It's a cloudy day today, with a little bit of drizzle. This is probably a good thing, since the sunshine and warmth that we've had lately seems to have affected my judgement. Day before yesterday, I sat out in the sun, getting my To Do list back up today. It was actually warm enough for me, and my legs were bare and I had them propped up on another chair. Later in the evening after I got up from spending too much time on the internet (again, but that's a different story), my first thought was, "My knees are sore. I spent too much time with them pressed against the couch." Later it dawned on me, no, that wasn't the problem, I had burned my knees out in the sunshine earlier. Ouch. I don't remember the last time I've had a sunburn, and I guess I've gotten rather laissez faire about sunscreen. That'll teach me.

Then yesterday, another pretty day, I decided to go ahead and start the running regime that I've been working up to. The running was done barefoot, and I'm no dummy, I started slow (60 secs run, 90 sec walk) for about 2 laps. No, I'm not sore, but I did manage to get blisters on both heels. Another ouch. And I *knew* that I had committed to go walking with Sister No. 2 and the Smaller Niece in the evening. I just hadn't even *considered* the possibility of blisters. That's the *point* of running barefoot; it's supposed to create a more "natural" style of stride that doesn't injure you. Some internet searching revealed that one's stride may still reflect shoe-learned behavior. I'm apparently hitting the ground with the wrong part of my foot, and hence the blisters.

So, yesterday evening, I slathered on the aloe vera (for the current sunburn) and then the sun screen (to fend off making it worse) and and wore my sensible shoes with lambs wool in the heel (for the blisters), and joined the family down at the Nisqually tide flats. Sister & I walked a little over a mile while Mom & Niece listened to a lecture on Snow Leopards. I developed some small blisters along the ball of my foot, compensating for the blisters on my heels, but otherwise, I was relieved that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Today will be mostly a day off my feet, as we're taking the Niece over to see The Boy at college. Swimming is the primary activity scheduled for this evening and tomorrow morning, and then we'll walk around the campus, and I'll get to see how well I've recovered. ;-)

Well Day 5 ended on a mixed note. On one hand, I went shopping for a couple of pairs of slacks and capris, and I found linen(!) ones, on clearance, for a fabulous price! On the other hand, when we went to go down on an outing with the Smaller Niece and Grannie, I discovered that, as I suspected at the time, putting my glasses on the loop of my scarf while I was shopping was a Very Bad Idea. In all of the putting on of clothes and putting off of clothes, and in general, trying things on, I *forgot* that I had my glasses on my scarf (instead of properly Put Away), and so they were gone.

These are not cheap glasses, nor was it easy to acquire them in the first place. As I may have noted at the time (and I'm too lazy to go back and check right now), it was almost two months between when I had the eye appointment and ordered them, and when they arrived, and then when I was finally able to schedule picking them up. They are also a very magic plastic, and pretty much disappear when you put them down, because the refraction of the plastic is so slight. This also means that they were pretty expensive, and I was not happy at the thought of having to replace them just because I'd been careless.

The outing went very well, and I'll probably write more about that later, and on the way home, we stopped at the store where I'd been, to inquire at their Lost & Found. Hooray! Sometimes you live right! My glasses were there, pretty much not bent up. Happy ending. And *maybe* now I've learned not to loop them through whatever I have wrapped around my neck at the time. (But, unfortunately, possibly not...)

I *hate* waking up late. It really gets the day off to the wrong start. Lately, waking up "late" has meant 7-ish, which, while not bad, is not the 5:00 a.m. start that I need to maintain for the fall. Today, however, I got up after 10:00, which has really thrown my day off. It was due primarily to being awake with a queasy stomach last night at 2 a.m. That was undoubtedly a result of my having popcorn and chocolate sodas for dinner, which will in theory will teach me, but possibly not. ;-)

Yesterday was Day 4 of the Great Summer Vacation, and the "Getting Things Done" score remains mixed. I am getting things done. It's only that it's just about half of what I intend/need to get done. I'm continuing to get my walk in, which is good, and we went to see the remnants of an old WS landmark, the Walker Rock Garden. We saw it a longtime ago when The Girl was little, and I'm not sure if The Boy was even on the scene yet. I'll have to dig out my old photos, At that point, the fellow who built it still lived in his house, and the grounds were fairly well maintained. Now, the house is empty, it is in the process of being sold, and only the upper level is accessible. The entire lower level has gone over to blackberries and weeds, and very little of the rock sculptures there can even been seen from under the foliage now. It's rather sad.