Week 17 - Exercise and Gardening

It was an active week with all kinds of exercising, some mid-week drama and plants, plants, plants! Can’t beat ending the week that way, n’est-ce pas?

I started the week trying out the new bike rental deal here in Lincoln, which I’d signed up for for $10 for the year instead of $100 on a grand opening deal. I had received my fob in the mail so went over to the rack in front of the Union at lunchtime to try a bike. Keep in mind I haven’t ridden a bike in years. I chose the bike with the shortest seat but it was too short so I stopped to raise it. 3 times! Because the reason it was short was the seat was broken. I managed to tool around the center of campus enough to get some bike riding confidence and then returned the bike. But I didn’t do it right so it still showed that I had it out an hour later. After a call to the customer service, it was straightened out. There was hope for future rides until I managed to lose the fob somewhere in my car. Yes, you read that right. I had neglected to zip my wallet after gassing up my car and when I picked it up, the fob went flying and I can’t find it. It’s got to be down some little crack somewhere. Sheesh!

Wednesday was Walk at Lunch day and Dodie and I started off walking, only to see people walking with goodie bags when we were nearly done. Campus Rec had a program that had you walking to different spots on campus then back to their table. Since Dodie only likes to walk for 30 minutes, she bailed after the first stop but I hooked up with a young, energetic thing who works at the State Museum (I’d trained her so she recognized me) and did the entire program at a fast pace. My knee survived and I went back to work with a bag full of stuff, most of which I gave away. But it was a good workout and I swam after work so had 2 that day.

I had another workout Thursday morning (my regular Fit & Fueled) but I managed to leave the house without my clothes, which I didn’t realize until I parked at the Rec Center. I was in the process of driving away when I saw Rene, who suggested I should at least workout before heading home. Now had I driven back right then, I could have been showered and back to campus by 8:30 or so but I got guilted into working out so had to burn 2 hours of vacation time because I’d already been planning to run to East Campus for the Hort Club sale at 9:00 so just called Nora to say I’d be in after the sale. It ended up being a mob scene so I needed the time to wait in line anyway and having started into a vacation day for those 2 hours, I put in for 2 more on Friday, taking the heat off of leaving early for Spring Affair. I do hate having uneven hours in my vacation pot (call me anal!) but at least now it was half a day.

I left Friday at 3:00 for the volunteer plant sale, where I impulse shopped through the part shade area. What was a full sun bed when I planted it 18 years ago, between my neighbor’s trees and my bushes is now part shade at best so my plan is to replant the whole thing. Anyway, Lorri and I headed to HyVee for a quick dinner, where I encountered a cashier who didn’t know how to use the scale to tare out the plate for my tiny salad so it ended up costing $15 for supermarket food. Needless to say, there was an email to HyVee when I got home, which resulted in a call Sunday morning from the manager and a $20 gift card being sent. But I digress….. I was a plant informant at Spring Affair, which I’ve done for 20 years except for last year when I was recovering from my rotator cuff surgery. Something seemed to be missing. The energy wasn’t there and I didn’t get much out of it. Hmmm…. It might be time to rethink that event. It was a long day and I got home after 9:30. Good thing I had no weekend plans.

It was pretty chilly Saturday morning so I enjoyed sitting and knitting in the sun streaming in my slider. I got outside after lunch and started with putting together a greenhouse I’d bought years ago that was still in the garage in its box. It went together pretty easily and I immediately loaded it up with all the plants I’d bought and then transplanted all my seedlings into little labeled cups, which took a couple of hours. This was the first time I’ve started seedlings in years so I was feeling great about all my baby plants.

Until Sunday morning when the wind was whipping and I watched as the entire greenhouse, which I’d placed against the house, fell over in slow motion. Now the purchased plants were all fine due to their robust root systems but the babies I’d lovingly labeled and potted up had no roots so ended up in a mess of mud inside the toppled greenhouse. I was close to tears and was only able to salvage 4 babies in their labeled cups. Luckily I’d kept the ones for my garden inside but now I don’t have any to share after all that work. Oh well.

I ended the day with laundry and cooking – sausage soup, 3 bean salad and a chocolate bread pudding with freeze dried strawberries (something from Aldi) – so I’d be set for the coming week. I didn’t start the cooking until after Call the Midwife so struggled to fall sleep. Note to self – don’t end the day with productivity. Between that and the new book I got sucked into, I was still awake at midnight so would be starting the week tired. Still, life is good!