Blogging with the brontosauruses

Yesterday's planned adventures to the Masters' Swim workout and the pro tennis tournament, both experienced some curveballs. I ended up swimming indoors at lap swim alone instead of outdoors with a team (a little disappointing, but I got in a really good swim) and, well...we didn't exactly find the tennis tournament. Long story and let's just say there was a lot of family time in the car and some general crankiness, but we never saw any tennis. However, we did get back to the Island in time for me to get a nice long sunny walk on the beach and I was really psyched about it.

When I returned from my walk, my parents were in their usual happy hour poolside positions with many of the neighbors, one of whom produced a glass of wine for me before my butt even hit a chair. Love the neighbors!! These people know how to do retirement right. They all, also, understand the necessity of cable internet access...well, except for my parents...who are quite computer savvy, but insist on living in the "Land Before Time" and having a dial-up internet connection. For the love of god. I had conversations with several of the neighbors who are also fed up with trying to call the Brontosauruses on the phone only to get a busy signal. I was pleased to hear that the community has various strategies in place for getting them to conform to sane communication practices and I'm really hoping the village can come together and help solve this situation soon...It would be great to visit and actually load Facebook when I click instead of flossing, brushing my teeth, texting and taking out my contacts to pass the time while the damn page loads.

Today I hear it's sunny in Seattle and I'm watching/hearing a big thunderstorm here at the moment. This morning was OK, though, and I improvised something akin to a normal workout. I took out the mountain bike again and went to the Causeway, the highway bridge to the island. It's the only hill for miles and it was a godsend. I did 6 round trips over the bridge, making for 12 hill repeats. Each hill was only about 1:30, but it was great to actually be sweating, riding outdoors in shorts and doing something sort of resembling a real bike workout...and with the flat pedals, no hamstring pain (well, until later after I got off the bike). I was wondering, of course, whether riding without toe clips is creating some kind of bad triathlon-threatening pedal stroke habits and/or further muscle imbalances, but the endorphins trumped the worry about that. Also got in a nice walk on the beach later, too, with the parents before the storm (and accompanying tornado warning nearby) hit.