Turning 50

I finished my week by spending three days at Cottonwood Hot Springs. It's not the nicest resort, but the water is hot, and they have massage therapists. There's no TVs, no Internet, and the refrigerator in my room was noisy. The 'frige also had a sign warning not to turn it off. Every time I fell asleep, the compressor would kick on and wake me up. Then again, when I fell asleep, it would shut off with as much commotion as when it turned on. So I turned the thermostat WAY down.
I soaked for a couple hours a day, three days in a row. I was a hairy prune.
I read a lot.
On the 2nd day, I went x-country skiing west of there. I suck. It hurt my plantar, but I somehow still had lots of fun. I only fell down twice, and neither were complete wipe-outs.
Then I got a hot-stone massage. Ahhhhhh!

Back to Denver for my Friday birthday - and chores.
I woke up Friday morning realizing that I neglected to drink much of anything the day before. My stomach was queezy, my head light, I felt weak. So I drank lots of salt water for breakfast. Then I threw up. Cool! So I drank more water - and threw up some more! But then I was done throwing up and I was able to rehydrate. I'm certain I was dehydrated, but that probably led to me getting the 6hr flu. It really was a wimpy thing. But it ruined my plans for the day.

On top of that, my right-rear tire was not only flat, it was ruined, with a big bubble in the sidewall. So instead of going to the Hardwater snowshoe race and putting up an aid station Saturday morning, I got new tires.

Then at 6pm was my party. I arrived unfashionably late (I felt like a heel). Oh, well.

It was a fantastic party with all my running friends (I'm afraid nearly everyone I know is a runner). The old Wash Park gang that was so close in past years, and all went their separate ways, they were ALL there!!! It was the BEST reunion!
And tons of my trail running and race buddies were there.
And Kristen F. brought her new hubby from the Cayman Islands. Now THAT'S a long-distance guest. Graham is a very wise and very cool guy.
I'm afraid there were too many people for me to spend much time with many of them. I felt rude again - like I was a bad host. But I'm sure everyone had a good time.

Then I took the lightrail train back to my car. The battery was dead. 1am. Joy. Walk home. Crash into bed. Out-go-the-lights.
Sunday was spent struggling to get a new battery into my CR-V, get it out of that stinkin' parking garage and home.

So once I got home from vacation, everything sucked, except for the fantastic party. I still need to dump my car at the dealership to have them fix why my battery was dead in the first place. I think the battery was only about 8 months old. Think how lucky I was that neither the tire nor the battery screwed me in the mountains. So much more convenient for such hassles to happen at home.



Today, my boss threw a birthday party for me at work. Everyone kept asking if the email was a typo - "You're not 50."

Now the AARP will start SPAMming me. At least I ought to find some great deals on viagra and cialis!