Month: August 2006

Sizing problem

When I was wearing pants size 40+ (up to 44 at one point), I noticed that in the thrift stores most of the pants were 38. I looked forward to getting down there so I would have a wider pants selection. Last year when I got the chance to get back to the US and thrift stores, I had worked my way down to size 36. Oops. I missed the good choices at 38. But I was not complaining.

This last week I was in the US to do some shopping. I needed a new pair of jeans and have a particular brand and model that I like. Fortunately Wal-Mart carries them and they are pretty available. My size 34 are getting a bit big so I wanted to check out 32 to see how they fit.

What!? No 32? That’s right. Now I am falling out of the sizing range for even new clothes. What is this world coming to? I did finally find some 32 at another store. I would have bought a couple of pair, but at this rate, I am not sure how long I will be at that size. Ah the trials of losing weight.

Running again

I had to lay out of running for a week. When we were at camp I was not able to run. I had looked forward to getting in a nice easy 3 mile run just to wake up each day. But, as camp director, I had to be up and ready at 7:00 each day. That meant the run had to be over before about 6:50 so I could be showered and ready to go.

Problem was that we were on the other end of the time zone than I am used to. The sun did not start coming up until 6:45. The camp was right on the main highway. Major road. That said, it was a 2 lane road with no shoulders. Which meant I would have to either run right on the edge of cars coming or off to the side. The side had some nice foot paths. But not a pleasant thought when it is dark and cars buzzing by at 60 mph in unfamiliar territory. Therefore, I did not run all week.

I started running on Sunday again. Just 4 miles. This was after crossing the border into Texas. The next day was 3 miles. The next 2. I took today off and will probably get 3 in tomorrow.

Next week I finally am able to get into my routine again and will be ramping up my mileage for the half marathon I am doing in October.

Back to the land of Internet

It is amazingly difficult to get Internet access if you are not staying at a hotel with a connection. We live in México where there are Internet cafes on every other street corner. We recently took a trip to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

We stayed at a friend’s house who did not have Internet access. I had heard that certain restaurants had free wireless. The ones I tried were devoid of access. I tried convenience stores. I tried running around neighborhoods looking for open connections. I know it is illegal in some places to use a person’s open connection, but it did not matter as I never found any.

The only connection I found was at a Texas Information Center. But they were only open from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Our whole purpose for being in Texas was to do some serious shopping. This is our once a year trip to the border to get high dollar items for much cheaper than we can get them locally. So, the Information Center’s hours conflicted with our best times for being out and shopping. We had less than 48 hours to get all we needed.

Someone suggested the Library. We asked several people who had no clue as to where the library was. I looked up their address in the phone book and then could not find anyone who knew where that road was. It never occurred to me to call the Library and ask. That is so old school. You look stuff up on Google Maps…if you have Internet access.

Needless to say, after going a week without access because we were in a remote camping location in México, I was looking forward to being in the US where access should be fairly simple. I was sorely disappointed. For now, I will stick with the ease of access I have here.