Sunday, February 16, 2014

Ignore This Space

Today's entry is probably going to be a bit rambling, more like a diary entry or something than anything worth reading.  So skip it if you like, this is mainly my effort to maintain the habit I'm trying to build.  I'm not quite two weeks in, and I don't want to break the chain this early.



Generally speaking, this has been a pretty good day.  I've done things I needed to do, and pulled them off pretty much successfully.  However, energy wise it's a total wash out.  Most of the day, I've been exhausted physically and mentally, unable to really get any momentum going.  The fact that I've left off writing until after 5 pm is a testament to that, since I usually get it done before lunchtime.  Needless to say, I'm not expecting to create great art with this one.

It's hard to pin down exactly what put me in this state.  Certainly I got plenty of sleep despite a rather insistent cat who wanted attention, both as I was going to sleep and again when I was trying to avoid waking up.  But Zilo is getting old and approaching the end of her life, so getting attention is becoming a more and more important thing to her and she's not shy about it.  Even so, I still got at least 8 hours so nothing to complain about there.  Hell, I didn't even get to bed late, at least not for a Saturday night.  Only a half hour off my norm, so I can't blame unusual rhythms.

Can't blame alcohol either, although I'm the sort who doesn't get hangovers.  Due to the concert the night before, I hadn't had a drop since I rarely drink when I go out on my own.  Altogether it's a mystery.

I any case, it's prevented me from doing a few of my daily activities which has me a bit down.  Writing, for one.  While it does make me happy to actually get started and the act of typing puts me in the mood for more typing, I know that this is little more than a token effort to fulfill my minimum self-obligations.  It's hard to take much pride in that.  I haven't done stair climbing either, and it seems likely that I'll be letting my daily drawing lapse for another day to boot.  

On the other hand, it's not like I got nothing done.  Indeed, despite everything I actually did manage to get my other fitness challenges, wall sits and plank pose, taken care of in a timely fashion.  Trouble was, they affected me a lot more intensely than normal and I was still feeling it a half hour later, which meant I was ended up pushing my daily meditation back almost until it was time to go out.  I really need to be doing more exercise than just the three activities I have in my Dailies it seems.  Also, lesson learned: wall sits are evil.

In any case, I was able to get out on time to accompany my roommate in bottling some wine for her.  A few years back the LCBO, the government-owned liquor stores in Ontario, was under threat of a strike.  At that time, my roommate and I both went in on a regular basis to buy wine.  In my case I like to have some red wine on the weekend (and only the weekend) while my roommate has white wine but spreads it through the week.  However, faced with a sudden shortage, we decided to look for an alternative.  That alternative turned out to be only a few blocks away from the LCBO that we normally went to, a little bottle-your-own place called Wine Botega.  

I can't say enough good things about the bottle-your-own experience.  For the sake of a little bit of inconvenience in having to do the bottling and arranging for storage, we gained access to a much higher quality of wine for half the price we were spending at the liquor store.  Needless to say, our patronage of the mainstream shops stopped pretty much dead.  The only reason I go in at all now is if I need beer for a recipe or if one of us wants something special like the Baileys I bought myself for Valentine's Day (although I'd originally planned to buy some for Xmas...I tend to procrastinate a bit).  it's a good deal, and it's nice to know there's a basement full of the stuff any time I happen to want or need some.  

That accomplished, and thinking about the exercise issue from earlier, I requested a stop near the wine shop.  Namely, a sporting goods store that I've been into a couple of times in the past where I bought something that honestly I never really expected to get.  A yoga mat.

I feel so damn suburban, I own a yoga mat.  Next I'll be going into Lululemon or something and listing to nature sounds CDs.  The shame is crushing, I tell you.

Well, it's not really that bad.  Fact is, I've wanted to learn yoga or something similar for a very long time, partly because of the general health benefits but specifically to improve my flexibility.  Ever since I was a teenager I haven't been all that flexible although I doubt other people particularly notice.  The important part is I notice and it bothers me.  So when I took a moment to think about what my actual goals were in terms of fitness, it was natural to look at the goal I've carried with me the longest and most consistently.  Become more flexible.  And yoga seems the obvious way to do it.

Another accomplishment, of a sort at least, was finally working up the determination to finally replace my blasted phone.  It's not that it's a bad phone or that it doesn't work right, not at all.  In fact I kind of like my phone.  However, Google in their infinite wisdom has decided to do everything in their power to make it a pain to use by requiring me to have apps that take up all the available space I have.  And worse, they're apps I don't want and will never use, like Hangouts.

This wasn't a problem when I originally bought my phone a couple of years ago.  But now what space was fine back then really isn't sufficient to cope with bloatware like Hangouts and the dozen other apps that I have to have and cannot remove.  Hell, I can't even move them to my SD card where there's lots of space, because presumably that would leave me with a workable phone that doesn't complain that it's out of space every time I turn it on.

Not left with any real options, it's time to upgrade.  Or rather to start the process of upgrading since first I have to settle my "tab" with my carrier before I can buy a new phone through them.  But that's only a matter of waiting a few days until my next bill is issued, so that's pretty minor.  

My current plan is to get a Samsung S III if you're interested.  Compared to what else is in my price range, it seems like the most bang for my buck, and unlikely to cause me similar problems in the immediate future.  

Looking back on the day, despite the whole feeling crappy and wanting to just chuck my obligations in favour of chilling out and playing games or something, I suppose it comes out to a net gain.  I've made some decisions, done some useful things, and laid the groundwork for improving my quality of life.  Can't really ask for more than that on a chilly Sunday in February, can you?



1 1/2 time segments

1295 words

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