Biosophilia

All Alone

I'm alone today. Lisa is gone to the Big Apple. I took her to the airport at 5:00 a.m., and I'll pick her up tonight at 10:30 p.m. I had plenty of activity to fill the time gaps during the day. I had a meeting at 11:00 and another at 12:30. I finished my article for this month's newsletter, which I will be sending to my list tomorrow. I also finished putting the final touches on the rest of the newsletter, including excerpts of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on Compensation. (If you want to sign up for the newsletter, go here.)

I went for two walks today. After taking Lisa to the airport, I went back to bed, and woke up at 9:15. I had a few nights earlier this week that I woke up around 4:00 or so and couldn't get back to sleep, so I needed the rest. I went for a 30 min. walk and then stretched for 5-10 min. Then I showered, dressed, and got everything together for my 11:00 meeting.

After my 12:30 meeting, I got water at Crystal Clear Water and Ice, in West Monroe. They have the best water I've ever tasted. The first time I walked into the store over a year and a half ago, the owner told me it was the best water in the area, and my first thought was, "Well of course you'd say that; you're the owner." But once I tasted it, I believed. "Then I tasted it. Now I'm a believer. I couldn't drink other water, if I tried." Well, almost.

After going to the post office, it was almost 2:00 by the time I got home. Then it was back to work. I worked on the newsletter, as I mentioned, then went for another walk. I tend to be intensely focused on my work when I'm doing it, so I have sometimes sat for five or six hours at a time in front of the computer screen. If I experience a computer crash while I'm working, I pick up a book to read while the computer reboots. The whole time, then, my eyes are focusing on items less than two feet away. Definitely not good for my eyes. And TV and Computer monitors have been shown to "put the brain to sleep," because of the "redrawing" motion of the pixels on the screen. So I've decided that afternoon walks are a good way to avoid being too sedintary, as well as a good way to focus on things at least 20 feet away. 20 feet is, in general, as far away as you need to look for your eyes to be totally relaxed while they're open. (Hence 20/20 vision.)

After I returned, slightly sweaty because of the heat that has suddenly appeared (if you can say that heat "appears"), I finished the newsletter, which feels really good. Then I got a snack and watched some Jeopardy and Friends and NCAA Basketball. None of it really captured me, but I was trying to waste a little time, so I enjoyed it anyway. At 7:00, I tried to think of some other things to do (besides work), but alas, work was what interested me most. So I cleaned my office a bit, then I moved to my BIG plans for the evening: BLOGGING. WooHoo!

So here I am. And you're just gonna have to get used to it. Cuz I'm not going anywhere.