Rainy Days and Tuesdays

It's dreary outside; we've been having lots of rain and wind for the past several days, difficulties with planes getting in and generally unpleasant weather. I kinda like a good rainstorm as long as I don't have to get out in it but am not a big fan of hard rain blowing right into my face. Ajax is dejected since he loves to go outside. Actually, he does not usually let the weather get him down and will venture out at times when we think he is a little bit koo-koo. He went out when Rich left for work this morning but came back in soon after and has been moping on the chair ever since.

So I started working on elevating my health and wellness yesterday by having some good ole oatmeal for breakfast, fruit for lunch and Rich's homemade bean/veg soup for dinner. I really feel much better when I eat healthy and definitely need to drop a few pounds. Now if we can just get ourselves back to the gym.

As you know, I started taking piano lessons a few months ago. Between my own and my teacher's schedules, I think I missed more lessons than I actually attended. Then she was out for several weeks. Then we went on vacation. I almost feel like I will be starting from scratch when we get back together this Thursday. My biggest issue is that I will not make myself practice! I had to go to the community center to practice and scheduling was always a problem. My friend Karen in Abilene plays piano and I was giving her all my excuses when she jumped right in to say she had a roll up keyboard that I could use! We packed it in our suitcase and brought it home with us. So no more whining! I finally got it out yesterday--here's the proof! And, yes, I actually practiced for about 30 minutes before going to work. I took a few photos of one of my hands on the keyboard but, oh my gosh, I couldn't post any of them. Okay, I did not realize how horrible my knuckles look. I swear, they are getting that old person crooked, bent appearance. I was shocked. So, no, you do not get to see them.

I added the flag counter and live feed to my blog the other day and it's been fun to see people checking in, even if you are not leaving comments! Glad you are stopping by and hope you will say hello sometime.

How's everyone's 2010 going so far?

Monday

A couple of nights ago, we took a hike up the front side of Bunker Hill just to get out of the house and into the fresh air for a little while. It had been a somewhat dreary day but the sun came out in the evening so we thought we'd take advantage of the opportunity. The flowers were fading and there were no berries to speak of. It seems like there's a little bit of a chill all of a sudden. Could it be that our short summer is already coming to an end? Saturday we stopped in at the Second Blessings sale at the Methodist Church and I found four sweaters--I am already thinking about winter, as much as I want to avoid that thought. It was foggy, rainy and cold today; I commented to Rich that the family did not get to have the true Unalaska experience during their visit!

On Saturday I had my first piano lesson. It was a little bit intimidating, but mostly I felt happy to be sitting there at the piano, trying to make my brain and my fingers work together. I learned some fundamentals and squeaked out a beginner's version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," slowly and awkwardly, but quite pleased with myself. I'll be taking lessons on Thursday nights and Saturdays, although my teacher will be gone for two weeks in September so I will have some practice time on my own while she is gone. Given my terrible history of being excited about something and then losing interest or motivation, I am hoping I will keep with it. :)

Our kitchen table is overrun with fruit from the organic produce box, which arrived today--early--and we still had stuff left from last week. We are eating lots and lots of fruit (okay, I admit that some of it has been in a sugary syrup with angel's food cake and whipped cream...see why we need to go hiking?) and still have more than we can finish off. I am thinking we need to make some jam or at least put some of it up in the freezer for winter. And Rich has been doing a fabulous job of creating dinner from the variety of veggies out of the box. Nice!

Looking at my list of books on the sidebar of the blog, I am realizing that I will probably not be successful in reading 100 this year. It's August and I have only finished 26! I knew it was a lofty goal but I thought I would do better than that. Tonight I finished Whatever it Takes--Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America, which returns to the question about why we don't value all of our children and families equally. Can a quality education help lift people out of poverty? What does it take to change a community and a society? And how many of us really care what happens?

A late 'happy anniversary' to Susan and Corey, a late 'happy birthday' to Miles, happy retirement to Kathi, and happy first day of school to Aidan. Off to bed for me.