Sloth recovery

We had a very pleasant three-day weekend, which was capped off by a lengthy Labor Day celebration at the beach/barbecuing with friends and family. I think because of the daylong fun, I had the energy level of an elderly, narcoleptic sloth on Tue and Wed. I accomplished diddly. So I've been trying to remind myself that I am far from elderly or delicate. We hail from Hiroshima farming stock! We don't lounge on the sofa crying with Oprah or sleep in until noon, we work! We till and we plow until we're 85 years old and then we retire and only work in the fields for 40 hours a week instead of 60.

So first, I cooked a few meals for the rest of our week. Nothing fancy, just a few basic salads, pasta with pesto/veggies and tacos for Rich. Though I'm unable to produce delicious fare, I do pride myself on providing ample fare. I admit I feel great satisfaction anytime I see a neatly stacked tower of meal containers for Rich and Ryan in the fridge.  

Secondly, after thinking about it for 2-3 weeks, I finally worked up the nerve to make a call to a company in town in an attempt to get more rain barrels. Originally, I'd hoped to use them to create an outdoor shower. That is, until I glanced down into one of them this weekend and saw all the debris that had settled into the bottom of the barrel- insect bodies, gravel residue from the roofing shingles, dirt (and I'm sure...bird/lizard poop). Picturing all of that gunk flowing onto my head and dribbling into my mouth quickly eliminated the fantasy of having an exotic, open air, outdoor shower. I mean, it'd be fine during Armageddon (provided you're up to date on all your hepatitis shots), but that's about it. IF I'm able to get more barrels, my new plan is to use one as another rain collector, the other as a lanai planter box dedicated to herbs/greens.  

After some vacuuming and laundry (which I detest), I headed out into the garden to plant some new spinach seeds (my newest hope) and tend to my new pineapple patch. I had dug out a few holes in anticipation of buying a few pineapples over the next few weeks, but we were given three pineapples by two different friends over the last week! Despite my (admittedly mediocre) efforts, our garden is still in pretty sad shape. My kale is getting powdery mildew, there is rust on my plumeria, an insect is devouring my eggplant leaves and my tomatoes and green bell peppers both have some kind of a disease. I hopped online to try and figure out some solutions to help improve the health of my poor, green friends...but I really need to befriend a master gardener. Sadly, neem oil (my only weapon) cannot save everything.

Today I also wrapped up my third day in a row of moving my body. I did 5 this AM with my friend R, a slow 4 yesterday with Rich (for the first time in months),  and the day before with my friend Y we ran 6. Tomorrow, my friend V and I will attempt 14, the longest I've done in a year due to my injury, It will look slow and ugly, but I'll be thrilled if I can get it done. I'll feel a little bit like a distance runner again if I can crank out a distance longer than a half.

Oh, I also weighed in this morning, and I continue to just kill it in the weight loss department! I'm down one, maybe two pounds (on a good day) after 5-6 solid weeks of trying to eat healthier.  At this rate, I might lose five pounds in as little as ten to fifteen years! Girlfriend is on fire.

It's funny, as I'm re-reading this, I realize how much my work pace mirrors my running pace. Plodding. Steady. Never impressive, always mediocre...but I move along. ;-) And I'm perfectly happy with that.