Pilcrow

Life continues to be very busy for me, a lot of that being due to paid work, which is mainly why I continue to neglect my journal. But I wanted to take note of my cycling today. 

I mentioned back in January that I had something of a financial collapse at the start of October due to a serious lack of work in the summer and seriously overextended use of credit, followed immediately by a sudden surge in work that carried on right through the winter (and hasn't let up yet), much to my relief. One thing I didn't think to mention in that post was how much bicycling I'd done in those three months. Because my ORCA bus pass was tied to one of my credit cards that had been cut off, I was trying to save it for emergencies, because I didn't know how soon I'd be able to afford to reload the ORCA account. (And it turned out that my credit card had been cut off just before the last time I'd tried to reload the account, so I actually owed ORCA money.) And with just a small stash of quarters available, I couldn't actually afford to ride the bus regularly, as I'd been doing.

Fortunately, I had my bicycle; so I just started cycling everywhere. That turned out to be surprisingly easy to do, even with wearing my laptop-holding backpack, even despite the very hilly terrain of Seattle. I'd say I was out on my bike at least five days a week, and probably averaging 50 miles a week. Just cycling from my place to Bauhaus, which I was often doing as I had so much work to do, meant about 8 miles round-trip. 

So that was actually rather fun most of the time, and I felt great about getting so much exercise. But finally by mid-December I was tired of cycling in the cold weather, and reluctant to cycle when it rained. And then one day when I got home and stepped off my bike, my lower back said Aaaah!, and I figured I'd better take some time for that to feel better. By that time, my finances had recovered enough that I could afford to ride the bus again. And then as it happened, in the week or so it took my back to feel better, we had a good snowfall, which settled the matter for me: time to put the bike away until spring.

Well, spring is finally here. Actually judging by how I've been suffering with allergies, it arrived about two weeks ago, right on schedule with the equinox. But yesterday I finally felt able to get through the day without taking allergy medication, and today was just too gorgeous, sunny and mid-60s, for me to pass up the chance to get back on my bike. So I went out for a ride along the Ship Canal Trail (which I'm so happy they finished back in October) into Magnolia and up through the Ballard locks to Golden Gardens Park. Then I went back through Magnolia (walking the bike up the footpath to Commodore Way) and along the Elliott Bay Trail to the Olympic Sculpture Garden, up Broad Street and 5th Ave past Seattle Center to Mercer Ave, and then over to Dexter Ave and home that way. Google Maps—15.7 miles, estimated 1 hour 39 minutes. I was actually gone about 2 hours 20 minutes, but I spent a little time walking through the locks (both ways) and around Golden Gardens. That was probably a longer trip than I should've done today, considering it's been over three months since I last did any cycling, but I felt good enough that I didn't want to head home just after the trip to Golden Gardens, and overall I still felt fairly good by the end of the ride. 

Now I need to get my bike into the shop for a tune-up. I also need to get some bungee cords and figure out how to strap my backpack down to the carrying rack I had installed when I got the bike, so that I don't have to lug it on my back and possibly hurt myself again. And I need to get a stand-up pump, because it turns out that trying to reinflate my tires with a handheld pump is a really hard workout that I could do without. But once those things are done, I can start riding regularly again. I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't been doing regular bicycle rides in the morning as I intended to. Last week I didn't get out at all; two weeks ago I did get out and do one ride, but I believe that was the week when I had to go get a new connector cable for my iPhone so I used the necessity of a trip to the Apple Store at U Village to my advantage. Hmm, or was that three weeks ago? I might've missed two weeks ago as well. I don't recall now, the point is that I've at best managed only one bike ride a week instead of my intended twice a week around the lake plan. 

This afternoon, though, the weather was sunny and breezy rather than cloudy with showers as predicted, and I realized I couldn't let the good weather pass by once again without taking advantage of it. I decided it was a good day to head to Magnuson Park, which I've never yet visited in my 9.5 years here. I also had grandiose ideas of going from there through the Windemere and Laurelhurst neighborhoods and then back along the Burke-Gilman Trail all the way to Golden Gardens Park to see the sunset.

Once I got as far as NE 65th Street, though, I thought about how I'd never been to Matthews Beach Park either, which wasn't that much further along the trail. As I'd decided it was a day of exploration, I went ahead with that thought. I almost kept going even past that; I knew that a section of the trail was closed for construction, and when I saw the detour sign just before Matthews Beach warning that the trail was closed 2.5 miles ahead, I thought that I might as well go as far as I could. But then it occurred to me that just adding that part was another 5 miles total I hadn't planned on, and I was concerned about whether the trail would descend steeply from that point and necessitate a big climb back (I didn't really know that I was already pretty close to the level of the lake), so I decided it was worth saving for another trip. 

Matthews Beach Park turned out to be a very nice park hidden away along the lakeshore, and I really liked it. It seemed like a good spot to come back for a picnic in the summer. And although I knew, conceptually, that Magnuson Park was pretty big, just from looking at maps, I was still struck by how big it was. It does seem that a lot of it is taken up by sports fields of various kinds, but it still has other big open fields as well, and a really big (fenced-in) off-leash area for dogs, including a dog beach. I also heard and spotted A Sound Garden, the kinetic sculpture from which the band Soundgarden took their name. Unfortunately, it's actually on the NOAA facility property rather than in Magnuson Park proper, and access is restricted—apparently on a weekday I could've checked in at NOAA's main entrance and walked over to see it, but not on weekends. Still, I'd known that it was somewhere in that area, and it was neat that I finally got a chance to see and hear it, thanks in part to the windy weather. The windy weather also provided me with another cool sight: when I got down to the boat launch in the park, I saw several people both windsurfing and kite surfing out on the lake. The kite surfers were particularly impressive, traveling so fast with the wind that I almost did not believe they weren't motorized. At least one of them kept making some pretty spectacular leaps out of the water, too. 

At that point I headed back up NE 65th Street out of the park, and paused when I got to Sand Point Way NE. I'd been looking at the map on my iPhone, and I was suspicious about whether Windemere was a hill (it is) and how hilly Laurelhurst is (I'd driven through Laurelhurst once before, and recalled it being built on a hill too, which it is). Although I still wanted to check those neighborhoods out, and also use that as an opportunity to find the bike path around the south side of UW's sports fields, I figured it would be a better idea to head back—I even thought that maybe I should head home, put in the next load of laundry, and then I could still go catch the sunset at Golden Gardens Park. However, as I started riding the trail back, I discovered that I was hungry. And rather tired. And feeling cold because the wind had picked up some more, and I was sweaty from the ride. I wasn't even halfway back to Fremont before I realized that I was done for the day; I certainly didn't want to head straight to Golden Gardens, and I wasn't likely to want to head back out after I stopped at home. So I slogged on home, and felt pretty tired and even a bit shaky when I got there, so I was happy to consider my ride done. It turns out that the ride was about 20 miles, the longest I've yet done since getting my bike, and quite a long ride to do when I haven't done any cycling in a few weeks. 

Google Maps—20.1 miles, but the route plotted on the map includes a bit of doubling back out of Matthews Beach Park that I didn't actually have to do; there's a footpath leading from the road circle on the southern part to 51st Ave NE, so I went out that way to get to Sand Point Way NE. Google estimates the trip time at 1 hour 55 minutes, but I was actually gone for about 2 hours 50 minutes; I left around 3:20 pm or so and got home about 6:08 pm. But I spent a while in Magnuson Park, not just cycling straight through, and I was definitely riding a lot more slowly on the way home. 

I'm going to be pretty busy in the next few weeks, between Decibel Festival, the KEXP fall membership drive, and actual paid work, so I don't know if I'll get another chance to do a long ride any time soon. And I'm not even sure I'll be able to do the twice-weekly lake loop I want to be doing as regular exercise. But I'll have to make some effort to do so, and hopefully there'll be another day with decent weather later in October when I could go explore some other part of Seattle I haven't been to yet. 

Today being the summer solstice and longest day of the year, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to go out for an evening bike ride when my plans ended unexpectedly early and I was back home by 8 pm.

My initial idea was that I'd ride up to Golden Gardens Park to see the sunset, and that I'd cross into Ballard by way of the Ballard Bridge rather than going up through Magnolia to the locks. But as I got to the Ballard Bridge I decided to try using the vehicle underpass to cross 15th Ave W, which worked fine, and then continue south a bit to W Dravus Street and cross into Magnolia after all. And as I cycled up Gilman Ave W, I decided that instead of going to Golden Gardens Park, I'd just do the Magnolia loop again, but this time incorporating the bike loop in Discovery Park.

When I got to Discovery Park, I stopped to check out the map of the park, as I was still confused about the bike loop and whether the Loop Trail was supposed to be for bicycles as well. That was when, as I stepped off the pedals, my left calf reminded me that it'd been ten days since my last bike ride and informed me in no uncertain terms that I really needed to stretch my legs a bit before going out on rides with long hill climbs. I staggered as the muscles seized up, and it hurt quite a bit, but fortunately they eased up after a couple minutes and with a little careful stretching it seemed like I'd be fine to continue. 

I cycled through part of Discovery Park—it turns out that bikes are only supposed to use the paved paths, which does not include the Loop Trail, and I'm still confused as to how much of an actual loop there is for bikes—and exited at the south gate. Then I couldn't resist making a side trip down Perkins Lane W, a long dead-end road along the side of the Magnolia bluffs where some obviously well-to-do people have some pretty fantastic houses, and doubling back up W Raye Street—which, although steep, wasn't as bad a climb as I'd feared—to get back to the main Magnolia loop along Magnolia Blvd W. From there, it was around the rest of the loop and back to W Dravus Street.

I'd been considering whether to cross into Ballard and take the Burke-Gilman Trail back to Fremont, as I needed to pick up some things at PCC Natural Market. So I stopped at the corner, and that was when my right calf said no, really, what were you thinking doing all those hard hill climbs without any stretching? Gahh! Once again it mercifully recovered after a couple minutes, but I was rattled enough that I just walked my bike along W Dravus Street to get back to 15th Ave W. I considered just biking home and then walking to the store (or not), but eventually decided I seemed to be okay enough to do the extra Ballard-Fremont loop and would rather go get my groceries right away than put it off.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and my legs are okay now, but definitely still have the feeling of having been exercised. I need to do better about stretching; I actually meant to start stretching in the mornings again, but having to get up early to do full-day work at KEXP last week made me put that aside. Likewise, doing shorter rides a couple times a week should help build up my strength and endurance, I've just been too busy to get into that. Hopefully I can start in on that now.

Google Maps—14.1 miles, estimated time 1 hour 43 minutes, actual time was probably pretty close to that, not counting the stops along the way.

Maybe later this week I can do the ride to Magnuson Park, that should be easier and shorter.

Ten minute writing break from struggling with these stupid documents.

I miss swordplay. Not a euphemism. While I was training in martial arts, I got to do some training with swords, and I enjoyed that a lot. It was very satisfying to learn how to swing a sword around and to go through the katas and forms. One thing that held me back from picking up training when I moved here was that I didn't know where I could go to get a mix of kung fu, tai chi, and sword training, like I'd been doing back home before I moved. Another thing of course was not putting in a lot of effort to investigate schools and find out if anyone was offering that. Although they do have Oom Yung Doe schools out here, which is the system in which I first trained (as Chung Moo Doe on the East Coast), I didn't want to return to those schools, as it wasn't quite the mix or atmosphere I was looking for. In any case, once I'd bought my condo, I began the long slow slide into my current financial difficulties, and that became the prime reason why I haven't returned to doing any martial arts training. A year or two ago, I learned of a school up on Aurora Avenue that offers kung fu, tai chi, and weapons; and apparently there's a new tai chi school very close nearby that offers sword training as well. So I may have a couple options, but first I need to straighten out my finances. I did bring my training swords with me when I moved (and occasionally wonder if I broke any state laws in doing so), but haven't tried doing any training on my own; by now I don't expect I'd remember any of the forms well enough to feel comfortable doing them. I was thinking about doing 10,000 cuts as a follow-up to my 10,000 push-ups from last year; the car crash sidelined my minimal exercise and stretching efforts, but I should try getting back into that soon. And I should go get a bicycle next week, speaking of renewing efforts to get some exercise.

Still ill, though I seem to be pulling into a new phase. The headache and flushed feeling have mostly subsided, still a little achiness, but now in the past several hours my nose has become congested, so that's probably going to drag on for several days. I'm wondering whether the congestion is spring allergies, and whether in fact the whole bout with sickness has been some new awful way for the allergies to start. I'm guessing not, though I'm still not sure what I've been dealing with—flu? cold? I can never remember how to tell the difference. In any case it's gradually spoiled my plans throughout the week. I was at least able to go up to Broadway today to get some groceries—there are other supermarkets closer than that QFC, but I wanted to get some dishcloths from the home goods section, and I had some letters to drop in the mail; really, though, I just like walking on Broadway when I get a chance, and the weather was decent if a bit chilly. I also had a little work to do today, and I was able to focus on that without trouble, whereas in the previous couple days I just felt too worn out to concentrate on a computer screen. I didn't even listen to any music until this evening, that's how worn out I was feeling. I do still need to get to bed soon, as I haven't been sleeping all that well, either. I've awakened a couple times each night drenched in sweat, which feels really nasty as I try to roll over and the cold air chills it. Hopefully that's done with. And hopefully I'll be well enough to do something fun this weekend. I've already bowed out of a "food club" dinner gathering on Saturday with a bunch of friends, on account of not being well enough to prepare something ahead of time—the theme was "green food", I was thinking green tea ice cream and lime sorbet (separately, not one batch), but I would've needed to start that at the beginning of the week—and not being sure I'd be well enough to attend. Maybe I'll just be restful right into next week. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to have a bunch of work drop on me on Friday, maybe I'll just be working all weekend.

In stark contrast to my travel adventures of the previous two months, my flight to Boston was possibly the smoothest one ever. No fuss or waiting at security (and no backscanners in use yet, and no pat-downs), I was able to change my seat on both planes to slightly better ones, I did some light dozing on the first flight to Minneapolis and then some heavier sleeping for a couple hours to Boston, nary a sound or fuss from any of the kids within earshot or from the small dog in a carrier, and I got in to Boston on time. Really the only downside was that my knees started hurting from being kept in the slightly bent seated position for so long, and my feet apparently swelled as I had to loosen one boot near the end of the first flight and then loosen the other near the end of the second. 

My brother and I had a good brunch at The Beehive with "Sarah from Boston" of KEXP fame, and then drove up to Jeremy's house in Dover. I dozed off in the car just before we crossed into New Hampshire, and did not wait long after arriving at his house to lie down again and nap for another couple hours or so. The lack of sleep and the illness are getting to me. I roused for dinner at Rocky's Famous Burgers in Newmarket and an hour or so of Rock Band, and I've stayed up for a bit to catch up on some online stuff, but really, I've had it. It may be only 8:30 in Seattle, but it's 11:30 in New Hampshire, and I'm wiped out. Time for bed. Fortunately, tomorrow I can sleep in for a bit.

My visit to the orthopedic doctor today had better results than I was expecting. The x-rays show no sign of the fracture, so the bone has healed! That means I no longer need to wear the leg brace or use a cane or anything. The doctor said that I don't even need to have any physical therapy unless I really wanted some, as my leg hadn't been out of use that long, and the knee was still easily flexible (thanks no doubt to making sure I spent at least five minutes daily flexing it, as the first doctor had advised); she said whatever physical activity I normally pursued would be good enough to rehabilitate it.

Despite the fact that I did flex the knee daily, however, I quickly discovered that my knee does need some readjusting to normal activity. It feels more sore now when I try to do something like walk down stairs than it ever did from the fracture or from swinging it around awkwardly while braced. The leg felt odd, not quite wobbly but not quite sure of itself, when I first started trying to walk normally after the check-up. Just the effort to use the leg normally in stress situations, such as walking down stairs or kneeling down (I had to clean the litter box and bathroom today), definitely made it hurt immediately, though it was tolerable and manageable. And I keep catching myself using the movement habits of having my leg braced, such as taking stairs one step at a time and keeping the right leg straight. The soreness may take more than a couple days to ease, but I think I'll get over the restricted walking habits pretty quickly.

I'm particularly pleased that it's off now, as I'll be flying to Boston on Saturday and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of wearing the leg brace. I hadn't even called the airlines yet to tell them I was going to need special seating consideration, which I really should've done weeks ago; fortunately, now I don't need to. It's also nice that I no longer have to take up 2+ seats on the bus, or otherwise have my leg sticking out in people's way. And I've got my right hand available again to carry things if needed, as I won't have to be holding a cane. Really, walking on two functional legs is a pretty cool thing. Appreciate it.

With my mobility limited by my broken knee and lack of a car, I feel even more keen to get out of the house when I can and appreciate it more when I do. And now that winter's here and daylight saving time has ended, I feel a greater urgency to get up in the morning and get out of the house during the day, particularly when the weather's actually nice. Yesterday was mostly sunny and in the mid-50s, when the weather report had called for rainy and high 40s, but I got up pretty late and had to spend the afternoon at home to clean the litter box and bathroom, do laundry, and catch up on paying bills. So that was a little disappointing. But today also turned out nicer than predicted, although a bit colder, and I got out of the house to deposit some checks and mail some others. An unexpected dinner invitation meant that I ended up spending more time on the bus and less time working than planned, but it was good to go for dinner (I really didn't feel like making anything myself, either) and that also meant I spent more time outside during the afternoon than planned. 

It also gave me a good opportunity to come work at Bauhaus this evening. I've been wanting to do that as it's one of my favorite spots to work, but it's a little more complicated for me to get here and back by bus. In particular, without my own car, it's a lot more difficult for me to take advantage of Bauhaus's late hours, as I have to be sure to get back downtown in time to catch a bus headed by my home. But my other concern about visiting Bauhaus is the seating issue: with my leg in a brace, I really have to have two seats, one for me and one for my leg, and Bauhaus is a popular enough spot that there often aren't that many seats to spare. So I'm wary about trekking out to Bauhaus by bus only to find there isn't room for me. But tonight it was easy for me to stop by Bauhaus on my way home from dinner; if there wasn't room, I could simply hop back on the next bus downtown, no worry. And fortunately there was room for me. I was also a little concerned that sitting in the high chairs along the window counter would be difficult with my braced leg, but that's worked just fine. So I'm happy to know that I can still come hang out here while I'm recuperating, although I may not always be able to stay.

Yesterday I meant to go out to the post office in the afternoon to get my ballot and some accident-related paperwork in the mail, but it was raining hard enough that I just didn't want to leave the house to run errands. The weather did break by early evening, which was nice as I had plans to walk over to Fremont to meet some KEXP-volunteer friends for dinner. That was a good time. About an hour after I got home, I felt really tired, struck again by the immediate urge to nap, and dozed for probably about 20 minutes. That was a mistake, apparently. After pulling out of my doze, still feeling pretty tired, I got ready for bed. But in the past few days I'd been staying up on the late side again, playing Torchlight, and sleeping later in the morning. So I spent the next few hours lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, through some combination of my later hours and the quick nap.

Despite not falling asleep until really late, some time after 4, I was up just after 9 this morning. One of my neighbors was expecting a package delivery today and asked if I could sign for it, so I knew I needed to be around in the afternoon. That meant I had to run my errands to the post office and store around midday, so I could be home later. I felt that was a good thing, really, because it ensured that I would in fact get out of the house in a timely manner to get my errands done. And then today I wanted to make an effort to tackle some items on the list, so getting the errands done first would put me in a good place to do some other work. However, after getting back from my errands, I had to talk to one of the other insurance companies involved in the accident, and then I was hungry enough to eat lunch. And then I settled down on the couch, wanting to start taking care of business, but I felt so tired from inadequate sleep and running errands that I simply gave in and napped for three hours. 

It's not a bad thing, really. I'm still recovering, things are still a bit messed up, and I did need the rest. But I do have some other pressing needs to attend to, and I'm getting anxious about that. There's still much to do and accident or no, I still need to get more work coming in.

I'm doing okay, one week after the crash. My chest hurt a lot, particularly the center to right side, from Wednesday through Friday, but started feeling better yesterday. It's still sore but not as painful to stretch, twist, or move about. I'm a little concerned that the right side hurt so much while the left side, where the seatbelt restrained me, actually hasn't hurt very much since the first day. The hospital only did x-rays of the left side of my chest and shoulder, because that's what was particularly hurting that night However, they did do CT scans of my whole chest, I believe, so I'm hoping that means it's okay. My right knee really hasn't hurt very much at all, despite the fracture in the patella. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my regular doctor as a follow-up to the emergency care, so we'll see what he thinks.

Unfortunately I don't have the orthopedic appointment scheduled yet. I tried last week, the soonest they had available was November 3 but they gave me the option to give my contact information and have them call me back if they could fit me in sooner. However, that seems to have left me without an appointment scheduled at all. So now I have to call them back tomorrow and try to get something officially scheduled.

Having to wear the leg brace until the orthopedic team sees me is the only frustrating thing so far, because it limits my mobility and makes sitting and sleeping awkward. The hospital gave me crutches to use, but also told me that I could put my full weight on the leg; the patella anchors some tendons that let the knee bend, so they're only concerned about that bending straining the bone, not about the weight. So I believe I could hobble along well enough without the crutches, at least on fairly level ground; trying to walk up and down steep hills is the only situation that may be questionable without crutches. Crutches are awkward to use, strain my upper body, and try my patience. But since they gave me the crutches to use, I feel like I should be using them. Hopefully I won't have to much longer.

Insurance matters are slowly moving forward. The appraiser has inspected my car and given an estimate, I have paperwork to fill out for the personal injury claim, I've received the basic information on the other drivers involved in the accident but still have to wait until some time next week for the actual police report. My car's remaining here for a bit longer until I establish whether some other insurance company needs to look at it too; hopefully that will be dealt with by the end of the week. I'd actually like the whole matter over and done with soon, but I have a feeling I'll be dealing with various things for a while.