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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Tomato Feast

Posted by Melanie at 20:11 2 comments

Tomato sauce, tomato soup, tomato salad, tomato on sandwiches and pizza, green tomato salsa, fried green tomatoes and tiny, sweet, red currant tomatoes eaten whole. Whenever there are too many ripe ones I pile them into plastic bags and freeze them or I make them into a sauce with garlic and fresh herbs. I freeze the sauce in plastic bags as well. Freezing tomatoes is so much easier and quicker than canning them.

harvest

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Core Strength

Posted by Melanie at 16:12 0 comments

I’m beginning to be able to self diagnose when my pelvis is out of whack. The physiotherapist showed me an exercise where you push one leg and pull the other one, while lying down, to try and straighten it out. I can tell when my pelvis is not straight because my left hamstring starts to hurt again and that leg is longer than the other one.

When I lie on my back those knobby bones on the inside of each ankle are not even. The left one is half and inch below the right one. It's a significant difference. No wonder I'm having problems.

Who knew that the best way to tighten stomach muscles is to scrunch them up, suck in your stomach, like when you want to zip up those tight jeans. Appartently doing this is more effective than stitups. The physio said having tight stomach muscles whould help my pelvis stay in place. So at random times, I pull my stomach in towards my spine and hold it, reminding myself to breath. I never thought running would be so complicated.

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Friday, September 18, 2009

A Dream Come True

Posted by Melanie at 20:23 4 comments

I still can’t believe this is real. I got this letter out of the mailbox on Thursday. I sent the manuscript off almost eight months ago following it with an email and later another letter. I was beginning to think she never got it, or hated it so much she didn’t think it was worth even a rejection slip.

When I picked my daughter up I made her read the letter to me. I thought that would make it feel real. Even when I got home, later, after the running clinic and showed it to Robert even after he congratulated me I still feel like it is happening to someone else.

I‘ve had lots of my stuff published before, in magazines newspapers and web publications but a book. YeeeHaa! break out the champagne, turn up the music.

A Dream Come True

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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do When There Are No Alternatives

Posted by Melanie at 14:25 0 comments

I have the worst Internet connection in the world. It’s called wireless high speed. Hah that’s a misnomer since it rarely runs to its full potential.

A transmitter on top of a local hill AKA Pilot Mountain beams the signal out across the fields and forests. If you are within range and have direct sight you can pick up the signal with a receiver usually mounted on the roof of your house or, like ours, on top of a tree. The signal runs through a wire into the house.

Sounds simple except needing to have line of sight is a problem because trees grow and when they leaf out in spring a direct signal can get flaky. Moving the transmitter to a more auspicious spot can be dicey especially when it is on top of a tree and I have to hire a guy with spiked boots and a safety belt at a cost of $100 to do it for me.

The other problems are - the transmitters get struck by lightning thus the signal disappears, they go down if it rains to much and if the power goes out like when a logging truck, driving to fast, misses the corner, knocks over a hydro pole and falls into the ditch dumping huge logs all over the road. Traffic disasters like this happen at least once every winter. Of course hydro goes down for other reasons as well.

The signal also disappears when the Internet Company decides to fix or upgrade their equipment. This happened everyday for a week last month and on other occasions at least once a week. I think it is great they fix and upgrade they equipment but I also think it would be good business if they told us what they were doing and when and for how long we would not be getting any Internet service. I also think they should acknowledge their signal interruptions and tell us the reason why; they should apologize for the loss of service and tell us what steps they took to fix it. Informing customers what is going on makes such good business sense to me.

Instead I fret and fume, let my imagination overtake my good sense so I have to restrain myself from dialing up their office on the cell phone to leave them nasty messages about how the lack of Internet service is ruining my life.

I use the Internet a lot to do research for all my writing contracts. I keep in touch with my friends, family and work contacts though email, twitter and blogger.

On days when the Internet is down I can drive into town to use the free Internet available at the public library and at Starbucks. This is OK to do once in a while for a change of scene but you know I’m paying to have Internet service piped into my house I want it to work.

If that isn’t enough my phone line is also tied into my Internet connection. We use Vonage. Most calls in North America are charged a local dialup fee so my phone bill is a cheap $20 a month. However, if my Internet connection is spotty or slow my phone line also suffers.

I would drop this Internet Company in a heartbeat if they was something else. Currently the alternatives are Telus dialup or mobile internet with a Rogers Rocket Stick. The speed of the Rocket Stick is slower than high speed but faster than dialup. Although speed wise I probably wouldn’t notice any difference, the downside is that the Rockets Stick would cost a whole lot more money.

I've written about this problem before, here here here here and here. The problem is lack of competition, our capitalistic business model and low population in rural areas. If we can have zillions of TV channels, reasonable priced, accessed through either cable or satellite dish WHY is it so hard to have ubiquitous, consistent, high speed, low cost, internet?

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Slow down, you move too fast..... feelin' groovy. (What I've learned about Running)

Posted by Melanie at 12:59 2 comments

I have images of myself completing a marathon in 4 hours and 5 minutes. It's the maximum amount of time, I'm allowed to complete a marathon in, so I can qualify to run the Boston Marathon. But, ever since I wrecked my hamstring, back in April, less than 3 months after I started running, I’ve had to scale my cathedral size goals back, down to the size of an outhouse I used to have on my back forty.

I’ve had tons of advice. Doctor friends have told me too stop running and let my hamstring heal. Running friends and physiotherapists have told me to stretch more, run slower, for shorter distances avoid hills but most of all don’t stop running.

Like anything running has it’s Geeky element. Running styles like forefoot running, chi running, barefoot running and pose running are all methods to increase performance and decrease injury. There is the Newton shoe designed to force you forward onto your forefoot, vibram shoes are meant to simulate barefoot running. Supposedly high-tech running shoes are the cause of most runners injuries. If we all just threw away our shoes and went around barefoot or wore Newtons all our problems would disappear.

My brother in-law, an ultra marathoner and Ironman Triathalete was anxious to help me navigate this hypertexed, animated, glittery hype. But his old school sensible advice was like remembering to take my calcium pill everyday and I soon forgot it.

Last week, desperate for new solutions for my chronic hamstring injury, I accused the manager of my local running shoe store of selling me bad shoes.

He’s a very nice guy, quiet, an experienced runner and his brain is stuffed with sensible facts on the right way to run. Gently he showed me how my shoes were not to blame for my injury. He told me our sedentary lifestyle, where we all drive around in cars or sit at desks or on the couch most of the day is to blame. He said we don’t walk anywhere we shuffle. We lean backwards and heel strike. Which I found can be very painful when slamming my foot into the asphalt during a long run. He suggested I see a Physiotherapist who helped him heal a recurring hip injury he had a few years ago.

The Pyhsiotherapist told me I had a rotated pelvis and it was the cause of all my pain and frustration. It took him less than thirty seconds to rotate it back into place. The procedure didn’t hurt by the way and neither did I hear any painful cracking noises. He also gave me some new stretching exercises and told me not to give up running.

All of a sudden my little bit of the world has come into sharper definition. I must not have deleted My brother in laws advice because now I’m remembering to lean forward when I run. Leaning forward forces you off your heels and onto the balls of your feet. I realize I do this naturally when going for speed on cross country ski trails and when hiking up steep mountain sides. Leaning into the hill is a more efficient use of my bodies’ resources.

Just because I can easily hike for days, with a thirty five lb pack on my back, up and down steep mountain sides, does not translate into easily running a marathon. I need to build up a strong running base. The way I use my body to run is not the same way I use it when hiking or skiing or swimming. I understand now, it will take time, a long time, to slowly build up my running strength.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Advice From A Curmudgeon

Posted by Melanie at 21:14 1 comments

There are too many podcasts out there, if you want me to listen to yours it’s got to give me something. It’s the same with blogs. Everyone with an internet connection has a blog. Telling me what you ate for breakfast will probably be a lot more interesting then telling me you haven’t updated in a while, I already know that, or, saying you don’t have a lot to say, then don’t say it.

No matter how compelling the podcast content if the audio quality is poor then I’m not listening that also means all you runners who think it ultra cool to record while running.

You need to have something to say it doesn’t matter what it is it’s how you say it that counts.

I’ve listened to hundreds of CBC radio programs about things I‘m not interested in and enjoyed them. Before podcasts let me listen to what I want anytime and anywhere CBC radio was on in my house or car most of the time. It was in the background like a wrinkled old aunt, sitting in a rocking chair in the corner. Mostly you barely noticed her but man, when she opened her mouth you listened. Her stories could keep you enthralled all day. I remember I had speakers all over the house so I didn’t have to miss any CBC radio. I listened because the program hosts were adept at taking the subject matter and turning it into a damn good story.

As William Zinsser wrote in his timeless tomb, On Writing Well, if what you have to say doesn’t grab the listener or readers attention they’re not going to stick around. There are too many other blogs, podcasts or other web 2 timewasters to soak up their fickle attention.

One more thing- unless the weather report is specific to your story, leave it out.

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