After A Month

Even this blogging platform is changing as of this month. I haven't worked out since mid-May. First, I spent a week trying to rest my hands because I'd sprained my right thumb. Not the actual digit but the meaty part of the palm where you actually grip things. While babying that hand, I sprained the left thumb. Ugh.

Wild roses outside 

After a week, my hands were recovered but I'd decided to spend my energy trying to weed the over-zealous Oriental bittersweet vines out of my privet hedges and front yard maple tree. It's a slow, ongoing process. I can't even say that I'm halfway done yet. Perhaps a quarter way as I've cut back the half of the hedges facing the roadway, but not the thick stems that require sawing. So far I've only used loppers. It's mid-June now which means there are tiny white buds in the privets. Bees love those flowers and I am loathed to deprive them of such dainty nectar, although the wild roses have been overwhelming this year. Their faint floral soapy scent is nothing like the lilacs that have already passed.

We have pink and white clover and other wildflowers. Half the milkweeds I planted last year have survived and I've tied markers to their stems so they won't be mowed accidentally. I'm not sure when I'll be able to return to the gym, or even if I ever will.

The state is slowly re-opening but gyms are last on the list in phase 4. The CDC, who nobody trusts anymore, recommends that gyms not provide access to locker rooms or showers because they might be vectors for the new coronavirus. I'm incredulous at the stupidity. Don't you want members to wash their hands? Toilets and washing facilities are in locker rooms. Showers are full of soap and water. Ugh. (Is it because South Korea discovered that vigorous exercise classes became a hotspot?)

Nevermind that a lot of members exercise before going to work, so what are they supposed to do? Take an extra half hour or more just so they can go home to shower? Not being able to access a well-lit shower with great water pressure has been depressing for me. I'm not bothered by the social distancing. But damn, I miss the Step Mill. And the piping hot showers.

Granted, a lot of people, especially middle-aged men, apparently can not be trusted to follow basic hygiene rules, like wiping down equipment, much less wearing masks. Stores here reserve the right to prohibit people from entering if they refuse to wear a mask. I don't have a problem with that. This protects other customers, but it especially protects the people who work there, specifically cashiers who face the public for hours. That rule makes sense. The recommendation about showers does not.

Meanwhile, like most people, I'm suffering from anxiety and all its symptoms: weight gain, excess eating and drinking, sleeplessness, teeth grinding. I actually cracked another crown in my mouth the other day while eating a dumpling. Ugh. I already know what I need to do. It's just a matter of doing it.