P66D Progress

P66D = Project 66 Days. I'm on day 23, or should I say day 20, or maybe I'm just at day 6. Here's the thing, does it count if I make it to the gym, regardless of what time? Is the habit going to the gym and working out each day, or is the habit going to the gym every morning at the same time (or around the same time)? Can I skip a day? How big a gap can I have and still maintain the habit forming activity?

I found an instructor at my gym that I like. She teaches at my level (well, a bit beyond, but it's good to reach and push yourself) and has a nice attitude/way about her. I've tried to make it to her Monday and Thursday afternoon classes and her Saturday basics step class. But I'm really trying to go first thing in the morning. Wake up, get dressed and out the door. As I've been experimenting, sometimes my inner voice in the morning says, "we're tired, and it's Monday, so just go at 5 pm for the class, it will count". Does it?  Luckily, my experiment has fought against the voice when, later in the afternoon, it starts coming up with excuses not to go to the class. I want to know my number which has been pretty good motivation. Especially since I want to apply my number to other things. 

I figured I'd focus on one habit at a time with this technique. I've been trying out other habit techniques with other habits I want to create (like flossing every night and washing my face every night).  So far P66D has yielded the best results. I had one day that I skipped so far, Sunday 9/17. I find the weekend the hardest since my gym doesn't open until after I've been up for awhile. So it's a different morning routine.  I was trying to remember the reason for the skip - it was my period and it had just started the day before so my flow was at its peak and I still had a few cramps. But really, if I'm honest, I think that inner voice got to me and won that fight. I've made it out the door and done stuff, with much worse conditions. I was just weak and lost the internal argument. 

Still, overall, I'm pretty chuffed with my progress so far. It's my best chunk of exercise to date, and I'm feeling an improvement, which I think in turn yields more progress since I'm stronger to fight that internal voice. I really need to come up with a name for that voice. I think I'll try calling her Daisy for now. Lazy Daisy wants me to be lazy so she doesn't feel bad being lazy on her own. 

Finding My Habit Number

I was just rereading my last post which I had forgotten was about the gym and was from January, almost ten months ago. Well, as I ended that post, it does help to tell people about whatever you are working on. Plus I want to remember this journey for future reference. I'm working on my Project 66 Days. For me, it's a bit like the Whole30, except, I'm inventing the rules as I go, through trial and error. 

Here's the back story.  I joined the gym, as I mentioned, in January and found myself sometimes getting the energy benefits but not all the time and waning in my attendance sometimes, and then picking it back up. Basically I was all over the map. As a way to help me, I started recording when I worked out on this small calendar.

As you can see, I didn't start recording until March.  I think I was doing pretty well in January and into mid-February, making it into the gym three times a week which I thought was a good amount, especially coming from zero times a week practically. By March, I was forcing myself to go, just to not be giving away money, and trying to get a little of my money's worth. On a side note, another thing I love about my gym is that they have a reverse promotion. Instead of the other gyms, that offer $1 membership for the first three months and then bump up to $100 afterwards, my gym starts high and after three months drops - there is a payout instead of a financial penalty to keep with it. This has helped me a bunch, as you can see, some months weren't great and I started thinking I should cancel for now and then re-up later just to not waste money, but the extra up front cost kept me in check. 

By April, I reinvigorated myself to go.  I wish I remembered what I did to change things so I could record it as part of my journey. The square box on some of the weekends is me going orienteering and not going to the gym. Still a good workout as I'm outside and running/hiking.   I'm guessing this might have been my trigger as April is when orienteering started up for the year. 

May, I had a legitimate excuse, I was in Ohio busy helping my mom.  I did try to get out for a morning run the first week or so, but I'm still not much of a runner, and I was running around from dawn to dusk so much anyways, I used this as an excuse to put my exercise on hold. Although, i did manage to go to the one orienteering event they had that year in my moms town. How fun is that?  I've been orienteering in three states now (MA, NH, OH). 

By July, I was slipping again and didn't even want to record my poor performance for the next 8 weeks.  I did manage to go to the gym some and was doing outside activities like canoeing and hiking over the summer but nothing consistent or intentional. 

Around the end of August, in my perusal of life improvement stuff on blogs and YouTube videos, someone mentioned in passing the term 66 days. I looked it up and there wasn't much out there - so no new program that was storming the Internet. I did find this article though (link here) that explains that the old 21 days to form a habit was never based on any scientific study. It was just an observation of a surgeons from decades ago that got blown up and latched onto. Fast forward and there is a more recent study that quantified the number of days to form a habit from a large study group of subjects. It showed that the habit number varies from person to person and other factors, but that the average number is more like 66 days. Well, as this new info percolated, I went to my first orienteering event on a bicycle on Labor Day weekend, Saturday, September 2.

I had missed it last year and was looking forward to going this year.  It was in Lexington, so after packing a lunch, I hopped on my bike and biked to the starting meet up. Near the end of my ride, I was questioning if I would actually do the bike orienteering (there would be a smaller foot course too). I'm not wild about biking on streets, being spoiled by so many great bike paths in my area, and not really trusting drivers. Also, my ride to the event was slightly up hill the whole way and I really should have put a bit more air in my tires (and worked out more/trained). But luckily, when I got there, the excitement of the event overpowered that voice inside that is so good at finding excuses. It was structured as a three hour event, where you try to get as many points as possible and get back within three hours without being penalized for being late. 

We had five minutes to study our maps and I picked a general route that hit the controls mainly around Lexington, while simultaneously avoiding steep hills (as much as possible) and busy streets. After the first ten minutes (which had a bit of a hill), I was in lala land. It was marvelous. A beautiful day, minimal traffic (I think everyone was out of town over the long weekend), and I was getting hits of dopamine or whatever, whenever I found a control, and tons of vitamin D, even though I had lathered up with sunscreen. I ended up finding myself ahead of schedule and adding a few extra controls to pick up. I was going at my own pace and just enjoying the journey and exploring the back roads of Lexington and great weather. As I was biking I would grab handfuls of my new go-to snack: a bag of raw almonds and dried fruit. It was prunes at the moment so kept an eye on my consumption as I wasn't near any bathroom facilities and I had learned in my twenties the hard way what happens when you consume a bag of prunes. 

I got back with ten minutes to spare and compared notes with another competition, picking up some tips.  On my bike ride back home, I stopped and finished off my lunch that I had been too busy to eat most of it. And had a leisurely afternoon. It was almost five hours of bicycling all said, with a bunch of hills, even though I tried to avoid the worst of them. The thing was that I didn't feel anything as I was biking.  Maybe winded here and there climbing up a hill but no muscle aches. And then like certain alcohols, much later, it hits, rather crashes over me. That night I woke up an pain. Luckily this had happened once before on another long bike ride with my dad, so I knew it didn't warrant a ride to the ER. But man, for someone who has never been a big sports person, this whole lactic acid build up is a b!*&+. I had a brunch get together up in Maine with old friends, two of which are doctors, and they said it was normal and looked at me like I should have experienced this earlier in life by now. Basically you just flush the acid out with water and time. And by Monday I was feeling better and went to the gym. 

And this is when the 66 days, percolating in the back of mind clicked. I need to find my number. No listening to that one inner voice that says you are doing good making it to the gym a few times a week and then comes up with other excuses that build and build. I'm doing my own experiment and going for 66 days, or longer. This post, about my beginning of my project is long enough. Next post is progress so far. 

Gym Girl

I started a part two post for Christmas decorations and when I returned it was gone - no draft. Ugh. But in the meantime, I've slowly been taking down the decorations in the new year. I held onto the two little trees an extra week and brought them to my town public works Saturday. They had their chipper out and people were dropping off their trees. It felt a little like going to the farm and seeing where they process the animals. Felt bad they were getting chopped up. 

The big news is that I joined a gym, for the first time ever as an adult. I always argued I only liked exercise as a biproduct from stuff like hiking or biking. And definitely, I was not a gym person. But, as I've been making my way through the healthy improvement stuff, I found that I still had periods of low energy.  And the more I read the more there was one thing everything was writing about that I hadn't really gotten into - exercise. I know it's obvious, but I was hoping I could just eat right and do a few other things and be good. 

I started walking in the fall and that was pretty good, even when my neighbors dog didn't like the longer walks. But then it got cold and rainy and it just wasn't happening. I dabbled with the idea of swimming but after talking with folks realize it might not be the best fit for me due to the boredom.  You can't read or listen to podcasts. 

So that left gyms.  I finally decided on the one that was closest to me, only four blocks away. I kept meaning to pop in and join in December.  Mainly because I didn't want to be that person that joined a gym at the beginning of the new year. 

Ok and this is where it gets fun. My gym is not your typical gym you see on tv.  My first visit I went at 8 am and the guy behind the desk was my dads age I think, but seemed older. And he mumbled. And was not a sales person. I told him I was interested in joining and I wanted to learn more. He handed me a one page flier and upon a little nudging from me he went on to explain the membership options. Which, after explaining it to me twice, still sounded like the same. 

After putting my stuff away I was ready to go and asked him if he could show me what to do or a tour. He mumbles what I'm interested in, like what piece of equipment.  He then proceeds to punch the start button and says I'm all set. I spent the next 45 minutes on a semi-recumbent bike and familirazing myself with the gym and watching the people.  I initially I was disappointed the guy wasn't that helpful but then I warmed up to it.  I rather him than a hovering guy. I learned about the gym etiquette of wiping down the equipment after use. And I loved seeing all the socializing. I was by far the youngest person. I was facing the nautilus weights and the ellipiticals. There would be a lady, maybe in her 70s or older working on the weights and another lady of similar age would come in the back door all bundled up and they would chat for awhile. Two middle age people caught up while on the ellipiticals. A little later on there were two older gentleman working on the weights. I was so surprised seeing so many older people at the gym. Talk about blowing my preconceived conceptions. 

Afterwards, I decided to stay for a 9 am cardio class. At first I thought I'd get my own personal class, but turns out everyone was just late. Full of mostly soccer moms. There was a step included in the workout, and omg, I was horribly uncoordinated. I had a hard enough time getting my arms and legs going in the right away let alone managing the step. It was a great workout but man did I feel like odd man out. Clearly my brain is not yet wired like that. It will take some practice clearly. 

When I got home that first day, nick was visiting and I filled him in.  He got as much of a kick as I did from this atypical gym. More later, but to cut to the end, I started going at 6 am and found Larry, who owns the gym I think, and gave me the whole intro, tour and what feels like my own personal training. Just what I was looking for that first day. His approach is to ramp up slowly to encourage wins versus frustrations. Just my style. After the second early morning workout, I'm finding my energy and mood so much better. I was trying to go in every morning.  Friday I slept in and told myself I'd go in in the afternoon. That never happened. Saturday they didn't open until 8 am and by then I was into other things and never went in even though I thought I'd try to go later in the day. Finally Sunday I was finding my energy level waning and by midmorning I made myself go in and felt so much better after. It's Monday now, and I went in at 6 am. I think I learned that I need to go first thing in the morning otherwise I fall back into old routines. I'm on week two now.  Fingers crossed this works out. It helps telling people. 

Christmas Decorations: Part 1, Trees

I feel like a big part of Christmas is the decorations of the season and I always get pleasure out of having my house decorated. I've accumulated a bunch of Christmas stuff over the years.  At first everything fit into one bankers box but now I'm up to three not counting the extra boxes for the big stuff: my tree stand, wreath, Scandinavian star and metal tree ornament holder. Earlier this year I had done a quick going through.  And had the resolution this season to either use all the decorations or else consider letting go of stuff. 

I took a bunch of pictures before I left for the road trip down to VA for Christmas. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had splurged on three trees. This is the Christmas of the Christmas trees.  It took me a whole day running around greater Boston trying to find a way to stand up the two little trees. They were only $10 each and I hated buying more tree stands that cost almost as much, and didn't look that great. Luckily, I've been pinning to Pinterest Christmas stuff the last few years so had some good inspiration. After stops at four different stores in four different towns, I finally found these great galvanized buckets that I could use in other ways throughout the year. No luck finding pea gravel, apparently it's out of season right now, but I did find some marble chips and that seemed to work keeping the trees upright. They sit in my dining room and aren't they marvelous? This may become a new tradition for me. 

Each one is decorated with my ornaments, from what I call my scandanavian collection. It's mostly straw ornaments and red stars. 

Plus a few new ornaments from my travels this year, and past. A peace dove I picked up at the ICC in The Hague. The building was closed to visitors but the museum and gifts shop were open. The curly que is from one my favorite little boutiques in Brattleboro, VT.

On the other tree, I topped it with an ornament from one of the small villages in Transylvania, and the dove below is from Iceland. 

And the little angel in a walnut shell, I also picked up in Romania this spring. 

I forget where my moose came from, but I'm going to guess VT.  At least that's what I think of when I see it.  

And the cats favorites, a few felted acorns.  The first night the trees were up, I heard the cats playing with something in the early dawn hours, and realize it must have been a few of these acorns. I've been on the hunt to find where they hid them.  The acorns are from the Decorative Arts museum in Ohio. 

A few days later, after living with the decorated trees, I wanted to put something under them, like wrapped gifts and then it dawned on me.  My few remaining stuffed animals that I have tucked away. This would be a perfect little home for them and a way to enjoy them at the holidays. 

Wallis, really loves the little bear on the right, sitting in the front. I will often find him in the morning, as a gift, presented to me on my bed, or at the floor by my bed. Every day, I end up putting a few bears back in their place, but no damage done. 

I don't have a picture of these trees at night, all lit up and am sure my camera won't do them justice at night. It's so nice walking by and seeing them all twinkling. I also don't have a great picture of my main tree in my living room I realize. 

I have it decorated with my second collection of Christmas ornaments. I usually will alternate each year between the two collections.  But not this year, I got everything out and on the trees, or elsewhere. This tree is decorated from the ornaments of the years.  Starting with wooden ornaments from my childhood and include a few given to me as a child, like the little cross stitch one from Mrs Angus, one of my piano teachers, who was on the Air Force base, or the gold Norman Rockwell scenes from grandparents.  And include ornaments I picked up in the different places I've lived over the years. 

And that's not all.  I forgot I actually have a fake tree. It's a little guy that I decorated with red berries and have quietly tucked away in the phone cubby off the dining room. 

What's that count so far?  Four, right.  But I also ended up making a tree. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to make sure I was enjoying all the decorations.  Why have them, and then keep them boxed up during the holidays. The two little trees couldn't quite take all the scandanavian ornaments, so the extras I made a winter scene, in the same room, on the opposite wall from the table top trees. 

The extra straw stars I've picked up at a Swedish festival, ten thousand villages back when I volunteered there and from travel, I have up in the sky.  And the extra straw pine cones I arranged as a tree. And all I used was a little bit of masking tape. You can see a little bit of the big tree in the background. 

The final Christmas tree, that brings the count up to six, I had nothing to do with but still get to enjoy it. My neighbors downstairs, put big white Christmas lights on the pine tree out front which compliments nicely our white candle lights in the front windows. 

Christmas Trees

Wow, I hadn't realized I was two months behind posting. One of my faithful readers reached out via email to see what I've been up to. I knew I wasn't blogging much these days, but thought I was doing at least a post once a month. Keeping with the pattern I should fill you in with October and November updates, but instead, I have to share my story from last night.

Yesterday, after lunch I hit my errand run list.  I have a hard time running to just one store, especially if it's not just down the street. I like to bundle for efficiency but yesterday, there was a lot.  I'd like to say I was running to stores to pick up Christmas gifts, but looking at my haul, there was only one Christmas gift in the mix.  On a side note, I did discover at the mall, that Primark is about to open. I feel like it's been a British Invasion this year from target and rite aid starting to carry some British line lotions to now Primark popping up all over Boston. Not sure if they carry stuff I'd like but after following a few British youtubers and hearing about their Primark hauls, I'm curious. 

The impetuous of the outing yesterday, was a last minute change in my weekend plans.  I'm heading over to a friends house today, whose husband has a wood shop, and who is my go to for cutting wood.  I started looking at table saws this year, but besides being an investment, I just respect the safety and don't like the idea of working with a saw without someone around to call 911, just in case something goes terribly wrong. But I do have a bunch of wood projects I would like to tackle. For now, the easy one, adding a shelf to my closet shoe shelf and raising an existing shelf a few inches so even my heels can fit.  Between summer and winter and dress and casual, I found it difficult to pare down my shoes to fit my earlier shoe shelf I made a few years back.

Anyways, by the time I hit 6 pm, and after visiting a handful of stores and crossing stuff off my list, I'm on the fence whether I should head over to Lowes or just call it a day and save the project for after the holidays. But I decide to persevere and a ten minute drive turns into at least 30 minutes crawling on the highway to get three exits over. The parking lot is pretty empty, compared to the rush hour traffic I just battled. And I see Christmas trees out front. I'm planning on picking up a tree this morning over by their house since there are more small garden centers out their way. But maybe, I think, I should, just get one now (last night) at lowes. The prices aren't much cheaper and in the end I couldn't do it.  I want to buy local when possible.  So I get my wood, figure out a configuration so it fits in my back seat (the challenges of a car whose seats don't go down) and I'm off. Except my gps is putting me back on the highway that is packed. I drive in the general direction of home on surface streets, no idea where I am, and before you know it I recognize a small lake.  It's where I did orienteering at the end of summer. As I'm driving home, I pass by a local nursery I've visited before. Side note, this is where I got a few plants when I was trying to green up my place.  One fern died the second day I was home, a few other plants lasted a week or so and my ficus tree held on, but after a month and loosing half its leaves, I found a new home for it at my neighbors' office.  The only remnant from that trip, is my favorite window planter in the kitchen and my mother-in-law tongue plants.  I bought three and now have 10 since they keeping propagating and are super low maintenance.  So not a complete loss. 

I had forgotten they have a whole big Christmas business. It's humming with people and I pull in to the parking lot to check things out. It's local, it turns out to be very affordable, and it's only one town over. I'm excited because I think I may have found my new go-to for Christmas tree place.

In past years I've gotten a few trees from VT, and with friends in the burbs, but my only regular place has been the local Boys and Girls club where every time, I feel like I bring home a half dead tree and half the needles fall out the second day. I like supporting them, but want a better tree. 

The trees are real, in that they haven't been perfectly manicured and have character. And I start in the small lot and move my way up in size trying to figure out what size tree would work best. Here, I have to stop, and share that for a few years now I've been dreaming of having more than one Christmas tree. It's extravagent so hasn't materalized. I have slowly acquired enough Christmas ornaments for three different trees.  One batch is my childhood wooden ornaments, the second batch is my Scandinavian blond straw ornaments. These two styles I usually alternate.  And I inherited all our childhood Christmas cookie cutters which I thought would make neat ornaments with a bit of red ribbon. Each year I evaluate where the tree should go. In the living room in front of the picture window, or over on the other wall, at the end of the living room?  Or maybe in my back sunroom or even in my dining room. These days some of the locations don't work with the new furniture arrangements though. But Pinterest certainly gives a lot of inspiration.

Back to last night.  I found my tree and loved that it was at least $10 or $20 cheaper than what I usually pay. And I had just walked through the shorter trees and explored options. So I couldn't resist and in the end, I loaded my car up with three Christmas trees!  The total was about $5 more than what I usually pay and my car was exploding with pine (I don't like to put it on top in case it scratches the car). It seems like a lot, but one is my regular tree and then I got two table top like trees. I say "like" because I got them home, and it looks like they might be a tad too big for the space I planned. I feel like I have a pass this year since I just learned last week that I'm the only one left in my family bringing home a Christmas tree!  What has happened to my world?  I can't imagine a Christmas without the ritual of bringing home a tree, decorating it and enjoying the smell of pine throughout the house. That's half the fun of Christmas. I do get that the tree can be a mess and after getting home late last night I just wanted to grab a bite and crawl into bed but had to lug the trees upstairs, dig out the tree stand and get them set up so they could have their water. And if I remember right, nick and I did the tree decorating for a bunch of the years growing up.  It's become my thing and I'm just excited to have a house full of trees... And so do Wallis and Webster. 

I'm still not done yet though. The smallest tree stands cost more than the trees themselves and pretty cheaply made, so I passed.  I dug out my tall jam making pot and filled it with water and after a little wrangling have both the small trees intertwined sharing the pot for now.  Quick research this morning and I think I'm on the hunt for a nice looking base (my preference is a copper or tin bucket) container and buying pea gravel. But first, I'm off to my local toy store to pick up presents for the birthday party today (they were closed by the time I made it home last night).  And the dry cleaners to drop off my old childhood living room curtains that I picked up from moms at thanksgiving and lugged home.  They go perfectly in my bedroom. Need to figure out how to hang them with the way grandmas sewed the top, but that's another project for another day. 

I can't wait to decorate the trees tomorrow. Oh, just remembered I may need to pick up some more Christmas lights too. Hopefully I'll share some pictures in the future, so stay tuned 

September update

It's crazy how little I post when not in transit (I.e. commuting).  This morning I just got done dropping dad and Barbro off at the airport. They are off to Colorado. We hit a bunch of commuter traffic on the way there but was lucky enough we qualified for the commuter lane and zipped through. I did ask the toll booth collector, on my way out of logan when they are going toll less.  October 28th. I need to decide if I should get the ez pass. Kind of liken to having it and will miss the nice toll keepers. It's definitely an end of an era. 

Afterwards, I visited a new store, Russo's in Watertown.  It's a local grocer with a ton of produce. It kind of reminded me of Berkeley Bowl in California. They both have a ton of produce you've never heard of.  A french friend recommended the place for their cheese selection and prices. They didn't have my favorite cheese, brilliant-savant. Although I did find some cheese with the same name but seemed to be flavored - bananas or pineapples.  I forget what anas is. In the end I got a cheese that was right next to them and super fragrant, Prefere de nos Montagnes. I can't wait to try it. I was able to find my currants for a Moroccan lamb dish I'm making. And next to them were dried cantelope.  Have you ever heard of that?  And what's a Florida avacado? I got one of those too.  They are almost twice the size and when I shook it you could hear the pit. They had a pound of rolled Amish butter in butter. I always want to buy some when I'm in ohio or Virginia visiting, but it doesn't travel that well. The place was quite crowded for a mid-morning Tuesday. I hear it's crazy on the weekends.  

Overall the place is like Wilson's in lexington. Mostly produce with a cheese shop, bakery and deli. I love these places. Russo's has a completely different vibe, having a large Italian contigency. The waspy Wilson's seems calm after playing bumper cars with the older Italian women. Plus Russo's is just more crowded in their layout. 

I hit up Target on my way back and man my bill got expensive. I unpacked everything and it's just a lot of little things that just add up. I only popped in for the 2 gallon zip bags. They had a sale on my laundry detergent and the special is buy 3, get 1 free. So that added up. But now I'm set for a long long time. I hit up the beauty aisles first to check out a product I had seen online. As I was looking, an associate walked up and asked me if I needed help. Usually I hate being interrupted by my shopping and just like to be left to myself. If I need help, I'll seek it out. But this time I was more friendly and she turned out to be really helpful. I was trying to find a cream I had seen on a youtube beauty chanel. I didn't expect to find it this visit since I hadn't written it down and in the end, she found it for me. It's a La Roche-Posay product. The whole aisle was target's british products. Which is awesome since I tend to watch more british youtubers which makes it hard buying products from Boots (the UKs CVS). The make-up wipes even had the Boots logo on it. I love it! No need to import the stuff from my trips.  And as an added bonus, after the associate finished helping me she gave me a little goody bag with samples - a lotion I wanted to try, a hair mask and even some chewy vitamins. Good lesson learned, it doesn't hurt to be friendly to the sales people, even if you don't really want to socialize. 

Then off to the Fromaggia shop in Cambridge.  Their cheeses are expensive but their bakery breads are so affordable and good.  And just down the street I popped into a little old antique store. The prices were not that bad for the area and such a nice mix of old English, Japanese and Art Deco. I made friends with the owner, Lee and walked out with a wall mirror. I was trying to negotiate the price, but couldn't find a second item that wasnt too much. In the end I was good and just bought the one item.  I was resigned to pay the marked price since it was just the one item.  And he ended up ringing me up with a discount of about $7. I love that type of negotiating, where you don't ask and they just give you a better price. I think it helped that I talked him up during my perusing. 

I'm back home to whip up some cheesecake coconut bites and Moroccan cous cous lamb dish. I've been working through my pile of recipes ripped from magazines and pinned on pinterest. It's amazing how many recipes I've accumulated. About a dozen variations on cornbread with something (apples, bacon,etc).  I'm organizing all the recipes I like into a cookbook, done by season and identifying ingredients not usually in my pantry. The purpose being, I'll have something leftover, like coconut milk I didn't use the entire container and now need to use in another recipe. My challenge is that I have a lot of dessert recipes. Cookies alone, I probably have about 30 recipes. And being that I'm eating less sugar, whats a girl to do.  I'm planning on baking up goodies before visits and giving stuff away.  That or doing half recipes. 

August update

It's strange experiencing the summer sans an air conditioned office. Granted, during the commute, I got to sweat on some of the non-AC buses on hot and humid summer days, but that's just an hour a day. Living through days of hot and humid weather, I feel like I'm transported back to my childhood. Where you do whatever you want, but then are sometimes just plumb exhausted from the humidity and just lounge around trying to keep your internal temperature stable. It's been too hot to knit and and too hot to paint, which means, I put off the prep part of rooms.  

I've been making headway on paper files and computer data, on hot days. I used to think I was about 90% done going through everything I own. Now, I realize I don't think I was even half done if you go by number of items. Actually, now I'm thinking I may have 90% to go.  It's amazing how much I've collected in terms of data and for me, paper. I've been making good progress on getting my photos organized. And for files, I've gotten a filing cabinet down to two partially full paper boxes.  One box for long term keeping (I.e. Old tax files, mortgage paperwork), and the other for files to keep for the year or reference. I've been going through each file and organizing it. For example, I went through and cleaned out my dental file.  No need to keep track of every cleaning and now I have a summary sheet I made of my dental work.  Another incentive to floss more. It really reduces the space and I feel like I can easily find whatever I'm looking for. It feels good. I still have a long ways to go, but making progress. 

This last weekend, it was cooling down enough, I thought I'd make it to the first orienteering meet up of the season.  There are none during the summer when it's too hot and humid. Granted, I did have the AC on in the car on my way to the meet, which should have given me a heads up.  But there was a nice breeze and the course was around a pond. By the time I was heading towards the second marker I was sweating and had abandoned any attempt of running. I think it was the humidity. I do so enjoy the challenge and reward of finding markers and this time I was far enough away from other people that no one gave away the spot by proximity. It was a gorgeous day as long as I stayed in the shade and didn't exert myself too much. As I was hiking up a hill, I found I was sweating in the most unusual place. Not on my face or the usual places, but my elbows!  At first I thought I had brushed up against something wet. Nope, I was dripping sweat out of both elbows, how strange. I did pretty well, not having to meander too much looking for the marker. Looking at the results, I was in the bottom half.  The first place person did it in almost a third of my time. I don't know how people ran in that heat and humidity. 

The nice thing is that I want to get better times so am incentivized to take up running. I had put off starting up again until the weather was more bearable. On Monday, although the temperatures were about the same, the humidity had gone. It is sooo nice. Perfect way to start day one of "couch to 5k". Except for one thing.  I was so sore the next day and today. My legs are sore and I have shin splints a bit. Strange, since I was taking it easy during the hike. At first I was thinking it was because I was just so out of shape. But the previous weekend I had gone biking one day and canoeing the next day and minimal soreness. I think that's why I like orienteering even more. It's such a good overall workout. 

I'm trying to make the most of these nice days, forecast says more humidity is coming soon.  The upside is I get more snuggles with the kitties.  Still trying to get through a few open projects before starting new projects.  I'm stuck on a few snags. Need to just bite the bullet and figure out what to do. I keep reminding myself it doesn't have to be perfect. 

I have been getting into a morning routine which includes tidying everything in the house. My mind likes order but being home more, things tend to explode more. Nothing like nipping things in the bud before they grow too much. Well, I'm off to figure out how to frame my more challenging prints.