Sunday 25 August 2019
From then to Now
Friday and Saturday
We had planned a late lunch at Sea Salt with K&C but that fell through because they failed to account for having to deal with a yard and a half of dirt for their landscaping. I went over and helped C spread it out; K was inside doing her job work, which of course had intensified just before they were going to leave to go up north. …Due to the shoveling I deferred the pleasant chat with CAH that had previously been deferred to today, so that was the social activity for the day.
Katie and I went to Specs to look for new frames (and updated prescriptions) for both of us. I was amazed that the person who helped us remembered our names (Katie’s for sure, and guessed mine right), and also recalled we used different last names — other people clearly have got much better memories than I. I got a pair of duo-colored (part cobalt blue) frames that I’ve noticed for a long time, and we perhaps assuage my longing for the cobalt blue frames lost in Yosemite long ago.
Katie and I went back Saturday morning, and she decided to get buffalo horn frames (with a two-color blue/white layering), a second pair of striking ‘secretary glasses’ and a pair of sunglasses that give her great coverage of her eyes. Afterwards, Katie decided to walk home and do some shopping on the way — an indication of how much her visual system has improved — and I went for a run at Minihaha Creek. I am up to running for 1:15-20 minutes at a time, although the problem with Minihaha is that cell reception is bad and I don’t get reliable distance estimates. I’d guess I’m doing between 5 and 6 miles — and what’s nice is that my legs feel fine the next day. No heel stiffness, no muscle soreness. I would like to get my running up to 90 minute, which would put me at or just over 10K/6 miles, and then plateau there.
We invited K over for dinner — since she is on her own as C has left for up north — but she later realized she had too much to do and couldn’t make it.
I spent the afternoon doing four things.
- Working on systematizing my piano practice. (In truth, I started this last evening on the porch.) What I want to do is make sure that I keep practicing things — particularly technical things — that I know I will need to know in the future. Examples include trills and tremolos, playing a repeated note with multiple fingers, doing rolled chords, remembering techniques for playing chords, etc. I also want to write down musical terms that I will want to know but will likely forget: ostinato, rondo, etc. Finally, I want to start learning that chord names for inversions, so I can tell them at a glance. Right now I can ‘see’ the base chord, but not the inversions. Perhaps there is some sort of online flash card thing that can help me… or perhaps I should just practice writing the notes.
- Some small household tasks — fixed security system, finished cleaning window fan, put in cleaned air condition filters, went to store for more sparkling water etc.
- Getting my office under a bit more control, by paying bills, filing things, and cleaning up my desk
- And making notes on rocks I collected on the north shore trip, and working on a good way to document them with photos. I’m unsure of many of the ID’s I made, and think that maybe I’ll be able to find help at the GSM meeting, or perhaps I should bring them along on the field trip. …Perhaps I will make the rock documentation another blog post.
Now (Sunday)
There are a number of planning things I want to work on today
- Plan to do the J T*g ACM Fellow endorsement
- Planning a long hike somewhere more distant some day this week
- Looking into Yosemite trip
- See how long to next DYL meeting
- Monday: Scheduling a dermatology appointment
- Monday: Contacting MacPhail
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