As I write this it's almost 8:00 AM, very late for me to be waking up. I've been tired all week, and yesterday I did the nine mile walk I'd promised myself I'd do weekly in April. Because I hadn't done much walking for a while, and because I've gained 10 pounds over the last month, the walk was much more difficult than the last long walk I took.
I'm sorry that I haven't sent the blog since Tuesday, when I sent the one about the weekend.
Monday morning, we both sure enjoyed that chapter of the book which I was reading to you, Mom. The book is called, "Watching the English", and is of the genre called "popular anthropology". The chapter we read was about how English small talk about the weather is used so commonly as a conversation opener, both with strangers and with friends. The small talk has a pattern, with rules, which the English always always follow. English people actually get quite huffy, the author wrote, when the formula is not followed. She has a very amusing way of writing.
I had bought the book at Half Price Books on Shattuck, and had planned to take it home with me. But because we enjoyed it so much together, Mom, I decided to leave it at Campus Dr. and read a chapter every time I visit.
Before I left Campus Dr. on Monday, I had a good talk with Marisa. I asked her if she would be willing for me to e-mail her a couple times a week, so I can start keep track of how much physical activity you are managing, Mom. Nancy is concerned that your level of weight-bearing physical activity has been lower in the past month. Having some kind of on-going record would tell us whether it's a long-term trend or just a temporary "blip".
I told Marisa that she was our main hope in keeping up your level of activity, Mom. 1) Lately you seem to be too tired in the evenings to do anything at all, and 2) We are not sure we feel safe with the weekend caregivers supervising your walking. Marisa said that she'd be glad to help.
I walked down the hill and took BART to the airport. My calf muscles hurt for several days from that walk. I have been enjoying our lunches the past few visits, Sandy, but perhaps I could walk down the hill and meet you downtown, as missing that monthly downhill walk seems to have weakened my legs.
My flight home on Monday went well, except for one thing. The lady in the middle seat next to me kept a large, open purse, at least 4" by 6" by 12" and packed with stuff, on her lap for the entire flight, including takeoff and landing. This is against the safety rules, because in the case of an emergency exit, my ability to exit safely (I was in the window seat) could have been impeded. I kept waiting for the flight staff to notice it, but they just walked on by. I was too embarrassed to say anything to the lady myself. Besides, it's the flight attendants' job to do so.
I composed a complaint e-mail to Southwest Airlines, but haven't gone on line yet to figure out where I should send it.
During the last part of my Supershuttle drive home, I got to talking about gardening with the driver, an older woman. She was very interested in the fact that I use sunken beds for my garden, so that I can flood them during Arizona's hot months.
When she dropped me off, I told her she could come look at the garden if she wished, and she did wish to. "Aren't you somethin'!", she said.
Here's a photo of my tomatoes plants in their sunken bed:
On Tuesday as I was going through my bills, Lawson stopped by. He had driven out this way to get some tools, and he stopped by to chat. Marie had a very virulent bout of Norovirus for a week, recently. He thanks you for the check, Mom.
At my weekly computer tutorial, I gave my tutor some old photos to scan, of Gypsy Magic, the dance troupe I was involved with for so many years. I'm writing an article about the troupe, and plan to put the article on my website.
We also set up an account at www.copyright.gov, because I've decided to include some of the song lyrics I wrote for the troupe in the article. I would like to copyright them first. I'm going to copyright them "as poems", because the melodies I wrote the song lyrics to were not written by me.
Sandy had told me that as long as one writes "copyright" on the lyrics, they are actually legally copyrighted, but I feel safer having them on file with the government.
My rehearsals with the drama club at the Boys & Girls Club have gone well this week. I also stay and help them with their homework sometimes.
Wednesday morning, I could not have any coffee or breakfast because I was going to the doctor's office to have bloodwork done. I always hate that. I drank several cups of de-caf, black, and just could not seem to wake up. I finally ended up driving in to Mesa at 10:00 AM.
Not a very fun birthday morning! When I was having the blood drawn, the girl checking my birthdate as she was about to draw the blood, said, "It's your birthday, what a thing do do on your birthday, having blood drawn!"
As soon as I was through in there, walked across the shopping center to the nearest place I could get some food and "leaded" coffee, a Burger King. Pretty dismal breakfast and coffee, but at least it was breakfast and coffee. "Any port in a storm!"
I drove right to Tempe, but it was still a couple of hours early for my Arabic lesson. I walked down to the next big intersection and back, a couple of miles. It was 98 degrees yesterday, pretty warm.
I stopped in at the Pyle Activity Center (it's actually the senior center, in the same group of Tempe City Buildings as the Tempe Library). I'd heard they hold a music jam there regularly, at noon on Wednesdays. I found out that the music jam was indeed still happening, and also that it was all right for me to attend it even if I live outside the Tempe city limits.
It seemed appropriate somehow, on my 68th birthday, to be making an inquiry about attending an activity which takes place in a "senior center"! (The person who had told me about that music jam was in his mid-twenties, so I guess the music jam is attended by all ages.)
As my Arabic lesson is at 2:00 on Wednesdays in the Tempe Library, next door to the Pyle Activity Center, the location and time of this music jam would be quite convenient.
Hot and thirsty from my walk, I had an iced cafe latte before my Arabic lesson. Because I was wearing, for the first time, the recently-purchased necklace and earrings which had been made by one of the ladies in my beading meetup, I asked someone to take my photo so that I could put it on the group's Facebook page:
On Wednesdays I always must drive right from my Arabic lesson in Tempe, to the Boys & Girls Club, in the slow-and-go of the late-afternoon early-rush-hour traffic. So it takes me a half-hour to drive to Tempe, and almost an hour to drive back!
Thursday, I had planned to do a couple of hours of gardening, and also my nine miles goal of walking. But I still felt extremely tired. I did do the gardening but with quite a few sit-downs. One of the veins on the back of my left hand got punctured by a date-palm thorn, and immediately made a large blood blister under the skin, half an inch high and an inch around!. I applied firm pressure with the heel of the other hand until it stopped pumping out blood. It's still swollen and sore.
In the evening I went to Ikea for the first time. My travel club was meeting in the upstairs cafeteria over Swedish meatballs. went early enough to look around some, and bought a stainless steel roasting pan, some blue and white dishtowels, and some lingonberry jam. Quite a place!
One of our members, a retired nurse named Mary, is going on a trip to Spain and Portugal. It's ironic that she is going on a Cosmos tour, because Cosmos is the tour company which Rick Steves first worked for, the one which showed him everything he did not like about travel tours! It's ironic that the reason this woman does not go on Rick Steves tours is the price, she said the Cosmos tour is much more reasonable! Ironic because one of the ideas behind Rick Steves travel philosophy is to not spend too much money.
A tour company she really likes is called Gate 1. These groups are more economical without increasing group size. I suspect that one of the ways they manage to do it is by staying in what I call "boring big box hotels". Like that whole street near the Grand Place in Brussels, modern-looking cement boxes with strings of tour buses in front of them.
The charm of those small hotels on charming small old-town streets, which Rick Steves selects for his tour itineraries, is an important part of the trip to me.
Mary is very interested in the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail, which our co-organizer Ann walked for six weeks a few years ago. Mary has osteo-arthritis and can walk about three miles at the most. The Cosmos tour has two days in the town of Santiago, so Ann suggested that Mary and her husband take a cab three miles east on the pilgrim trail, and then walk the last three miles in with the pilgrims. Mary, who is very Catholic, was very excited about this idea.
The other thing I found out is that The Migrant Trail walk which I plan to go on with Ann, does not take place mostly in Mexico. It takes place mostly in the United States, between the Mexican border and Tucson, although it does start in a small town in Mexico. The total length, walked over a week, is around 75 miles if I remember correctly.
I had told some people in the family that the spokesperson for The Migrant Trail walk had given a "Ted Talk". Sandy said that there are many different local Ted Talks. Well, it turns out that the one she gave was for the Ted Talk organization in New York City.
Next Friday I am going in the evening to Ann's and she'll show me what she packs for the Migrant Trail walk. They limit you to "a duffel" which they carry for you in the accompanying van, and the duffel must include your sleeping bag. Also, Ann says that though the list which the Migrant Trail sends you does not include a folding chair, those people who do not bring one really regret it.
Ann is on the "food committee" so I imagine I will get involved in that part of it also.
The lady that talks too much was at this travel club meeting, but she wasn't too bad. It helps that I've given myself permission to just interrupt her anytime I even start sensing that my eyes are starting to glaze over..
Yesterday, after talking to Ann about the Migrant Trail walk, I insisted to myself that I absolutely must do my nine-mile weekly goal. In order to ensure I didn't "wimp out", I walked 4 and a half miles from where I'd parked, which forced me to complete the nine miles in order to return to my car.
Soon after starting out, I crossed the freeway. Yesterday's rain made for the most beautiful skies:
I looked on Google Maps and found a restaurant which was 4.6 miles from the Home Depot parking lot. Here it is, the Gyro House.
I sure was glad to get there and sit down for a while!
While in there, I was talking to a Greek guy who moved out here from Chicago, though he was originally from Corinth. A big burly know-it-all type of guy with a heavy accent and salt&pepper hair. He said that the Gyros place in Apache Junction is owned by the brother in law of the guy who owned this one.
"Greece a beautiful country. Greece a rich country, I don' know what the problem is. They got more diesel than enough for all the trucks in Europe." He accent was just like the accent of the father in the movie My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.
I asked him what was the best music artist in Greece, and he went out to his big truck and got his phone so he could show me some music videos. "Beautiful scenery," he said, and I didn't know if he was talking about the very blue water and white rocks, or the singer in her skimpy bikini.
Then he said, "Greece the best country, you sit down to eat with them and everybody have fun, enjoy". He waved his hand out in the direction of another gyros place, owned by Lebanese, and a Thai place. "These other places..."You sit down to eat with them and maybe they kill you before you finish eating. With Greeks, it's different; it's the same religion, see?"
I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded vaguely.
I had only walked around a mile when my legs started hurting, and three more miles to go! I had a sit-down and an ice tea when I got to the intersection of Main. As I neared the freeway, almost to the end, Sandy called, and it was nice to talk to you for a few minutes, Mom.
A storm was starting to move in, far to the east. The freeway looked really different, and the skies were beautiful.
I had selected Home Depot as my starting point because I'd planned to go in there at the end of my walk and buy a couple of items I needed. But my legs were so tired by the time I got to my car that I could not make myself walk any further, not even into Home Depot and back out!
Love, Lennie
No comments:
Post a Comment