Blue-Footed Musings

Today I am happy because Marshall’s birthday gifts all arrived on time. Yay!

I still feel a little bad, though, because his gifts are so paltry compared to Livia’s last birthday gift. She got a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. It was a big, expensive gift that was fun for the whole family.

I remember that trip to GWL very clearly. COVID-19 had only just (as far as anyone knew) landed on American shores. The virus was so new that it didn’t have a name yet. It was referred to simply as the “novel coronavirus.” I remember saying to my husband, “I’m glad we’re here now, because in a couple of weeks it won’t be safe to travel.”

Little did I know. It might already have been unsafe to travel in the Boston area, one of the early hot spots. Not long after, we went to a fencing tournament. We got sick afterward. Nothing big, just something that made us feel run-down. Later we wondered, “Could it have been the coronavirus?”

Probably not, but we’ll never know. And because we have no immunity that we know of, we’re not going to travel for a long, long time. It’s sad, because there’s nothing Marshall wants more right now than a summer vacation. I promised him that we’ll take a vacation as soon as things get better, no matter what time of year it is. But it’s just a promise, and no matter how much we mean to keep our promises, sometimes we can’t. There are no guarantees.

But I am happy today, because Marshall will have a cake with candles on it for his birthday. We will sing to him. He will have presents to open. And he will, we hope, have a happy birthday.

• Sundays are usually waffle days, but this Sunday also happened to be Father’s Day, so I cooked pancakes (again!) so that my hubby didn’t have to make waffles.
• I called my dad to wish him a happy day. He was in an unusually chatty mood and we had a nice long talk.
• It was so hot outside that I didn’t finish my walk.
• I figured out how to make my old MIDI cable work with my current computer. Now I can play on my music keyboard and the notes magically write themselves into notation on my computer. Ta-da! But my office is a mess because I had to move some things to make room for the keyboard. Two steps forward, one step back.

My daily walks do sometimes feel boring and repetitive, but I’ve adapted and found some extra benefits to them. Just by being outside I see things that I otherwise wouldn’t notice. I only noticed the pollen swirling in the puddles last week because I was out walking. During another walk, I saw a bird hunt an insect down and then fly away with its kill. I’ve found strange new plants growing in my yard and along the edges of the driveway. And there’s something to be said for letting your mind wander, as it will do when you’re walking and you don’t see anything that grabs your attention. So, between noticing and wandering, my brain seems to be getting good exercise, too.

A mile’s walk every day was good, but I’ve worked my way up to 1.25 miles per day (8 laps in the afternoon, 12 in the evening). My husband, surprised to see me out walking every evening, commented that I was “serious about this walking thing.” And I am. Very serious. I have enough problems right now. I don’t need to add fat and lazy to the list.

I have spent a lot of time lately cleaning my office. I folded all the laundry that had accumulated on the daybed, cleaned and reorganized the top of my desk, and dusted and rearranged the books on my shelves. While there is a lot more decluttering to be done on a deeper level (desk drawers, closet, etc.), the room at least looks tidy now and is comfortable to work in again. Finally!