SEPT 13-19, 2020 - Semilock down St Petersburg, FL

Coronavirus statistics

Sept 13, 2020 Total US Cases: 6,408,335

Sept 13, 2020 Total US Deaths:  182,335

Sept 19, 2020 Total US Cases: 6,648,402

Sept 19, 2020 Total US Deaths: 187,236

 

Other interesting things that happened this week:

• Finished my Hadrian Wall Challenge on Sunday.  Stupid hurricane made it difficult to finish up, but I did it.  On Saturday, I was at Boyd Hill before 7am, waiting for the gate to open.  Got an early start before the sun made it incredibly miserable.  I saw an owl.  Very very stoked about that, of course I wasn’t carrying my camera, but now that I know its possible to see owls at dawn, I will be carrying my camera with me.   Managed to do over 7 miles that morning.  I started off the weekend with around 19 miles left.  Did 7+ miles on Sat morning, did 3+ more on Saturday night through the rain and left an easy 7.8 to complete Sunday.  I was up at dawn again, and at Weedon Island.  The weather on the way to the park was questionable.  It was dark, but I could hear the wind outside the car.  I’d checked the weather the day before and I knew I had a window until 11am, when the storms would come.  I should have checked it again before I left the house.  It started raining lightly about half a mile into my walk and it stayed for the duration of the morning.  Never really bad, but between a sprinkle to a light rain.  After about 90 minutes, my hair was wet, my clothing was wet and I decided to end it a little more than 3.5 miles in.  I checked the weather and looked for another window.  I only had 4 miles left and I really didn’t want to do it all in the rain.   I finally gave up on the weather and headed to the mall and did laps until I reached my goal.  I’m not sure how accurate the Garmin step counter is, regarding miles, but I assume it tracks me when I’m outside and it has a GPS in it, so it has a pretty good idea.  I was able to finish my Hadrian Wall Challenge in 5 weeks, rather than the original 8 that I had estimated.
• On Monday, I signed up for the Camino De Santiago, which is a 480 miles.  I’m trying to do this one in 25 weeks.  It would have been impossible to do it in 12 weeks, at least while working full time.  I expect I could do average 40 miles a week for a shorter duration, but there would be no wiggle room for weather or illness and it would totally dominate my life.  It would be nice to finish the challenge in less than 25 weeks, but I have the wiggle room, just in case.  20 miles a week, will still be challenging and take up a lot of my time without interfering with my other projects.  I’m also training for the Disney Star Wars half marathon, so hopefully between those two things, it will keep me motivated to walking.  I’m started to feel stronger walking and my distances are getting longer without as much strain.  I’m hoping to work my way up to the 13 miles.  My miles are still slow, averaging around a 25 minute mile.  My heart rate stays steady at around 130.  I’d like to speed things up but I’m going to talk with the doctor first.  Made an appointment with the doc so I can get my scripts renewed.  I’m probably start the heart pills daily again.  Before, they made me slower, which made me irked.  I’m hoping that I can just use force of will to make me faster without risking a heart attack.  We’ll see.
• I’ve been trying to get an Amazon Fire fixed for a couple of weeks.  Amazon won’t help me.  Its 2 months old, but I didn’t buy the extended warranty, so they won’t offer me any assistance.  I’ve reached out to local companies that repair tablets, and apparently Amazon Fires aren’t repairable.  The parts aren’t available, they are difficult to open without cracking the screen and no one wants to work on them.  So I’m angry at Amazon.  I probably won’t buy one of these again.  Apparently, Samsung is a pretty popular tablet AND if I have any problems, they have parts available to be fixed.  I may just use my computer, but it has limited memory.  I’d have to figure out how to save Netflix on an external hard drive.  It may or may not be worth the hassle.  Perhaps I’ll pick up a Samsung before I leave for Asia.
• A couple of weeks ago, I started using the purple shampoo again.  I’d debated about waiting until the end of work contract, but there is very few people in the office, no clients are doing site visits and I haven’t seen Calvin since I left training.  So I’m using the purple shampoo 3 to 4x a week and I am super PURPLE!  However, I’ve noticed that the purple is attaching itself to the parts of my rings that I’ve repaired.  I used refilled the engravings using a nail polish pen, and then used a clear coat nail polish to protect it.  However, now its turning purple.  Oops.  I think I need to remove my rings when I shower now, lol.
• I’ve invited Chris & Carla to join us for Gils Birthday.  They are planning to join us for the Sunday activities.  Could be fun.  Could be not fun.  But I invited them because I know its important to Gil and hopefully he’ll appreciate the effort.
• I have started utilizing the coloring books I took to work in the beginning.  I haven’t really been in the mood so they have sat there unused for some time.  This week I opened them up and have been enjoying the childish activity.  I’m using mostly my left hand, so I’m increasing my left handed dexterity and getting pretty good at it.  I’m pretty sure no one would be able to tell the difference between my right hand coloring and the left hand coloring.  My frustration at dealing with inferior crayons that break, however, hasn’t really changed since kindergarten.  I have since expanded my collection to a 10 pack of twistable crayons, with basic colors that I can use for the larger areas and won’t break.  And a set of 12 colored pencils, because trying to color eyes and lips with fat crayons is also frustrating.
• I discovered that Mary Janice Davidson has realized a bunch of books in the last few years that I’ve missed.  I didn’t follow her so strongly since the Betsy series ended, but I decided to grab them anyway.  I was also very happy to see Fred the Mermaid is finally available on audible.  After a decade of waiting, audible finally jumped on board. 
• I bought a new North Face convertible dress on Groupon and another Amazon Fire on ebay.  Its cheaper than Amazon and I bought the 1 year warranty.  I’ve started looking at waterproof hiking shoes for SEA.  My feet are such an issue, I want to make good choices the first time around.  The shoes are going to cost me between 100-150.  I’m way off budget.

• Knocked out another 7.5 miles at Boyd Hill on Saturday.  I really like having the weather cooler and getting up earlier.  Boyd Hill was super soggy and I ended up with some very wet shoes and socks.  I’ve been struggling with what shoes to take to Asia and someone suggested the waterproof hiking shoes.  I’m debating those now, because Boyd Hill would be a great place to use them and get them broke in.  I hate having nasty wet sneakers.
• I got a 7 day suspension from plasma donation on Saturday, I failed my protein levels.  And after going through my history, she said I’d barely been making my protein levels for a while.  I’m sure its because of the restricted dieting, I’m eating a lot of protein, but only about 600-800 calories worth and I’m working out all the time.  So I need to start modifying a little.  Maybe eat more the day before so I can get my protein levels higher.  I may even switch to tuna as it has a little more protein.  I’ve been so focused on hydration I didn’t even think about the protein.
• I’m down to 193.  I’ve lost 17 pounds in recent weeks.
• I knocked out another batch of doggy treats this week.  Forgot to take photos again, silly me.  I’ll try to catch the next batch.

Boyd Hill Nature Park at dawn

Weedon Island Nature Preserve in the Rain

This trail was a little damp.