Monday, August 05, 2013

A SHORT WINNIE RUN & THAT WAS ABOUT IT

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'Yoiks', 47F when we got up but I'm not complaining. Just dressed a little warmer & deeply inhaled all that refreshingly cooler morning air.  I didn’t make our morning walk again but I was able to go a short distance on a flat hard packed section of road.  Happy to say the swelling has gone down on my foot & that small marble sized bump is gone as well. Foot is still sore & my walking is limited but it’s not as bad as it was. Figure maybe by the end of the week I should be kinda walking sorta normally again.

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BURDOCK

Had absentmindedly left the radio & iPod player on in the Winnie Wagon one day last week again & noticed the battery seemed a bit slow to turn over when I started it this morning.  Well that was a good enough excuse for Pheebs & I to take Winnie the Bago out for a big drive around a couple big country blocks.  Always feels good to take the RV for a spin even if it is just a short one.

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Hung around pretty close to home all day resting my foot.  Managed to make another small dent in my slide digitalizing project.  I’m getting better at pitching slides into the garbage can.  Most of these are poor quality slides anyway.  Technology is so much better these days & those old 30 to 40 year old slides just don’t cut it anymore.  What bits of quality might have been there are lost in the transfer process anyway.  Hard to get excited about an old mediocre fence post photo taken way back in the late 70’s somewhere.  Maybe that old fence post held a sentimental value for me at some point but with the passage of time & aging memories being what they are, decisions have to be made & things have to go.  I know I will feel better when I turn my back on the burning barrel with it’s plume of long forgotten memories drifting lazily up through the pine trees taking their place in the complexities of our ever intriguing Universe.        
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THIS HAWK GIVES PHEEBS A SCOLDING AFTER PHEEBS CHASED HER UP INTO A NEARBY PINE TREE
NAN pointed out that my llama photos in Sunday night's post also included Alpacas. She said, " The Llamas in the photos are the ones with banana shaped ears...ie: black & white one, etc. Those with spear shaped ears are Alpacas. They are cousins all in the Camelid family". Who knew:))
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ANOTHER MOON SHOT??  NOPE, JUST OUR LIGHTED LAMP POST GLOBE THIS MORNING

I seem to remember someone suggesting I try Yoga when I wrote about Tai Chi a couple blogs ago. Actually I did try Yoga.....once. Nearly 4 years ago while Ranch sitting near McNeal Arizona for a couple months.   Kelly convinced me to come out to one of her Yoga classes she was involved with at the time.  This is an excerpt from a post I wrote about my little Yoga experience…………………………….. 
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Looked to be about a dozen various sized ladies gathered around in a large circle with chairs & colorful mats when we walked in to the Elfrida Community Center that morning. David, a well toned instructor from Bisbee welcomed us to the group & it wasn't long & I was seated in a white chair with a purple floor mat at my feet. I immediately knew I was going to be more comfortable here than a regular exercise class (oooops, that was about to change) when David dimmed the lights. I am not a bright lights kind of guy. The first minute was spent in a relaxation mode. Now, this was my kind of exercise. But, it was short lived. The instructor had a soft voice as we went through a series of stretches with closed eyes. The closed eyes part worked better for me than the stretching part. The stretches soon became embarrassing when I became painfully aware that some parts of me were not stretching as well as other parts. A quick glance around at the ladies showed me my awareness was correct. A couple of the Gals, old enough to be my Mother, were twisted up like frozen pretzels on their purple mats. I was finding it hard to simply bend a knee joint to reach the floor or raise my legs to an even level while upside down on my mat. I was on the floor, first on my left side, then my right side. Didn't seem to matter what side I had on the floor, my body told me it was the wrong side. I had a lot more cushioning on my tummy side but that didn't seem to work well either. Mashed my face into the purple mat & even my moustache & beard let me know they were not happy!!. Every time I was on my back I knew what an upside down Turtle felt like. Kept thinking of that commercial years ago, "I've fallen & can't get up". Now there was a sobering thought....how WAS I going to get up off that floor??
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Between aching contortions my mind took me back 44 years to my young 20 year old days in boot camp at a naval base in Nova Scotia Canada called H.M.C.S. Cornwallis. How different my body now as I sat there on the floor in this large dimmed room trying to do even the simplest of stretches. Where once I scrambled up & down 30 foot ropes, drilled for hours on parade grounds, ran for miles on cross country runs, & did a whole host of other improbable physical things, I now found it hard to simply even sit up. Had it not been for my supportive chair I may not have even managed to stand up at all. Oh, this was exercise alright. An exercise in humiliation. The only thing that finally worked for me was when after an hour of agonizingly thrashing about on the floor like a beached whale, I heard Yoga instructor David say, "and now for our final move. Yaaaaaaaay:)) Well, after we all did that final move, whatever it was, I still had one final move of my own left. I quickly moved myself right out of that building as fast as I could. My flopping about on the floor of the Elfrida Arizona Community Center would never be seen again………10-4!!

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KELLY & PHEEBS HEAD OFF DOWN THE MORNING TRAIL WITHOUT ME

GROANER’S CORNER:(( 

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.
TEACHER: Why are you late Frank?
FRANK: Because of the sign.
TEACHER: What sign?
FRANK: The one that says, "School ahead. Go slow."
TEACHER: John, why are you doing your multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
TEACHER: Ryan, what is the chemical formula for water?
RYAN: H I J K L M N O
TEACHER: Ryan, what are you talking about?
RYAN: Well, yesterday you said it was H to O.
TEACHER: Adam, why do you always get so dirty?
ADAM: Well, I guess it's because I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
TEACHER: Now, Macy, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
MACY: No Ma'am, I don't have to. My Mom is a good cook.
TEACHER: Daniel, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's composition. Did you copy off of him?
DANIEL: No teacher, it's the same dog.
TEACHER: Parker, what do you call a person who keeps on talking to people who are no longer interested?
PARKER: A Teacher

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- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

9 comments:

  1. Loved the yoga story. I think I would feel the same way. Too bad Kelly didn't get some video of you! That first picture of the leaf is stunning - makes me joyfully anticipate fall.

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  2. Oh Al what a great Yoga story. It made me laugh.I can't even imagine myself trying to do that. Beautiful pictures too.

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  3. great yoga story, Al..good for you for even attempting it!
    hope your foot feels better soon!

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  4. You had me laughing! The yoga story is hilarious and I loved the groaners corner.

    Is the orangey color flower a day lily? It sure is pretty!

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  5. Maybe Kelly can think about doing a Yoga class in Congress...I would love to learn! I use a dvd but just not the same...

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  6. Looking at the Burdock I can imagine an inventor seeing those little hooks and thinking..."Ah, Velcro!"

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  7. Nice to get your Winnie Wagon out and about, is that not a form of yoga?

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  8. That would certainly be Dennis if he tried Yoga..I have thought about it, but i HATE scheduled classes..Maybe a DVD would suit you AND me better..I could certainly use a dose of quiet meditaiong..Where is the Maharishi Maharesh Yogi when you need him?

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  9. Al, you just had John and I laughing until we had tears streaming down our cheeks.

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