glorious feeling

I wake up thinking that Saturdays really do make a difference in how you feel. Saturdays are just different to other people, the ones who have a day off from their usual routine. FFP included. We are up around 7:30, though, having coffee and newspapers. I fool around with my computers a bit and call SuRu to confirm that we aren't going walking. She doesn't have Zoey. She says she is going to clean her house. FFP has already headed to the gym. I go. There is a racquetball clinic at 10 but the day is turning out to be so glorious that I don't know whether I can handle being inside too long. The gloom of the last few days has given me a desire for the sun.

I do my 45+ minutes on the bike. I'm nearing the end of Fermat's Enigma. I do my arm exercises but I don't change into my shorts and racquetball shoes and get out my racquet and goggles. Instead, I go get my stuff and go home. I mentioned to FFP when he left the club that we ought to go buy him some waterproof shoes for New York. Great for keeping feet dry if there is (a little) snow and rain and we want to walk. You see, I'm hoping for a little snow. Please melt a bit before my arrival.

At home we clean up. I drive his car and we do some very surgical shopping. We go to REI. He tries on some New Balance waterproof walkers. I notice they have the Women's, too, and at a lower price. So I try some on. I have hiking boots but I wouldn't mind a new pair of waterproof shoes for walking. We are both happy with the fit and we go up front and pay. Then we put the shoes in the car and walk up to Whole Foods. We get some spinach, Clementines, sunflower sprouts, some tea FFP wanted, a jug of Super Food and a few power bars, vegetarian barbeque and some no-egg tofu egg salad. We walk back to the front of REI where the parking is less crazy, and sneak out the back way...Stone Lake to York to Mopac. A remarkably calm trip to this area for a Saturday.

Home again, we unload the stuff and I say that going outside in the sun and cool to read might be great. FFP agrees. We eat some stuff first. Some vegie barbeque, some leftover deviled eggs and I have some olives and vegies with dip and a banana. FFP watches part of the women's basketball game. I end up outside reading the end of my book. He comes out with some magazines and the portable phone. Dad calls and mentions that he was by when we weren't here and brought stuff. ("Yes, we noticed. We were at the club.") He has brought the plastic forks and spoons that were left from yesterday and some other stuff that was left that was mine or he thought we should eat. He tells me that he took a walk. He walks up and down the street. Hey...it's better than nothing.

It is so beautiful out with the perfect blue sky. It wants to be spring. The redbuds are blooming, the Irises, other things blooming and budding. Never mind that it is still a couple of weeks until the official last freeze date.

I finish the book. Wow, I get to start another. I read newspapers while I ate lunch. I go inside and get a book of short stories. I go back out and start reading and realize I read them, maybe right around the time my mom died or after I retired. I go back inside and briefly consider a couple of other books and then pick up Robert Graves' Good-bye to All That. It's an old paperback from back when paperbacks were $1.50. It is so nice to be able to read all manner of stuff, to finish one thing and start another. Even to start two or three books and know you will find time to finish reading them. Still, I'm not making much headway I don't suppose. Today, I don't care. I feel good. I'm excited about going to New York and unconcerned that I haven't figured out what to pack or double-checked my lunch reservation for next Friday or gotten the tax info to the CPA or disposed of any more of my mom's stuff. I feel good. I feel like my life is stretching out in front of me, that I'll learn more and get fitter and do interesting things, not repeating the same old routine to no effect.

We go inside for a while and FFP is watching the UT men eke out a narrow defeat in basketball. I eat a lot (too much) of dip and potato chips and a lemonade soda. Yikes! Junk. I was doing slightly better than this. What the heck, though. I promised I would just worry about aerobic exercise and building muscles. And I feel so great today.

I go back outside and read this different book while the sun shines on me and a little light breeze makes the flannel shirt feel good. FFP has made a bouquet of irises and put them in the house. They are beautiful. Did I mention: life is good.