All winter long, I've posted three posts a week like clockwork to this here blargh, but then on Monday I worked my first eight hour day outside of the home in nearly seven months and before I knew it, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, even Friday had all passed me by while Of Woods and Words sat in radio silence. Don't act like you're surprised.
I constantly overestimate my abilities and/or the amount of free time during the summer and then am always shocked when things start to fall to the wayside. On Thursday morning, for the first time in a long, long time, I woke up to a stack of dirty dishes next to the kitchen sink. To say it was a displeasing (nay, disappointing) sight would be to put things mildly. All week I've struggled to find the time to work my side jobs, exercise, clean and do just about anything else outside of work other than staring blankly ahead at the Netflix du jour each night.
It's easy to focus on all the things I can't do (start a batch of bagel during a down moment in my day, spend my lunch break catching up on blog reading, or ever find time to clean the bathroom, etc. etc.) with the return to full-time, out of the house employment. And when one's workplace is 43 degrees at the start of the work day and warms all the way up to 52 degrees after eight hours, one's mind does tend to stray to the melancholy. So although I may not really be wanting to see the good in the situation, I'm trying to keep my chin up, while the words of Lady Violet ring through my mind:
In other news, the lake ice finally went out on Wednesday. That's just one day before the latest ice out date for the lake in recorded history. I was kind of hoping to break the record, but I guess the open water is kind of nice too. Andy and I got the dock in last night and on Thursday evening took a rather chilly boat ride around the lake.
It's finally warm enough to put the seedlings outdoors. Unfortunately, it's also finally warm enough for chipmunks to be up to their rascally ways. Gardening fail #1 of 2013 is me leaving the seedlings outside all day while both Andy and I were away from the house. Goodbye two Brussels sprouts, a pepper, some cabbage, and several leaves from the eggplants and kohlrabi. Live and learn. Live and learn. I try to be calm about these sorts of things because hey - it's nature, but I would have been a little more forgiving about the whole plant massacre if the chipmunk had actually eaten the leaves and plants he chomped off. It's so very demoralizing to see the chopped off leaves wilting next to the maimed plants.
About the only thing I've managed to roll over successfully from my old "working from home" schedule this week is my running. I just wrapped up week 3 of this, my most recent running attempt, and next week, I face 6 minutes running, 2 minutes walking splits. On Wednesday night, we used the car's odometer to chart how far I've been going on my runs. Including the warm up and cool down, I've been covering about 3.4 miles on each run. Not too shabby and actually, I was kind of shocked by how far it was.
I hope you've all had a wonderful week and are filling your weekend with fulfilling and restorative activities. So far today I've caught up on all my cleaning chores (including the bathroom and washing floors!), made a batch of bread and put a corned venison (more on that later if it turns out well) in the Crock pot for supper.
Already 3,4 miles. Chapeau! Good job and yes, the days do not grow longer just because some of us refuse to settle for the reality of 24h and only so much energy ;-) It is one of the "ailments" of age to accept that fact and makes me smile every Spring reading your post about it.
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