daily life

Touring the Facility and Picking Up Slack


On training weekends yoga absorbs me utterly. This last weekend proved less difficult than the first when I was certain I had a mouth too full to chew or swallow. I held my own. I have yet to wuss out on a practice ( and yes, I know how un-yoga that sounds) and I earned a couple of nods from the instructor. I found earth and grounded.

But it’s intense and in that way of things when everyone around you is just as keen, clever and chasing it down. By Sunday evening I’d flexed, extended, contracted and expanded every inch of myself. I near aced the Sunday quiz, acquired a wicked looking bruise which tattooed my right kneecap and I was dreaming about yoga poses in Sanskrit. Sanskrit. As if my dreams needed to be kicked up a notch.

And what was happening on the home front while I was away for nine-hour days? Rob was happening. He happened all over the place. The kitchen and dining room were cleaned. Laundry? Done, folded and put away. He had a fresh tea waiting for me every evening when he and Dee picked me up and supper? Home cooked and ready as soon as we got home.

In the old days, I would have wondered what I had done to deserve him, but I have come around to the idea that we are not rewarded or denied by the powers that be. This is simply life as Rob and I have jointly agreed to live it. According to Ariel Gore, only 30% of happiness in life is circumstantial – which is where you live, socio-economic level, married/single etc., and anywhere from 20 to 40% of happiness is based on choosing it.

I know I have talked about choosing before. No need to repeat myself.

The last discussion of the day on Sunday came round to karma. Karma is not about reward and punishment. There is no payback, good or ill. The idea is more about consciousness of action and taking care not to imprint “karma” or your “soul” in a manner that will affect it negatively now, in the near future or another life. Fascinating.

What’s the latter have to do with the former. Absolutely nothing – probably. Have a great day:)

It’s Friday. Here’s Your Update.


Since I have been posting updates the last few weeks, I decided to again, but mainly because I am a little wrung out creatively speaking. I have written about four pieces over at 50 something Moms and adding pages to the memoir plus written the Christmas letter, a snarky little ditty that says nothing people who truly know us don’t already know and yet manages to remind others they could be keeping in better touch if they tried harder.

I am swamped with “to do’s” and find this amazing because I wasn’t this busy when I was gainfully employed. I have the Strathcona Writers website to try and log on to and update (not to mention create a blog and a Facebook group for) and the Fort writing group anthology is just taking off and is much more work than any of us thought it would be. And isn’t that usually the case?

My brother has been in touch several times this week too. There are things to worry about but not in print. Suffice to say, he is a long way from okay, but not in any danger that anyone in the family is aware of at this point.

Yesterday was my birthday. BabyD gave me a book called The Art of Column Writing that a writing friend and fellow blogger recommended. She is one who thinks I have the makings of a good columnist, one of my goals in the first quarter of the new year.

Yes, my year is now divided into frames of time as though I were a corporation. I am getting ready to map out the coming weeks and even meeting with someone at the bank on Monday to set up a “business account” because even though I have no inflow, I have expenses and, I think, a good business woman keeps those things separate from the household accounts for tax purposes – right?

Like a business card. I have gotten it into my head I need one. Now I just have to figure out what it should look like and say.

Rob gave me a digital voice recorder for my birthday. Instead of stopping in my tracks to pull out my notebook and a  pen (provided I can find them in my stuffed little purse – there is something else I need to “update”), I can whip out my recorder (yeah, definitely gonna need a new purse) and talk to myself. That will provide the locals something to give me “the look” about.

I got “the look” today from the spin instructor at the gym while I was snapping photos of the equipment for a piece I am going to write for 50something Moms.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking pictures for a column I am writing for a blog.”

And then comes the look. The one reserved for those of us who are a little bit off.

Tonight the Christmas Train is stopping here in Jo’berg. Country singers, sleigh rides and a bonfire with eats.

Later tonight the temps plummet and the weekend highs will be in the minus 20 c and colder range with minus 31c by Monday morning. Not cold enough for BabyD to need to be driven to school. Buses will run until minus 40. School, by the way, is never called off. Canadians are incredibly sensible about travel and road conditions. If they feel the roads are too bad to drive, they simply don’t. They don’t go to work. They don’t take their kids to school. There don’t seem to be repercussions for this because everyone from high up to lowest on the pole are of the same mind on the matter.

I am taking the elevation of my age by another year in stride. A thorough assessment reveals that I am not too fat, the skin under my chin is soft but not waddly and the white in my hair can still be camouflaged with minimal intervention. I do have crows feet. I am wearing progressive lens. But overall I appear to be maintaining.

Snow


Not feet or meters of it, but it’s here and the ever colder temperatures mean it’s staying. I think it was closing in on May before the ground was free of it this last year.

I love what passes for summer here. The near eternal daylight when the sun is up in the middle of the night and doesn’t set until well after eleven pm, and the yellow of the canola fields which nearly surround our hamlet. But the price is a winter with the staying power of the Energizer bunny.

I am too old to need a white Christmas. The magic doesn’t work for me. In fact having a child is what killed Christmas and white powder won’t bring it back.

I am not an enthusiast of winter sports though I toyed with the idea of cross country skiing before we were tempted into the Texas relocation which ended up not happening. So skis were never purchased and the hockey skates that took their place are lovely but we have an indoor rink just across the street and not enough yard for a rink of our own.

So I don’t need snow for the holiday or for fitness and I find it an annoyance that grows as I age as far as vehicles and driving are concerned. Little can tempt me into driving when ice or even just snow pack covers the road. I do it grudgingly and only because I don’t want my family to starve or my bum to grow too large from lack of going to the gym.

I am a Canadian now. I will man up and endure as all good Canucks do. But I reserve the right to whine a tiny bit between now and early May.