Mornings

I have the most energy in the morning. It's when I want to do everything. I want to take my whole day's worth of activities and jam it all between 8 a.m. and noon.

But it doesn't work that way.

Today is grocery day. We typically like to get out early on a weekday and beat the crowds, have the stores to ourselves. It's amazing to me how the grocery store seems to bring out the rudeness in people.

But today is scheduled as a bike riding day for me. I alternate between bike riding and the Bowflex for my daily exercise. By the time we would get back from the grocery trip it would be 90-degrees and smoking hot outside.

So I have to make decisions...go for a bike ride and deal with the crowd scene at the store, or skip the bike ride and just go take care of groceries.

I'm really devoted to the exercising right now so I hate to skip it, for even one day. Tomorrow is chemo day, so exercising is out. Right now, chemo day is really the only day that I lack energy.

Fortunately Barb is very flexible and extremely understanding with me. Man, do I love this girl.

I suggested we get out on the bikes this morning and deal with the grocery store a little later than usual. "If that's what you want to do," she answered.

There are certainly more activities I want to jam into every morning. I need to wash the FJ Cruiser. The yard has dried out so much we're trying to water it daily. I need to hack a dying tree down because it's dropping pine needles all over the new deck. The weeds in the planting beds need constant tending. The spider webs on the front of the house need blasted away with the power washer. The "Granny Mobile" out back won't start and needs to be attended to.

The list goes on and on, which is good. It keeps me busy. But if I don't jam these activities into the morning they won't get done. It's just too humid lately in the afternoon for me to attack them.

So I do my best to make the most of my mornings. Then in the afternoon I can hide inside in the air conditioning and take care of work in the house.

I would like to stir-up more work for Albert Design Studio. It will come. But sometimes we all lack patience. It would provide me with a good mix between physical and intellectual stimulation, mornings and afternoons.

But the economy tends to be especially rough on people in my line of work. When times are hard businesses tend to cut their marketing budget first. It doesn't make much sense since you market to build business, something especially necessary for folks right now. But that's the way it seems to go.

I still contemplate getting involved with the local business and local restoration associations again. But I have some misgivings about some of the goals and abilities to accomplish those goals these associations have. Part of me wants to get involved and try to help, and part of me considers it a potential huge waste of time. It's a lot of local politics, and it takes a special kind of person to throw themself into the middle of all of that.

Well, I better get some breakfast in me and get the bike out. By the time we get back from the grocery store it will be 92-degrees and way too humid, and I'll be working at trying to stir up some more Albert Design business - in the air conditioning.