[Mistr]

Mistr's May Musubi Challenge

 

Musubi is a Japanese term for connection. It has a sense of flow and perception. 

 

In aikido, an important goal is to immediately establish musubi with an attack so you can feel where it is going. Is the attacker drawing back to prepare for another punch? Is their weight forward or in their heels? Valuable information.

 

My goal for this challenge is to apply this principle to making choices about what to do with my time. I am now in month 4 of respawning after having Covid. Physically, I'm starting to see signs of improvement. I still have 15+ pounds to lose and a lot of capacity to rebuild. I have a plan for that. (more below)

 

The mental health side is harder. I was in bad shape at the end of last year. Bad enough that getting sick was a welcome break. I want to keep a close eye on my choices and the stories I am telling myself about what I should do or need to do. 

 

You may be familiar with The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He talks about decisions we make about food. Humans can eat an awful lot of things, so how do we choose?

 

I am looking hard at the same question about time. I clearly cannot work on all my projects all at once. Some things have to wait. Other urgent things happen and I am the person who can handle them on the moment. Which things will make me happy later if I get them done, and which can wait? How can I tell which ones will cause me grief later if I put them off?

 

You would think (at least I certainly would think) that by my age I would have figured this out, but this is my main challenge. I am going to see where the pressure is coming from in different tasks and see if I can side-step them, draw them along or if I should just get in and deal with it right away.

 

In that spirit, this is a start. I'm going to aikido and will put in more details later.  

[Sovalis]

The Omnivore's Dilemma was such a good read. I'm here for this! 

[Kishi]

We don't have the concept of musubi per se in BJJ but it definitely exists here. So I definitely get where this challenge is coming from.

 

And I imagine that figuring out what's top priority is something that you learn and relearn over time, so no need to worry about not having figured it out yet. I suspect that's probably normal.

 

Can't wait to see what the challenge looks like!

[Mistr]

Challenge Details:

 

Sleep is a top priority. Tomorrow me will be much happier and more productive if I go to bed on time today. There are usually things I want to get done in the evening. Most of those can actually wait. Doing zen helps me sleep, so that can push back my bed time (but not on purpose). Ibuprofen and melatonin are my friends. Caffeine is not my friend. Avoid the temptation to drink even decaf coffee.

 

Zen, specifically seated meditation (zazen) is something I have been working on for several years. I'm not sure the meditation is getting better, but the side effects are helpful. My goal for this challenge is at least 10 minutes a day. Normally 30 minutes.

 

Exercise:

- Aikido twice a week (maybe more)

- Cardio twice a week. This is usually 25 minutes on the rowing machine on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hiking or brisk walks are a fine substitute. If I get motivated, I could bike to work instead.

- Strength or core exercise twice a week. There are a lot of mornings where I just cannot get myself to do the strength training circuit. Keep working on it when I can face it, and do core work when I can't.

 

Food is on my radar, but not exactly a goal. I have been keeping to an eating window of 8am to 6pm during the week. That seems to be working pretty well. I am telling myself I can have whatever I want to eat, but only at meals. No snacking. That is pretty good in the morning and not so successful in the afternoons. Dumbledore (my partner) is also trying to improve his eating habits, which helps. Last week I saw some movement in the right direction of the number on the scale. I just need to keep this up. 

 

Projects

This is the biggie. I have lots of things I want to do. Some are fun, some are chores. Taking time for myself to relax falls in this category as well, because all my non-work time is competing for open slots. My initial approach is to pick one larger project and a couple chores for weeknights or two projects for weekends. I want to feel like I am making progress AND having time to do fun things. Much musubi to see where the pressures are for the day and the week.

 

[Mistr]

Progress so far - encouraging.

 

I was doing all these things during zero week, I just did not take the time to write a new challenge. I have been doing a better job of staying on task at work. It could be that things are a little less busy, or maybe I'm getting more sleep. Or maybe taking down time for myself is paying off. Hard to say. I am certainly a lot more likely to swipe past things I don't want to spend time on.

 

Coming back to aikido after being away in April was rough. I felt slow and uncoordinated. I had trouble getting up from falls. Doing aikido was mostly okay, but my physical conditioning was bad. Over the last two weeks my energy and movement has improved noticeably. I still have a long way to go, but I feel a lot better about being able to do it.

 

I just started doing rowing for cardio a few weeks ago. I still can't tell if it is a good cardio workout for me. I am clearly getting faster and smoother with the movements. I had no idea how much coordination it takes to do rowing on a machine. I hope that the full body movement will help with other things I'm doing. Most importantly, I like doing it.

 

I am counting on my young people for cooking. My breakfast is usually frozen mixed veggies and 6 frozen meatballs. Simple and reliable. I can buy food at work if we don't have batch cooked food from home. These choices take a lot of pressure and decision-making stress off me.

 

My big project this week is gardening. We finally have nice weather and the plants are making up for lost time. I am going to buy more plants and compost on my way home and get as many things in the garden as I can.

[Harriet]

I liked the omnivore's dilemma. He's a good writer. I hope you find the right projects to cook and eat. Or, if there is no "right" choice, then at least a delicious and satisfying option.

[Mistr]

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

I liked the omnivore's dilemma. He's a good writer. I hope you find the right projects to cook and eat. Or, if there is no "right" choice, then at least a delicious and satisfying option.

 

For this challenge, I am not really worried about food. I am using the omnivore's dilemma as an analogy for my real problem, which is choosing what to do with my time.

 

Yesterday evening I did gardening, but not quite according to plan. First I stopped at the co-op. They had a lot of beautiful organic plants. I got rosemary. Of course, their prices were higher than the garden center by my house. The compost was $15 a bag. Yikes!

 

So I went to the garden center hoping to find more seedlings and compost. Nope, they closed at 6pm. Okay, off to the hardware store. They did indeed have compost for only $3.50 a bag. I got there 5 minutes before they closed and headed home with two bags of composted cow manure.

 

That left me a little more than an hour for gardening before it got dark. Grumble grumble time consuming traffic running around... 

 

Last fall I discovered that my beautiful two year old raised bed garden had been infiltrated with tree roots. I'm not sure which tree. I set it up as far as I could from all the mature trees and it is not under any of them, but there is only a small gap in the leaf canopy over the garden. The tomatoes I planted in the garden last year did much worse than their siblings planted in pots. So this year, I decided to dig holes in the garden and put the pots there. 😎 Hopefully that will slow down the tree roots while allowing me to use my watering and support stakes. I got two tomatoes done and two more into pots. I am going to need to buy more pots for the other veggies I want to plant.

 

I bought the tomatoes on Saturday and it is amazing how much they have grown in a few days. I transplanted from the 4-packs into bigger pots right away. I didn't want to put them in the ground because it felt too early. I figured I could haul all the pots into the garage if we got another late frost. I hope we will actually have a couple weeks of nice weather (as predicted).

 

My garden plan this year is mostly tomatoes, squash and cilantro. I would like to grow basil if I can get it to survive. Last year I found bare-root plants in the grocery store that were a better deal than the seedlings at the garden center. I will have to check for those again.

[Scaly Freak]

On 5/11/2023 at 4:22 PM, Mistr said:

I just started doing rowing for cardio a few weeks ago. I still can't tell if it is a good cardio workout for me. I am clearly getting faster and smoother with the movements. I had no idea how much coordination it takes to do rowing on a machine. I hope that the full body movement will help with other things I'm doing. Most importantly, I like doing it.

 

I love the rowing machine at the gym as well, and one of the reasons is that hardly anyone seems to be using it. Poor rowing machine, so un-appreciated.  

[Mistr]

On 5/15/2023 at 12:14 AM, Scaly Freak said:

I love the rowing machine at the gym as well, and one of the reasons is that hardly anyone seems to be using it. Poor rowing machine, so un-appreciated.  

 

Apparently Tuesday and Thursday at lunch are the perfect time for me to use the rowing machine. I usually see one other person (not always the same person) in the gym while I am there. This is the new and shiny gym in a new building.  Go figure.

 

I investigated the programs on the rowing machine. This is trickier than it sounds because the screen goes dead if you are not rowing, and it is hard to row and still reach the screen. 🙃  It has a HIIT program with 25 seconds fast, 80 seconds recovery for as many intervals as you tell it. There is a second version with 30 seconds/30 seconds that I tried last week. I am happy with the longer intervals for now. I am working on getting my fast movements faster and to have good form. The recovery time is faster than my base time was two weeks ago. I am not feeling winded at all. Maybe that means I'm not working hard enough, or it could mean I'm getting better. I am happy to see the time per 500m going down and the total meters in 25 minutes going up.

 

Gardening has been moving along. I planted a dozen coleus and three dusty miller (Jacobaea maritima) in the back garden under the tree. That area now looks like a garden instead of a barren area with weeds. I planted 60 gladiola bulbs. I wanted them in the front of the house. Turns out that two bags were more than I needed for that area, so the rest went into the center of the vegetable garden. I hope they will come up and look good.

 

I just have two more pots of squash to plant in the vegetable garden. I may pick up a couple summer squash plants at the garden center. I want to get big empty pots to protect the winter squash from the tree roots. And some snapdragons for the bed on the corner...   Stay tuned for the next episode this weekend.

 

Food

I was very unhappy to see my weight was up two pounds on Monday. I stuck to my eating plan pretty well last week and did not have a lot of treats.  Then I read @Heidi's comment on Sovalis' thread about how inflammation causes unexpected weight gain. On Saturday evening, Dumbledore and I went out for dinner and split a sundae. It was delicious and I did not notice any immediate effects. I also had a little buttermilk on Sunday (in scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes).  Apparently that was enough to cause a lot of water retention. I am going to strictly avoid dairy this week and see what happens.

 

Projects

I finished carding the Border Leicester lamb fleece!

I started working on it over two years ago, when we were still in quarantine. That feels like a long time ago, but is actually really fast progress compared to my usual wool processing speed. Thankfully, spinning is much faster than carding.

 

I bought myself a new computer game: Immortal Life. I am enjoying it a lot so far. I'm glad I played the simpler Verdant Skies first. There are some expectations about the Stardew Valley-type games that are still new to me.

 

[Heidi]

On 5/15/2023 at 1:14 AM, Scaly Freak said:

 

I love the rowing machine at the gym as well, and one of the reasons is that hardly anyone seems to be using it. Poor rowing machine, so un-appreciated.  

 

10 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Apparently Tuesday and Thursday at lunch are the perfect time for me to use the rowing machine.

You guys are reminding me how much i loved the rowing machine, a thing I seem to have forgetten. 

Thank you!

 

Hooray for all the gardening and wool goodness!

May the glads make you and your garden glad this season.

I'm a knitter, and those of you who card and spin are heroes to me. I can raise sheep and I can knit -- carding and spinning, not so much.

❤️ 

[Sovalis]

Great update! I am glad you don’t have competition in the shiny new gym, that is excellent. 

 

Inflammation is definitely an issue. I feel it in my joints before I notice it on the scale, but it shows up there too. Hopefully reducing your dairy this week gives you a good data point to work with. 

 

Can’t wait to hear more about the garden! Gladiolus remind me strongly of my Dad, he loves them. I want to plant some in my back garden this year. It’s the long weekend this weekend, so I should be good to go for bulbs without things snap freezing from this point on. 

[Kishi]

6 hours ago, Mistr said:

I was very unhappy to see my weight was up two pounds on Monday. I stuck to my eating plan pretty well last week and did not have a lot of treats.  Then I read @Heidi's comment on Sovalis' thread about how inflammation causes unexpected weight gain. On Saturday evening, Dumbledore and I went out for dinner and split a sundae. It was delicious and I did not notice any immediate effects. I also had a little buttermilk on Sunday (in scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes).  Apparently that was enough to cause a lot of water retention. I am going to strictly avoid dairy this week and see what happens.

 

This is something I'm thinking about a lot lately myself. Apparently, inflammation can be caused not just by diet but also by excessive exercise and other stressors. Of course, I still want to train, just like I want to experience sense pleasures related to food. I suspect in the end that it comes down to how much we can tolerate on the way to getting to live the lives we want to live.

[Mistr]

My weight was down 1.6 pounds today, which is sort of encouraging. I want to see what happens after another week of avoiding dairy.

 

Work stress has been back to unpleasant levels. We had a new hire start today and I had to get her training schedule done. The time I set aside to work on it got eaten by other demands, so I had to work late and on the weekend. I think I'm doing better in cutting myself more slack to deal with it.

 

Saturday we celebrated Cleo's birthday. Earlier in the week she told me that she never expected to live to see this age (30). Eeep. Now she is facing the big questions about what she is going to do with her life.

 

Elf and Cleo are celebrating their second anniversary today. Elf got flowers and made a fancy breakfast for Cleo. Our kid is a romantic. 💘

 

Today I did zen instead of exercise. Yesterday I went for a walk with Dumbledore and did a short meditation session. I also did batch grilling of protein for the week. It turns out that our household can eat a 13.5 pound ham in a week. This week we have 6.5 pounds of chicken breast and half a pork loin. It would be nice if someone stepped up and cooked vegetables, but we have plenty of frozen veggies if they don't. 

 

So far, so good.

[Sovalis]

Are you finding it difficult to go without the dairy, Mistr?

 

I am sorry work stress is ramping up again. That’s not good. I hope it eases off again soon. 

 

Happy Birthday to Cleo and Happy Anniversary to Elf and Cleo! ❤️ 

 

Zen is good. Walking is good. Protein is good. I hope someone makes some veggies for you!

[Mistr]

On 5/22/2023 at 6:59 PM, Sovalis said:

Are you finding it difficult to go without the dairy, Mistr?

 

I am fine with avoiding milk, sour cream and yogurt. Butter does not seem to be a problem. The one I have trouble avoiding is cheese. Cheese is everywhere in my area. I am hoping it is not too bad for my joints.

 

 

 

On 5/22/2023 at 6:59 PM, Sovalis said:

I am sorry work stress is ramping up again. That’s not good. I hope it eases off again soon. 

 

This is where I am struggling right now. We had a new person start this week, which is encouraging. At the same time, one of my coworkers spouse had a serious medical incident, so she is out this week and I have to cover for her. Another coworker is on vacation, so I have to give the trainings he would normally give our new hire. We hired and trained four new people last year, but two of them have already left. We have had some good interviews for our open position, but I can't convince myself that things are going to get better. I feel like as soon as things ease off, something else will happen.

 

I talked with Dumbledore when we went for a walk last weekend. He encouraged me to keep my eyes open for other positions in the company. There is nothing right now, but I can wait.

 

On 5/22/2023 at 6:59 PM, Sovalis said:

 Zen is good. Walking is good. Protein is good. I hope someone makes some veggies for you!

 

I can hope. Elf has been cooking for themself and Cleo, but not batch cooking for the family. And not doing their dishes. 😠 That makes it harder for anyone else to cook. We still have frozen veggies and I can do a run to Costco this weekend.

 

Musubi success

I am happy with how I dealt with things yesterday. I did zen before work, trained with my weapons partner at lunch and went to his aikido class after work. I wanted to see people more than I wanted to do aikido, but it was fun once I got moving. Then I came home and played Immortal Life. In a normal challenge that would be counter to my goals since it meant I had screen time after 8pm and stayed up past my target bedtime.

 

As I was finishing up, Dumbledore asked me if I would rub his feet. I did with no protest about staying up too late. He was having a bad day and it was something I could do to help him feel better.

 

I certainly felt better for taking some time to do a thing I really wanted to do. My brain weasels were going off on the "you work all the time and never get to have fun" rant. That is not true, but arguing can be hard. Doing the fun thing was a better choice.

 

I can do more fun things tonight and there is a 3-day weekend coming. I might even take some time to sit by a lake and read. Stay tuned for the next installment.

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

I can do a run to Costco this weekend.

 

...on a holiday weekend? You are braver than I am!  

[Harriet]

I lost sight of your challenge for a bit (possibly because I reply more often to threads at the top!) but I'm glad the kids are all right, and that that spinning and planting are coming along. Sorry about the continuing work stress, though.

What kind of wool is border leicester? Staple? Scale? Elasticity? Similar properties to any more familiar wools? Best use? (I love technical wool details)

[Kishi]

Just dropping in to say that I hope your weekend has been nice and restful so far.

[Mistr]

Memorial Day weekend was fun but not restful. A musician friend from out of town was performing two solo shows - Friday at a winery and Saturday at a coffee house. We went to both and had a great time. Then we took him out for lunch on Sunday. I was fairly productive when I wasn't socializing, but I started off the Monday holiday with a long list of things I wanted to get done. The high priority stuff got done and the rest had to wait.

 

Last week was a two-day week for me because I took a long weekend to visit my mom and go to a memorial for a friend. By the end of Wednesday I was at the end of my rope. I tied up all the necessary ends at work, but it was a near thing. I was not able to face doing the things on my list at home in the evening. I made chocolate ganache with coconut milk and did some of the dishes, then took a break to sit on the back porch and prep fleece for washing.

 

The four-day weekend with at my mom's was a lovely break. Dumbledore was off at a gaming convention, so this was a solo trip. I could take my time and go wherever I wanted. I got to reconnect with people at the memorial and to get together with a different set of friends for lunch the next day. One friend just lost her father and is the executor for his estate. We compared notes on dealing with departed parents and their stuff. It made me really appreciate all the work my brother and sister-in-law are doing.

 

I even put some of that advice to work and took time with Mom to put notes on all the artwork that is on display in her apartment. I think she has more in storage, but that can wait for another time. She loves to travel and has collected things from all over the world. Some are valuable and some are just things she liked. She also has art from local artists and some very old family portraits. I might know that the toddler in the funny clothes is my grandfather as a child, but I doubt my nieces and nephews would know. Hopefully it will be a long time before we need to be concerned. In any case, I will be glad I got things written down now. Mom even agreed to sit down with me and write down answers to what she wants done when she is gone. Her father wrote an Answer Book to make things easier for my grandmother. He knew his health was poor and he had handled all the finances. Having everything cataloged in one place made life much easier for my mom and grandmother.

 

I am back to my usual life, but not with great enthusiasm. I still have a case of the dunnawunnas. I did manage sitting zen for 30 minutes before work. Didn't make it to exercise at lunchtime because I was procrastinating. Maybe I will take a walk after work.  hmmmm That has potential.

[Mistr]

On 5/26/2023 at 9:22 AM, Harriet said:

What kind of wool is border leicester? Staple? Scale? Elasticity? Similar properties to any more familiar wools? Best use? (I love technical wool details)

 

 

The photo shows the lock structure of the fleece. It is a long wool-type fleece. A staple of 10-12cm is not really long, but that may be because this is a lamb fleece. It is quite soft for a long wool.

 

Here is a sample of the yarn:

 

Long wools are typically used for sweaters, socks and worsted weaving. They can have a lot of sheen. I am spinning it with a woolen structure, so the sheen would be muted anyway. The photos show the yarn after plying (3-ply).

 

I picked up this fleece because I thought it would coordinate well with some Wensleydale wool that I already spun. I think it will work, but the color is not what I was hoping for. I picked up a bunch of Jacquard dyes from a friend. Dyeing grey wool tends to give colors with a lot of depth. I'm going to see if I can get jewel tone colors. 

[RES]

🙃

Better late than never....glad to catch up with what's going on in your world  

[Harriet]

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

The photo shows the lock structure of the fleece. It is a long wool-type fleece. A staple of 10-12cm is not really long, but that may be because this is a lamb fleece. It is quite soft for a long wool.

 

Long wools are typically used for sweaters, socks and worsted weaving. They can have a lot of sheen. I am spinning it with a woolen structure, so the sheen would be muted anyway. The photos show the yarn after plying (3-ply).

 

I picked up this fleece because I thought it would coordinate well with some Wensleydale wool that I already spun. I think it will work, but the color is not what I was hoping for. I picked up a bunch of Jacquard dyes from a friend. Dyeing grey wool tends to give colors with a lot of depth. I'm going to see if I can get jewel tone colors. 

 

I love the colour combination on the fleece--that steely grey and warm brown. Long wool--the characteristics sound similar to blue faced leicester, one of the few non-merino wools that knitters can get as a yarn. Long staple, large smoothish scales giving it a slight lustre/good smoothness, and definitely soft enough for sweaters, though nothing has as low a micron measurement as merino.

 

How much yarn do you tend to spin--like, enough for what sort of projects? And do you knit them into projects? I cannot remember seeing any knitting photos.

 

I'm glad you had a nice weekend with coffee and music and friends. Also, organising one's things before death to make it easier for those who are left behind seems like a very sensible idea. I doubt my father will do anything of the kind.

[Kishi]

I have to admit, as much as my mind is drawn to end of life stuff these days, I really need to get some stuff in writing from my folks for when the time comes. Or that I need to do that writing myself, for myself. I'm not at a stage of life where that's a huge thing to worry about, but still.

[Mistr]

49 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I have to admit, as much as my mind is drawn to end of life stuff these days, I really need to get some stuff in writing from my folks for when the time comes. Or that I need to do that writing myself, for myself. I'm not at a stage of life where that's a huge thing to worry about, but still.

 

Death, like taxes, requires a lot of paperwork. It will make things much easier if you have some of that done ahead of time. Making sure your parents have a will, for example. If they want to give things to people, making sure they have current contact information for those people. Simple things like labeling the keys that are in that drawer and getting rid of the ones that go to long-departed vehicles. 

 

There can be serious challenges for the heirs if their parents do not have a will, do not file transfer-on-death forms, and have real estate. The estate has to go to probate. That means it will be months before any assets are released, but the heirs have to pay all the expenses for the property during that time. You might want to check what the rules are in your state when one spouse dies. Some states automatically pass possession to the surviving spouse, but others don't. My mom told me that when my dad was in a coma, she went to the DMV to have her name added to the title for his car. That was easy to do while he was alive, but would have been slow and expensive after he died. Check that your folks are on top of all that. These are easier conversations to have while everyone is still healthy.

[Mistr]

I did rowing today for the first time in two weeks. It felt fine, but slower than before. Only at the end did I notice that the resistance was set higher 😂

 

I seem to be able to do just one or two things from my goal list each day. Yesterday I sat zen and got to bed on time. Today I am going to try to do aikido, zen and Duolingo after work. That may be pushing it.