Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Riding, Music, Breathing, and Other Stuff

I should start with the upbeat. I got to do a lot of cycling in the last week. In fact, if I get to ride tonight, which should not be a problem, I should finally be over 200 miles for the year. It's not a lot, but I feel a lot better about my progress. On Sunday I plan to do the Sangamon River Ride with Anne and Nancy. We had a good time doing it last year. It is done by the Monticello Lions Club. I did a moonlight ride last Friday night and while I didn't do the usual Saturday ride, I did ride in the wind on Sunday and did the level two ride yesterday, which was very nice both in terms of the weather and the ride itself except for one short stretch of gravel. I do need to think about finding a better light for riding at night if I plan to ride more at night. On the other hand, I don't ride at night very often so I am not rushing out to buy a new light.

Also good was going to the opera on Saturday. We saw the Met broadcast of "La Cenerentola," which was excellent. We had a great time. It wasn't an opera we had seen before and Rossini had obviously borrowed from his own "Barber of Seville," but we didn't care. The performances were great and the Magritte conceptualization was fun.

The not-so-good was calling my mom on Sunday for mother's day. I had a hard time getting through, evidently because she is having a hard time figuring out her phone. I called and called, finally calling my brother and getting another number. At the end of a very short conversation I wasn't sure she knew she was talking to me. I had thought that I was prepared for this to start happening, but evidently I'm not. I will have to get used to it since it is the inevitable progression of Alzheimer's patients and it isn't all the time yet. Still, it was a difficult day.

We also had to buy a new lawnmower and a new washing machine. Since we have also ordered a new hot water heater, it seems, as usual, as if all of our appliances are breaking at once. This seems to be a pattern and one I get tired of dealing with. Once we are done with all of this, I think some landscape work will be the last of the house stuff for this year. Mostly we need a dead tree removed. Of course we really need to have everything re-landscaped but that isn't going to happen. Generally we prefer to spend our money on traveling rather than on the house.

The Italian is still not going very well and I haven't had as much time to work on it as I would like. Rosetta Stone and I don't always get along very well. I am also more used to learning dialogs so the method takes some getting used to. Unexpected things keep coming up--getting invited to people's houses, concerts I hadn't planned to attend, problems with my CPAP mask, just general stuff. I may decide to try another mask just because my nose is so sore that my current mask is painful to wear. Evidently my insurance will let me get masks as often as I want as long as I pay the copay. It is a very generous policy. Most companies say once every three months. So I just find my time slipping away, as usual.

Now I just have to keep the cats from fighting on the bed at 5 am. I know they only do it to try to get me up, but it is annoying, much as I love them. On the other hand, if that is the worst thing that happens in life, I really can't complain.

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