My exercise streak is still unbroken. I think I’m officially hooked. That time in the water jogging gives me a chance to do some thinking. Sometimes it’s about the dragonflies and hummingbirds that come to visit, sometimes it’s about what happened in school that day, and sometimes it’s just about K-pop or what I might like for dinner.
Yesterday, however, my head was full of 9/11. I couldn’t help but notice the planes overhead, and think about how it was just a normal day to go fly somewhere, just like it was on 9/11/01, until it wasn’t.
It seems that everyone over a certain age remembers where they were that day. I also remember the Oklahoma City bombing, and the snafu in Waco at the Branch Davidian complex. But of course 9/11 was in a class by itself. A horrific, difficult to grasp series of events that, until they happened, seemed impossible to most people. I saw what happened, but I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
Here we are, twenty years later, and the images are still gut-wrenching. The stories of the survivors, the stories of the heroes, and the stories of those they left behind stay with me. So many children lost a parent that day. So many parents lost a child.
I kept on jogging in place, taking in the quiet of my neighborhood, the sunny sky, and the planes that kept on flying, and I hoped for a peaceful future.
That’s what my watch tells me every day after my workout. Wow, talk about a sentence I never thought I would write. It’s true though. I’m on a roll.
If you’ve been with me for any length of time at all, you know that exercise hasn’t exactly been something I’ve been keen on, but somehow that’s changed. Not ALL exercise. I haven’t completely changed my stripes. However, there’s a workout that I’ve been doing every day since May 27. Well, every day but one, and that couldn’t be helped. What is this magic workout, you ask. It’s jogging in the pool. Yes. Each day I put on my swimsuit and head out to the pool for at least 35 minutes of nonstop jogging. Occasionally I go twice in the same day.
I’ve always loved being in the water. I was once a lifeguard, and when I was little I swam like a fish. I have the faded construction paper “ribbons” from summer camp to prove it. One of my favorite baby pictures is of my mom standing over me, holding my hands up in the air while the rest of me is in the kiddie pool. I was clearly very happy at that moment.
This all came about entirely by accident. Let me explain. May 27, 2021 was the last day of the most challenging and exhausting school year I’ve ever experienced. I came home that afternoon tired. Not Friday tired. Not last day of school tired. More like relieved that I’d survived the school year tired. I sank into a chair, and promptly zoned out. I could have gone to sleep in a heartbeat. I would have slept for hours, maybe days, but I decided I didn’t want to do that.
I was on summer break, and I decided to reclaim my life. The 2020-2021 school year was not going to claim me as a casualty. I survived. I figured the best way to revive myself would be to jump into the pool. After all, late May in my part of the country is pretty warm, and a dip in the pool would be just the thing.
I hadn’t gotten into the pool yet this season, so I wasn’t even sure what the temperature would be, but it was terrific. I got in, I jumped around a little, I swam a few laps, and I felt great. That’s when I decided to challenge myself. I figured I have this pool (I insisted on it back when we were house hunting), so why not commit to using it each day of the summer? That’s how it started. Each day I got in, and when I did I spent some time jogging. It was all fun and games until I got my early birthday gift of an Apple Watch.
For at least 3 years my sweetheart has been wanting to gift me one, but I put him off and put him off. Then my supposedly waterproof Fitbit decided that it really wasn’t. Well, that watch has been a total game changer for me. It’s a game to me to “close my rings” each day (activity, exercise, and standing… which is a joke because it counts sleeping as standing). It also has pushed me to up my levels of activity and exercise.
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but during the year of Covid (not that it’s gone, but I do mean last school year), my daily step count averaged somewhere between 2,000-3,000. I’ve heard that 10,000 should be the minimum for most adults. Well, right now I’m averaging between 11,000-12,000 daily. I’m interested to see what my lab results will be the next time I go for my routine check up. I’m sleeping better, my appetite is pretty under control, and I’m feeling good about this whole movement thing. On top of all that, the time spent in the pool is time to clear my head and enjoy the dragonflies and occasional hummingbirds that fly by. If only summer could last forever.
So Mr. Google and I have been seeing a lot of each other lately, as I try to figure out some of the cool features he has to offer. Why a he? No idea. Moving on.
As I was sorting through photographs (on Google Photos) I came across a cool feature that probably everyone else in the world already knows about. Google sorted my pictures by events or objects, like boats, castles, graduation, etc. Well, the category that immediately caught my eye was dancing.
I clicked over to that group and was greeted by not only photos, but some short videos I had taken. I got to see my son dance around with intensity at his summer camp performances (I think choreography is a talent of his). It was fun to watch him “Bernie” with his friends and totally get into it.
I also took a trip down memory lane to watch my niece Whip and Nay-nay (I don’t have a clue how to spell that one and frankly don’t care enough to find out). She was a little smidge of a kid at her oldest brother’s Bar Mitzvah. In a few months she’s having her own Bat Mitzvah. She’s grown up a lot.
And then there was my brother and his wife. It was a short clip, but it was lovely to see the two of them enjoying themselves surrounded by family and friends. Finally, and maybe best of all, was the clip of my son dancing with his grandmother. She has about two dance moves and they both involve pumping her fists at her sides at though she’s running. It’s awkward, but she loves to dance, and he loves her, so there you go. It’s sweet, and I’m glad I got to see it today.
It’s funny how something unexpected can transport you to another place and time. I wasn’t expecting to think about any of those events today, but there they are. I’m grateful for photos and videos. I know many people take them but never look at them. I look at them. I like to remember. I also like to dance.
BulgingButtons 