Bombcyclone Day
Welcome spring! Ok, not yet exactly. It's raining this morning in Manitou and the sun has yet to rise. The time changed 3 days ago and today we have "hurricane-force" winds expected. How fast are those winds exactly? Being from the Texas Gulf Coast I always wonder how this looks to residents of Colorado...but let me be clear, the wind can get very high in this part of the country. Today they think we'll have 80mph wind gusts easily. I'm hoping my house tucked in the hill won't bear the brunt of the winds but one can never tell until the storm is here.
We are about a quarter of the way in to the year and man has it been a busy one. I got sick after finishing the HURT 100 in January and accumulating severe sleep deprivation. This wasn't exactly a surprise but it did lead to what I believe is probably a small secondary infection (based on the fact that it's gone on so long). I still refuse to go get antibiotics at this point because in my mind if I can just get enough sleep my body will kick it entirely. It's also affecting my training only somewhat, the days I feel bad and limited with my breathing always come after a night of bad sleep. So I'm still convinced if I sleep better I'll win. TBD I guess.
I really wanted to take it easy after HURT, being sick forced it, but being sick wasn't the way I wanted to go. We've had mostly crummy weather when I'm off work as well. All this has led to an unprecedented lack of physical activity compared to what I would normally do. Some de-training is okay but as I sit here I am led to believe that my transfer to the California Army National Guard should be going through within the month (perhaps?) and so I would like to begin safely rebuilding a base of fitness.
And now it's lightly hailing.
Side note: there is increased anxiety knowing that I no longer rent a house but if my home is damaged in a storm (I do have homeowners insurance), I have to take care of it. It's just a new feeling. Like when I spent too much money buying my Jeep...first few hail storms brought me so much anxiety. I guess the lesson there is to remember that even though a person can "own something," we really never own anything permanently. I'm just the one who gets to manage it until I die or sell it!
I'm considering if the weather is really bad this evening staying at Annie's house instead of driving home. Annie is our office manager and she lives near the clinic. I live about 35-40 minutes away in Manitou. They aren't calling for a ton of snow in Colorado Springs but with the winds they are expecting, it just seems like a horrible idea to be driving. In some of the "wind storms" we have had previously, houses have lost their heavy clay shingles, windows have been busted out, trees, power lines, and fences have been torn down, and all sorts of items from people's yards have become projectiles and debris. For some reason it seems semi-trucks still find their way to the roads during the worst of the worst wind and often topple over on the interstate. So if you're lucky and aren't directly hit by anything, you'll perhaps spend your time sitting in traffic. Many flights in and out of Denver and Colorado Springs were canceled yesterday knowing what the weather might do. I do tend to play it safe with the weather forecasts when and where I can because...well, the weather starting Friday is just fine and I'd like to be alive and myself and my property unharmed so I can enjoy it.
I did get to take a short trip to El Campo in February to visit my mom and step-dad. This was a great visit other than the added sleep debt from delayed flights and the additional days of being sedentary. I love my parents and it was great to hang out with them for a couple days in person. I'm going to try to head home a few more times this year instead of my usual single trip if I can.
In other news, Colorado has seen a record Avalanche season this year. Well, I'm not a native but this is what people keep saying. The high country has been getting snow since the early season and continues to get feet at a time. I'm super interested to see if this means less wildfires this year. The relationship of the weather to wildfires is interesting. I always thought that hot, dry, and windy were the primary variables in increasing fire danger but I recently heard a climate investigator / journalist state that California will continue to see an increased risk because they're getting more moisture now and this means more growth of vegetation / fuel for the fires.
All I know is that a Colorado summer is quite gorgeous and so far it's been enough to keep me in this state through deadly wind and hail storms. Just out east tornadoes are a greater threat but I'm not sure how close to Pikes Peak a tornado has come. We don't have hurricanes but we get the same winds. We get wildfires. We get floods. My house in particular is on a hill and I don't think it would flood easily but a big fire could certainly take me out. I should probably develop a fire plan before the season gets going.
I'll add that to doing my taxes...
We are about a quarter of the way in to the year and man has it been a busy one. I got sick after finishing the HURT 100 in January and accumulating severe sleep deprivation. This wasn't exactly a surprise but it did lead to what I believe is probably a small secondary infection (based on the fact that it's gone on so long). I still refuse to go get antibiotics at this point because in my mind if I can just get enough sleep my body will kick it entirely. It's also affecting my training only somewhat, the days I feel bad and limited with my breathing always come after a night of bad sleep. So I'm still convinced if I sleep better I'll win. TBD I guess.
I really wanted to take it easy after HURT, being sick forced it, but being sick wasn't the way I wanted to go. We've had mostly crummy weather when I'm off work as well. All this has led to an unprecedented lack of physical activity compared to what I would normally do. Some de-training is okay but as I sit here I am led to believe that my transfer to the California Army National Guard should be going through within the month (perhaps?) and so I would like to begin safely rebuilding a base of fitness.
And now it's lightly hailing.
Side note: there is increased anxiety knowing that I no longer rent a house but if my home is damaged in a storm (I do have homeowners insurance), I have to take care of it. It's just a new feeling. Like when I spent too much money buying my Jeep...first few hail storms brought me so much anxiety. I guess the lesson there is to remember that even though a person can "own something," we really never own anything permanently. I'm just the one who gets to manage it until I die or sell it!
I'm considering if the weather is really bad this evening staying at Annie's house instead of driving home. Annie is our office manager and she lives near the clinic. I live about 35-40 minutes away in Manitou. They aren't calling for a ton of snow in Colorado Springs but with the winds they are expecting, it just seems like a horrible idea to be driving. In some of the "wind storms" we have had previously, houses have lost their heavy clay shingles, windows have been busted out, trees, power lines, and fences have been torn down, and all sorts of items from people's yards have become projectiles and debris. For some reason it seems semi-trucks still find their way to the roads during the worst of the worst wind and often topple over on the interstate. So if you're lucky and aren't directly hit by anything, you'll perhaps spend your time sitting in traffic. Many flights in and out of Denver and Colorado Springs were canceled yesterday knowing what the weather might do. I do tend to play it safe with the weather forecasts when and where I can because...well, the weather starting Friday is just fine and I'd like to be alive and myself and my property unharmed so I can enjoy it.
I did get to take a short trip to El Campo in February to visit my mom and step-dad. This was a great visit other than the added sleep debt from delayed flights and the additional days of being sedentary. I love my parents and it was great to hang out with them for a couple days in person. I'm going to try to head home a few more times this year instead of my usual single trip if I can.
In other news, Colorado has seen a record Avalanche season this year. Well, I'm not a native but this is what people keep saying. The high country has been getting snow since the early season and continues to get feet at a time. I'm super interested to see if this means less wildfires this year. The relationship of the weather to wildfires is interesting. I always thought that hot, dry, and windy were the primary variables in increasing fire danger but I recently heard a climate investigator / journalist state that California will continue to see an increased risk because they're getting more moisture now and this means more growth of vegetation / fuel for the fires.
All I know is that a Colorado summer is quite gorgeous and so far it's been enough to keep me in this state through deadly wind and hail storms. Just out east tornadoes are a greater threat but I'm not sure how close to Pikes Peak a tornado has come. We don't have hurricanes but we get the same winds. We get wildfires. We get floods. My house in particular is on a hill and I don't think it would flood easily but a big fire could certainly take me out. I should probably develop a fire plan before the season gets going.
I'll add that to doing my taxes...
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