Fear the Crab

Like many who grew up in the 1980s, I was a child much infatuated with the savvy marketing skills of Hasbro and the gamut of cartoon advertisements for toys of all shapes and sizes. And, like a few who, whether by chance, luck, or sheer laziness, never actually threw away or donated these childhood mementos, I still have some of them. Chief among the old toy boxes and cardboard packaging are my GI Joe 3.75″ action figures.

Now that I’m expecting, I decided to see if any of my old toys were salvageable. I’m not one to pre-determine what kind of gear is “gender appropriate” so to me it doesn’t matter if I have a boy or a girl; if the podling decides to go old-school with GI Joe and Cobra and make pew-pew noises where there are a lot of imaginary explosions and no deaths, I will be ready. And very eager to join in!
Continued ~

Typically today is the deadline for filing IRS tax returns, so despite this year’s extension I still consider it the penultimate life-changing moment that can make or break a person’s financial standing.

It’s all that and more for me at this point, because if all goes well, come late October I will be able to claim a dependent in my household. This cranky crab is going to welcome a broodling.
Continued ~

I stayed up well past midnight, absorbing news of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan.  I mainly watched Al Jazeera’s live feed because local and national media are woefully biased and typically like to interject emotion into what should be an objective representation of events.  International news has its fair share, of course, but on the whole I find Al Jazeera to at least give me more fact than feeling.
Continued ~

I managed to finish the Great Aloha Run without collapsing into a fluid pile of twitching muscles and blistered feet. The official time recorded was 1:51:37, which averages into a 13:43 mile. I placed 9453 overall out of over 27,000+ entrants, 5528/10903 in my gender group, and 644/1125 in my age bracket.
Continued ~

I’m still painting miniatures, albeit is a slow and almost painful process. I don’t know how some people find the time or inspiration to churn out entire armies of these things in just a couple of weeks, as it takes me about as long to finish one model.

One big reason could be that I can’t decide on a single color scheme. I managed to finish a significant chunk of Space Marines a couple of years ago, but since then I decided to go with a marine sub-group called the Space Wolves. Basically they’re like Vikings. In space. And all of last year was spent painting up a pretty significant force, at least enough to play a small quick game. Unfortunately, afterward I got pretty tired of it. The colors didn’t really do it for me anymore, and I couldn’t get behind the idea of repeating it for every subsequent model.
Continued ~

I fucking hate insomnia.

I know I’m tired. I only had 4 hours of sleep last night. I can feel it in my head, and my body is lethargic and slow. But when I close my eyes I see daylight. I thought I read somewhere that someone referred to an idiot’s sight, but I can’t remember where and I don’t even know if it’s real. It’s that vision in the closed eye that sees things clear as crystal water, but in my case it’s just a bright haze that nothing can shut out. Blackout curtains, eye shades, pillow over the face, nothing helps keep that damn light from filling my mind.

The bed isn’t comfortable. I can’t find the right spot, the right position, to just relax. It’s hot under the covers, so I kick them off. Now it’s too cold. My shirt pulls, my collar chokes. My shorts feel like they can’t decide between giving me a wedgie or castrating my balls, so they do both. The pillow feels like a rock, and no matter how I lie it feels like my neck is made of concrete.

I hear every damn noise in a 20-mile radius. There seems to be a large dog in every backyard up and down my street, and the little rats yapping away in the valley sound like they’re right outside my window. I hear some kid screaming somewhere; I can’t tell if it’s in pleasure or pain, but I derive no relaxation from either thought. It sounds like everybody has a car or moped with an illegal muffler, blaring, whining and rumbling for seemingly infinite stretches of road.

I can’t stop thinking about every inconsequential thing. Most of what I think is unimportant trivial matters; what am I wearing to work tomorrow, what I will eat. They are fleeting thoughts, but as each shifts to oblivion it is replaced with another. Through it all I can only think of why I can’t sleep, and of course there is no answer.

I’ve tried to mentally will my body to relax, focusing first on my core, spreading out to my limbs. I can feel it working, similar to a meditative state. Unfortunately I can’t seem to ignore the outside world. Somewhere a dog has started barking again. Another modified car roars through the suburbs. Each blast of noise gets me really pissed off, even though I know in the deepest recesses of my brain, that it’s stupid to get mad at and there’s no real reason for it. I have a feeling the next day is going to suck. Seriously.

Maile signed us up for the Great Aloha Run, scheduled for Presidents’ Day. I have never run any type of long-distance race, so I classify the GAR almost the same as a marathon. A marathon of 8 miles, yes, so while it’s not quite at the level of a Honolulu Marathon, I think ten steps into either would leave me collapsed on the pavement wishing for unconsciousness.

The sponsors of the GAR hold free training sessions every Sunday starting this week, where I am supposed to learn how to prepare for running and condition myself to maintain the course. Each session has a run of distances from 1-2 miles in the early weeks, gradually increasing to the full 8 right before the GAR itself. If I can dedicate myself to showing up every Sunday morning, I’m pretty certain I’ll handle the event.

Of course, on Monday I had just returned to a routine of weights and exercise, and a set of squats for the first time in months has left my legs in a state of perpetual burn and stiffness. This is a classic case of delayed onset muscle soreness that hopefully will go away as I keep up the pace.

Yesterday I went to the local high school and ran (technically jogged) 4 laps around the track, which I am led to believe is one mile. I was winded, but I wasn’t fully exhausted, so I gained some confidence that I can really do this.

Then maybe I can consider the Honolulu Marathon.