Speeding Things Up

[captainsblog]

The electricians arrived a little after 8:30 this morning to begin installing the 220 line for the Level 2 charger. That seemed a perfectly good time to get the dog out of the house while they started doing the work inside to connect the line to the panel. After walkies, we then hibernated in my home office while I worked on some things that I figured could be done even with her barking and whining. Only it turned out to not be a problem; she was a good girl the whole time they were here.

One of the tasks I set out to do was finally getting around to working on getting our passports renewed. The current ones expire at the end of November, and given recent events, it seemed a good idea to be able to legally leave the country in the future. I made some progress, but ultimately came to one conclusion:

Passport renewal applications are a bitch.

You can apply entirely online, or fill out a form online that you then print and bring to a post office or county clerk, or you can print a fillable pdf. Each time I got stuck on the "EMERGENCY CONTACT" part. Of course the logical choice is our daughter, but she and her BF are under contract to buy a house next month and I don't want to jinx it by putting that new address down. These suckers last for ten years, so their current address would be useless in any event by the end of that time. Plus, what do they need a street address for, anyway? Her phone will be the same, and what are they gonna do if there's an emergency? Send a Candygram?



The other option would be my sister or Eleanor's brother, but they will be 88 and 85 by the time the thing expire and probably living in Applesauce Acres. So I've saved them and we're holding off until after they close.

----

The 220 line was in, and they were working on putting the charger up, when I decided to take the dog with me to the pet store for some cat kibble. I had an ulterior motive, though:



I'd seen that face on a link from a friend's Facebook page, to a rescue group housing him at one of the pet stores near us.  They pitched him as having

such a sad looking face because he sees all his friends at PetSmart on Transit Rd. going home and he is still here.

Indeed, he still was when we got there.  I kept Pepper outside the room of crates and went in for a brief hello. That picture really doesn't do Benny justice:



In the second one, which I took, he looks just about the age and size Boz, Bronzini's orange tabby littermate, would have been if he'd lived. Benny was beautiful and alert and inquisitive, so inquisitive that when he saw who was on the other end of my leash, even outside the door of the vestibule where the cages are, he started hissing at Pepper like a madman. That sealed that he wouldn’t have worked for us, but I can't imagine a kitty so pwetty will last in there long without a fur-ever home.

----

When we got home, the job was done, the invoice paid and the car already charging, twice as fast as it had before. Pinocchio, you're a real hybrid now:



On time, on budget, and double the speed it was.

----

The other thing that may be moving faster, other than the home charging of the car, is me.

My gym has put together a group to enter one of the many 5K races they hold in this area throughout the summer and fall. I have not done a 5K in probably 10 years; my last 5-mile Turkey Trot, which was more of a hourlong walk laced with beer that I don’t drink anymore, was the Thanksgiving before Covid. After all of that waiting, I decided to sign up for this one for a few reasons, besides being able to do it with people I know from the group.

One, it is not until the end of September, which should give me a good amount of time to get ready for it. I am also hoping it will be cooler and less humid than the tropical whether we've been in during the past few weeks. But I mostly picked this one because it brings me full 5K circle to when I did my first of them, just over 12 years ago.



They haven't updated the logo yet from last year's. It is held in Orchard Park, and the finish is on the 50 yard line of the Bills’ stadium. And yes, unless I am crazy enough to do it again next year, it will probably be my last time in that celebrated structure, since 2025 will be its 53rd and final year before they tear it down in favor of the new palace they’re building across the parking lot from it.

I had signed up for that first one in 2012 because Kimmy, a friend of ours from old LJ blogging days, had seen it and decided to sign up for it.  I was probably 20 pounds heavier back then, and put a Couch-to-5K app on my phone to train for it verrrry slowwwwly. That one was in late June, and my post about it recorded a finish time of just under 45 minutes, just over a 15 mile a minute pace.  In the years since, I've gotten my indoor jogging speed on a treadmill down to doing 2 miles in around 22-25 minutes, closer to a 12 minute pace. The only negative is the dozen years and untold thousand miles on the feet since then. One thing I'm absolutely going to do before getting into this is to visit a proper running gear store and have the right pair of kicks fit to my feet with proper insoles so those 5 kilometers, and who knows how many before that inside and out, don't do more harm than good in the long run.

Or the half hourlong walk. Just not laced with beer anymore.

Comments

[warriorsavant]

1. EMERGENCY CONTACT: Put your daughter's address. Either old or new. As you say, they aren't actually going to drive out to her house, they're going to call or email. Even if they send someone, it will be local police, who will be able to find her, cause, uh, that's what they do.
2. CHARGER: amazing how when one is an adult, one can get so excited about things like that.