Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Daily Diary, Day 1224:
The strong winds continued all day yesterday. Blowing over the patio umbrella, keeping our wind chimes ringing merrily. I enjoyed the weather, except that the before dinner walk was really pretty uncomfortable. I am going to have to look to see where I’ve put wool caps and gloves.
However, connected with whatever weather pattern this is, the barometric pressure started dropping the day before and continued downward most of the yesterday morning, and this sort of change seems to cause my husband to get a very bad sinus headache, which he was not able to shake all day, despite tylanol and several naps.
After an hour and a half of cleaning the downstairs yesterday morning, I didn’t have the energy to walk, and then when it was time to do my pilates, the grocery delivery came, and I had to spend that 30 minutes washing lettuce, putting things away, and then it was time for lunch.
Nevertheless, between the morning and the afternoon before my scheduled phone call and then afternoon walk, I got slightly over 1000 words written, the best day of writing in some time.
This morning, I tried something new. My daughter has been going to a yoga center for several years and when I complained about the difficulty in getting rid of the potbelly that seems to come with menopause (which happened to me in my 30s) and is so difficult to get rid of, and she recommended a zoom breathing class (pranayama) she has been going to. It is m-w-f at 6 in the morning. I am usually up by then, but I got up 15 minutes earlier so I could sign on to the class early to meet the instructor and so she could suggest ways to modify some of the exercises since I am new to this. The class was lovely and gentle, and I look forward to making this part of my exercise routine.
It's even colder today than yesterday, but still sunny, and it wasn’t windy so my morning walk was just chilly. Rio came to play, I had an unscheduled phone call, but now after posting this I will start to write. I did find a rose blooming yesterday, brave soul!
Photos are of Leeza sitting in the sun during Rio’s visit. It was very chilly in the shade, and she had trouble settling because the grass was so wet, but after eating her treat (the highlight of these play dates) she found it quite pleasant in the sun.
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An herbal remedy for headaches is to crush fresh rosemary leaves in your hand and inhale the fragrance.
Leeza is such a sweet looking dog.