Can I do this while swimming?

I am a bookkeeper which is a choice based on my skills, not on my values, so I am super happy to currently be a bookkeeper at a place that has such a great match with my values!
And the University of Minnesota Press is turning 100! And we are starting to put out celebratory events, videos, podcasts etc. I learned a lot and was inspired by the latest, a wonderful video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_NG_z8r3KY

The up parts of my day
(b/c social media lends itself to the up parts, but I don't want to contribute (too much) to the idea that everyone on social media is living only positive lives.)

I visited Karen in Northfield and did a tiny bit to help her family move.
Here we are in front the of shower we cleaned and hung the curtain.


When I returned to the Cities I decided I’d check the status of the cherry trees in town. I fell in love with cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and am on a multi-year quest to learn more about what is available here.
It is exceptionally early to be hoping for cherry blossoms, but this tree
https://normandaletrees.weebly.com/spring-wonder-sargent-cherry.html
at Normandale is said to be the origin of hearty Cherry Trees in Minnesota (the US??) and every time I've checked it in previous years, it has already flowered and dropped its petals. This time I was too early (YAY!) but the buds seemed fairly far along.


I had a nice time walking in the Japanese Gardens, which I had to myself!! The website listed the gardens as closed, so I'm glad I stopped by anyway.



As I was leaving, I noticed a faint rainbow (?) in the sky.
Or was it my halo??


AH! apparently this is actually a Solar Halo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo
Thank you to J for your knowledge!


Next I checked out the young cherry tree grove at Como. I can't wait until this grove is more mature.
The buds seems behind the grandmother tree, but not by as much as I thought they would. Not that I know much about how to tell.


I also took advantage of the labyrinth nearby to do a walking meditation. Yay public art!
(no picture - but here's a link https://poproseville.org/2021/02/global-harmony-labyrinth/)

Finally I swung by the small, young grove in the Lake Phalen park that I know. These seemed the least advanced for the season.


I had a lovely brisk walk getting to the trees. And then I took some time on my way back to my car to enjoy walking some more, which really lifted my mood.

Note to self: feeling like I am in nature affects my mood wonderfully and it is worth driving to a park where I can be more immersed vs walking through the neighborhood to the park and having to turn around because I'm tired without every really feeling like I'm fully in nature.




If you know of any other groves of cherry trees in the Twin Cities (or if I am misidentifying any of them here!), please let me know! :)

Well, I'm going to post this now and hope I successfully remembered how to post pictures...
(this post it currently public - I will turn it to friends-only when I post my next post... this is in a likely futile attempt to encourage ppl from FB to see the value of posting here. )

In other trying-not-to-dwell-on-the-world thoughts:
I hate it when my hair Cracks, after a quick dash from the gym (pool!) to the car.

I had an amazing time seeing The McAdo at The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company last night!
https://gsvloc.org/on-stage/
It is an adaption of The Mikado set in Scotland and they had lots of great gags - including at least one comment on how problematic The Mikado is in regards to racism. But all in all, it mostly the original operetta with just a couple changes to names, locations, and some small updates.
I have very high standards for my G&S and generally they did quite a good job.
The one choice they made that made me miss Doc was that they played Tit Willow for laughs - that Katy Shaw was entirely duped in to falling for Coco vs being inspired by at least one song of true emotion.
And one particular treat was that they had an actual live bagpipe player!
It was so nostalgic getting to hear 2 great things from my childhood in the same show: G&S and bagpipes!
Afterward I told a couple performers how much I enjoyed their work and then came back and asked for a photo with the piper: Bill Zadra. I can’t find a link to a website for him, but if you google “Bill Zadra bagpipes” there are plenty of videos.
I’d post the photo here but I don’t know how. I did decide to do a fb post bc it was easier to include the photo and… I might be starting to be back there more, while trying to not get addicted again.

My computer is updating at work so I took a lunch time walk down to the Stone Arch Bridge and had a cozy conversation with an elderly mother and her son. They were at the end where people can walk due to the construction and looking down at the base of the bridge. There was a scuba diver! I got to see the diver head down toward the water. Our view was blocked of the actual entry. Later another diver showed up. I only got a far away photo of the first diver and I don’t know how to load pictures here.
But the man and his mother were talking in Spanish and I tried to say “I’m learning Spanish” but I botched it and the son and I mostly talked in English. His mother didn’t speak any English in my presence. He said he is from Colombia and his mother is living in Panama now. And that she spends a lot of time traveling between visiting her children in different places. I said my mother will be visiting from Ohio in November or December.
It was so nice to talk with strangers. He introduced himself after I tried to speak in Spanish and it was a lovely interaction that warmed my heart.

My Dad died on 12/3/21.

https://www.mcintirebradhamsleek.com/obituaries/david-leslie-elwell-phd

It was really healing to work on his obituary, he’s had dementia for awhile now, so the obit helped freshen the memories of the Dad I grew up with.

I’m in Ohio.

Hello friends,

A friend of a friend of mine, who just turned 40, has worsening health and looks like she might have to be housebound for the rest of her life. It sounds like they are doing a great job being supportive of her, but she is understandably struggling with sadness during this adjustment. While this is an understandable and healthy response, I want to give her resources to try to help adjust the stories in her head about not being able to go out to something more positive if possible.

I am looking for recommendations for stories about people who were happy living (almost) entirely inside. Ideally these would be real life biographies or auto-biographies, but I image that fiction could also be helpful.

She is also in a fair amount of pain some of the time.

"The Sessions" and the ending of "Minority Report" are the only things that are currently coming to mind.
I know next to nothing about Emily Dickinson... was she happy in her staying home?

Thank you for any recommendations!

I'm going to try to do the 30 day digital declutter that is recommended in Cal Newport's "Digital Minimalism."
I'm going to try to eliminate all non essential tech use for the month of July. And then add back in the things I choose.
Fyi this philosophy is pro-using tech if it is enhancing your life and anti tech when it sucks you in like a trap and uses you as the product to sell to its advertisers for its profit.

If you want to reach me I'd love to get a call from you. I'm usually free Mon - Thur 8-9pm and Sun 11am-2pm. Also feel free to email me - especially if you want to set up a time to talk outside of the above times.

I'm still figuring out the plan, but here's what I have so far:

Unlimited Zoom/Discord(with video)
Unlimited phone calls.
Texts/IMs only on during 1 hour per day in evening.
Netflix 3 hours per week. (M-Sun)
Podcasts.... Not sure. Only while biking or swimming. Only for half of time?
News - not sure... Limit to 1x per day? When?
Dreamwidth 2 hours per week. On weekends.
FB only when someone points out something I need to see or for events.
Email - 30 minutes per day. 1x/day in the evening.
Business as usual while I'm doing my job.
Phone games = only 1 round of any game per day (goal 0 but being realistic)

Then I'm supposed to use my free time to come up with high quality leisure activities based on my values...
Figure this out...
Meditate, bike, swim, read, draw, learn something, join something, phone calls/zooms w friends & family, time w Terry, gaming zoom, walks
Try to focus on high bandwidth communication with the ability to see body language or at least hear inflection.

He also recommends doing seasonal objectives and weekly scheduling to fit those objectives. I've got a lot of work to do to get that going.

I know I just got here. I think dreamwidth will be something I keep after the declutter at some level. But I might be doing less commenting with the goal of maximizing actual vocal communication