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.
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