The Doom That Came to Cowtown

I rejoined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. Well, technically I never quit, I just skipped going to meetings for several months. Anyway, I knew I was up a lot but I also knew that if I looked at the numbers, I'd get depressed (I make despairing remarks about my weight all the time, but getting slapped in the face with the facts always crushes me). So I resolved to go, and to just have them tell me if I was up or down. Provided I was constantly going down in weight, I could feel good about myself without having to see how Jabba-like I've become.

This worked until this week, when - out of the corner of my eye - I saw that they added a star to my weight record. So I looked. I'm down five pounds since returning. Yay me! Except, I'm down to 255.5, which means I was actually ten pounds heavier when I restarted than I thought I was. I'm currently five pounds higher than my estimate. Boo!

So I'm not sure how to feel about all that. It's a little like running for an hour only to reach the starting gate. Sure, it's an accomplishment, but it sure is discouraging.

In other fitness news, I've decided to do the Victoria half-marathon again. Given how close it is in time and proximity to this fall's trip to Leavenworth, I think it's a reasonable goal. Plus, thirty weeks of training for a half-marathon can't help but bring me down to where I can believe someone would find me attractive.

Incidentally, my lowest adult weight was when I went to the UK eight years ago. I've been steadily gaining since then. Maybe when I go to the UK five weeks from now, I'll find where I lost my fitness mojo and bring it back to Canada with me.

The point of the trip was to do Bay to Breakers. As advertised, you start a few blocks from San Francisco Bay and then run more or less straight west until you reach the Breakers of the Pacific Ocean.

( Only two pictures this time... )
I would do Bay to Breakers again. But there's other races to do too.

I failed to get up on time for my morning jog. Rather than skip it, I took my gym strip to work with the intent of running the long way back home (The long way involves Bowmont park and Dalhousie Station and is 7-8K, whereas the short way is only 3.5). Today I remembered why I jog early. People.

The run was mostly good, but I stopped running at 5k because one of my shielding bandaids sweated off. It was damned hot for this ginger.

Anyway, I'm walking across the bridge at Dalhousie station and there are lots of young ladies walking towards me dressed nicely - no doubt they're going Stampeding and want to look their best. Unfortunately there was this skeevy guy just ahead of me who decided to harass one of them. He simply veered directly into the path of one lone young women so that she had to squeeze/brush past him to get on her way. And this wasn't something one could mistake for anything other than harassment - there were only a handful of people on the bridge, and you can normally walk four abreast without touching. This guy had no excuse.

I was stunned, and didn't really know what to say or do. And then he sees I'm watching him so he addresses me, like I'm on his side.

"Heh, they don't like it when you do that."
"Do what?", I ask, wondering how he's going to justify it.
"When you point at them."

Leaving aside the fact that this guy did not just point at her, he came so close to groping her as to be a pedantic distinction rather than a real one.

"I. Guess. You. Shouldn't. Do. That. Then.", I enunciate.
"I don't care.", he says as he veers off

Dumbass creep. If you don't care, why are you looking for validation from me? Sadly, I didn't think to say that since I was still stunned. I also didn't say "Maybe you should grow up then", but sadly, perfect retorts only come minutes later.

Still, I'd rather have not needed to confront this guy. I might have been bigger than him, but I'm no fighter. I can't imagine what that poor woman must have felt. I hope it didn't ruin her night out.

Honestly, I don't know how women put up with that crap like that day after day after day. And to all the women I've ever creeped on - I'm sorry, I'll do better in the future.

Later, while walking up the hill to my house some woman parks her car, opens the passenger door to let her two dogs out. The tiny one is on a leash and the medium sized one immediately runs to jump me, barking furiously. I swing my groceries in between us but the dog keeps hoping around, looking for an opening.

Meanwhile, the owner is yelling at her dog to sit/heel/get back/whatever. The dog is ignoring her.

"Jesus Christ lady, fucking grab your dog already!"

She doesn't, but it finally backs away from me to her.

"Sit", she says.

It doesn't sit.

"Yeah, that's doing a lot of good. If you can't fucking control your dog, put it on a fucking leash."
"Sorry."

I don't point out that sorry won't help me if I'm getting stitches. Instead, I just move around her car and continue home.

I walk in the door to my home.

Gerry says, "Hello."
"You know what I hate?", I ask.
"What?"
"People."

About ten days ago on a Saturday morning LA and I participated in City Chase. Our team name was, of course, Grätüïtöüs Ümläüt. Here's a quick recap with some hints for future City Chases:

We started at Eau Claire plaza and endured a lot of talk from the MC. A coworker and his race partner were honored for winning last year and also for raising about 3K for charity.

The race started when the MC announced that "security guards on Prince's Island have the clue sheets". This triggered a mad dash by all involved. LA and I second-guessed ourselves and went to one of the remoter parts of the island on the assumption that they'd be spread out. Nope, they were all smack dab in the center at the major crossroad of the park.

advice: During the opening announcements, you'll be in a large area that can fit everyone. It will likely be next to a big empty area where they'll hand out the clue sheets. Be at the border between the two if you can.

The clue sheet had puzzles describing each of the Chase Points that we had to go to. There were 37 ("Thirty-seven!") of them IIRC. There were some odd groupings you had to do, and also some "do this or that, but not both" situations where teh chase points were very close to each other (for example, two where a block away from each other on Kensington Road).

We hunkered down and started solving the puzzles, which required middling knowledge of the city and some google-fu. Make sure you have a smart phone. It took us a little over half an hour to have solved the majority of the clues (we only got one wrong, owing to neither of us having ever been to Flames Central) and have a semi-optimal route chosen.

advice: Take a snap-shot of the clue sheet and email it to a helper, then bolt to one of the mandatory check points!

Our route? Start at the University of Calgary and work our way back. So it was onto the train to go to the northwest.

Chase Point 1: At the UofC, near the library tower, we had to do each of the following:

• skip rope simultaneously with your partner.
  
• Run a soccer ball through pylons.
  
• kick the soccer ball to each other through the pylons.
  
• Leapfrog with your partner.
  
• Solve a four-piece puzzle.

The difficult part for me and LA was the difference in our heights, she being wee and me looking like Herman Munster. We managed it though.

Chase Point 2: We ran down to the Volleydome (just south of the University in Athletic Park) and got to play another team in beach volleyball. We lost 5-2, but had fun.

On the way back to the train we stopped at DQ for ice cream treats. Any race where you can have ice cream in the middle is a good race. Sadly, I dropped my cone before I could finish it. Oh well, it was just going to get into my mouth anyway.

Chase Point 3: At the North Hill Fire Station there were two possible chase points. One was for anyone who had raised $50 for charity. We qualified, so we got that. The other point was for doing a bunch of fireman stuff - dragging hoses, carrying a body, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, they only had a few fireman on hand to supervise and one or two sets of equipment. This led to a long line that wasn't really moving. Someone said "40 minute wait", which I can believe, except I think that number was a guesstimate. We skipped that one, even though it looked like a lot of fun.

advice: We should have rushed to this one first and beat the lineup, solving other puzzles along the way (after all, we had to go there anyway to get our charity point). Failing that, raising $150 instead of $50 would have got us the point and allowed us to skip to the head of one lineup! This would have been a good choice for that.

Chase Point 4: We took the train down to Riley Park and found a fitness setup. You had to pick a snack from a list. They then told you how many calories was in that snack (it had things like a Mars bar, doughnut, muffin, bag of chips, etc.). Once you had a calorie value, you and your partner had to burn that many calories. They had a bunch of exercises there that you could do (examples: fifty sit-ups burned 40 calories, thirty 10-pound bicep curls burned 15 calories). This, more than anything else, contributed to my being stiff and sore the next day. I chose the Mars bar, since I know donuts and muffins have no standard sizes and can be as big as you like, but a Mars bar is constant. We had to burn about 350 calories.

Woof!

Chase Point 5: We headed south to Kensington road and had a choice of two chase points (we could only do one of them though). We went to Pages book store (the one beside the Plaza theatre) and were instructed to go to the upper level and find some "visual poetry that is neither part of a book or on a bookshelf" and identify the creator. A lot of second-guessing and we finally found artwork on one of the windows made up of a maelstrom of letters.

Chase Point 6: At the Kensington Running Room we had to find five differences between two mannequins, the mannequins being decked out in an assortment of merchandise. LA found four of the differences, despite my having the brilliant plan of taking pictures of one of the mannequins and using it to compare to the other (they weren't beside each other in the store).

We had now run through most of the convenient northwest chase points.

LA: Why don't we take the loser-cruiser to Inglewood?
Me: What's the loser-cruiser?
LA: The Bowness-to-Forest-Lawn bus.
Me: Of course!

Chase Point 7: Once in Inglewood we went to 4 Cats art store to do some finger-painting. We had to use three methods of getting paint onto a canvas and "recreate" some pollock-style art on the wall. One of the methods had to include popping a water balloon with paint in it (not much paint, thank Groo).

Now we had a dilemma, we could go to the nearby chase point at Fair's Fair Books, but that would mean missing the bus back into downtown. Or we could catch the bus and hit a chase point in downtown on the way down to 17th avenue. The bus was coming in two minutes, so we opted to skip Fair's Fair.

rant: Why does the city only run the #1 bus (the "loser-cruiser" referenced above) every 30 minutes on Saturday? Every time we were on it it was standing-room only - hell it was "move to the back of the bus so others can get on" crowded. That's not even including the handful of race participants. This bus is clearly being used and used well - crank up the frequency Calgary Transit!

We got downtown and discovered that what we thought was a chase point wasn't. We had got the clue wrong (which hurts more for this pair of geeks). We headed down to Melrose Cafe with less than an hour left in the race. Maybe we could finish if the chase point was a quick one. It wasn't.

Chase Point 8: At Melrose Cafe, the lower level was taken up by a martial arts school. What school you might ask? Ninjas! However, before we got to the ninjas, we had to cool our heels for a half hour in line. A line that went right by Melrose's bar. Any race where you can have a pint of ale in the middle is a good race.

We had to go through a bunch of ninja exercises to qualify for the point. Having read comics and watched movies throughout the 80's I had a bad opinion of ninjas (specifically the Westerners who learned it) as pretentious goofballs. Our guide did a lot to lift that bad opinion though. It seems like a fairly egalitarian martial art, and that pleases the socialist in me. We had to run through some obstacles, demonstrate our ability to skulk, sneak, dodge sword thrusts and missiles and finally we got to throw some shurikens! This was probably my favorite of the chase points that I completed.

This does suggest that the local SCA could get involved - volunteer to do a checkpoint where people put on armour and tabards and did quick one-off combat with Nerf weapons. Maybe not though - the ninja stuff was decidedly non-contact. Oh well.

We now had ten minutes left to get back downtown and check in before the 4pm deadline. We weren't going to be getting those last two chase points. We were a few minutes late, but were told before the race that they would have the finish line open until 4:15. This turns out to be incorrect, they finished at 4 on the nose and we missed check in, so there is no record of our team finishing.

All the race participants got treated to a free drink at Flames Central. Sadly that venue isn't quite large enough for everyone; neither LA or I were able to get seats as we were amongst the last people to get there.

City Chase was a blast and I recommend it to everyone. Vancouver peep: It's in your neighborhood on August 25th!

I'm down 6.9 pounds, which almost gets me down to the weight I mistakenly thought I was before rejoining WW. 260.4 - I really should give myself some kind of treat when I cross over to 260 (and 250, and 240, etc.). As long as that treat isn't food, I should be OK.

I'm still mildly depressed. This is more due to a lack of triggering events then to anything positive on my part. You can tell that by the way I downplay my weight loss. 20 people "liked" it on FB (which is some kind of record for me), but I still look at it as a sort of failure. Like blowing up the house then congratulating myself on subsequently sweeping debris off the sidewalk. Still, this weight loss seems to be easy so long as I stick to the plan.

The plan? Journal; keep the junk food to a minimum; Minimal carbs for supper; Two pieces of fruit a day; cook a proper meal on any evening I'm home, rather then eat out or have prepared food; get back into running. Pretty much the only thing I haven't done is the exercising, and I really have no excuse - the cold snap ended weeks ago and we've had unseasonably warm and dry weather. No reason not to run, so I should get to it.

I have been walking to work though, which is good, if somewhat lighter exercise and also good for my mental health.

So the mental health has been improving even though it's still not very good. I'll be better when I'm running regular and the annual BTVDSS is over (only two more weeks!). Also when I'm down enough pounds that I can believe women will actually not be repulsed by me.

Just stick to it Cyr - that's all you have to do.

In minor mental health adjustments, me and some friends have actually booked a trip to Vegas. More details on that in another post though.

Long term, I need to find a group to volunteer with. Looking back on my life, the times when I've gained friends have all been times when I've had an actual job in some nerdy group (Fandom, EQ, SCA). I gain a lot of social capital doing that (plus it's fun). When I don't do it, I tend to retract back into myself and the friendships evaporate away. I'm seeing that with the SCA since so many people in that group tend to socialize only within that group (which says more for how time consuming the SCA can be rather than the people in it).

I could start volunteering in the SCA again, but ever since the bank account debacle, I frankly don't want to volunteer in any sort of organizational capacity in a group that I disagree with on basic policy. I might run an event in the future, but at a minimum, I want the Baronial Seneschal standing between me and anyone higher up. It would take someone awfully special to convince me to actually be Seneschal again, and I'd have to be loyal to that person outside the SCA to consider it. Beothuk and Wilma for example, if they couldn't find anyone else. Thankfully they did.

Anyway, the easiest way for me to meet new people in the SCA would be to volunteer again, but what's the point? Maybe I'll reconsider local amateur theatre. Organizing isn't sexy, but it is a skill that I can bring to the table.

Sigh. The things an asocial introvert has to do to keep loneliness at bay. Maybe I'll dig up that rapier mask I bought and try it out.

I just found out that my local comic shop (Words & Pictures on the University of Calgary campus) is closing. This isn't Earth-shattering (they have another store that's quasi-near where the Barony holds its monthly tavern), but it is damned inconvenient.

It leads to a fairly serious question: Do I want to keep buying comics? At this point, I'm getting more enjoyment out of a few titles that are routinely bundled into collections (Irredeemable, The Boys, Invincible, Ultimate Spider-Man). In fact, I mostly don't buy the monthly comics for my favorites - I just wait for the collections. A lot of the comics I'm buying monthly are completely forgettable.

I suspect I've been buying monthly comics habitually for a long time now. It's a drag on resources, but does give me a regular thing to do on a weekly basis. That being the case, I'm leaning heavily towards just quitting. I'll grab collections when I see them, and just keep a piece of paper in my wallet (or an app on the Android I plan on getting soonish) to keep track of what I have and what I want.

In other news, I'm trip planning again. If I decide to go to the Estrella War, I should probably buy my plane tickets soon. They've already started rising in cost and the event is two months away. I'll wait until the next council meeting and see who else is going and if I can get people to take key pieces of my camp (namely my tent, bedroll and archery gear). Given the last person I asked has subsequently lost their vehicle, that might make my decision for me.

In long range planning, I might run two half-marathons next year: The Royal Victoria and the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas, which gives me an excuse to visit my left-coast friends and engage in some debauchery.

Tomorrow I rejoin Weight-Watchers. I'm very afraid of seeing how much weight I've gained - it's sure to be an epic fail. But it must be done, since not being a member isn't doing me any good.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Run For the Cure is this Sunday, October 3rd.

Do you have boobs? Know anyone who has them? Just like to look at them and/or play with them?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, you need to support this run. Get out there and run/walk 5k, or just throw some money at someone who does (not me though, I think your donation should be attached to your own name and not mine).

I'm running for my mom, Maxine, who survived breast cancer but succumbed to the abdominal cancer a few years later.

30 days to the RV½M! I'm in no way prepared since I haven't been running enough to really get in shape for it. Fuck it, I can still do it. It just means I'll hurt a little for the week after. Sunday I'll run 15k. Two weeks later I'll run 18k.

76 days to Vegas!

I'm in tourist central, but that's OK because I'm a tourist.

We flew in yesterday and the day was largely uneventful. I got to spend less then an hour in Toronto, then we hung around Halifax airport for awhile while we waited to send garething's daughter K on to Newfoundland ahead of us. Rented a car from stephtopia's friend J then we went into downtown Halifax to check in at our hotel. Later, we hung out at Freemason's pub with J. We didn't even have to give a secret handshake.

This morning I got up quasi-early for a run along the boardwalk. Basically going from here to here and back. Unfortunately, I ended up bonking about 2/3 of the way through the run and ended up walking ten minutes of the route. This was due to the massive heat and humidity which my body (bred for northern-European winters and raised in the dry treeless wastelands of Alberta) was not used to.

We had breakfast at Cora's with Steph's friends J, C and V. Then we went to Peggy's Cove to check out the lighthouse and the several acres of bare granite that had been worn smooth by millenia of pounding waves. The rocks were quite warm and pleasant to walk on barefoot due to the ambient heat of the day. I offered Gareth a shiny penny to dive into the surf. Strangely he didn't take it.

When we came back, I decided to go to the Maritime museum while G&S opted for some quality time. The Maritime Museum had exhibits on Titanic and the Halifax Explosion. It was nice to see aspects of Titanic (namely Halifax's role in the recovery) that I knew little about. I suspect the others avoided the museum largely so they didn't have to otherwise listen to me pontificate about Titanic (I do go on).

It was my kind of museum. Big enough to be interesting, small enough that I didn't get bored with 300 different coins, or 500 kinds of butterflies.

Afterward, I had lobster at Salty's restaurant. It was good. Almost falling into Halifax harbour - not so good. In the middle, I managed to dump a full glass of ice water into Steph's lap. Normally this would be bad, but it was super hot out.

We (G & I) attempted to go on the harbour hoppers tour, but failed because it was getting late and they needed a minimum of 6 customers. To bad really because the tour is in an amphibious tour bus!

So I took a much-needed soak in the hotel's jacuzzi.

Tomorrow we have an early start and a flight to St. John's. Wish me luck - I'm not sure how many English speaking people I'll encounter.

Estimated time: 1:04:50. Which is about 5 minutes faster then I thought I'd do. Go me.

1) It took me less time because I ran most of it. I only took walking breaks to grab water and strip layers.
2) Which means I've been coddling myself on my morning runs - I need to crank it up about three notches next time I'm out.

Now to scarf down some cereal, grab a long hot shower and get ready for Iron Man 2. And drinking, because there's nothing quite like a cold draft beer on a day you ran 10k.