"This, too, shall pass."
It's hard to know when to press on and power through, and when the dis-ease is an indication that a fairly systemic change is in order.
Like the weather in Oregon, life changes. Some days are warm and sunny. But at least as frequently, especially here, it can be cloudy, damp, and slightly depressing. So do you hang in there knowing that life, like the weather, will come 'round, or do you change the figurative setting?
Pam stayed home from church yesterday with a truly miserable head cold. She feels horrible and sounds worse. As I type this (6 a.m.) I can hear her back in the bedroom snoring, snorting, and coughing herself awake when the gunk slides down into her throat. When she's up it's...pathetic. She drags her feet, collapses in her chair, and strains to get the cup of hot tea to her lips.
This is especially unfortunate because a really nice couple at church arranged for us to have 4 days and 3 nights at a beach house in Seaside, on the Oregon coast near the NW tip of the state. We'll leave for the 3-hour drive about 10:30 after I do morning chores and make a feed store run.
Seaside is a popular tourist destination that even in late September offers a relaxing break with lots of shops, interesting places to eat, a 2-mile "promenade" along the beach, and other cool places within about a 30 minute drive. I'm pretty sure she's going to feel like sitting indoors and taking long rests between naps. She's made some lasagna for us to eat a couple of the evenings and I can bring in lunch. (Eggs and BACON for b'fast. Doh!)
Assuming she doesn't make a miraculous recovery in the next 4 hours I'll use the time in Seaside to get caught up. I keep getting more tasks on my plate and have a sense I'm slowly getting buried. Most of them are fairly small things; it's the cumulative effect. When I got home yesterday I told Pam I was going to stop going to church on Sundays just to avoid getting more things on my to-do list.
I'm seriously motivated to plow (or is it plough) ahead with learning Portuguese. I feel like I'm at a crossroads, having learned enough vocab to read and understand many sentences, but also needing to put in more time to master other verbs and verb forms. My goal this week is to concentrate on the "er" class of verbs.
Before we leave I have to give Goulash and Haggis their next vaccinations, and then I'll move them to the weaning pen as soon as we're back from Seaside.
I need to finish the rewrite on UFC's discipleship handbook. The next year of the read-through-the-Bible class I teach starts up the first Sunday in October so I've got prep to do there. My Thursday night class meets for the third time this week and that's become fairly consuming. UFC has never done anything like this, I pushed a bit for it, and feel the pressure to make my part of it succeed. Brett attends. Our styles are very different, so I feel some angst knowing that he's sitting out there thinking, "That's sure not how I would do it."
Maybe I wrote this already.
A couple of weeks ago some of us were standing around in the front office and I offhandedly said I was thinking about running off to join the circus. A couple of the younger guys gave me a "What are you talking about??" look. They'd never heard that expression before.
Speaking of old, my birthday is about 5 weeks away. Many years, especially over the last decade, I've tried to set some personal fitness record on my birthday as a way of raging against the calendar. It started on my 30th birthday when, as someone fairly new to distance running, I determined to run further than I ever had. A fellow runner from church joined me for a run from Prunedale to Moss Landing and back, a 13 mile round trip and about 5 miles longer than anything I'd ever attempted.
About 5 years ago I decided to "celebrate" my birthday with a personal best burpee effort. I did 101. Last year it was pullups. I did ten sets of ten throughout the day.
This year? I think I'm going to go for a PR doing dips. That's where you support yourself by your hands on two handles sticking out from the wall and lower yourself down & raise yourself back up. Repeat.
About 18 months ago I worked myself up to 10 consecutive dips, so that's the mark I have to beat. I got away from doing them and can now only do 5. I'm pretty sure I can work myself back into dip shape :) and exceed 10. How high can I go?
One more reason to keep myself going to the gym each day.
OK, it's 6:30. Pam's still SNORING and Dolly is out in the barn screaming. I'll go feed the goats and then start getting things ready for our absence. Emily will come over to feed goats and chickens and collect eggs while we're gone, so I need to have feed bins full and enough hay in the barn to get her through.
OK, Segunda-feira, let's do this!
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