pshaw_raven | Entries tagged with vacation

Feisal's regular vet has ceased offering boarding services as of this year. I was surprised by this earlier in the week when I called to schedule his boarding for our upcoming Disney trip/flu acquisition and they told me they don't board any more. Problem is that Feisal requires twice daily insulin shots, and I quickly found that pet spas or non-veterinarian boarding facilities won't take diabetic pets. I was considering Best Friends, which I think Disney runs, and it's just next door to Fort Wilderness, but again, no diabetic pets.

What really started to stress me out was when I found another vet clinic that also has boarding, over in Middleburg. They have no appointments available, and Feisal needs to be a patient of theirs before he can board. But the receptionist told me Saturdays are "open," in that they take anyone who shows up on a first come, first served basis, and I can get him in that way. But it's not a guarantee. So I showed up this morning at about 7:15 and, happily, I was fifth in line. By 8:30 a vet had seen Feisal and was very happy with him, said he looks good in every respect, just that his blood glucose is low. Normal glucose for a cat starts at 55, and his was 41, which the vet wrote off as possibly a combination of stress and just having had his insulin, but he says we may be able to start backing off how many units he gets. Cats sometimes go into remission if you're careful about medicating them properly and can make changes to their diet. In Feisal's case I went from feeding him Iams, to a dry food with minimal carbs and grains, and supplementing that with a higher protein wet food twice a day. Crowley is probably benefiting from the food change as well.

Crisis averted - he's got a reservation to board while we're in Orlando. Because the only other option was to take him with us and let him be Camper Cat for a week. We popped up the camper and took him out there and he ... kind of liked it? He'd probably get accustomed to it if we put him in there every day until we left, but he got very distressed when we left him alone. I think if we want an Adventure Kitty, we'd need to start with a kitten and get it used to outside, truck, camper, harness, etc. Feisal's probably too old for this shit. He did like sitting on the counter top in the camper and looking out the window.

I did my long run yesterday, since I didn't know what today was going to be like. I set myself the modest goal of doing eight miles in under 90 minutes, which I accomplished. Today I'm probably going to do my normal four-miler but shoot for 40 minutes or less, which is a 10 minute mile or faster. I'm having a lot less problems with joint pain since going back to my Asics, though with the cold I still have occasional soreness in my hips.

I'm thinking of making some whole wheat cookies today - I've been trying to learn to make graham crackers, but mine always come out more like cookies, so I've stopped fighting it. They're mildly sweet, semi-soft, and good with afternoon coffee. I'm also about to spend some Amazon holiday gift money on some Diane Setterfield novels, I think

cdayzee recommended me her work. I've also got a copy of The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us about Distraction which should be interesting. I've always been fascinated with monasticism.

I really don't feel like doing anything. Tired.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Benny Golson - Whisper Not

The campsites at Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness aren't exactly roughing it, but I'm having a fun first camping experience here. We're in the pop-up and tent area, so we have a gravel pad, an aluminum picnic table and one of those big grills like you see in parks all the time. It's actually pretty quiet back here once the sun goes down, and the whole area is very walking and biking friendly.

We're having a much more low-key trip this time around, possibly because there's no racing. But we also aren't feeling the need to have Maximum Fun, which is I think what makes some peoples' tempers flare and causes so many fights and things here. If you've been planning this once in a lifetime trip for over a year, the timing of everything is super tight, because if one reservation or lightning lane pass fails or gets pushed back, everything else later in the day is fucked up, your kids are tired and having meltdowns, etc. Anyway, we're obviously not doing that. We've been enjoying tooling around Fort Wilderness, bike riding, walking, and then hitting the parks to look for yummy things to eat. Tomorrow we're going to Typhoon Lagoon.

We don't quite have the "camper life" thing down yet, so it looks like we've trashed the place, but there's a learning curve. It's comfortable for the two of us. The first night we both slept somewhat badly because it's so new, but last night I slept like a log for nearly ten hours. Anyway, here's the inside - one of those black and yellow boxes is clothes, the other is pantry items, things like coffee pods, trail mix, our dishes and things.

I'll get some outdoor shots tomorrow.

Also, Gideon's Bakehouse has a key lime pie cake, and holy shit, it's incredible. But it's also huge. There were three layers of cake, and the layers of buttercream were just as thick as the cake. I felt kind of icky the rest of the day but it was worth it.

Oh yes, and Gideon's didn't do this, but enough places have that it's making me mad. Why do I have to place an order just to see the menu? I've had to sign up, select a store, and start building a pickup order just to see what the fuck is on a menu, and I really don't think anyone should have to jump through that many hoops just to see if there's food somewhere they want to eat. Just let me see the menu. I might not want to order anything once I see it, but I guarantee if you make me set up an account first, I am absolutely not getting anything.

Anyway! I also saw a Camper Cat. In one of the loops where the big RVs park, someone had a kitty and it was loafing on the dash. They'd put a donut bed up there for the cat, but in typical feline fashion it was not sitting in it.

Current Location: Disney's Fort Wilderness
Current Music: Steely Dan - Do It Again

Did y'all know I've never read War & Peace?

I'm considering taking that on because the more I read of other people's responses to the book, the more I think it will be absolutely worth my while. I've come across a lot of blog posts and essays about Tolstoy over the past two years or so and it made me realize I've barely read anything of his writing. And it's not as if I shy away from books with difficult reputations.

On the one hand, it's a chonker. It's something like 1,300 pages. It's a doorstop. But then, I read long books exactly the same way that I read short ones, one page at a time. Some people take on a chapter a day, since there are 365 of them. I tend to do well with a minimum of ten pages a day goal, and by the time I'm "into" it, I don't bother keeping track because I know I'll finish.

It's also supposed to be dense and it has a lot of characters. So it sounds like LoTR. Especially some of the chapters where Tolkien is setting up the Elvish lore or earlier history of Middle Earth and you're reading along like, who the hell are these people. On my more recent read-throughs I know which bits I can skim for now, unless I decide to acquire some of the other Middle Earth books. I'm told War & Peace does something similar - as the story progresses, its focus narrows considerably, and you don't really have to give two fucks about a lot of the characters.

This is probably a lot weightier than anything I should be thinking about on vacation, but we tend to hide from the mid-afternoon heat, and I can't take naps, so I wind up reading, either online or a physical book. And yesterday I stumbled across yet another Tolstoy discussion so that's where this came from. I'll probably pick up a Penguin Deluxe from Bookshop.org.

Tomorrow's our last full day here and I'm already getting a bit Disney-ed out. But I'm also more accustomed to race weekends where the morning run is the major thing I do that day and the parks are just lagniappe. I'm also going to be in need of some intensive yoga sessions and maybe a water fast when I get home, I feel like hell, LOL. Today we managed to snag an early boarding group for Rise of the Resistance, and I think I'm going to pass on Slinky Dog Dash until next time. I'm almost at my fork limit for this trip so I'm trying to make things easier on myself. Yesterday I found out the hard way that there are two very different tracks for Big Thunder Mountain, and one of them is more intense than the other. Fox was like, "Oh yeah, I remember this track from when I was a kid. This one goes really high!" Me: "It ... what ..." *cue five uninterrupted minutes of screaming*

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Disney's Pop Century Resort
Current Music: Bob Dylan - When I Paint My Masterpiece

This past week or so has been a pretty busy one for us. This year we ran in the Wine & Dine races at Disney, completing the "Two Course Challenge" by running the 10k and half marathon. The 5k is a separate thing but that's a long story. Since it was also Fox's birthday we spent some extra time at Disney World just for fun. But, to the races!

The week before, we had the Middleburg 10k. This is part of the Black Creek Bowl, which was a 5k for most of its life, and then last year expanded when a change in course allowed them to loop it around and add a 10k distance. Basically they're doing road construction on part of the old course where we'd run up Blanding Boulevard. Anyway, last year I finished in an hour, one minute, and forty-seven seconds and was determined to do it in under one hour next time. And I did. I ran a 58:18 and came out first in my age group, 11th overall. Actually the lady who was first in my age group was third overall, so while I sorta-kinda was first, I was actually second, which is what my plaque says. Either way I'm really pleased about my time and hope to shave a few more minutes off that and place first for real next year.

So then we went to Orlando and did Disney. My 10k time was more like 1:05 there but I was also not trying to PR. I wanted to run a good time but I wasn't shooting for anything specific. The next day I did the half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2:19:47 which is a personal best. I know these times are nothing to write home about but I'm proud of myself. Considering my first half was 2:53 and I almost quit, this is a good improvement. But I went into this telling myself not to worry about getting a personal record. I was saying it to myself all week. In the corral. At the starting line. As I was running. And my dumb ass still pushed to get the best possible time and boy did I pay for it later. My IT band was all kinds of pissed off, and that evening when we went to the after-race party in Epcot I was in agony. Just walking hurt enough that I wanted to cry. I DID cry on the Skyliner because I'd had a stressful week, was in considerable pain, I'm afraid of flying but kept having to take the stupid gondolas, and to top it off while we were riding, they kept having emergency stops. So, hard stops in midair, with no way of knowing when they'll start again. I kind of lost my cool. And some jackass in an ECV ran over my foot later that night so it was loads of fun.

Anyway, I don't think I'd have been as bad about the Skyliner if I hadn't flipped out on Space Mountain. I'm usually okay with roller coasters, especially if I know what to expect. Normally I'll watch POV vids on YouTube and decide if I want to try one or not. I had no idea what to expect with Space Mountain and it terrified me. Like not fun scared, but traumatic scared. Because of my stupid anxiety brain, EVERYTHING became scary, including the Skyliner and other simple-ass shit around the parks that scares exactly no one except me and infants. So hooray, I suck. Hopefully that will fade as time passes, because I hate being afraid of things so much, but there's only so much I can deal with. Like with the "spoon theory" that folks with chronic illness use, I have so many emotional spoons each day and running out of them can result in a serious meltdown.

I'm making this sound horrible but aside from the last night's Skyliner ride from hell and the Space Mountain incident it was a lot of fun. I got to try the new roasted veggie sandwich at our hotel's cafeteria, which tasted great but was hard to keep together, and would be better from a logistics point of view as a wrap. Like just get a big piece of lavash and make a wrap. Also it had huge slabs of zucchini that kept slipping out. The plant based waffles are also tasty, but buyer beware - they don't have as many dedicated machines, and if the demand for the other waffles is too high, they'll use the plant based machines to catch up. So if you have a milk allergy or something beware that there may be cross-contamination. Or if you wanna make them at home, get yourself Carbon's Golden Malted mix and add water or plant milk or your choice. Seriously - that's what Disney uses. You can buy huge bags of it on Amazon.

So tomorrow I do a short recovery run and see how things feel. Some yoga, walking, and stretching helped my hip a lot, to where today it feels normal. I really must be more diligent about evening yoga. I have a flow that targets my legs and hips and it does wonders when I'm piling up mileage, like I will be soon leading up to the Dopey Challenge this January. Because I'm not just a dumb runner, I'm a Dopey one.

And while I try not to buy a bunch of unnecessary stuff and have been focused on minimalism and reducing my consumption, they did have to come out with a Duchess plush the last day I was there, so now I have another stuffed kitty. I'm pretty good about sticking to my "no buy" guns until Disney dangles Aristocats stuff in front of me.

That's it for now! Tl:dr - I'm an idiot, but I'm a pretty fast idiot, and I like plushies.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat - Electro-swing Remix - Dave Wave

I had a peanut butter and tempeh sandwich for breakfast and it was terrific. This is going into my regular food rotation.

So much to do today. So much whining on my part. But if I really buckle down, I can get all my cleaning, tidying, and packing done in about two hours. Neighbor is coming by tonight to pick the house key up. I'm pretty much ready to run - I've even started carb-loading, which is going well based on what the bathroom scale is telling me. It's weird how the part of my mind that would normally flip completely the fuck out at seeing THAT NUMBER on the scale is totally quiet because ... apparently it understands carb-loading, glycogen and water retention, and all that other good shit. By Thursday afternoon "carb loading" will be the running joke of the trip as I shovel treats into my gaping maw while shuffling through the parks. We're FastPass'd up for some fun things up through Saturday, which is pretty much open in deference to my full marathon the next day. But we've even got a spot on Expedition Everest so, yay!

Need I mention that one of the email promotions I get routinely comes from a Tibetan travel agency offering a tour that includes a trip to the Everest Base Camp? And yes I am taking that under very serious consideration, including the fact that my sea-level dwelling ass will be very challenged at that elevation. I mean, I go to Denver, Colorado and I start wondering if they have any oxygen in their atmosphere.

I lost one of my plugs in bed last night and still haven't been able to find it. I need to evict the cats and take the whole bed apart. Part of the problem is that it's a silvery-aquamarine color with a glass shaft, and my sheets are dusty pale turquoise. I'm wearing one of my silicone ear skins to hold the hole open but I need to find that plug.

But for right now I'm just trying to warm up and get moving. So I may make another half pot of coffee.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: near the fire
Current Music: Elton John - Goodby Yellow Brick Road