Saturday found me feeling slightly less upbeat than I felt Friday. Tried to hit Ala Moana for a sunrise swim, but the driveway is closed (blocked by city vehicles and barriers). I’m thinking I might need to just suck it up and find other ways to get the mental whatever I get from the ocean. I’ve gone much longer than a couple of months between times in the water, after all. I’m just a little spoiled now.
So I’m mildly embarrassed to say I spent most of Saturday alternating between the bed and the dining table. Didn’t get any to-dos taken care of, but then that’s kind of normal for a weekend lately. As the end of the day crept up on me, I jumped into my car, parked it at the bottom of the hill (in front of the McD’s actually) and went for a little late-night walk. Ninety minutes later I was feeling a little better about things, as I usually do after walking.
My writing partner sent me a draft of her latest article for the momblog. It’s a pretty good idea, and I’ll link it from here when it publishes. I’m pleased she’s being productive. Among other things, it gives me some motivation to produce similarly.
Friday evening I called my folks, who are in very positive spirits, or at least they’re presenting as such. My mom knows the seriousness of this thing and has stayed put, but is also getting some sunshine and fresh air on their lanai. She’s got her flowers and the dog, of course, so I think she’s going to be okay. She agrees with me that staying indoors in front of the TV all day is a bad path.
My dad feels pretty good about his preparation. He’s been stocking up on food for a couple of months, inclulding enough flour and yeast for fresh bread for quite a while. I can see, though, that I’m going to have to give them a call two or three times a week, for my own peace of mind more than anything else. They’re telling me I can come over whenever, but I’m not going anywhere near them unless I really have to, or unless they need something from me.
One semi-productive thing I did was get started on my second ambitious new year’s resolution. The first was Honolulu Silent Book Club, which of course is on hold after just our initial meeting. The plan was to get that rolling and then jump into my next thing, but now it makes more sense to get this other project going.
It’s a podcast. I won’t share details until I it’s got some momentum. I’ve been planning it for more than a year and feel like it’s ready to be nudged into motion. You possibly remember I did a podcast for a year or so maaaaany years ago, and this is kind of a morphing of that, although with less emphasis on me and more on others. Still reading-themed, though.
I may have purchased a couple of toys for this purpose. I’d rather not get into it yet. Don’t want to talk it out of existence, and I’ll feel better once the ink’s dry on the commitment. One thing I’ve learned from producing and consuming podcasts is that I want to do ten complete episodes totally as practice before I drop the first official. Too many podcasts don’t hit their stride until at least five episodes in. I’d like my first to be as good as my tenth, so I’m making my eleventh my first.
A key to thriving in this new normal will be making myself do things I don’t want to do, things I want to have done. House chores, for one thing. Reaching out to others for another. Sunday is usually my do-nothing day, the day I visit my parents and take care of my laundry. Since I’m not going over there (and since my own laundry stuff doesn’t work anymore) I have to take my clothes to a laundromat. I’m thinking I’ll save that for the wee hours of Monday morning.
This means nothing is really on the agenda for Sunday. And since I kind of did that Saturday, I’m thinking of making a small to-do list for Sunday. And maybe working on that podcast.
I’m not planning to quanitify everything during this weirdness, but here’s some of what I did Saturday.
- Walked 90 minutes for a paltry 9000 steps, or four miles. Yeah, it was a slow walk, and my goal is 13,000 daily. Normally at work I walk 5000 just between clocking in and out, so you can see there’s some making up to do.
- Read a few articles in the Washington Post, but not as much as usual.
- Texted Penny to ask about what she’s doing about her mom, who’s in an elderly residence. Friended someone on FB I’ve known online very casually for a couple of years; we chatted on FB Messenger for a while. Two connections — not bad.
- Worked on writing partner’s article.
- Mapped out details for new podcast. Brainstormed list of possible practice guests (I need 10; I have 8 to ask so far). EDIT: now I have a pretty good list of 15)
That’s about it. It’s creeping up on 2:30 Sunday morning so I’m going to bed.