An errand day.

2012-02-27: Day +77.

I took an extra day this weekend just to be with my sweetie after her three week absence :).

We did a bunch of chores in the AM, the most interesting of which was to take a look at married student residences at the UofC. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'll be doing nothing but school full-time from May forward (April is half and half). So, we thought it a good idea to check them out and see if these would be a good fit.

The initial impression was pretty favourable. For two people, there is a good amount of space, including an actual basement. (Quite a bit better than what I lived in in the 70s at the UofA). So, we sat with it for the day and sat with it and ....

At supper, we made this fantastic salad (Big bowl of greens, veggies, feta cheese, avocado). After supper, we loaded the dishwasher and talked it through.

It just would not make sense.

The initial thought was that it would save us a bunch of money and we would be walking distance to all of the UofC (including the gym, library and bookstore). The thing is, though, it doesn't really save us that much actual money. Cash flow would be better, of course, but at the end of the year, our asset base would be pretty close either way. So, no advantage there. Secondly, I already live a 25-30 minute walk from the UofC. So, yes, a bit further and less likely to do it for a casual gym visit. Definitely not a clear win.

The clear loss, however, was the kitchen. They are quite small. Having just completed a 4 week course in chef school, that doesn't appeal to either of us :).

Final nails in the coffin:

• No laundry in the units. (UofA had those).
• Moving costs and hassle
• Putting items into storage
• Moving hassle
• Less comfortable surroundings
• Moving hassle

So - we're staying put for another year. (This is about the 10th time we have made this decision....)

First day of sweetie school!

2012-01-30: Day +49.

This was my sweetheart's first full day of raw chef school. Yes — creating raw food dishes. They got a new knife which doesn't fit her as well as the other knife, but also a gorgeous jacket and head wear. Maybe some pictures another time.

My leg / hip hurt like wildfire today after all the walking. So, we finally got a car for the next while. Much better. Two 25 minute walks a day is OK, but 5+ is just too much for the arthritis.

Worked today while sweetie was at school. As usual, working out of the office seems 5 times as productive as working in the office.

Further work on using Cucumber. I managed to get a complete scenario of an administrative user logging in and viewing a variety of pages. This is one of the most fascinating tools I have seen for development in a long time. I may see how it can be integrated into a Haskell development cycle.

Walked and walked and walked

2012-01-29: Day +48.

Walk from the hotel to whole foods, 25 minutes, buy some stuff.

Walk back to the hotel, 25 minutes, total 50.

Walk to Penn mall, 20 minutes, total 70.

(Cab to the hotel and then to whole foods — great cabbie accidentally gave him a 50 instead of a 20 because this !#^$!&#£ American money all looks the same, and he gave me change and showed me it was a 50.)

Walk from Whole foods to hotel, 25 minutes, total 95.

Walk from hotel to Matthew Kenney OKC, 27 minutes, total 122.

Walk from Matthew Kenney OKC to hotel, 28 minutes, total 150.

2 and 1/2 hours walking is enough in a day.

A Tough Day For The Leg

Day +17.

I find it quite amazing that after 54 years or so of walking with my feet pointed out that retraining myself to keep them straight is happening so quickly. For the past two days, I have been straight with every spot check.

Not so amazing is the amount of physical discomfort it is giving me — on both legs. Ice and Arnica rub again today and both legs are still stiff, with the left one (my longstanding problem) being painful. I still managed to do a 30 minute/3 point walk today.

Workin' 9 to 3!

Day +16.

This week and next, I'm working abbreviated hours, just cause I can :).

The loveliest thing about that is the walks we take after work. Today, we made it to a full 30 minutes. (somewhere around 3 aerobic points). Even lovelier, we get to really chat during the walks.

I used the Arnica gel and ran cold water on my leg afterwards and it actually feels quite great.

In the programming front, I finally converted my iPad app to ARC. It had a couple of issues with assign type properties, making most of them unsafe_untracked, but it was easy to flip those to weak.

I Wrote a Server

Day +15.

Today, I managed to set up the LQPL server to accept TCP connections and to assemble and load compiled LQPL programs. Part of the productivity was due to the greatness of Haskell, part due to being able to use some code from Real World Haskell.

I'm beginning to think my January goals for LQPL are a bit too easy. If so, I'll just do more on inverse products.

Work was non-remarkable. Processed about 90 emails. Had a nice lunch with a friend.

Noticed that carrying items in my pockets just spikes my hip pain immensely. Back to wearing the fanny pack again. We did a 20 minute walk tonight, which was really nice. I'm using an Arnica rub now, and ice, to see how well that can manage the pain. So far, so good, no Tylenol needed.

Christmas Was Great

Yesterday was Day +13.

Time with my wife, calls to to kids and Grandkids. Missing them and loving all.

Another walk, exercise and pain at night.

I've Been Walking

Day +12.

More walking with my feet straight today. Significant moments:

• Around 3:30 PM, I suddenly experienced a jump in the freedom of the movement.
• Araound 9:30 PM, the pain had built up to a single Tylenol level.

The plan tomorrow is to spend a lot of the day programming. That means sitting! Exercise at night and see how it goes.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

Yesterday was day +11.

The day started off very nice and slow, with a tea, a smoothie and about 400 new supplements. New vitamins, new probiotics, new me soon — at least that's the plan.

For lunch, I met with an old friend, Derrick, who is out here visiting his first grandchild. I was so happy to see him. It was great catching up and re-connecting.

Then, my sweetie and went in search of a new flat-iron for her, followed by some card searches. The point of that, is that walking was involved. I consciously made sure that I kept my feet straight for all of my perambulation! It is truly amazing how tiring that gets and how much it slows you down.

I remember an episode in Grade 4, where the teacher, J.D. Kuhn, embarrassed me by having me walk back and forth in front of the class. He then pronounced: "You walk just like your dad". By that time my dad was 63 and definitely felt very old too me.

Changing an ingrown, learned and possibly somewhat inherited characteristic takes time.