Monday, January 29, 2018

Soon To Be A Wintry Night

We have upped the intensity of my workouts and we began this in earnest this week. Hello planks and additional time with bug and doing ropes. I love the challenge. Taylor added yesterday some footwork, work. He brought over the footwork ladder and dropped it by the equipment we were using to improve balance and correct mechanics for bending, kneeling and picking up stuff....yes, functional fitness. I couldn't concentrate on what I was supposed to do because that footwork ladder had my attention. Finally, to get me to focus on the task at hand, Taylor assuaged the fear letting me know the work would be more like dancing than a football drill. Whew, thank goodness none of my Baptist friends were there working out. The exercise was quite fun as well as functional. Taylor is a great trainer because he figures out what approach works best with each one of his clients. We might all be doing the same kind of work but he has a gift with the aspect of what motivates. For me it has to be more like play or a game which seems counter intuitive to my word of the year results...because results holds the thought of nose to grindstone kind of thinking...well as long as it is fun, the results come. This February holds the one year anniversary of working with Taylor and he has done so much in helping me find balance and achieve more functionality in daily life. Last year, before surgery, as I prayed and asked God to arrange, just like in Jonah, for paths to cross with those who would help me in the recovery process and Mark 6, cause these knees were as good as dead. God has been faithful in all of this. So grateful and thankful. I told him yesterday once this atrial flutter gets fixed....lookout world. Hoping to leave "hesitation" in the dust.

This week I also paid a visit to The Baked Pie Shop in Reynolds Village. Now that seems strange to write about in the very next paragraph about working out. The original shop is in Arden and well, anything not to be on I 26 south of Asheville stopped me from every visiting. The choice of pie is plentiful but it is the atmosphere they have created that makes me think this will be a good place to get coffee and take a moment. The walls are lined with bookcases, with books and there are board games and fun things for kids to play with. It is a nice sized space but it feels cozy.

This morning the Feral Fam has been sleeping in or they have beenI at their other place...wherever that might be. Only Mama Cat and MJ were out later this morning, so I took them some dry food. It always kind of bothers me when I don't see Cali because she is usually close to Mama Cat. MC looked a little weary today so who knows what kind of battles or nights these cats have to survive. I daily remind myself that I am doing my best to help them and there is no control beyond that. But that Cali cat is the cutest little thing, much smaller than Camo and MJ. With the Feral Fam going back up to the tent of napping area, the cardinals, titmouse, house wrens, blue jays and mockingbirds are having a field day in the back yard. There must be ten to twelve cardinals out back right now.

It is looking like rain is a coming on this overcast but not too cold of day. Yesterday, although the temps were in the 50's, the wind brought a biting cold as it whipped around the house and the trees.
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The talk today is are we getting snow? I don't know? Sounds like if we get any it will be a dusting and less than an inch. The birds are in a rush today to eat at the feeder. If you look at the sky today, no hint of snowy weather but it looks like around 8:00 pm is when the snow will begin.

Today was another good workout with Taylor. We are focused on the connecting muscles around my knee and strengthening them and along with the usual work, I worked on a lot of balance and making my lat muscles work. The bonus, I got to meet their family's cat who would soon be on her way for neutering at the clinic. No, the real bonus was seeing my tall friend before my workout with Taylor. After working out I ran by Walmart to pick up some salad kits and a flatbread pizza. I have some blackberries I froze this summer thawing and thinking about how I am going to use them once they thaw.

I went to Sunday School yesterday but didn't stay for church. Once again I am trying to keep free from a cold or the flu and so far living in antibacterial hand sanitizer continuously helps. Came straight home and had lunch. Brenda stopped in quickly with a gift for me from her daughter and also some homemade French Onion Soup, which I had for lunch today and it was fabulous! We also shared some Baked Pie Shop pie, hers was all about the chocolate and mine was about the coconut. Lisa and Dena were also meeting for lunch back in Houston along with Malcolm and afterwards Lisa called and got me caught up with everything. Last year we all went to lunch together right around the same time.

For some reason on Saturday I got to thinking about the church that I grew up in. Several years ago the church celebrated fifty years and the history of how the church was formed, staff members through the years and a list of the charter members. I knew my parents were charter members but I didn't realize I was considered one as well. The first time around the good ol' baptism thing didn't take but when I was 16, that all changed and the second dunking was a keeper. That is why when I have gone to Israel I don't get baptized in the Jordan River, cause the second dunk took. Don't want to mess with that. One of the pastors and his family tragically died in a small plane crash in south Texas. He was only thirty nine years old but to me he seemed so old, but then I was a child. He wasn't the church's pastor when he died but he had brought so much life to the church by having a young, dynamic music minister. Out that choir experience as a student one of the most talented women for staging and music came from that era and her gifts were used at First Baptist in the Christmas Pageant. My memories of growing up in that church are not particularly fond but I do have some good memories from different times there. You know like sitting in the back of the church with other young people, laughing too much over adding "underneath the sheets" to hymn titles...You know like, Just As I Am...underneath the sheets. I was in GA's, went to training union and I went to children's choir for a little bit...it is kind of how I am with choir, enjoy it, love my friends, but it is not the sweet spot for me, never has been, yet I love it. The pews had pinkish/reddish cushion with raised fibers in the upholstery. Man, if you didn't get your dress underneath the bottom of your legs while seated, you came away with a cushion decoration of crisscrosses and a bit of a burn. When the main sanctuary was built the color scheme tended toward mint green and softer cushions.

The sun is setting and soon darkness will cover over the country out here. Saturday night someone was shooting or setting off fireworks. Maybe it was gunfire. Hopefully, someone was out there killing coyotes. I hear a lot of gunfire around here, but usually it is on a Saturday afternoon, farther in the distance.












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