I’m writing very late. Today is almost over. I was so busy: cleaning, five loads of laundry, and cooking. One load is still in the dryer. I cooked a week’s worth of oatmeal and fruit compote for the kids’ breakfast and made two large veggie and cheese omelettes for dinner. Everyone, except for D, had the omelettes.
Our neighbor Jessica came to retrieve her gardening supplies, so I took that as an opportunity to pick fresh loquats for her and also gave her a container of prepared ones. She texted me when she came, and retrieved the fruit from where I left it in the driveway.
I also tidied up the front lawn: trimmed the grass and weeds with the weed eater, cut suckers from the rose bush, swept the sidewalk, chained two hoses together in the front yard to connect to the soaker hose across the median and used them to water the camphor tree. The long hose I normally keep in the front had burst the last time I used it.
Shannon called, but her phone cut out periodically. We decided to talk later.
Richard’s cousin, a doctor, called to talk about Karen. She was upset to hear Karen was diagnosed with COV-19. Karen’s diagnosis, however, was based on observation of symptoms, rather than a test for the presence of the virus. Richard’s cousin is very worried about Aunt Karen, even though we currently believe she has a mild case. Karen’s age, mid-eighties, puts her at a higher risk for complications.
Tonight I will skip the web entries. Perhaps tomorrow, when I am back on my schedule, I’ll catch up. Meditation week is always more difficult to keep on a schedule, though I plan to keep running on the treadmill.
My weight came back up a little: 109 pounds, so I need to pay more attention to what I eat. Maybe I need to add even more cardio to my schedule.
I forgot to mention we had a meeting with Sensei on Saturday morning: the Ichi Kyus, our Nidan, two Shodans, other high ranking students and Sensei. We talked about how to proceed with our black belt tests, given Kumite and Sanchin may not be options during the pandemic. Many cool ideas surfaced: a strenuous run up a mountain trail, or kata on the beach, while ocean waves roll in to add resistance, or Sanchin as Mas Oyama reputedly did it, while balancing jars of clay. I love the idea of doing a test in nature. Granted, most of us associate the ten man fight with the black belt. Could we, instead, battle ten elements of nature?
