TANSTAAFL, mostly

I lucked out in the free lunch department today.  My company had a lunch for employees at a pretty nice restaurant nearby.  Normally you pay for those things by listening to some blowhard go on and on about things NOBODY CARES ABOUT.  But this time, they spoke for under a minute!  And then they gave away money!  Or gift cards, which is essentially the same thing.

So I got out of the office, I had a delightful lunch, and it was free.  It was pretty nice.  (medium rare sirloin, in case you were wondering.  plus salad bar and a baked potato.)

At work I actually got useful work done.  My brain felt pretty much fully functional, which is better than it's been doing recently what with cold and flu season going on over here.  Our office now has a plague-o-meter on the door.  It's up to 75% today.  Two of us had sore throats and one of us was wheezing.  You can guess how productive we're all being.

I had a lovely but chilly (I would say brisk but some might take it to mean that I was moving quickly) walk in the afternoon light.  The winter woods aren't much to write home about, all brown and crunchy.  But I was listening to an interesting podcast on worms.  You might think that worms aren't interesting, but you haven't listened to the podcast yet.  It was pretty good.

This evening I went (against medical advice!) to yoga.  I haven't been in a month and I've been getting creaky.  I was careful not to do the few parts that really aggravate the L5-S1 joint.  I'm still just the teensiest bit sore afterward.  After a month off, I've definitely lost both strength and flexibility.  But, the nice thing about that is I can totally get them back again just by going to class, which I shall do!

It was awesome to have our regular teacher back.  I missed her.  Her sub is good, but there's nobody like Carolyn.  I would have been happy if she just stopped in and said hi, but to have her lead the class again was sublime.

At the end of class I talked to a new member.  Tonight was her first class.  She's there for back problems a lot like mine.  Hers are more severe - she's walking with a cane.  I told her that regular yoga attendance had gotten me to the point where I hadn't had a backache that kept me from standing upright in several years.  She's going to sit near me in class next time to see which poses I modify to save my back.  I hope it helps her.

I had a whole post in my head about gratitude and not taking the people in your life for granted.   Maybe tomorrow.  Unless something interesting happens.  Or it slips my mind.  Which, given my mind, is likely.