Search This Blog

Friday, May 13, 2016

Detour!

I left the house yesterday morning with the full on intention of simply walking up to the mailbox to post some bills and then over to the corner store to pick up the newspapers. What happened?

Highjacked – the brill weather is to blame. There was no other choice but to take a right instead of a left and walk onward. I panted and sweat my way up Great Hill over to Nut Island (not actually an island, though it once was – now it's a slim spit of land hanging off the edge of Hough’s Neck). It was gorgeous. Blindingly so. From there I ducked down Nut Island Ave and scrambled over the boulders to Parkhurst Beach.

Scrambling – I’ll never be mistaken for a gazelle or even a great lumbering, brown bear. Getting up the hills and over the rocks is much more of a challenge than ever. Some of this is assuredly due to my no-balance-nerve state of being but the other bit is that I’m just flat out, outta shape. Oh yeah and I’m 57 too. Damn!

The getting in better shape thing I can do. Gotta mix more rock scrambling into the daily routine. Given that we’re finally in the brill part of spring – 70º sunny days, YEA – that’s très doable.

As for the dearth of balance nerves – I can’t manufacture new (DAMN!) BUT regular clambering will train up my body memory. I seem to say this every spring and then what happens?  I mostly ride. When I trike, I feel whole. My mega wonky balance isn’t an issue when I’m pedaling. Yes, this is exercise and yes there are hurdles (hills! distance! rough roads!) but it’s all straight up – that is, my challenges are no more than any other late middle aged, not-a-gym-rat babe would experience. It’s entirely too easy to skip other, necessary workouts – just strap on my helmet, sit down on my three wheeled steed and GO.

Another reason to get up to speed balance-wise is that I’d like to go on more walks with my pal Jenny out in Arizona. OK, OK, I know that I’ve said that it’s not the the hiking that I love, it’s the views, the scenery. Sadly, the greatest, bestest vistas generally need to be trekked, not triked to.

A walking stick is a good idea. I found this cool looking cane – a staff really – while cleaning the other day. A woodworking acquaintance gave it to me. Kind of Gandalf-y in'nt? Yeah, I'm diggin' this. Now I just need to remember to wear decent hiking sneaks. Yep, that'll be a big fat serious challenge for me.

Alright, here's a confession – I also want to sharpen my balance so that I don't seem like such a weak, lame goose. I truly love that my friends and family lend me a hand on stairs, hills, rocky outcroppings and ferocious curbs but, at the same time, it reminds me that I'm no Nadia Comaneci. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a MAJOR understatement but I can work towards developing the abilities I've got left.

Dammit.

3 comments:

  1. Donna, I wanted you to know that I continue to love reading your blog. I should just comment on each post because more often than not, I 100% concur, agree, sympathize, learn some new tidbit, and enjoy a good chuckle, or go 'awwww' at your feline fraternizing. But time gets away from me, at work, in front of the computer for much too long, so I read and move along. Now I am left with wanting to pile up all of these comments on your recent posts:

    Congrats on the good TAB health news!
    I am part of a monthly small meditation group were we talk about buddhist-y things. The topic of 'wise speech' came up. Wise speech is all about listening. I sent the group the link to your 'Conversational Narcissist' post. Just thought you should know.

    Regarding stress reduction, have you considered Interpretive Dance? ;) For some reason that popped in my head when I read your tension hangover post and needing to get more deliberate with meditation. (Don't get me wrong, I can truly say that meditation helps me mega mega much.) When I googled 'interpretive dance' I saw some very funny things. I don't really know why this popped in my head but do we know the 'why' of anything, really?

    I'm so happy that Trike (for you) and bike (for me) season is back. And that brings me to today's post, Detour! My honey took a Spin class several months ago and I'M inspired but what she said he said: 'in a few minutes it's going to get really hard. I want you to imagine/visualize right now, what you are going to say to yourself/why are you doing this Dig deep. why are you doing this?' When I did something physically hard a few days later, it became clear that I wanted to be able to be with the friends that I love. That clarity of motivation/visualization has stayed with me ever since. Not to say that I don't have sloth-y days, but overall I think you get it.

    And oh...then I thought, I get Interpretive Dance is good for balance too!

    And that's that for now. From a virtual friend from afar, Wendy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. typo..I 'BET' interpretive dance...

      Delete
    2. Thank you SO much Wendy!

      Interpretive dance :-) That's part of my communication arsenal http://donna-tellmeastory.blogspot.com/2016/02/whine-snivel-kvetch.html

      I should def give it a shot for stress reduction and balance too. I've been told thai chi works too.

      Also too, THANK YOU!

      Delete