Reflections

And what can I tell you of my today? What would you like to know?

As time continues to do its melted-butter-in-hand trick, I'm realizing it's becoming time to get more specific, yet realistic, about what I'm aiming to achieve within my day. Sounds so very simple, and yet.
And yet.
And yet, that's the way the world works, so might as well build the skill and use to one's advantage.

For more nitty-gritty details, a potential position has popped up -- writing and editing for a nonprofit that promotes cardiovascular health in developing countries. Could be interesting. Very preliminary yet, but wanted to reassure everyone I AM looking to/paying attention to this stuff, along with all the rowing.

Rowing tangent - hardly any wind today! You know what kind of row that makes for! I actually went downstream, into the basin, which has much choppier water as a rule, but was divine today. I got some of that silky river glass to row on again. I rowed all the way to the Museum of Science - yep, that's what marks the end of the river on one end, before it narrows then opens into Boston Harbor. The fun thing about rowing downstream, apart from it being so wideopen [only a few bridges to maneuver under and no turns] is that you get the sense of rowing within a city. You have the city skyline along one side and big buildings along both [universities, hospitals, other important concrete monoliths], including the gold dome of the Capitol, and while only two bridges, they are much more major: Mass Ave and Longfellow.

It was chilly but with the sun beating down, the temps warmed, and eventually the fleece hat came off. A few cool sights along the row: seeing the grass growing from the base of Longfellow bridge -- neat part being who else but a rower gets this view? And this is a giant bridge that makes you feel like a little ant passing under. Also, getting to see blue sky and clouds reflected in the deck of my boat. Admittedly, she's Barney purple so the color of the sky might be a little distorted, but you could make definitely out sky and clouds. I'll grant this is a slightly cool thing that you don't see rowing in 5 a.m. pitch blackness. Oh yeah -- last super cool thing? As I was putting Pepper away, I got to chat with one of our older members who's getting ready to go row across the Atlantic. I kid you not. And his biggest concern? Just getting there, what with the potential for flights getting cancelled. I just love the craziness of rowers. Oh yes - 10 miles today! I did stop at the dock for a quick back stretch, which I think did the trick before going another 4 miles upstream.

Later this afternoon brought some giftcard usage and a visit to the vast, newish Natick mall. It's really the ideal sort of shopping -- purchases without any budget effect. Why don't the skies rain down giftcards on a regular basis?? I now happily have a smaller pot (just HOLD all the cooking jokes and snickers, y'all, just HOLD them -- I can heat cans of soup with the best of them! better than them now with my cool, small pot!) and some actual glasses for guests to use (the drinking-from-giant-water-bottle habit is hard to break. my poor mother). AND a new grater! This could easily provoke a rant, so I'll try to stay calm. I don't know WHAT happened to my graters! I can VIVIDLY see them, BOTH of them, that I used to own! But I don't know what happened to them! Anyway, now I have one again. I managed to skip the dual-action (not making that up) potato masher. Though god knows, I'll be needing it next week. Another exciting purchase was more bland diet/sensitive stomach catfood for the gatos to try and avoid the frequency of kitty barf piles, now that we're coworkers and all. Willa positively would NOT eat the last batch, and I think hunger was making her downright bitchy -- caught her in a yowling, snarling square-off with poor Sucio this morning. The even MORE exciting thing than this catfood (would I hold back on that? no, no I would not) is ... new cat collars! I'm tempted to describe them, but better to take pictures in the morning and share them that way, right? OK, agreed. An upcoming treat!