JL is back!!!

Yes I am excited about that. You would be too.

My book at the moment is The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. When I decided to read it I found it for two very, very different prices. $25 something via the e-Google bookstore, and $9 something from Amazon/Kindle. Guess which I bought. No need for a question mark on that sentence. This is the first real reading experience on the iPad, and I'm liking it. I can't really read it standing up on the train the way I see people with Kindle's or Nooks, or the other readers. I'm enjoying the book.

One of the things he said when talking about a painting, is a reference to a map of a person's life, seen before they lived it. This concept quite struck me, being phrased that way. It is common to speculate about the future of a person, or the road they've traveled, but I had never really thought of expressing a person's life journey as a map. What landmarks would be on it? What unexpected twists and turns would there be? What little incidents would be marked that seem like nothing at the time, but turn out to be important later?

This is one of the reasons I like reading so much. I like to be exposed to different world-views and different viewpoints. Another reason is that nobody can live long enough, or possibly survive all the mistakes that can be made, so reading about the mistakes of others can enable one to avoid them. Some writers have a way with dialogue and words that makes your brain happy when you read them.

I was up early this morning, and was reading while it was still dark out. This probably led to a more meditative frame of mind than usual. I got thinking about what the map of my life so far might look like, and what's to come. I don't regret the choices I've made, but there are a couple of points where things could have gone very differently, and I sometimes wonder how they would have turned out.

As it started to get brighter out I looked out, and ran outside with the phone for these two photos. They are even better than seeing it for real, what with the camera seeing things a little differently than a human eye. Again, totally untouched from the camera to your eyes.

Shortly after I stretched and dressed for a run in -10 C (14 F) weather. It's clear and cool, so a nice day for a run. My feet felt a bit heavy at first, and it seemed my lungs were working harder than I expected. Mostly I chugged along, enjoying being outside. Toward the end my legs felt better and wanted to run faster. For a little bit I tried to stretch out by leaning forward. It was ok, but I ran out of lungs way too quickly. Walked to cool down, and stretched after. Only 35 minutes running, though as I'm writing this my legs want to go for another run.

The high point of my day is finding out that my massage therapist JL is back till next May! Well, not back in Calgary, but in Drayton Valley. She is planning to come down to Calgary every month or so and do a bunch of massages. I will eagerly accommodate her schedule. I'm very happy with how she works on me. There was lots of creaky and sore bits today, and it feels great afterward. I had first thought that she was just back for a short visit, but no, her life has changed a bit, so it will be 6 months here, and 6 back home. Now, I just need to figure out what to do for massage next summer, but at least now I have lots of time to think about it. Her phone number? Eh? What's that you say? I can't hear you.

While she was working on me, the most amazing smells were percolating into the room. Linda had baked cookies, was working on a carrot cake, and had popped dinner into the oven. Just before I started writing I took the pottery dish out of the oven. I won't tell you what's in there right now, otherwise we'd have a lot more people for dinner. You'll have to tune into tomorrow's blog.