It’s sunny today. I know. It surprised me too.

I had an amazing workout this morning, long and intense. Giving myself back complete control of my workouts has proven very freeing.

Can you dance on an elliptical?

Just ask Depeche Mode and me. The answer is yes.

It was the kind of weekend I wasn’t sorry to see go, with Mother’s Day a gray unknown.

It was OK, it wasn’t great, but it’s over and that’s a relief, really. Though if you had a lovely one, I’m glad to hear it, you deserved it, your mom deserved it, everyone deserves a special day.

Anyway, my rage continues to burn, the idea that christofascism controls the US Supreme Court is, frankly, nauseating.

But we are not finished yet. We survived trump and we will undo his squalid aftermath.

That’s it for me this morning. Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

You will be shocked to know that it’s gray again today. I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself.

Even though it’s May and those April showers are supposed to be behind us. False advertising, I tell you.

Of course, my friends on the other side of the world are feeling a different rhythm as they ease into Autumn, their showers growing colder as ours get warmer. Round and round we go.

Round and round.

A while ago I got one of those coffee tables with a lifting lid, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve gotten. I eat on it, I write on it, and the best part about it I didn’t even know about when I got it. It has slow-close hinges, so you just bring it down to a certain point and it closes itself.

No pinched fingers.

It’s funny, you don’t always know how an upgrade will change things for you. Sometimes they disappoint; sometimes they exceed all expectations.

But you won’t know until you try.

So promise me you will give yourself an upgrade. It can be anything; it doesn’t even have to cost money. You can upgrade your fitness by taking a walk outside, for example. You can upgrade your state of mind with meditations on Youtube.

Or get yourself that thing you’ve been eyeing. You deserve it.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Among which I count myself today. Some of it could be the weather, once again messing with me.

Mother Nature isn’t pleased.

She has her reasons.

Still, it’s been a rough spring with my migraines. All I can do is keep doing, and however much that is while I contend with the uncontrollable, there it is.

I’m almost through four months of daily yoga, and as I approach the end of this month, I may make a change.

I’ve enjoyed the Yoga with Adriene calendars so far, but sometimes the longer practices interfere with other exercise, mainly my cardio. I think I may want a little more freedom to choose next month.

Whether I continue with the practice daily, we’ll see. I can’t judge right now whether my itchiness about it stems from all the stuff yoga unpacks or whether this particular approach isn’t working for me right now.

But I can change it up. There’s no law against that.

For now.

Anyway, that’s it for me today. Have a great Monday and a wonderful start to your week.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

I’ve had a migraine for the last several days, no doubt egged on by the weather. My brain is like molasses; my thoughts are slow and ungainly.

I wonder if I’ll ever get my agile mind back. I miss it. Instead, right now, I’m lumbering from thought to thought, a glacial, unhelpful plod.

When it started on Saturday I should have taken my usual precautions but instead I wanted to see my mom in person. Now the weather is acting up again, and the my head just building on what was before.

Such a pain.

In all senses.

Anyway, it’s Monday again, it does that frequently. I’d say roughly once every seven days.

I can’t say I’m off to the fastest start of a week I’ve ever had, but I’m here and I’m blogging so that’s a start.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

It’s another gray day, but with or without the sun, spring is coming. Driving past the forest preserve yesterday, green leaves had pushed themselves past the heavy layer of last fall’s litter, bright spots among the dull brown, standing puddles reflecting the bare trees.

We get these tiny purple flowers here, the first to show up, and there they were on the medians between the traffic going to and fro. Golf courses were busy and lush with shining new grass.

Winter is retreating.

Maybe it would do us all good to remember that while spring is colorful and sweet with early flowers, it isn’t easy. It’s muddy and still chilly and the plants have to fight their way to the surface of the soil, the buds drawing energy and energy on from trees until the limbs are full.

Springs arrives, but it doesn’t just happen.

Anyway, that’s it for me today. Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

It was sunny, but it turned gray this morning. It’s possible it will go sunny again.

I guess you never know.

After a long week of being reminded that opposing abuse of women is the real crime, it was all topped off with an award for an abuser. Just in case we started to think we were real people or something.

Well, they taught us. We won’t make THAT mistake again.

Still doing the yoga, but this month I’m taking it day by day, rather than committing to the full month. So far I’ve wanted to do it every day, but that could change.

Yesterday I realized I hadn’t even considered the A to Z Blogging Challenge where you blog the alphabet, that April 1 came and went and I didn’t think twice about it. It’s too late now, of course.

Alas.

I don’t think I was up to it anyway. There’s a lot going on.

Anyway, that’s it for me this Monday. Have a great day.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Here we are, all the way around again. It doesn’t feel like a new week to me, just one long, continuous conveyor belt of days.

I wouldn’t call my energy level high or my mood great today.

It is Monday though. That’s all very acceptable on a Monday.

Ugh my coffee is cold.

I reheated it. I know people hold very, very strong opinions on that subject.

It’s very sunny, that cloudless kind of sunny, but I think it’s still pretty cold.

It’s got to warm up one of these days.

I think.

Anyway, I’m going to try to make this Monday into something. Have a great day.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Typed out. Given everything going on in my world and the big world, even raising the topic seems silly.

And yet.

There are few things with a stronger siren call than a day entirely without stress. What would that be like? What would that look like?

A certain type of person may have gotten to this point and thought, “what are you talking about,” and if you are that kind of person, congratulations for being able to take everything in stride, for the things that get some of our hearts pounding rolling off you like water.

That has to be a great way to be.

But others are probably nodding along if they haven’t disappeared into their own fantasy of how a stress-free day would go. What it would include, what it would exclude.

Very optimistic for a Monday, I’m sure.

Oh well. All we can do is gear up, look forward and face the day.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.