Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Marking Time

I stitched these French Hens (there are 12) while staying with my father in February and March of 2004. He had nearly died in December.  Spent two and a half months in rehab and was allowed to come back home, if he had someone to stay with him.  I enjoyed my time with my dad but each night I crossed a day off a handmade calendar I had on the bedroom wall.  Marking time.  Being in one place and counting the days until I could be in another.

That's the diet this week.  I feel like the person inside me is jumping up and down yelling "are we there yet?" and I haven't even backed out of the garage.  Impatient.  Getting way ahead of myself. I made some scheduling choices yesterday afternoon.  Simple guidelines.  To keep me on the path.  Oatmeal for breakfast.  Yogurt and raspberries for lunch.  Pasta and sauteed vegetables for dinner (tomatoes, onion, garlic and kale last night).  It doesn't matter what G is having.  That has nothing to do with me.  And he has developed a cough.  I think the "crud" may have arrived in Maine.  When he is sick, G eats very little, if at all.

The exercise yesterday made my back hurt. I added one thing (could be that) or the way I bent over to put on my socks.  Who knows.  The walk yesterday was warm (for me) because of the cross over heat from my Pilates.  I think it was somewhere between zero and 4 degrees.  Today, we have some fresh snow and it's supposed to get up to 20.  Heat Wave!!!  I slept well again last night and dreamt of being asked to return to the library job for two days work.  I missed the first day because G had doctor's appointments in the dream and I had misplaced my library book.  Dee, what does this mean? Dee handles all my dream interpretation.

The other, MAJOR, change in my daily schedule begins tomorrow (as I have already done what I should not be doing).  No morning blog posting.  In this way I can get going with things to do as soon as I have breakfast, rather than sit here at the computer reading blogs, taking a picture, posting etc.  Before I know what's happened it's 10.30.  Look! it's 10 right now!!!!  and I have done nothing but eat my 1/2 cup of oatmeal and drink half a cup of coffee.  Nearly time to go up and begin my exercises.  Then walk the dog.  See.  My day has gotten away from me again. And I can report on the Pilates and dog walk on the day they happen.  Real Time.  The high points for you, right? Oh, and the nightly, mysterious dream.

I did bring the rosemary plants in from the sunporch where they have been nearly frozen.  I watered them well and will carry them upstairs to the unheated bathroom.  Rosemary does well in a mild winter situation (NW) but not a Maine (NE) winter.  And remember, a dry rosemary plant, is a dead rosemary plant.  I also brought in the "bounty" of my butternut squash crop.  Three squash.  Time to eat them.

I stretched just now and I think the problem may have been that I used two cords on the arms exercises instead of going down to one.  It wasn't intentional.  And my arms were okay with the extra tension.  My back and side muscles were not okay with it.  I can't use the DVD while exercising as it goes too fast at times and I have to adjust the machine cords and rebounder etc.  So I have a set of cards I flip thru.  I had wanted to make better cards this morning.  Use the wall chart to make photo copies of the exercises and paste them to the cards.  And I slow down during the first few reps to make sure I feel the exercise is the muscle group we are targeting.  Pointing my toes. Pushing down on the Achilles.  Holding my elbows up. Not "snapping" my knees on the stretch.  So my ten reps take longer.

House was fun last night.  His scenes with little Rachel are very funny.  The dog clicker was hilarious. He swears not to like children but there he was being a pushy "parent" wanting the child to score high enough to get into the precious pre school and all the while believing that the kid is a "paste sandwich".  I was sad when he was most impressed by her lie.  Was she protecting him?

1 comment:

dee said...

Hey! my word verification is vomical. Sometimes I think they're playing with us.

Here's my 2 cents and worth every penny. Having your job back at the Library would be a victory over the powers-that-be stupidity. I think you really liked that job and it made you feel good. I had a job I loved many years ago. It was a job with prestige, a good bit of power, and best of all, it was a job that made me feel great doing it. Maybe that's how you'd like to feel about that kind of thing again. Given all that has happened in these last months worry about G has to be way up there in your head, asleep or awake. Loosing your library book would be a black mark for you and I both. I think it follows how you felt about the circumstances of those idiots treated you there and how it made you feel to be dismissed. You and I have that awful wasp work ethic thing-a very strong dose of guilt at loosing a job. In my case it's associated with that German/guilt thing which I used to hate but have now come around to thinking may be a very good thing in small doses. A little more shame in the world wouldn't be such a bad thing and would, perhaps force things like "the Jersey Shore" into a deep, dark, inescapable, hole where it belongs. In your case, or mine, I think guilt may be a bit detrimental becaue it causes mental constipation.
Love your chicken...and you
That'll be 5 cents please, Lucy McDonald. Fell free to consider all of this crap.