The house smelled good today. Janet was making me a slow cooker pot roast to eat while she was away. I did a load of laundry and did some bookkeeping on the computer once it became too hot to work outside. I definitely wasn't feeling very energetic today. I took a nap and was pleased that Dawn didn't immediately run away.
After lunch I went to the gym. It would have been insane to walk outside this afternoon. I think this was the hottest day of the year so far. The gym's air conditioning bill must be huge. They keep the place really cold. This is fine by me. I like to exercise without sweating. I'm still surprised that I burn more calories shooting baskets than I do using some of the machines. This is good news because I can count shooting hoops as exercise instead of just having fun.
I've settled into a routine at the gym that probably won't change much. If the basketball court is empty, I'll use it first. I've learned that if I wait, I often miss my chance. I'll be doing something else and a bunch of kids will arrive and start a pickup game. After shooting free thows, I'll use the indoor track for a while. The number of miles I walk varies. I'll walk less if I already have quite a few steps when I arrive at the gym. I'll walk more if I still need to walk a few miles to get my self imposed minimum of 10,000 daily steps. I don't get 20,000 steps a day nearly as often as I used to. I'm getting older and it just doesn't seem worth the effort on many days. Depending on how much time I have left, I'll finish my workout by doing a few things that will improve my upper body strength. I need to do more of this because my upper body strength is abysmal.
I really need to work on my balance. I read an article recently that said if you couldn't balance on one leg for at least ten seconds with both arms at your side, you were likely to die within ten years. That sounded pretty harsh, but it's very difficult for me to balance on one leg for ten seconds. I always thought it was just because I had weak ankles, but maybe there's a lot more going on. At any rate, I'm going to work on my balance. It couldn't hurt.
The little bird whistle for the Alessi tea kettle arrived in the mail today. It pleases me to be able to fix little things like this. A big project for me is putting a new hard drive in a computer or learning how to use the star tracker. Huge home improvement projects are out of my league. I don't even want to think about the big stuff. We still need a new roof, major sheet rock repairs, and some carpentry work on the exterior siding. A huge Oak tree needs to come down as well. Lord knows when this stuff will get done. I really hate dealing with the contractors and workmen you need for big projects. Fixing a tea kettle is more my style.
I'm really tired of turning on the television in the morning and hearing about politics. This is not what I'm worried about. Where are the stories about giant solar flares that could wipe out the entire power grid? These solar storms have happened before and will happen again. Where are the stories about global crop failures? What happens if the giant volcano under Yellowstone National Park explodes? I guess I like astronomy because it tries to deal with the big things. The little things are like mosquito bites. They are irritating, but we'll probably live.
I'm going to try to get to bed earlier tonight. We have to get up really early tomorrow so we can walk Dawn before Janet leaves for the airport. I hope that Dawn decides to get along with me. It's going to be a long week otherwise.
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