Thursday

I was so dismayed at seeing a gray sky again today that I decided I needed to sign up for yoga to clear my head of grumpy thoughts about the meteorological conditions out there.

Perhaps you remember that not too long ago, I was a yoga fanatic. And like all phases and crazy devotions, the rigid adherence to a regular yoga schedule ended one day, just like that. It was an intended temporary lull but it turned into a permanent abstinence.

Right now, it's not the exercise I miss, but it's the twisting and turning in weird ways which seems to really help put me in good stead to face whatever skies I wake up to. In other words, the theory is: I will resume yoga and you will stop having to listen to my complaints about the dreary weather. That's the theory.

There are issues to confront: I have been with a frozen shoulder (for the second time in recent years, so I know the drill) for many weeks now and if you have ever had this tiny inconvenience of not being able to bend your arm in even the most useful directions, you'll sympathize. So I don't quite know how yoga works when you only have one functional shoulder. My reasoning is that if I could face travel and hoisting suitcases into overhead compartments with one functional arm, I can probably manage a class of yoga. I love challenges that don't have great consequences in case I fail!

I write all this not because I have now signed up for my yoga classes (maybe tomorrow!), but simply to let you know that I am doing something about my attitude toward the skies above and so if things go according to plan, perhaps this is the last time that I will write the following:

What a dreary day it is out there!


I again was the cheeper morning release girl today, as Ed has been working on his mechanical invention late into the night and I feel sorry for him come daybreak.





















Our breakfast is very nice indeed, but again, you'll have predicted as much.





After, I ask him for help with forms. Ed is very patient with deciphering what bureaucracies expect of us and I am facing one of the most complicated bureaucracies out there in trying to apply for a visa to a foreign travel destination in August. I am a child born to bureaucracy (I would describe post war Poland as scoring high in this area) and yet this particular one (it shall remain nameless for now) really stumped me.

So we shuffled forms and papers and finally, at long last made progress. That was my morning.


Beyond that, I had two lovely outings today. You probably have those days as well when you hate to hoist yourself out of a chair to get going but when you do, you have no regrets. Indeed! A cup of tea with a friend (who used to be and will soon become again my yoga buddy) was more satisfying than I could possibly describe. And later, Ed and I went to the final local farmers' market of the year - indeed, the final one until spring. In many ways, it made me think that spring is not too far away. But in case it's longer than it seems, we stocked up on spinach, onions, beets and cheese -- the kind of stuff you can still find in a winter's market here.











And finally, now is the time to put on some chipper music and celebrate the wonderfulness of having a warm evening at home!