Everyday adventures

I Love a Good Putter*

May 05, 2014

Already out of sync because of last week’s computer fiasco, this weekend I threw aside my usual routines for two days of puttering. Instead of riding Tank, working out, doing laundry and other household things, I:
  • Took a nap in the recliner (because Scout doesn’t understand the concept of sleeping in on the weekend, I had to walk her early Saturday morning since it was too early to just let her out in the backyard—she can be a noisy dog, and I want to remain friends with my neighbors).
  • Repotted a few orchids that were looking peaky. 
  • Puttered about town with my husband while he looked for tomato cages and a few other gardening items. We stopped at a place we’ve driven by for years—it turned out to be full of winding paths, ironwork, garden statuary, interesting plants, and…baby peacocks! And I did not have my camera! I will be going back.
  • Ate lunch with my husband at a favorite local restaurant. We both work at home so it feels like we’re always together, but really we don’t spend much time actually interacting. It was fun chatting and eating food someone else cooked.
  • Took off the winter slipcovers and replaced them with the summer ones. I’ll do the bed linens today.
  • Finished off the weekend by drinking a glass of wine and reading out on the lanai.

Prudy supervises the puttering

Though I felt a bit guilty about skipping some of my normal weekend activities, I think it’s good to change things up now and then, to wander through town with no real agenda, to blow off formal exercise for puttering around the house and yard. The laundry and elliptical machine will still be there. (Unfortunately.) And I finally trust myself to return to my healthy and organized habits after a brief break—I’m not going to throw all my systems to the wind and never return to my responsibilities. A weekend spent puttering refreshed me, helping me to look forward to what I hope will be a busy and productive week.

What would you do if you had a free weekend? What simple pleasures and everyday adventures would you like to indulge in?

*and I am not referring to the golf club.

Computers

When Good Computers Go Bad

May 02, 2014


Life took an unexpected detour last weekend when my computer began “acting funny” (my tech-savvy description). My husband spent a good portion of two days helping me tinker with the computer and doing online searches for things like “log on process has failed to create the security options dialog” and other, more ominous messages. After running various diagnostics and “fixes” (haha), which resulted in the computer doing nothing but blink at us, we finally determined the hard drive was failing and needed replacement.

My husband was confident he could replace the hard drive himself and we ordered a new one. We read a step-by-step description of the process, and watched a tutorial on YouTube. After the new drive arrived, he was able to put it in in just a few minutes. The most time-consuming thing has been reloading my operating system and all my programs. Fortunately, I had all my documents backed up. I thought I had my photos backed up but didn’t, not all of them—I’m still working on that. And figuring out how I can plug in my iPod without iTunes erasing all my music! (That’s happened to me before…) I figure by the end of today I’ll be finished getting things back to normal.

New hard drive
I’m deeply grateful to my husband, Larry, who worked patiently for hours while we tried to figure out the problem, and finally fix it. He put into words the moral of this story when he said, “You can fix anything if someone will show you how.” A good takeaway when life hands you unexpected adventure.

I would also add, if you have anything you value on your computer, back it up, Back It Up, BACK IT UP!

So endeth the lesson.

And how was your week?

Asana

A Happy Little Thing, and Announcing an Upcoming (Not-so) Everyday Adventure

April 25, 2014


When it comes to happy little things, I’m pretty easy to please—fun food, pretty notebooks, and, of course, books, all make me happy. Today I’m going to share one of my happy little things that’s just a bit bigger: yoga asana practice. Asana is what many people think of when they hear the word yoga: the physical postures.  (There’s much more to yoga, and you can read about it here if you’re interested.)

I’ve included a gentle and basic yoga practice in my exercise routine for more than 15 years, since I first discovered a class at my gym. After class I drove home feeling as if my shoulders were about six inches lower than before class. I was hooked. Since then, I’ve sampled yoga DVDs from my library and bought a few to have at home. I usually do Rodney Yee’s AM Yoga before I go to ride Tank, and I also love Suzanne Deason’s Stress Relief Yoga on the same DVD (All Day Yoga for Beginners). Other favorites include Yoga for the Rest of Us and Yoga for Weight Loss. And just recently my subdivision has started a yoga club, with a weekly meeting/class taught by a resident. A group of us meets in our clubhouse to breathe and stretch our way through an hour-long routine and learn a bit about the benefits of yoga.

Nothing I do makes me feel as good afterward as yoga does. It’s definitely a simple pleasure—and sometimes an adventure, since I’m not terribly flexible, and some poses are quite challenging. But with this new weekly class, I feel myself getting stronger and more flexible, and I always walk out relaxed and serene when I’m done.

What little thing is making you happy right now?

And now...

Looking for an Adventure?

My friend Laure Ferlita has just announced the next location for Imaginary Trips Made Real.  Winter Interrupted will take place in January of 2015 in St. Petersburg, FL. I will be her “first mate” (assistant)—and that will be an adventure for all. If you enjoy sketching on location (or want to learn how), I highly recommend both Laure’s online classes and live workshops. See Laure’s blog for complete details. We’d love to see you there!

Literature

Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare

April 23, 2014

By In Helmolt, H.F., ed. History of the World. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1902. Author unknown, but the portrait has several centuries [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Though no one knows for sure, it seems likely that April 23 marks the day William Shakespeare was born in 1564, 450 years ago. Shakespeare, one of the most influential writers of all time, wrote poetry and plays that have influenced the English language in many ways. According to Poets.org, “In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.”

As I was looking for an appropriate Shakespeare quote for today, I was surprised at how many quotes and phrases I’m familiar with but didn’t always realize came from his writing, such as:

To thine own self be true (the line continues: And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.) 

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.

What’s past is prologue.

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

I’ve read very little Shakespeare, unfortunately, but perhaps now is the time to do a little exploring. I have a copy of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare I bought when I was a romantic teenager which I plan to dip into it in the next few weeks, and perhaps I’ll start watching movie versions of Shakespeare’s plays. I love a man who plays with language.

Do you have a favorite poem, quotation or play by Shakespeare? If so, please share.