Ahh..the joke was on me

At some point, I had to start laughing.

From the early morning, everything I touched broke. In my hands. Inexplicably. Or so it seemed.

Trying to download pics from my Blackberry, I said "sure" when the app asked me if I wanted to run automatic software updates. Half and hour later, it still wasn't done.

I stopped it. Time to get going -- anxious to start my bike/walk to work. Bad move.

Apparently the Blackberry system WIPES OUT your phone databases and settings when it does a software upgrade. Then it restores them after it's finished. Unless, of course, you interrupt it in mid-upload.

Which I did.

I wiped out my pics, all sorts of notes and things and my carefully stored address book.

Full panic and hysteria ensued. An hour later, finally, I had it back. I found the file on my computer that was the pre-upgrade backup. Thank the goddesses.

Then I ran out, late but determined I would stick to my usual commute routine: bike to Central Park reservoir, walk its 1.5 mile circumference, and then continue on the bike to work. As I hastily reset my almost-brand-new bike speedometer/odometer, something happened. It stopped working. Oh -- and my tires were almost flat. I had to stop and get air too.

AAAARRGHHHHH. That was the sound in my head as I sped off to work, disheveled, out of sorts and gnashing my teeth. At least my phone was fixed and I learned a valuable lesson, right?

Later, at lunch, I zipped two blocks over to a local bike store. Greeted by a sympathetic clerk, I launched into a litany of my Cato 5 Velo speedometer woes.

"Oh, this?" the nice young man said, bending to my front tire and -- with one finger, probably just the tip of a finger -- straightening a magnet I'd never noticed before.

"You just have to keep it straight so it trips the sensor," he said gently.

Oh. oh. Hee hee. Oh um, yeah. OK. I'll just slink outside now and go back to work.

Had to laugh at myself. I do get overheated about things when they don't immediately go my way. Instant gratification, thy name is Ishmael.

Now, for the fun photos I didn't get to post this morning!

In the upper right corner of this blog you'll see a yellow blob. That's a pound of fat (well, a pound of faux-fat). My nutritionist had it in her office so I took a pic. She held it up when we discussed how much I'd lost in the past six weeks (when I've been on a maintenance but not weight loss kick).

"You lost 2.6 of these," she said, dangling the blob from her hip.

"ICK," was what I thought. It was quite an image, believe me. I'll never diss a 2.6 weight-loss again. Every bit counts when fighting the yellow blob.

Now, we also have a shot of my new workout buddy. I met him/her yesterday. Almost killed him/her by getting disastrously close to his/her head with my foot.

What will he/she be come spring? What will we be? Isn't it delicious to wonder, and to know that change is afoot?

Here are a few pics of beautiful Central Park -- I can't do it justice with my cell phone, but I do love the softly patterned lights, the big trees that blot out the big buildings and push the city away. It's so full of life.


Someday soon I'll grab some pics of some of the fantastic folk who I see going through this most public of parks. There's a one-armed man who jogs every morning. Lots of moms jogging or roller-blading behind strollers. Bikers who perform in teeny tiny outfits despite dipping temps. The NYC Marathon is rapidly approaching, so every night as I come home I see great teams of joggers pounding their hearts out on the pavement long after night has fallen. They look so cool!