This & That

 

(PCS Score Today = 7)

I am working to try to be very productive today and to also have a day of "just being" in which I try to be more experiential in my efforts. In other words, I am trying to NOT ruminate today.   That does not mean I am not having *thoughts*.  By not ruminating today, I am working to a) not OVERLY ANALYZE thoughts and ideas, b) not STRAINING to make sense out of things that are confusing or unfathomable, c) listening more  to my body, my mind, and my jawline about when something is getting bothersome and I need to take a break and/or shift focus.  Hence, I am able to write here, right now... because I started to notice I was clenching my teeth and starting to get a headache from some of the online grading I was working through.  I needed a break.  

NOT ruminating isn't actually that EASY for me to accomplish.  It seems a bit strange to say that.  I have had to keep aware of myself today to try to recognize and short circuit my natural inclination to slide into rumination.  I have a tendency to try to plow through tasks... forcing myself to get them DONE once I begin..... and this forcing through often leads me to ruminate (and often grumble under my breath) while I work.    I think that “pushing through” can be helpful at times.  But, I do know that a fair amount of the time, it leads me to get more tired and to make my TMJ flare up as well.  So, I think my non-ruminating efforts today may be helpful in this regard for me.  

+ + +

• My running is still not where I would like it.  It is better than last week where each day was really a chore to commit to doing.  This week, I had three great days so far where I felt back up to snuff in terms of my enthusiasm for running.  But, two days were still rather like pulling teeth to get me to go put in the miles.... I just had no motivation on those two days.  

• With pretty nice temperatures forecast this weekend, I am going to try to convince my wife and my one quarantined kid to try to play through a few games of croquet with me.  Last Summer, after finding the old set up in the attic, I got it down and it was actually quite fun for everyone the several times we played it through the Summer.

• My wife and I are going to TRY to... for the first time.... make our attempt at... making some Ethiopian food... including the delightful injera bread.  We have made some Ethiopian spice inspired dishes before, but not typical Ethiopian recipes.  And, since COVID hit, we have not been in a restaurant,  and there is no local Ethiopian place to order take-out.. so we are BOTH feeling quite deprived of the wonderful cuisine.  The image at the top of this post is of the typical fashion and style of food we are able to get as a shared platter at the Ethiopian restaurants we have visited over the years.  I doubt we will be able to do the cuisine adequate justice.... but.... I hope we will have enough success to have some *glimpses* of those delightful foods and spices during our meal.  

• Today, I found I wanted a break from Pandora.  Do not get me wrong... it is absolutely wonderful, but I was more in the mood for some of the classical music I especially like.  I have a classical music Pandora channel, but I have not fine tuned it enough with "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" votes to shape the channel to the favored types of classical music I especially like.   However, several years ago when I began to explore online radio programming, when I first was able to start listening to NPR online..... I started to explore a huge number of different NPR music focused stations as well as NPR talk stations.  And, of the many NPR classical music stations in my cue, my very favorite happens to be WRCJ out of Detroit.  Of all the various NPR classical music channels I listen to, WRCJ  tends to have a heavier focus on my personal favorite forms of classical..... long-form meandering classical music (that can extend for 20-30 minutes at a time) and wind ensemble pieces.  

• I am also thinking that I want to dig out my golf clubs and swing off the rust, etc in my arms and make this a golfing summer.  The clubs I have are quite old school, and are actually the last set of clubs my father bought for himself and they herald from the mid-1960s.  I think I am going to clean and polish these beasts and take to trying to improve my (poor) golf skills.   In the past, one of my brother's in law who is a very avid golfer kept telling me to buy some new clubs because of all the "technological" improvements... and that I would likely drop my score by at least 20 points across 18 holes.  But... nah.... I *like* using my father's old clubs.  And, I don't really give a damn about my score.

• My pipe craving score has dropped a bit to around a 7.  That has been helpful.  Being at the "9" level for the last several days has been rather draining.  I opened up the lid on my pipe rack's tobacco jar here by my desk this morning.  I wanted to have more of its pleasant smell around me as I worked.  Its aroma is earthy, with a bit of gentle sweetness, and hints of citrus and vanilla.  It is a really pleasant leaf.  It is of course EVEN MORE delightful when I am smoking it. :) But, at least this is something beautiful too.    

PipeTobacco