2017 Spring March 24 Friday

70 degrees this morning, Walk 35;23 minutes 

High wind this morning, almost didn’t walk, but decided to due to forecast for rain etc. this weekend.  

Pace was about 17 seconds per mile slower than expectations.  I was going fast with the wind at my back, but it was a lot slower on the way back against the wind!

Reminds me of a time in Memphis when I went on a bike ride (on a highway, so to get back I had to pedal back), I had the wind at my back and was going about 30 mph and really living the good life. .  I got about 3 miles out and suddenly realized I had to go back against the wind!

Somehow I pedaled back, reminding myself to just take it “one pedal at a time” and hope the rain didn’t start!  I was a bit more careful after that!

 Had the carpets cleaned yesterday, it took a bit of moving stuff around, but it worked well and we were lucky to get what appeared to be an excellent carpet cleaner.  

I was thinking about how I tend to hang on to worthless stuff I never used (I’m working on it!), and the other side is never using anything nice because I am “waiting for a good time to use it”.  I really don’t think I am quite as bad as I used to be.

I am reminded of a neighbor when I was a kid, who bought a really nice sofa but left it in a plastic cover that made it uncomfortable, so they couldn’t really enjoy it.  It looked great after 20 years, but who cares if you didn’t enjoy it?

Everyone to their own, with we kids visiting all the time, they may have had good  reason to have a plastic cover on it!

Anyway, just thinking, I can’t think of a lot I am “saving for the right time” anymore, so maybe that isn’t so much of a problem anymore.  

First “Formula One” race is this weekend.  For whatever reason, I enjoy them, On tape, of course. 

Friday, and anther work week is finished.  The weeks go so fast, turn into months and then years and the years just fly by.  

I finished listening to the Harvard Business Review series of articles on “managing yourself”.  Overall, it was worth listening to, although the articles that weren’t all that good slightly exceed the number that were good, but the ones that were good were good enough to more than make up for the mediocre or flat bad ones.  

Anyway, I started listening to a book on “mindfulness”.  It hasn’t been that good so far, except it reminded me of the mindfulness information from last Fall.

I think of “mindfulness” as  being aware of attentive and not tied to any special religion or exercise or certainly any altered states by artificial means.  

In fact, I think of mindfulness of being aware of yourself and surroundings  without any artificial  interferences.

One of the things that got my attention was an exercise where you were to “truly listen” to a song.  I heard words I had never heard before and realized I have probably never truly “listened” to music.  That is an individual decision on whether you want to take the time to “truly listen” to music, but at least it was good to know I hadn’t really listened to music and I had the choice to do so.

That’s it for now, Friday, March 24, 2017.