Everything Comes Down to the Trolls in Everyday Ramblings

It is getting late on the flower clock. Our Crepe Myrtles are starting to bloom. Later than where Kes and Most Honorable live. They buried Diego under theirs and as his favorite color was red it is a good match. I do miss the little guy.

Things are good. I continue to be happy to be home. Lots of stuff is still in boxes and will be for a long time. I make minor adjustments and tinker with how things are arranged but mostly I am getting a feel for how this new less encumbered life I am planning to lead will be. The new floors are cooler than the carpet was and that is a boon as we had three over the top hot days in a row.

Mrs. Sherlock has tested negative two days in a row. We saw her in class this morning for the first time since she came down with Covid. It turns out she took it harder than her ten-years older husband. After some ridiculously expensive procedures and an abscess was discovered and drained, her Standard Poodle, Frieda, is on antibiotics and recovering as well. What a challenging couple of weeks though.

Covid is making the rounds. My brother has it. I am a little concerned because I am going to a board retreat for the League for hours tomorrow and I know a number of the younger members have already had Covid. The overwhelming temptation will be not to mask. We are having a buffet lunch.

Yesterday was Walt’s 72nd birthday and about nine of us met indoors in the coffee shop/hotel because they were using the roof for an event. It is a spacious area with high ceilings and decent air flow but still… I continue to mask up on the bus and in the grocery and at the medical facility where I went today for Physical Therapy.

I guess we continue to manage the risk to the best of our ability. I don’t have anyone on tap as a substitute so if I get it, I won’t be able to teach for the worst of it. I guess, honestly this is the best time of year for it to happen, as I have students traveling and having houseguests and the whole end of summer list of activities.

But let’s not tempt fate, okay? I am still washing my hands carefully.

The Physical Therapist I was assigned is good. I am lucky. He gave me four simple exercises to do two weeks ago that I did every day, and my arthritis is better as is the discomfort from the minor scoliosis that plagues me when I do cardio for say more than a half hour. The sciatica is long gone.

Today we worked on consolidating a lot of my movement activities, the Push-Up Club things and the yoga things and the PT things and the rest of the strength training things so I don’t get overwhelmed. He checked my form on a few things and that was useful and good.

Now it is all about consistency and progression, so I don’t slip out of doing the movements that make a difference and that I continue to build strength. I see him again in two weeks and then I go monthly. Accountability, baby. I need to practice what I preach.

It also gave me some motivation to keep working at some things that challenge me.

Speaking of… Walt keeps asking for poems or essays and I need to start writing some new thing as I am running out of revisable pieces. It is good for me to have this motivation to write things that I know will have eyes on them.

We are all very excited that we now have a volunteer-built troll You can see pictures of some of them here. I think they have changed my whole general attitude towards trolls. I can imagine the awe of coming across one unexpectedly in the woods. We hope to get over to see ours soon.

Last updated August 20, 2023