Day 230: My Knee and Tugboat's Tooth

Today proved that rest, lots of stretching, and Ibuprofen, can make the difference for me from one day to another. I was truly worried after yesterday’s episode with my knee. It all but buckled in the morning, and then it was tight and feeling like it was ready go south at any moment for the rest of the day. Uugh. The good news for me is that while my knee felt a little bit weaker than normal today, all in all I was able to ride at my normal speed. Phew!

And now we can move onto the next ailment that's affecting my small family. This one isn’t mine, but it is a real problem for Tugboat. I’ve known about the issue for a while now. He has an abscessed Carnassials tooth. That’s a big word for a guy that never studied canine biology. Apparently these are like super molars that even have three roots per tooth!

Since there is no visible fracture to the tooth, we tried treating it aggressively with antibiotics. That had some positive effect initially, but then the swelling in his face came right back. This is a real bummer for Tugboat since he’ll now be undergoing surgery next week to remove the tooth and its root system. It’s apparently an invasive surgery. Poor guy, and poor me, as I’m a terrible worry-wart for my four-legged friends.

You can see the nice big lump below his left eye. The good news is that he seems to be in no pain. What a champ.

I’ve been really surprised by how early the fruit trees are beginning to bloom. I even found some Irises blooming about a third of the way up on Mount Tamalpais. It’s been a pretty common thing over the past 4-5 years. I wonder why? The early blooming season seems to be happening to fruit trees and bulbs more than anything else.

I did one of my normal rides today after thinking that I was going to be rained on. I was forced to ride during the afternoon since I was at the veterinarian's office this morning. That said, I got lucky today and only had rain soak me during the last 10 minutes of my ride. Yahoo! That made me happy. Riding in the rain has been hard for me this year, so any day that I get away with staying relatively dry is a huge deal to me. ;-)

Distance: 17.63 miles
Calories burned: 1,456
Time: 1:43:20 hours
Elevation gain: 2,829 ft
Garmin Connect ride details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23945605