dreamshark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dreamshark) wrote2010-06-13 12:50 pm
dreamshark) wrote2010-06-13 12:50 pm
Entry tags:
LJ Catchup Post - bits and pieces
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Memorial Day: had a lovely time with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minnehahaK pedaling around Lakewood Cemetery. I do this pretty much every Memorial Day, but have never managed to make it to the chapel when it was open. This year, minnehaha remembered that it was the chapel's 100-year anniversary and made sure we got there in time to take a quick tour before it closed. OMG, it is stunning! It's a lovely building on the outside and it is on the Historic Register, but I had no idea what was inside! (Hint: think 10 MILLION ceramic tiles). We also had other adventures: visiting the Lake Harriet Elfenheim, Sonny's ice cream, and (most amazing of all) spontaneously deciding to clean the scary playhouse in DreamPark's backyard. This developed from the garage cleaning obsession - I needed someplace to stow umpteen cans of half-dried up paint while they completed the drying up process so they could be legally tossed in the garbage and minnehaha brilliantly suggested the playhouse, since it's up in the air and nobody ever goes there. I was relieved to find that nobody was living in the playhouse, not even raccoons. Not surprised to find all that old furniture or the dust-covered Ouija board. But I was a little nonplussed by the full set of bocce balls. Lots of old candles and matches, and a few more disreputable items I'd rather not think about. (Oh, ambertatge, what were you and your friends doing up here?)
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Garage cleaning continues - almost every weekend I haul out a full trash can of debris and several offerings for Metal Man. Missed last weekend, but there is a full can of trash out there that I intend to get to as soon as I post this. Not only that - I have finally worked my way back to the rusted old wood stove at the very back of the garage. I kind of hate to throw it away, but some of the moving parts have rusted to immovability so it is probably of no interest to anybody except scrap metal scavengers at this point. *sigh*
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Continuing to work on exercise program for SI joint and related musculature. It's slow and frustrating. I need to build up strength in back and core, but every time I do anything challenging enough to actually do that (e.g., an exercise class or ice skating) my back is sore for days. I had been planning to skate twice a week and do one or two Pilates classes, but that's way too much. It looks like the most I can handle at this point is two classes or skating sessions per week. On off days I try to walk or do a little light biking, but can't always fit it in. My skating classes started up again last Monday. I skated for an hour and actually did fairly well. Not exactly PROGRESS, but I was almost back to where I had been when classes stopped in March: front crossovers easy, left back crossover easy, right back crossover challenging but doable, RFO 3-turns passable but sloppy. Felt pretty good. But my back was sore for the next 3 days, so I didn't even try to repeat the Wednesday Pilates class that did me in the week before. By Thursday I felt pretty good, and tried a different core strengthening class called BOSU. I liked it a lot. Felt GREAT afterwards. Next day my back hurt again, and even more on Saturday. Today back has unclenched enough that I could do another class, but if I did that my back would be too sore for skating tomorrow. So I'm planning to compromise with an easy workout and swimming at the Blaisdell Y.
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Started deep cleaning of bedroom yesterday. Goal is to clean off the dresser so I can unearth and discard the enormous old tube-based tuner under all the clutter. It's been years since it worked well enough to be worth turning on. I managed to get down to the bare dresser top by yesterday evening, but I now have 3 boxes of little bottles, handkerchiefs, feather masks, travel toothbrushes, etc. etc. that need to be sorted. One of the last things I unearthed was a long-dried up bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap (Peppermint Castille), which segued nicely to the next item.
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Last night Richard and I watched an obscure documentary on Dr. Bronner himself ("Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox"). As anyone who has ever seen a bottle of the Magic Soap has long ago realized, the good doctor was pretty nuts. He was, however, a master soap maker from a family that had been manufacturing soap in Germany for 7 generations until the family business was destroyed by the Nazis (along with both of Dr. Bronner's parents). Young Emil had already emigrated to America and had been trying to get his parents to join him as the Nazis were coming to power but they wouldn't leave Germany and their family business. It's not clear if the slaughter of his family is what pushed him over the edge or if it was other family tragedies, but he descended into a kind of gentle madness based on an intense desire to found a world religion based on peace and organic aromatic soap products. Although he was hardly the model father, somehow his sons and grandsons stuck with the family business and they are still at it. It's a strange tale, balanced somewhere between inspirational and disturbing. It also made me remember what a remarkable substance that soap really is. I think it's time to buy another bottle.
Memorial Day: had a lovely time with
minnehahaK pedaling around Lakewood Cemetery. I do this pretty much every Memorial Day, but have never managed to make it to the chapel when it was open. This year, minnehaha remembered that it was the chapel's 100-year anniversary and made sure we got there in time to take a quick tour before it closed. OMG, it is stunning! It's a lovely building on the outside and it is on the Historic Register, but I had no idea what was inside! (Hint: think 10 MILLION ceramic tiles). We also had other adventures: visiting the Lake Harriet Elfenheim, Sonny's ice cream, and (most amazing of all) spontaneously deciding to clean the scary playhouse in DreamPark's backyard. This developed from the garage cleaning obsession - I needed someplace to stow umpteen cans of half-dried up paint while they completed the drying up process so they could be legally tossed in the garbage and minnehaha brilliantly suggested the playhouse, since it's up in the air and nobody ever goes there. I was relieved to find that nobody was living in the playhouse, not even raccoons. Not surprised to find all that old furniture or the dust-covered Ouija board. But I was a little nonplussed by the full set of bocce balls. Lots of old candles and matches, and a few more disreputable items I'd rather not think about. (Oh, ambertatge, what were you and your friends doing up here?)-----
Garage cleaning continues - almost every weekend I haul out a full trash can of debris and several offerings for Metal Man. Missed last weekend, but there is a full can of trash out there that I intend to get to as soon as I post this. Not only that - I have finally worked my way back to the rusted old wood stove at the very back of the garage. I kind of hate to throw it away, but some of the moving parts have rusted to immovability so it is probably of no interest to anybody except scrap metal scavengers at this point. *sigh*
-----
Continuing to work on exercise program for SI joint and related musculature. It's slow and frustrating. I need to build up strength in back and core, but every time I do anything challenging enough to actually do that (e.g., an exercise class or ice skating) my back is sore for days. I had been planning to skate twice a week and do one or two Pilates classes, but that's way too much. It looks like the most I can handle at this point is two classes or skating sessions per week. On off days I try to walk or do a little light biking, but can't always fit it in. My skating classes started up again last Monday. I skated for an hour and actually did fairly well. Not exactly PROGRESS, but I was almost back to where I had been when classes stopped in March: front crossovers easy, left back crossover easy, right back crossover challenging but doable, RFO 3-turns passable but sloppy. Felt pretty good. But my back was sore for the next 3 days, so I didn't even try to repeat the Wednesday Pilates class that did me in the week before. By Thursday I felt pretty good, and tried a different core strengthening class called BOSU. I liked it a lot. Felt GREAT afterwards. Next day my back hurt again, and even more on Saturday. Today back has unclenched enough that I could do another class, but if I did that my back would be too sore for skating tomorrow. So I'm planning to compromise with an easy workout and swimming at the Blaisdell Y.
----
Started deep cleaning of bedroom yesterday. Goal is to clean off the dresser so I can unearth and discard the enormous old tube-based tuner under all the clutter. It's been years since it worked well enough to be worth turning on. I managed to get down to the bare dresser top by yesterday evening, but I now have 3 boxes of little bottles, handkerchiefs, feather masks, travel toothbrushes, etc. etc. that need to be sorted. One of the last things I unearthed was a long-dried up bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap (Peppermint Castille), which segued nicely to the next item.
----
Last night Richard and I watched an obscure documentary on Dr. Bronner himself ("Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox"). As anyone who has ever seen a bottle of the Magic Soap has long ago realized, the good doctor was pretty nuts. He was, however, a master soap maker from a family that had been manufacturing soap in Germany for 7 generations until the family business was destroyed by the Nazis (along with both of Dr. Bronner's parents). Young Emil had already emigrated to America and had been trying to get his parents to join him as the Nazis were coming to power but they wouldn't leave Germany and their family business. It's not clear if the slaughter of his family is what pushed him over the edge or if it was other family tragedies, but he descended into a kind of gentle madness based on an intense desire to found a world religion based on peace and organic aromatic soap products. Although he was hardly the model father, somehow his sons and grandsons stuck with the family business and they are still at it. It's a strange tale, balanced somewhere between inspirational and disturbing. It also made me remember what a remarkable substance that soap really is. I think it's time to buy another bottle.
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K. [I now think that the Morgan's card I drew is not about the yard, but about your houseplants, which probably could use some love. Besides, I have the only living snippets of the Swedish ivy that started out as yours. If you want it again, you should let me know]
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I was talking recently with someone who's done pilates, and she said you really need to build up your core strength to do it safely.
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Yes, that's kind of the problem. It's like the difficulty of looking for your glasses - you need your glasses to see well enough to find your glasses. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to strengthen back muscles without using them. And using back muscles even a little bit more than one is used to makes those muscles hurt the next day. Anyway, that has been my experience.
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Perhaps what your friend meant was that you have to build up strength in these muscles gradually because if you overdo it you can hurt yourself. This is obviously true in principle, but not particularly helpful. The problem is that it is very easy to overwork the lower back muscles without realizing you are doing it. It's like the oil light in your car - by the time the light comes on it's too late.