More Myself

Today I felt like I was more myself.  I got things done.  I went out and filled the feeders this morning.  While I was out there I tried to shove the broken timbers back onto the retaining wall and only succeeded in making it worse so I hoisted the broken ones on top of the wall and wrenched out the enormous spikes that have held them together for the last 40 years.  (look how far down the snow has melted! love that warming up March sunshine)  I called my landscaper/classmate yesterday to make sure that I'm on his springtime to-do list.  He's going to stop over within the next couple weeks to remeasure and see how the wall weathered the winter.  He estimates that they'll be able to start work around May 1.  Works for me.



Mr. Downy Woodpecker was back pecking at the seed wreath today.  He's going a good job, at least the squirrels and ground-feeding birds appreciate all of the seeds that he knocks down.




 


Daffodils!  The daffodils are sprouting!  Look at that green.  Beautiful, isn't it?  These daffodils are the bulbs that I planted the first autumn we lived here way back in 1978 when DS was a babe in arms.


This afternoon I went to the Y, did a quick circuit of the weight machines, then walked in the pool for half an hour so I smell like chlorine even though I took a shower before I got dressed.  Oh, I discovered a fun machine in the women's locker room at the Y.  On the wall next to the sauna (which I will never go into because I hate being hot) is a rectangular box about 14"x14"x18" with a flip-up lid which exposes a pierced basket like a cylindrical colander.  It's a swimsuit spinner!  You put in your dripping swimsuit and hold the lid down and the machine spins the water out of it so your backpack isn't soaked.  Isn't that brilliant?  I'm very glad that I found that amenity.  (I'd have taken its picture but I'm guessing that action would have been grossly misunderstood.)

On the way home from the Y I stopped at a different Goodwill from the one I usually frequent and found a couple sweaters and a neck warmer on the clearance rack that I can use to demonstrate duplicate stitch at the knitting guild meeting on Thursday night and when I got home I sat myself down and wrote out directions that I can print and hand out.  I also found some charted designs, mostly things you'd put on a kid's sweater, that I printed off so the knitters will have something to work from.  I think I'll see if I don't have a pad of graph paper that I can cut into half-sheets so they can make their own chart with words or pictures too.



I think I really did fix my cowl boo-boo.  And now you can see the color change.  I'll measure the blue part so that the brick red part is the same, then I'll switch back to blue, then back to brick red.  Like I planned it.  See how little gray was left?

Today's toss was actually three days' toss--two ancient photo floodlights, a wooden multi-game set that Durwood got for DS years ago that never got gifted and isn't wanted, and I cleaned out a small bin of Mom's mementos.  Some I'll keep, some I tossed, and some I'll send to various family members so they can deal with things as they wish.

19 March--Tropical Obsession. 

A rainbow--and it hasn’t even rained. Gray clouds are gathered all around but above where I stand the sky is clear bright blue. Arcing over my head is a narrow rainbow like a multicolor ribbon in the sky. I amazes me that light can shine through millions of tiny droplets and form such a coordinated whole as an arch of transparent color all across the sky. A perfect arc, a segment of a circle that would be complete if only we were far enough away. Soon the sun’s angle changes, the angle of refraction is lost and the ribbon in the sky disappears. The wind blows the clouds out to sea and the sun shines hot in the clear blue bowl of the sky.

Well, I think I've finally gotten so tired of myself eating so much ice cream and sweets and then working out to feel better and not feeling stronger so I drew a (metaphorical) line in the sand Sunday night and resolved to really get back to the straight and narrow and to log what I eat honestly.  I even ran the chocolate pudding recipe through the WW recipe create function online so I can still have a dish of pudding after supper.  At least until they run out.  Man, that's good pudding.  Even just two days of eating better, eating less crap has made me feel better about myself.  Go, me!  Now I just have to keep it up.
--Barbara