Weezie's On Her Way...

Last night I received two phone calls: one from a man in Cleveland I saw face to face once 13 years ago. The other from a woman near Washington's Coast whom I have never met. But we're family of a sorts... and sad news needs to be delivered in person.

In the very early 1990s "the internet" was little about "the web"; while AOL and Prodigy were starting up, most of the activity on both was contained inside their systems. For most of us, the internet meant IRC, email, usenet groups and bulletin boards. Texty. Very texty.

In Cleveland, Case Western Reserve had decided to reach out and make the internet accessible to anyone with a computer, modem and phoneline. They created the Cleveland Freenet (CFN). As a user, I would put my modem on "auto dial until I connect" and wait through the 10-100 attempts to find an open node on a server, occupying myself some other way until I connected. Once the connection was made, however, I needed to work fast. After 60 minutes, I would be automatically disconnected.

The physical connections could be slow enough that it would take 20 minutes to log in, 10 minutes to access my email, 5 minutes for a message to show on my screen, and a minute each time I tried to scroll down. Still it was my introduction to the net...

One group at CFN that I connected with was Boomers. It was started by a several people including a feisty blonde woman who worked as a cop for the Cleveland Clinic, Weezie. The intro always mentioned that Boomers was a state of mind, not merely a generation. We were witty, serious, incredibly talkative, and we learned about each other. Boomers was mentioned in many of the early books about internet.. an interesting place to check out. An eclectic gathering point. We drew a college student in Taiwan who was coming to the US for grad school; an elder woman in Seattle who has worked with computers since the 50s (?). A tech support woman in Rochester NY; many others who stopped, liked the ambiance and chose to stay.

Over the years, we'd talk about lives: our friends, our families, all the changes in our lives. Sometimes there would be real life get togethers to put faces with names. At the center of all this was Weezie. She was our pack mother. She'd laugh first and loudest, grump stronger, and keep us playing nicely together.

Last night Weezie died. And we of the Boomers family felt a need to draw together in real life to share the news.

This morning I wonder how the family will hold together from here.

I am Oddly Pleased By This

Thanks to Pammy Beancounter for pointing this out to me. I am oddly pleased by this assessment.. and cannot say why.

What is my Viking Name??

Your Viking Name is...
Dagrún Deercatcher

(Well, actually, that wouldn't really be your name -- since you're female, your name would be something like "Dagrún Björnsdottir". But this is the twenty-first century, and you want to be known for who you are, not for who your father was, right? Right.)

Your Viking Personality: You're a fearsome Viking, but you aren't completely uncivilized. The other Vikings make fun of you for that. You have a thirst for battle, and tend to strike first and think later. You're not a "berserker", but you're among the toughest sane Vikings around.

(sane Viking... now that's a contradiction I am willing to embrace!)

You can handle long sea voyages easily, despite the lack of amenities. Other Vikings would consider you "one of the guys" if you were a guy. (But even though you're a woman, they still think you're all right.)

Yeah, I've often been considered "one of the guys" in a thumb-wrestling, beer guzzling good kind of way.

People who've known you for a while don't always trust your word. Other Vikings would be calling you "tree-hugging hippie peacenik" if the phrase had been invented.

And thank goodness it hadn't been yet!!

Tale of the Scale 1/22/07

Less than two weeks after minor surgery, I'm back in regular shoes and back into the gym! Not a full-scale workout.. but I got 15 minutes on the elliptical (actually easier than normal walking and I got my heart rate up there!!) and began to reacquaint myself with some of the weight machines.

I can't shower until Wednesday, so I'm not planning on any long intense workouts until then. I have an hour scheduled with Guido for Thursday.

But the good news? Weight is stable through the inactivity at 151 pounds. And my mood still seems to be fairly up.

Plan for the week:

Let the healing continue. Do what I can without straining my foot.

Tuesday: 15 minutes on the elliptical, abs and back. Ice
Wednesday: 15 minutes on the elliptical. Try some of the stability moves. Ice.
Thursday: 15 minutes on the elliptical. Ice. Session with trainer. Ice.
Friday: 15 minutes on the elliptical.

Hey with this new start... I need new music workout music. I will take any and all suggestions that fall in this catagory:

Rock and Roll. Ideally great guitar riffs; complex musical arrangement; vocals that are not run through an electronic process to distort them; a strong beat. Ideally a beat that equals my 3 MPH walking stride. Oh.. I guess I should give you a hint there: Think Santana's Smooth, Bonnie Raitt's Let's Give 'Em Something To Talk About, (gasp)... Boogie Shoes. Well, the last really only has the right rhythm.

I would really love recommendations of songs...uhm... recorded in the 21st century. If I had kids, I'd be asking them... but since I don't. Ok.. another hint.. Snow Patrol sounds like they might work.. well some of the songs.

Help.

Tags: fitness, 24hourfitness

Slow Down... You Move Too Fast

This is International Slow Down Week. Did you know?? Would you like to participate?

Keri Smith of Wish Jar Journal has a wonderful list of ways to slow down such as:

1. walk as slowly as you possibly can for at least 10 minutes.

2. sit in a busy place and do not move for 10 minutes.

3. give yourself permission to not answer the phone all week.

4. take half an hour to peel and eat an orange.

5. have a conversation with a squirrel.

I did that last one. Our very polite conversation included appreciation for the peanuts we provide said Squirrel, a complaint about his teasing our dogs including my fear that one will crash through our sliding door, and a frank discussion of Squirrel's stealing of bird seed and destruction of feeders.

I had to stop when Squirrel started quoting Shakespeare ("If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" MV, Act III, Scene I). Maybe I slowed down just a little too much.

I'd add:

13. Visit a laundromat and do a load of laundry especially in a front loading machine. Watch the clothes spin and dance through the cycles.

14. Lie on the floor in corpse pose and count your breath. Try to reach 100 without giving up or falling asleep.

There were wonderful reactions to Keri's list in this comments. Especially this one from Alex:

Do we even know how to slow down anymore really? This post was fun and whimsical but it is also so very IMPORTANT in the
rawest, most crucial way because we are pacing ourselves and our
precious lives so quickly that we are out of step and out of touch with
ourselves and all that make this world so extraordinarily beautiful. Today, because of the snow, I was forced to walk slowly down to the
shop, and I noticed everything I never had before from the crazy lines
in the sidewalks to my own aging hands. Tomorrow I am going to do
number seven for sure, and try to do some more this week. Thanks!!

How can you choose to slow down?

Tags: life, SlowDownWeek

Tale of the Scale 1/15/07

Not a whole to report on the Tale of the Scale front this week. Surgery last Wednesday means 2 weeks out of the gym and away from the scale I've been using. Also... no workouts.

Still the scale at home shows that I'm holding my own on the weight side of things, though I really feel the need for some upper body weight work.

Next week will (hopefully) be much of the same with a calendar note about when my first post-surgical workout is scheduled.

Tags: fitness, 24hourfitness, life

The Universe Is Trying to Tell me Something...

I was checking out regular posts and trying to choose who to nominate for Webbies and thinking about my goals for this year, when I found Crazy Aunt Purl's horro-scopes (finally!!).

Sometimes I save Cancer for the last, either because I can't see that far ahead into my own month or because it's too personal. This time, I rushed right to Cancer first, ready to tell all crabs everywhere that finally, hello, 2007 is here! That means we get a whole new list, a whole new year, a whole 'nother chance at love and happy and all those things we secretly wish for deep down in our crabby little hearts. Your January To-Don't is simple: Every time you start beating yourself up over something you said or did in the past, or start replaying a past mistake or bad situation in your head, STOP. And your To-Do is equally simple, but very satisfying: Use this month to exercise your future-tense daydream muscles. In place of all that time you spend in your head trying to fix or re-live the past, now just actively focus on daydreaming your future. See it in your mind, down to the shoes you'll wear. Be whoever you want to be in your futures, your fantasies, your imagination. Us crabs never fully live in the present, so if you have to choose between obsessing over the past (which you can never change) or daydreaming a beautiful future... always, always pick the future. (And yes, my daydreams include what shoes I will be wearing. Indeed!)

Then HeatherB pointed out the "previews" message at MSN:

You’re often a little down in the dumps when the New Year starts – you’re a summer baby, after all. But 2007 promises to be a glowing exception, so don’t go hiding in your shell, Cancer. As the year begins, you might have a lead on a great new job. If not, be on the lookout. If you’ve been hoping for a better outlet for your creativity or a workplace with more positive, upbeat people, this is you year to find it. And you’ll probably be paid better, too! The financial pressure you felt in 2006 will lighten up, allowing you to save for something special – or just for peace of mind.

Now, is it just me or is there a trend here?? Positive stuff all around. I'm working on Laurie's assignment... I almost fainted when she mentioned that whole "fixing or reliving the past" line. I didn't think anyone did that except me. But I working on changing it.

Like right now? I'm searching Zappos for cute shoes that I can wear after my surgery next week.

Tale of The Scale: 1/2/07

A fabulous sunrise this morning. (this is an unedited image.. that was the color of the sky). Certainly a portent of a great year!!

OK, Tale of the Scale this week. No noticable changes since last week. The scale seems to be the same and the body measurements I took still show a total of 8" loss. I'd be bummed, except my clothes are fitting better and my mood is definately improved.

Had a workout with Guido today; we worked out hard, and several times I knew I would have quit on my own. Guess what? He's caught on to me.. and simply tells me I'm staying there until I do what I need to do. No excuses this year.
Sigh.

This will be so good for me.

The plan for this week:

• continue eating 1500 calories or so a day (50% carbs; 25% protein; 25% fat).
• aerobic workouts: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
• weight training: Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday.
• stability and balance: every friggin' day.

Tags: TaleoftheScale