Veering from the course

I've just competed my last planned set of exercises.  Now it will be "catch as catch can" - and I'm a rotten catcher - for the next month, until I check in with the Sebastopol advisors.
I wonder if non-compliance will make any difference.

But for the record, here is my scar as of the 18 week mark. I WILL continue to "keep it moist" as everyone advises.

Gobble Gobble!

Virtue continues

I am proud to report that I have been completing my designated exercises each day even as I pack simultaneously for four destinations:
- 3 months in sunny 70s Sarasota - packing the car before leaving on Thursday for
- 4 days in rainy 40s London - with meetings and social events planned, followed by
- 2 days days in chilly 30s Stockholm - with research interviews, then
- 9 days in freezing Gothenburg - with research, seminars, meetings and co-hosting an open house with "glögg, saffranspannkaka, & American egg nog"

That's assuming that the right outfits for the particular temperatures go into the designated bags - if I end up hosting a holiday party in Gothenburg in shorts I will no long appear virtuous!

The difference between laziness and virtue

Is doing my exercises!  The last couple of days I've been very busy and didn't manage to do my daily allotment.  Today I started early and completed the whole set - both odd and even days.  Afterwards I felt sooooo virtuous!

Further progress

On projects other than me.

First our landscaping project.  The driveway paving is almost complete.

Though there's clearly lots more work to be done.

Then the EdX Science of Cooking MOOC.

We'd fallen behind on lab experiments waiting for a fancy fast digital thermometer to arrive, so today we completed two experiments in time for our evening meal.  First heat transfer in steamed molten chocolate cakes - Jack has already measured the temperature and now is measuring the crust.

Then viscosity of sauce for macaroni and cheese.  Four conditions to test by leaving one of the ingredients out of the sauce: butter, flour, milk and cheese, then making the control sauce with all four.  In each case pour the sauce into a glass filled with cooked macaroni and time how long it takes the sauce to trickle down to the bottom.  We had good results here, then made some more of the "control" sauce and had excellent macaroni and cheese for supper!

We followed it with whole (dry baked)  chocolate cupcakes, served with vanilla ice cream.

Delicious, but dinner preparations took a long time and made a lot of dirty dishes!

So much like normal

... that I forget to write my blog post!

Thinking forward

I'm about to enter one of my phases of no more than two weeks in the same bed ...  gathering stuff together for the first phase: heading for London on Thanksgiving night, 4 nights there, 2 in Stockholm, 9 in Gothenburg, back to Stonington. Meanwhile Jack returns to US from London then heads south, taking the car train to Florida and returning by air.  

So I'm gathering stuff that goes by car to FL and will pack the car next week, plus stuff for Europe.  It will be low 40s - and rain - London and low 30s - and "wintery mix" in Sweden. I shall think of Jack sampling low 70s and sunny in Sarasota!

I'll leave planning for Christmas in Sebastopol and New Year in Laguna Beach (both California) until after I'm back from Europe. Then there will be less than 2 weeks to prepare and to pack up the house.  Good job I've forgotten about my injury (except when I do my exercises!)

Progress for the week

And NOT about my Achilles for a welcome change!

Our landscaping project is finally showing some signs of order.  At the beginning  of the week the area in front of the garage and the west side were both piles of dirt and rocks ...

Then every day Rich and Damon arrived with a truck of something - rocks, fill, gravel, and so on. Most of it went into the excavated area in front of the garage.

The area filled slowly - after each addition the dirt was tamped down, then more added. By the end of the week the east side retaining wall and the drainage pipes were in place, and a smaller, bright blue tractor-like machine replaced the yellow "steam shovel".

Next week there's still more leveling to be done

Then maybe the remaining pallets of stones will start to be placed in the drive and extra parking area.

Now, isn't that much more interesting ;-?

What's normal?

A day when I do my exercises, like today - or a day when I don't do them, like yesterday?

I'm confused!

What's new?

Normal

Today I have NOT done any exercises. Not one foot pump or toe curl, or anything else for the even day schedule.  I went to the store and parked in a regular spot. I climbed onto the kitchen counter to reach  objects from the top cupboards, and negotiated my way down again.  I tried on various shoes to take on my upcoming European jaunt.  Et cetera, et cetera.

And I didn't think twice about doing (or not) any of them.  Now THAT's normal!

But ... I mustn't get complacent. My special exercises are still necessary, and my ongoing aerobic and general strengthening are essential for well-being.  That said, I need to practice "normality" on a regular basis.

Of course, "normal" can have many definitions and apply to many different functions ....

THE event of 11-12-13

It snowed!

NOT dust on my camera lens!

No, Jack isn't waiting to shovel snow, he's helping the landscape guys spread stone on the mailbox area -- Jack is self-appointed "Mailbox Manager'!

Resolution

Today is the 16 week mark and I have decided not to think /blog about my achilles -- except when there is something of universal interest to share.  I have hidden my disabled parking sticker, and have made my exercises part of my daily routine, so there is no reason for me to dream up interesting tidbits to share with my faithful followers (if there are still any out there).  This is a milestone.

Blog posts MAY now be "interesting" in a different way.  Today I will share progress on our landscaping project.

The grass planted earlier this autumn is about to get its second cutting. I haven't seen grass this green in a long while.

The "stone separation" between the west side and the phragmites looks like a dike  -- and perhaps it will like like one!  The area on the "dry" side will be filled in - using some of the driveway gravel, then topsoil.

After this ... well, that will be the subject of another post.

And, BTW, after I climbed into the backhoe cab for my FB photo I have been a topic of amusement among the landscaping crew. Even the boss heard about it - and responded by saying they better make sure to remove the keys at night for fear that I would practice driving!

Reflection on stamina and strength

Yesterday was unusual because I did my PT leg strengthening exercises before my aerobic exercise on the cross-country ski machine, and not afterwards as I usually do.  I had a hard time skiing for 10 minutes (usually 20, soon to be 30).  Today I returned to my previous exercise order, and had no difficult with the aerobics.

Clearly my stamina and strength are not what they should be.

This revelation brought me back to earth after my euphoria at being able to jog (from the house to the mailbox). And concluded with two resolutions:
1. I definitely need to continue my PT exercises, even if they seem a little futile at times.
2. Come January, daily long (2-3 mile)walks on the sand of Siesta Key Crescent Beach will be a good way to increase stamina.

Another milestone!

I can jog!

On my way to the car to g o to see Tosca at the New York Metropolitan Opera ......

in live HD simulcast at the North Stonington movie theater!
The opera was fantastic!  It was very strange not to applaud and give a standing ovation at the end.

No ... and yes

No, I did not swear at NewMacAir today - though I came close at times.

And, yes, I did my even-day exercises.

Thursday travails

After my post yesterday evening, I decided my data transfer was not going anywhere, so turned off both computers.  First thing this morning I headed for Best Buy (parking in a Disabled spot, of course)

 and returned with a Thunderbolt to ethernet connector - something that yesterday's Apple support person assured me would enable the data transfer.

But .... I still had the horizontal bar with blue and white moving diagonals and neither error message nor word as to how long transfer would take.  After a few minutes I picked up the phone again .... and after an hour of diagnostics talk and  "Max" looking at the innards of both computers, I plugged in my Timeshare backup.  That worked!  and 97 minutes later, I had all my data transferred. ... See Facebook post!

The root cause ... probably Migration Assistant on my MacPro. But no definite word.  Only I seem to want to know!

Then of course more frustrations as I learn to navigate the trackpad and manipulate "Magic Mouse".  But nothing compared with the past couple of days.

HOWEVER, I have to confess that I did not complete a full set of "odd day" exercises today.  So, I'll add an up-to-date picture of my scar to remind myself that I am not yet fully recovered and better get back to the exercise mat tomorrow!

And so to shut down for the night!

Still

going ....

(After an e-chat with an Apple support person, I plan to try a different tactic tomorrow)

And still doing my (even day) exercises.

Productivity

First order of business, set up my new computer,  At least the "instruction manual" wasn't very long and had lots of pictures.  But the message, "it's easy to transfer data from your previous compute - just follow the instructions on the screen" baffled me.  My new MacAir could "see" my MacPro, but not the other way round.  After numerous tries I called the 800 number. "Skarlett" suggested a number of workarounds, such as,  "connect the machines with an ethernet cable." I had to inform her there was no ethernet port on the MacAir, and I didn't have a USB to ethernet connector.  Other help was consulted several times.  No success.  Finally, the supervisor said what to do -- continue on the MacAir and in fact the MacPro WAS responding - it just said otherwise!  So, at least an hour later I was in business, ready to start transferring data.....

Meanwhile, Jack cleaned all the carpets,

the landscapers started to build the rock formation to hold back the phragmities.

and, to show that I AM making progress, here's my right foot "heel lift" - or relevé. (Mary, this is for you ;-)

But that's not all, my data is still transferring!

A busy day to mark week 15.

First an 8 AM Skype with Ulla, who is currently in Portugal.  Bad connection in her apartment, so she headed for a cafe - then she couldn't hear me!  We conducted our business via Skype chat - not the best way to discuss edits to a paper!  The paper had been accepted for publication when the editor realized it was too long for the journal requirements and needed to be cut by half! Yes, half (20 pages to 10). If you've ever had to do such a task you will know how difficult it is - major, or rather, several major sections had to be deleted -- "Goodbye, my darlings!" But the job was finished, the paper meets the standard of 30,000 characters, including spaces, and it's GONE!

Then the landscaping crew from Burnett's arrived to reconfigure the west side of the house. They'll be here several days.

FedEx delivered my new computer!  The "Hello" booklet said that as soon as I turned it on, the new computer would start transferring data from my old one.  It sounded as if I would have no say in the matter, so I decided to wait till tomorrow morning - I'm superstitious about attempting complex tasks later in the day.

And if all that was not enough, this afternoon we rented a rug cleaner for our annual (well, sometimes biannual) task of cleaning the carpets and upholstered furniture.

Here's what I found in the couch in the "waiting room" - a 5p piece and one sock.  Does anyone claim them?

Tomorrow looks as if it will be another busy day.

I almost forgot - I also did my even day exercises!

Report on nothingness

After the lights went out on Halloween, the Point has descended into an erie quiet: No children or dogs about, no sounds of yard work .... nothing.

Morning high tide

Afternoon low tide

Maybe everyone is like the residents of 15 Charles - busy doing the Science of Cooking lab on the elasticity of bread and toast (results still to be calculated) .....



And yes, I've been doing my exercises: Nov 1-check; Nov 2-check; Nov 3-check.

The next challenge ...

is to implement a workable exercise program.  Now I no longer have PT three times a week to keep me motivated I need to set out a pan for myself.

Before my last PT session I made a spreadsheet with all the exercises I can do at home and went over them with Tracy to check the number of repetitions and which ones could be eliminated (just one ;-(.  I have them marked with ones to do every day, those to do on odd days and those for even days.

Now I've confided in all my faithful followers (just who I you are I don't know!) I must keep my commitment through November.  December will be catch-as-catch-can because I will be in UK and Sweden for part of the month.  Come Christmas I will check in with Mary and adjust my program.

Sounds like a plan?  But - first problem - Oct 31 and Nov 1 are two consecutive odd days!  So, is today a holiday?  Or double duty?