SoberLeigh

You and your wife are very good people, GC. God bless you.

Prayers for your neighbor and her father.

Gonnachange

Thanks SL. Based on my readings of your posts on SR I'm sure you would have done the same.

As for your prayers, I think the family is going to need them so thanks again.

Gonnachange

Tough workout and we had a good time so a win win. And yes, I was able to keep up and not get my butt handed to me by my wife.

2 rounds of:

30 jumping jacks
20 squats
10 pushups

3 rounds of:

Ball planks
Kettlebell swings
Renegade rows with a pushup
Ball slams
Mountain climbers
Ab wheel rollouts
Turkish get ups
Jumping jacks

All exercises were for time, probably a minute.

We've gotten no word from my neighbor about her father. He's quite bruised up, but no bones were broken. He has a gash on the back of his head that took 16 staples to close and as of last night was more coherent than when he was originally found the day before. He was scheduled for a CAT scan yesterday and an MRI today to determine if there was any internal bleeding and, if he had a stroke, what type it was.

For over a year my neighbor and her siblings, who live 100's of miles away, have been trying to convince him and their mother, when she was alive, to move, but they were reluctant to leave the house they've lived in for over 60 years. I think that this mishap will seal the deal, but for now all efforts by the family are concentrated on making sure he gets better. As it should be.

Gonnachange

Most likely no exercise of note today.

Were she still alive today would have been my mother's 82nd birthday. I spent the better part of the morning driving to and from the cemetery and visiting her grave.

Tonight is going to be a baked pasta dish with the tomato based sauce I made on Sunday using the trimmings from the ribs, a spinach salad, and brown bread that my wife baked yesterday.

Dee74

Prayers for your neighbours GC - hope today was a meaningful and special day for you.

D

SoberLeigh

Thinking of you on this day of honor and memory, GC.

Gonnachange

Thank you Dee and SL. My parents and paternal grandparents are buried in very close proximity to each other so when I visit their graves I really get a sense of a multi generational family history that reminds me that the decisions and sacrifices these four people as well as those that came before them made, some well over a 100 years ago, have a lot to do with the wonderful life I'm living.

My wife had a text conversation with our neighbor last night and there was a medical, mostly cognitive, setback to our neighbor's father yesterday. I have no idea what the implications for his health are or how this will impact how long we'll be watching our 13 year old neighbor.

Today

I was at the gym by 7:30 for a solo workout. My right elbow has been nagging me for a few weeks, tendonitis perhaps, so with the exception of bench presses I focused on exercises that didn't involve a lot of pushing with my arms.

Db bench presses
Bb bent over rows
Bb deadlifts
Db straight arm pullovers
Db shrugs
Lat pulldowns

3 sets of either 6 or to failure on all.

I normally only write about my dinners, but today I'm going to mention that before the gym I had a delicious concoction of a toasted English muffin, scrambled egg, and avocado. If I had more initiative I would have cooked a couple of strips of the bacon I made on Sunday.

Dinner tonight is going to be Irish beef stew served with mashed potatoes. My wife had the dish one night in a pub when we were in Ireland last month and has been talking about it ever since. I've been waiting for a cold day to make such a hearty meal, but the weather has been unseasonably warm so I just decided to go for it. I'm pretty sure I can come very close to replicating what she had, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be successful.

SoberLeigh

Irish beef is one of my favorites; I'm sure you'll nail the recipe, GC.

Thank God that your neighbor has you and your wife . .

Gonnachange

Thanks for you vote of confidence with the stew. I know for sure that at a minimum I'll be able to get close and that the results will be tasty.

Regarding my neighbor, we're glad that we're able to help out and I know that our neighbor is very appreciative. What's been illuminating is how far we've come from having a youngster in the house.

When our kids were younger, it was our life and that was fine, but over the past number of years, when often they haven't been living with us and even when they have there was and is an inherent independence that comes from living on one's own, my wife and I have become accustomed to not being tethered to the schedule of an 8th grader. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that someone her age, especially one who is not living in her own house with her mother, needs a certain level of care and mindfulness on our part, especially with the added stress of what's going on with her grandfather.

SoberLeigh

I totally understand, GC. We become very comfortable in our empty nests.

Gonnachange

Yes we (that's the royal we, not just me and my wife) do and as much as we love our kids one of the desired outcomes of raising them is that they've been brought up to be independent responsible adults who can forge a life for themselves. And when that happens, just as when life changes dramatically for everyone who has children when they're born, there are phases that are experienced. However one wants to term the phase that my wife and I are in, it's been a while since we've been in the "take care of an 8th grader" phase. :-) It's all good.

Gonnachange

I went for a short run earlier today.

Both kids are going away for a long weekend. My daughter is traveling about 250 miles to see her boyfriend and my son and some of his buddies are traveling about 600 miles in the opposite direction to see a friend they met when they all studied abroad last spring.

Dinner tonight is going to be portabella mushrooms stuffed with eggplant and topped with a tomato and mozzarella cheese. I'll be serving a salad as the side dish.

Gonnachange

No exercise of yet, but the day can rightfully be billed as "Support Your Local Business Day" or "The Money Is Flowing the Wrong Way Day". So far I've had a plumber spend 1.5 hours at the house, my cleaning ladies do their thing, my landscaper's crew do their thing, gotten an estimate from a porcelain guy to reglaze a bathtub, and in a short while have a mason come over to give me an estimate for some work on my front steps.

In other news I'm very happy to write that my daughter made it safely to her boyfriend's house and my son and his buddies, to use his words, arrived alive , at his friend's college in South Carolina. I'm also pleased to write that I finished my book club book last night and since I'll be attending the meeting tonight there will be no cooking on my part for dinner.

TGIF!

Dee74

Have a good weekend GC

D

Gonnachange

Thanks Dee. You too!

So Far

I woke up this morning and was immediately faced with a tough breathing day. It didn't stop me from going to what turned out to be a particularly hard strength and stamina class and while I didn't die it was a struggle. Even as I sit in my office typing, over a full hour after the class ended, I'm having to work harder than normal to get a decent breath. This may be due to some atmospheric conditions because there's another women in my class who has asthma and she was also having a tough time of it. I can't blame it on last night being a late one at my book club because I was in bed by 10:30.

After some warm up exercises we did four circuits of:

Db squat presses
Kettlebell figure 8's
Up/down planks with arm reach outs and leg lifts
Bear crawls
Pikes on gliders with a pushup

After that we did six rounds of agility/aerobic exercises.

This afternoon, me, my wife, and our dog will be going on a hike.

Tonight we're going to an Indian restaurant in town with some friends so I don't have any cooking in my near term future.

Dee74

Hope you're breathing easier GC

D

Gonnachange

Thanks Dee. Not great, but better than yesterday.

Today

There will be no exercise today other than some at home planks and maybe some pushups depending upon how my elbow feels.

This morning we got an unexpected call from the person who introduced me and wifey saying that he and his wife, they live in London, are in the States visiting his family who don't live far from us. The end result is that they're coming over this afternoon. The quick menu is:

Appys

Marinated olives
My smoked cheddar cheese and crackers

Main Course

Homemade spinach pasta
Pan seared shrimp and garlic
Arugula and goat cheese salad with my mustard vinaigrette dressing

Dessert

Pumpkin bread that my wife baked last week
Vanilla ice cream

Gonnachange

A broken record....another tough breathing day. Sigh. It didn't stop me from going to the gym to meet my trainer, but I had to make some concessions by resting more than normal.

Db bench presses
Db flyes
Bb skull crushers
Bb curls
Bench dips
Db bench rows
Heavy rope fun
Planks

3 rounds; weights were either 10 or 12 reps, the rope was for 45 seconds, and I'm guessing the planks were for 75 seconds.

My son came home around 12:30 last night and will be with us until Sunday morning. My daughter is leaving on Wednesday to spend turkey day with her boyfriend's family and will return on Saturday.

Dinner tonight is going to be baked chicken thighs; mixed greens (arugula, baby spinach, and romaine lettuce) with radishes, cherry tomatoes, and white mushrooms; and a to be determined carb.

Gonnachange

No exercise yet aside from walking about a 1.5 miles roundtrip to meet a friend for breakfast. I also survived a supermarket visit. A short run may be in my future.

This morning I also had an online conversation with some friends about running a marathon next fall. From where I am right now it's a daunting undertaking, but I'm going to consider it.

Dinner plans are still not set; I have a few ideas and will run them by my son (my daughter is meeting friends for dinner) to see what his preference is.

Gonnachange

For the first time possibly ever I'm going to be making essentially the same dish for dinner twice in three days. My son got wind of what I made on Sunday for our guests when he was not home and asked for a repeat and things sort of went from there. My daughter, who is trying to limit her dinner carbs, will not be with us so this will work out well from that perspective and since I'm only going to have a couple of more chances to cook for him before he goes back to school for a month I acquiesced. Dinner tonight is going to be spinach pasta, which I just finished rolling out, pan seared shrimp, and an arugula/spinach/romaine lettuce salad with cherry tomatoes, radishes, red onion, and white mushrooms.