Plug

 

Just plugging away at work at the moment.  Trying to get finished early enough to "let go" of work related tasks soon for the day.  Bulleted thoughts in my mind include:

• Ran 10 miles this morning at 5:00am.  It felt very good this morning.  I *think* that a part of feeling more excited about running is related to where I am running.  As I mentioned before, I have typically stayed on the same trails repeatedly for the lion's share of runs I have ever done.  This is due to the couple of instances where I tripped, fell, and significantly scabbed up my knee (in the same damn spot each time) on those instances where I ventured away from the very smooth, well known paths.  But.... I have straying out of boredom to new trails and sidewalks in my region.  It is a big risk, and I am still fearful that I will not be paying close enough attention and skin my knee badly in a fall.... but the shear joy of seeing new areas of town (new while on foot, which gives a very different perspective than in a vehicle) while running has upped my enjoyment of the activity.  I hope that I am not playing with fire, however.  I have been trying to be VERY conscious of lifting my feet higher than is my normal cadence while on sidewalks especially... in an attempt to not trip and fall.  

• PCS = 7 again today.  It is by no means the deepest of longings that a 9 or a 10 would mean, but it is a consistent, strong presence in my mind.  The insight and advice all of you have given has been very helpful to me, even though there is a bit of a dichotomy in perspectives.  One camp encourages me to continue the fight to stay away from my beloved pipes, and another camp tends to suggest that my pipe smoking is an innate facet of who I am and that perhaps I am deceiving myself in this struggle, for it may be that I am truly destined to return to them.  I can say that BOTH dichotomous perspectives mirror the thoughts that rummage around in my brain from day-to-day. I am feeling I am in that nebulous never-never land at the moment.  Still trying to decide how to proceed.
  

• I am going to go home to do some home decorating tasks (picture hanging) that my wife has been trying to have me do.  

• Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play my tenor saxophone.  It has been a while since I picked up the beast, and it was very enjoyable.  I had also (quite a while ago) been given a different mouthpiece to try on my beast as I had commented to a fellow band member that there was a range on my horn that I was struggling with.  This mouthpiece that he loaned to me was AMAZING!!!!!   My low tones were every bit as rich and easy to produce as they are normally on my bass clarinet!  I found a used version of the same exact mouthpiece on eBay for $10.00 and ordered it right away!  It is of a different facing (it is facing number 3, which is more "clarinet" like than most saxophone mouthpieces).  It makes logical sense for me, as primarily a bass clarinet player.  I am not sure why I never thought of it before.... but I am thankful that I found this now.  

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