All posts in April 2020

The weather was a bit nippy, but clear and not too pollenated (at least, I wasn’t bothered by it), limber and comfortable for a brisk 9:32 mile. Fruit breakfast and a slow start to business — some email to catch up on, and I had a couple of Zoom meetings scheduled during the day. Sadly,…

This morning I used a comb for the first time in many years (and although my scalp hair isn’t really long enough to need combing yet, my beard needed the attention). That actually didn’t happen till I did the grocery shopping, where I bought the comb, which in turn was after my morning run. 7°,…

Happy Ed Balls Day! The weather this morning was rainy, so although I felt a strong inclination to push my creaky limbs to make a limbering-up run, common sense prevailed and I missed out my morning run. The Office, fruit breakfast, and back to reading. I finished up my PDF of Dryden’s Religio Laici and…

Moderate temperature, 9° with high humidity and high pollen, so my breathing was more laboured than under clearer conditions.The story this morning, though, was the time it took to limber up my legs, which were balky and achy for a longer interval than usual. Honestly, I never rally saw the point of ‘warming up’ when…

Woke up to a crisp 8° — I’m not sure why it felt so cool (I think I even saw traces of frost on parked autos), but it skies were clear, fish would have been jumpin’ and the pollen was high. I could feel the slight difference in my breathing, so I wasn’t surprised that…

Up early in the morning, so I had less than zero excuse to not take my run. 6° and overcast, but pleasant enough for running. As it turned out, I had neglected to hit the right button at the right point, so there’s no time to report. Once I noticed this halfway through, though, I…

After ten days of assuring myself that it would be all right to take a day off running, this morning I did so. I mean, ‘take a day off.’ I woke up stiff and achy, and running seemed as especially unappealing prospect. After a while, my joints and back relaxed into ordinary limberness, so my…

Another lovely, clear day. The morning temperature was 6°, but my joints were stiff and the spring pollen count is high; breathing and limberness were suboptimal, and my time was sadly (but not surprisingly, as I felt sluggish while I was running) a laggardly 10:13. Yesterday I noticed that my MacBook Pro from 2015 was…

That’s five full weeks of isolation and distancing here. No coffee at Rick’s, no brunch at Queen’s Lane or the Vaults, no reading and writing at the Bod, no leisurely break-time afternoons in my study, no whimsical trips out to Majestic Wines, not even any browsing for fountain pens at Antiques on High or Pens…

Another chilly morning at 5°, distinctly gusty breezes, stiff limbs, but a satisfactory 9:40 time for my mile. A tutorial at 8:00 with one of my Orielenses (video-tutoring to Korea, a first for me), then back to Newman, and a digression to Benjamin Jowett’s ‘On the Inspiration of Scripture.’ Pippa called in the late afternoon…

Another chilly start, with light gusts and headwinds. I started out creaky and rusty, and the chill took over when my legs would ordinarily have limbered up. My muscles stayed tight all through, and I came in at a disappointing 10:09. Newman (both reading and editing), looking into public domain editions of Richard Hooker, and…

Over the weekend I remembered how much I love Another Green World.