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Back to Work


Buckets, hoes and shovels

Last week I was back to work after 6 weeks of Family Medical Leave.   Flying home on Friday I was absolutely exhausted,  it must have gotten travel soft during my time off.   I am traveling again this week for a short two day trip and hopefully I will be in better travel shape and have a little energy left when I get back late Wednesday. 

Linda has her big 8 week follow up at the knee surgeon's this week and I have managed my schedule so I can be at the doctor visit.  This is the visit where you can ask the hard questions and hopefully get answers on lingering questions or issues.  She is not happy that she cannot get here new knee to straighten completely and she has been having some problems with hip pain.   Is this stuff all related??  Hopefully the cutter can shed some light on the situation.  Her overall progress is fantastic and she is basically independent now.

I have been doing some treadmill work about twice per week and just trying to keep some level of fitness.  I did run a 4:00 minute 800 meters this week--that is pretty good for me in the early season.   My heart rate was at 99% at the finish.  I have also been doing some leg strength work on the cable machines of medium intensity.   I have also been doing a lot of stretching and I think the muscles are staying loose and this will help as I increase the speed in my workouts.    My workouts are still about 60 minutes and can be 600 to 800 calories.  Anything longer and I think the risk of injury is too strong this early in the season.

I continue to do my mining project and the score is now 9 yards of dirt removed.  In the picture, the dirt was originally up against the duct work shown!  I had to do some repair on the square ducting shown.  I am finally seeing some real progress and access is now a lot better to the under floor duct work.   I need to remove about another yard or two to finish up a piece ducting to the bathroom.  I will probably do some additional mining to get access to under the kitchen while I have this project going .   The physical nature of this work--sitting or kneeling while shoveling-- has been some pretty good leg and hip work.   About 90 minutes of this stuff is all I need a day.  After  that, I close the hole , change clothes and get a shower and drink a Gatorade. 

Hopefully everyone will have a Merry Christmas, we are going to get together with the babies and have some fun. 

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