Involuntary-Twitch Muscles.

This morning I sucked up–with my handheld vacuum–an impressively large spider. Or so I thought. It wasn’t a spider, but its moult. This means a fresher and much larger version is on the roam, hopefully gobbling up all the silverfish as I’ve been too lazy to deal with the corpses that collect in the light fixtures.

Although I’m more okay with sharing space with a spider than I am with a mouse, it was so large that a piece of my heart traversed my chest and stopped in my right deltoid.

See:

Freaky, I know! Also, annoying. I’ve dealt with twitching eyelids and assorted muscles. Who hasn’t? But this instance is more severe and persistent than usual.

Google, of course, suggested that it could be the start of ALS. First, the blemish under my toenail could be melanoma, and now I have to worry about ALS? Although there is a history of cancer in my family, nobody has had ALS, and I’m the most muscular I’ve ever been. The other possibility is too much caffeine which is way more logical. I don’t drink coffee, but I drink lots of green tea. I also quaff energy drinks and scarf down energy bars on the regular. Chocolate brings me joy and twitchy muscles, it seems.

Ditching booze to stave off migraines was easy. Taking a break from cannabis was doable. BUT CAFFEINE?

HULK SMASH.

How far do I take this? Do I have to give up my cookie habit too? Everybody has a vice; why can’t I keep one?

I would’ve wondered whether this was a side effect of the second vaccine, except it was the calm arm that got the jab.

While my body has exhibited worrying behaviour, it has also impressed me. I went bouldering with Nic this afternoon and flashed a few problems (as in, I completed the sequence on my first attempt) despite not having climbed much over the past two months. As for cycling, in addition to working a 40-hour week, I squeezed in 280km and 3,483m elevation gain last week.

One of my regular cycling partners, Yann, has gotten stronger and more ambitious. When I titled one of my rides on Strava, “Essential question: Which Mario Kart Character am I?” Yann’s smart-assed yet thoughtful response was:

I complimented him on a comment well-done the day after he posted that. He then admitted that he’d removed his comment, deciding that perhaps calling me drunk Toad because of my weak handling skills was in poor taste. Maybe there’d be room for some hurt feelings if I weren’t beating times set by some of Victoria’s top female athletes! I’m glad there’s still room for improvement. Also, who doesn’t love playing Toad? And Yann must be…

Death Stare Luigi.

For the third Sunday in a row, I rode with my now not-all-that-new riding buddy, Joe. New enough that I’m still determining his Mario Kart character. Which one grinds their gears as they propel themselves uphill? I swear he did most of the 2.2km Walfred Drive climb standing. I’m also impressed by his enthusiasm for tackling the nastiest climbs around the Capital Regional District. I’m into it.

I have about two months before it gets too cold for me to ride. Then, I will be back to being this:

On the upside, I’m amazing on the descents when on the trainer.

One last thing: it took me a week to finish eating five pounds of blueberries. 👍