Weekly recap of my ritual of existence in this liminal space called life. (See here for more info.)
- Weather
Weather seemed seasonable, with highs in the 20s and 30s, averaging 27.9°F, though some lows were sub-zero, ranging during the week from -2.2°F to 19.6°F, averaging 8.7°F, which seems a tad chillier than usual this time of year? I’m not basing that on any hard data. One of the coldest days was Thursday, when the high technically reached an almost balmy 32.7°F but it felt like 8°F all day long, thanks wind. (Still beat Monday, when the high was 26.4°F but it felt like 3°F all day.) We got some light snow on Wed. morning.
- Beginnings/Firsts
Started the Rockefeller Center jigsaw puzzle (by Randy Wollenmann, 1000 pieces of very odd and often very small shapes) on Monday … and will be leaving it for the catsitter to finish next week!
- Wild Things (Flora, Fauna, Fungi) in addition to others elsewhere in this post
I took almost no photos this week! But the cat alerted me to this mourning dove in the heated birdbath one day, and the motion camera captured these deer (one in far background) on another.
- Wandering
Not a lot of wandering this week, both because of the wintry cold and the trip preps. I walked on four days and treadmilled (1.2 miles, 20 mins) on another. On Monday, we will be wandering South, where we look forward to warmer temps for a couple of weeks.
seen while out and about
- Curiosity & Discoveries
My hair stylist friend showed me this mango houseplant, with fruit, growing inside the little shopping center where she works!
- Creating
I feel like I’m creating havoc, honestly, with a long trip (our longest in six years) and Christmas and lots of other balls in the air, but hopefully everything will come together and be OK.
- Repairing and Maintaining the human(s), the cat, and the cars
Human: Because of the cold temps and trip preps, I didn’t get in as much walking as I like. I had more than 8,000 steps on five days and more than 10,000 steps on three days, with a high of 12,213 on Wednesday, when I walked to meet a friend for lunch. I worked out four times (4 hours) this week. I had my hair cut on Monday morning. Participated in Dharma Sunday with Lama Willa teaching and leading meditation on The Luminous Darkness of Unknowing.
Cat: I spent a lot of time working on the notes for the catsitter (and emailing back and forth with her) to encompass the 15 days we’ll be away. He has no idea.
Cars: My husband got my car inspected (last time it’s required in NH!). It needs another check of the codes in the next month or two. 😕
- Nesting
Admin/Financial: Backed up my computer on Monday. Renewed my Jacquie Lawson account for two years. Called Irving about getting a propane delivery (and had a lovely chat with the woman who answered the phone). Typed up a postcards list (aka Christmas card list) for our trip. Did the cat admin for the trip and wrote a hefty check for the catsitter.
Cleaning/Maintenance: Vacuumed the living room, dining room, hallways, laundry, and kitchen this week (used the crevice tool again, too!). Watered and cleaned up the area around the houseplants on Monday. Unboxed and displayed all the Christmas fairies, Santas, etc. on Tuesday. I did clothes laundry on Sat. My husband went to the dump/recycling on Saturday and cleaned out the primary bathroom sink drain on Sunday.
Food: Monday’s dinner was potato/herb/spinach risotto (my husband added roasted turkey to his). Tuesday was leftovers of that + roasted Brussels sprouts and Wed. more of the same along with some raw veggies and humus. Veggie burger on Thursday to use up the arugula before we leave, plus fresh local spinach with garlic and corn & black rice. We were taken out to dinner on Friday by a friend, and on Sat. I had my leftovers (cod, mashed potato, green beans) from that meal along with leftover black rice-celery-tuna mix while my husband had turkey soup and we both augmented with broccoli sautéed with garlic. Sunday he had more turkey soup while I had a Progresso canned soup, along with homemade bread. (That $1.50 six-pound turkey is lasting my husband a very long time!) My husband also made a sourdough boule in the dutch oven on Tuesday.
Supplies: Ordered and bought a few Christmas gifts for friends/family this week, from Nuts.com, Seabear, local bookstore, Fedco. Also delivered Christmas trees/flowers from FreshCut Paper to neighbours and friends.
- Sleeping & Dreaming
Pretty average week, with overall sleep of 7 hours 24 mins per night and a Samsung Fit 3 sleep score average of 88.2. The sleep score was in the 90s, including a 95, on four nights but one night was only 74 which dragged the average way down. It was a dreamy week, with REM sleep accounting for 14 hours 45 mins. Deep sleep totalled 6 hours 53 mins.
Interestingly, a paper this year in Cell found that total hours of sleep, REM percentage, and deep sleep duration did not predict brain cleaning (glymphatic removal of waste products), a process that occurs during sleep and is thought to prevent neurodegeneration, but something called norepinephrine pulse frequency did. (If you’re on Threads, you can read neuroscientist Dr Dominic Ng’s take on this study here.) So, how do we support and measure in non-lab conditions norepinephrine pulse frequency, other than by not taking sleep aids (which is part of what the study focused on)?
- Reading / Words & Ideas / Listening / Watching
Reading
I finished reading Awake (2025) by Jen Hatmaker. Apparently she is or has been famous on the Southern Baptist circuit but I had never heard her name prior to reading this memoir of her divorce in 2020 and the year following it. I really appreciated her story, which roughly begins (and begins roughly) when she without warning finds out her pastor husband of 26 years and five children is cheating on her, includes some backstory of her life and their marriage throughout, and continues into her recovery from this traumatic event — as well as recovery from her life in the typical fundamentalist Christian church. I wasn’t raised in the southern Baptist tradition (for the most part) but a lot of the details of her childhood and adolescence resonated for me too. Her reliance on her many close girlfriends as well as her sisters (and her parents), and on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication (for a time), carries her up and out of the mire of humiliation, sorrow, loss, grief, and anger that follows her discovery, as she questions and reassesses her life choices, including her church involvement, and begins to reorient her life. (Her husband has been public with his refutations of her take on events, but my view is that each person has their own perspective and getting to what really happened or how it really happened is not really possible. He is remarried now.)
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I can’t remember if I’ve linked to this before but I find it helpful: Stressed and Tense? Unlock Your Body With This 60-Second 5-Movement Routine, by Mariana Calleja Ross MD in her newsletter The Feel Good Life.
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Watching
I think we watched some Lynleys on BritBox, and some Christmas sitcoms (Frasier, Waiting for God, Vicar of Dibley, Keeping Up Appearances, et al.).
- Connections & Community
Local Support: Ate out with friends at a local restaurant (same one) for both Wed. lunch and Friday dinner. Ordered from local florist on Thursday. Bought Xmas gifts from Fedco (Maine) and local booksellers. Bought a CSA card from local farmstand this week, which will be available in late March — paying for it early confers a bonus 10% more than my check amount.
Relationships: Had lunch with a friend (CF) at a local place on Wednesday (we each had the coconut curry soup and we split the Caesar salad, shown below) and my husband and I had dinner with a friend (LD) at the same local place on Friday evening. Caught up with my hair stylist/friend (GV) on Monday morning when I had my haircut. Spent an hour with friend (LD) when we delivered him some of the boule on Saturday. Visited friends (ND&TD) at their home on Sunday late afternoon for an hour.
I hosted the poetry group (7 of us) at our house on Tuesday for two hours (festive food&drink shown below), plus a friend (RL, who made the deviled eggs) came over a little before. Salon met in person on Friday with five of us for two hours.
I ordered and bought a few Christmas gifts for friends/family this week, packaged and mailed some Xmas gifts to family on Thursday, and delivered some small items from FreshCut Paper (who, by the way, have excellent customer service) to a few neighbours and friends. Neighbours (WD&RD) gave us a lovely handmade winter floral arrangement, with elegant cat ornament, on Wednesday:
Other neighbours brought over some always-welcome Seacoast Sweets candies (based in Rhode Island) on Sunday. I had flowers sent through our local florist to a friend (DP) on Thursday. Got an email from friend (RVN) on Monday and wrote back to neighbour (AA) on Tuesday.
Donations: Made a gift card donation to a local Christmas giving tree this week (which a friend, ED, kindly delivered).
- Endings
If all goes well, we are coming to the end of our long Jekyll Island & Savannah drought!
- All This Useless Beauty
But I will sure miss this gorgeous piece of fluff, shown here assisting me in my office duties.
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