Balance Outdoors

The beautiful weather continues. It was even a bit chilly when I rode down to Collingswood for this week's yoga class. We concentrated on squats, pigeon, and the "bow" pose (lay on your stomach and grab your feet) pose. Not my best pose, and neither my sore digits nor my heel spur helped matters. I did what I could. (At least I could get on my stomach. Karin can't really join us for stomach poses anymore. She's in her second trimester, and her pregnancy is really showing.)

The Collingswood Library was even less busy than Yogawood. I organized the children's DVD shelves and shelved a few non-fiction books. That was all. I spent 20 minutes paging through magazines. I was there for less than an hour.

For once, I had enough money left by the end of the week to treat myself to a nice little lunch. I stopped at Doria's Deli for a turkey and provolone hoagie and a Diet Cherry Pepsi. The Dorias have been friends of Uncle Ken's for years. Mrs. Doria asked how he was; I told her about him being in a wheelchair now. She said to say that she and her husband say "hi."

Spent the rest of the afternoon at home. After lunch, I decided I might as well take advantage of the weather to do some more outdoor fall cleaning. I started with scrubbing the deck chairs. They were really gross. The pieces of once-white plastic were covered in cobwebs and dirt. I really need new ones - or better yet, real metal or wood deck furniture. Not only have I not had the money, I really can't get them home on my bike.

Figured while I had everything out, I might as well get the trash and recycling canisters clean, too. I did them in May, before Lauren visited. Decided to scrub them and my bike one more time before it gets too cold to use the hose. Trouble is, I completely forgot that Andrew and his relatives removed the leaves from near the back steps under my porch. The hose made the ground very muddy and messy! I had to wipe the darn trash cans off again when I got upstairs. All the mosquitoes didn't help, either. I feel like one big mosquito bite.

I listened to some of my operetta CDs while making a Peach Almond Cake (with honey and fruit concentrate instead of granulated sugar). One of my earliest CD finds was Little Mary Sunshine, an adorable 1959 off-Broadway spoof of operetta and 20s and 30s musical comedy. I picked up the original Capitol release in the mid-late 90s from a (now defunct) music store in North Cape May, and I've loved it ever since. Eileen Brennan (of Clue and Last Picture Show, among others) is the sweet title character, who owns an inn in the Colorado Rockies. John McMartin is her beloved Captain of the Rangers. There's Mary's maid, mischievous Nancy (Elmarie Wendel), five young ladies from a finishing school, a wistful opera diva, his men, and an evil (and non-PC) Indian to contend with as well. DRG apparently re-released it a few years ago, and it's available for download at Amazon as well.

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday - busy during rush hour, quiet otherwise. Once again, I was in and out with no problems.