Shoes! Duh. in Everyday Ramblings

I don’t have a teddy bear to put in the window for the entertainment of the little ones that walk by but I do have a bunny.

After I set the bunny up to look out on the world as it is I found a sticker set that Kes had given me on a lark a few Christmas’s back of the bear E.D. Ward. You can use the various stickers like paper dolls to change his outfit so he’ll be sharing space with the bunny as well. Right now he has a warm scarf on around his neck.

Yesterday I went for a walk with a bandana around my nose and mouth. There is a learning curve here in terms of breathing normally and not fogging up the glasses. Apparently rinsing your glasses in soapy water first helps with that. I shall report back if I find something that does the trick.

I also have a shop towel and some elastic ribbon also from Christmas to make another type of mask.

I have known for a few weeks that my pelvis was slightly off, a tad out of alignment from the healing after the fall a few months back. There has been more back pain and increased stiffness. Last week I tried a more ambitious yoga practice than usual that involved a fair amount of forward bending and I tweaked the other hip, the one I didn’t hurt.

Standing has become somewhat uncomfortable. Once I get moving I am fine so walking is okay thank god. And also sleeping is comfortable, but sitting and standing…

I have tried every yoga thing I can think of to strengthen and realign the area, focusing on my hip region. Elevating my leg helps. I have it up on a bolster that Diego likes to perch on right now.

During this whole time I have continued to get my cardio in every day, mostly walking outside or doing low impact aerobics here inside. It didn’t occur to me until yesterday that, um, I am like an older woman and maybe running in place on a hard floor in old slippers with absolutely no support is not the best idea for a person whose pelvis is slightly out of alignment…

I put my most supportive shoes on yesterday and kept them on pretty much all day. Things felt incrementally better. I am hoping that like from the fall I will heal here and return to a sense of unrestricted ease of movement that I fully understand is a gift at this point in my life.

Tomorrow I am teaching online and I am looking forward to that.

Yesterday morning I got a notification on my phone from The New York Times that says… “It’s OK: You can stop trying to be productive. A great thing to do right now, if you are able to, is stay inside and do nothing.”

I laughed and laughed.

My whole life for the last seven years, with teaching and working and teaching has been about “what do I need to do now, right this minute.”

And then I retired.

And then the pandemic happened.

Most Honorable is absolutely scrambling, as all of our teachers and professors are to teach online. He started classes Wednesday. His institution keeps sending out contradictory directives about privacy and platforms and… it is intense.

I am helping in what ever way I can to support him by trying things and providing moral support but my hat (that is already off to our health care workers and grocery clerks and delivery people) is off to all you front line teachers out there.

They have two teddy bears that they put in their front window yesterday. It is pretty far from the street but hopefully it will entertain their mailman.

In the meantime I am doing my job and staying home with my shoes on saying kind things to my hip.