Don’t Dy’ Too Early

Okay, it’s 04:54 and I’m finished with the morning pages (thirty minutes of stream-of-consciousness writing I do upon awakening).   This is the time I w…. well, actually that’s not true, I was going to say “this is the time I usually do some yoga and meditation” but this is actually an hour earlier than I would normally be doing this.  I usually get up at 05:00, write, then do the yoga-meditation-prayer thing—although I much more faithful to the morning pages than I am to the other hat-trick.  Today I got up at 04:00 so I can make the 06:00 Crossfit and still be back in time to take Adam to school.  His dad had leant us the ’84 Mercedes sedan last winter and drove Adam’s little Nissan truck from when he was a teenager.  But it appears that the little truck has finally given up the ghost so Mike had to commandeer the Mercedes.  In the Summertime it’s no problem ‘cause I can ride the motorcycle but the motorcycle’s not an option through the Winter in Utah.  I can keep riding it late in the season as far as the cold goes.  I’m tough like that.  But the icy spots make it simply too hazardous.  As soon as the snow comes and they have to start plowing (which will be any day now) the bike has to stay parked until Spring.  It’s pretty cold in the house this morning.  We’re all piled up in Adam’s office; Adam, Sydney, Willie, Dennis and me.  Our furnace broke this weekend so the rest of the house is freeeezing.  I did sleep in the bed last night (remember Adam studied through the night) but the bed was plenty warm because I had enough blankets, my grandmother’s heating pad and two Labradors to keep me warm.  Actually it got a little too warm for Sydney during the night and he got down on his doggy bed in the floor.  I can’t sleep in anything but boxers.  If I try to sleep in a shirt, I can add another thirty minutes to the regular tossing and turning I do thinking about the wars, the troubled vets, my play, my writing that is SO hard for me to get done, money and our evil neighbors.  I hate that the furnace broke.  We rent from Adam’s parents and they really can’t afford the extra expense.  I told my mother-in-law we’d just suck it up and use the portable radiator this Winter but she reminded me that the pipes will freeze and burst if we don’t have heat in the house.  It is so disheartening to see a couple in their sixties who have worked so hard their whole life still having to worry about money.  My parents are the same way.  The Americans who are alive now are the first generations since the birth of our nation to have it worse than their parents in terms of prosperity.  I wonder what it will be like for us.  What am I saying?  I’m forty-five years old.  This is the way it is for us.

I’m back from Crossfit now and sitting on the heating pad in my bed.  I’ve moved the portable radiator back into the bedroom.  Adam’s off taking his test and soon I’ll have to brave the cold bathroom and get ready to head to “Westside” Elementary.  I’ll enjoy a few minutes of cozy before I have to get up and go.

Crossfit was all lifting this morning.  Five single repetition back squats with heavy weight at your own pace.  Then five single repetition bench press with heavy weight at your own pace.  Then twenty connected back squats without re-racking the weight at 70% of your max.  Then twenty connected bench press without re-racking the weight at 70% of your max.  The two injuries I’m dealing with are sacral spine and right rotator cuff so everything we did today involved my working an injured body part.  That was great though.  I’m a firm believer in doing what you can with an injured part instead of just letting it get weaker and weaker.  There are some injuries of course where you can’t work that body part at all.  But the workout today moved me toward complete wellness in those areas and not away from it.

I dashed home after the workout to drive Adam to his test.  We had to stop off for gas at the Top Stop.  There’s a Wendy’s there and God had altered the sign to sent me a message about what will happen to me if I go back to eating crappy fast food.  Physical fitness is a three-legged stool of workout, recovery and nutrition.   On the sign (pictured above) all the lights were out except for “dy.’” See?  I told you God has a Southern accent.

Got to go hop in the shower now.  I hate to do it.  Not because of the cold but because I smell so good.