A set of conflicting circumstances existed for me last quarter. On one side, I promised a dear friend that I would be her workout partner, from over 1500 miles away. She would text when she awoke in the wee hours of the morning, before she had to wake her children, and two time zones away, I would drag my lazy self out of bed and we would do yoga and a couch-to-five-k program together. At the same time, a time bomb in my abdomen went off a couple decades early, and a disease common in the older members of my family decided it was time to lay me low, throw me in an ambulance, give me a few nights sharing a hospital room with an unpleasant roommate, and encourage me to wallow in freakish misery on the couch for months at a time. As one might expect, these circumstances don't play nice together, and the painkillers and antibiotics and limping around like an old lady won out over C25k. But now the abdominal evil has been vanquished, at least temporarily, although part of the peace negotiation requires an imminent elimination diet. Today, I finally got to be C's workout partner again. It is still cold as hell, relatively speaking for the South, so I wore a hoodie over a sweatshirt, and still kept my hands tucked in my sleeves. I took it easy and only walked the main anchor-shaped route, no cul-de-sacs to add distance. Start to finish it was just over half an hour, but I did it. I'll do it again tomorrow, and the day after that. Maybe by next week, I'll add in the 30 second bursts of jogging that c25k requires, or I may try to rebuild the core strength that vanished since last Christmas, and do yoga. It is comforting, finally being able to plan it again after months of hell.
While I was walking, I did what I always do, and compared the neighborhood lawns and gardens to my Park. It is early yet in the season, but there were very few who were as devoted to adding color-lots of colors-as I. I admit, my early season advantage stems from a string of mild winters so my annuals from last year never died all the way, thus I have mounds of white and pink and purple all across the front. The man thought he would be gone before his daffodils and tulips bloomed, but he was delayed and they have come and gone already. He won't be here much longer. He surprised me yesterday, while I was at Target, with word that we were having an impromptu garden party last night, possibly our only chance with the Bonfire crowd, before he leaves. I had only gone in to the store to buy water after a massage. $130 worth of food, deck pillows, and various impulse buys later, I made it home to set up and entertain. I hope I can convince that group to come here sometimes while he's gone, even though my tiki torches are a sad substitute for Bonfire. My little Park is covenant-controlled, so I do what I can.
I see to very specific felines over in the left of one of those picture. Sneaky sneaky.
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