A snowy day for bicycling

Thursday February 14, 2013

Today it is Valentine's Day and I chatted with Gerry, my trainer at the Y yesterday about how he was going to take his wife out to brunch on Sunday and avoid the chaos of today - though he would get a card and flowers somewhere. I feel enormously free from all that emotional pressure - my ex never remembered things like that so if I wanted cards or flowers I would start weeks ahead of time reminding him of exactly I wanted to happen. Now the pressure is off and the day just flows past me and I can buy flowers tomorrow if I want some.

Today I went to my Iyengar Yoga and the teacher invited me to talk about my ride. I told them what I was going to do and how yoga had helped keep me in shape, and Octavia put the postcards at the front so people could take the addresses and info. Then we did heart-opening stretches and backbends because it was Valentine's Day - which was lovely. Across my shoulders in back is definitely one of the least flexible parts of my body - so it is good to stretch those. It felt good. The hour and a half usually flies by - though Octavia told us about one teacher who when he saw students looking at the clock would say: "Is there somewhere you have to be? Are you bored? Do you need to know the time?" which embarrassed them enough they stopped looking. Yes, Iyengar can be harsh sometimes!

I went to pick up some food at Whole Foods and a met a woman from the choir, who I realized I knew from way back and whose husband is a writer, and I remember his first very successful book, and he's still writing..We had a great talk - she is a pianist and gives recitals. It was snowing when I came out, light flakes under a dark gray sky falling steadily. I came home and had soup for lunch - and took Sammy out. He loves the snow so I let him run around in the small dog park here, which he loved.  Then I went to the Residents Meeting here, with about a dozen people and Carol Walker and the woman from the 4th floor running the meeting. It was informal and informative, and Jean Day suddenly decided to tell them about my ride so I talked about it and raising money for ALS and then gave Marlene a postcard so she and Ralph could contribute, because they had a friend with ALS. It is a pernicious and cruel disease.

Still snowing, gray, cold - but I can stay in this cozy apartment and not go out. Tomorrow I go to the Y to see if I can do two hours biking on the machine. We'll see.