The Weight Of Water

I’m getting tired of winter.  It’s been quite some time since we’ve had as much snow, as often, as we have here lately.  I will say though I love the icycles when the sun is shining on them.  I took this shot through the sliding glass door.  There were a ton of icycles out back that day.  The snow has been falling heavy at times presenting nice, big, wet flakes.  Though it’s been dreary, it’s also been beautiful none the less.  But I’m ready for spring.  Enough already.  I’m sick of the mud, the saturated ground and dirty snow.  I’m ready to be in the outdoors without waterproof foot wear.

I’m still swimming and I still weigh the same.  I did buy a pair of Levi’s last night and they were a size smaller.  So I’m guessing some inches are melting away.  This last week, I swam Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  I swam for an entire hour Thursday night.  The Y wasn’t busy because it was sleeting so I took advantage of the pool.  Me and 4 other people that is.  I even started doing flip turns when I hit the deep end.  It has been a long time since I’ve done a flip turn and it wore me out, but I will do it again.  I’ve also met some interesting people at the pool.  I didn’t expect it to be a socialization type of thing, but I guess that’s not all bad.  And from now on, I will remember to remove my silver necklace and earrings that I rarely take off before I jump in.  Talk about tarnish central.

I taught a fun class last Sunday at the yoga education center.  I did an hour on the use of props in yoga and an hour on Sanskrit terminology with some chanting.  I really enjoy doing these classes, though I’m a nervous wreck a few days prior.  It’s always a good feeling to have the feedback when it’s over and done with.  I also like that feeling of accomplishment and of course, being able to share what I do know.  I am also freaking out a little as the news, KSFX , to be exact is coming this Tuesday, February 9th to film my free class.  They’re doing a stint on stress management.  My Tuesday morning class is a diverse group and a really cool crowd.  I never imagined when I started that class that it would grow to what it has today.  The episode will run on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00 a.m. with Rob Evans, so if you want to see me gasping for a yogic breath, tune in.

Today the same yoga center I taught at last weekend, held their first kirtan.  It was amazing.  There was a decent crowd.  There were two guys on drums and Beth played the harmonium a little.  We did several chants and no one seemed shy to sing.  The whole deal lasted a little over two hours and I was not ready for it to be over with.  I will say though that now, I am a little tired in the lungs.  It’s wild how much breath it takes to sing and how much energy you use to chant something over and over again.  At the same time there’s a good, energetic feeling as well.  I know they will do this again and I feel that today is just the beginning of what will most likely be a regular kirtan get together.

I will be heading to St. Louis in a couple of weekends with a good yoga teacher friend for some more yoga training.  I do love these weekends when we go away.  We eat very healthy, we go to sleep early and do yoga all day long.  I wish I could spend more time in this type of environment, but it’s not possible at this time.  I’m also excited to drive my car on a road trip.  I’m loving the heated seats in this weather and I’m also digging that “W” button which puts the car in winter mode.  Instant traction on slush and snow, it’s really cool.

Bring on the warmer weather.  The days are getting longer and I’m totally liking that!

What A Weekend

I know, I reeled you in with that title.  And guess what?  Nothing really happened this weekend. 

I did teach a yoga class Saturday morning and it was really fun.  I did hate having to miss all of the Yoga Day USA buzz because I was teaching though.  Word is the Meyer Center had 80 people for the Yoga Flow.  That is fantastic!  Meanwhile, Beth had 30 or so at her center, doing yoga, chanting and enjoying Eric on the drums as well.  Would’ve loved to have been there too!  I think any money they took in went to Haiti so that was totally awesome.

This morning was Sunday and I attended Beth’s class.  We did a Yin practice which I really enjoy, and hadn’t done in awhile.  Her studio is starting to feel really cozy with the hot tea, the bookshelves and the gong.  It’s all that.  I love it!  In a Yin practice, you hold a pose passively for a long time.  Long as in like two to five minutes.  Lots of people have a problem with this as in they get fidgety and can’t stand it.  Not me.  I can be there and then some.  I left there feeling quite good today even though I was super tired from some drama the evening before.  Nothing like a good yoga class to wake you up all over and make you realize there’s no need to sweat the small stuff. 

At noon today my good friend picked me up and we went to see Up In The Air.  Go see it.  I didn’t even know what it was about.  Only the fact that George Clooney spent a lot of time at airports.  I am so glad we saw that instead of It’s Complicated, which was her first choice.  It’s always good to check Rotten Tomatoes out before you head to the theater.

I’m still swimming.  I haven’t given up.  This last week I went twice at lunchtime.  This next week I cannot do that anymore as I’ll be teaching yoga every day at noon, so I’ll swim in the evening with the men.  I shall not complain.  I have to swim 72 laps to make a mile, or 36 laps back and forth.  I usually count by twos.  So, after swimming about 20 minutes, I usually hit 40 or more with ease.  I’ve been swimming for 35 or 40 minutes every time, so I’m thinking, I’m hitting close to two miles.  That doesn’t seem possible.  I’d better ask the lifeguard again to make sure that the count is right. 

The other day, I met a fellow yogini in the lane next to me.  She was a pretty tight swimmer.  She asked me if she could give me some advice.  I said of course.  She’d noticed I’d only been breathing to the right and she was correct.  I hate breathing on the left, I get a mouthful of water, it’s unnatural and I don’t like it.  I told her that I knew that and my neck was going to pay for it.  And someday my right side would look like I’d been injecting steroids on that side only.  She had a good point and that was balance.  She mentioned to me that I wouldn’t just do triangle on the right side would I?  Of course not.  I swam on Thursday and turned my head to the left several times.  Still can’t figure out why going to the right is so smooth.  I guess we go with what feels right or what we know.  I shall step out of this comfort zone more often.  Of course, I’ll be choking and spluttering away, but hey, there’s nothing like a good mouthful of chlorine now is there?  I’ll have to think of that as my germ killing breath to the left.

This week I start back with the yoga at MSU.  I’ve got 4-days with them in a row at lunchtime and I’m excited.  And I’ve got a decent crowd, which in turn means a decent paycheck at the end of the session.  Volvo fund, every penny I can spare. 

My daugher is turning 12 on Thursday.  It does not seem possible.  Can I really be that old?

Just Dive In

I’ve decided that I weigh too much, or maybe I’m just too short.  Yeah.  That’s it, I’m too short.  I love the warmer weather when I can ride my bike to work and get exercise in that way.  I do see lots of people riding bikes in this kind of weather, but I just can’t get into it.  Maybe that’s because I’ve never tried it, who knows.  I saw someone ride by when it was close to zero.  They were so bundled, I don’t know how they could ride.  His head was totally wrapped with a scarf, then covered by a ski mask.  Then he had a motorcycle helmet (complete with shield) over that.  I’m thinking that person didn’t have a choice.  I also love to walk in nature when the weather is good, or not so good.  I’ve been known to head to the nature center when it’s going to storm.  So far I haven’t been struck by lightning with my car keys in hand.

I work at the YMCA so I can go there for free.  But do I?  Nope.  Why?  I have no idea.  I think sometimes when you work someplace, you just want to leave there when you’re finished.  I love the water.  I love to swim and years ago, before I had children and I owned my own business, I would drive all they way across town to swim at the Y at six in the morning.  It was kind of intimidating.  Why you ask?  Because it was a bunch of athletic business guys and me.  I’d been reflecting on that time way back when during that one winter where I swam away and I really enjoyed it.  

The quest was on.   I had to get a one piece bathing suit because my flaw hiding, designer suits just weren’t going to cut it for lap swimming.  I don’t think anyone I know likes to go swimsuit shopping, especially in the wintertime.  Since we live where we do bathing suits aren’t readily available this time of year.  So I did what any computer geek would do.  I ordered three, online.  I scored as one fit.  I scored again because when I peeled it off (and was thinking that the pattern was too busy for me) I found out it reversed to black on the other side.  Awesome.  Black is good, especially when you only sport six inches from your navel to your pelvis.  Next up I had to find a pair of swim goggles.  MC Sports usually has this sort of thing.  Not this time of year.  They had plenty of flippers and masks but no Speedo goggles.  I was bummed, thinking this was yet another item I would have to order online.  Then I remembered Bass Pro!  Heck it’s right up the road from where we live.  They had a ton of Speedo goggles. And they had the junior size for people with smaller heads like myself.  I was ready to swim.

Our Y offers lap swimming early in the morning, during the lunch hour and right after work from five to six.  I didn’t feel like doing early morning again.  I wanted to do the lunch hour, it’s less crowded, but I will be teaching every single day at lunch with the exception of Friday.  No complaints there.  So the five to six time it would be.  I headed out on Monday night and got there ten minutes early.  People (men) were already swimming, so I chose a lane that was not roped off and hugged the wall.  I didn’t feel like getting trampled.  It had been a long time since I’d swam like this.  Would I last longer than five minutes?  Yes, yes I would.  I swam laps for thirty-five minutes with a few short breaks.  I did what most people do when they start out.  I swam too fast.   I was excited.  The water felt good and I was really happy to be there.  Even if it was just me, and a bunch of other guys, I got over it.  I’ll be going back and who knows, maybe I’ll continue through the nice weather.

Feeling stuck in your exercise routine?  Try something new or return to something you once loved.  I think that’s the key.

Holiday Ramblings

The holidaze were busy, but quiet around here if that makes any sense.  We had sporadic internet service.  Our phone was fixed on the 28th.  It turns out the technician crimped a wire when he slammed our phone box shut.  It’s all good now.  I’m even doing the yoga community e-newsletter as I blog away.  Let’s hope the internet holds up.  Seems to go down in the middle of the night.  So I was thinking about not sleeping tonight, just to see if I can catch those gnomes that are gnawing away at our wires.

We didn’t have any company for the holidays.  But we did have lots of fun.  I saw Avatar in 3-D.  We got Chinese food.  We cooked, we snacked, we baked.  It was all good.

I know this isn’t very festive, but Christmas Eve day started out like this.  What a beautiful bird and in the front yard none the less.  The omen, who brought us bad phone luck!

Then we opened presents Christmas morning.  We even had a dusting of snow.

I’ve always wanted to go to Greece, so Frank got me a mini version of the Parthenon.  It’s all crystal and mirrors, pretty smokin’.

  

 Lauren got a sewing machine.  Good thing Frank was home to help her figure it out.  I can sew by hand, but machines are over my head.  They had a great time together.  He totally looks like a seamstress doesn’t he?  I cracked up.  They sewed stuff all night long.  Frank even patched his socks. 

 Jordan got an aluminum water bottle from my sister.  Track practice ya know and let’s be gentle on the earth.

I spent New Year’s Day at the UU Church doing 108 sun salutes, taking photos and shooting video.  Annual Yoga Mala.  We had a turn out of around 80 and raised $714 for the Ozarks Food Harvest.  Good time was had by all.

 Then we got snow for the new year.  Check out  Lauren on the go-kart out back.  What fun she had.

 And of course, the  Littlest Pet Shops went out on the trampoline in true winter style.

 Enjoy the beauty but stay warm.  The thermostat says something like nothing right now.  As in ZERO.

You’ve Got To Be Kidding

Christmas Eve morning, I returned from the grocery store to see an AT & T phone truck parked down on the corner near our house.  We switched our phone service back to AT & T from Mediacom two months ago because their phone service was terrible.  I hadn’t called for any service.  I went ahead and picked up our receiver anyways.  It was working fine.  There are three phone boxes out front spanning from our house down to the corner. 

I retrieved the mail and noticed this phone guy had all three boxes open, in the pouring rain mind you, doing whatever phone guys do on Christmas Eve day.  I thought about asking him what was going on but I didn’t.  That was mistake number one.  Then he pulled a bunch of wires out of our phone box, cut them off, slammed the box shut and jumped in his truck and drove away.  I didn’t chase him down.  That was mistake number two.

I picked up our receiver only to hear the loudest static I’ve ever heard.  I was totally thinking, no way.  I don’t know about you guys, but we tend to use the phone a little more over the holidays, especially since my family is all out of state.  In the meantime, our phone was ringing off the wall.  The phone would ring but if you answered it you got static.  The static was so loud that we couldn’t even record a voice  message to let people know our phone was out.  All the people calling left messages and assumed we weren’t home.  We quit answering it.  There was nothing we could do. 

I called At & T only to be on my cell for who knows how long, punching one for this and two for that.  The only thing I could do was order service that would happen on Wednesday, December 30th.  Because when they called and did a phone test, heck it was ringing, so the recording basically assumed we weren’t an emergency situation.  We can’t wait to receive our massive cell phone bill for the holiday overload.  Looking forward to January 15th already.

Let’s jump to Christmas Day shall we?  People are e-mailing us holiday photos and what nots wishing us well.  At 11:30 a.m. our internet decides to bite it as well.  I know you’re thinking I’m making up one hell of a story now don’t you?  I’m not.  It was true.  No land line, no internet.  And what, we got a dusting of snow?  Sheesh.  We called Mediacom since we’ve got that direct life line to their retention center now you know.  The word was 500 people are out in your area, we’re working on it.  Kewl.  We kicked back and enjoyed the quiet, minus the phone ringing and ring it did.  All night long.  It started to get really possessed and ring half a ring or just one ring at like two in the morning.  Crazy, I know.

Finally on Saturday, December 26th, I called AT & T again.  This time I just started punching buttons and got to talk to a real live person.  He was extremely nice.  And just for a heads up, it’s not the zero that gets you through to a heartbeat, it’s the POUND sign.  In case you’re ever in need.  He told me so, hit it once, twice or even three times (a lady) if you will.  Someone from AT & T will be here tomorrow, December 28th, a Monday, to repair our box. 

Around seven that same Saturday evening, our internet came back up and we got to have some sort of communication.  Does anyone have any luck with tin cans and wire?  How about a crank box?  I’m thinking with all this positive yoga energy I should be more than able to power something up for awhile.  Our holiday wasn’t all bad.  We actually had a very nice one and I’ll bring some of that in tomorrow now that we’re back online.  Stay warm.

Merry Christmas

We didn’t get a real tree this year, nor did we last year.  A few years in the past, we’ve had a live tree.  We’ve always donated them to Bass Pro as they use them for fish habitats after the holidays.  At least that way, it doesn’t seem so wasteful.

Frank has a small, artificial 5 ft. tree with weak branches and lots of bare spots that we’ve used in the past.  One year we even put up my huge, fake tree.  We had to leave off the bottom two or three rows of branches because it was so full, and the top hit the ceiling.  No vaulted ceilings at this place.  This house has needed a slim tree since the day I moved in and this year, I headed to K-Mart and bought one.  It came with lights already on it which is a total bonus.  I put it together and fluffed it up.  Ready to go in an hour.

  

Jordan and his girlfriend, Breanna.

Lauren decorating

 While the kids decorated, I enjoyed a glass of wine and hung out with Lucy and Jacob.  It’s nice that the kids took over the tree decorating. 

Since we got rid of that big, ugly sectional (sorry Frank) we put the tree in the front window.  Our street is somewhat busy at times, so all the people driving home from work can enjoy the holidaze on their commute.  And since it’s a slim tree, I can still enjoy the view which is much better with a smaller car in the driveway.

May your holiday be safe, warm and fun-filled with the happiness of family and friends!

Mediacom Update

The other day we were experiencing internet drama and I blogged about it.  Turns out, some key words will stimulate google alerts, kind of like the crime alerts my husband receives.  I actually received a response with a  direct phone number to Mediacom posted on my blog comments.  I in turn gave that number to my husband because frankly, I was done trying to call them.

He got through immediately at work.  Wow.  And then he called me.  We were all three on the phone at the same time.  Our internet came back up on its own last Thursday in the middle of the night while I was on puke duty.  But our e-mail was all jacked up.  So for days I could receive, but not send.  That’s a pretty serious problem when you need to send out the Yoga Community E-Newsletter to about 650 people.  The girl we spoke with was very nice, but really didn’t do anything but set up a day for them to come out and check everything.

A few days later we were receiving and sending e-mail but it took like 4 or 5 hours to get where it was going.  Still not safe enough to try to do a newsletter, so I blew it off.  I cleaned my house, I Christmas shopped, I got stuff done.  Tired of not being able to send, we made a call using our direct life line.  They had us change some server stuff from mail.mchsi.com to mail.mediacombb.net which helped.  But then it quit helping. 

Totally. 

On the 15th we were completely locked out of our e-mail not only through our outlook express but through the Mediacom webmail as well.  It didn’t recognize our usernames or passwords.  Crazy, totally crazy.  Frank called again and they said they were working on it.  In the meantime a technician came to the house on Tuesday (a day earlier than promised) and found two splits.  We had been receiving a weak signal which had been part of our problem.  The tech also set us up with a different modem and left.  Everything was working fine except the e-mail. That same Tuesday night, we decided to call again about the e-mail.  They asked us to change some server info. 

Hello.  We’ve already done that.   They assured us the problem would resolve itself.  I’m Ok with that but can ya tell me when?  Frank called again yesterday, which was Wednesday and got the same stuff.  So today, Thursday at 4:30 I called.  The guy on the other end says, “Oh some people with certain e-mail programs are locked out as spam, hang on a minute and I’ll fix it.”  Just like that.  Just like that and I had 137 incoming e-mails no password or username needed.  What the heck. 

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday I get a phone call from Frank telling me the e-mail works.  I said I know, “I called them and they fixed it over the phone.”  He was like no way, “I called them today too and they told me the techs were locked out of the e-mail as well.”   I guess they’ve done some serious upgrades that didn’t go as planned. 

I was ready to switch to DSL but we won’t be doing that.  Frank doesn’t want to share bandwidth, he knows how fast I like this to be when I do my auctions, etc. so I guess we’ll be staying with Mediacom…..until this happens again.

So far, so good!!

Lizards and Hamsters and Cats, Oh My!

So.  What does one do with the kids while the internet is down?  Last Tuesday the kids were released at 1:00 from school and Lauren’s friend Maddy came home with us.  We carpool.  Her mom takes and I do the pick up.  We have a unique connection with Maddy.  I met her mom at the pool one summer when the kids were in first grade.  She was recently divorced and it turns out Maddy’s dad used to hang in a circle of friends that I had.  Small world. 

The girls were excited that school was out early and talked in the car about geeking all over Youtube, but guess what?  That didn’t happen.  The internet was down.  I told them to clean Priscilla’s cage instead.  Priscilla is the dwarf hamster that we inherited somehow.  We are down two pets though.  Our old cat Jasmine passed away recently and I sold our Crocodile Gecko on Craig’s List this week for $25.  I couldn’t figure out why the ad kept getting flagged.   Then I met the girl that bought the lizard.  She said you can’t put pets on Craig’s List.  I was like you can put a nekked body part in the casual encounters ads, but you can’t sell a lizard?  I’m confused.  Guess I should’ve read all the fine print.  Our fish tank is on there right now and no one has flagged it.  It comes complete with four fish that are fully clothed in holiday sweaters.  So if you’re reading this and want to flag it, go ahead. 

Jackson the white cat loves the hamster.  In fact, one time the hamster escaped from his ball during a cage cleaning.  Total devastation for Lauren.  I finally decided to think like a hamster and look in the messiest closet that we have.  Sure enough there was the hamster, hunkered down, hangin’ out.  It was a rough 24 hours around here though.  We tape the ball closed as a precaution now.

Jackson is missing the lizard.  He loved jumping on the top of the screen lid and thinking he could actually catch him!

Seven Little Lights

We’ve had high speed internet cable service through Mediacom for years.  And we’ve never had much, if any problem with it.  Last year we decided to jump on the band wagon and sign up for their phone service as well.  That’s when we started having problems.  We would be on the telephone and the call would just drop.  Sometimes the phone service would go out for days.  But in this day of massive technology with four other phones (my husband carries tw0, I have one and our son has one) we kept this terrible land line.  Until we realized we were paying for something that we could never use.  Welcome back AT & T.

Our internet service on the other hand is going crazy.  Especially lately.  Our modem is supposed to have seven lights lit, two that blink.  For days we’ve had two or three lit and they blink and that’s it.  Say the wind blows, it rains or it gets bitterly cold outside, it goes down.  The internet will be working fine when you go to sleep at night, but in the morning it won’t work.  That’s because little gnomes start their massive destruction that no one can seem to find.  My husband is smart with fixing stuff, but he can’t grab a Mediacom signal from thin air.  One time he even went out to the pole and did something so we could have service.  Because you know if you’ve ever called them, they’ll be out sometime between Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. and Friday.

This past week he couldn’t fix it.  We’ve been on and offline for the last week.  And this time it was off for two days in a row.  That’s like a month without food or water around here.  And you couldn’t talk to anyone on the phone about it because of a severe winter storm in Iowa that had knocked out a call center.  Ok.  How about talking to someone locally?  We just got a recording that we had a service interruption in our area and they were working diligently to correct it.  Riiiiiight.  I want see a massive pack of Mediacom vans swarming the area when they play that recording.  And guess what?  I never do.

Where am I going with this you say?  To my own procrastination that’s where.  I’ve decided to go paperless on everything we pay.  Our cell phones and our home phone as well as our Discover and  Target cards.  We do all of our banking online and have for a long time.  So.  I waited until the last minute to pay the Discover and Target bills, the only two credit cards we own.  I like Discover, they pay me to use their card and I pay it off every month so I give them no interest.  It’s like free money.  I like Target, no need to explain there.  Both of these bills are due today and I pay them both online.   I found my Discover card and called the number on it.  I got that sucker paid off and it didn’t take that much time.  Target on the other hand was another story.   We went through the whole bank account information and then she says, “Did you know there will be a $15 charge to pay this by phone?”  Whaaat?  I drove out to Target.  I paid my bill, for free, sort of.  It costs me $27.99 in a pair of Levi’s for our son for Christmas plus the gas out there.  But hey, if I was going to give them $15 extra over the phone, I wanted some merchandise.

Fast forward to the afternoon.  The kids are home from school.  When they realized our internet was non-existent they were totally and completely lost.  Kind of like I was in the morning when I was wringing my hands wanting to pay my bills and read my newspaper for gods sake.  Instead of Youtube or Hulu the kids settled for offline stuff.  Lauren painted on the computer and Jordan played puzzle games.  Lauren puked in her bed last night at 2:37 a.m.  As I walked by the office doing the clean up, I saw seven lights all lit, two blinking.  You’ve got to be kidding.  Frank was on the phone all night last night with Mediacom and you know what?  They’re coming out on Wednesday to check it out.  That’s seven days people, wish us luck.

R.I.P. Jas Cat

Meet Jasmine.  Twice a year I have her shaved and have for quite some time.  She’s old and can no longer take care of her coat and hates to be brushed by me.  She has long, beautiful, soft fur and looks like that cat in the movie  Meet The Parents. 

We got her as a kitten of 6 weeks old in 1990.  She passed away quickly and comfortably wrapped in a warm towel on Thanksgiving night.  I think she waited until our big day was over and every one was home.  It was nice.  Our house is super quiet now.  She would wake up really early, or sometimes in the middle of the night meowing her throaty meow wanting food.  She ate little, but often and it was getting rather exhausting for sure.

In the past few years she dwindled away to a weight of just over one pound.  Her skin was loose, and her bones were sticking out all over the place.  But she was still spunky in the way that she could get up on the stove and steal a sausage out of the pan.  Our other two cats are totally not into people food so I am missing sharing my own morsels with Jasmine.

We have two other cats.  The orange one, Jake is proably 14 or 15.  The white one, Jackson is 3.  I think the dog really misses Jasmine.  She was very caring in the way of cleaning her ears very often.  I think animals can be depressed because the dog has been sleeping on a pillow in our room since she passed.  Today is the first day she’s been hanging out on the couch.  Nice to see her out and about  for sure.

I am so happy I didn’t have to take Jasmine to the vet like I had to with another old cat to be put to sleep.  One day Jasmine was good, and two days later she was gone.  That’s exactly how I wanted it to be, holiday or not.