Archives for July 2019

I really don’t do well in the heat. I did start the day off with not getting quite enough sleep yet again and then getting up a little too late. I was all set to write directly after breakfast but – my husband showed up 40 minutes earlier than usual.

No Problem, I thought, that will leave me with some writing time later that morning.

Um, no.

Went walking/running:

And this is how I look when it’s really hot and my heart rate is at 179 (well, according to my Fitbit – didn’t feel that high):

On my way back I met my husband and we managed to miscommunicate yet again. Some drama ensued.

So no writing.

Took a shower, felt sorry for myself, helped to make lunch:

That tasted pretty well, though I don’t usually like eating tomatoes.

Then dishes and spinning while watching the Tour, teaching, more spinning, more teaching, some stretching for the knee, finally a little writing and early to bed.

Today there will be grocery shopping, teaching only two students and more of the same.

Two more days until summer break. I’m already making plans.

Only managed to get almost enough sleep. I did make breakfast early. Then all the usual morning things including talking with my husband and then the bakery for bread, the post office and the health food store.

Tried writing afterwards but couldn’t remember what I had wanted to write next.

There was lunch:

Zucchini blossoms again.

And some really German food, kohlrabi from the yard again. Also I will need to buy potatoes later today.

Then I did the dishes with the boy’s help, folded some laundry, hung up a new load, spun a bit while watching the Tour and taught all the students while melting in my studio.

Finally found a way to send emails from the teaching website address. I had tried numerous times over years and never got it to work.

Ate dinner with my husband. Skipped the knee exercises because it was too late already, went to bed. Started a new book, „Brittle Midnight“ by Helen Harper. I did like the first in the series but am not sure if I really want to read this one or not. It starts with a prologue, maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I should finish reading „Fractured Stars“ by Lindsay Buroker first. I’m about halfway through, really liked it until about a chapter ago but am stalling.

And I keep thinking that I should finally read „Map of Shadows“ by J. F. Penn before the next novel in that series comes out in August. Maybe it’s just too much choice.

Also I’m thinking about a way to make me obsessed with the things I want to do. Over the past decades I have cultivated a ‚slow and steady‘-approach to everything because ultimately it gets more done and is healthier. But it really is not the way I’m wired. So I forbid myself to get really obsessed with things. Because I know that obsession will make me crash and burn. On the other hand feeling meh about almost everything is not the right way either.

I guess I’ll experiment some and report back.

Today there will be walking/running and some teaching. My husband made noises about going swimming in a lake but I didn’t want to. So I might have some time to myself this morning. Exciting!

So over the last week I found that something had to give. Which is why I no longer am writing here daily. But I do miss it. The other thing I found is that I am back to needing nine hours of sleep, apparently, so I moved my wakeup time back to six o’clock and am trying to turn the lights out around 9 pm. Which doesn’t leave me much time for writing. Well, at least not if I live my life as usual.

Writing has been really meh the past week, I managed to write less than 2,000 words all week. Which means I won’t reach my Camp NaNo-goal. I’m not quite sure yet if I care but am still trying to make myself write 3,500 words a day to catch up. Stay tuned. I did adjust my goal down from 45,000 to 25,000, though. The terror of being that far behind did contribute to my block and I don’t need that. Note to self: do not attempt Camp NaNo in July again. Thanks.

I did go for a walk/run again (Day 4 of my 10k-program):

Once again I forgot my bandage. Not the best move but it shows how much better my knee is right now.

We had girandole arrabiata for lunch because we ran out of penne:

Zucchini from the garden. Very yummy. During the meal we had to look up pine nuts on wikipedia. Of course, they aren’t really nuts.

The boy was really low on energy because he had to run (literally run) for about an hour at school. They had a charity run-thing. Which meant that for once he ran more in a day than his parents. (My husband ran 8.5 k, I walked/ran 5.1 and the boy did 9.1) So I went out and bought some chocolate because we were all out. And got some tongue scrapers, as one does.

When I started teaching it was already 27 °C (80 °F) in my studio and becoming warmer by the minute. I skipped the makeup because it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. I was sweating so much that my eyes burnt. While teaching guitar and piano which are not the most strenuous activities I can think of.

It’s supposed to become really hot over the next few days. I do have a fan and know how to use it, though.

I answered a few emails, answered the boy’s questions about how to fry leftover pasta and scrambled eggs and when I came to the kitchen he was already eating. My husband was very happy and pleased to have something warm that he didn’t have to cook himself and double happy and pleased that the boy had been cooking.

I got ready for bed on time but my husband was still practicing „Oye Como Va“ in the basement (That is for the small, intimate, spontaneous concert he is planning for next year. You know, the one where he just shows up and plays stuff he already knows inside and out. Well, it turned out he doesn’t know this song as well as he thought he did, 47 years of playing it non-withstanding. I already got pressed into playing cowbell or guiro and singing backing vocals. I won’t start practicing anytime soon, though.)

Today will be more of the same with running errands and shopping at the health food store instead of exercise. I am continuing my knee exercises and they continue to make a difference. It’s all rather interesting.

I’m definitely in a slump and feeling overwhelmed which is not that surprising – I planned wrong and now I’m miffed that things aren’t going like I would want them to.

I woke up early, started with the morning routine and again didn’t write.

There was another run to the health food store and a rather chaotic cooking session. Food was good but we have now decided unanimously that rice with sour cherries is not a family favorite:

No spinning because it was a rest day. A little teaching, more slumping, more teaching.

Since I have such a hard time writing at the moment I’m thinking about giving up the daily blogging. I’m hoping that I will use that 15 to 30 minute each day for novel-writing. This doesn’t mean I will stop blogging completely, just that I’m going back to posting just when I feel like it.

We’ll see how that goes.

I woke up at 5.30 and actually did the morning routine thing. Wrote about 500 words as well. Then breakfast. Finished knitting a sock:

I did decide to try exercise again, the knee is still not all pain-free but seemed good enough I could try Day 1 of my ouch to 10K program. So I went out for 41 minutes with seven 30-second intervals of running sprinkled in. It went fine, only I forgot to take a picture and there was something wrong with the app on my phone because I didn’t get the audio cues. Not all the time, just sometimes. No idea why. I also didn’t get a halfway mark cue which meant that I walked longer than planned but that was no biggie.

Then I did my stretching exercises to help the knee.

Making lunch was very easy because we had leftover lasagna. With a salad, of course:

After that I decided not to record the podcast that day. I will have time again today and the next few days and I didn’t want to scramble to get everything ready and record on the same day. I hope that wasn’t a bad decision. Instead I went to the health food store.

Came back, sat down and spun a bit while watching the tour:

And then there was the teaching. And phone calls and e-mail. And preparing the podcast and more attempts at writing. And early to bed.

Today I will teach again, though not as much as I thought, and maybe record the podcast if I find the time and my husband isn’t teaching something loud at the same time. And if things go really well I will write and write some more.