Climate Change Chic in Everyday Ramblings

Yesterday we picked a part of town we both don’t know that well to walk in although Most Honorable grew up near here. It rained but not too hard but still Mrs. Sherlock and Frida and me, we get bonus points for walking 5 ½ miles in the rain.

We were all kind of “are we there yet?” by the end though.

I was listening to the “Happier in Hollywood” podcast eating lunch in my kitchen on a break home from the office on Wednesday and they mention that their “Hollywood Hack” of the week is to have a pair of rain pants. I burst out laughing because I was wearing my rain pants.

They said you may only need them once every two years on set but when you need them they make all the difference in the world. I laughed at that too. We are pretty casual in the office these days, unless people have meetings, and I am wearing my rain pants, oh, say, every other day.

Anyway, that walk yesterday was only possible because we both had our rain pants on and our cell phones in plastic bags in our pockets.

Mrs. Sherlock had 29 people show up for her surprise Christmas decoration hike through downtown but it turned into a nightmare for her because one of the guys fell and hit his head and was not cooperative in any way. He has dementia and apparently this is a respite for his wife who sends him on these hikes to get a break.

He was okay but it fractured the group and made things more difficult all around. She is learning all sorts of things about being a hike leader. These trail club urban hikes are kind of like cub scouts for older folks. :)

One of which is…when you have 29 people, (particularly when some people are in their 80’s) getting them all across busy streets in one group at one time is not possible. Too many crosswalks she said.

This aging thing…it is learn by doing. Mrs. Sherlock is also a member of another group where the folks are a bit more fit and she is planning a retreat with hikes in Eastern Oregon in the spring with them. She was telling me about her struggle to learn how to use a spreadsheet and make flyers for the organization part of this volunteer effort.

We talked a lot about politics and more about her recent trip to Japan, which she just loved and more about politics and yoga (which she missed because of the guy’s fall) and her work in developing a spiritual life at this late stage. We are such a pair, the unabashed extrovert and the determined introvert.

And we talked, as we always do, about whom we admire and why.

There were parts of our walk that were totally unfamiliar to me but she had sort of been there before with one of her groups so it is also about trust and figuring things out. One of the things we often need to figure out is where there are restrooms. She tells me there is now an app for that!

I am so lucky to have her as my walking companion and I know it grounds her and gives her an anchor when she travels so much. She has this routine she can easily plug into.

Only three more weeks until the solstice!!! The dark has been so dark this year. A super abundance of dark here.

This next week I am teaching arthritis prevention in the hips (or secondary prevention for those that already have it) so I need to get going on my prep there and I have chores galore as I will be in a workshop all next weekend.

Most of this I will be doing with my rain pants on.

Last updated December 03, 2017