Virginia Is For Families

It’s Friday and the weather guy is promising us a nice weekend.  The temperature should reach the low 60’s in fact.   That’s pretty amazing considering where we were just a few weeks ago.

The Academy Awards will be happening and we need to see at least one more nominated movie before Sunday night.   But for us it’s not all about nominated movies.  Recently I discovered  The Painted Veil on cable and was enthralled by the beauty of this  film.  Now B and I are reading W. Somerset Maugham’s  original story published in 1925.  And  there were two previous movie adaptations  we plan to watch.

Finally we will return to the recent film starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.   B hasn’t seen it yet.  She  seems to be entertained by the book as we read to each other (25 pages or so each day).

We have been doing this and then going for a walk together.

Not a long walk.  It’s more important for us to take a daily walk then to try and walk two miles at this point.   It’s better to walk down the street and back EVERY day then to go on a hike and then return home in pain with the semi-conscious determination to avoid this discomfort again.

We can go further than down the street now.  And we hope to go a lot further in the future.  We also hope to discover some really wonderful links between the two universes of book and film.  It changes your perception of what is happening on screen when you have the written history of the work in your mind.

Art and exercise both bring us together as a couple.  The Painted Veil is a love story with a very different premise that allows us to experience joy and suffering as we read and watch .   When we walk we experience physical pain as well as moments of  physical and mental well-being.  This also prepares us for longer periods of walking as we explore museums or historic locations.

Or we take time to walk in beautiful gardens full of exotic plants and vibrant colors.

It’s fairly easy for me to merge these two worlds in such circumstances.  As we walk in a garden I turn to B and imagine Naomi’s character  in a lush landscape somewhere south of  Shanghai.   I worry about her and hope she will begin to appreciate what nature has to offer.   I remember Edward’s fate and hope it is not my own.

And I sing Somerset Maugham’s  pleasurable,  fluid prose in my head when it comes time to  write something about all of this.

We want the various parts of our lives to work together as a whole.  And as a couple we want the same thing.

But, more than this, we want to be part of life in a significant way.   Art and exercise both offer opportunities to do this and they shall remain at the top of the list when it comes time for us to decide what we will do today.

Katharine McPhee

Play Somewhere
07-somewhere-dvdlive

Beth and I had company this weekend but after everyone left we headed for the park to get some exercise and talk about our Spring vacation.  We have two weeks to relax and get out of town this time of year.  And for the second time in two years we have made plans to visit our nation’s capitol as well as Virginia Beach.

We talked about starting an exercise and dieting program because we have kind of let things go over the winter.  I realized that I need to do it not just for myself but for her as well.   And she’s probably not going to do it unless I do it.

It’s a strange circle and one we need to break up.  So it’s going to be a “working vacation” in a sense.  Of course, you can walk your buns off in Washington DC without any problem.  But going out to dinner every night and having the opportunity to dine on fabulous cuisine will offer some challenges.   We may have to start that part of the program after we get back.

So it was warm and breezy today and we walked all over Maymont Park.  They have a new exhibit area with some great birds on display.   The eagles are awesome.  The hawks have beautiful feathers.

And we spent some time enjoying three baby goats.  Beth said it was one of the cutest things she has ever seen.  They were having a great time and the crowd was enjoying them too.

So we walked and walked.  The bears were busy sleeping and I would never have seen them if Beth has not pointed them out up in the rocks.

Lots of folks were throwing balls and someone had set up the game with the little hoops and mallets.  What’s it called?  You hit a ball around the lawn and try to be the first one to get back to the beginning where there is a small pole driven into the ground.

Anyway there were people doing that and lots of cameras around.  Photography seems to be an ever more popular hobby from the number of SRL cameras I see in my travels.

Click on photos to enlarge

It’s 34 F outside and raining.  So much for snowflakes and icy glitter as Christmas approaches.  Once again the skies are gray and full of nondescript clouds.  The trees have given up making wild gestures  of despair.

Now they are all drooping in sodden slumber.  Wake us up when the temperature goes below freezing.   Splash us with a dressing of ice as portrayed in the photo I put up a few days ago.   That was last year.  Nothing so interesting has happened this winter.  Noah is probably happy in his celestial yacht.  Somewhere.

My cough returned for a encore run and I have a headache this morning.  Will it never end?  I decided to go for the cure and went out for Hardee’s cinnamon  and raisin biscuits.   Four of these guys plus some Mountain Dew or (even better) Vault will solve just about any pounding pain in the CD ( chrome domium).    And in fact it’s working.

But the photo taking has been postponed (again!)  until the rain and the coughing stop.

Any day now.   On a more positive note I discovered that liquid Vitamin B12 and B6  are sometimes beneficial for RLS (Restless Legs Syndrome).   I was giving a can of Red Bull a chance to wake me up while having an attack of RLS a few weeks ago.  And the shaky legs went away!   No more bees doing laps from my knees to my ankles.

So I looked at the ingredients and discovered the Vitamin B content.  Now I take a teaspoon per day and it helps once in awhile.  Yesterday I even took a nap!   Oh what joy.   A nap during the day for someone with RLS is better than you know what!  Imagine never being able to rest unless you have taken some medication that is used mainly by Parkinson patients!  Believe me you do not want to take that stuff during the day unless you plan to live in bed.

So here is the good news for the five or ten percent of the population out there who deals with this scourge.  Try B12 and B6 in liquid form.

AND  look for silver linings  in the clouds.  I managed to find some yesterday as I grabbed a few moments of exquisite slumber during the day.   Then dreamed I was kissing a beautiful girl in a field of sparkling grass on a sunny afternoon.

Later, upon awakening, I told Beth about this dream.  And a  few hours later she told me that company would be here tomorrow (now today) and we would not be alone again until   the new year arrives.

We have been wrapping so many presents lately.  Perhaps we should take a moment and unwrap a couple.

Just for fun.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Someone from back home has inspired me to think about doing some wedding photography. So I have been practicing. What do you think so far?