Last Chance for September Post

I'm forcing myself to post tonight.

I'm tired. I'm watching the Mets and reading things on the Internet: tips on time management and frugality, latest Trump rantings, a random blog one of my (few) followers follows. But I had planned to write here tonight, and so I am. 

My class is off this weekend for Yom Kippur. I thought it would be a good time to get in some extra tutoring, but that didn't work so well. I had one session this afternoon. On the plus side, I got to sleep in a bit (8:45 or so) and went to the gym--only my second visit this month. I decided I need to schedule gym visits. There's no reason why I can't go three times this week. I'll start Monday. 

Tomorrow I have two tutoring appointments. Unfortunately, these are at the homes of students who live the farthest apart. I start at 1 PM, have an hour of driving from one to another (that's with no traffic) and won't get home until 7:15-7:30. I'll take Lola for a walk/hike in the morning, marinate a pork tenderloin for dinner. Jeff can cook it so we can eat as soon as I get home and watch Outlander.

Our DPFs (Dog Park Fridays) are winding down; we have four more at most before daylight savings ends. This makes me sad because I enjoy these visits. We have a core group who have been meeting for years, while others have come and gone. I'll have to make an effort to see these friends more often during the late fall and winter. 

Speaking of dog park, Lola also enjoys socializing. Our friend Jeff commented last night about how much friendlier and outgoing she was. 

The Mets, in the 11th inning of their penultimate game, won 7-4 over the Phillies. It's been a sad season. I started out with high hopes. Then things fell apart. I don't remember who went down first. But the Mets fell like dominoes. One more game.  

On to October.

Happy Birthday Jeff

For Jeff's birthday, we went to Sedona Taphouse (STH) for dinner. I had suggested that he see if  he could work from home today. He did, so we could get off to an earlier start this evening. Before STH, we took Lola to Taylor Farm for about an hour. It was warm enough (and more--we had high's in the mid-80's) to take Lola with us to STH. As always, it was a good meal.

I also made penne a la vodka and salad for Jeff on Sunday at his request. Our appetizer was lobster bruschetta. I bought a quarter pound of lobster and had enough to make smallish lobster rolls for lunch today. And I discovered today was National Lobster Day--a good omen.

Happy Birthday Jeff! Hope you enjoyed your day.

On Time-Tracking, Schedules, Errands and To-Do's

As Lola and I walked Schenck's Island Thursday, I was thinking about time-tracking, goals, etc. of this post's title.

I do much better when I have an appointment scheduled in the morning. I love a lazy morning, but I can't have one several times a week and expect to get anything done! (I'm not a fan of exclamation points, but I need one there.)

I've been tracking my time this week. I was most productive when I had hard deadlines to be somewhere. On Wednesday, I had to take my mother to the eye doctor, picking her up at 10:15. I took Lola to the park, then combined errands with picking up Mom. I didn't get home until about 2:30 (included lunch with Mom.) It was efficient to join those errands together, but I felt guilty about leaving Lola alone for so much time. At least, I made it up to her. I took her to to two parks--Oystershell in the morning and Taylor Farm in the evening.

Having an irregular work schedule can make it difficult to plan. But most of that is on me. Many others deal with the same situation successfully.

Why can't I?

Written 09-16-17.

“Did He Get Injured?”

Here’s the scene. I’m watching the Mets-Cubs game.

The Mets have been pitiful, giving up the most runs in a series in their history. In the top of the ninth, rookie Tomas Nido gets his first major league hit and RBI. Jeff takes Lola out for her last pee of the day.

Later Nido is thrown out at home trying to score on an infield hit. For the third out. Mets lose 14-6.

When Jeff came in, I said he wouldn't believe what happened. I set up the scene. Jeff asked, “Did he get injured?”

I cracked up. That sums up the Mets season.

P.S. Rosario and D'Arnaud were injured in this game. 

Reading Update

My reading has definitely slowed down since I've posted about re-reading Game of Thrones. It took me over a month (not sure exactly) to finish.

Then I started Walden. I soon realized that the edition I was reading was not the full work, but selections. I'm okay with that. I find some of the selections more interesting than others. I was distracted by references to the "savages" and some disdain toward the Irish. But there are some beautiful thoughts and language that I will post about in the future.

Time Tracking Revisited

Laura Vanderkam is "hosting" a 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenge. I decided to try this again.

I got up around 6:40 and remembered that I was time-tracking. Yesterday I saved the excel timesheet on my desktop so I could access it easily. I opened it first thing and made some entries.

Unfortunately, sometime during the late afternoon, I realized that I had forgotten to keep up with the spreadsheet. I did my best at re-creating my day. Most of my day was spent on cleaning and re-organizing the kitchen. Bur I'm sure I wasn't as focused as my entries may suggest.

Try for more accurate tracking tomorrow.

Hiking Update

When I last posted about hiking goals, I had made it up to seven new trails to hike with Lola in 2017 of my goal of 10.

Since then, I added another part of the Wilton loop of the Norwalk River Valley Trail--across Merwin Meadows Park to the upper school loop. We also visited the Still River Greenway in Brookfield and a trail in Wilton Woods.

So we made it to 10, and we have many other new trails to explore. Lola will be a happy girl.

Poetry and Oysters

An odd juxtaposition? Not in Norwalk. I recently attended a poetry workshop, "Oystering Then and Now" at City Hall.

We read poems about oysters, crabs and the earth, discussed poetry "rules" and explored prompts. We also looked at the oystering exhibit in the Mayor's Gallery as well as the WPA murals. After the workshop, we enjoyed oysters and beers in the gallery, and shared our poetry.

I was glad to share in a creative endeavor--it's been a while. I was especially interested because the WPA murals were part of the program.  As a docent, I've grown to love the murals and what they mean to Norwalk.

Oysters and beer were a bonus.