I walked into the office hacking and coughing, as I have been doing for the last two weeks, sat down at my desk and started up my computer for the day’s work.  No sooner had I started running my applications then an instant message window popped up on my screen.

“Whadya pick?  Whadya pick?  It’s April! Whadya pick?  Huh? Huh?”  It was K and she wanted to know what I had decided on for the April Fad of the Month.  I am inherently a mean person and therefore told her she would have to wait and find out with the rest of  you.  That was three days ago.

Then I said, “I’ve decided to change the direction of my blog and make the focus all about how nothing really works and so I’ll claim to be trying all these different things but meanwhile I won’t really do anything and then I’ll claim that it didn’t work.”

“That’s no fun,” she said.

I was kidding of course.  I would never do that.  I’m entirely too honest and ethical to do that, even if I wanted to… mean, but honest and ethical.  I’m well rounded.  Anyway, since I know you’re all waiting with bated breath, I will now reveal the April/May Fad of the Month(s).

As I mentioned in a previous post I live in a really beautiful part of country.  The weather this time of year is really nice and I’m close to the water, and the hills and lots of beautiful scenery, so I decided that I should take advantage of these benefits and do something that involved physical and potentially outdoor activity.

I know that K in particular is positively salivating to know what I’ve decided on, and it is for that reason more than any other, that I am dragging this out.  But without much further ado, I will now reveal that I have decided that the April/May Fad of the months will be *cough, cough* running.

A few years ago, K discovered a program that was designed to teach someone who is not athletic how to run.  Many people make a decision to start running having never done it before and they start out too hard too fast and give up quickly because of the challenges they endure.  K, by her own description, when she started running was an “Unsvelt Girl Who Runs”.  She took on this challenge because, if for no other reason, people told her she couldn’t do it.  Today, K can run at a steady pace for a prolonged period of time and has run several races in the Bay Area.

K was never focused on, or working toward, weight loss.  She was simply determined to prove to people who said she couldn’t do it, that indeed she could.  But along the way, she has lost weight, and several sizes.  The other day, I happened across a picture of her that was taken at a work event four years ago and showed it to her.  There is a marked difference in her appearance today as compared to that picture.

In the beginning K felt the same way I do.  Running is not something that I do.  Part of the reason is simply that I do not know how to do it properly and every time I have ever tried, I have very quickly developed shin splints and side stitches and pretty quickly tired myself out.  As a result my determination has always been, “You will not find me running unless there is a bear chasing me and it’s on a steep decline…  And I’m wearing roller blades… potentially a jet pack… and then it’s not really running, now is it?  No, running was never in the cards and to be honest, I’m still not sure it is.  I’ll do it purely for the sake of this blog and the edification of you fine people.

How I feel about it at the end of the nine weeks will determine if I ever run again! There is a problem, however, that has prevented me from going full speed ahead on this.  I was sick for more than a week, and even now, I’m still struggling with the lingering, hacking cough.  Today is the first day in three weeks that I haven’t been coughing incessantly.  And yet, while playing my Wii Sports, I’m constantly stopping to cough.  My common sense tells me that running, which I believe will require more of my breathing abilities, and in the outdoors, is sure to aggravate the cough far more than the exertions of waving my arm around in the air striking a virtual tennis ball while my on-screen Mii does all the running back and forth!  So while it may have seemed as if I might have been slacking off or abandoning my endeavors and readers, I assure you this is not the case!  I am feeling much better today and hopefully within a few days I’ll be much improved and able to get outside and give this thing a shot.

In the mean time, bear with me.  Oh!  And K?  You can stop gloating now!

I bought a new laptop computer yesterday!  I’m really psyched about it.  The laptop I’ve been using for the last two plus years was a real piece of crap and was super slow!  So as I drove home last night with my new computer I was really excited to set it up!  And then I saw this!

And this!

“Uh oh!” I said to no one in particular.  “I wonder what this means?” I came inside with my computer and just that quickly forgot all about the equipment outside.

Growing up, I frequently heard my mother say, “Boys and their toys” with disdain dripping off of every word.  While she would never admit to the truth of it, my mother has always hated men.  Sadly she even hates the ones she gave birth to, though she’d tell you that isn’t true.  Anytime I got something new and I’d make a comment about wanting to be careful to keep it nice, she’d just shake her head and say, “Boys and their toys.”  But if you remove the motherly disdain and the pain that causes, she’s not entirely wrong.  As a broad generalization, men do like their gadgets and gizmos and I’m no exception so when I broke out the new laptop and started setting it up, I was absorbed.  I was still playing with it till 2:45 this morning before I finally put the computer down and went to bed.  Knowing I had stayed up too late, and that I needed a good night’s sleep, I set the alarm for 10:30 AM.

You know the sound and sheer volume of it that comes from digging around in a bag full of aluminum cans?  Yeah, I didn’t either until I moved into my current home and the little old Asian lady started coming around every few days digging through my recycling for all my aluminum cans (and I generate a lot of them – totally addicted to Diet Pepsi) AT 6:30 IN THE MORNING!!!  But trust me when I tell you, its loud folks!  I awoke, at 8:02 this morning to what sounded like THAT SOUND to me!  When I got up and looked out the window, this is what I saw!

People, its Saturday! I was sure that the construction equipment would not come into play until at least Monday, but alas, I was wrong. (Did I just say “alas”?) Clearly, I’ll be going to bed early tonight… maybe.

Thanks, neighbors, for scheduling your roofing work to begin at o’dark thirty on a Saturday morning and thanks even more for the advanced warning!

By the way, the guys worked for exactly one hour and then went on break.