—Linda Kohanov, Riding
Between the Worlds
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| Pursuing happiness: My son at age 4 with a litter of puppies. Scout is the one licking his face. |
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.
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| 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?
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.
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| 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?
This week my posting will be abbreviated while I deal with (and mourn for) a failed hard drive. Hope your week is going better than mine so far!
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.
