stinky yogurt

Another sunrise from Victorville. And as you can see a new design for the blog. What do you think? Now that I have the latest and greatest MacBook Pro (until it isn’t) I can now finally finish the remodel and upgrades to the blog. That’s right folks, the lonely traveler finally got herself a new laptop! I can’t stop smiling and petting it. It’s just so pretty, I can’t help it. That is one thing Apple is really really good at; making beautiful machines. I have no complaints. And so getting on with the first blog on the new machine... he needs a name. Hmm. Don’t know his personality yet, so the name may take awhile. Anyway, as I was saying:

So today while my co-worker was eating her yogurt for lunch in the work truck, I thought to myself, “why would I eat yogurt that smells like my armpit after a long days work outside?” And then I thought, “I should write that down, it’s kinda funny.” It must have been the heat talking, because it is nowhere near interesting or funny now. It’s true though, her yogurt really did smell like my armpit. Either I have really nice smelling sweaty armpits or that yogurt is kinda gross. I don’t mind my own smell most days but I’m going with her yogurt is gross this time. Back in Victorville in the summer heat wave. Only 104 today, and we had a thunderstorm roll in at 4pm... was gone and sunny again by 5pm.

It seems that several crew members bodies don’t handle the heat well. We survey early in the mornings before it gets into the mid 90’s, and later we record sites or do other paperwork to avoid overheating. I have not had any problems yet. And because we aren’t walking much anymore, I get pretty antsy once back at the hotel. If I was home or in a hotel that had a workout center, I’d run off my antsy-ness. But I can’t do that here. It is too hot to run outside, and this place is pretty sketchy, so I don’t want to run out here even if it was below 90 degrees. I can’t believe I’m saying this, I miss running. I ran every day over my last break. I had an evil side cramp but I didn’t care. I do a Pilates work-out from a DVD and work with my dumbbells here, but that doesn’t really do anything for my fidgety legs. I can’t wait to get home and run. I never thought that sentence would ever be written by me.

Another thing I have noticed, and I touched on it in the last entry, is my overall health. Or more to the point, the health of my lungs since I started this odyssey of running. One day I will write about my valley fever fungus. For the first time in a long time... probably since my high school athletic days, my lungs are strong and healthy. Healthier than my pre-valley fever days. That’s saying something. I can breathe very well at high elevations. I used to have trouble with that. But while in Cheyenne Wyoming which is at 6000 feet, I ran 5 days, and had no trouble breathing. No burning, coughing, or wheezing. I was actually quite shocked. Out here in the desert heat, surveying, I am doing just great. Not getting tired, or winded. I can trudge up slopes and not have to stop to catch my breath. Unlike last year, where I was practically panting and crawling up hills. If I had known how beneficial this running thing is back then, I would have forced myself to start it a lot sooner. However, hindsight and all that, and the fact that I wasn’t ready for that challenge then. I would have failed. The fact that I have kept it up, and am now enjoying it is proof that the time I started was the right time. It was the right moment, the right state of mind, and the fact that my desire and drive for change was at it’s strongest. There were lots of bad days, and there will be more bad days, but my motivations then worked to get me through them. And I hope that my new motivations (some are the same) will pull me through the bad days ahead.

I’ve been kind of down this week, and forcing myself to do the Pilates workouts and work on the projections for the shop. I’ve compensated by eating an entire package of double stuffed oreos. I finished them off today. They were delicious. I know why I’m down. The blah-ness of Victorville doesn’t help. So I keep my head up, keep looking forward, and keep working on achieving the goals I’ve set for myself. The sooner I bend and flex through that annoying DVD and plug away at numbers I don’t understand, the closer I get.

In other news: Our house has termites again, luckily we are still under warranty. Makes me wonder though how good of a job these people did in the first place. A cousin is getting married next weekend in Lake Tahoe, should be fun, and I don’t have to wear a dress!! And what else... I think that is it for now. Tomorrow is hump day, for me anyway. Day 5 in our 10-day work cycle. Woo hoo. Also means it is new pants day! Awesome! That fact that I am excited about new pants day is just sad.