Liam is back form the dead

I had a level three freak out this morning (for reference: level one = "oops, I spilled the milk," level five = "wait, where's my wallet?"). As I was getting ready to head out to the gym, I went to grab my headphones and iPod Shuffle, Liam Garu, but they weren't in their usual place. I thought, "that's weird, I always put them in the--OH MY GOD I LEFT THEM IN MY JACKET!!!"

Why the freak out over the jacket? After Sunday's 14 mile run we did laundry and guess what got tossed in there with the rest of the running clothes? Yup, my running jacket, complete with headphones and Liam zipped up in the pocket. And not only did they go through a 30-minute wash cycle with soap, I also let my running clothes air dry--meaning that everything was wet for a good couple of hours.

I grab my running jacket from the drying rack and sure enough Liam and the headphones were in the left pocket. Crapadoodle. I try pressing all the buttons, but nothing lights up. Crap, he's a goner.

I leave Liam at home and instead grab Masahara (my full-sized iPod) for the run, deciding that I will sort out what to do with Liam while at the gym.

During the run, I go through all the possible scenarios:

1. Go to the Apple store, tell the truth, and have the Geniuses laugh at me for trying to get a replacement for free--probably won't work
2. Go to the Apple store, tell them how Liam just suddenly gave out and as for a replacement--eh, I wouldn't be the first to try to pull that
3. Go to the Apple store, tell them I went on a run and that midway through Liam gave out on me and that he hasn't responded to anything I've done--ok, that's more believable
4. Go to Tekserve (the unofficial, shadier cousin of the Apple store here in NYC) and see what kind of Jerry rig they can do--might be a viable option prior to #3
5. Sell Liam online and use the profit to subsidize the purchase of Liam Garu Jr.--"that's just not right" according to Wifey

When I get home, on a whim I decide to plug Liam into the computer. Normally, if I'm having a problem with an iPod, plugging it into the computer tends to fix it--maybe it'll fixed a soaked iPod? Who knows?

So I plugged Liam into the computer and all of a sudden the lights start blinking and iTunes pops open showing all the songs on Liam. No. Way. I unplug Liam from the computer and plug in the headphones. Somehow, someway, music started coming out of the washed headphones from the washed iPod. Unbelievable.

I have no idea what happened or how I got so lucky, but this is the second time that Liam has been completely soaked in water and survived. Nothing short of a Wunder iPod.

Meandering

So I'm not volunteering today at the Half-Marathon Grand Prix race in Manhattan today. Honestly, it is way too freaking cold. I don't know how they got any volunteers for this race. Actually, I'm wondering how they got people to sign up for the race. Sure I'm one of the crazy ones who will (apparently) go running no matter how cold it is, but yesterday I was at a local sporting goods store. While standing in line to buy a box of Clif Shots I overheard a couple of runners saying how it is insane to go running the frigid weather we've been having lately. From this survey of three, it looks like only 33% of runners would even consider running outside in below freezing temps.

Anywho, I will volunteer at races later this year, but when the temps aren't in the teens. I've been using this time to take advantage of my neighbor's wi-fi (which hasn't shut down all morning...yet) and writing a couple of posts for the week.

In other news, I've now had a couple of runs with my Forerunner 405--Fenny. It's been great not having to worry about mapping out long runs, it's made getting out there on the weekends easier and quicker (especially now that I've been without Internet for two months, damn you Time Warner!).

I thought knowing my pace would be a help, but Fenny is kinda sketch about it. Like yesterday, for one example, I started my run by going over the Queensboro Bridge. The bridge rises 100+ feet, so it's not an easy climb, but I know I wasn't doing 14:00+ min/mile like Fenny said I was doing. Then, I looked at my run today and while the pace and speed are pretty consistent for most of the run, there are places where the speed spikes to 20 or 30 mph--which I'm pretty sure is impossible.

Also, there's the issue with elevation. Once again with yesterday's run there was one point that the first time I ran through it was logged as 200ft, the second time I ran through there? 100ft. I guess that's just the margin of error on the GPS?

Any one else have experience with these two anomolies?

BTW, Flyers26: thanks for the heads up on locking the bezel. When I started the run I thought I had locked the bezel. However, at one point I looked at Fenny saw a screen I had never seen before. I spent a good couple of minutes figuring out how to get back to the right screen and then locked the bezel immediately afterward.

Best Christmas ever!

When a runner says that, you know it means one thing: I got a Garmin Forerunner! And not any Forerunner, wifey got me the fancy new Forerunner 405! It's so sleek, so stylish, so streamlined--I love it! I've named him Fenny, after fennel, the English translation of the word marathon. We left our camera at home so there are no pictures, but when we get back to NYC I'll take pictures of the newest member of the sRod running family. (BTW, I am never forgetting our camera again, we had to buy a disposable camera yesterday and apparently those suckers go for $20 nowadays. WTF? They should come with a photographer for that price.)

There are the usual list of reasons I love Fenny: cool techno gadget, stylish accessory, runner status symbol, GPS tracking, pacing, etc. But the main reason I'm totally stoked about this present (thanks again wifey!!!) is that it will save so much time. Mapping out routes always takes so long, and then memorizing them is a tricky business, especially when you get home from a long run and realize that you accidentally cut two miles out of your run. Then there are all the stats that I no longer have to tediously write down every morning.

My only apprehension with Fenny is becoming an addict (see Nitmos and any other runner with a Forerunner). I've read all the stories of not being able to leave the house because the Garmin wasn't charged or delaying runs because it was taking a long time to find the satellites. By comparison, I like the simplicity of running with just a watch. So I've made a little promise to myself to not freak out if Fenny isn't cooperating one day and I have to strap on the plain ol' Timex. (Let's see how long this lasts).

The frustrating bit is that a full-fledged Fenny test run will have to wait until next weekend. I (intentionally) didn't bring any running gear on this trip. I don't like running around my in-laws' 'hood because it's all mountainous and cold-like, and I didn't anticipate running while in West Virginia with my family because we'll be skiing the whole time (although the weather looks iffy right now).

Hopefully all your Christmases/holidays were just as fantastic!

I hate Time Warner

Sorry peoples. Of course the morning after I say that I'm going to catch up on posts and start posting more on my normal schedule is when my internet connection decides to die. After spending an hour unplugging and plugging and restarting every piece of technology in the house I got on an hour long phone call (90% of which was spent on hold) with Time Warner to figure out what was wrong.

Note to those of you with paperless bills (like myself): ALWAYS write down the phone number to your internet service provider on a paper somewhere, otherwise when your connection goes out you don't have a way to look up their number.

It turned out they couldn't do anything over the phone and we had to setup an appointment for a technician. When the guy came yesterday morning he said that the signal coming into the building was coming in at 30 which is way too high, it's a problem with the box on the outside of the building and he needs to set up an appointment for an engineer to take a look at it (huh?). This basically means it'll be mid-week before we're up again at home.

Now that we've been computer-less at home for over a week we bit the bullet and came into wifey's office to use the computers to get catch up on stuff.

I'll be catching up on blogs tonight, among a thousand other tasks that I didn't want to do at work (because my whole office can see my screen given the layout of the place).

Sweet Jesus do you people write a lot...243 posts? Really?