Shinn the Writer

Hide and Seek

This has been a long, cold winter. In my music section, I mentioned that I played an outdoor gig and it was cold. Very cold. Not Michigan winter cold, but after over forty years as a Californian, this has been a winter like no other I can recall when it comes to a lack of warm days. We’re now into March and over the next ten days, the forecast calls for not one day into the sixties. I’ve had but two days playing on my porch in over a month because of it.

 

I mention the weather in my Physical section because it’s made walking far less desirable than I’m used to. I haven’t played golf regularly since Covid, so walking has been my only consistent exercise. I’ve consistently had to bundle up in as heavy a jacket as I’ve got and find the overall experience less than positive.

 

Perhaps worse, I don’t think I’ve been as consistent as before. I say “perhaps” because I really don’t know. I don’t keep records, but I’ve always had a pretty good idea of how I’ve been doing at any point in time. It’s been rare that I miss two days in a row, but I just don’t think I take as many walks per week as before. My goal is six. If I walk all seven, great, but six is good, and five is acceptable. For those who don’t know, my route is constant, two miles through a pretty darned hilly neighborhood. Not incredibly strenuous, but still worth doing. And it’s just not as frequent.

 

My weight is up, at times over 210, not good. I think lots of people tend to gain in the winter when it’s cold, and then tend to take it back off when it warms up. It’s simply easier to exercise when it’s warm. I used to golf through the winter. I never considered it the greatest exercise, but at least when I was golfing I wasn’t eating. Certainly not the way I’ve been eating lately. I really need to cut back on my snacking, but I spend so much of my time inside my house, it’s simply difficult. The ‘fridge is simply too close by.

 

Having decided my cats will be indoor cats, I’ll have to be somewhat concerned about their eating habits, since I’ll be their only source of food. As I write this, they’re finishing up their second day here. Probably due to the stress of a new home, they haven’t eaten as much as I expect they will later. Buddy has so far been much more sociable, coming up to me and getting used to me, and even urging me to stroke him and all that good stuff. Monty has simply been hiding. Nothing to be concerned about yet, except that he’s really good at hiding. Really, they both are, and I feel I need to find them. 

 

The big problem here is that they both seem to want to hide low to the ground. This means either squatting down really low or even getting down to the floor. Getting back up can be a real challenge. All those deep knee bends I haven’t been doing are coming back to haunt me. In another five days, I’ll open up the kitchen for them to get used to. As they get acquainted with more and more of the house, I suspect they’ll find more places to hide. And unless I lose some weight, finding them will become more of a challenge.