If one is Welsh, this is the Feast Day of the nation’s patron saint, Saint David. Time to put leeks in the band of your hat. Or you could just wait a couple of weeks and opt for the less embarrassing shamrock of your Celtic kin, the Irish (St Patrick).

It was a bit premature, but I watched an intensely Welsh movie, produced by Euan Lloyd, a Welshman, featuring Welsh actors Richard Burton (born Richard Jenkins) and, Kenneth Griffith. The film, Thr Wild Geese, is something of an action-adventure cult film, but I remember it for its ties to Wales.

Since my Christian name is David, I also remember that the Russians celebrate the Saint’s Day of one’s patron saint just as we celebrate birthdays. Now I don’t know if that means that, if you go to The Cheesecake Factory in Moscow, the waitstaff serenades you, but the Russians do sing in chorus an awful lot.

Interestingly, the Welsh are also known for their tradition of choral music. So that’s how I tied those two threads together, Russia and Wales. Pretty neat, huh?

Joan Armatrading. Pure genius. Ex-wife #2 had her album Show Some Emotion. I regret not listening to the album, more intensely and more often. She had this marvelous tremolo that could raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

I listen and I forget about every heartache and heartbreak I’ve ever had. Then I listen other times and I remember them all again. Music is like that.

Time to write that novel.

God help me.

I mean both those last two sentences.

…are OK, but what about the rest of me?

Today was semiannual doctor visit day. After attributing my inactivity to COVID-19 restrictions during my August visit, I decided to get serious. Words like hypertension and diabetes characterized my general health. Diet and exercise, blah, blah, blah.

But I did get serious. I’m losing the weight. My blood pressure is no longer in the “scary” range. We will see about the lab results for the other issues later.

Truth is,, I would rather do the healthy stuff, the diet and exercise, than sit around watching TV or reading or making cornbread and biscuits.

But sliding into unhealthy habits is easy, too easy.

Take care of yourselves. It’s easier to make time for exercise than having to go to dialysis. Much easier.

….to be tired.

…to rest.

…to do nothing.

….to desire without fulfillment

… to detach from every goal I have ever had.

Just because, I have to pause sometimes.

I’ve lost about eleven pounds since rejoining WW(Weight Watchers).It has been a little over a month. Tracking what I eat is important, but I have gone back to swimming with renewed vigor.The time slot allowed of 45 minutes makes for real focus in the workout. I focus on completing a one mile swim. I can finish the swim with time to spare now.

This helps my outlook tremendously. I would be interested in knowing if I can discontinue any medications I have been prescribed since my COVID-19 lockdown breakdown.

Eating is a lot more satisfying, now that I am eating less. I have obsessed about food for so long. The obsession is becoming less of an oppressor in my life for maybe the first time.

All in all, a nice day.

I have held various positions around the political spectrum in my lifetime. I’ve noticed that the angry, pissed off, and indignant, righteously or otherwise, populate themselves across the spectrum. Seems like the position doesn’t make that specific temperament, or any other, for that matter.

Let that sink in.

Then ask yourself, “What am I bringing to the table?”

And so it is.Right now it is 05:33 AM in the Eastern Tome Zone of North America.Sitting here, watching T20 Cricket from the Pakistani Super League is not what the Nashville crooners had in mind. Sport is sport and life is life. and in real world Pakistan, the authorities are about to execute two Pakistani Christians for evangelizing.

Meanwhile, in Ekaterinberg, Russia, the nuns at the convent are chanting at the Sunday Liturgy. I have seen and heard these nuns frequently. I recognize the faces and voices of these sisters, even the priests, deacons and subdeacons.

Never did I imagine, fifty years ago, that two parts of the world, as different as Ekaterinberg and Karachi would be readily accessible from my television set.

Now it is time to sleep again. Sleep . How mundane!

I like to eat. Ex-wife #2 called me an “Eater” once. I never forgot it, nor the shame I felt when she said it, her tone filled with derision and contempt. After my last doctor visit, where I learned I was diabetic and hypertensive, I started exercising again. First I resumed power walking. My weigh did not drop.

Finally I returned to Weight Watchers (now calling itself WW) . Their program works! Because I love to eat, WW gives the best of both worlds. I can enjoy what I eat and still lose weight because of their points tracking system. They assign food a “points“ value and I have daily points budget to work within. The program includes a budget of “weekly” points to use, should you exceed your daily points budget.Sounds harder than it is.

Eating is an obsession in both my nuclear and extended families. Relatives, like my Mom, died prematurely due to diabetes, heart disease or stroke.

This Lent, my Lenten reflection will be about considering my values and attitude toward food. I have to take the mystique and allure out of food. This requires a level of mindfulness I can assert, but rarely do.

So diet and exercise are back as priorities. Sounds kind of cliched’ to put it in those terms, but it is necessary.

Since returning to WW on January 19, and to swimming five times a week, I’ve lost 9 pounds. I’ve lowered my time over a mile distance by 5.5 minutes.

Life is good and getting better.

The best part about retirement is never having to leave home unless you want to be someplace else, except maybe for funerals, doctor visits, and dental appointments.

I went to bed, woke up, went back to bed, woke up again, went back to bed again, and woke up again, in the endless cycle of retirement being. I better stay up because I go to the pool in about an hour.

Outside it is thawing after yesterday’s sleet, snow and ice. I see Mr ☀️ trying to shine, a good thing, right now. We’ve had some really lame snowfalls, nothing over three inches. I want one of those one foot plus storms, where you think that maybe you should have that freeze-dried survival food on hand.

No matter.Another four weeks til Spring. Maybe we will have baseball for a full season this year. I might even watch it.

Yesterday, I had time to kill between lunch w J and my scheduled time in the pool. The First Watch we visited is located on an outparcel of the Regency Square Mall property, here in suburban Richmond, VA. I had not been inside Regency Mall for years. The “anchor” stores have all closed over a period of years, Macy’s, Sears, J.C. Penney. The lesser stores nearly all closed too. What remains include ethnic hair care salons, a healthcare uniform shop, a tobacconist that promotes their carrying of CBD products, and Spencer Gifts.

This mall , twenty six years ago, had, as its “kitchen store”, The Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium. I quit the insurance business one day, walked into this store, applied for a job, and was hired. I had lots of fun for about three years, working there. I was underpaid, surviving on my divorce settlement. On balance, it was the best money I ever spent.

Now, the mall is reinventing itself, like so many other malls. The Surge Adventure Park, whatever that is, and Nova Aquatics, a natatorium for high school and club swimming, will be the new anchors. This is an interesting new trend, activity replacing consumerism.

When I worked at “The Mall”, in what seems not all that long ago, the enclosed mall had the reputation as a perennial fixture of American retailing. Now, young “Vlog-ers” are chronicling their demise across the country. These hobbyist journalists were the “mall rats” of yesteryear, the time of video arcades, Swiss Pretzel Shops, Baskin-Robbins, Sbarro’s, and Spencer Gifts. These folks are recording the lost venues of their youth.

So strange, but encouraging, to see the transformation of Regency Square.