Two little lessons

I’ve decided that the recitation of my little workouts is super-boring, even to me—and the list since I last posted would have been QUITE long. But I will say I have been faithfully doing 15 minutes of yoga every morning, along with one headstand on my bench, all of which feels great and seems to be making me stronger. I suppose the lesson is that consistency is good, even if it’s a pretty tiny thing you’re being consistent about.

Another lesson I have learned (in the “Month of Achilles Healing”) is that my Achilles really aren’t going to heal in the face of a poor diet. Earlier in the month we were eating out a lot, and I was making myself gluten-free pizzas for dinner almost every night, and my Achilles were just getting worse and worse despite everything else I was doing for them. Now I’ve gotten all the grains out of my diet again, and it definitely makes a difference. Annoying but true.

More on the art show

Sunday: Yoga 15 minutes, weights 20 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

I forgot to post the picture of my art show table:

I feel so much better today; I slept a normal amount and woke up a normal human. I’m going to assume yesterday’s exhaustion was mostly about the stress of getting this all together and then spending so many hours talking to people.

And I REALLY want to do this again. I’m going to try to figure out how to be a little more professional—like how to finish and frame things so that people can actually hang them up. (The few that are framed were ones where I ripped out ancient family photos and replaced them with painted paper.) Everything you see here was propped up with bookends and/or rocks, so honestly my first task is to buy some display easels. M.H. needs them for his book-selling events anyway.

Art show!

Tuesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles
Wednesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1 mile
Thursday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Friday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Saturday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Yesterday was Art Walk, where I had a table among about 20 other artists with a bunch of my abstract acrylic paintings. I was thrilled; I sold two of them for actual money and traded one to another artist for something cool. But I am also EXHAUSTED—I don’t know if it was from the stress of getting everything ready and named and set up, the physical exertion of doing all that, or just the fact of having to spend four hours straight talking to people.

At any rate I was in bed by 9 and slept until almost 8 a.m., and still I’m tired to a degree that I wonder if I’m coming down with something or maybe just have reached an age of irreversible decline and infirmity.

Being part of the “art community” in town has been really rewarding, and I learned a lot yesterday. For one thing, I found out that there are a few other annual shows that I could participate in if I wanted. To do that I think it would be good to improve my presentation somewhat and be a lot more deliberate in trying to make quality pieces. On the other hand, there’s really nothing stopping me from just continuing to slap paint around on things and then trying to sell them.

October’s challenge

Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Walk 1 mile
Monday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Welcome to the Month of Achilles Healing! (It’s October 2, but I just decided.) My plan resolution challenge is that every day for the next 30 days, I will:

• Use the Thumper on my Achilles
• Go for a short walk
• Stretch
• Use infrared light on my Achilles
• Stretch with the brace my sister sent me

(It looks like this.)

I’m still chasing the high of that glorious day several weeks ago when my feet just didn’t hurt.