The Days Are Getting Shorter

What? Me a glass half empty kinda guy? I spent the better part of June recovering from my ankle sprain and now the days are getting shorter already. I have been kayaking just once and hiking not at all. Yeh yeh, hiking and kayaking can be wonderful all the way into November so that leaves plenty of time to have fun, but for the moment I'd rather sputter in my half-empty glass.

I went to Honda this morning for a simple oil change while I waited. My appointment was for 7am so I was fairly certain that I would be out quickly. Ha. They misplaced my paperwork. So, an hour later when I went up to the guy and asked where I was in the queue, he found the order, got someone working on it right away. Later when the car was ready, he told me it was free because they had messed it up. Harumph. How dare he try to cheer up my day.

So then I had 4 hours before my Healthy Back appointment at Mike Artega's Health and Fitness in Poughkeepsie. I had tried to schedule them closer together, but that was the best I could do. But, I had put the kayak on top of the car the night before. (And at Honda took it off the car and then put it back on the car. It's the hardest part about kayaking.) I went to Waryas park in Pok and kayaked on the Hudson for about 2 hours. I made it up past the Brass Anchor Restaurant against the current. I passed a small boat anchored in the river where they appeared to be doing some research. I "think" they may have been these guys: IES_hudson_river_projects

Finally, to the gym for my back exercises and then home for a nap.

What about my writing and singing you ask? Next time.

I Hate Mold

Eradicating mold was not one of the fun tasks on my "how to spend my sabbatical" list. But, it was very important to do -- it covered the back deck and was spreading to the roof. In the past I have used something called Shoo-Mold. Non-toxic, environmentally safe... basically sucks. And at $16 a bottle, not cheap. A cup or two of bleach in bucket of water worked MUCH better and probably costs about 20 cents to make the same amount. And so far, I haven't seen any sign of mass destruction of the environment.

I spent the better part of the day scrubbing the deck and the overhanging pergola. Tedious, tedious, tedious... Especially the pergola. Set the ladder, dunk the brush, climb two steps, scrub the mold, down the ladder, dunk the brush, climb two steps, scrub some more, down the ladder, move the ladder, dunk the brush ... Somebody shoot me.

One week done.

More fun for Milo. I signed up for voice/singing lessons with Jack Brown, a professional singer who, among other things, teaches at Bard College at Simon's Rock. I had my first lesson with him on Friday afternoon. Control with abdomen, relaxed from the neck up. Simon's Rock has a VERY quiet campus. I gather that many students eventually move on to bigger schools.

My daughter-in-law had her first child, my third grandchild. Abigail Reese. They look very happy.

My ankle is starting to feel close to normal. I can use the eliptical machine at the gym to get some exercise, which is good because I still can't really walk easily.

My wife and I went to see the latest Indian Jones movie. We enjoyed it. I thought they were trying a bit too hard to capture the mood of the first movie, but overall it was fun.

Sabbatical day one

A very busy first day of my six month (at least) sabatical. I got up early to take my wife to the train -- Wassaic, no more driving to Poughkeepsie. I cooked myself an nice breakfast -- scrambled eggs with andouille sausage.

At 10am my first writing class. The "teacher" is a local, published novelist. There are seven in the class and it looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

The class took me up to lunch time, so I went to the Bistro and had chicken pot pie and a glass of white wine.

Then to the gym. I haven't been in 2 weeks. Over one week ago -- the Friday before Memorial weekend, I badly sprained my ankle. I did just a quick workout to get back into it.

Kris and Jessamyn went to the hospital -- new baby is on the way! Still waiting to hear.