Friday, May 22, 2009

RIP Dave















Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. First I'll start with the horrible news of the death of an old friend. Yesterday after a night and morning of no old cat on our front porch waiting to be let in for his ham and pineapple, Mai and I went looking for him. He's old - yesterday we were to celebrate his 16th birthday. He's old and so although he used to leave us for days on end, as of late, not so much. He's in and out of the house many times throughout the day. I figured he was locked in someone's garage but we went looking up in the common area of our neighborhood just in case he was sick and had wandered away to the woods. As we came to the end of the trail Mai spotted the first set of clumps and clumps of Dave's fur. Next, I found his collar and nametag and then more fur and then a few obvious signs that he was gone.
After a good cry and boxing up his fur and collar for burial, I googled coyotes in our area and come to find out there is a pack that has taken many pets -one guy just down the road from us has lost a cat and two dogs :-(
On my bike ride yesterday I noticed an abnormal amount of "missing cat" signs in the neighborhood. Grrr. I wish I had known - I would have tried to make sure he was in each night. This cat has been with me since I was 25!! That was a loooooooooooong time ago!! He's been with me since before I moved to Portland, through 3 different apartments, many jobs, a wedding, a new home, two kids, two dogs. He was the meanest cat you would ever meet. But for the past several years he mellowed, let kids pet him with only a few attacks and I'll miss him greatly. Good Bye my old furry friend.
tears...

So onto training - not so much during the week, but my weekend long workouts are still happening. Life is just so busy this year compared to last. Both kids just finally finished up Spring Soccer and Mai is done with school as of Wednesday, so things are easing up a bit this week. I did a long brick two weeks ago and was so slow on the run that Michele kicked my butt wearing her Crocs (she forgot her running shoes) and my MO seems to be "slow" right now. I'm just waiting for race day and hoping it is at least minimally less of an ordeal than last year. During the run portion of yesterday's brick I realized my upper back was having spasms just like in the race last year. I didn't experience any of this at all on my 12 mile run (no bike ride) last weekend, so it's got to be from moving from the bike to the run. I need to figure out some exercises/stretches to do in the next 4 weeks to get my back in better shape.

Tomorrow we have a 15 mile trail run and then on Sunday, Sheryl and I are making up the 50 mile bike/ 10 mile run BRICK that we missed last week. Should be a painful weekend :o)

I missed the big group brick last weekend because I had my TNT fundraiser garage sale - which was totally profitable!!! We made about a $1000.00!!!!!!! The total on our bottle/can drive was over $200.00!! We are slowly but surely reaching our goal for the season. If you are planning on donating, I have until June 12th to reach my goal of $4000.00. Donations can be made here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/pctri09/jarts

Oh - and our first open water swim of the year was this week. If you'll remember back to last year, I had to be towed to shore at the first swim - then I cried for two days straight and thought life was ending as there seemed to be no way I would ever be able to swim 1.2 miles in open water on race day. Well, as the swims progressed, I got used to the wetsuit and it ended up being my favorite (and fastest) part of the half iron! Well, I thought for sure that the first open water swim of this year would be a piece of cake and I was going to "be there" for all the newbies who might experience some open water difficulties, but once again - there is Julie hyperventilating in the middle of the lake and needing someone to hold her hand as she floated on her back trying to regroup! OH BROTHER!
Thanks to Ali, I calmed down and was able to continue swimming - slowly, and very near the shore :o)
Some things never change.
Have a great day and hopefully I'll live to tell you about our long workouts of this holiday weekend.

7 comments:

Krissa said...

So sorry about your kitty. That is so sad.

GClef1970 said...

I'm so sorry about Dave, Jules. I remember you talking about Dave all the way back when we met on BFLM. First Coda and now Dave! :-(

I have a mean ol' cat, too. She's 15 and has also mellowed as she has gotten older. She actually lets Conor pet her now. I keep trying to prepare myself, but I don't think you're ever prepared. :-(

How are Jack and Mai handling it?

Whether you struggle or not with your training, you still are an inspiration to me because you DO it, anyway.

231 days. :-)

A Prelude To... said...

Thanks Krissa and Melissa.
Jack gets all teary whenever we mention Dave, but Mai's handling it really well. She cried more over "Marley and Me" than Dave. She's my optimist - looking at the bright side that now we can help save all the other neighbor's cats with our news.
I'm still just sick to my stomach.

We'll write our good bye letters this afternoon and bury his fur (in the front yard to protect from Kiara the digger...grrr)tonight. I need to get to work on a gravestone.

rockstarmom said...

Hey Jules,
So sorry about Dave :( I grew up with kitties and we just lost our "last" one - he was 16 too. Very very sad so I am sorry...it is like a piece of your life and all those memories die a little too.. :(

Awesome job on the training..it may be slow but you are DOING IT..and with my training just starting, you are my inspiration so keep on trucking!

xoxo,
Paula

Kelly said...

Just found your blog and you are really inspiring! I am training for my first sprint triathlon so I need to read about others experiences with running, biking and swimming- I am not quite at your level yet though haha.

A Prelude To... said...

Hi Kelly! You are going to have so much fun with triathlons. I can't believe it took me so long to try one out - they are a blast!!! Have a wonderful experience and enjoy it!! Have fun with it!! Don't take it so seriously you lose the fun!!!!!

Stephanie said...

So sorry to read about Dave. What a horrible way to find him!