Sweet Indeed in Everyday Ramblings

From this morning. One of the 31 Coraline themed painted cats in our central downtown area. This one is called Descent and is on the Portland State campus.

I walked by there after a trip in the omnipresent mist to the alternative grocery store. Super heavy security in this store. Higher prices. Oh well. The strike at “my” store is slated to end tomorrow morning. It is going to take them some time to get stocked back up. Everybody I know has been honoring the strike.

Yesterday I had planned to go to this store, but Mrs. Sherlock said she was going to stop by (after breakfast out with a friend), with the big Costco package of Kleenex she got for me on her last trip and keeps forgetting to bring over. When it got to be close to noon I texted to see when she might be coming, and she responded saying that part of a neighbor’s tree had fallen into her yard, and they were out with the chainsaw they got last time this happened.

Our trees are super stressed with the change in climate. There are branches down all over the place.

Later in the day I got another text from her saying that she had tested positive for Covid. Eek. We were only inside together on Saturday for maybe 5 minutes, but I was handling the dog quite a bit and her leash and I am sure I touched my face. This is the second round of Covid for Mrs. Sherlock and so far, Mr. Sherlock is not showing symptoms.

I’ll be wearing a mask everywhere I go in public without fail for the next week and I will skip coffee with the guys on Thursday. I am not risking being a carrier. And I am scheduling my next vaccine shot with the flu shot for next week or the week after.

Someone stole my prized heirloom tomato out of the community garden a few days back. There are more on the plant, and I hope to get at least one to eat before the season ends. I was, however, able to harvest my very first ever eggplant and I ate it yesterday with some eggs. It was yummy.

I am so happy with the garden this year. When I showed it to Mrs. Sherlock, she mentioned I should take over the neighboring plot, which is mostly neglected. I was like, you know, I am happy with my patch, my blueberry bush, all the things. There is no need to expand. I did order a bunch of tulip bulbs earlier in the summer at a discount and am still trying to figure out where to put them this fall when they arrive.

The footwear thing is still an issue for me. My bunion appears to be getting slightly worse and on Saturday I wore close toed shoes for our 3 mile or so walk and came home with a blister. Sigh. As long as I do it in moderation, I am fine with bare feet at home. This morning with band aids and moleskin I was able to manage the 3-mile round trip to the grocery, but I need to solve this problem this fall.

Normally on Mondays I teach two classes. I am already disconcerted having not taught this morning, but in a good way. Last week I did a deep dive on lower back pain and how to help my students with that and had some pretty world-shaking revelations about the relationship with “bad” posture and back pain. Scientifically, there is no correlation. The kind of yoga I teach is called broadly, “Modern Postural Yoga”. The posture part is a big deal. We theoretically “do” postures, but alignment is a large part of it.

I was already heading in this direction in my teaching, but my students often tell me that they need to improve their posture. My thinking is that these movements are most likely going to help you feel better but not because your posture has improved. But because you are moving. Regularly.

This idea of good posture is so embedded as foundational in our culture that this new paradigm is going to be cognitively dissonant to most people. I shall tread lightly.

Today I will carry on with my course, “An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Yoga”. This is an academic course, not a practical one. The historical visuals are really cool. Maybe even poetry inspiring…

So even though it is gloomy and I don’t have as easy access to shopping as usual, this being on vacation thing is very very sweet indeed.