Of Procrastination

This is Day Three of the self-imposed Daily Journal Entry in July Challenge. I thought I'd get started well before midnight tonight.

It is also Day Twenty of what most folks commonly refer to as summer vacation for students, teachers, and other school personnel. That means I've been off almost three weeks... tomorrow it will be three weeks.

I want to make good use of this period of time. I've gotten some rest, I've had a bit of a vacation trip (when we drove to Baltimore to visit our son. I miss my Max and Misty daily, but their pictures are scattered throughout the house.

For Christmas 2007, Steven and Vi had made us a framed collage of our pets using their Snapfish account, and pictures I had either sent them via email or those they found in my journal. The title held all the dogs' names in the order in which they came into our lives.

The photo below is one I took the night we brought Max's body home from the Emergency Vet. We laid him in his bed, and set it in front of the fireplace. It was late at night, and we wanted to wait for the next day to bury him. I had set out some candles near where he laid, and some of his favorite things. It was so hard to leave him there and go to bed. He was buried with his football. In life, when he wasn't chewing it, licking it, or fetching it, he would lay on it as though it were a pillow. In fact, in one of the photos, you can see him resting his face on the stuffed football. The three dogs in the lowest right photo are Brandy, Dusty, and Lucky... all preceded Max and Misty.

                          

At the time we received the gift, Max and Misty were very much alive and well. All the dogs we've ever owned since Steven was born are in this collage. I hung the framed collage up in the living room this week, and recalled thinking that three of the dogs pictured were long gone to doggy heaven, and three were still with us. Daisy is the third dog, and she belongs to Vi and Steven. Now Daisy is the only living dog pictured in the collage. Ah, me... family dynamics are changing by the month around here.

I mentioned yesterday that I had some highlights put in my otherwise greyish brown hair (which used to be radiant auburn until my mid-thirties). I still can't tell the difference when I look in the mirror... so I'm thinking I'll have to be bolder next time if I am wanting the highlights to be noticeable. I take my changes slowly... I transform gradually.

So I walked into the gym this afternoon (my third day of working out). It's a co-ed gym. June, July, and August, Gold's Gym in my town is having a special for teachers... three summer months free! (I don't know if this is an offer at other gyms around the state or country, but one could check into if they are interested. You can click here to find a Gold's Gymnear you.)

The expectation, of course, is that many of those who signed up for a free summer of exercise will want to continue through the remainder of the school year, and so will purchase a year's membership.

But I already am a teacher, and I already have a paid membership. I asked the manager if he could extend my membership for three months, free. He smiled and said sure!  

The problem with a year's membership is that one can have it and not use it, and if one doesn't use it, one has wasted a lot of money. I started my membership at the gym March 2007. I had to quit going in May 2007 when I had a toe-nail removed....followed by two weeks of being sick from pneumonia, which was then followed a few weeks later by a bladder infection. I know I could have started going after I was well again, but I had gotten out of the routine, and other things were claiming my time, and I had lost the momentum and the interest. I kept saying I'd go  back, that I needed to go back... but I kept putting it off. I am a procrastinator in some areas of my life.

Oh, wait, I have to go. "Hopkins" (TV show, ABC) just came on. I'll come back to finish this entry. Nah, I'll just wait and write another one.