Hello, You Loyal Few

Who still read this sorry-ass blog. I really do appreciate you, but feel this blog is just drifting lately, like its owner. I have a plan for a Do Better November, though.

Work is work, I don’t like it much, but do like the paycheck.

My anxiety and insomnia have been awful lately, I can’t imagine why.

I’ve been reading a lot, I mean, a LOT, lately – audiobooks, Kindle books, book-books, it’s all reading. It distracts me from fretting about….everything. I’m caught up on all my favorite series, I just finished the 4th in Jodi Taylor’s Time Police and am impatiently waiting for the newest Inspector Gamache to hit my Audible account next month. Then I’ll blow through it in a day or two and be left searching for something new again.

I’m not going to rant about politics for the sake of my blood pressure and the aforementioned anxiety and insomnia, but this is my periodic reminder that Republicans have always had this fascist streak, they’re just loud and proud about it now. But they are NOT “HALF the country” and people need to stop repeating that. They ARE just about 30%, and they can be neutralized if rest of us get off our asses and VOTE.

Oh, and polls are bullshit. Their sample is people dumb enough to answer a call from an unknown number. Get out the vote and ignore the bullshit.

I wrote a couple of hundred Postcards to Voters. I’ve been contributing to campaigns. I voted by mail and received confirmation that my ballot was received and counted. I paid careful attention to every down ballot race, including the ones for soil and water, etc. And of course school board, because that’s where these insidious fascist bastards get a foothold at the local level.

So, back to my Do Better November Plan. I have to get my shit together. I’ve made half-hearted attempts to do better, but for one reason or another I’ve been struggling to commit to anything. I decided to pick just two habit changes to focus on for a month, to get my exercise groove back.

WALK DAILY. There really is no excuse now, the weather is more tolerable (it’ll only be 87 today), the rainy season is wrapping up, and I need to get out and walk again, because for the first time I have to say I’m feeling my age. The ankle I sprained about a year and a half ago still randomly bothers me, and my bad knee (same side as bad ankle, my left) has suddenly been acting up too. Yes, I apparently have reached the age where I can hurt my knee in my sleep. I didn’t do anything to aggravate it, I just woke up with a sore knee.

No great mystery here, it’s simple: I SIT TOO DAMN MUCH. I pretty much live in this home office, in this desk chair, it’s unhealthy and I know it. I don’t want to feel this way. I want to feel strong and be active. So I’m committing to daily walks and I’m doing this:

STRETCHING PROGRAM. Yes, I confess, I clicked on a Facebook ad. I’d heard of this guy before and have listened to his podcast a few times, and my ass was in my chair at my computer as usual, and I clicked and listened and said, “IT ME!” and signed up. 15 minutes a day before bed? I can manage that. That plus walking is all the exercise I have the mental and physical energy for right now. I’m intrigued by the idea of holding long stretches, and my back and hips are tight AF from hours at a desk. My back is hunched, my posture is poor, if I sit on the floor I can’t get up gracefully, I’m an overweight and out of shape mess, and I know it. So I will do this program and walk daily, and see where I am by the end of the month. (No, I’m not getting any compensation for sharing this because I suck at blogging, but I will give honest updates as I follow the program.)

I need to get my healthy habits back, and I am committed to doing these two small things every day, because I’m facing the reality that I ain’t young anymore.

There are other components to Do Better, like tackling the clutter that has built up on every flat surface in this dump, and getting my blogging groove back, and finding my creative mojo and cleaning the oven. But I have to start somewhere.