Today

Making cereal then late morning heading to Gold’s Gym for a SilverSneakers Strength Class.

I did this class a couple days before my recent surgery, time to, gingerly, see where I am now in that area. The instructor is top notch, like almost all the SilverSneakers teachers we’ve known, so it’s just me I need to key an eye on, lol!

Maybe go see the 6 year old and his momma, should be back from their exploration of Big Bend in West Texas. I’ve never been, so he’s already 60 years ahead of me!

The rest of the day? Who knows. Walking, eating, and any good surprises 😊

Yesterday

Morning
(reflections)
Slept til 7, an hour past my preferred time, felt rested though still a bit weary.

The irony of getting better, including from the anesthesia in my body, esp my stomach, is two fold – I’m getting much more active, hitting 7500+ steps 6 days in a row – but I’m also feeling the effort of moving around more (less pain masking).

My Garmin tracker says it’s my best streak since June 4th.

That ended 141 days straight of 7500+ .

Been a long road back…

To start up again…

Over 3 mths…

And wasn’t sure if I’d be able to hit my 7500+ step goal, but as my wife said to me, that’ ok ❤️ My prior efforts paid off for my summer of surgeries…

I need to remind myself, as the positive-deadening (from my layman’s POV) effects from the anesthesia continue to wear off over the next few months, I’ll begin to feel what my body’s saying to me more and more.

I think I better listen 😊

Might be good!

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(omelette breakfast)
Sunday mornings Sheila likes to make this great omelette concoction she came up with when we were living in Vermont back 2011-12.

I remembered about it ‘cause she and I were saying what a great breakfast it is to have (a varying assortment of goodies from avocados to shrimp to boracho beans (courtesy of HEB) to choice cheeses and organic brown eggs) – and it came about ‘cause when we were in Vermont, we’d developed a decades long habit of eating Sunday morning breakfast out since the time we’d met in 1980. Usually breakfast tacos.

It’s not that there’s not much else to choose from in Texas for breakfast, it’s like why bother with anything else when Texas breakfast tacos are so good 😂

But, in Vermont, it was a challenge finding anything comparable.

Understandable, but, left us searching for an alternative.

First challenge was finding good quality tortillas 😊

After lots of searching & experimentation we found some great ones at City Market downtown Burlington. From there we added what was available in Vermont, including new things we hadn’t tried in Texas, like kale. Those 1st kales we bought and chopped & cooked were huge and tough! Like Vermonters, my wife would say 😊

Nowadays, even here in Texas, we can get baby kale most anywhere. Milder, smaller, and still very very healthy!

Amazing how often necessity creates tradition.

And tradition becomes preference ☺️

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Early Afternoon
(groceries, short hot walk)
Picked up some delicious crab cakes (plain for me, spicy for Sheila) at Central Market plus had fun with the tons of samples out (esp vs when they 1st open) – fresh organic coffee (flavors rotate, no idea what this one was, lol!), super yummy if pricey cheese, tons of breads w/real butter one can add (had to skip bread again this time around, but its time is coming!), plus sampling the grapes to see which batch of about half a dozen varieties tasted best (seems to vary from sweet to tart & not always the same colors behaving the same way – so must be sampled 😊).

Only time store shopping at Central Market’s more fun is when the 6 year old’s w/us ❤️

Once home, I saw I was way short of having a non-grueling shot at 7500+ steps, so went for a short walk aiming for at least 10 minutes. Sheila came to, and it took both of us to find enough shade spots to make it out and about and then back, lol!

Still felt like I needed more stretch-walking, so walked indoors with a headset on.

I’m slowly working on an in-depth post of things I do to make 7500+ @ day.

It’s helping me refocus on why I’ve come to love walking.

I never did before, so this is very good for me!

There’s a lot of variances & nuances and links I want to include, so aiming for later this coming week to be able to finish & post it 😊

Mid-Afternoon
(crab cake veggies, eating after surgery)
Such a delicious lunch.

Am more and more loving the softer flavor soaked versions of vegetables I’ve been having to eat since my 2nd surgery. After my 1st surgery, the emergency gallbladder procedure, within a few days I could eat regular food w/out much change, only occasionally taking what I called my anti-bloat pill to minimize reflux til my more recent surgery, and I’ve continued to marvel each day how much more flavor I am finding in my foods! Even what I drink!

I’m adding 1:1 or 1/2:1 ratio of water to my orange juice, blueberry juice, even iced tea!

With my recent softer foods Sheila’s been preparing, I realized today one of the reasons I’m eating slower, is ironically, though easier to simply swallow w/out much swallowing, I don’t!

Why?

Because I’m enjoying chomping into every little bit and squeezing the flavor out and savoring!

Not sure why, maybe one of those deflected-meditations, like dreams do, but while watching Father Brown (superb as usual & bit more dark than usual!) it came to me that, maybe, via non-medical-person-reasoning, both the lack of poisoning from my infected gallbladder, and the lack of reflux deadening drifting up my once smushed s-shaped esophagus (not it’s “supposed” to be shape), both have combined to allow me to regain some of the human body’s potent taste abilities!

Like when I quit smoking in ‘83 and, after a month, driving down Galveston’s saving sea wall with Sheila, windows open and feeling the Gulf’s breeze, I smelled fish!

For the first time!

My surgeon had told me, prior to and after my hiatal hernia repair & esophagus straightening, that many things I’d lived with for who knows how long, would change.

This is obviously one I could’ve imagined before hand.

Obviously, I’ve been blessed ❤️

Evening
(blogging & posting)
I saw that yesterday’s (092219) regular non-My Day Ahead post, I’ve Been Accepted to the WordPress Affiliate Program, is my 1st post in about a week to match or barely out-view the matching day’s My Day Ahead posting!

I decided to let the new WP Affiliate article stand another day w/out another new regular post (but continue the My Day Ahead posts).

It was just a matter of time, if I truly intend to resume painting, that I wouldn’t be able to maintain two posts each day.

This’ll also allow me to continue to invest in my recovery, and, as importantly, invest a little more into each post, which I was beginning to miss being able to do – and eventually, soon I hope, resume painting 😊 👩‍🎨

(painting on my mind)
The question on my mind, for those who are curious, re painting again, is now the title on a draft post I just skeleton-started, Feeling Seeing Deciding My Painting Style & Motifs — And Which Has Priority?

You see, for me, if I’m to do more than dabble-paint, I’m going to need to find my intuitive-restart button.

And for that, I need to feel what it is I want to express. Which feeling?

I need to visualize it in my mind – see it! In colors!

And decide —

I’ve tried not to rush it.

I get glimpses, flashes of inspiration, and struggle to be patient.

I’ve played the rush-into-it game before, lol! Don’t want to do that again.

No, the last time I took my time, thought about it though, w/out rushing it, gathered out my feelings about what style and colors and things I wanted to paint, was in 2000, just over 19 years ago, when I “decided” I loved Impressionism above all other styles, and felt I’d found my motif when we moved back to Austin from Galveston – the riverbanks and waterways and bridges in and around Lady Bird Lake.

This time I’m leaning Paris, bicycles, people

It makes my eyes go wide 💕

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My Related Blog Posts

• Autumn Austin – My Most Viewed Image @FineArtAmerica Week 2 September 2019
• Print Sold! @FineArtAmerica – Austin Autumn Colors at Barton Springs Zilker Park circa 2007
• Old Bakery & Emporium Vendors’ Art Reception Austin Tonight
• Today’s My Surgery – But I’ve Restocked My Art at Old Bakery & Emporium

Plus –

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Related Amazon Search & Products

Impressionism

I do like to point out I pick my selections to showcase from my Amazon searches. May not always be the case, or wholly always the case, but for now, I prefer picking titles and book covers and gift items that just really appeal to me. There’s lots more to choose from, but only have so much room, lol! I hope you enjoy —

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

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