Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
No precipitation this week. High temperatures ranged from 33.1°F to 18°F, averaging 24.8°F. Low temps ranged from 0.7°F to 23.4°F, averaging 12.8°F this week. We had a few very windy days early in the week.
- Beginnings/Firsts
We started bringing in the bird feeders at night on Sunday, with temps above freezing and a chance of wandering black bears.
Not a first by any means, but it’s been a long time since I rode the Metro around DC; my sister and I took the Metro from Arlington to Federal Center SW, near the U.S. Botanic Garden, on Sunday morning. I also did a fair amount of Lyfting and Ubering over the weekend, which I hadn’t done in a while.
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
- Wandering
I didn’t walk much at all this week, except for a 1-2-mile walk in Boston on Sat., between arriving by bus and leaving by train, and then almost nine miles of walking on Sunday in Arlington VA and Washington DC. I used the treadmill on four days at home because I was so busy during the days that I needed to walk at night.
Boston
I did wander all the way from NH to VA on Saturday, taking a bus and then an Amtrak Acela to Union Station in DC, where I got a Lyft to the hotel in Arlington. On Sunday, my sister and I walked around Arlington quite a bit and we took the Metro into DC to visit the U.S. Botanic Garden, which I’m not sure I’d ever visited before — it was wonderful and warm. (I’ll organise those photos separately, in a Field Trip post.) Then we ate lunch at the Sculpture Garden café, near the ice rink where skaters were enjoying being out on a mild winter day — my sister ran into an old friend at the café from their time together serving in the Middle East — and when my nephew arrived we walked for an hour or so around the Mall and then back to where he’d parked his car, which was some distance through parts of DC I don’t think I’ve seen previously — exciting! We tried a place in Arlington that was new to all of us for dinner that night.
Arlington & DC
- Curiosity & Discoveries
The U.S. Botanic Garden in DC was a great discovery, a spot I hope to visit again when more of the outdoor spaces are open/flowering. (As mentioned already, I’ll post those photos separately.) Maison Cheryl in Arlington was also a great find, a lovely French restaurant with a good menu and wine list, delicious food, and impeccable service.
- Creating
Working on the new WordPress theme design and some new content was partly creative — and partly technologically arduous.
- Repairing and Maintaining (everything but the house & yard)
Body/Mind: I worked out 4 times this week and despite no walks outside from Monday through Friday, I walked more than 10,000 steps per day on six days, with three days over 13,000, including one day of almost 20,000 steps. I walked 8.4 miles on the treadmill over four nights, in a little more than 2 hours. While away I walked almost 14,000 steps in Boston and DC/Arlington on my travel day, and then almost 20,000 steps in DC/Arlington on Sunday, a lot of it along or near the National Mall. I meditated on Thursday as part of Sharon Salzberg’s Real Happiness Challenge, completing days 16-21 in one go.
Vehicles: My husband washed both cars on Tuesday (when it was warmish).
- Nesting
Cleaning/Maintenance: I cleaned the master bath toilet on Wed., did clothes laundry on Thursday, watered houseplants on Friday. My husband cleaned out and resealed (grouted) the master bath shower on Sunday and Monday. He also ran the Oofy robovac, and he sewed up my PJs (again).
Supplies: Amazon S&S arrived over the weekend, with food (tuna, teas) and health & beauty products. I stocked up on some canned beans, pastas, capers, and crackers at the local co-op on Tuesday and birdseed at the local hardware store.
Food: I made a tuna-fusilli-capers-kalamatas-tomatoes-onions/garlic-white wine dish for dinner on Monday (with sautéed broccoli w/ fig balsamic) and we had that through Wed., when I added fresh edamame to it. We had veggie burgers with corn on Thursday, and I don’t remember Friday night’s dinner. I was away Sat. and Sun, eating roasted root vegetable salad and cheese & fruit plate on the train, potato cakes at a Starbucks on Sunday morning, a ho-hum pasta salad at the Sculpture Garden café for Sunday lunch, and a great Sunday evening meal at Maison Cheryl, a shrimp orecchiette dish with sauce Nantua, corn, piquillo pepper, crème fraîche, and chives. My sister, nephew, and I split a bottle of California cab franc with dinner.
Financial/Admin: I spent most of Monday, Tuesday, and Wed. chatting with WordPress and working on my WP website, switching to a new (supported) theme. I feel like I lost the better part of a week to it but I am fairly happy with the results so far. I backed up my computer on Friday and put a new PIN on my phone then too.
While I was on the bus to the train station for my 11am Acela to DC, I got a text from Amtrak to tell me the train was cancelled‼️, which meant I had to make quick phone calls to Amtrak’s (excellent) customer service while on the bus, to switch to an acceptable seat on the next Acela, at 1-ish, arriving in DC after 8 p.m. Not ideal but actually it was fine getting a Lyft to Arlington that late, and it meant I had about four hours to walk around Boston in the morning and go to the Aquarium there for a little bit. (And I was staying in the Metropolitan Lounge, with its free sodas, waters, tea/coffee, and snacks, a clean bathroom, and a safe place to leave my luggage, so I can’t complain).
While on the train on Sat., I called the hotel just to double-check that my sister was definitely also listed as a guest and could check in at 4 and park; I found that she was not listed, though I had been told 10 days before that she would be, so I added her (again). Her subsequent check-in was fairly seamless (except the valet parking, but I think they got all that straight). Travel requires a lot of administrative activity sometimes, most of it on the fly.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
A week of extremes due to various factors, including an early morning bus/train. I had one night when I got more than 8 hours, one night between 7 and 8 hours, and five nights of less than 7 hours’ sleep, including one night during which I slept for only 4 hours and 52 minutes. On average I got 6 hours 48 mins of sleep per night, with an average Fitbit sleep score of 82.3. It was another dreamy week. REM sleep accounted for 11 hours 25 mins, deep sleep for a little more than 7 hours.
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
BOOKS: I finished Elin Hilderbrand’s Winter Street (2014), the first in her Winter series of four books, and I’m almost finished with the second, Winter Stroll (2015). They’re both set around Christmas time on Nantucket Island (MA), as members of the Quinn family — Kelley and Mitzi, who own the Winter Street hotel; Margaret, Kelley’s now-famous TV news reporter ex-wife; Kelley’s kids, Patrick, Ava, Kevin, and Bart — gather (or don’t), create new alliances, dissolve alliances, face the consequences of their actions, and so on. I like these — they’re light-ish reading, though Bart almost from the start is in danger as a soldier in Afghanistan, and their plots are interesting and (some of them) relatable.
OTHER
The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown by Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way at Foreign Affairs (11 Feb 2025; may be behind paywall, though I can read it without a paid subscription). From which: “Once key agencies such as the Justice Department, the FBI, and the IRS have been packed with loyalists, governments can harness them for three antidemocratic ends: investigating and prosecuting rivals, co-opting civil society, and shielding allies from prosecution.”
The Great Resegregation: The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil-rights movement (gifted link) by Adam Serwer (22 Feb 2025), from which: “An OMB memo ordering a federal-funding freeze illustrates the ideological vision behind these decisions. The memo states that the administration seeks to prevent the use of “federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies,” Acting Director Matthew Vaeth wrote. Equal opportunity in employment is described here as “Marxist,” because it affirms what the desegregators see as an unnatural principle: that nonwhite people are equal to white people, that women are equal to men, and that LGBTQ people deserve the same rights as everyone else.”
Black cherry trees are good for wildlife:
Watching
This week, we watched three 20th anniversary AbFab specials on BritBox, from 2011: Identity, Job, and Olympics. I also watched the 50th anniversary SNL show in three chunks while I was treadmilling.
- Connections & Community
Local Support: Bought several items at local co-op on Tuesday as well as a couple bags of birdseed from local hardware store the same day. I bought a skirt at a local consignment shop on Friday. My sister, nephew, and I ate at a lovely local place, Maison Cheryl, in Arlington VA on Sunday night.
Relationships: Spent Sat. night and Sunday (and will spend all day Monday) with my sister in Arlington/DC, and spent Sunday afternoon and evening with my nephew (CXP) as well. Really good to catch up in person with both. My husband gave a ride to a friend (ED) for a medical visit on Friday morning. Texted some with ED, RL, LM, BF, ND, JKN, STM, and with my other sister this week and emailed with a few other friends. Permaculture met on Thursday morning on Zoom with eight of us; Salon met in person on Friday afternoon with six of us.
- Endings
When I’m on the train, I never want it to end, but it did. When I’m staying in a hotel, I never want it to end, but it did. Until next time …
- All This Useless Beauty
A bull terrier really is a thing of exquisite beauty. This one, Milo, who is 7 years old and very well-behaved, spent Saturday afternoon on the train between Boston and NYC.
I love this triceratops sculpture and the pine tree, in D.C.
how can this mourning dove be so luxurious?
cat in morning sun
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