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 1246:
It’s very hard to comprehend that it is already near the end of January. As many people have observed far more eloquently than I can, time certainly is elastic. On one hand, I feel as if it taking forever to get to the start of the bathroom remodel, yet every day goes by in a flash. It also feels as if it is taking forever to finish this novel, yet January just zoomed by. I guess this is because when I am anticipating something I am longing for, it is harder to be patient with the passage of time. When I am simply staying in the present, doing the next indicated step, hoping there will be enough time to get all the things I want to do, done, time flies by.
Yesterday was one of those days, although I did complete pretty much everything I hoped to do by the end of the day, including breaking through the 1000 word barrier again, and that was despite having three unscheduled phone calls (which admittedly I was able to keep under ten minutes each!)
Part of the secret of this success for the past couple of days is that I am not trying to get every minute of exercise in, which leaves me more writing time. For instance, by the time I took my morning walk yesterday, I had already had 30 minutes of yoga, plus 30 minutes cleaning, so I only walked 20 minutes, giving me time to finish another paragraph before Pilates and lunch. Same thing in the afternoon. I had one more paragraph I wanted to write in the scene I was working on , but it was time to walk if I wanted to get in 30 minutes before dinner. But I wrote the paragraph and only did 20 minutes again. I reminded myself that even with these tiny cut backs in exercise, I still logged a total of 130 minutes of some exercise that day. In addition, most of the recent research I have read about exercise and aging keeps saying it doesn’t take a lot of exercise to get the health benefits, often stating a person should get at least 150 minutes of some exercise in a week. Since I have been averaging more like 120 minutes a day, cutting out 10-20 minutes in any one day should be fine.
So, again, it’s all about balance. In a day where I haven’t had yoga, or maybe can’t get to my Pilates, then it is important that I do my two 30 minute walks. But I do need to stop always sacrificing writing time for exercise!
Looks like we are going to have at least one more day of sunny weather today. Yesterday only got up to 76, not 78 degrees (smile) but it is really supposed to be cooler today (71 degrees!), although the chance of rain on Thursday is now up to 100%. It looks like the worst of the current “atmospheric river” which is the phenomena that hit San Diego last Monday, is currently hitting the pacific northwest. So, a lot depends if the tail end really makes it to us. And wouldn’t you know it, as happened with the last storm, this Thursday afternoon I have one of my infrequent jaunts out of the house scheduled for the afternoon (a recheck of my vision) where I am going to have to drive. (I think I am secretly looking forward to the excitement of being outside and experiencing WEATHER again first hand!)
Meanwhile, today is another day where I have a scheduled phone call in the late afternoon, but otherwise all the usual routine, and the goal of trying to get another 1000 words written.
The photos are of our one rose bush, the first one was taken Sunday, the second yesterday, so you can see the sunny days have really made it bloom quickly.
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I am unabashedly envious! It was minus one here this morning! Thank you for the pictures that bring spring to all of us! Can you believe groundhog day is less than a week away! No doubt we are having another six weeks of winter here!