cesimpson

OK. I’m a lazy slug. I came back from California a week ago and haven’t written anything since. Sorry.

I have so much to write about, and I keep getting further and further behind. What has happened since last I wrote anything here? I went to California and got a new sister-in-law. I came back. An electrical storm rolled through town, knocked all sorts of high-voltage stuff to the ground, broke a utility pole in half and lit small fires in my yard. And I’ve had three workouts. This is going to be one hell of a post. Consider that fair warning.

California

We flew out on Friday morning. We landed in LA then flew on to Oakland. From there we drove the hour or so north to Sonoma. It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed at this fantastic house on a vineyard. There was a heated salt-water swimming pool, a hot tub and a sauna. The kitchen window looked out onto a small lake/bog of sorts…some water, some wetland, a huge willow towering over the top of it all and a blue heron that spent most its hours walking around.

On Saturday, there was all the hubbub of getting ready for the wedding. Everyone was hustling about. Both our kids were in the wedding (flower girl and ring-bearer) so their preparation and pictures and so on added to the schedule of the day. I’ll spare you all the details, except to say that by about 7:00 or so we added a fantastic woman to our family.

The reception was awesome. I normally have not great things to say about wedding receptions. Most are just like any other. This was absolutely something special. The wedding and reception was held at the Viansa Winery. The view was absolutely spectacular. The wine was fabulous. The food was fantastic and the DJ was, without a doubt, the very best DJ - wedding or otherwise - I’ve ever heard.

On Sunday, we got up, had a nice leisurely brunch, and just hung around the house. This last picture of the trip pretty much says all there is to say about Sunday. =) We hung around town for a few more days, saw the sites, and flew back on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, late. Our flight landed back in STL at about 12:30am, we went home and went to bed.

The Electrical Storm of 2008

Across the street and down one house, there used to be a gigantic tree. At about 2:15 on Saturday afternoon a nice storm rolled in. By 2:30 a bolt of lightning hit that tree, split it in half and it fell across the street. In the arc of its fall, the tree caught onto some lines pulling them to the ground and snapping a utility pole in the process.

That led to all the lines above our yard landing in our yard. As the high voltage lines (7200 V, I later learned from the linemen) fell onto the lawn it exploded in small fireballs of electrical fire. Luckily each one burned for only a few seconds, as the rain quickly put them out. Unfortunately, there were 6 or 8 of them before the line finally shorted and the switch was flipped.

The guys from Kirkwood Electric showed pretty quickly and worked super fast. I love watching people “in their element”. When a guy is just really good at what he does - it almost doesn’t matter what it is - I get excited. Well, these lineman were pros and a lot of fun to watch. They were in and out of their bucket trucks, climbing poles, pulling wire, everything done with a practiced efficiency.

By 10:30 or so that night they had cleared the tree from the road, all the wires untangled from the tree and spliced back together, replaced a pole (and all the stuff hanging off it), restrung about 100m or so of: 4 high-voltage lines, 4 house-level lines and several phone and cable lines and had their first house back on the grid. By 12:30am our house - the very last - had power.

Most of that was done by two guys. They were phenomenal.

Monday Workout

Squats

Worked up to several triples at 245#

10×1 @ 275#

Clean & Press

5x @ 115#

5x @ 135#

3×5 @ 155#

I hadn’t lifted for a week before that, and that 10×1 squat was pretty aggressive. I paid for it later that day and especially the next day.

Wednesday Workout

Marathoner and MountainBiker both showed. I guess there has been some confusion with Drinkin’ Buddy lately. He should be rejoining us next Wednesday.

Warm Up

P1: Push Ups

P2: Charlotte Hold

P3: KB Swing @ 16kg KB

30s:10s Work:Rest

3 Rounds

Circuit 1: 2:00 min. Rounds

P1: Tabata Long Cycle 2KB C&J (4x 20:10)

P2: 5x Burpee + 5x Sit Up - as many rounds as possible

P3: Tabata 3-Stair “Box” Hop (4x 20:10)

2 Rounds of each for everybody

Circuit 2: 10+8+6+4+2 Ladder

P1: 1-leg KB Deadlift from 12″ deficeit

P2: Clapper Push Ups

P3: TGU @ 16kg KB

100m Dash King of the Hill

2 men race

Loser does 15x push ups

Winner races again

We did maybe 10 or 12 total races. Both MountainBiker and I won two races in a row a few times. Neither of us could win three in a row.

Friday (today!) Workout

Deadlifts & Dips

5x @ 205# + 5x @ BW+10#

5x @ 245# + 5x @ BW+20#

3x @ 275# + 5x @ BW+30#

3x @ 315# + 5x @ BW+40#

5×1 @ 365# + 5×3 @ BW+50#

3×10

K2E + TGU @ 60# DB

Now I’m all caught up. I’ll try not to let that happen again. Thanks for your patience.