A Whole Stack of Slack

Two 2 weeks ago I posted (on another blog - yes - I've been known to commit blogultry) about not holding myself to too strict a standard, exercise wise.  I thought I'd be getting in some easy cardio exercise while easing myself into strength training again. I know I need to build more muscles and to tighten up some loose (also slack) abs and arms. What I did not count on was an attack of shingles and a hurricane that would keep me indoors and indolent. Fortunately it was a mild attack, caught early after I'd already had the vaccine, so I haven't had the oozing or nerve pain that so many people have suffered. But that didn't mean I wasn't tired, cranky and on the prowl for ice cream.

To add insult to injury - this nice infectious disease struck on a 3 day weekend - I didn't even get to use sick leave - of which I have something like forty bazillion hours. Okay. That's a joke. I am glad I have had a relatively healthy life and thankful that my job has always insured that I would still be paid if I did get sick. Just - ya know. And I don't get that sick leave when I retire. There was some talk about it last year - that you could take up to X dollars of sick leave along with all your unused vacation. Well. I would rather be healthy this coming year than home on sick leave. We'll leave it at that.

There has been a little weight gain since the first of the month but I did not go through the kitchen like a pack-man ball, gobbling everything in my path. I am better now and after Wednesday of the coming week I will be Done With Deadlines - for a while. I can indulge in some gym time and maybe some interesting autumn meal planning. I have a yearning for pumpkin soup.

Well - you just can't help it if you get sick. My Dr. said it was probably stress related and the past 6 months have been nothing but stress. I'm working on releasing it - but my skill at that is only middlin' - my success - moderate.  Fortunately time passes anyway, including the Days Of Deadlines. 

What I have been successful at is to fit a week's vacation into October and am I ever looking forward to it. I should be completely shingleless by then so I can play with daughter in law, who will be home from her own vacation. BD and I might take a little ramble into the mountains. I've signed up for a class in tatting lace. It is all good - and it's coming the week after next.

So a bit about the title of this blog. We have all used the phrase "cut myself some slack" or "Cut somebody some slack" before and if you're like me you probably thought it was an old sailing term that had to do with a loose rope - slack lines - and maybe "cut" in that phrase means to "let out" some loose rope or hold on to some loose rope. Certainly it means don't put people, including yourself, on too tight a leash.

But - have you ever heard the term cut used to mean that?

Me neither.

So a little google play brought up the possibility that it came from barrel makers - coopers - because they built two kinds of barrels. Taut ones that could hold water and slack ones that could hold dry goods. So when they cut the staves from which the barrels were made, the less precise ones could be for slack barrels - whence the term "cutting some slack" which could mean cutting shapes that didn't have to be so perfect.

Well there you have it. The kind of blog post a librarian writes.

LEFT BRAIN:  With help from a wordy left brain, that is.

Life is a Roller Coaster

This has been a full week - with ups and downs and goods and bads.

The DOWNS AND BADS -

1. Daylight Savings Time - an anathema for a morning person like me  
2. Baby Puppy Callie's broken leg 
3. 4 of my library staff down with bronchitis/flu/pneumonia 
4. Tuesday night board of supervisors meeting - had to skip gym and stay out late   
5. Began to feel 'off' Thursday and didn't feel any better on Friday. Actually feeling low down by the afternoon.
6. As a result of all above - have not gotten in the exercise I normally do  

The UPS AND GOODS -

1. Baby Puppy Callie back on at least 3 of her feet again after surgery. 
2. 2 of my sick library staff were much better by end of week
3. BoS meeting didn't last too long and I had good news to share that brought big smiles. Just in time for the budget sessions which start in 2 weeks.   
4. Got 3 big tasks done at work - three things that had been nagging at me and making me feel guilty. DONE! Yes.  
5. Had the absolutely most awesome strength training workout Thursday morning ever. Actually did 2 sets of pushups much deeper than I've ever done before.  
6. Got to go home early on Friday and slept 11 straight hours  
7. Got to within 2 lbs of my goal weight and no longer have to pay for WW meetings.  

What a week! Still, it looks like the good outweighed the bad. And sometimes a week is just like that. Plans had to change and routines got disrupted and most important of all - I had to adjust and adapt. I do regret not getting in the exercise I normally do because I seriously love exercise. But I don't worship it. It is high on my priority list but not at the top. Balance is at the top. And today I do feel better so I'll get in some exercise and some housework - which, around here, in the land of guys and dogs and farm fields, tends to be very aerobic.

A week like this doesn't leave much time or opportunity for creativity but I hope to get in some Art and some Fiber tomorrow. And on Monday I go to the city and after a brief dr. apt. I get to visit my mama, have lunch with my sister and shop for myself. That's a triple whammy! What a roller coaster ride!

Callie wishes a happy, healthy weekend to you all.

Wrist Brace - who knew?

The brace is no hindrance to important dog petting

For months now I've been waking up with a terrible back ache. Before my first cup of coffee it'd be gone but those first few minutes of the day had been awful. In addition, the big tendon on the outside of my wrist began to ache. I use my hands a lot but I couldn't think of what I'd been doing that would cause these symptoms. It was a puzzle.

I slacked off on the knitting and even on the typing (whence the lack of blogging). I began looking at new mattresses and even - gasp - considered talking to my doctor! Finally the wrist hurt more than the back so I decided to wear a wrist brace - both day and night. And that's when it hit me. I tend to tuck my hands up beneath my chin when I'm asleep. All my joints are pretty floppy anyway so the poor wrists were being pressed one way and then the next and forced to hold those awkward positions for hours on end. I've been wearing the brace now for about 5 days and not only is the wrist decidedly better but hey - what the .....?

No more morning back ache. It went away the first morning - but I didn't notice it till yesterday. woo woo - who knew? Makes sense, of course, what with the wrist bone connected to the arm bone - and the arm nerves connected to the spinal column ... It was truly a duh! moment.

So. No knitting news - and no real news about much else. We're winding down the fiscal year at work - 6 more weeks - can you believe it! No. Neither can I. And in 4 weeks we have to have the whole summer reading program (this year expanded to include middle schoolers) ready to launch. And we're getting a new server and a rebuilt network - think Ka-Ching! as we shift from WindowsXP to whatever the new transmogrification of an OS will be - oh yes and there will be a mobile app for the catalog just in time to start thinking about a new circulation system .... It all boggles the mind. What's a poor girl to do - except plan a vacation, of course. which I shall begin doing now.

One thing that I have been up to the past month has been working out with the personal trainer at the local gym. I love that one-on-one experience with exercise and it really helps to have someone there to push you. Especially one who is your own age and prefaces every session with sincere urging for me to "tell me if it hurts". Happily, I am not of the no pain no gain school. I happen to know when what I'm doing is right for me and when it is wrong - and I do not like pain. What I do like is this tauter fitter shape I'm creating - and it is a surprise how quickly that occurs. What I do NOT like is the dietary slacking that seems so irresistibly inevitable. So. The philosophical question for this Monday is ...."Why do I slack off in one area the moment I begin paying increased attention to another?"  Is there some psychological gyroscope within that insists on keeping me Out Of Shape? Some belief that I come from the fat side of the family and by golly I am going to stay there? Hrm. Not true - so - must talk to my inner wild child. Where's my notebook......

Happy Monday to you all. 

April's Pick of My 12 for 12

Okeydokey (Yeah I know. I'm quaint)

It's a new month and time to pick another good habit to add to my daily routine. In January I added food tracking, with the goal of looking like Helen Miren on my 60th birthday too - well - maybe not in the bikini. Don't really like bikinis. Nor do I hope for the dangle-less neck skin, since I can't afford the surgery I'd need to have that jawline. But you get the picture. I'm aiming at my version of hot at 60.

So far I've done pretty well - clawing my way down to within 10 lbs of my old Weight Watcher's triumphant goal. There have been some ups too, sadly but at least I knew what caused them and several times, knowing how much I've already eaten in a day has proved to be the stop sign I needed to keep me from crashing into excess. Also - with the exception of one week when family duty really kiboshed my efforts, I've tracked everything I've eaten for 3 months.

February I knew I needed something different. February was a fractious cranky month. In February I chose to add prayer to my daily routine. I have my own highly personal way of praying. Well. I suppose everyone does. Mine combines meditation and searching with being open enough to see the value of what I get in answer to those prayers. I love it and it has certainly helped me as I navigated a tough winter. Now and then it's skimmed me over rough ground very lightly. It has been harder for me to squeeze my own special TheQueen type prayer into my days than I'd have thought it would be - I have not been as consistent as I'd like to have been - but for sure I have taken the time for this quiet introspective conversation with the divine a lot more frequently than I would have had I not decided to make the effort. And ... these are things I want to add to my life forever, so I have the next couple of decades to get better at it.

March, knowing things were only going to get tougher, I decided to go easy on myself and add only the habit of drinking enough water every day. Like prayer - I have not been quite as perfect as I'd have liked to be - but there has been progress. The big deal is weekends ... I really can forget to drink water on the weekends. So now when I make coffee in the morning, I fill a big 20 oz glass with water and leave it out on the kitchen counter. Two of those downed get me close to the goal.

And now it is April and though all the astrologers promise me the second half of the month will be much more fun - I still have to slog through the first two weeks. I shan't go into detail about this. Just know that right now is an inordinately demanding time for me. I am far more prone to wake up dreading the day and there's nothing I can do but slog my way forward. There is another side and I will get there. But I'm not putting any unnecessary pressure on my psyche, my spirit or my brain. What I will do is choose to add to my life something I know will help me both now, during these hard days, and later, when things slide into easypeasy land. For April I choose #2 on my original list.

2. Wear a pedometer and get those 10K steps
10K steps, 4 activity points, whatever you want to call it - the goal is to build into my life more movement - I move - but not enough.

I actually love activity and fitness and only drift away from it because it's easy to drift away from anything. I've also been pretty good about getting in some exercise each week. I'm going to make this month the one I totally concentrate on strengthening TheQueen and to start off right, I've scheduled a session with the personal trainer at my gym. 3:30 today. Can't wait!

So. I leave you with my Virgo Horoscope from Rick Levine: 


You can feel the winds of change blowing through your life, but you're not able to catch the right breeze just yet. It's as if the wind tries to pull you off course instead of pushing you toward your desired destination. However, trying to resist can wear you down quickly. Don't try to fight against the prevailing currents. Follow them until they settle down and then you'll be able to correct your course more easily. 

Ta now - may the new moon come quickly.

Swim a mile in my suit

Uh. Well - I will swim in my suit and you can swim in yours.

This fall I finally gave in to my reluctance to immerse myself in chlorinated water and took up swimming laps. Injuries and age have taken a toll on me over the last few years and the core muscles paid the highest price. My l'enfant doctor suggested swimming as a way to get the benefits of sit-ups without stressing neck and spine so I began in late August, wearing my oldest saddest swimsuit. No way was I putting the expensive fashion suit in chlorine.

It's been about 2 months now and I'm almost swimming a mile. My goal is to hit a mile before November and then work on speed. It would be nice if I could swim one mile in 30 minutes but I think to get there I will need some technique lessons. But 2 months has absolutely trashed the old sad suit. It was already pretty stretched out but now it's seriously faded. So - try living in the country and finding a swimsuit in a store - in October. Yeah. Right.

Happily, I found something wonderful (and half what I paid for my fancy schmancy fashion suit at the big city mall last summer) at Swim and Sweat (who thinks of these names? Ugh.) I was nervous about making an on-line purchase of such an intimate garment but they said they'd take it back for a 15% restocking fee. Fair enough for me. It came on Saturday and it fit perfectly. I'd swear they used my body as the sloper! I also popped for the suit saver chlorine rise - just a squirt in the water and the smell is gone!

I tried it out yesterday. So - what is it about good exercise clothes (togs, for A) that make you want to try even harder at your workouts? Man I was a swimmin' fool. Slept like a baby last night too.

So. I go back tomorrow - wonder if I can hit the 30 lap mark?