A Strange Season

Glenda personifies the current oddness of life

Since my last installment, pretty much everything that was on the calendar for 2020 was cancelled...but that doesn't mean we just gave up.  Sometimes you have to embrace the strange and do what you can with it. So this blog is a catching up for this strange season an there will be more focused posts going forward. I think it mainly goes to show that life changes, but at least for me the REALLY important things haven't stopped (just maybe gone a bit virtual).

VIRTUAL VACATION SHENANIGANS

In June, we took a virtual running cruise to Alaska!  It was appropriate, since Alaska is one of our favorite places to go...and running cruises are one of our favorite ways to travel.  The "trip" included a FaceBook page where there were several activities such as telling jokes on hump day and karaoke on friday as well as just general sharing.  

We definitely went all in on the jokes...here's an example

There was also Karaoke and other photos and videos. 

And at the end of the cruise we got an "Oscar" for all our shenanigans...and Shenanigans Studios was born.  (A bit more on that later)

And of course there were virtual races.

The first virtual Alaska was the Moosehead 5k.  We repped for Bullwinkle Moose's alma mater (and it was my latest 5k so far this season)

Who better for a treasure hunt than a pirate and a prospector

A couple of well-fed Ravens (in honor of the Skinny Raven running store in Anchorage) ran a trail predictor race the "Ward Lake Loop"

Claiming to be "Fittish" for the final 5k 

MORE VIRTUAL RACES (AND ONE REAL ONE!)

Besides the Alaska Races, there have been a number of other virtual races including a Summer series put on by some of the same people that do the Virtual (and real, when it is possible) running cruises.  As such they each had a different way to win the race, which I find very appealing. 

The Summer 5 x 5k series

Race #1 was a patriotic themed "treasure hunt" that we did on July 4. (I also added on to complete the Have a Blast 4-miler)

Race #2 was the Lemonade 5k...a prediction race (I never predict well!) So of course we were lemony!

Race #3 was the Ice Cream 5k, to win you had to have the median time.  I was slower and Glenda was faster, but we definitely had the ice cream gear

Race #4  The Lightning But was all about speed (and Glenda won!)...we ran in at dusk with firefly skirts and blinking lights

And finally, race #5...the Roller Coaster.  Cue the hills, the rollercoaster skirt and the silly shirts

Plus 2 Virtual 5ks, a Du and a Tri (or 2)

Also in the last couple of months, I did a couple of other virtual 5ks which appealed to me, the 2nd in my progressive Du series, and a Virtual Triathlon that replace a travel race slated for October.  I also did another tri, but I'll talk about that later. 

On July 13 I did my second du of the year, one I completely made up, based on one I did years ago...The Suellen's a Tough Cookie Du

On July 28, I repped for Wisconsin in the Big Ten Network 5k, a race I've been meaning to do for awhile that was virtual this year

On August 7, I completed the Ramblin' Rose Virtual Tri (250 yds/9 mile bike/2 mile run) which took the place of the race I was to have done in Chapel Hill, NC.  Incidentally, I got one of my favorite run pictures of the year so far

August 18, 2020 was the hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment "Women's Suffrage" ...I ran a 5k to honor the day.

And a racetastrophy

And then there was the real life Du that wasn't.  I signed up for the Screw City Du months and months ago.  It was actually held on the 26th of July (after a postponement from May).  There were lots of precautions in place and masks were required except while actually racing.  The day came and the heat index at the 8 am start was over 90 degrees and the heat was oppressive.  By the end of the first run I knew it wasn't my day...so I dropped to the 2 mile run option.  Probably my worst race day ever. 

Masks and medals at the hottest race(s) ever

A BIG BIRTHDAY REIMAGINED

On July 8, 2020 my Mom turned 90 years old.  Originally we had planned for a big party, but COVID-19 put a stop to that. So the family "divided and conquered" to come together

The birthday girl on her 90th...doesn't she look great?

First came the "card shower" before the birthday...she got cards and letters from many.  There were signs in her yard and on her door into the hall in her condo. 

On the day of her birthday, my son's family brought candy and the girls made a giant card, my brother and his wife brought her a steak dinner, and later we stopped by with cake. 

A few days later there was a firetruck parade, photos, another cake and a family Zoom meeting with special guest appearances by several old friends and co-workers. After all of this Mom declared herself more than sufficiently celebrated.

SUCKING IT UP FOR MY KIDDO

On July 21, 2020 my daughter. Melanie was scheduled for back surgery to extend her spinal fusion.  She was allowed one support person and I was elected.  

I hadn't been able to see Mel for some time as for several weeks her group home was being very careful about visitors. But once the surgery was scheduled, I attended her last two pre-op appointments. I also spent the night in a hotel the night before the surgery and sat in the hospital most of the day of surgery.

I was glad to do those things for her, but the anxiety about these visit was pretty overwhelming. 

Pre-surgery photo in her stylish chapeau. After a month, she is healing well, through inpatient rehab and back home.  Surgery appears to have been a success.

TAKING A CHANCE WITH A SHORT TRIP

We had MANY trips cancelled this year.  One of them was a trip with our granddaughters and their parents to Branson, MO in July.  At that point the virus was high in our area and blowing up in that area of Missouri/Arkansas, and none of us was comfortable with the trip.  

So we decided that we needed to try to find something safer.  We settled on a big house in Door County, WI with amenities that meant that we didn't have to interact with the rest of the world any more than we wanted. We were fortunately able to be quite certain that no one had the virus before we went.

There was fishing both in Sturgeon Bay (directly behind the house) and the stocked swimming/and fishing pond in the front of the house. 

Fisher Ellie

Fisher Maeve

Some of the fisher crew

Swimming was another favorite activity

The pond had a floating dock

And we put on our own triathlons,  one for us and one for the kids

Ellie finishes the tri

Maeve dashes to the finish

Glenda and I preparing to start our tri

And of course, there were s'more...because, s'mores!

S'mores!

BECOMING UNRETIRED

About 18 months ago I announced my retirement from adjunct teaching,  mostly because helping to deal with all of Melanie's issues before, during and after her major bladder surgery was consuming. Between that and our athletic and travel pursuits I couldn't really give my work the time and energy it deserved.  But I really never fully adjusted to being retired, I frankly did not like it.

Once Melanie was settled not quite a year ago, I told just one school (that I'd been adjunct for for almost 9 years at that point), that I might be willing to teach again. I early August they contacted me to see if I would teach a class...and by the time all was said and done I was teaching two, and have been assigned two more for the Spring. 

MORE SHENANIGANS AHEAD!

So what's next?  Lots of things.  For instance starting August 30 we will be doing another virtual cruise...this time Hawaii! And there will be more videos and races and general goofiness. All of our videos are now "credited" to Shenanigans Studios, an idea born in the wake of our Alaska videos. 

Sometimes February is the Longest Month

Nassau, Bahamas February 1...The month started out well

February may be only 28 days, but this year it was VERY long.  Oh, it started out well enough at the end of a trip to the Caribbean...but it was sort of downhill from there.  And it seems to be lingering. Recently, these words  from Jim Croce's Hard Time Losin' Man popped into my head.

Oh, sometimes skies are cloudy
And sometimes skies are blue
And sometimes they say that you eat the bear
But sometimes the bear eats you
And sometimes I feel like I should go
Far far away and hide
'Cause I keep a waitin' for my ship to come in
And all that ever comes is the tide

Melanie

As many who are reading this already know, my daughter Melanie has been struggling with health issues in recent months.  In the end these issues lead to the decision to perform a cystectomy with an Ileo loop (basically bladder removal with a reconstruction and urinary stoma). This is a surgery most often performed for bladder cancer, but in her case the issue was repeated and severe infections that never quite healed...which can lead to further complications (including risk for a form of cancer).  After 6 or 7 hospitalizations in 5 months, the surgery was scheduled for January 4, but she got another severe infection and it had to be put off to February 15.

Her body did not make things easy...she got another infection requiring hospitalization (we think the 9th since September) on February 5.  After several days of treatment, consulting with multiple doctors from various specialties etc.  it was decided she would stay in the hospital until the surgery.

Happy that surgery day finally arrived

At long last the 15th arrived, Mel had all her parents there and her brother and a niece came by as well.  The surgery itself went well. They did have to place the stoma in a more awkward position than was hoped which would/will require more practice for her to deal with, but that is relatively minor.  We were in great hopes that in a week she would be home and on her way to a healthier, more independent phase in her life.

But it was not to be.  She developed an ileus (basically a section of bowel that did not want to wake up). She spent her 37th birthday feeling nauseous and awful.  All of this slowed down her recovery, but she finally went home February 27th...22 days after admission, making February a very long month.

I wish that was the end of this story, but on March 2 she developed another complication (an abscess and infection) and was re-admitted to the hospital. As of this writing (March 9) she is still there....

The weather

In December the weather was fairly mild.  We talked about wanting to have some winter so we could snowshoe, etc. It was most definitely a case of "be careful what you wish for." The cold and snow started in January (and we missed much of it in our travels), but it kept right on going with over 20 inches in February, along with some freezing rain and bitter cold.

The worst part was that between Mel's stuff, training, and both of us getting miserable colds we didn't even get to do much snowshoeing. I think Glenda went twice and I never got to at all.

The weather also affected my races for February.  On the 17th we started out for our Valentine race an hour away...it was snowing and the roads were awful and slippery. We turned around and came home.  Fortunately there was a virtual option and so I ran the "race" on my treadmill later that day.

The other race affected was March 2 in Nebraska...It was to check Nebraska off my list. We were to drive starting the 28th of February. But as the day approached wind-driven white outs were creating havoc on Iowa roads that we would have to travel, and the forecast for the race was bitter cold on race day, with frozen rain the day before.  So we made the decision not to go.  In the end, it was the right decision as the race was cancelled due to ice on the course...they did not feel they could make it safe. We will be doing a different race there in June.

Triathlon training and coaching

Meanwhile a problematic situation cropped up in my athletic life, ending in a change in coaches.   In hindsight I know that sometimes things just don't gel. As a teacher and academic advisor I've seen these things happen before both to me and others.  No one's fault particularly, but highly frustrating, nonetheless. And just as in those other situations, a change was in order. A lot of things were up in the air for a while which was pretty unnerving.

On the bright side I seem to have connected better with the new coach.  We have changed up some things, and I feel like things are on a more even keel. I will be cheering my previous coach and her athletes, I think she is a good coach and I regret that things didn't come together as I would have liked. I apparently just needed something different. So things have settled down, but the turmoil around this change initially, contributed to a long month.

There were still some blue skies

So, February was LOOOONG!  But I would be remiss if I didn't point out that at least a few good things happened too. So I've listed the highlights below:

Started the month dressed as a mermaid in the Bahamas...not all bad!

Proud to start my second year as a skirt sports ambassador

Had a blast at my first indoor try of the year!

Here's hoping that March and beyond have more days...but aren't quite so long!