Back in place, A team a B, Super Sunday
While Ali went running early Saturday morning I got busy outside. All of the stuff that moved for paint prep had to be put back in place.
One of the things that had to be put back were our two water barrels, however I wanted to clean them first. We have had these water barrels in place for years and years and I have never cleaned them. Let’s just say that was a mistake.
When I dumped the first barrel some sort of gelatinous, black, slimy organic matter poured out. I touched it with my hand and felt like throwing up, it was that gross. It took quite a lot of pressure washer work to clean out the inside of the barrels. It made me commit to dumping a cap full of bleach into the barrels once a month or so.
Putting everything back took much longer than taking it out. Part of the process included pushing back the river rock that was pulled back for the Rhinoshielding which took awhile. Finally I had everything back in place a little after Ali returned from her run.
After she took a nap we headed out into the yard and attended to mowing / weed whacking the property. It was looking like shit. Much like the house with it’s new paint job, the yard was transformed after we were done with it.
I wasn’t done. Once we moved inside I worked diligently to get pretty much every remaining chore for the weekend done so our Sunday would be free. Ali generally hates when I push to do this but when a carefree Sunday follows she seems to enjoy it.
While I was at it I installed a new roman shade Ali bought for the office to block out sun that would slip through the holes in the venetian blinds.
I hadn’t done enough that day so I went outside and shot a quick video of my current muscle up progression.
On Saturday night I popped in my latest Netflix dvd, The A-Team. I had waited a long time to see this flick. I was a pretty devouted fan of the the original A-Team tv series. The movie wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great. Don’t get me wrong, it was jam packed with action pretty much non-stop and there were plenty of bad guys getting what they deserved. But for whatever reason it just didn’t connect with me all that much. I’d give it a B.
The plan for Sunday was to head to the water park for a brick. Since Ali ran Saturday, she was supposed to ride bike and swim while I was going to do all three triathlon activities. It was very difficult to get Ali out the door. She was whining like a 5 year old about how she didn’t want to do the bike, she just wanted to swim. I literally had to ask her a half dozen times to get up so we could get going. Ali basically HATES doing bike work. Ironically, any accomplished triathlete will tell you of the three events, being a strong biker will make the biggest difference in your overall performance.
Eventually she was ready to go although we were leaving the house a half hour later than the time I wanted to already be at the park. I had the truck loaded up with our bikes and all the associated gear. About half way there Ali says to me “you aren’t going to believe this and I swear I didn’t do this on purpose. I forgot my bike shoes” Sigh….
Of course I was frustrated but I certainly wasn’t going to drive back to get them. I knew she didn’t do it on purpose but now that meant I would be doing 2/3 of my workout solo.
When we got to the park I got on my bike while Ali headed inside to start swimming.
I did an 11.30 mile ride at an 18.5 mph pace. I was pleased with the ride considering I have done very little bike riding since last October. Next up was the run. I did two 2 mile loops around the park at just below a sub 9 minute mile pace which again I was pleased with.
During the run I had an unexpected encounter with a snake. As I approached I thought the snake was just a branch that was half on and half off the pathway. By the time I realized it was a snake I was right on top of it. It was about 6 feet long and had copper and gold squares on it’s body. I’m not quite sure what type of snake it was but I wasn’t interested in stopping to find out.
After the run I headed inside to swim, putting in 1000 meters. The water park was packed, the swimming lanes had a bunch of people around them, including some clueless ones.
As I was heading back from one of my laps I reached for the wall and instead felt my hand hit a hairy back. Some hispanic guy had hopped in the lap pool and was just standing in the middle of the lane holding a little girl. What the f?? I popped up and said EXCUSE ME? The big oaf mumbled something. As I swam the other direction I saw the lifeguard walking over towards the point of the collision to tell him to get the f out of the lane. As I passed her I said “Thank you….” during a breath.
Christy and Michelle showed up as I was getting done. They wanted to do some swimming. They both had been at a concert the night before. Evidently there was copious amounts of alcohol consumed. Christy still seemed a bit drunk. It was funny.
I had instructed Ali to go get in the food line as I was finishing up since I went through that hellish wait the week before. Ironically at 12pm there was next to no line, sweet. However 1:30 must be the witching hour. Last week I got food around that time. At 1:30 yesterday the line for food was insane, probably two and a half times what I waited through. I have no doubt people at the end of that line waited at least an hour to get food. The park management really needs to find a way to address the slow lines. For now our fix for it is get your food EARLY.
It seemed like the water park was even more packed than the week before. We had to walk around for a while just to find two adjacent chairs together, it was nuts.
Urine was the theme of the day. Michelle swears she swam through a pocket of urine some grown women left in the far end of the lap pool. The women entered the deep end for a brief period of time and then got right back out, I mean wtf, the bathrooms were right around the corner you lazy pig. Later, a little girl in the chairs next to us pee’d herself as she stood there while her parents watched. They reassured her and said “It’s ok” Sure it’s ok honey you just take a leak whenever you want, on the sidewalk, in the grass, in the pool…. Ugh.
I could feel that I was getting too much sun so we didn’t hang out for a real long time, leaving mid-afternoon.
The rest of our weekend was very nice. Ali got to take an extended nap, the doors and windows were open letting the dry air blow through the house and we got to chill out, courtesy of getting all the annoying chores done the day before. It was a blueprint for how I would like most weekends to be.
I caught myself quite often admiring the new look of our house courtesy of the Rhinoshielding. At the same time I thought how time consuming and miserable the job would have been if I tackled it myself. It was one of the few times when I didn’t regret paying someone else to do the work.