Sunday, July 5, 2009

I am still so unbelievably sore (and other random thoughts)

I never worked out yesterday. The gym was closed and we had rain and thunderstorms all day long. Plus, I am so sore from lifting Wednesday through Friday that any movement at all hurts. Two of my three lifting days were upper body, but it was squats on Thursday that really did me in. I had done very little lifting, especially lower body lifting, since I hurt my hamstring in April.

My wife and daughter are out of town for the weekend, so my son and I had the day to ourselves yesterday. My son just got his driving permit this past week, so I took him out for his first ever drive yesterday. We stayed in empty parking lots for the day, but we may venture onto some little-used roads today. It's fun watching how excited he is to learn how to drive a car.

Today, it's windy but sunny outside. I may run a few miles with my son at an easy pace, but I think my main goal is to ride some miles on my road bike. Then, it's time to get the lawn mowed. I managed to repair my lawn tractor yesterday, so I have the tractor and a new self-propelled mower to attack the lawn. It's been 3+ weeks and if we don't do it soon, we'll have hay to sell pretty soon.

It's only two weeks until the VT100 and I'm hoping the course has a chance to dry out between now and race day. The mosquitoes are pretty bad right now and some dry weather would help with bugs and trail conditions.

I guess I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy right now. I just took two vacation trips, including one to CA to help their economy. Then, I bought a new lawn mower on Friday. And, I also put down a deposit on a new car the same day. Assuming that the paperwork all goes as planned and the dealer offers a fair price when they look at my trade-in this week, I'll be driving a new Subaru WRX by the end of the week.

My 2004 WRX has been the perfect car for me and my lifestyle. In the summer, it's just plain fun to drive, including on my long commute to work. In the winter, I put studded snow tires on it and it goes just about anywhere and always gets me to my ski teaching gig. But, that car has almost 150K miles on it right now, and my wife's car has almost 130K miles. So, it's time to upgrade one of the cars. We haven't had a car payment for over 3 years right now, so that will be an adjustment. But, I've been very lucky in my employment situation recently and there is a tax incentive for buying a new car this year, so it's time.

The 2009 WRX is faster and more powerful than the 2004. Plus, I'm buying it in red. I have only gotten one speeding ticket in the 150K miles on the current WRX. Hopefully, the red color won't invite too much more scrutiny from the law.

No comments: