#218 - Anniversary Donuts and the Force

The weekend was mostly rejuvenating. It was great to have most of Saturday off and all of Friday night. Even after our guest left on Sunday evening, we took it easy and watched some tv and read.

For the last three nights I took a little break from the word count goals, only posting a shot blog post to keep that streak running. The plan is to overshoot my daily quota by a little bit each day from now on to get back the numbers.

And if my goal to start getting into the writing of my sci-fi novel gets any tracking then there will be more than enough words for this month’s challenge. And by the end of May, I should have added another sixty-three thousand words to the challenge total. I’m a few thousand words away from writing two hundred and fifty thousand words for the year so far. No too shabby if I do say so myself.

But today was a Monday and my morning started as all Monday mornings do, without the desire to get out of bed. And yet I don’t earn my living that way, so it was up to start the PC and brew some earl grey. I was still full of yesterday’s feast, so I skipped breakfast.

The usual lead meeting to get on the same page and then finishing a revision before we headed out for our lunchtime walk. The sunny was shining and the temperature was just above body temp, making for a perfect walk under blue skies.

It was the kind of day that whispers in your ear the sweet notion of just walking. Don’t stop, don’t go home, the work can wait. We both felt the pull of mother nature’s siren song today.

But I had a dreaded one o’clock meeting. The meeting itself was fine but I dislike one o’clock meetings and would never schedule one if I was the supervisor.

After catching up with the team and getting our marching orders, I started painting a new section of the show that had little information to go. These are great if you have the time to experiment but awful if you are a little behind schedule.

Guess which one we are.

It was fun to just paint again with no distractions. I should have put on some music, but I was expecting to get interrupted by one of the painters asking questions or by the other supervisors passing on information.

But that never happened and I was able to work distraction free.

By five PM, the outdoors was calling and I was answering. My sister works at a greenhouse and brought us flats of plants the green house was going to throw away. We received plugs for begonias, bidens and some creeper vines and a couple other plants I can’t pronounce.

I got to work planting the begonias around the backyard in carious places and then did a couple lines of the starlike Bidens along the front edge of one bed.

I used some more to line the outer ring around a tree that will have hostas in the inner ring.

I did a little cleanup of leaves, twigs and other bits and bobs to tidy up the garden beds.

I planted a few more begonias around the front yard and did some weeding. And after that I felt like I had accomplished enough for the day. I like to do a little bit in the garden everyday as opposed to doing big expenditures of effort all at once. It’s a little happy place I get to go to every day. Today I was happy to seem new leaves on my rose bush and a hosta that I hadn’t remembered starting to pop out of the ground.

Our friends Laura and Paul stopped by with a tray of her homemade cherry lime donuts in celebration of our wedding anniversary. (I have already eaten four of them). The date is the same as Star Wars Day, and we chose it not because that is when we got married, but because it was a date we could both remember. Strangely, our friends and family seem to remember it more often than we do. It’s not a big day for us, as well celebrate each other daily in all the little ways that matter.

But instead of having one day to forget, we inherited three. The day we officially married, the day we married in Mexico, and the day we choose as the anniversary date. We should have eloped.

Around seven we headed upstairs and watched “This Week Tonight,” and “From.” I figured if we watched them early in the evening, Robyn could end the night reading, and I would have sometime to get some writing done.

But after watching the two shows, Robyn and the kiddo went out for a walk and also did some errands.

I caught up on some YouTube videos and then had a Bubble Spa hot tub to relax the stiff muscles from the mild effort I exerted doing the gardening.

By the time they returned I was getting all my gear ready for tomorrow’s commute and then getting my writing things all together.

With the commute tomorrow, the weather is predicted to rain.

“What a surprise,” he said sarcastically.

On the bright side we have leftover Indian food from the weekend to bring for our lunches. One other benefit for me at least, is that I get a good amount of blogging done when I can catch the right train or get a decent seat. That takes a lot of pressure off me and makes the evening writing session easier.

And now that work is getting back on track, I hope that I’ll have more time and energy to devote to writing and learning. I see a near future where I have implemented all the lessons learned up until this point in the challenge as well as from my mentor and the assignments.

Sometimes you can feel a shift happening. And I am starting to feel like a shift is upon me.

The kiddo was furiously purging his bedroom today. There were all kinds of noises and walls shaking going on. Bags of donations started piling up at the front door and he even had his best friend over helping for a bit. The friend who was gifted a new pickup truck.

It’s been a few weeks since she had been over, and I had a brand-new pair of truck nuts that needed a new home. I raced out while they were distracted and attached said nuts. A bright pink pair that were now swing to and from the hitch receiver. I supplied to pin free of charge. I thought that was big of me.

When it finally came time for her to leave, she immediately noticed them. I had hoped the angle she would need to walk to the truck would obscure the nuts from view.

The gag was short lived, but I have zero regrets.

Still money well spent.

I’d like to end the evening by doing a little reading before bed. It really is a great way to end the day. Lately that hasn’t been something I have been able to keep up and that makes me sad. Anyone who wants to be a writer was an avid reader first.

I have such a large “To Be Read” pile that it is going to take my all year just to make a dent in it. Breaking the out the Kindle again is helping and releasing I can read anything form kindle on my phone is a big help to.

I asked Robyn what she wanted to do for Mother’s Day and she told me the kiddo had invited her to lunch with just the two of them and had even offered to pay for it. This is a whole era for us. The kids offering to pay for things. I’m not going to complain about for even one second. I think it’s a wonderful thing for him to do for his mother. And I like when good things happen for her.

But Robyn suggested we all go see a movie. That was something we used to do all the time. Either with or without the kids. We are both movie lovers. And I miss going to the theatre almost as much as Robyn does. So, it will be nice to get out of the house and spend a few hours being entertained. And it’s on her special day which makes it all the more enjoyable.

My sore back has all but vanished. The stretches and the cracking of the spine as well as sleeping on the floor seemed to do the trick. I found a few places I could sit and twist while applying a light pressure to my spine gave me adjustments that seemed to more or less stop the pain. The muscles were still tight, of course, and the pain would eventually return. Being more conscious of how I was sitting and taking more breaks let the muscles recover. The adjustments I was doing also took the pressure off from my muscles trying to overcompensate. I think years of bad posture and wearing my wallet in my back pocket led to these issues.

And back when I was younger, my wallet was thick and huge compared to what I will carry nowadays. Some of that is the advent of digital cards and our phones, but even well before that I was always trying to reduce my wallet. These days it holds about four cards and maybe a few emergency bills.

Going into the studio is when I have to be the most diligent about my posture. I have pillow I keep at my desk to put behind my back, but I can’t use it all the time. Alternating my position seems to be more beneficial than any one stationary situation.

And part of that includes getting up from my desk more often to stretch my legs. Taking some mini breaks to walk to the lunchroom and back is enough. I have some videos to watch this week as well suggested by co-workers who have had physio for their own backs.

I’ll try to implement those stretches as well.

Really, it all seems to boil down to constant movement. The longer you stay in one position the worse it gets. And if you stay in a bad position, you are in for a real world of pain.

Ask me how I know.

I see in the news that we are getting more of those emergency alert tests this coming week. And even though I now know it is coming, it will still scare the shit out of me. And if it happens while I am at the studio the effect is even worse as everyone’s device goes off at once.

I’ll give then this; they are very effective at getting your full attention. Something the government is rarely able to do.

I’m having to be more careful when we go out on our walks at lunch. With the weather changing, my bald head needs to be protected from the sun. And as I have mentioned before, I am so fair skinned that I burn within seconds. I’ve been taking my astaxanthin pills to increase my sun tolerance, but I’ll need to start bringing my Tilley hat or my folding ball cap in my bag to work.

A bald head that’s burned is no fun whatsoever. You only have to get a severe burn once to never make that mistake again.

Time to buy some of that moisturizer for men that has low odor and an SPF of 15. That helps quite a bit too. And it leaves your skin feeling softer!

Sounds like I won’t be able to make my way to the Patrician Grill until at least Wednesday. And then only on Wednesday of this week. But I am determined go at least once a week until they finally shut the place down for good.

Since I am up early, I am going to end this post here, go read a chapter of my book and then get some rest. Need the full eight hours tonight for sure.

Until tomorrow.