Investigating more into my water meter issues at home, I checked my water meter reading. Calling the City of Nanaimo today, I found that according to the meter, I was using over 8000 gallons of water a day since my bill noted below! That is $2215.15 worth of water in 53 days!

Top that off with the fact that I have to move out of the place that I am house sitting, but I canceled the hotel room I had – even though I had it until the 22nd! Oops.

Well, that means I go back to commuting for the rest of this week. At least I will be in the Okanagan for a bit, and hopefully have some sort of accommodation in January. Least ways, I hope so by that point.

On the upside, I got the city of Nanaimo to send an emergency crew out to my house to check the meter and the line. However, when I phoned back, I was told that “8000 Gallons a day is not an emergency”. I don’t know about you, but a water bill in excess of two thousand dollars sounds like an emergency to me! On the upside, there is a good chance that it is a broken water meter. Lets hope so.

If it is, I think I will do a few runs of Apex on my tele-ski’s to celebrate. Or, at least fall down a few of them.

So, I get my water bill, and from October 26 to Dec 08 I have apparently used 153120 Gallons of water. That is 696 Cubic Meters of Water. Now, I don’t have any clue where that water could be going, as I have checked for leaks. But this means I now owe $518.16 on my utilities bill – and that is for water alone! To make things worse, I have not even been home for much of this time, so my water usage should be severely decreased, not increased!

I have to check my main water meter on my property line – if I can find it – and see what the reading is there. I may have a break in my main water line. The total bill comes to $615.47. That is much much higher than normal.

This is really annoying. That certanly reduces some of the spending money I had hoped to have over Christmas.

I just got out and ran 5 km. It took me about 40 min. I felt better doing it than I had expected. I figure if I am going to get back into shape to run the upcoming MOMAR and Gutbuster races, I have to start training sometime. Besides, Kathy will be in the Squamish MOMAR, and I have to beat her! Which, of course, will be very hard given that she is currently training for the Canada Ironman in Penticton, and she has finished second in it before. I think I have my work cut out for me there. Still, goals keep you going!

Now I just need to find a gym near here that I can drop in at. My resistance training is shot as well. At least my aerobic capacity is not as bad as I had expected it would be. Probably walking to and from work from the hotel room I was at every workday helped out in that regard.

4 Gutbusters, 3 MOMARs. I have my work cut out for me again this coming year. At least I will have started training 2 months earlier, and I have a great deal more experience working with these kind of races now. Now I just need to get more biking in at the dump, and join a kayaking club in town to get all up to speed!

The last 4 months have been tough. Commuting for such a long time, and such a long distance was very hard. For the last little while I have had hardly any social contact outside of work, and nearly zero exercise.

Now, I am in Victoria, but don’t as yet have permanent residence. That is something I have been working on. Couple that with the other choices I have had to make in the last few years. My car is in bad shape now, commuting 1250+ km/week with a bad exhaust valve will do that. Could I afford a better one? Sure. Then I have a nicer car… and that takes me further from my goals. That just sets me back.

I am getting so much closer though. Close enough to almost taste it. I know within the next 2 years, that these constraints I have put on myself for my financial goals will pay off. Just a little more, just a little longer. Nearly there.

The worst part about these choices is not having my Attack Schnorkie with me:

Limiting myself in so many things has been hard, but not being greeted by this 10 pound furball when I get through the door is one of the harder things. Daisy, however, is probably having a blast being pampered at my Mom’s place.

So close… So close…

I finally got out to do something different from my standard commute.

Now that I am (mostly) living in Victoria, and I have my bike and running gear down here, I can start getting back into shape. The time I spent commuting from Nanaimo to Victoria turned me into a real couch potato. Basically, 3 months without exercise since the last MOMAR. It is annoying as I had been training all year long, and only took time out when I injured my knee in a Gutbuster.

However, on Sunday Dec 10th I got out to to the Hartland Landfill, it started out sunny, but turned overcast and drizzling fairly fast. I got out late, even though I was up early, as I felt a bit rough around the edges from the staff X-mas party the night before.

I had no one to ride with, so I just planned on heading up the fire roads to get some training in, just keep the distance and vertical gain up. I was using my SPD’s for the first time off road, and I must say that they are a huge help when climbing. The ground was very wet, and I was still able to get traction in areas that I did not expect to gain traction in.

While I was climbing, I met two guys, Colin and Kyle who were resting on a bench. I was tired too, and we got to talking. I did not have my map, so I asked where I was. They told me, and then invited me along for a ride. It was great. The people at Hartland are a bit friendlier than at Dumont I think. (Not that all Dumont riders are bad!)

Colin had a half Pomeranian and Collie. I asked if he had considered taking “Gimli” to flyball, and he in fact had. However, he and his wife felt that there was too much competitive pressure to perform, so they did not take up the sport.

I can remember I did one ride called twister, and I was going a good deal slower than I normally would. Things I would normally ride I was cautious of because I was really unused to the SPD’s. Trying to ride over something technical and get your shoes back into the SPD is really hard. At least, it is for me so far.

Much to my surprise I had no wipe outs, but then being new to the SPD’s I was very cautious. If I can get back into my regime, I should be good to go on the upcoming MOMAR and Gutbuster races. All of which, I plan to run in again.