Day 137: Running

Posted on 07/28/2020 by chick

Marshall talked me into running a few laps today during my walk. He said he was my coach, so what choice did I have? My knees didn’t like having a coach. They preferred their own creaky pace. But, Marshall ran with me and he found that he liked running. He said he’s going to run a couple of laps every day from now on.

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Day 136: Picture Procrastination

Posted on 07/27/2020 by chick

I have taken hundreds of pictures of plants and animals in my yard over the last few months. I haven’t felt like sorting through them or writing about them, so I’ve been putting those tasks off. But, I keep taking pictures, and the more pictures there are, the harder it is to deal with them, so I really need to catch up soon. If too much time goes by, they won’t seem relevant to me anymore, and I’ll never do anything with them. That would be a shame. So, this post is a reminder to myself to work on the pictures ASAP.

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Day 135: Laziness and Dragonflies

Posted on 07/26/2020 by chick

Today I finally changed the page of my desk calendar. Here in my office it had been June for quite some time. Meanwhile, July flew by. I should have realized sooner. Nature has been warning me to pay attention to the season. She’s given evidence that summer is getting on in age.

Exhibit A: The goldenrod has started to bloom.
Exhibit B: The dragonflies have become abundant and lazy.

I’m only going to get a few day’s use out of my new calendar page, but luckily for us, the school year doesn’t start until the end of August. That means we have another whole month for lazing around with the dragonflies. There’s still a lot of summer left to enjoy.

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Day 134: Happy Tailors

Posted on 07/25/2020 by chick

In the NYT today there was an article about tailors in the City and how happy they are. There’s an abundance of work for them these days. That’s because people gained weight during lockdown and need their clothes altered now. The weight gain is being called the “Quarantine Fifteen.” See, so I really was lucky to have only gotten the “Covid 5!“

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Day 133: Unexpected Mail

Posted on 07/24/2020 by chick

Today I got something in the mail from my boss. I wasn’t expecting anything from her, so I had no idea what was in the envelope. It turned out to be a card for my 25th work anniversary. Surprise! I had forgotten that my anniversary was this month. I would almost have preferred not to be reminded of my age and inertia, except that it was a kind and generous gift, and I am grateful. So Happy 25th Anniversary to me. But just for today. Tomorrow let’s go back to not thinking about how old I am and how long I’ve been working at the same place.

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Day 132: Much Better

Posted on 07/23/2020 by chick

My husband had been threatening to cut Marshall’s hair for months. I was beginning to think he’d never actually do it. But then yesterday he put the kid on a chair outside and attacked the kid’s hair with his electric clippers. It was a little scary to watch, but now Marshall’s hair is short again, and it looks so much better.

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Day 130: Still Hot

Posted on 07/21/2020 by chick

OMG, it’s still so hot and it sucks to be outside, and the air conditioner whines at night as everyone in the state fights for electricity.

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Time to Go to Bed

Posted on 07/20/2020 by chick

When you see the phrase “respiratory therapist” and read it as “conspiracy theorist,” it’s time to go to bed.

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Day 129: Extra Hot

Posted on 07/20/2020 by chick

The last few days have been brutally hot. I didn’t even finish yesterday’s walk and only barely finished today’s. I hope this heat wave will end soon so that we can spend more time outside. We all need to get out more!

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Day 128: Surprise!

Posted on 07/19/2020 by chick

When the pandemic first started, I found websites of a lot of independent bookstores that offered surprise books and/or book subscriptions. I was temped by every single one. But I wasn’t ready to commit, especially because some of them were a mite pricey, even given my pandemic spending madness, even knowing how expensive books are at real (read: not Amazon) bookstores.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across yet another, Honest Dog Books of Bayfield, WI. I liked the store name and the story behind how the owner bought the place (you can read about it here). For $9 the owner offers to pick out a used book for you based on the last three books you loved. I felt like a surprise book might be just the thing to perk me up, so I ordered one plus a book of poetry.

Today my books arrived. Here you can see my surprise book in its packaging.

Surprise Book

And here is a picture of my two new books, unwrapped.

Overture by Yael Goldstein and American Journal Fifty Poems for Our Time selected and introduced by Tracy K. Smith

Overture sounds interesting, and it’s something I probably wouldn’t have found on my own, so I’m thinking it was a good choice. And Fifty Poems for Our Time, which I chose for myself but which I had only heard of through Honest Dog Books, seems like a solid choice. That is, I trust Tracy K. Smith not to steer me wrong, or at least not to steer me wrong 50 times 😉 . I am looking forward to reading both books, though it may be a while before I get to them, because I currently have my nose sandwiched between the pages of a Barbara Michaels novel.

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