Today was going to be a day where we had to train separately. Brad took the girls to tri team this morning. He ran the trails while the girls biked. I had to bring the animal of the week to the CBS TV studios to film the segment Paws for Pets. I got to bring a lab mix named Simone. She was a good little girl and I love helping the animals. Volunteering at the Richmond Animal League is my most favorite thing to do on Thursday nights. The doggies are so appreciative for the few hours of walking and loving they get from us. Besides that I am a mean kennel cleaning queen. I can scoop, bleach and scrub with the best of them. Then you get to play with the dogs and walk them. I can't think of a more rewarding thing to do. It does make me sad though, we gets hoards of puppies and kittens too. I wish people would fix their animals and realize that animals aren't disposable. I will get off of my soap box now.
So anyway, that took all of my morning. When I got home my husband asked me if I would like to finally trade in my ever failing car, affectionately known as the Polar Bear. After dropping almost $1000 to get through this last problem, when the check engine light came on immediately after, we knew it was time to stop the bleeding. We went and got a, gulp, sputter, gasp, a a a mini van! God deliver me from this land of mini vans, here I am, drinking the Kool Aid, and getting one. The kids are thrilled, it's that one with the satellite TVs in both rows, you can hook your playstation up to, with the swivelling middle captain chairs, and the table that fits between the back seats. It has every bell and whistle imaginable, but still, much to my chagrin, it's a mini van none the less. It is silver and I haven't named it yet. So I don't feel particularly attached to it yet. I can't decide if its a boy or girl. Does everyone live in my world where even inanimate objects need to be named? I bid a sad adieu to the Polar Bear. She was a good girl for the first 100,000 miles. These last 20,000 have been killer on her and subsequently my wallet. I wished her well on her journey hoping someone nice gets her.
So anyway again, that took literally 5 hours. We had a nice sales person. He really liked his job and did it well. I actually got to deal with the owner of the dealership. We needed to have the towing hitch added to the car. Our salesperson wasn't too keen on asking for it but thought maybe if I did he'd throw it in. No problem, I told Mr. Layman we needed the hitch, that was it, not one that could tow a boat, just one my bike rack could hook into. I said we "needed that girl part so the boy part of our bike rack had a place to fit". Then I told him if he could do it I would by the van that very minute, otherwise we'd go elsewhere. It's amazing what they can do when they know they have a sale that could walk away. The hitch is on order I am proud to say. Maybe I was Turkish and lived in a bazaar in a previous life, I do like haggling.
I kept telling myself I would get that run in, but I knew it wasn't happening. It was 94 degrees when we got home with the car and I won't run when it's that hot. We have an open water swim with the Richmond Tri Club tomorrow evening, I think that I can do an easy 25 minute run in the morning and the swim at 6 tomorrow evening without hurting my competing on Sunday. We are taking Saturday off. I keep telling myself that you have to go easy the week before a race anyway.
Here's another thing I won't admit out loud to many people, I actually like open water swimming. I like not touching the pool wall and pushing off. No matter how hard I try not to do that to mimic open water swimming, you still do. I like swimming for 1/2 hour straight pushing myself as far as I can go. I swim slower, but that's okay. I like the rhythm I set for myself, my mind sort of wanders and I like practicing siting. I imagine myself looking like a Nile crocodile with just my eyes peeping up. I probably look like Humpty Dumpty (due to the swim cap) with graves disease (due to the goggles)!
I am off to bed, where I will have visions of crocodiles eating endocrinologically challenged eggs for breakfast.
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