Another Twofer Post

The ground up here in the Northeast (but well south of Canada) is so uncharacteristically frozen that a lot of people are having problems with their septic systems. Our problem is that the drain pipe for our sump pump froze, which meant there was nowhere for the incoming groundwater from Friday's torrential rains to go. I had to call my neighbor who called a plumber he knows. (All my plumbers were too busy to respond. Now this new guy is my new plumber!) He brought a new sump pump to drain the basement and discovered that my old sump was actually working. (I thought it'd failed. And there was no way of checking it without wading into a foot of water, and no one wants to do that while there's live currents.)

Miraculously, the oil burner fired right up and it was amazing to watch the steam it generated as it dried itself off, but the computer chip controller card for the water heater was fried. It didn't mean I had no hot water. What it meant is that the water going to the tap was now 200F, the same temp as the oil burner heating system. I had to call another guy to fix the hot water heater. It cost me a lot of money, but at least I have heat and hot water that won't scald me when I do the dishes. (Whoever said money can't buy happiness was lying, or didn't have any. Money buys heat and hot water, which makes me happy.)

Of course, it's only mid-January and winter is months away from being over. So I hope I don't have to pour more money into the basement for now... My oil burner is down to 1/4 tank. Sigh. A delivery is scheduled for Thursday. They'd better come! We're usually pretty good with our fuel, keeping our house around 60-63F. My hubs gets a little crazy with the wood stove though, and had us at a roasting 75F, which made me sweaty in my flannels. Yuck. I'd rather have the house at 63F.

Sunday, since we didn't have safe hot water, we all decided to go to the gym to work out and then avail ourselves of their plentiful hot water, and great water pressure. My hubs worked out with my son. My son always looked kind of bored, or intimidated. Working out with my son is a new thing for my hubs. He's not really used to it but I figure it's a good bonding experience, like Boy Scouts. (We rarely take our son to the gym because most weekends are reserved for Scout events.) I saw other parents with their kids at the gym. On weekends, people can bring their 8-14 year olds for free. I did a Push Day with a 30 min cardio warm up. I didn't really push it too hard, and as it was, I was still the last person out of the locker room. But of course, washing long hair and patting it dry takes forever. I do miss my old wash and go haircut!

I'm kind of bummed when I spot the sign affixed to my favorite Life Fitness cross-trainer. It's going to be replaced! I don't fit into a lot of the equipment so I'm always a bit apprehensive as to whether this will be a good new thing, or a bad new thing. But of course, there's a gal at the front desk who's 2 inches shorter than I am, so if she can use it, then most likely I can too. We'll see...


Sunday

20 x-trainer
Calories 96
Miles 2.64

HGPU 26
Push-ups 60
Elbow Plank 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s

Smith Inclined Press
Bar x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12
90 x 12
60 x 25
50 x 25

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20/25 x 12/15 x 3

Rip Skulls
40 x 12 x 3


Monday is a school holiday although everyone else (except banks and the post office) appear to be open. Our road is so icy (from the underground stream runoff from a property two houses past ours) that a town bulldozer came this morning to scrape up all the ice, and then dumped salt and sand all the way down to the main road. Ah winter! Walking to the bus stop is going to suck tomorrow morning, so I really might have to drive my son down. Ugh.

I got to the gym at noon today and I had a lot of things to do afterwards so a quick cardio workout. Intervals, pull ups, push ups and a fairly standard core plank routine. I keep reading that you shouldn't do push ups and pull ups every day because your body can't recover quick enough. I guess I don't really believe that — I do them whenever I'm at the gym. My pull ups were better today than yesterday. They always feel weak after a few days off. Or after a particularly grueling workout, like kickboxing the Nexersys. Which I might do tomorrow since the forecast is for snow tomorrow night into Wednesday, and that's going to affect school. Of course...

Monday

30 elliptical
Intervals
Calories 295
Miles 2.60
Average Heart Rate 144 (max 205)

HGPU 26
Push-ups 60
Elbow Plank 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s