Blog changes

Thanks to everyone who followed Training Because I Can! over the last nine years. This blog started with Addison's Disease, hypothyroidism and a crazy idea of doing an Ironman distance triathlon. My life has changed and so has this blog. I am using this blog strictly for Addison's Support topics from here on out. I hope to continue providing people with hints for living life well with adrenal insufficiency.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Whirlwind

I haven't posted anything since the depressing Wasatch post because life has been a whirlwind.  I've traveled, met people, had a house guest, met lots of Addisonian's, lost some family and attended (unexpectedly!) the Caribbean Autoimmune Disease Summit in Trinidad (like Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad!).  Pictures and some captions if you're interested in reading my blathering.  My life of the last 17 years is going to change radically.
September 21, 2011.  I fly off to our home in Florida to see the house for the first time, clean it and paint it.  Hoping like hell that I like Florida since we are moving there at the end of the week.
September 21, 2011 Heather greets me at the Tampa airport wearing a tiara and carrying a sign.  Heather has Addison's too and we've been corresponding since 2007.  This is our first face to face meeting!  Heather came to my house in Florida and helped me with painting, countertop refinishing, morale boosting and blind cleaning.  For two people with Addison's, we were a freaking force to be reckoned with.  We also like bacon and eggs for breakfast at an ungodly hour!

October 6 - 9, 2011  Allison flew to Florida from Boise, Idaho to help with the house.  She worked tirelessly to make improvements!!  She was amazing and selfless.  We didn't go anywhere or do anything, just painted and redid the cabinets!  She was hard at work while I was sleeping.  She's amazing and must have been completely exhausted when she got home.  Allison is the best kind of friend to have, generous, hard working and all around wonderful.
October 1 - 3, 2011 I unexpectedly got an invitation to the Caribbean Autoimmune Disease Summit in Trinidad (off the coast of Venezuela). It was amazing to be surrounded by people who know stuff.  My focus has also been very, very narrow.  This conference opened up my eyes to the wide world of autoimmunity.  I will do a separate post on the conference.  I was honored to be a special guest and be invited to the conference.  It was cool being "behind the scenes" with doctors and organizers!
October 2, 2011 Speakers and organizers of the Caribbean Autoimmune Disease Summit.
October 2, 2011 Addisonian's unite!!

Back at the Florida house after the conference, I was cleaning up something in the garage.    I found a dead tarantula.  My world is so crazy different.  I didn't know if I should be horrified or fascinated.  I decided fascinated would be the better option.

The water is the canal across the street.  Look closely you'll see an alligator!  I saw this out my front window.  Very cool!
October 12, 2011  The same day I few back from Florida, Katherine flew in from the UK to do a race here.  She did the 100 mile Running with the Buffaloes.  Katherine's raced through the Arctic, run through African deserts (we met at Marathon des Sables in Morocco) and been stung by a scorpion.  She makes me look utterly and completely sane and reasonable in my pursuits.  I was only going to crew her but peer pressure had me walking the 50 miler a couple of days later...
October 13, 2011 My sweet boy gets his driver's license and buys a "new" truck.  A 1981 Chevy LUV.  It can do 50 miles an hour.  We're not sure she'll make it over Teton Pass.  He's so proud of his truck and I'm proud of him.  Zane just lost his wonderful Grandma two days before this picture was taken.  I'm so sad for him and his Dad's whole family.  His Grandma was a wonderful, wonderful woman.  She will be missed by everyone who knew her.
October 15, 2011 Running with the Buffaloes 50 miler.  I got peer pressured into doing this race on little to no training at all.  I walked the vast majority of it.  It was dumb to do a 50 mile race right off the couch.  BUT I was not terribly sore the next day, nor did I feel bad.  As a matter of fact, I spent much of the next day helping out a few of the 100 mile racers.  I did not learn any lessons.  I finished the race more slowly than any other 50 I've done and I came in second to last.  It was a great way to say goodbye to Teton Valley.
Great view from the race course.
I accidentally went off course during the race and saw this sign.  Funny.  The race was nice and small, it was very much like a small, crazy family on a bizarre vacation.  It was great.
October 20, 2011 one of my last beautiful Teton sunrises.
My new view of the sun rising.

FURTHER UPDATE:
October 23, 2011 We got an offer on our Idaho house late last night.  It's much lower than we had hoped BUT we were not expecting to get one for a while.

Oh boy, my life's changing so radically.  My son will stay here with his dad, I will have no job, I don't know the area, I've got lots of house stuff to do.  Wow!  The only thing I do know is that I will be warm and I'm doing Ancient Oaks 100 on December 3-4, 2011 and Everglades Ultra 50 miler on January 21, 2011.  The rest of my life, come Saturday, October 29th, is a huge mystery.