I went to the market to realise my soul

Saturday morning I took Team Old School to Biscuit Eaters for a quick morning practice. There was a jumpers course set up so we tried our luck with that. I ran Cody at 16" and he was flying, no signs of injury but I know better, he could still be hiding something. Lola was a bit slower, hard to say if her feet are hurting her or what. When I first unleashed her she took off to check out the perimeter of the field, no doubt looking for more bunnies to kill. It's hard to say with her whether it's avoidance behavior because she's sore or simply her prey drive getting the best of her. I let her run & sniff for a while and when I called her to me to start the course she seemed eager enough so we gave it a go. She ran past a straight line of jumps that I'd taken for granted that she'd take. I'd run way far ahead while she was in a tunnel assuming she'd take all the jumps between us but instead she ran past them all and came right to me (Cody had taken them all no problem). So I tried again working each jump with her and she got it no problem. Then I worked a short tunnel, weave, table, weave tunnel sequence, ran them over some contacts and called it a day. All perfect contacts of course, no popped weave poles, quick downs on the table, everything perfect and I started to wonder why I even bother with trials, why not stick to the practice field where everything's perfect, I don't have to take out a second mortgage for entry fees and I can go home and enjoy the rest of my day.

After practice I decided to swing by the Boulder farmer’s market to get some food for lunch. It’s been about 10 years or so since I’ve been to the farmer’s market. Last time I went it was horribly crowded, horribly expensive and there was the hippy music. Not much has changed over the past 10 years I’m afraid. I passed on the super expensive stuff-$10 blocks of cheese, $4.00 heads of lettuce, flowers that I was afraid to even ask the price. In the end I settled for the following:

Tomatoes: $3.25 ($3.00/lb), Shitake mushrooms: $5.00 (half pound bag)


Scallions: $1.25



Red & green leaf lettuce: $3.00
This was the final salad, not the nicest looking I know but it sure tasted good. I added some cashews for some protein and because cashews, yum. I sprinkled some parmesan over the big bowl of salad then grated a bit of cheese over my personal bowl because again I wanted the protein and cheese, yum.


Cinnamon Roll: $2.50, Pecan chocolate chip blondie: $2.50
These were from the Brillig Works, a small cafe with good veggie food in the campus area. It's been years since I've been there, the campus business district is a pain to park in so I was thrilled to see they had a stand at the farmer's market. Pecan chocolate chip blondies look much better on a 26 year old waistline then they do on a 43 year old one but I couldn't resist and I was going riding later and needed the energy. Or at least that was the lie that I told myself. The cinnamon roll was for Jonny (really, I didn't eat them both, honest).


And of course I couldn't forget the pups. I only bought one bone because yikes $3!!! But they'll split the offal at some point so everyone will get a treat.
Dog bone: $3.00, Bison Offal: $2.00


I'll confess I was a bit cranky by the time I got to the car after my little shopping expedition. I was getting claustrophobic with the crowds and what a nuisance having to stand in a different line for each thing. And the hippy music...if you like it well good for you but it only added to my crabbiness. I wasn't looking for an 'experience' for the day, I just wanted some good fresh food for lunch so I could be on my way on my bike. And the cost, yikes, I spent $22.50 all told and didn't have all that much to show for it. As I was driving home I was thinking it couldn't possibly be that much better than the organic stuff you get at the store. But I was wrong, oh so wrong. Everything was significantly better than the stuff in the store, I couldn't believe it. I haven't had any fresh picked veggies since last summer and I'd forgotten how good they were. I had to toss the scallions because I'd inadvertently put them in the same bag with the bloody dog bone but everything else went in the salad and in the end it cost $7.13 (subtracting the unused tomato and shrooms). I had 2 big bowls and Jonny had a bowl, I put some leftovers in an omelette this morning and there are still at least 2-3 bowls left. If only it wasn't such a hassle. Normally my Saturday mornings are so busy I don't have a chance to stop at the market. Oh well, hopefully the farm stand will open soon.

After lunch I had half a blondie (for energy for my ride remember) then hit the trails near my house on my bike. I wasn't planning a huge ride because I had plans to ride in the mountains with some friends on Sunday but it was such a gorgeous day I wanted to spend some time on the trails. The good news is I didn't notice any pain in my foot at all. The bad news is that was because of the horrible stabbing pain in my knee right from the start. I have no idea the why or wherefore of it but there was no ignoring it. I decided to try gutting it out a bit, had to work off that blondie and more importantly it was so beautiful outside. About 20 minutes into the ride I hit this hill:



and the pain turned from stabbing to blindingly stabby mcstabbing and I decided to quit being an idiot and blondie be damned I was heading back home. I would go home, put some ice on the knee and rest up with the hope that it would be o.k. for my ride the next day. Well, I did go home and hit the couch and some ice but then got bored and decided to mow the lawn, if I can't have fun may as well get some chores done. Knee was o.k. but not fabulous. More ice, some ibuprofen and I spent the rest of the night on the couch, don't want to miss Sunday's ride. If I can go into denial about Cody's possible issues I certainly have no problem going into denial about my own. No more fancy surgery for either of us, we'll spend the rest of our lives gimping together.