Diego and Boy Push Up Position in Everyday Ramblings

I think this was this morning, when we had a little sun break between the rain squalls that make everything so luscious and green here. Diego hanging out near me in the bedroom while I work. Lately he has been jumping up on my lap about twenty times a day. It is an excellent way to get my attention (and a little love but Mr. Personality here would never admit that). I recently took my first ever shower with them here with the door open a little. It was a non event.

This is a good thing.

So it turns out that the mystery shrub that I posted about ten days ago is what is called a “Nikko”, deutzia gracilis and it is in the hydrangea family. It is the same family and order classification as what we call the “Mock Orange”here, aka the “Orange Blossom” bush. Excellent job guys! (This isn’t an email so I am using exclamation points if I want to, darn it.)

Yesterday Kes came around the corner onto the street where this plant is and there were three men, the owner of the house, a head gardener at a local restored mansion and Kes’s neighbor from across the way. They had a plant identification book out and were discussing what it could be and decided on this.

Today when I was out on the track in the squalls one of the Tuesday coaches was standing under a tree wearing a jacket with the logo of the elite running club that uses the track later in the day on Tuesdays and is always running around the track fast in the slow lanes going the wrong direction in bunches and chatting away as if they owned the world, (which they probably do).

I asked him in a good-natured way (as I trotted by) why they did that.

He is a very nice guy and he said it is because he is their coach and he tells them to and it has to do with trying to even out the wear and tear on their knees as they go around curves. He said a lot of them are former collegiate track athletes and that some of them run up to 90 miles per week and it matters at that level.

I get that. He also said without prompting that they have been told to be mindful of other people using the track.

My own theory about that is… if one owns the world… why bother?

But still I was glad I asked. I’ll be walking through those runners tonight as I head up to teach and will be more understanding and a little less annoyed. Always a useful thing.

Now that I finished my stair climbing challenge I am now doing a month long plank challenge. It is the same deal, only 4 and ½ minutes total. Plank is the boy push up position. You do various things, balance on one arm and the sides of your feet, what we call side plank, do them on your forearms… it builds upper body strength, helps with coordination and best of all develops the strong stabilizing muscles of the core, our midsections.

I am going to keep doing the stairs a few times a week just so I don’t lose the aerobic gain but I must say I am really happy with the results.

Last updated May 05, 2015