Dear So and So

[Catrin]

Lisa, it is great to see you! I've missed you here.

I've noticed the same thing that you and Crankin have. I am fitter, feel better, and am far more flexible from all of the things I started doing this year (high intensity training/crossfit) than when I was riding a gazillion miles a week. I don't have time to ride more than twice a week, and I do miss it. However my body feels so much better that I can't/wont argue with it. Riding has become more recreational/fun and I do enjoy that change. My body feels far more balanced these days. Thinking about adding geocaching to get me out there in the winter weather.

Hopefully the storm will miss you!

[alexis_the_tiny]

Dear life,

The last month has been HARD. And it's still hard. I'm glad you gave me a swift boot to the behind to get myself together, to seek out new friends and I am glad to have found kindred spirits in people I'd otherwise never have connected with if you had not put this in my life. But, I am still sad. I am sad because there is no longer anyone whom I have been friends with long enough to have my back unconditionally. I am sad because I don't know how to stem the immense loneliness and isolation I still feel at 3 in the morning every morning. I know this is where you are giving me a chance, an opening, to finally become the person I've always wanted to become. But I wish it didn't involve so much sadness, loneliness or isolation. Or the many times I wonder whether whatever is going on now will last forever. I know that one day, it will change, I will not feel like that forever. But in those hours when I wake up far too early and cannot go back to sleep, I can't make myself believe it.

[emily_in_nc]

alexis: Sorry that you are hurting. Have you seen this book? Sounds like it might be a good read for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Learnin...=IDVG4XIO9EK02

Lisa: So happy to see you here! It's been awhile, and I wondered where you'd gone off to. I remember all your beautiful photographs more than anything...and your cool Sheila Moon skirts! Funny the things that stick with a person. Glad you're doing well! Sounds like your life is well-rounded.

We are in Belize, have been for the past 14+ months, but are looking forward to moving back to the US next year. It's been fun, but we've had enough of living in an island "paradise". Most of all, we miss road cycling. Here it's all beach cruisers as there are very few paved roads, and the ones that are paved are bumpy, cobblestones, etc. We took a great trip to the US in August and got to do some excellent cycling. Anyway, hope you'll maybe hang around here a bit more often. We talk about a lot besides cycling, as you know! I am doing yoga down here as well -- love it!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thank you ladies.

Re: yoga...
Never in a million years would I thought I'd be doing yoga regularly, but here I am three times a week, for about 3 months already now.

Like some of you I'm noticing that yoga is making me much more flexible and increasing muscle strength while adding range of motion to all my connecting tissues and joints. Biking has never done that, biking's been more of a leg muscle and cardio/lung help. This regular yoga stretching and weight bearing is changing how my body feels in ways nothing has ever done before. Amazing! I don't think i'd notice it much if i was doing only one class a week though. I spent the first 6 weeks in almost constant soreness as my body started adapting. Now not as bad, more of a pleasant soreness.

I also like the ritual of going to class and sitting in a roomful of people together. Hard to have that kind of self discipline to do it at home regularly. I'm not in it for the spiritual aspect (I'm an agnostic), but it's calming and pleasurable in other ways to me. My whole spine especially from head to tailbone is just loving yoga- the twists and stretches are feeling sooooo good! Even my fitness walking and contra dancing cant' twist and stretch me like yoga does, and my body is thanking me in the mornings when I first wake up. This in itself is a big thing for a 58 year old woman- to feel no creaking in the morning!
We can't out run Father Time, but no sense giving him a head start.

[Crankin]

I agree, Lisa. I just don't have time to go to yoga regularly, but a few years ago I went 2X a week and it made a huge difference. That's one of my goals when I get my license, and an ever more part time job than the one I have now.
Priorities, right?

[indysteel]

Welcome back, Lisa! So glad to hear you're doing well!

Thanks for the inspiration. I have been practicing yoga since 2006. I used to go to three or four classes a week, one of which was 2 hours. When I moved in 2009, I had to cut back a bit, usually to one or two classes a week because it just wasn't as convenient. I know my practice has suffered. After your post, I decided to see if there are any new studios in my area. I found one that had recently changed ownership and offers a $5 community heated class on Sunday afternoons. Anyway, I went today and had a fabulous class! It was just what I needed after raking leaves all weekend. So thanks!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow Indy, that's so neat to hear! Yay!

[solobiker]

Nice to see you are back Lisa. I too have not been on the bike much this season. I was only able to ride about 5x then my back went out. I was in PT for about 7 weeks and it is feeling better. I have been doing some yoga, I should do more.

I have been keeping busy with running, walking and hiking. When I am not doing those or working I have been playing around in our wood shop with my scroll saw and lathe.

I also want to say Be Safe to everyone in the path of Sandy.

Sorry my message is a littly choppy...I am getting tired and need to get to bed because I have to be up b 430am for work.

[Owlie]

Hi, Lisa!

I love yoga, though I too don't care so much about the spiritual aspect. The only problems right now are that I'm not disciplined enough for the DVDs, and I can't afford classes. When I did take a class, I had a really hard time taking the instructor seriously, because she'd say things like "Imagine your breath as a luminous crystal mist." There was no way I could take that seriously.

[shootingstar]

After standing and doing some art for several hrs. each day this weekend and plus ongoing soreness, I did some simple yoga and Pilates. I am really stiff...... I found yoga helpful for learning also how to breathe properly and how to consciously slow down.

[indysteel]

Owlie, I sometimes work with teachers who offer some "take" on yoga instruction that just doesn't reasonate with me. I've learned, over time, to take what I need and leave the rest. So long as the actual yoga instruction is sound, i.e., they aren't telling me to do things that will hurt my body, I can generally tune out the rest.

[skhill]

Dear local congressional candidates:
All you two have done with your vicious ads and mailings is convince the voters that neither of you is fit to hold office. So many of us wish "none of the above" was an option.

Dear candidate who is a member of the same church as me:
You're such a hypocrite. You talk about making sure gay couples can't have legal recognition of their marriages, yet you are perfectly friendly to the gay couple who sit in the next pew to you every Sunday. What's up with that?

[lph]

I had a really hard time taking the instructor seriously, because she'd say things like "Imagine your breath as a luminous crystal mist."

(At least she said "Imagine". We have a yoga instructor at work, a friendly, laidback, nice guy, on the verge of saying stuff like that all the time, but obviously trying to rephrase it to make it palatable to a bunch of obsessively hardnosed bureaucrats. I only heard him slip once, when he told us to "Breathe! Through your spine... well, you can't actually do that of course, but think about it!" )

Dear houseguest that was and to be,
I truly am sorry if you now feel upset or unwelcome. But in my books staying a week is a long time. You just did, and doing it again a month later is a big thing to ask. But I guess I could have been more polite.

[Crankin]

Dear Concord Power and Light,

Thank you! Even though I don't particularly love some things about my town, I appreciate the small town efficiency of a local municipal utility company, because my friends in the next town are still without power and dealing with a monolithic power company.

[Biciclista]

To whom it may concern

!! !!! !!! !! !! !!!!
now THAT's weather!!!!