Rainbow Dragon's Lair

Nevetharine

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Viking from The Depths
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Posts: 879
At 41C Environment Canada issues Extreme Heat Warnings telling everyone to get the frak out of anyplace that does not have AC and go somewhere that does. They tell you to keep your children inside, refrain from doing any physical labour outside, check on your elderly relatives to ensure they have not died of heatstroke, and assist anyone who may need help in getting to an air conditioned location to do so. Hospital emergency departments go on alert to prepare for the influx of heatstroke patients they are going to get. 41C is considered a dangerous health hazard here.

It happens in some provinces in South Africa too. Then we, who grew up here in the semi-desert Northern Cape province, just laugh at them. 😂 Here it's from extreme to extreme. Up to 42 in summer and as low as -9 in winter.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
Here it's from extreme to extreme. Up to 42 in summer and as low as -9 in winter.
Here -9C is not considered extreme by a long shot.
In Southwestern Ontario, the temperature or windchill needs to be expected to reach -30C for 2 hours or more before we get an extreme cold warning. And we are the wimpiest jurisdiction in all of Canada on that front. There are places up north that don't get an extreme cold warning unless the temperature is expected to drop to -55C.

We get a heat warning if the daytime high is expected to top 31C (or the humidex to top 42) for 2 days in a row without cooling to less than 21C overnight in between.
Southwestern Ontario is pretty middle of the road for Canada on this metric. Some places here get a heat warning for expected temperatures as low as 28C, and one area doesn't get a heat warning unless the temp is expected to reach 35C.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
February 28:

60 Days of HIIT: day off
Power Hold: day off
running: 3 km
hiking: 6 km with Shelby, 4 km errands

The temperature dropped rapidly this day. The temperature was still double digits above freezing when I first woke up, but by dinner time had plummeted to below freezing with a windchill of -12. Because of this, I went out for my run early. Then Shelby and I had our walk. We could not go to the trail behind the school, due to our walk being during school hours. But that was okay. We did extra laps of the Fit Park trail, where we met up with Shelby's friend Hendrix and walked with him for a bit. The wind was strong all day, and the sky grew quite dark and ominous when we were out on the trail. I thought we would get caught in a storm for sure. But nope. We made it home dry.

I ended up going out in the cold weather late afternoon anyway, to fetch groceries. I decided hauling groceries home on my back, plus my run, and walk with Shelby earlier in the day was enough for this day on the workout front.

writing: short story, genre research, craft study
new fiction words: 435
fiction YTD: 30,950
story-a-week challenge: 6 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 6 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 1802
consumable YTD: 70,166
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 119,416
deficit: 49,250

French: Netflix

GOBOT :v:
GBOT :x:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 116
Consecutive days of French study: 1198
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: 35
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
February 29:

60 Days of HIIT: day 19
Power Hold: day off
Ankle Recovery: 2 x DP, calf raises one-legged
Talk to the Hand: DP (each side where applicable)
Hand Tendons: 2 x DP
running: day off
hiking: 6 km with Shelby

A brisk day, but sunny. Shelby made another new friend: a poodle named Wesley. We saw lots of birds in the field behind the school: at least 80 American Robins, over 100 Common Grackles, and a Northern Flicker. Robins are considered by many to be a quintessential sign of spring here--even though many are resident year-round pretty much everywhere in Ontario south of Lake Superior. We have some flickers who reside here year-round as well, and in the far south where I live, even a few grackles. But I'd not seen any flickers behind the school over the winter, and robins and grackles in the numbers we saw them in this day are definitely migrating flocks heading back north.

I skipped my run this day because I had great plans to do some cooking with all the lovely groceries I hauled home on Wednesday. But I ended up eating leftovers and having a nap instead.

writing: short story, genre research, business study
new fiction words: 397
fiction YTD: 31,347
story-a-week challenge: 6 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 6 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 682
consumable YTD: 70,848
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 121,440
deficit: 50,592

French: Netflix

GOBOT :x:
GBOT :x:

Oh, the plans I had had for this magical mystical leap day--as if it was some kind of bonus day on which I could be amazingly productive. But I ended up napping in the afternoon and then napping again in the evening, and then not being tired at all at my usual lights out time but fantasizing that I would still get to sleep at a reasonable hour. So I did not do any cooking or even much on the writing front but instead watched a bunch of extra Netflix in French and then listened to a bunch more writing lectures which were interesting but not immediately pertinent to anything I'm working on at the moment, and then finally got to bed way late again. I have got to get my sleep schedule back on track and then keep it there, because I have a hard time resetting when I allow it to get messed up.

The good news is that, while my short story for the week will not be finished today, I am much farther along with it than I was with last week's story at this time last week. So I have hope that, if I can just stay awake during the day so that I'm actually tired at night, I may be able to keep to decent hours this weekend.

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 117
Consecutive days of French study: 1199
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: 36
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 1:

60 Days of HIIT: day 20
Power Hold: day off
15 minutes restorative yoga
running: day off
hiking: 6 km with Shelby

We saw a flock of Tundra Swans flying overhead on our walk this day. These birds breed in the far north (on the arctic tundra, hence their common name). They winter mostly south of me, on the east and west coasts of North America. The eastern birds migrate through my area in large flocks on their way north every spring.

DSCN1246.JPG

DSCN1244 copy.jpg


writing: genre research, business study, business webinar
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 31,347
story-a-week challenge: 6 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 6 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 510
consumable YTD: 71,358
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 123,464
deficit: 52,106

French: Netflix

GOBOT :x:
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 118
Consecutive days of French study: 1200
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: 37
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 2:

60 Days of HIIT: day off
Power Hold: day off
10 minutes yoga
running: day off
hiking: 6 km with Shelby, 3 km errands

writing: genre research, business study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 31,347
story-a-week challenge: 6 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 6 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 0
consumable YTD: 71,358
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 125,488
deficit: 54,130

No writing this day. But I did do more research. And I finally got my cooking done! Made a batch of black bean brownies, a huge kale pasta casserole, some egg salad, tofu curry, a cherry crumble, and cooked up a big pot of rice and one of quinoa. Yum!

French: Netflix

GOBOT :v:
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 119
Consecutive days of French study: 1201
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: 38
 
Last edited:

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 3:

60 Days of HIIT: day 21
Power Hold: day off
Sore Feet: 2 x DP, did the calf raises one-legged
Wrist Pain: DP (each side where applicable)
Hand Tendons: 2 x DP
running: day off
hiking: 6 km with Shelby

Today we saw a red-tailed hawk at our little subdivision pond. Unfortunately I could not get close enough to get good photos in the grey light. (For a big predator, these birds are awfully skittish around humans and excited, panting dogs.) In the second photo you can at least see the reddish colour of the undertail in flight, which is where this bird gets its common name.

DSCN1258.JPG

DSCN1253.JPG

On the trail behind the school Shelby tried to make friends with a small white dog named Molly. But Molly has had bad experiences in the past (has been attacked by other dogs multiple times) and was too afraid to greet Shelby. Her human gave Shelby a nice butt massage though. Shelby considered that an acceptable consolation prize.

writing: short story, genre research
new fiction words: 3842
fiction YTD: 35,189
story-a-week challenge: 7 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 7 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 4372
consumable YTD: 75,730
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 127,512
deficit: 51,782

Got my short story for the week finished with 2.5 hours to spare. So another late night. Also: I did not run all weekend, in spite of the weather being pretty decent for it. But I did get a lot of cooking done. Made up a big batch of butternut squash with black beans this day, on top of all of Saturday's cooking. I now have enough food in my refrigerator to enjoy three healthy meals a day, right through until next weekend, without doing any more food prep during the week. (Though I will likely still try to do some.) I also froze some of the surplus, so I now have five different options in my freezer, for a total of 24 meals, for days in the future when I don't have time to cook. (I decided I should build my freezer reserve back up so I will be able to continue to eat healthfully later this year when I will need to move house on top of keeping up with my writing and everything else.)

French: Netflix

GOBOT :x:
GBOT :x:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 120
Consecutive days of French study: 1202
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: 39
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 3 update on my mother:

On March 3 my brother wrote to me, "Today, for the first time in weeks Mum used her hands to do something purposeful. Unfortunately it was to pull her NG tube out."

Also unfortunately, my brother did not hear about this incident until after the tube had already been replaced. Had he known the tube was out, he would have requested a swallowing test while the tube was out as there has been uncertainty re: our mother's swallowing ability this week. First the staff thought she was doing better and were going to increase the amount of food she was getting by mouth. But then the SLP did a swallowing test and determined it wasn't safe for her to swallow at all. So now she is back to NPO.

Even when she was allowed to eat she wasn't eating enough. She definitely needs some kind of supplemental feeding to live. The new hospital doesn't yet seem as keen to switch her to a gastronomy tube as the old one was. But I do wonder if a g-tube wouldn't be better, given that we know the ng-tube is irritating to her. Also: she reportedly now has thrush, which her nurses had not noticed. (It was diagnosed because she complained to my brother of a sore throat, he told her doctor of this, and the doctor checked her throat.)

Her consciousness level is still up and down, but there were times this past week when she was quite chatty with my brother. Her voice is very weak now. He has to put his ear right in front of her face to hear her. But she was speaking in full sentences including at times using sophisticated sentence structures. Sometimes the things she says make sense. Other times they do not. The doctor this week said it "would take some time" for her to become more lucid.

My brother has at times thought she was in distress when he observed her shaking or quivering while unconscious/barely conscious. But when she speaks, other than complaining about her throat, her words don't indicate distress. She mostly says things like, "We've had exposure to the sun today," and "I've had thoughts in my head about if there is any ice outside," or she asks for things that she wants, like a drink. Once when my brother told her everything would be okay, she replied, "I'm not worried."

Overall she appears to be improving cognitively, but still getting weaker physically.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 4-10: (A summary post for the week. Because I lost the plot for a bit there and really it would not be helpful to invest time in detailing out the blow-by-blow at this point.)

60 Days of HIIT: :v: - days 22-24
Power Hold: :x: - am I even still doing this one? my resistance to doing push-ups is super high these days
Posture: :v:
Sore Feet: :v:
Ankle Recovery: :v:
Wrist Pain: :v:
Talk to the Hand: :v:
Hand Tendons: :v:
Posture and the hands and feet workouts I always do with DP, substitute one-legged calf raises for the two-legged ones, and for the final exercise in Posture I do hip circles instead of just standing at the wall.

yoga: :v: - some active, some restorative, all self-led stuff--I did not follow any videos all week and have not done so for some time now (important to remember when it comes time to renew--or not--the one service which is a subscription)

running: :v: - once only. did a 5K on Tuesday. the other days I mostly skipped due to being tired and not wanting to face the miserable weather. except one day when I didn't run because the weather was lovely, and I spent too much time birding with Shelby to have time for a run

hiking: :v: - with Shelby every day, usually our 6K, but one day S got shorted due to bad weather, and a couple of days she got extra. I also did my usual walking for errands. Shelby was brave about the bad weather, patient with my birding (mostly) and made some new friends.

writing: craft and business study, business webinar, genre research, short story
new fiction words: 6978
fiction YTD: 42,167
story-a-week challenge: 8 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 8 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 8333
consumable YTD: 84,063
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 141,680
deficit: 57,617

Whelp. I wrote my entire short story on Sunday this week. All 6978 words of it. Which only proves that I can hit the word count goal I have set for myself this year. I just need to stop pissing around and actually do it. (I cannot write 7K words every day. I need to also allow time for research, for study, for publishing and submission and eventually promotional tasks. Plus I need to cook, wash dishes, clean my floors, do laundry--all things which did not happen on Sunday due to needing to write all day. But 2024 words a day is perfectly manageable. I just need to make some changes to enable myself to get there.)

French: Netflix - a lot of Netflix. My subscription ends in 2 days, and I wanted to watch to the end of a series I have been following. (There is also one series I have been re-watching in English for genre research purposes.) Keeping up with my French study is going to take more focus on my part once I lose access to Netflix. I'll also be spending less time on it. I want to keep up with my French. But I cannot justify allowing it to take time away from my writing any longer. I need to build a livable source of income, and my French skills are a long way away from being able to work in the language.

GOBOT :x: :x: :x: :x: :x: :x: :v:
GBOT :x: :v: :x: :x: :x: :x: :x:

I lost the plot here in a big way. (As in: I pulled an all-nighter to play Wingspan. By myself.) There are some hugely important life resources that I am lacking in big, scary, stressful, upsetting ways these days. But the one hugely important resource that I have in spades is my excellent health. I have been doing pretty well at protecting it in terms of eating well, exercising regularly, and taking contagion precautions. But maintaining a regular sleep schedule is also important to maintaining good health, and I have been neglectful of this in completely unnecessary and unwise ways recently. I need to do better.

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 127
Consecutive days of French study: 1209
Consecutive days of no solo gaming before work: :x:

Yup. Completely crashed and burned on the whole "no solo gaming before work" thing last week. I even gamed solo on Sunday before finishing my work (before even starting it, actually) even after gaming online with my friends for two hours first, and knowing that I needed to write an entire short story that day.

:facepalm: :smash::giveup:

I need to try something different. Making gaming a reward for good behaviour didn't work, because when I didn't earn the reward for many days in a row, I grew resentful of this fact and started to want the reward more and more. Also: there is a lot of stress in my life right now. There are times when I just cannot focus on mentally challenging work. I need to take breaks. And taking gaming off the table as a possible break activity only caused me to spend those times doing other things that I enjoy less.

So I'm going to shift solo gaming from a prohibited/prohibited-until-earned activity to a scheduled activity. Yes: I still need to get my writing done. But the amount I'm able to write on any given day fluctuates due to other constraints on my time. I need to respect this and learn to stay the course while also cutting myself some slack.

Also: I am very likely to be forced into a living situation where I have very little space later this year. But right now I have an enormous house that I'm sharing with no one but Shelby. (There is still a very large quantity of my parents' junk in the house. But I'm able to just shift that out of my way at present, and it will stay where I put it. There is no possibility for other people's mess to expand to fill any space I create at the moment.) I currently have access to an enormous dining room table that nobody eats at ever. It's half filled at the moment with legal documents pertaining to my parents' finances which I need to keep on hand because my brother and I are actively dealing with them. But I can easily free up half of the table to spread out even the most space-intensive of my board games. And I can leave a game set up there for days on end. I can play my big, meaty games that take over four hours to get through (which are the games I love the most) without needing to stay up half the night to finish them because the only place I had to set up the game was on the floor. So really: why don't I do this? Because then I'll likely actually spend less time gaming, but definitely enjoy it more!

Anyhow: going forward I'm not going to be tracking no-gaming streaks anymore. But I am going to track my GBOT streaks.

GBOT = screens off by 10PM and in bed by 11PM.

If I'm not ready for sleep by 11PM, I am allowed to read in bed (including on an e-reader--it has night-friendly lighting). Reading in bed won't mess up my sleep schedule because it actually tends to make me sleepy. Gaming in bed will not be allowed though. (Pulling an all-nighter because I set up a big, long game on my bed such that I've no room in which to sleep until I've finished it is not a healthful thing for me to be doing!)

If I miss GBOT for a social reason, it does not break my streak. (I am seriously starved for social interaction. I don't want to set up any restrictions which could impose limits on any time I would otherwise actually be able to spend with friends!) But missing GBOT to meet a writing deadline does break the streak. I need to schedule my writing time better such that I can hit my deadlines without missing GBOT.

I think that's about it for me for last week. The next two days will involve a lot of cooking, housework, and finishing the one Netflix series I'm re-watching for genre research purposes. Starting on Wednesday I'll get down to establishing my new and better-controlled schedule.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 11:

60 Days of HIIT: :x:
Power Hold: :x:
calf raises for @Deadoks 's birthday
running: :x:
hiking: - 6 km with Shelby

Our walk was very late this day. Didn't get out until after dinner. And still there was sunshine! So nice. I love being back on Daylight Saving Time! (The losing an hour of sleep to "spring forward" BS really sucks though. Please can we just do away with that crap and stay on Daylight Saving Time all year? Please?)

writing: genre research
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 42,167
story-a-week challenge: 8 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 8 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 1790
consumable YTD: 85,853
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 143,704
deficit: 57,851

Not a terribly productive day due to being tired and needing to take a nap to make up for lost sleep on the weekend.

French: Netflix

GOBOT :x:
SOOT: :v:
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 128
Consecutive days of French study: 1210
Consecutive days of SOOT: 1
Consecutive days of GBOT: 1
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 12:

60 Days of HIIT: :x:
Power Hold: :x:
running: 3 km
hiking: - 6 km with Shelby

Met a baby Dachshund on my run. She was a bit shy, so I sat down on the sidewalk to be less big and scary to her. Then she came over to greet me, but she had to do so on her own terms: climbing all over me (basically using my body as a jungle gym) but not looking directly at me.

The temperature got up to 15C today, which brought more people outside than usual. Lots of new friends for Shelby, plus a couple of old ones (the Spaniel twins, Casey and Bailey). Two of my neighbours were outside talking when we headed out, and one of them offered Shelby a butt massage. Then the other one got jealous and tried to get Shelby to come to him. I told him Shelby would not abandon the first neighbour so long as he was massaging her butt. So then the second neighbour offered to massage Shelby's butt also. Shelby allowed this. But then she had to go back to the first neighbour for a second massage. And then she gave the second neighbour another chance to massage her butt too. It was like she was testing to see which one gave a better massage! (Pretty sure she thought the first guy, 'cause she did the butt massage happy dance for him both times. But the second guy gave it his best college try, and Shelby tried to be appreciative of that as well.)

writing: genre research - 5 episodes of Netflix show!
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 42,167
story-a-week challenge: 8 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 8 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 0
consumable YTD: 85,853
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 143,704
deficit: 59,875

Had to really power through to finish the Netflix show I was studying. Left hand was aching by the end, I took so many hand-written notes. I think it was a worthwhile study of the form though.

French: Netflix

GOBOT :v: - Sort of. Awoke way early and did some writing work and reading for two and a half hours. But then went back to bed for a bit.
SOOT: :x: - Screens off at 10:30 due to needing to finish up the last episode of the show.
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 129
Consecutive days of French study: 1211
Consecutive days of SOOT: 0
Consecutive days of GBOT: 2

I got most of my laundry done this day, but still no food prep. I ate through all the remainder of my leftovers (except for what I've frozen, which is meant to be saved for days with more pressing time-constraints than "I watched too much Netflix today"). This means Wednesday will now be my big cooking day, and I won't really be able to get solidly into writing this week's short story until Thursday. Still: I should be able to get it done without sacrificing GBOT this week so long as I actually do get down to work on it on Thursday.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
In Europe they made a big vote some years ago to stop changing the hours. but I don't remember if it was to keep the winter or the summer hour all year...
I hate this hour changes!
The spring time change is almost universally hated here. And lots of people feel as I do: that it would be better to remain on Daylight Saving Time year-round. There are a few people though who would loathe having to get up an hour earlier during the winter months and would advocate instead for remaining on Standard Time year-round.

I'm fairly certain year-round Standard Time would never happen here. (Here being the eastern time zone, which includes Quebec and most of Ontario--i.e.: the most populous region of Canada by far, where the bulk of those people live in the south. In most of Saskatchewan they actually do stay on standard time year-round.) In southern Canada where I (and most Canadians) live, it would be too wasteful of daylight to remain on Standard Time year-round. (Even on DST most people here sleep in past sunrise during the summer months and then stay up well past sunset.) As for remaining on DST all year: we will do it when the Americans decide to do it. (Toronto wants to keep time with New York, so I expect we'll continue to follow the Americans' lead, just as we did when the US adjusted their changeover dates a few years back to have a few extra weeks on DST.)
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 13:

60 Days of HIIT: day 25
Power Hold: :x:
Posture: 2 x DP
Sore Feet: 2 x DP, did the calf raises one-legged
Wrist Pain: DP (each side where applicable)
Hand Tendons: 2 x DP
running: :x: - too busy birding
hiking: - 6 km with Shelby

Another 15C day. My crocuses bloomed.

crocuses-gold.png

crocuses-white.png

(Actually, both of these clumps were up the day before, I just neglected to take a photo then. I also had one clump that bloomed last week, but then we had snow on Sunday.)

Shelby and I sat on the lookout hill to watch the birds for a bit.

Shelby-birder.png

This is also a good spot from which to look for new friends. Here Shelby spots a puppy taking 3 humans for a walk on the fit park trail.

Shelby-friendspotter.png

Hurry, Laura! We must go and meet my new friends!

Fortunately the lookout hill is not far from the Fit Park trail. We made it to the trail in time to meet up with Shelby's new friends. The puppy's name is Bo, and he was very excited to meet Shelby. Bo's humans were very strict with him about his manners, insisting that he must sit down and greet the elder dog politely. Bo did very well, considering he was so excited he was dancing on his butt! Shelby also made friends with Bo's humans.

Later we met another puppy on the same trail. She was more shy than Bo, but did greet Shelby briefly. Then we went to the trail behind the school where we met up with Shelby's friends Randy and Stella, and their friend Bridget who was visiting them.

Birds we saw/heard included: Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Killdeer, Bluejays, Northern Cardinals, American Robins, and Dark-Eyed Juncos.

writing: business study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 42,167
story-a-week challenge: 8 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 8 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 1465
consumable YTD: 87,318
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 147,752
deficit: 60,434

Other than the bird watching, this day was mostly a cooking day. I made tuna salad, chickpea zucchini nuggets, spinach tofu spaghetti, chickpea blondies, and banana muffins. I froze half of everything for my rainy day reserve. (Except for the blondies. I am going through those things like hot cakes these days!) I also cooked some lentils in preparation for making lentil loaf. Here is the thread where I've been posting about my cooking adventures: https://www.community.darebee.com/threads/darebeets-adventures.1357/

I did not get through all of my dishes this day. But I did end the day with fewer dirty dishes than I had at the start. Which was impressive considering how much cooking I got done. (And also necessary considering how many dirty dishes there were in my kitchen at the start of the day!)

French: Fluenz

GOBOT :v:
SOOT: :v: - Ye-ess. Yes? I'm saying yes.*
GBOT :v:

*I was still doing my DAREBEE workout after 10PM. I have Posture and all the hands and feet workouts printed out and taped to my wall. (I mostly know them all by heart now anyhow.) And the 60DoH workouts are easy enough to remember. But I use my computer for my timer. I did workout with the screen turned off. But then I had to turn it back on for a few seconds once I was done in order to see what I was doing to shut down the computer for the night. I'm calling this good enough for achieving SOOT.

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 130
Consecutive days of French study: 1212
Consecutive days of SOOT: 1
Consecutive days of GBOT: 3
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 14:

60 Days of HIIT: :x:
Power Hold: :x:
running: 3 km
hiking: - 6 km with Shelby

This day's forecast was for rain, rain, and more rain. Shelby and I went out for our walk first thing, as that was the only time of day guaranteed not to be raining. The house sparrows who hang out in the tall reeds in the marsh were very noisy. I have a cardinal who's been singing outside my bedroom window these past few mornings. But those sparrows! They must surely be serving as an alarm clock for at least half of the houses that back onto the Fit Park trail!

The trail behind the school was much quieter. But we did meet up with Shelby's friend Hendrix back there.

After our walk, I went back out for my run. It was a bit chilly, but I only felt a few drops of rain.

writing: business study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 42,167
story-a-week challenge: 8 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 8 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 1465
consumable YTD: 87,318
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 149,776
deficit: 62,458

Didn't get any writing done (just a bit of study) because this turned into another day of cooking and a long nap.

I had several cooking items still on my agenda for this day, and decided to go to the more expensive grocery store in town to pick up some flax meal so I didn't need to figure out how to substitute for that in the lentil loaf recipe. Plus I wanted to pick up a few other things that they don't sell at the discount store. It had mostly stopped raining by the time I headed out. But I decided to take the car anyhow since it had been almost 3 months since I'd used it. (We've had a pretty mild winter. And the car lives inside a garage. Still: these beasts should be driven occasionally.) Plus I thought I would hit up both stores, and it's kind of awkward to go into a grocery store already carrying a full bag of groceries on your back that you bought at another store.

I hadn't been to the more expensive store since the last time I had to go there to buy things for my mother back at the beginning of December. The sticker shock was... well... it was shocking. But I got the flax meal. Also anchovies, and the protein-enriched nut milk that I like, neither of which is sold at the discount store. I had been reminded before heading out that this day was Pi Day and had planned to make a tofu onion quiche to honour the occasion. But the expensive grocery store had nice big pineapples in great shape. They also had shiitake mushrooms (which I had not seen in months in either store). Since I already had all the other ingredients at home to make my favourite pie, I decided to make it instead.

pizzas-800.png

Just look at that beauty!:

pizza-800.png

(With 4 different kinds of cheese, @PetiteSheWolf :LOL: :eatall: )

I LOVE me a good pizza. But they are time-consuming to make. So I didn't get any other cooking done this day. And I definitely did not end the day with fewer dirty dishes than I started it with. But it was worth it!

I had initially planned to freeze three of the pizzas for my rainy day reserve. When I make pizza, I generally make it twice with not too long between the two occasions, because I only use half a pineapple per batch, and the other half won't keep fresh long once it's been cut open. But who am I kidding? I ate half of the first pizza as soon as it came out of the oven (at 10:30 at night!) and then ate the other half for breakfast the next day. And I won't have time to make pizza again now until at least Monday. (Plust I will need to go back to the store for more mushrooms and more spinach to make the next batch.) So I will allow myself one pizza to eat this weekend, and just freeze two of them. (This is still pretty disciplined of me, considering that it's pizza!)

French: Wingspan

This is maybe sort of a cheat? But also potentially useful. I have a French language copy of the Wingspan base game (which includes North American birds). And one of the occasions in which I'm likely to have cause to practice my French is when I'm birding in a birding hotspot like Rondeau. (Lots of people come down here from Quebec to bird there.) So it is helpful to learn and practice the French names for birds people are likely to see in these parts. On the other hand: I have played Wingspan enough that I have totally memorized the powers of all of the birds in the North American deck. I know what a card will do for me simply by looking at the picture. I also know what all the bonus cards are and can recognize most of them by the symbols printed on them. So I don't actually need to read any of the cards to play the game. Still, I have decided to allow playing with the French game to count as my French study provided that I actually read the cards I play instead of just looking at the pictures.

Likely I should have some rule to limit how often I count Wingspan as my French study. (Otherwise my French skills will end up limited to, "Salut! Je m'appelle Laura, et cet oiseau est un merle d'Amérique.") On the other hand: most of my opportunities for French study are online, and Wingspan is one method of practising my French skills I can do with my screens off. (Which I needed to do this night, as it was after 10PM.) So I'm not sure what the limitation should be. I will think on this some more.

GOBOT :v:
SOOT: :v:
GBOT :v: - but then I got out of bed again later to brush my teeth and put the pizzas in the 'fridge'.*

*Still: I'm counting this as a win. I mean: I was playing Wingspan. And I stopped after only one game in the interests of GBOT. For me, that is a win! (The part where I ate half a pizza at 10:30 at night was perhaps less winning. But it was Pi Day! So I get a pass, right?)

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 131
Consecutive days of French study: 1213
Consecutive days of SOOT: 2
Consecutive days of GBOT: 4
 
Last edited:

PetiteSheWolf

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Posts: 1,934
Lovely cheesy pizzas, yay! And it's funny you mention Wingspan, my Darling Nephew just discovered it and wants to play it with me and my dad (who is also an amateur ornithologist) :) And saying "c'est un merle d'amérique, c'est un bruant familier, et c'est un macareux" is just perfect as an ice-breaker, I say! ;)
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Lovely cheesy pizzas, yay! And it's funny you mention Wingspan, my Darling Nephew just discovered it and wants to play it with me and my dad (who is also an amateur ornithologist) :) And saying "c'est un merle d'amérique, c'est un bruant familier, et c'est un macareux" is just perfect as an ice-breaker, I say! ;)
Si je disais "C'est un macareux moine!" dans ma partie du monde, soit j'aurais tort, soit je redeviendrais célèbre. (Les macareux sont présents au moins au Canada. Mais pas en Ontario.) Cela vaut peut-être la peine d'aller sur la côte est pour essayer d'en voir un. Ils sont trop mignons!
 

PetiteSheWolf

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Posts: 1,934
Si je disais "C'est un macareux moine!" dans ma partie du monde, soit j'aurais tort, soit je redeviendrais célèbre. (Les macareux sont présents au moins au Canada. Mais pas en Ontario.) Cela vaut peut-être la peine d'aller sur la côte est pour essayer d'en voir un. Ils sont trop mignons!
J'en ai vu en Islande (plusieurs fois), trop chouette!!! Nous sommes sensés en avoir dans un endroit en bretagne où j'allais , la réserve des sept iles, mais là je n'en ai jamais vu.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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I am falling behind on here again! Was going to try to catch up tonight. But now it is too late, and I don't want to miss my screens off curfew. So instead I will leave you with this photograph of an American Robin / un Merle d'Amérique (Turdus migratorius) enjoying some late winter Sumac berries:

March15-robin.png

Yummy! (I have no idea if they are or not. But the birds love them!)

More tomorrow.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
Okay... Some summary posts to get caught up.

1. March 15-21 Fitness

60 Days of HIIT: days 26-30
Power Hold: :x:
dancing: 40 minutes - I must do more of this!
running: :x: - it's winter again!
hiking: - 53 km - mostly with Shelby, but also the usual errands

60 Days of HIIT is dragging more than I thought it would. Admittedly, I don't like the cardio days. Every time I do that type of exercise I think: Why aren't I outside running instead? Why aren't I dancing instead? Why aren't I doing martial arts instead? Or swimming/cycling/roller skating (okay: these three are weather-dependent, but sometimes they're available to me) instead? Or doing any number of other cardio-type activities that I actually like? But the cardio days are only 1/4 of the program. And I've been putting off doing--and sometimes missing--the other types of days too. And all the workouts in this program are short. And there's no counting. These should be the easiest of workouts to fit into my day.

Which tells me the problem is me. I'm in a bad head space. Dealing with a lot of stress and anger over my own situation. (The anger being largely related to the fact that almost nobody else is considering my situation at all, and some even seem to believe I am a bad person for considering it. Am I not a human being too? Does my health and happiness and well-being not matter as much as that of other people's in my family? Apparently not to some people. And yeah: I get that this is problematic thinking caused by their own demons. It doesn't have anything to do with me at all. But I still find it difficult not to be weighed down by it.)

In any case, I have done something every day--even if it was the bare minimum on some days. So I've kept up my streak. The dancing is wonderful and energizing and uplifting. I should definitely be doing more of it. The walks with Shelby are also wonderful and peaceful and remind me of the big important blessings in my life which I do still have. And we are doing more of it now that the weather is improving. (The weather actually hasn't been improving much this past week. There's snow out there today, and a winter weather travel advisory in effect for my area! But the general trend is at least towards more favourable weather for outdoor activities. And we're finally back to more hours of daylight than darkness in a day, which is always nice.)

Shelby and I have been staying out longer on our walks, taking some time to admire the birds. And of course to visit with Shelby's many friends, who are now legion. She made some new friends this past week, including a 14-week-old puppy named Nova who at first was shy but then soon discovered Shelby makes a fine friend, and a new human friend who is very good at giving butt massages. Shelby also made another puppy friend named Lake, who is just a couple of years younger than Shelby but who, sadly, has cancer. Lake is still doing her best though, to get out and about and enjoy her life, and she enjoyed meeting Shelby.

Shelby and I have also started this week to add in a second walk in the evenings. This is just a short walk (1-1.5 km thus far) before bed. It's still pretty cold out at that hour here, but the wind has usually died down. So it tends to be quiet and peaceful and a nice, relaxing thing to do before bed. Also: I made plans last night with my friend who we hike with during the warmer months to get back to doing our day hikes next month. So that is something to look forward to. (A large part of my bad headspace as of late is no doubt due to having been stuck in a town I dislike, with zero face-to-face contact with any human who I consider a friend, for over three months now.)

This is about it for the fitness front for the past week, I think. I'm going to keep pressing on with 60 Days of HIIT, but also try to add in more of the stuff I find fun and enjoyable. The weather will start to improve again here soon, which will make everything easier. So there are definitely things to look forward to on the horizon.

This weekend, the yoga school where I did my 200 hr. YTT is offering an online open house with free access for 48 hours to all of their online content. So I'm going to try to check that out. (Of course, the weekend is usually when I am madly racing to finish--okay, let's be honest here: finish, but also begin and write entirely--my story for the week. So here's some incentive to actually get it done early this week, so I can enjoy a weekend of yoga.)

I have more photos from Shelby's and my birding adventures of the past week, which I will post later.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
2. March 15-21 Writing

writing: business and craft study, short story #9
new fiction words: 6807
fiction YTD: 48,974
story-a-week challenge: 9 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 9 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 10,381
consumable YTD: 97,699
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 163,944
deficit: 66,245

Not much to say on the writing front for the past seven days except: same ol' same ol'.

My word count deficit against target increased again. But I am continuing to improve on this front. Last week's (Monday-Sunday) overall wordcount was my best of the year yet.

I completed story #9 on Sunday night (actually the wee hours of Monday morning in my time zone) of my challenge to write a short story a week every week for a year, and to write a total of 54 stories during my 54th year with just under two hours to spare. I once again wrote the entire story on Sunday. If memory serves, I did not even begin to work on the story until 4 or 5 PM.

I want to do better on this front. I do. But when push comes to shove, I just keep procrastinating.

I have been a procrastinator for a long time. A successful one. (Ten-year-old me used to function in this exact same way--except that deadlines back then were generally during school hours--not at 3AM! My parents were hyper-strict and did not allow me to stay up late in junior high or even in high school. So back then I would simply cut classes on the day an assignment was due and write it then. And get the top mark in my class for having done so.) This is the problem. I don't feel pressured to start any earlier because I know I can pull off a last-minute victory.

The trouble is that now I pay for it the next day. And the day after. And the day after that.

In uni I could pull an all-nighter, still be functional the next day, go to bed at a reasonable hour that night, and be back to normal by the next morning. Not so anymore. (I do remind myself of this fact when it's four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and I have done everything that day but begin work on the story I need to turn it that night. And yet still...)

Anyhow, I am hoping that this weekend's opportunity to check out Bri's latest YTT offerings will provide some incentive for me to get my story done a bit earlier this week at least. And then we'll go from there.

It is important to note that 9 short stories is more than I have written in any single year before since high school. And I have now done it in the span of only 9 weeks. This much, at least, is a definite victory!
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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3. March 15-21 French

Some Fluenz. Some Wingpan (a few games, but also just reading the cards, working on learning the French names for local birds). Some text translation for correspondence with friends on DAREBEE and Facebook. Not a lot of time spent on my French study overall. But this is okay. It's not meant to be a major focus in terms of how I spend my time at the moment. I just want to remain active enough with the language that my current skill level doesn't erode too much.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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4. March 15-21 Cooking

I ended up freezing half of my latest batch of chickpea blondies afterall, since I had some bananas which were not long for this world. So I needed to cook up another batch soon anyhow. Which I have since done. (And froze half of that batch too.)

I also went back to the store for more spinach and shiitake mushrooms and made four more delicious pizzas, two of which I have frozen.

I've also made a batch of blackbean brownies. I didn't freeze any of those since I prefer them cold to warm, and trying to get them defrosted to a fully-thawed but yet still chilled state would be time-consuming--which would defeat the purpose of freezing all this food to begin with.

I baked some whole wheat baguettes. Four mini-loaves, of which I have frozen one. I'm not a fan of bread that has been frozen. But I think it might be okay toasted, which is the only way I'd be eating that fourth loaf anyhow, trying to get through so much bread all by myself. So I decided to give it a try.

I finally made the lentil loaf which was the cause of the trip to the expensive grocery store to get flaxmeal. I froze half of that.

And I made a double batch of coconut chickpea curry, of which I froze half. (You can read my thoughts on the curry here. But in short: I liked it.)

What else? Ah, yes: cherry crumble. And some fish tacos. (But the tacos weren't batch cooking. I only made what I ate in the one meal.)

My kitchen is well-stocked with baked goods at the moment, but a bit sparse on other things. (Not counting the food in the freezer, which I don't want to have to dig into this weekend.) So I definitely want to get some food prep done today. Hopefully a tomato and spinach stew, a chicken curry, some tuna salad, and I would like to try the eggplant bites. Can I get it all done today? We shall see!
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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5. March 15-21 Sleep

GOBOT :v: :v: :v: :x: :v: :x: :v:
SOOT: :v: :v: :x: :v: :v: :v: :v:
GBOT :v: :v: :x: :v: :v: :v: :v:

This right here is why I want to eradicate my tendency to write all of my stories at the last minute. Because that one late night a week is messing everything else up. Even though I have made it to bed on time, and even made my screens-off curfew every other night for the past week, my sleep schedule is still messed up. I nap during the day. Then yes, I go to bed on time that night, but I end up staying awake reading--sometimes for hours. And then I sleep in the next morning. Or I actually fall asleep quickly, but then am wide awake the next morning at 4AM. And then I crash during the day again. My energy and mental focus levels are negatively affected. I eat at sub-optimal hours--including often late in the evening, which pretty much ensures that night's sleep will be messed up too. I just don't bounce back from a late night anymore like I used to. So yeah: this is definitely something to work on.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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March 22:

60 Days of HIIT: day 31
Power Hold: :x:
running: :x:
hiking: - 9 km with Shelby

The hazardous weather didn't materialize in my neighbourhood, which was nice. We had a bit of snow in the AM, but everything was clear by the afternoon. Cold, and with a ferocious wind. But no ice or visibility concerns. Shelby and I did our usual 6km in the afternoon, and then went out for another 3km before bed. The wind was calmer for our night walk (or perhaps just felt that way because we did not leave the subdivision. Part of the longer afternoon walk is on a trail that is completely wide open and so fully exposed to the wind. In the subdivision, houses provide some shelter from that.

We didn't see any birds on the storm water pond today other than seven Canada Geese. (I realize I haven't told you yet about the other birds we did see there last week. There have been a few ducks, although not nearly as many as in March other years. I will try to post photos later.) Perhaps the smaller birds were hiding out somewhere more sheltered due to the wind?

writing: business study, story submission
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 48,974
story-a-week challenge: 9 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 9 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 2591
consumable YTD: 100,290
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 165,968
deficit: 65,678

Just non-fiction writing this day. But I did get a story submitted to a market I wanted to try that has only limited windows for open submissions. The most recent one closed last night. So I needed to get that done.

(That market allowed up to 3 submissions per author for the submission period. But I only had one story that was short enough. This is something I need to work on. There are a lot of short story markets that don't accept anything longer than 5000 words. And for new/unknown writers, it's even worse: if faced with the choice between publishing one 5000-word story or three 1600-word stories, most markets will take the three shorter stories--unless the longer story is by a big name. Three stories = three authors = three fan bases to bring in more readers to the market. But I struggle to keep my stories under even 7000 words and often run much longer than that. The trouble is though: I much prefer stories in the 5000+ word range. I read a lot of anthologies. And the ones I like tend to be the ones that publish longer works. The short story authors who I love are ones who tend to write longer stories. Sure: a well-written piece of flash can be powerful. But most of the time I find really short stories--and especially anthologies/collections full of them--unsatisfying. So why write them? Except that they would help me to break into more markets. Which would help with discoverability for the larger volume of my work. Anyhow... I did have one short-enough story in this case, which I think is a fun story. So off it went. Now to get my spreadsheet updated so I can actually keep track of all of these stories I'm writing every week and which markets they're out to!)

French: CBC Gem

GOBOT :x:
SOOT: :v:
GBOT :v:

I got the eggplant bites made (so yummy) and also my tomato & spinach stew, and some garlic yogourt naan bread (also yummy, but it needs more garlic). I didn't have time to make the curry, and decided to take Shelby for a longer night walk instead of making the tuna salad. (Tuna salad is pretty quick to throw together. I'll have time to get that done on Saturday.) But I did get almost all of my dishes washed, which is always nice and, considering the backlog I had there at the start of the day, a pretty decent accomplishment.

All in all, this was a productive day. And I'm set to start work on my short story for the week first thing Saturday morning.

I received an email from the team at Aligned at 10AM PDT yesterday saying my free access weekend would start in 24 hours. So it looks like my suspicions were correct and the free access window will begin at 1PM my time on Saturday (10AM Pacific Daylight Time) and not at 2PM (10AM Pacific Standard Time--the time zone they keep advertising for the event). Not surprising. Bri's staff consistently get this mixed up. (Bri herself is based in the US most of the year. But her staff are not. Most of them live close to the equator in areas that don't observe Daylight Saving Time. I think the "S" in our time zone designations confuses them because in many jurisdictions an "S" in a timezone initialism refers to Summer Time. Not so in North America where it means Standard Time, and summer timezones are designated Daylight Time.) Not a huge deal for a 48-hour event. But it was a challenge when I was doing my YTT, and they kept advertising the wrong time for live sessions that only ran for one hour.

I'm unlikely to get my story for the week finished before 1PM (or even before 2PM, really), since I will take Shelby for her long walk in the morning and also need to visit the mail room at noon. But this is okay. I'll get it started at least, then alternate work on writing and yoga throughout the rest of the weekend and hopefully actually get my story finished without breaking GBOT this week!

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 139
Consecutive days of French study: 1221
Consecutive days of SOOT: 5
Consecutive days of GBOT: 5
 

Sólveig

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"ᚨ Ars longa, vita brevis"
Will there be UFOlogists studying such a glyph? Will they ever find out that they mean nothing and are just immature scribbles of toilet humor? That one seems to say "PEN*S!" because aliens are just as immature. The technology will always advance, but humor will always be one step behind.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Will there be UFOlogists studying such a glyph? Will they ever find out that they mean nothing and are just immature scribbles of toilet humor? That one seems to say "PEN*S!" because aliens are just as immature. The technology will always advance, but humor will always be one step behind.
And here I thought they were drawing us a picture of what they look like. An alien smiley-face greeting card:

alien-emoji.png
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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March 23:

60 Days of HIIT: day 32
Power Hold: :x:
yoga: some technique and mobility drills from the YTT training
running: :x:
hiking: - 9 km with Shelby

Another cold and windy day. We saw two Canada Geese, a pair of Mallards, and two female Ring-necked Ducks on the pond.

writing: craft study
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 48,974
story-a-week challenge: 9 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 9 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 981
consumable YTD: 101,271
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 167,992
deficit: 66,721

Not a lot of writing work, due to spending time on the YTT materials, plus two hikes with Shelby. (And definitely did NOT get my story written before the YTT access started.)

French: CBC Gem

GOBOT :v:
SOOT: :v:
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 140
Consecutive days of French study: 1222
Consecutive days of SOOT: 6
Consecutive days of GBOT: 6
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Posts: 2,225
"Striving to be the change."
March 24:

60 Days of HIIT: :x:
Power Hold: :x:
running: :x:
hiking: 12 km with Shelby

Another cold and windy day. Did not bring my camera on our morning walk since it was so cold. (The cold has been destroying my batteries, which are not cheap. And sub-zero temps aren't that great for the camera itself either.) Then we saw 28 ring-necked ducks on the pond! First day this year I have seen a big flock of ducks like that. A couple of geese were there too. Twenty-four of the ducks spooked when they saw me and Shelby and took off, but the other four were chill.

On the trail behind the school we met up with Shelby's friend Hendrix. He was heading over to the Fit Park trail for a time out from the other dogs, since he had had a disagreement with Cody over a stick. Shelby wanted to stay behind the school to meet up with her other friends, however. So we did the loop back through the wood lot. Cody and company had left by the time we got back there. But Shelby saw the puppy Golden, Bear, and his sister the Sheltie, Molly. Then we went back to the Fit Park trail where we met up with Hendrix again and did a few extra laps of the Fit Park trail with him. 9km in total for our morning walk. The other 3km we did before bed.

writing: short story #10
new fiction words: 4317
fiction YTD: 53,291
story-a-week challenge: 10 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 10 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 4317
consumable YTD: 105,588
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 170,016
deficit: 64,428

I finished my short story for week #10 of my challenge to write a short story a week every week for a year last night with three hours to spare. Which is earlier than in the previous few weeks but still later than I would like.

The last thing I have to do after writing the story and formatting it in manuscript format (well, not the last, last thing--that is find a market for the story, and then hopefully later additional reprint markets, and eventually self-pub it, etc.--but the last thing I need to get done during the week to keep up with my challenge) is to email the story to the person running the challenge. Which means I end up seeing my inbox late at night. Something I generally try to avoid for good reason. Anyhow... I saw my inbox, saw a message in there that, if it contained good news, I would want to act on right away. So I read it. (Even though I suspected it would not contain good news but rather news that would increase my anger quotient.) Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct. So, after reading that email, Shelby took me out for another walk (even though it was late at night and she had already gone to bed herself previously and she had already walked 9km that morning) to help calm me down and remind me of the important and good things in my life. (Like Shelby. Who is awesome.)

French: CBC Gem

GOBOT :v:
SOOT: :x:
GBOT :x:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 141
Consecutive days of French study: 1223
Consecutive days of SOOT: 0
Consecutive days of GBOT: 0

So I missed SOOT and GBOT again. However: I did make another batch of chickpea blondies on Sunday, and I made the tuna salad, and I washed all of my dishes. So although it was another late night, I got to start the next week in better shape than usual since my kitchen was clean when I got up on Monday morning and there was actually food in my fridge.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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March 25:

60 Days of HIIT: :x:
daily crow: :v: - crow to crane, attempt at one-legged
running: :x:
hiking: 9 km with Shelby

The temperature warmed up this day. We hit double digits at one point. Didn't feel like it though, due to a strong and cold wind. No ducks on the pond this day, but Shelby did see her friends Randy and Stella in the park behind the school, plus her friend Buddy, of course, as we were heading home. A guy out walking past the end of our street saw Shelby and Buddy cuddling and said, "Now, that's something you don't see every day." And then he came over and gave Shelby a treat. She liked that. So he gave her another one. (Poor Buddy. The man did not have any cat treats.)

It was cold again by nightfall, but Shelby and I still went out for our bedtime walk and did another 3km at that point.

You will note from my activity list above that I have finally dropped the Power Hold Challenge from my list. Let me explain:

When I had access to the online YTT this past weekend, I skimmed through ALL of the content. I could not watch all of the videos, of course. (Although I did watch a fair number of them, thanks to the option of viewing everything at 2x the recording speed.) But I loaded up every page that listed videos (over 100 for the 300 hr. teacher training, plus another 40 or so for the Transform Your Practice program. I didn't learn much in my 200 hr. teacher training. (Not because it wasn't a good program. It was. But I've been practising yoga for over a quarter century, have taught yoga in the past, and have done a lot of self-directed study on topics related to yoga, fitness, and instructing. There's not a lot being taught in YTTs that I'm not already familiar with.) I expected the 300 hr. training to be more of the same. And it was. However, reviewing the materials helped to remind me of what I love about fitness training. And what I don't love. And this prompted me to review my current training goals and set some new ones.

Now it's time to talk about the elephant in the room: push-ups.

Ah, the dreaded push-up. You are all familiar with my love/hate relationship with the beast. I respect push-ups. I understand their value as a compound upper body strength-training exericse. And I can do them. I can pretty much always drop and do a set of 5 full push-ups or so on any given day at any time (unless I'm wearing clothes I don't want to mess up, or the ground cover is something I don't want to put my hands on). But ten? If I've been training my push-ups consistently, I can usually do ten. If I haven't, I cannot. And that makes me feel wimpy.

I have for a long time now harboured the fantasy that, if I trained for it consistently, I could achieve my push-up century. And the truth is: I probably could. But that little "if" word in there is the kicker, isn't it? The reality is that I don't train for high volume push-ups consistently. Because I don't like training for high volume push-ups. When was the last time I actually completed a day of the Power Hold Challenge? You'd need to scroll back pages in this log to find out! And Power Hold only calls for 3 sets of push-ups every other day.

Doing PH I got up to, I think, 14 reps in my first set. I am a long way away from a push-up century! And I am already consistently failing to train for it because the thought of getting out of my chair to do even those first 14 reps is just too gruesome. It's not just hard work. It's boring hard work. It's also work that risks injury because training for high volume runs counter to training for good form. (No, I know it doesn't have to. But we're trying to be honest here. And I know myself pretty well.) If I'm already resistant to and bored with the training volume required for me to achieve 14 push-ups in one set, how bored and unhappy would I be with the training volume required to get up to 100?

Also: what is the purpose of achieving a push-up century? To be able to boast that I did it? So what. It's not as if I would maintain the ability to do it. (There is absolutely zero chance I would keep up with the training volume necessary for me to maintain the ability to complete a push-up century long term. I know this unequivocally.)

In thinking about all of this, I took a step back and considered other training modalities. Ones that--unlike push-ups--I actually enjoy. Like running. My first fitness love, the sport I have had the most success in over the years, and something I still enjoy and am still good at. I have been nationally-ranked as a runner. I have competed internationally. I have racked up so many running medals over the years (medals for winning--I don't care about finisher medals and have never collected those) that I threw them all out because they were just too much weight to keep carting around with me everytime I moved house. And yet I have never completed a marathon.

A lot of people don't understand this. I used to train with a running group in London that included runners of all levels from first-time couch-to-5Kers to competitive marathon runners. And nobody--nobody--could understand why I was not one of the competitive marathon runners. Why not? Because I was good at running 5Ks.

Almost without exception the couch-to-5Kers in my old running group would complete their first 5K--often with a time slower than it would take me to walk 5K--and then immediately sign up for a 10K. If they stuck with their training long enough to complete that, the next year they'd be training for a half-marathon. And me? I'd still be signing up for the 5s. Even though I was the fastest woman in the training group and also faster than most of the men.

My training comrades did not understand this. When I told them, "I'm just not interested in running marathons," their eyes would bug out of their heads as if I'd just sprouted antennae.

The thing is: I've been running for a very long time. I ran competitively at a high level for several years too. I know how much work it took to get as good as I did at the 3 and 5K distances I was competing in back then. I know how much work it would take to actually get good at running marathons. And I know that I don't want to put in the time to do it. (Nor do I have any interest in paying the hefty entry fee for a marathon to jog/walk one slowly. I could slap on a pair of shoes and go outside right now and walk 26.2 miles today, for free. That's not a challenge for me.)

I love running. I very much hope I will one day again be able to afford to invest enough time in it to get really good at running 5Ks once more. And yet I have zero interest in running a marathon.

So why do I want to complete a push-up century when I don't even like push-ups?

Right.

I don't.

Alright then. Back to the YTT materials:

The reason they got me thinking about all of this is because the training videos included a lot of content on Crow Pose (Kakasana) and Crane Pose (Bakasana) and some of the fun and cool and beautiful transitions one can potentially do into and out of these poses:


And how Crow and Crane utilise all of the same muscles as push-ups do (and then some). And how (unlike push-ups) I actually really enjoy practising Crow and Crane. And while I'm not at all interested in training for ever higher volumes of work, I am very much interested in training to be able to do some of the transitions demonstrated in the video above. And how that sort of training, with a focus on strength and technique, is both very much what interests me and what is far less likely to lead to injury than training for high volume. And how I've been hesitant to add yoga back into my training right now because of my impending loss of workout space and not wanting to add any more things into my life right now that will just be more things I'll lose when that happens,, but Crow and Crane are poses I can practise within a very small amount of space (less space than is required for push-ups). And how all of the above will make it so much easier for me to do Crow and Crane pose training work right now than push-ups and also persist with this work into the years to come and therefore derive long-term benefits from it.

And the best choice for me became obvious.

So Power Hold is out. And Daily Crow is in.
Now let's have some fun!

writing: :x:
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 53,291
story-a-week challenge: 10 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 10 of 54 completed
new consumable words: 816
consumable YTD: 106,404
target YTD for 2024 words a day in 2024: 172,040
deficit: 65,636

French: CBC Gem

GOBOT :x:
SOOT: :v:
GBOT :v:

Streaks:

Consecutive days of working out: 142
Consecutive days of French study: 1224
Consecutive days of SOOT: 1
Consecutive days of GBOT: 1

Also this day: I messaged my friend (the one who will be keeping Shelby and me off the streets when we lose our current home). She helped me to get my head on straight re: the dysfunction within my family of origin. Also: we made plans to get together one day next month and then again in May for some nature hikes, and we also made plans to attend a Boreal concert in May. My long, dark, winter of isolation is drawing to an end. :happy:
 
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