Getting Back to Normal

I have been feeling a little crappy this week. Maybe this feeling is "apres-trip let-down". I'm not sure. My stomach feels so full. I feel sluggish and tired. I miss the lake, but I am very happy to be back home again. The sea air is so light and refreshing. It is perfumed with wild roses and honeysuckle. I just can't breathe it enough.

I looked at a picture Larry took of me and my friend, Judy, the day I drove her back to Charlotte, NC to catch her flight back home to Vero Beach, FL.She stayed with us for a week at the lakehouse. It was also the day before we headed back north. Looking at it felt like the first time I really saw how fat I've gotten. I was a little shocked. I'ver never had baggy knees. Geez. I have been exercising, but down south, I ate and drank to "beat the band". I gained back what little I had lost, but I feel much bigger.

I think I've been a little depressed, and that long road trip always makes both of us very tired for days afterwards. But I also noticed that "stinkin' thinkin'" started creeping back into my head again. I made an appointment with my trainer, Eric, and went to the gym yesterday. It felt good to see everyone there again. I was tired but did my weights with him, and thirty minutes on the cross-trainer. I was sweaty when I left and felt better. But, my mind wasn't clear yet.

This morning I decided to catch up with my neighborhood and went for a two-hour walk around a huge country block. The rain finally stopped and the day is glorious. The perfumed air, the blue sky full of sweeping and wispy white clouds; the birds and, of course my horse friends. Along the way, I also ran into  a chipmunk, chickens and a handsome rooster. A dying butterfly was struggling on the side of the road. She made me feel a little sad, but she was so beautiful.

I plugged in my music and I was off. It felt really good to walk here again. This is my favorite walking place. Everything here feels lighter than at the lake. For one thing, we're not in total woods, and the neighborhood is more open. The salt air is refreshing, and the temperature is cooler. The sky is more open with fewer trees around, and I just feel lighter as a result of being in it.

I stopped to smell the roses many times along my route. This is early summer (unofficially), and so many lovely flowers are in bloom. The colors everywhere are just spectacular, and walking by so many bodies of water is such a blessing. I love living by the water. I pretty much always have: New Pond in Norwood, MA, Charles River in Newton, MA, aquaduct in Albuquerque, NM; crick in Shreveport, LA. The only place I did not live close to water was in Lexington, MA. But, there, I had Wilson Farm. Wilson's has THE best produce around, and I could walk to it from my house. It was great.

Here in Tiverton, RI we have farms everywhere. On the way back from my walk, I picked up a quart of fresh-picked-today strawberries. I didn't have money or anything to leave a note, so I have to stop by on my way to Peckham's Greenhouse for porch plants to leave money in the "honor" can. I love the "honor system" around here. I also read in the local paper, The Sakonnet Times, that Young's Farm down the road a piece in Little Compton is open. I need fresh veggies and fruit badly.

Yes, it's that time of year when fresh food is everywhere. This is one of my favorite aspects of living in Tiverton. We are surrounded by fresh food in summer. I got fresh-picked strawberries in SC, now I can have even more in RI. This "snow-bird" lifestyle definitely has it's plusses: extended spring and summer seasons. I love that!

When I got home after the walk with my strawberries, I realized my head is in a much better place. I am back to working on burning those calories, and am watching what I eat again. I drink less alcohol here too: less empty calories to contend with. It's all good. Time to get out to buy those porch plants.