The big news - we have officially moved into the new old house - OUR house, which I still find crazy. I say 'old' because it dates from the 1920's, with some modern updates. It has taken us more time than we expected to be out of the last place, mainly because we own far more shit than we thought that we did. Most of it fits in the new place, but we plan to store some of the more random and superfluous items, like Christmas ornaments, in the garage. We moved plenty of loose items and clothes on Saturday, and then the movers came Tuesday for all of the big items - furniture and boxes. This was our final departure on Tuesday afternoon, leaving our old abode and heading to the new one with the pups:
They had sensed for a while that something was "up", but walking through the empty house freaked them out a bit, and they panted the entire four miles or so to the new place. They seem to have adjusted, although they are still a bit tentative about which room they really want to hang out in. Mostly they are sticking close to us (one is snoring happily away by my side as I type this all out).
As for the house - we are still settling in. Michael made major inroads on Thursday and cleared a spot so that we can eat at the table, but I don't feel extraordinarily motivated to spend hours and hours emptying boxes. The kitchen and bathroom and clothes are set, and ditto for the cable, so what more do we really need? At the moment, we can navigate the labyrinth of boxes somewhat successfully, so I don't feel particularly anxious to sort through all of our boxes, many of which we will store away in the garage. We have discovered, much to our relief and happiness, that we really do like the house and the neighborhood. We met one of our neighbors today when we took the boys for a walk, and I think that we'll soon know a handful of people, at least by sight, if not by name. I was concerned about the small yappy dogs that live next to us - that we'd have a barking war between all of our pets, but Gus and Milo have demonstrated zero interest in barking at them. With the exception of the occasional outbursts, it's a pretty quiet neighborhood, which we like, especially after living so close to one highway or another throughout most of our LA experience together. It is nice to hear birds in the backyard instead of the buzz of traffic!
Thanks to laryngitis/sore throat/cough that has dragged on and on, I was much less help than I hoped to be in terms of the move. This particular cold strand has been quite vicious, but I am finally getting better. It has set my goals for Wildflower back somewhat, which was initially frustrating, but I've now accepted it and am looking forward to that May 5 race day no matter what! This morning I had my first open water swim of the season, which makes Wildflower seem a bit more real. Until the past week, I'd been feeling confident about my swimming fitness, but I took a step backwards with my cold and really struggled through this week's swims. However, the swim this morning gave me a good idea of where I stand for Wildflower - maybe just a hair faster than last year? It was exciting and scary to pull out the wetsuit (fortunately I remembered where I had stowed it, unlike my Garmin cord/charger which remains elusive!), and a mile is always shorter and longer than I think that it will be, if that makes sense. I didn't kill it in the water, not that I ever do, but I also felt pretty even throughout - both in terms of stroke and breathing. Even better, I did NOT end up with 'swimmer's itch', despite all of the warnings about that being a possible result of the day's swim!
So, it seems that we're moving ahead - settling into the house and I'm finally back to training. I'm sure that we'll continue to make adjustments, big and small, in the next few days and weeks.
