Not Gone for the Holiday in Everyday Ramblings

In case there was any doubt what season it is here…

The big waterfront Blues Festival is back. I can hear it from where I live, the major 4th of July tradition in Portland. So even though we are in the high-risk level for Covid transmission things are going on. The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene last weekend generated a lot of cases. People are under the impression that if one is outdoors, no matter how close others are, no problem.

I have a new dental hygienist that I saw yesterday, and she confirmed that I had not yet had Covid, and she said she hadn’t either. We are a shrinking minority. She is just lovely, and I feel like I am in good hands.

We talked about her hands; the job is so hard on them. One of my students told me a few weeks back that a practice I put together on grip strength made one of her hands feel better than it had in a long time. When people express benefit from the online practices I put together it makes me so happy.

For them. I was thinking this morning that I don’t have any role models in my family of happy people. Cheerful, silly, fun to be around people. That is the downside of having such a small family without the layers of relatives radiating out that many folks have. I am not complaining, it is just interesting.

I was listening to a Mental Health specialist talk yesterday about how purpose is so important for an engaged and healthy life. Both my sisters had purpose driven work lives. Mine was, only for a little while, but I enjoyed it while it was, I just couldn’t figure out how to ethically make a manageable living at it, so I switched to a purpose driven private life and a let’s make enough to get by professional one.

And now in retirement I am focused on that purpose about three-quarter time, which leaves time for gardening. Although with the heat this week I was down at the garden everyday and taught all my classes and spent time with Kes and…

The world events have been taking up space in my mind as well and the night before last I did not sleep well. Last night I made up for it, sleeping almost 13 hours with a brief break to feed the cats wet food. I thought I had Covid when I woke up, I was so zonked but after getting up and moving around I think I was overextended.

So today is a quiet day. Chores and staying low key. And not listening to the news but instead the rhythm section wafting up from the river while everybody else here appears to be gone for the holiday.