Incremental Addition

(Written on Open Office/Linux with Acoustic Alchemy then Pat Metheny playing in the background)

Let the chronicles show that yesterday the royal carpet was vacuumed and the royal kitchen and royal bath were mopped.

In other news....

The Desk

The accessory risers have been assembled, sanded, stained, oiled and installed (except one which is still in process) on my big new desk.
(technically, it takes up about the same amount of floor space as my previous setup, but it is about ten inches taller and has eleven (!) more feet of shelf space.)
I very like my new desk.
I find myself wishing there were more things to do at my desk so I could spend more time here.
I suspect that this euphoria will wear off some day in the future – when, I know not.
As of now, all of the design assumptions and features are working as planned.

The Run

It was almost completely dark when I started out at 6:01 AM this morning.
For some reason I felt a bit weak.
I am not sure of a reason for this, I did not exert myself very much this week.
It may have been a combination of stress from family problems (they do not involve me directly) and the subtle effects of my annual allergy season, which has arrived.
I often wondered why some folks call it “hay fever”, but I have found that on occasion, I feel sort of “sick” (subtly weak, tired) when my symptoms (runny nose, watery, itchy eyes) are acting up – as they were today.
Anyway...
I ran the three mile course today in fifty minutes.
I do not know why it took so long.
I did not have a noticeably difficult time during the session.
There was a minor complaint from my right knee that fixed itself by mile one.
There was another point of distress behind my left knee in mile two but this also corrected itself after a couple of minutes.
The “weakness” manifested itself today as accelerated breathing after each hill and going into the last half mile.
In each case, I was able to force myself back into my normal breathing rate with some minor effort.
This may have been the reason for the slower time, but I am not sure.
I had no sense that I was slowing my pace to accommodate my breathing rate.
Whatever.
It is good to be running again.

I also clocked the new road that could be the extension to allow me to run a four mile course.
It is almost a mile to the new entrance from Slaughter Road.
If I were to run that whole road all the way to Slaughter, it might be a full four-mile loop all by itself.
And it has a nice hill.
We shall see if I am able to build up to more distance.
Sometimes I wonder if I will be able.