I even made the left turn. Oh well, I spent my remaining time making up distance and finally got tethered onto the back of the main field but I just couldn't get the power to move up into the pack and get shelter. After a few times around with the field just in front of me my back and right leg told me I was finished. 15 of a 30 minute crit, oh well.

Thank you to Gina for yelling encouragement to me even as I fell off. Thank you to Amara and her always upbeat can do attitude with me, (one of these days I will actually do what she says she knows that I can :) I appreciate all of the people I could here cheering for me even though I was clearly not going to do anything spectacular. Thanks to Shannon for calling me the night before to just wish me luck knowing it was my first attempt at racing this year. To all of my friends THANK YOU!! It really does mean a lot and I hope I can return the same type of encouragement to all of you at some point.

There was a crash in the W123, Annette seemed to get the worst of it, hoping for a speedy recovery for her. Amara, I hope you are feeling better and no more dizziness!

As far as my team, they did awesome! This was the 1st crit for many of the W4's each one of them hung in and rocked that race. I hear they repeated the performance at BL Memorial the following day too. Yeah!

Wish I was well enough for Walla Walla, bummed to not be part of the whole team bonding thing right now but my time will come.

Still working on my back, still trying to keep life in perspective, with my little girl who is giving me a scare, I just keep hoping that it is nothing and she is going to be fine. She is my highest priority. It helps to have all the other encouragement to keep me positive and to keep hoping for the best case. Life just keep coming no matter what and you've got to roll with it.

Cheers!

expanding and shrinking

What do you do when even with every good intention you still fall further and further away from where you want to be? This is my question today. I brought in a very healthy lunch of hummus veggies, salad w/ feta and pepperoncini's and the goal of eating in my office then getting to the gym to do core and stretching. Riding my bike? well no, too busy this morning getting kids and pets ready to get myself packed and ready to ride in. Did I get to the gym? well no, too busy helping people at my lab, and waiting for people to show up that are late or don't show at all. Time that I could have actually gotten to the gym now gone. When do I get to do something for me? I get to take sick leave tomorrow to get needles in my back, does that count?
So, what is expanding? My frustration along with my ass! What is shrinking? My ability to cope with current state of being and my fitness!

Volunteer Park is Saturday, I am seriously not in race shape but hell or high water... OK rain or shine, I am going to roll up to that little white line clip in and pedal. Humph!

See ya Saturday! BTW... not a chance that I will be in my skinsuit ;p

Swimmy

I went swimming yesterday. How is that it is so much more complicated then getting all the bike gear on and out the door for a ride? Already misplaced (or lost if I don't find) my goggles. It felt good to get some form of exercise. I used to be a pretty good swimmer, 200IM was my thing. Yesterday was during open swim at Ballard which meant crosswise with kid bobbing back and forth across the lane. Still OK just LOTS of turning around hard to get in a rhythm. One thing about swimming if I do it for 30-40 minutes continually I am starving when I get out and yesterday I realized actually very thirsty. Still it seems to be so much more consuming of time to get ready and get in the pool than to put on all the lycra, helmet, shoes, gloves, goo, water bottles, ipod etc. Why is that?

I was going to swim at the IMA today but it seemed like too much work that early in the morning to remember everything... Uh, Swimsuit, goggles (if I could find them).

Hmmm.



Anyway it seems that swimming can be for everyone... if we only put forth the effort. ;p