I woke up at the 6 am alarm, but I didn’t get moving right away. I’m going to need to figure out my order of operations for the mornings when I want to roll out and walk. Do I do the eye drops before or after, mainly.
I had a dream with Ambrose in it, but it was like we were both playing parts, rather than spending time with each other as ourselves. Still good to see him and feel like I’m around him.
The plan was to run in the morning, but I ended up lollygagging too much to do that. One of the tomatoes that I didn’t freeze had mold in it, so I had to toss it out. But out of that whole big bucket, not bad. I’ve been eating tomatoes as part of my breakfast. Soon, I’ll have to unfreeze some and see how they are.
The peaches that I cut up and froze have frozen into a solid chunk. At some point, I’m going to put them in the fridge to thaw and refreeze them in an ice cube tray so I can have pieces instead of one massive blob. Ideally, I’d put them on a tray, but there’s no room for a full cookie sheet in my freezer. I’ll have to shuffle things just to make room for the ice cube tray to have nothing on top of it.
The pears finished drying today, I think. I’ll keep them in the fridge just in case, but they do look and smell delicious. I might have to cut up some more pears for drying. It’s been really nice having fresh fruit and also drying things out. Oh, I should try drying out tomato slices. They’d shrink up so pretty.
Work felt really busy so the day went by quickly. Always more fires to put out, which is job security. But we catch most of them early, so that’s good. I’m really happy with my newest employee. She is focused on learning, and is capable of following instructions, which is more than I can say of the one before.
After work, I had a salad, tortellini and marinara meat sauce for dinner. Then I set a 30 minute timer and played Silksong. I spent the whole time trying to beat the same boss, and failing every time. Ambrose really enjoyed watching me play through Hollow Knight; I know he’d love watching me play this one, too, even if I get stuck at certain points and have to repeat things over and over. When the timer went off, I did a 15 minute workout doing sets of pushups, overhead press with light weight, flex/extend ankles, weighted arm circles, and sumo squats. It got me nice and sweaty and warm.
Then I changed into my running clothes and went outside for a run. The sun was below the Hitt Mountains, but not yet set, so it was bright enough to see. The wind was blowing and it was in the 60’s, so it was pretty ideal weather for running. I set off and tried to get to a good pace. I had suspected that I was running so slow in August because my body knew there was something wrong with my eye and it throttled me. I was running 17 to 20 minute miles at that point, which is slow even for me. Today, I got very close to a 14 minute mile, which I will take, especially considering I hadn’t been doing anything strenuous for four weeks during my recovery from the eye surgery.
When I ran up to loop around my neighbor’s driveway, I scared away a stag. I hoped to see it hopping away, but the drop is too sharp. I also encountered traffic – one whole car driving up behind me on my first lap. Otherwise, the run was uneventful.
It felt really good to run and put some stress on muscles and lungs. I’m going to go for a hike tomorrow, though I’m going to limit myself to no more than two miles out, with an option to turn back sooner if that’s what I’m feeling. I just want to get out there a bit and let my mind settle into a walking rhythm. When I run, I’m focused on form and breathing. When I hike, I can let my mind turn ideas over. I’m hoping to get the kernel for my romance story during tomorrow’s hike. I want to have that idea and a start to the story itself tomorrow, and then I finish it up on Sunday.
