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flexagonEarly this last week was super beautiful, all warm days and handstand progress. I also spent a bunch of time on estimated taxes for Q1, and Claude was useful for talking through those (sigh). Payments are made.
Wednesday ended up going to the next generation -- there was social time with Birdie (ice skating -- I taught her all about outside and inside edges) and then some tweensitting for the baby squirrel. Then on Thursday there was lunch withcuriouserrandy, preceding a backbend lesson in which I did the same things I've been doing recently, but holding them longer and with less panic. When we did cobra this time and the teacher guided my hands to my feet, I was able to hold on and do little pulses for ten breaths.
Friday was my rest day, and a doctor visit. I'm in great shape! Yay! But in news that felt surprising and a little disturbing, I'm shorter than I used to be. I measured in just under 5'7", when I quite definitely used to be 5' 7" and a half. This is the second time in two years I've seen a pretty undeniable sign of aging. It's all within normal ranges, and the doctor assures me I'll lose less height than otherwise thanks to all my exercise, but, but.... hmph. I assume I'm solidly into the first of the two major bursts of aging that adults go through.
I had good dates with bug and squirrel.
Since I already mentioned the podcast on consciousness once, here is a gift article: The More You Study Consciousness, the Weirder It Gets, in which Ezra Klein interviews Michael Pollan. They are both intellectual and kind people, and they roast each other a little bit which is just excellent listening. Pretty sure I'm going to read Pollan's new book.
And that's all relevant because, after listening to this podcast together, the squirrel told me all kinds of interesting stuff about his own experience with spotlight vs lantern attention, and how he actually gets pulled out of his own head by his exec job and ends up thinking about the world in a larger sense. How there was some pull toward solipsism and rumination on to-do lists, without that, when he was between jobs. So interesting! I've experienced somewhat the opposite, in that my job always kept me laser-focused on stupid corporate shit, and my attention these days feels more lantern-like. I'm more open to sense data and experiencing things; I'm probably more distractible, more of the time. And I'm happier.
I had the exquisite fun of doing some online community moderation, over the weekend. Am I a mod in the space I'm referring to? NO. But leadership habits die hard, and I had the bad luck of observing some disturbed/disturbing behavior late on Friday night. It's a kind community, and it came up with a kind proposal to temporarily ease someone's discomfort. That person has now reappeared and is trying to talk through what happened and is now just sounding like an ass, but... I did what I could.
And on Sunday I straddle-pressed to forearm stand for the first time ever. So it is possible.
On the real estate front: for a hot moment there I thought one of the other two units in my building might be buyable. Kind of relieved to find out that no, it's not. I would have likely tried to make it work, because it could be nice to own the whole building as an old lady, but it would have been a streeeeeetch and probably involved a securities-based loan. Just as well to not bother with all that, when there are handstands to be done.
Wednesday ended up going to the next generation -- there was social time with Birdie (ice skating -- I taught her all about outside and inside edges) and then some tweensitting for the baby squirrel. Then on Thursday there was lunch with
curiouserrandy, preceding a backbend lesson in which I did the same things I've been doing recently, but holding them longer and with less panic. When we did cobra this time and the teacher guided my hands to my feet, I was able to hold on and do little pulses for ten breaths.Friday was my rest day, and a doctor visit. I'm in great shape! Yay! But in news that felt surprising and a little disturbing, I'm shorter than I used to be. I measured in just under 5'7", when I quite definitely used to be 5' 7" and a half. This is the second time in two years I've seen a pretty undeniable sign of aging. It's all within normal ranges, and the doctor assures me I'll lose less height than otherwise thanks to all my exercise, but, but.... hmph. I assume I'm solidly into the first of the two major bursts of aging that adults go through.
I had good dates with bug and squirrel.
Since I already mentioned the podcast on consciousness once, here is a gift article: The More You Study Consciousness, the Weirder It Gets, in which Ezra Klein interviews Michael Pollan. They are both intellectual and kind people, and they roast each other a little bit which is just excellent listening. Pretty sure I'm going to read Pollan's new book.
And that's all relevant because, after listening to this podcast together, the squirrel told me all kinds of interesting stuff about his own experience with spotlight vs lantern attention, and how he actually gets pulled out of his own head by his exec job and ends up thinking about the world in a larger sense. How there was some pull toward solipsism and rumination on to-do lists, without that, when he was between jobs. So interesting! I've experienced somewhat the opposite, in that my job always kept me laser-focused on stupid corporate shit, and my attention these days feels more lantern-like. I'm more open to sense data and experiencing things; I'm probably more distractible, more of the time. And I'm happier.
I had the exquisite fun of doing some online community moderation, over the weekend. Am I a mod in the space I'm referring to? NO. But leadership habits die hard, and I had the bad luck of observing some disturbed/disturbing behavior late on Friday night. It's a kind community, and it came up with a kind proposal to temporarily ease someone's discomfort. That person has now reappeared and is trying to talk through what happened and is now just sounding like an ass, but... I did what I could.
And on Sunday I straddle-pressed to forearm stand for the first time ever. So it is possible.
On the real estate front: for a hot moment there I thought one of the other two units in my building might be buyable. Kind of relieved to find out that no, it's not. I would have likely tried to make it work, because it could be nice to own the whole building as an old lady, but it would have been a streeeeeetch and probably involved a securities-based loan. Just as well to not bother with all that, when there are handstands to be done.
