Walking, Writing, and Reading.....Among Other things

I guess this is what we would call a slow week, except that none of them seem slow any more.  

When I last posted, we had spent some time watching youth soccer.  The grand kids started back to school last week, so now we will see them mostly on weekends. We did go to the school open house last Tuesday to get acquainted with the kids' new school. As Jill's back up team, we like to know the whens and wheres and whos.

I think I lost Sunday completely, but I know I went out for my 3.5 mile walk in the morning before it got hot.  I have done that almost every morning so far the last two weeks, enjoying the mornings that have been cool.  I walk in the neighborhood, around the local elementary school, and over in the neighborhood park. I have a route that I don't even have to think about that is about 3.6 miles.  It takes me about 70 minutes and leaves me tired and sweaty, but I still make myself do my 30 minutes of core and stretching exercises when I get home.  

Warm morning (Sunday) ↑, cool morning (today) ↓.  I much prefer the cool mornings. The sun is out now, having melted off the fog, and it's warming up.  We'll be back to 80 by the weekend.

I usually go for a shorter walk after dinner too, about a mile or so, and try to get Tom to go with me.  It's good to move after eating. I've seen sunsets and moon rises.

and last night the clear sky allowed for shots of the Harvest Moon.

When I'm not exercising or cooking or grocery shopping or cleaning house I am usually doing something electronic.  There is the daily trip through blog land to see what all of you have been up to, and keeping up with Facebook and e-mail.  Then I have been writing some each afternoon, working on my memoirs.

I sit at the kitchen table, where I can see the sunny garden, and write and remember.  I am using my lap top and saving to a flash drive, which I can then plug into my desk top to save on the cloud.  I started writing in January, thinking I could work on this project while I was recovering from back surgery.  I had no idea what I was doing or how long it would be.  I am now on page 89 and just up to 1993, when my second child graduated from high school, which means I was 49.  I had hoped to be finished by my 70th birthday in July, but that didn't happen, as life got in the way.  I am trying to be disciplined about working on it some every day now. As you see, I have a ways to go.  As reference, I have photo albums of my childhood, my career days, and my kids childhood years.  It's interesting discovering which things are clear in my memory and which things are not.  A lot of life happens in 70 years, but it sure all flies by fast!

As for the reading, I started reading the JA Jance detective novels that I somehow missed when they were published starting in 1987.
It's the Detective Beaumont series, set in Seattle, so it is fun to be so familiar with all of the settings.  I am currently on #12 and have a bunch to go.  I order them from Amazon and read them on my Kindle. some days I only get to the reading at bed time, so lights out here are often close to midnight.

Then there are the interruptions to the ordinary.  Yesterday I went to the dentist for x-rays and cleaning.  Bad news.  I have at least one cavity!  I have to go back for more work.  Ugh.

Tomorrow I have a haircut appointment.  Friday I will skip walking and go to breakfast in the morning and a Sounders match in the evening.

Today Tom and I spent several hours lunching with retired staff from my old school.  There were eight of us today.  A man walked in as we were visiting and made a comment to Tom about his harem.

It's odd, perhaps, that I go to his staff breakfasts and he goes to my staff lunches, but we both know everyone and talking shop is still one of the things we retired teachers like to do.  Besides, all his working life as an elementary teacher he was surrounded by women. We get caught up on any school district gossip anyone has to share, plus sharing travel plans and trips taken and stories and photos of kids and grand kids. 

Well, if I hurry, I can get a few more pages written on my memoirs.  Since we went out to lunch, dinner will be simple tonight, not much cooking.  

See you later.