Cleared out, calfed, suddenly shaved

So my family cleared out late morning yesterday.  Ali was off yesterday so she got to see them off.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home last night after work to see that Ali had been busy getting the house cleaned back up.  Nearly a week of 2 additional dogs and 4 additional people can make things a bit chaotic as you can imagine.  I really appreciated that Ali took the initiative to do that,  I wasn’t looking forward to having to do it myself.

It felt sort of weird as I sat on the couch with Nicki and Sadie, the lack of noise/activity felt foreign.  For the past week or so the 4 dogs were a near constant source of entertainment.

Sadie definitely seems a bit mopey since her dog and human friends left.  She just LOVED having so many options to interact/play with.   I think she snuggled up to everyone at one point or another.

So I had committed to just doing the damn half marathon a couple days ago.  However I still have this weird left calf ailment going on.  Once I get up and going it feels ok but when I wake up first thing in the morning it feels like I have a strain right in the middle of it.  It would really suck to do something like tear a calf muscle during the race.

On the plus side, the pain each subsequent morning has been slightly less so I am hoping by race day (Sunday) it will be good to go.  I will probably bite the bullet and sign up today.

This morning I woke up when Ali got up to do her early AM swim practice.  It’s amazing how much you can get done before work if you get up at 4:30 AM.  Hell I even had time to shave my head.

The head shave timing served two purposes.  I have a dermatologist appointment this week. A shaved head makes it easier to examine my cranium since I have had 3 problem spots in my scalp so far.  Secondly a high and tight hair cut works out well for sweaty endurance events like a half marathon.  My hair will look the same at the finish as it does at the start.

Now that we have a number associated with my tax refund I can start pulling the trigger on a few items.  Unlike many years past where the refund went toward home projects or to pay off loans, this year we don’t have any big ticket intentions which is kind of nice.

The list of things I need to buy is pretty mild, including some maintenance items for the Scooba and the pool cleaner.  A replacement IAC for the Tacoma and the 90,000 dealer service for the Camry Hybrid.

The Camry service will be the biggest chunk but I will be doing some investigation/negotiation to get those costs down.  I think they try to steal close to $1000 from the average Joe for that service.  There are a lot of things they do and since we have no plans on getting rid of the car, which has been bullet proof so far, I figure it is smart to get the maintenance done.  I will be getting a list of what exactly is scheduled to be done and analyzing it line by line.  If a lot of it is “fluff” that I can easily do myself I might take the car somewhere else to get the more involved things done and still come out many dollars ahead.