Oh hey, Wednesday!
I'm a lot better. I got lucky and the cold didn't move down into my chest, so while the whole sinus thing was agonizing, at least it was short. I also think I'm responding to the increased dosage of Lamictal; it's been easier to get up and do things that need to be done. The Spring Training games are helping too. The games usually start at 1pm so if I wake up around that time, I turn on the radio (okay use the app on my iPod, but whatever) and I usually don't go back to sleep.
Also, if I really needed any confirmation that I'm incredibly out of shape, the fact that I can hardly do any time on the exercicyle would do it. I'm working to remember that I need to ramp up very slowly, so a) I don't hurt myself and b) I don't get discouraged and think I just can't do this, so why bother?.
Speaking of I just can't do this, so why bother? moments, Nancy's doctor (who just happens to be vegan) suggested going vegan to deal with her diabetes. Um...just no. It's not like we don't know that this involves lifestyle changes, but doing something that drastic is just out. Hopefully the class Kaiser offers will be more helpful.
This is getting long, so
I broke up the historical fiction with some historical fact and read Allison Weir's biography of Isabella of France--who did in fact not sleep with William Wallace. She had a pretty adventurous life, though. Her historical reputation is pretty bad, mostly because she did horrible things like leaving an abusive husband who preferred his boyfriends to her and was also running the kingdom into the ground. Edward II wasn't liked by most of the nobles in the kingdom, so if Isabella had just led an invasion to depose him in favor of their son, that would have been one thing. But she had the nerve to take a lover, so obviously she was a horrible person. Weir does a good job of showing Isabella's good side and explaining her circumstances, without ignoring the fact that Isabella was pretty greedy and gave way too much power to her boyfriend.
Then I went back to the historicals for some rereads. I read Sharon Kay Penman's excellent Welsh Princes trilogy ("Here Be Dragons", "Falls the Shadow" and "The Reckoning.") Penman's such a good writer, but she always picks tragic heroes, so her books are kind of a bummer. Then I moved on to Anya Seton's "Katherine"--the story of Katherine Swynford who was John of Gaunt's mistress and third wife. She was also the ancestress of the Yorkist kings and the Tudor/Stuart lines. For a book that was written in 1954, it holds up pretty well; Seton's not too purple and she did her research.
Now I'm on a baseball book kick. I just finished Edward Achorn's "Fifty Nine in '84." It's the story of pitcher Charles (Old Hoss) Radbourn of who won fifty-nine games for the NL's Providence Greys in 1884. To put his accomplishments in perspective, these days it's considered quite the feat for a pitcher to win twenty games. Radbourn pitched roughly 679 innings that year; now, 200 innings is considered a fairly heavy load. Of course he trashed his arm; by the end of the season, he could hardly get dressed by himself, but still, it's one of those incredible records that will never be broken. Achorn tells a good story and also does a good job showing the overall state of the game and life in Providence in the mid 1880's.
I'm in the middle of "The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven" by Aaron Skirboll. Back in the mid 1980s, like everyone else, ballplayers were doing a lot of coke and this book traces the investigation of several Pirates players and the people they bought coke from. It's kind of sad really; these penny-ante dealers weren't making the big money even though their customers were well off ball players. The real tragedy is that major league baseball had a chance to put an effective drug testing policy in effect, something that might have prevented the steroid scandal we're still dealing with. They didn't, for various reasons, and it's really too bad.
Also a random fact caught my eye--in their amazing "We Are Family" year (1979), the Pirates had eleven Black players and four Latino players. I'm pretty sure there isn't a single current MLB team that has eleven Black players on their 25 man roster. While the Giants have a ton of Latino players, I doubt we'll have a single Black guy on the 25 man roster this year. Most Black kids want to be football or baseball players these days and it's kind of unfortunate because you have to have a certain physique to play those sports but you can be a little short guy or heavy set guy of medium height and still play baseball. There are reasons beyond the fact that baseball's no longer America's favorite sport, but that's too complicated to go into here.
And that's me.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/306438.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID
Also, if I really needed any confirmation that I'm incredibly out of shape, the fact that I can hardly do any time on the exercicyle would do it. I'm working to remember that I need to ramp up very slowly, so a) I don't hurt myself and b) I don't get discouraged and think I just can't do this, so why bother?.
Speaking of I just can't do this, so why bother? moments, Nancy's doctor (who just happens to be vegan) suggested going vegan to deal with her diabetes. Um...just no. It's not like we don't know that this involves lifestyle changes, but doing something that drastic is just out. Hopefully the class Kaiser offers will be more helpful.
This is getting long, so
I broke up the historical fiction with some historical fact and read Allison Weir's biography of Isabella of France--who did in fact not sleep with William Wallace. She had a pretty adventurous life, though. Her historical reputation is pretty bad, mostly because she did horrible things like leaving an abusive husband who preferred his boyfriends to her and was also running the kingdom into the ground. Edward II wasn't liked by most of the nobles in the kingdom, so if Isabella had just led an invasion to depose him in favor of their son, that would have been one thing. But she had the nerve to take a lover, so obviously she was a horrible person. Weir does a good job of showing Isabella's good side and explaining her circumstances, without ignoring the fact that Isabella was pretty greedy and gave way too much power to her boyfriend.
Then I went back to the historicals for some rereads. I read Sharon Kay Penman's excellent Welsh Princes trilogy ("Here Be Dragons", "Falls the Shadow" and "The Reckoning.") Penman's such a good writer, but she always picks tragic heroes, so her books are kind of a bummer. Then I moved on to Anya Seton's "Katherine"--the story of Katherine Swynford who was John of Gaunt's mistress and third wife. She was also the ancestress of the Yorkist kings and the Tudor/Stuart lines. For a book that was written in 1954, it holds up pretty well; Seton's not too purple and she did her research.
Now I'm on a baseball book kick. I just finished Edward Achorn's "Fifty Nine in '84." It's the story of pitcher Charles (Old Hoss) Radbourn of who won fifty-nine games for the NL's Providence Greys in 1884. To put his accomplishments in perspective, these days it's considered quite the feat for a pitcher to win twenty games. Radbourn pitched roughly 679 innings that year; now, 200 innings is considered a fairly heavy load. Of course he trashed his arm; by the end of the season, he could hardly get dressed by himself, but still, it's one of those incredible records that will never be broken. Achorn tells a good story and also does a good job showing the overall state of the game and life in Providence in the mid 1880's.
I'm in the middle of "The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven" by Aaron Skirboll. Back in the mid 1980s, like everyone else, ballplayers were doing a lot of coke and this book traces the investigation of several Pirates players and the people they bought coke from. It's kind of sad really; these penny-ante dealers weren't making the big money even though their customers were well off ball players. The real tragedy is that major league baseball had a chance to put an effective drug testing policy in effect, something that might have prevented the steroid scandal we're still dealing with. They didn't, for various reasons, and it's really too bad.
Also a random fact caught my eye--in their amazing "We Are Family" year (1979), the Pirates had eleven Black players and four Latino players. I'm pretty sure there isn't a single current MLB team that has eleven Black players on their 25 man roster. While the Giants have a ton of Latino players, I doubt we'll have a single Black guy on the 25 man roster this year. Most Black kids want to be football or baseball players these days and it's kind of unfortunate because you have to have a certain physique to play those sports but you can be a little short guy or heavy set guy of medium height and still play baseball. There are reasons beyond the fact that baseball's no longer America's favorite sport, but that's too complicated to go into here.
And that's me.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/306438.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID