Up & At ’Em! - theHumm January 2020

By Glenda Jones

Okay, my friends, it’s time to get off that couch, shed the loose sweatsuit, and at least make an attempt at activity. Up here on Carroll Side Road we’re all about being outside at least twice a day, no matter if the temperature has plunged to minus one hundred, it’s snowing or drizzling that nasty freezing rain stuff. The trick is to look up and appreciate the weather (she said, knowing she had no choice but to go walking!), to take pictures of the hanging trees, and pretend that this weather is exactly perfect, since there are no mosquitoes, no ticks and no earwigs. The dogs are ecstatic to be running through the snow, so I get caught up in their enthusiasm. Snowballs are hard to retrieve, but so much fun to chase. Neither they nor I tire of this game. It’s all about the clothing: if you dress for the weather, you’ll be fine out there.

Are you identifying more with the cat, who much prefers the heat vent in the living room, eschewing the cold like a rare disease? Nothing convinces her that outdoors would work for her constitutional. She doesn’t own a sweatsuit, but if she did she’d be wearing it and declaring we were all crazy to be thinking of exercise and activity in January.

Shake a leg, everyone! Time’s a-wasting. And speaking of waist, it can be a distant memory when the excess of holiday eating creeps up on us. Our exercise classes will take care of that, and I know we’ll be back there huffing and puffing, just to stay fit enough to do everything else we are planning. (I can see your eyes rolling. Stop that!) Success starts with one step, and once you’re out the door and into our group, you’ll want to keep at it. Guaranteed, it’s not going to hurt, and who knows, it might be the very thing to connect you with some new friends. If nothing else, it’ll help you find your waistline again!

Once the blood is flowing to your brain, you’ve simply got to keep that organ going as well, so sign up for a course. The beauty of courses is they are usually non-judgemental. That is to say, no exams, no group projects, nothing to discourage you but your own confidence. So what if you take pottery and your bowl is wonky? So what if your painting isn’t going to the National Art Gallery any time soon? You still had fun trying it. You have nothing to lose but that old sweatsuit.

There now, I’ve managed to fill up three days a week for you. Idleness breeds… something we don’t need or want, so let’s have none of it. I suppose you could spend the fourth day shopping the January sales to find more appropriate attire than the aforementioned sweatsuit. Make sure you look for a jazzy colour to take away from the pallor that descends with lack of sunshine. My big purchase has gone to the dogs, literally: I’ve bought them all new brightly coloured leashes. I can content myself adequately as long as the dogs are pretty!

Day Five, and you’re on a roll of activity now. Don’t you feel ever so much better? Don’t you hate people who make you snap to attention and be eternally busy? Don’t you wish for one day of nothingness? Now, really, wouldn’t that be a shame when so many people are putting so much effort into organizing activities for the rest of us? The least we can do is humour them and see what they have to offer.

Day Six is the day you drag out the calendar and fill in the blanks. Day One & Two: exercises; Day Three: craft course; Day four: shopping; Day Five: brain course. See how your week is filling in nicely? And we haven’t even scheduled the dog walking time in there.

There is one day you can’t programme. The day the winter storm descends, the roads are closed, the driveway is blocked, and maybe the power goes out. That’s your free day when you can don the sweatsuit, light the wood stove, grab a book, and do nothing but make excuses.

When the storm day falls on a Saturday we are extra happy. We haul out the newspaper. Yes, we still get it and read every word. I can’t fathom a day when I couldn’t read an actual paper, not a little screen online that I can’t navigate or earmark. So indolence can take over for a couple of hours, with extra coffee and maybe a sticky bun, and for once the dogs will be quiet for a half-hour. When the storm passes, we’ll resume the regimen.

Day Seven, I’ll leave to your own devices. Just promise me you won’t spend the entire day swathed in that old sweatsuit, lolling on the couch and binging on Netflix. If need be, I’ll loan you the dogs for a day and you can get out and enjoy the fresh air and crisp winter. We both might as well be freezing our fingers, and pretending we love this weather!

Fiddle In the New Year!
- theHumm January 2020

You’re in for a real treat on Sunday, January 5, when the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra will present their annual Little Christmas Concert. Directed by Cindy McCall, this all-ages group comprises 50+ fiddlers with guitar, percussion, penny whistle, viola, bass, cello and flute accompaniment. They will perform some of their recently perfected delightful repertoire. This enthusiastic bunch rehearses on Saturdays and Wednesdays at the Maberly Hall and hails from the rural areas close by. T......

Up & At ’Em! - theHumm January 2020