Keep smiling, keep shining

The Kennedy Center has finally got round to honoring Gladys Knight, the Empress of Soul. So I’ve spent some hours running through her discography, which—frankly—has been balm to my soul.

Her voice is like honey and her delivery is pure power. What took you so long, Kennedy Center?

I almost chose “Midnight Train to Georgia”, to also honor Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who may beat NY AG Letitia James to indicting the Kleptocrat. (I can live in hope.) But I finally settled on “That’s What Friends Are For”, because friends are everything.

You're going to want to crank up the volume.

 

 

 

Wild kingdoms

I guess the only time I’ve posted about garden critters was on my visit to Sedona in January. Well—that wouldn’t include displays for Halloween or Christmas, obvs.

But I do take note of how people dress up their yards on the regular. Viz:

 

Customer service

As a rule, I don’t showroom. Unless I’m going to a Big Box store to check out an appliance or piece of electronics; then I’ll generally order it online (or even from a smaller retailer) because they’re pretty much a pox on civilization.

And for the past several years, I’ve bought my walking shoes from Potomac River Running, a small chain local to the environs of the District They Call Columbia.

(Even though a couple of years ago one of their salesmen tried to pawn off a pair of men’s shoes on me. That was weird.)

However, in recent weeks, I’ve tried to buy Asics Kayanos to replace the pair that’s a year old, and the salesman kept telling me they don’t have my size in stock. I’ve asked when he expects to get more, and all he’ll say is they get shipments of new merchandise on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I could check back then.

Not even an offer to get one of the other shops in the region to send some over.

So last week I finally went online and ordered two pairs from Asics, which arrived in three days, and cost me marginally more than a single pair would have cost me from PRR.

Enough is enough.

 

 

Home on the hydrangea

It’s time for the hydrangeas of 2022, I think. I love these shrubs, how the color of the blossom varies by the soil content, and how you can even find different colors on the same bush.

Enjoy.

These three were on a single shrub in front of the running shoe shop:

And these are just random examples around the 'hood:

 

 

Gratitude Monday: yoga

As I’ve mentioned here last week, I’ve got some issues with my knees. Getting cortisone shots helped considerably, but what I’m grateful for today is the almost-regular yoga session I had on Friday.

After skipping one lesson because of pain and inability to bend my knee, then two severely-modified sessions to accommodate the inflexibility, Friday’s lesson was probably about 95% of usual. Including sun salutations and nearly-full child’s pose. I was a bit ginger about getting into the knee-bendy warrior poses, and I put down padding for the camel, but—man, it felt so good to get back into the full Monty.

Also, I realized several hours later that all the stiffness and discomfort were gone. And Saturday and yesterday, I was back to my full morning walking circuit. If that’s not worthy of gratitude, I don’t know what is.