It Seems Like a Lot in Everyday Ramblings

I think this was Tuesday morning on the path heading up from the track bathed in cool clear fall light. I was determined to get out and about just after my morning class so that I could get my exercise for the day in one package early that would then free me up to sit in a chair working on League stuff most of the rest of the day.

When I try to intersperse exercise throughout the day, I end up not hitting my 5 mile target some days until 4 PM and it takes longer than if I just get out the door and get moving. It is a good day when I get that in early.

Of course, most days that isn’t possible. Things on the schedule, appointments, meetings, etc. I am going to revaluate in five years and do what I call my second stage retirement. Let go of a regular teaching schedule and drop off my nonprofit boards. I want to focus on writing and reading and most definitely drift a bit.

It is such a fine balance. If I drift too much, I get sad. If I don’t drift enough, I get overwhelmed.

I am sitting squarely in the overwhelmed camp right now. I have this reconciliation I need to finish before a board meeting on Monday after class. I need to get the tulip bulbs in before the steady rains set in. I have a meeting tomorrow morning to prep for. Yes, on Sunday morning, it is a reschedule.

I need to vote; my ballot came yesterday. We are a 100% vote by mail state.

At our dialogue coffee group on Thursday, we went over the ballot initiatives and talked some about the candidates. It was a useful conversation, but I needed to be ever so clear I wasn’t representing the League but expressing my own opinions and that this was an informal event. I got into a thoughtful exchange about two of our leading Mayoral candidates.

When I got home, the guy I had interacted with put together a packet of the resources I had shared and sent them to his neighbor group. To me this is how democracy works. We talk to each other. We hash things out. We get clear about what matters to us. And we hope for the best.

Mrs. Sherlock hurt her foot this last week and has a bit of a limp. She wasn’t able to go for a walk this morning, so she offered to meet for a warm drink. I wanted to get some straw to mulch my garden after I clear out the annuals and put in the tulip bulbs and so we found a coffee shop (with parking) near the hip garden center I am so fond of and went there and caught up. And then I got the straw.

We learned a lot about mulching so that was good. And it was good to spend time with her.

I am having my next implant surgery next Friday. I have a lot to do between now and then.

It’s been colder and wet, and I hope at least some of the week is a little more temperate. I have been getting ready for winter, new rubber tips for my trek poles, new ice grippers for my shoes that sort of thing. I admit though that the change in the weather is making me a bit sad.

Not depressed or anything, but sad. There is a reason the day of the dead is this time of year. And there is anxiety about the election. And all the international news. It seems like a lot.

I did get down to the garden this morning. It continues producing little surprises. Seeds I tried months ago popping up so late in the season. A little purple wildflower from last year. The heady aroma still of fresh basil from Betty my basil plant. Nasturtiums from three years ago, hello.

Oh well, it is all good. Even when it is hard it is good. And there is a world of things to do.