I am on my last leg to home. The lines to coffee are more than I can endure. I bought a Coke and a candy. I NEVER drink coke. I got about 1/3 of it down and tossed the rest. Finished the candy. Good enough. I had a bluebery yogurt parfait at 5 am. it all balances out.
I can tell that I am really still sensitive. The two year old behind me who had his own seat in the middle was kicking mine by the window on Grandma's lap. Why did not grandma move to middle seat so he could kick his sister who was next to me. Hmmm. I finally turned and said to her"He is kicking my seat. She replied, "he is a baby." I left it at that by the after burn of confrontation is still with me. Contemplating my course of action I must say I was not rude. I simply told the truth and left it at that. Interesting because i am usually all about children. Oh well. I will let it go. I will try another course of action when it happens again and see if it is more palatable for me. I do not need to spiral into shame. I have choices .
I am glad I have two more days Sunday and Monday before I go back to school. Right now nothing feels easy.
Joy: Admiration for living with cold and ice. I am happy to get back to my valley. BBE: Don't ever think a teacher is good just because they are confusing with a high vocabulary. A good teacher knows their audience - every last one of them - and provides success for all. Curly: i thought you were going to ask the firemen if he had any single older friends ( wink, wink)
A fairly standard day here. More plugging away. I went out for a walk first thing and was very pleased that I walked quite efficiently and quite fast. The foot exercises and the gymn must be working. That’s a good reminder that I should do some foot exercises when I finish writing this. No sweet things today - credit. Excitement was finding out that Lent isn’t 40 days but 46! I think that’s because Sundays aren’t counted as fast days and it ends on Maundy Thursday. My intention is to plough on through with the no sweet things mantra and not take Sundays off. Surely I’ll have retrained my brain by Easter!
Bill, the concert sounds very nice. Credit for an evening excursion. Bad luck with the almond biscotti! Those neurons will pull themselves together soon, I’m sure.
gardenerjoy, a hot lunch is a good idea before venturing out into it! I like the sound of the bus tour.
curlyjax, good news from the fire fighter about your connections! And a super busy day too. Bad luck about the microwave. It’s strange how things sometimes break at the same time.
maryann, safe travels back to your valley!
Last edited by silverbirch; 02-17-2024 at 03:39 PM.
Sunday - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga (3102 BC)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – A package that was obviously a book arrived. Racked my brain trying to remember what book order I had that was outstanding. I hadn't ordered it; it was a gift from a friend who wanted me to read it. His mobility is compromised so he makes use of an assistant and the postal service. A great reminder that one can use a small amount of money to overcome obstacles.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. The call of good stuff in my pantry was just ignored. Dinner was chicken sausage on baguette with heaps of sauteed onions and green bell peppers. DW reminded me that you'd never get this in a restaurant; we were replicating 'street food' - the stuff of parades, street fairs, and circuses. Super tasty and, if you only look at the onions and peppers, looks healthy - despite sausage being one of the more processed foods.
Watched another episode of Sir David Attenborough's Blue Ocean II. This one on 'Coasts'. The team's cinematography continues to blow my mind. Wallowed about in appreciation that we were watching Blu-ray quality DVD on a high definition TV in our own home for FREE. Watched a "renegade band of Sea lions, who have carved out a niche for themselves hunting Yellowfin Tuna along the shores of Isabella Island, in the Galapagos." They coordinated their hunting strategy to corner Yellow-fin tuna into small inlets with no exits; pushed them onto shore; had five days worth of protein in one hunt. Humbling to remind myself how many intelligent creatures are out there.
onebyone - Yep, "One day I wil be ok." Keep the faith; you're moving forward.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - What an adventure - just getting out of your driveway with the possibility of getting back in. I was seriously annoyed when I bought my last computer from a selection none of which had a cd/dvd player.
Silverbirch - I've never counted the days of Lent; maybe you're the first to do that. It's ingrained in my head that it's 40 days long. Yay for a gym that works for you.
maryann – Glad you've made it home - especially without bashing the clueless grandmother of a kicking child. I've been victim of those looooong lines at Starbucks when leaving on early morning flights for work. Welcome to the remainder of a three-day weekend.
curlyjax - Kudos for stepping up to fill the roles of absent colleagues at work. Good luck find a microwave that exactly fits the space that you have in mind.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 8Stage 5 - The Motivation-for-Life Plan
You will use your skills more and more effectively, and you will develop the confidence to know you can get back in control.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 202.
I ended up having a very leisurely day yesterday. DD and I made up, and when she was out of the house I had a nice chat with DS. I'm so glad he's coming home for break, in about 2 weeks.He's worrying a bit about getting a job. An English Major does have a lot of skills, but jobs he wants of course want experience such as editorial assistants. I've told him he could do an internship if he wants for a bit, we could afford that.
I managed to finally leave the house to get the garbage to the dump, and then on to Target for a microwave. I got it out of the car and into the house, but will need DD's help later to get it up the stairs. Food was pretty bad including a small burger from Wendys on the way home and some Easter chocolate. I'm going grocery shopping today and will get back on track. After a lazy day I am much more inclined to be productive today.
Maryann-ha! The fireman himself was the right age and nice but didn't seem bowled over by me Sorry about the rude grandma, she should have done something for sure.
Onebyone: sorry you have a cold in addition to everything else! It's hard to see the end of the tunnel when the middle keeps stretching out.
Silverbirch-great that you're walking well and fast, its such a basic thing we take for granted until we can't. Yay for first day of no sweets!
Bill-How fun to get a surprise book! Animals are so amazing. Thanks for the reminder of the chicken sausage- its processed food but better than regular sausage for sure. And its a quick protein, its something I can eat while recovering.
It is wonderful to be back home. I guess this is one of the reasons I travel. I truly appreciate my life here. The scale says I gained nothing over the trip which is amazing. I ate like I never eat here and yet the scale does move. I eat less here and the scale rises. I think it is really about moving and being on the move so much I forget about eating. I need to reproduce that behavior at home.
DH missed me but we got into a deep discussion about partnership and marriage. I want him to take some steps to relieve him of financial pressure. He wants to stay the course even though it brings him little peace. I think life is too short and we should enjoy each other more. He will not budge. To prove I want to throw all resources at the problem I offered my 403B and canceled the Caribbean this April,. He was upset about me cancelling the trip and refused the retirement money. I can only do what I can do. I can only take care of my side of the street. Today we will focus on enjoying each others company all though I really wish I didn't marry such a stubborn *&^%$##$%. Maybe he is thinking the same.
I have written down my food and plan to go to the gym.
It’s been a mild day here with a little rain this morning. The birds love it. Hearing a blue tit call and another echo, again and again, is the sound of spring. For the rest of it, the usual but with added polish for the furniture! No sweet things so credit!
onebyone, colds are just miserable; it’s in their nature, I think. Yours will soon be gone, fingers crossed. And you’re on the road with the rest of it. Good going!
Bill, how marvellous to have an echo of parades, street fairs and circuses in your own home! That quote could only be David Attenborough!
curlyjax, credit for just a small burger from Wendys. Nice to hear you had a lazy day and that things are OK with DD and DS.
maryann, wonderful to be home!
Last edited by silverbirch; 02-18-2024 at 04:03 PM.
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Fun visit with the (3.5 yo) DFGD, DS, and DIL. Despite the pleas, it was too cold to go to the playground. She'd run about in zero degrees F temperatures quite happily. We played a game of drawing cards to put them onto their identical picture on the board. Good for me because the pictures were of all the engines of the Tommy the Train story. DS was showing her how to match the letters of the name - even just the first letter not matching was a clue to look elsewhere. She got it; she can read the letters. Age appropriate, of course, but to a granddad it's genius.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi. During their visit I joined DS nibbling on peanuts. Not great, but the jar will eventually be gone and I won't face them again. Dinner was a dish of white beans that's quite simple but we both like. A whole lot of sage is what makes it sing. First time to use some Frozen Asian Vegetables from Trader Joe's. Veggies were crisp and delicious. It came with a sauce whose first ingredient was sugar; salt wasn't far behind. Next time we'll use less sauce.
Great win was watching DW fix the air pump on a sprayer that she uses in her gardening. She dismantled it; cleaned off all the dried grease. Hero husband went to the basement for a tube of just the right grease to replace it. Happiness. But there was another sprayer that also no longer worked; she couldn't figure out how to dismantle it. Hero husband noticed that there were two places that, if pressed simultaneously with small screw drivers, allowed the innards to open. She fixed that one. Happiness is a gardener with both of her sprayers working.
Silverbirch - Would love to hear a Blue tit call. Cornell University calls it Eurasian Blue Tit to remind me that I won't see it over here.
maryann – Welcome home. Congrats for addressing important topics with your DH - just having those conversations eludes most couples.
curlyjax - Good luck to your DS with job hunting. The world these days seems to want college to be a job training factory. Everyone is expected to be able to program deep learning AI applications upon graduation. Congrats for making a microwave choice at Target.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 8Stage 5 - The Motivation-for-Life Plan
And you will have lots of experiences that prove how much better you feel when you do.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 202.
Last edited by BillBlueEyes; 02-19-2024 at 08:39 PM.
Reason: Typo
Very productive day; I procured bagels and froze them in prep for DS coming home, and had a huge cheese-egg-bacon bagel sandwich which filled me for hours.Off to 2 grocery stores, got the new microwave in place, then off to help BFF with a visit to her mom with dementia. I've known the mom for a few years and its sad to watch her deteriorate. She'll be moving into the memory care unit side of her assisted living place soon, which will be a better set up. The mom still remembers me and we had a nice time looking at photos while BFF attended to some tasks in the apt. Then home to cook salmon and roasted squash and do lots of washing up.
Today I have got to prepare my bedroom envt for surgery, make a list for what else needs to get done, and do some cleaning. DD is at work so i'll be uninterrupted which helps. A nap is definitely in order. I had one of those wierd dreams that went on and on where I was late with a school project, and I woke up feeling panicked about it. Probably have to do with not feeling ready for surgery yet. The unconscious mind is an amazing thing!
Silverbirch-The birds were so noisy here yesterday, it definitely feels like spring. Beautiful sounds. Great job on no sweets!
Maryann-good to be away, good to be back, is a wonderful feeling.
Bill-yay for both sprayers being ready, and another sign of impending spring!
DH and I hung out all day watching a movie marathon. It has been a long time. We enjoyed both BeeKeeper and The Boys in the Boat. (The boys in the boat did not do justice to the book.) Then we started Gran Tourismo which i couldn't finish. I went off to play chess. Food was not fabulous. The Kale was replaced with trailmix. Hmmmmm! Today i have a massage at noon. I am going to go to the gym before. I am making the big kale salad for the week.
I am having some feelings about going back to work tomorrow but I think i can do it - if only for consistency for the children. And maybe consistency for me.
Silverbirch: Will you move S. when the realtor starts showing or do you even have a realtor? I hear that is less common in England. BBE: Watching a child develop is always a miracle. Curly: Lots of productivity. Glad you get to see your boy soon.
I woke up rather tired and fell asleep again. Once I got going I saw that the weather forecast was for no rain or drizzle. Just the day to have a go at cutting the grass and that’s what I’ve done with the electric strimmer. It’s a good first pass and I did it in one session which has amazed me. I’m obviously much stronger than I used to be or I’m under less stress and getting enough sleep nowadays. I’d also eaten a good lunch beforehand which will have helped. No sweet things today.
Bill, lovely to hear about DFGD matching letters. I’ll be planting a sage bush in the S garden. It’s good to hear of different ways to use it. The Cornell recording of the (Eurasian) blue tit is true but not very enthusiastic. The poor thing sounds as though it’s a prisoner somewhere. Here, at the moment, they are going for all the bells and whistles to impress. Hope it works out for them.
curlyjax, I agree, the cheese-egg-bacon combo is so good for keeping full, and avoiding other less nutritious food! You’re powering ahead with getting ready for surgery. Glad you’ve got the new microwave sorted.
maryann, lovely to go to the gymn and then have a massage! Yes, we’ll sell the house through an estate agent (which is more or less a realtor, I think). I spoke to one about 12 months ago and will be talking to the firm again. The plan is to get the place as ready as possible to sell and return every few weeks to keep the house aired and the garden generally in order. There’s some furniture here so we can stay and also so the place is staged. It’s very hard to tell how much interest there will be. Spring is a good time to sell here. There’s also the tension between local buyers and buyers from the big cities who want a holiday home to bear in mind. The city buyers push the price up and the local buyers can’t afford to buy which isn’t a good situation at all for the community and for individuals, particularly young people.
The snow is nearly gone. Some spots that are in total shade are holding out against today's 57-degree temperature, but we'll get the same or higher tomorrow so they can't hold out forever.
My busy Saturday went well. I have one more event on Wednesday and then I can settle back into my quieter winter mode.
Today's fun was helping a younger friend with a writing sample. She's applying for her dream job, so she wants to submit a polished package.
My own writing has currently gone into a path of learning about writing rather than actual writing. Some of that is necessary but I want to monitor it so that it doesn't turn into procrastination. With that in mind, I'm returning the Great Courses CD set to the library. I think I would enjoy learning in that format -- unfortunately, it wasn't teaching what I want to learn. I'm sure that the DVD/CD player will be useful for other things.
Our bird story today is that we've been seeing a hawk in our yard and neighborhood, recently. Today on our walk, we got a longer look since they kept swooping off in the direction of our travel. We're very rusty on bird identification, but our best guess is that they are a juvenile red-tail hawk. (Practicing my singular they pronoun -- I think I got it right).
Exercise: 60, 1080/1700 minutes for February
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 02-19-2024 at 03:58 PM.
DH and I went to my studio this afternoon. We tossed a lot of empty bags and boxes and packing materials. Plus I went through an assortment of boxes tossing and keeping things in them as well attenpting the first pass at consolidating like with like
My goal was.to clear.away everything from in front of the.new.big shelves. Tomorrow I want Studio Landlord to see I'm serious about getting the space cleaned up.
When we left, it looked exactly like that.
Tomorrow at 9 am I am meeting 2 guild frienda to continue in there. I have another goal in mind: to begin transforming my studio into primarily a printmaking studio and to consolidate my blank paper inside the studio. To get this done we will.have a lot of shifting of things to do. The studio itself is cold right now. The garage it's in is minimally heated. Its probably around 8C/40F(?). I still have my coughing cold and I dont want to.get chilled too badly from.staying too long.
I have until March to.do this and I feel like I can do it. Im really looking forward to a revamped workspace.
Im going to try to sleep now. My sleeping is really disjointed these days.
Tuesday - John Glenn is 1st American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 (1962)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Had been waiting for a warm day to do a chore. My car displayed a warning light that one or more tires were low. Not a surprise, I've had a slow, slow leak for years. It had driven me to buy a battery driven pump which I can take from my basement and go from tire to tire tapping them up to the specified air pressure. A much more pleasant chore than driving to a gas station to possibly wait in line for their pump. One of the selling points of this device is that one saves $2 every time it's used. That's not a big deal. The big deal is that I do it quickly without waiting. And it's fun! I feel like I'm beating the system. However, a warm day didn't appear and the warning light continued to be on. Bundled myself up and did my duty to all four tires even though only the front left was low enough that air was really required. All done. Pump itself recharged with my cell phone charging plug inside my warm house while I went about my day. Easy peasy. CREDIT moi for one small adult activity when I could think of reasons to avoid it.
Trip to the supermarket was pleasantly boring; I expected few other shoppers since it was a holiday but it was packed. I had to step over Valentine's Day candy on sale that was blocking views of the Easter candy stacking up. Wasn't interested in any of it despite the BOGO lure. CREDIT moi for recognizing that it wasn't about me.
Watched with DW the final episode of David Attenborough's Blue Planet II, Our Blue Planet. Got to see Sir David laying in the sand next to a monster female Leatherback turtle who was ignoring him as she dug a hole with her flippers to lay her eggs. Would love to be that agile when I'm 97 years old. And to have a job that flies me to all corners of the planet to see in person the wildlife most of us only read about.
onebyone - Great to hear of your progress making your studio into what you need for printing. If I recall correctly, you really need a space to park a steam roller for making your large prints.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - So fun to see a Red-tailed hawk in the neighborhood. I never tire of seeing them. Have you considered teaching writing as a side gig in your retirement?
Silverbirch - LMAO that Cornell's Eurasian Blue Tit "sounds as though it’s a prisoner somewhere." Hard to capture the lust of a pair of Blue Tits excited for the mating season. Neat that you're feeling stronger.
maryann – Thanks for the warning that The Boys in the Boat doesn't live up to the book - which I thought wonderful. Yay for a big Kale salad for the week.
curlyjax - Smiling at the thought of stockpiling food for the visit of a young man. You're kind to spend time with your friend's mom with dementia.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 9Where to Go from Here
You've come to the end of The Complete Beck Diet for LIfe, but you should use this book as a resource over and over again to help keep yourself on track.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 203.
Quite a productive day with functional exercise as well. 2 loads of laundry, kitchen floor washed, another chunk of dishes done (I don't like putting plastic food containers in the dishwasher so they do pile up), banana bread with chocolate chips made, my bedroom floor picked up and vacuumed. Chat with brother to catch up and also figure out what to send him for my dad's taxes which he attends to. And a nap. Then off to BFF for homemade chicken soup. I met her cousin and we had a fun time. Home in time to give a quick hug to DD who was so exhausted she actually went to sleep early.
I woke up early so I'm going to go the post office right when it opens and mail stuff off to brother. I still need to figure out where to place a few things in my bedroom but things are much closer to being ready for surgery day. I have a blanket chest I use for a side table and need it close to bed but not so close that I can't get in and out easily with crutches.
Silverbirch-functional strength is the best! That is a difficult tension between city dwellers and locals indeed.
Maryann-nice to have a movie marathon with DH. Good luck with back to school.
Gardenerjoy-good idea to monitor against procrastination. I like to read books about decluttering more than doing the decluttering itself
Onebyone-great to have made progress in the studio.
Bill-good for you to attend to tires, that's a job I put off too. One of my cars tire light is always on; I replaced one faulty tire sensor and maybe another one is broken now. I'll have to look closer at it.
Sunday - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga (3102 BC)
Sorry about the rude grandma, she should have done something for sure.
