[Mistr]

 

I have plenty of things to clean up this challenge. I am happy to report that I made a good start during Zero week.

 

Goals:

 

1. Clear out my mind. Sit zen every day. Preferably 30 minutes, but at least 10 minutes. It does not matter how late it gets, sit zen before going to bed. If I do stay up too late, taking the time to calm my mind will help me sleep.

 

I did this last challenge and it is making a difference. My mind is not back to normal, but it is better than it was. Maybe I will find a different new normal. Keep moving in that direction.

 

2. Clean up my eating. I have a huge emotional resistance to restricting what I eat, but I am fine with intermittent fasting. I can also work on having fruit before having other types of sweets.

 

3. Assorted cleaning tasks. This includes regular chores, since those still need to get done too. Finish things up, put things away, sort things, get rid of things, raking, garden clean-out, it all counts. Extra points for dealing with things that have been sitting in piles for a long time.

__________________________________________________

 

Zero Week report

 

This past week was extremely busy at work. On top of planned time off and project time, a different person called in sick every day. I was covering for the person on vacation, plus filling in for people who were out sick. I mostly kept my head above water. I am sure that I missed some things that will come around to bite me this week. I could have tried to get the older stuff done first, but that would just mean that different things would have been left waiting. I hope I won't find too much waiting for me on Monday.

 

I went to aikido on Monday, Wednesday, practice with my weapons partner on Thursday, and an all-day seminar on Saturday. I went with my chief instructor to the seminar. There were seven hours of classes with six different instructors. It was a friendship seminar, which means the instructors came from dojos with different affiliations. For those not familiar with aikido, there are numerous different flavors. The founder of the art died in 1969. He had a bunch of senior students that settled all over the world. Most of them set up their own organizations. Some were on speaking terms with each other, some were not. Almost all of that first generation have now passed away. A lot of American students are wondering just why instructors of the art of harmony were not able to get along with each other. People are working to form connections and learn insights from other lineages.

 

Physically, I did better than I expected with training all day. By the end of class #6 my brain was full. My sensei was worn out by the beginning of class 6. We left early. It was a 90 minute drive, so we left home at 7:00am and were glad to get back by 7:30pm. This week I plan to train on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. That is plenty.

 

Spring Cleaning

• I scrubbed the couch again with Citrasolv and vinegar. I think that took out the last of the cat pee smell. At least, it covered it with orange scent.
• Used leather cleaner/conditioner on the couch. Maybe it looks a little better. It has been scrubbed at least four times now. Really, it is as clean as it is going to get. I hope we don't need to replace it.
• Washed three loads laundry
• Packed up Wensleydale yarn and put it back in the garage. I got it out a couple months ago when I thought I would use it for my next knitting project. I decided to do a different knitting project next, so this can wait where it belongs.
• Finished spinning blue merino/silk singles. I thought I bought four ounces of roving, but it does not look like that much on the bobbin. I will wind it off and weigh it later. Cleaned and oiled spinning wheel.
• Went through my fiber stash to pick my next spinning project. Rediscovered fiber that I bought a long time ago. Some of that will be great to use in blends on my drum carder. I chose a bag of silver-grey alpaca that I forgot I had. I picked it up at a stash sale after my friend Kathy from spinning passed away. I am going to blend it with silk for strength.
• Getting out the silk involved more cleaning. I went through the books stacked on top of my steamer trunk and dresser. Four of them are not mine and can be put away elsewhere. I had to take everything off the top of the steamer trunk to open it and get out bag of silk roving. In doing so, I discovered a solid line of dust bunnies behind the steamer trunk. I vacuumed those up (plus the rest of the bedroom floor). I now know what is in the piles on top of the steamer trunk (but have no clue what to do with them).
• Scrubbed the kitchen sink, stovetop and counters. Normal weekend chores.

 

Elf did a LOT of cooking. They batch cooked asparagus, green beans with almonds and garlic, roasted potatoes and braised pork shoulder. The kitchen was only clean for half an hour, but it was totally worth it. I said I would make cookies, but that is going to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Mistr]

I swear I thought of this challenge topic last week, long before I saw @sarakingdom's challenge.

 

[sarakingdom]

7 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I swear I thought of this challenge topic last week, long before I saw @sarakingdom's challenge.

 

Are you planning to work with the same spring cleaning mentor? Could be exciting...

 

[Mistr]

2 minutes ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Are you planning to work with the same spring cleaning mentor? Could be exciting...

 

 

No, I'll leave Molly to you.

 

My current reading is the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. All about awareness and non-attachment. I'm curious to see where that takes me.

 

[Sovalis]

Definitely here for this!! 💜

[Scaly Freak]

Following!

[Mistr]

On the cleaning front, I vacuumed the living room carpet yesterday. I got enough fur off of it to make a new cat. It is always gratifying when the color goes from frosted to navy blue.

 

I also did some research on stoves. The front right burner on our stove went bad last weekend. I discovered this when I was trying to cook bacon on low, and it started burning. We had the same thing happen with the left front burner last year. Apparently when the switch goes, it defaults to Off or High.

 

We could get the burner fixed or we could replace the stove. It came with the house, so it is more than 11 years old and the projected life of an electric stove is 13 years. There are several other things about the stove that annoy Dumbledore, so his vote is firmly for replace rather than repair. I have a list of models with various options that are less than $600. It helps that we want a plain stove without the latest bells and whistles. Did you know it costs $25-40 more to get black + chrome instead of plain black or white? That is something we have to discuss.

 

Plan for tonight is clothes shopping for the young people. If they decide to postpone, I can do yoga and have some down time. We shall see.

[Scaly Freak]

2 hours ago, Mistr said:

I also did some research on stoves. The front right burner on our stove went bad last weekend. I discovered this when I was trying to cook bacon on low, and it started burning. We had the same thing happen with the left front burner last year. Apparently when the switch goes, it defaults to Off or High.

 

Waitwhatnow? No one thought that maybe building in a fail-safe that makes it default to only Off was, I don't know... less of a fire hazard?!? 

 

Yikes.

[Mistr]

14 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Waitwhatnow? No one thought that maybe building in a fail-safe that makes it default to only Off was, I don't know... less of a fire hazard?!? 

 

Yikes.

 

No kidding. It can still be turned off, but if it is turned on to any setting, it is actually on High. The rheostat is gone.

 

- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - 

 

Yesterday evening my main activity was taking Elf and Cleo clothes shopping. It turns out that a rainy Tuesday evening in March is a perfect time to take two trans women to the store. We had the women's section all to ourselves. This was great because neither of them has much experience shopping for women's clothes and they are still feeling a lot of imposter syndrome. I had flashbacks to shopping with my mom when I was in junior high. It was traumatic for me back then because nothing fit. I did not get to choose by style because so few things fit that those were my only choices.

 

Luckily, Elf and Cleo had better luck. They both found dressy clothes to wear to a wedding next month. They also found some cute everyday tops. I found two tops for myself too.   

I had a 30% off everything coupon that I put to good use. Now I have $30 in Kohl's Cash that I can use next week.

 

Cleaning was just putting away clean dishes and loading the dishwasher. Zen and knitting happened.

[Scaly Freak]

13 hours ago, Mistr said:

No kidding. It can still be turned off, but if it is turned on to any setting, it is actually on High. The rheostat is gone.

 

So the silver lining is that you can turn it off. That's not nearly as bad as it could have been.

 

I still have that problem when shopping for clothes, by the way. Far too many tops made for women are made for shorter arms and a flatter chest than what I've grown into. 

[Mistr]

No spring cleaning yesterday, but I did do zen and aikido.

 

I think all the practice is starting to pay off.  There were two guest instructors covering class last night. They showed a different way to start a series of movements. I am very familiar with the concept, but the specifics were new to me. I was able to get the movement to work about 20% of the time.  That is huge. Less than 10% is normal with a familiar movement. I have been working on keeping my alignment and connecting with my partners. Apparently that is helping. Part of me is jumping up and down for joy, while another part is going "finally!".

 

Zen is getting easier. It will probably never be easy, but my body is complaining less. I am reading the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. It dovetails nicely with instruction I have gotten from my zen teacher. As I understand it, the process is to first get the body to sit still. That puts you in a better position to notice what is going on with your brain. As you work on your meditation method, your brain will calm down and you can notice how it works. You can observe thoughts, sensations, memories and emotions as they arise. As you continue to practice, you mind gets more clear. I am sure there are a lot of fine points I am missing, but the basic outline is encouraging.

 

I have this evening open since I did my zen at lunchtime. My plan is to get my tax info to our accountant, then do some experimenting with my drum carder. The bag of alpaca I want to use has been sitting open on the porch for several days. Hopefully it no longer smells of mothballs. I am going to try a couple different blends with silk or silk and wool. I usually just spin the yarn I want. This time I don't have a plan for the yarn, so I'm going to do sampling. 

[sarakingdom]

58 minutes ago, Mistr said:

No spring cleaning yesterday, but I did do zen and aikido.

 

The book you want for this challenge is A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto.

[Mistr]

18 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

The book you want for this challenge is A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto.

 

I was going to ask if that is a real thing, but I see that it is. And the library has it. I am going to put that one on hold for now, since I can only handle reading one improve-your-life book at a time.

 

* - * - * - * - * - *

My plans for today and the weekend have been upended by a Covid exposure at the dojo on Wednesday. I'm not sure who tested positive. So far, I feel fine. Dumbledore caught a cold at the gaming convention last weekend. He tested negative for Covid earlier this week. Dojo policy is that people who have been exposed should stay away for 3-5 days, just to be sure. Sensei cancelled the blackbelt test prep session for Sunday morning. It sounds like we are scrambling to find a substitute teacher for tonight who was not exposed earlier this week and is not out of town for spring break. I had been looking forward to going to class tonight, but there are other things I can do.

 

I am thinking that I can do a Costco run tonight right after work, then take the rest of the evening off. I'm not sure that Costco on a Friday evening will be better than on a Saturday morning, but I hope so. Elf may come with if they are feeling up to it. They looked kind of sick this morning.

 

Yesterday's cleaning task was sending financial info to the accountant and updating my records. I should do a lot more of that this weekend. I also should start on the yard work, since it is clearly spring.

[sarakingdom]

19 minutes ago, Mistr said:

He tested negative for Covid earlier this week.

 

Two tests two days apart is the current guideline for symptomatic people.

 

Not sure how to handle an asymptomatic exposure like yours. I know asymptomatic testers need three tests (days 1, 3, and 5), but I don't know when to pull the trigger on deciding to test.

 

22 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I was going to ask if that is a real thing, but I see that it is. And the library has it. I am going to put that one on hold for now, since I can only handle reading one improve-your-life book at a time.

 

It's a real thing, and your library is pleasantly cooperative. I think it will be up your alley.

 

You are wise to put a quota on your life improvement efforts.

[Mistr]

The weekend involved a lot of shopping, cooking and laundry. I went to Costco after work on Friday because I did not want to face it on Saturday morning. This trip was mostly groceries and a prescription. I caved in to the lure of a sale and got a tuxedo cake.

 

Dumbledore decided that he wanted to join in the local festive celebrations on Sunday, even though we are not Christian. Having ham on sale is a good reason to celebrate. I usually get the $0.99/lb ham at the regular grocery, but that takes prep time. We discovered that their cheap ham is so salty that it needs a couple days of debrining by soaking in plain water. This time I got $1.49/lb spiral-sliced ham from Aldi. It was perfectly fine and much less work. I will keep that in mind for next time. I made roast cauliflower and broccoli. Dumbledore made scalloped potatoes. With cheese, because we had some confusion between scalloped and au gratin. Plus grocery dinner rolls and the tuxedo cake and we had a family dinner.

 

I am the only healthy person in the house, so I am mostly on my own for chores. The family did pitch in to pack up food and clean up after dinner. I washed up the cooking dishes. Cleo has been helping with dishes, but not doing a very good job. I think she just can't see if they are clean or not. Dumbledore is going to go pay for her new glasses today. Elf has been doing their cleaning chores a little bit at a time. Things are slowly getting done. I find I am much happier when I think of it as being my house and all the chores are mine, but sometimes I have the pleasant surprise of help from other people. 

[Kishi]

On 3/24/2024 at 9:15 PM, Mistr said:

1. Clear out my mind. Sit zen every day. Preferably 30 minutes, but at least 10 minutes. It does not matter how late it gets, sit zen before going to bed. If I do stay up too late, taking the time to calm my mind will help me sleep.

 

Something I've noticed is that sitting for multiple short periods throughout the day helps a lot. IDK if this would actually help you meet your goals or not, but it seems there's a surprising amount of benefit in it. It may be a way for you to flow with whatever situation you find yourself with.

 

4 hours ago, Mistr said:

Dumbledore decided that he wanted to join in the local festive celebrations on Sunday, even though we are not Christian. Having ham on sale is a good reason to celebrate. I usually get the $0.99/lb ham at the regular grocery, but that takes prep time. We discovered that their cheap ham is so salty that it needs a couple days of debrining by soaking in plain water. This time I got $1.49/lb spiral-sliced ham from Aldi. It was perfectly fine and much less work. I will keep that in mind for next time. I made roast cauliflower and broccoli. Dumbledore made scalloped potatoes. With cheese, because we had some confusion between scalloped and au gratin. Plus grocery dinner rolls and the tuxedo cake and we had a family dinner.

 

I mean, Easter coincided (coincides?) with Trans Day of Visibility, which is totally worth celebrating, so if you can get some holiday deals on good food, well, why not? It's not like they're gonna regulate what you can buy for. Yet.

[Mistr]

Proactive aikido quarantine ends today. I am still feeling fine, although I think I have allergies that are making my eyes water. I am glad that tonight will be basic weapons class. Weapons classes tend to be less aerobic than open-hand classes. I have been a slug and not exercised for the last week.

 

I have been meditating consistently. That seems to be paying off, at least with it being easier to do the meditation. Not so sure about it paying off in the rest of my life. I am feeling a lot of resistance to doing things on my list - even fun things. I have gotten some stuff done in spite of that. I feel like I need to beat my brain weasels back with a stick. Luckily, I have a nice set of sticks for attacking things.  

[Sovalis]

I I can relate to the idea of "my house/my chores" and "ooh, help!" As a beneficial mindset for me, too. 

 

I hope the glasse make a big difference for Cleo. 

[Harriet]

Oooh, sorry I missed your thread. You mentioned getting enough cat fur to make another cat. Have you ever spun cat hair? Also, I wish you as much cleanliness as you desire, whether of house, mind, or food. (Next step, godliness of house, mind, and food?) 

 

 

[Mistr]

Things have been really busy at work, so I am not getting much time here. I've done a little reading in other people's threads.

 

I broke my meditation streak because I picked up a novel instead of my knitting last night. I stayed up two hours past my bed time. 🫣 I sat zen first thing this morning to get back on track.

 

I am working late today and tomorrow because I have team members out of town to see the eclipse. Tonight I am taking off to get some things done and get some sleep. Tomorrow I will try to make it to aikido. I need to be out the door as soon as I turn off my computer to make it there on time. Our retired chief instructor will be teaching and it tends to be a small class. I want to take advantage of the limited opportunities to train with him.

 

[Mistr]

So I didn't make it to aikido on Tuesday - but I did zen instead.

 

I realized that I could not make it to aikido on time leaving from the office at 6:00pm. Showing up late is bad form, especially for class with a senior instructor. No one would be mad at me, but I would still feel stressed about it.

 

Instead, I went to the local zen sanga meeting for the first time in a year and a half. The teacher just announced that they are expanding and added a session on Tuesday evening. I stopped sitting with the local group when they moved the Sunday session from my dojo to a location halfway across town and changed the time to conflict with Sunday aikido class. I went to the first Sunday session at the new location, had a miserable time, and never went back.

 

I decided to check out the new Tuesday class. For one thing, it was only scheduled for an hour so I could be pretty sure the leader would not make us sit longer than 30 minutes at a stretch. The main reason was that he said our senior teacher would be coming to Tuesday sessions when he is in town. I have not met with my teacher in a long time, and I have some questions I want to ask him.

 

I went in with minimal expectations and was very pleased with how things went. There were seven people there (including me and the teacher). All the other people were serious students wearing black training clothes (gi and hakama). I know several of them from pre-Covid zen sessions. The teacher was amazed to see me. 😂  I was expecting sitting on a lower cushion to be uncomfortable, but it was fine. My meditation was as good as it is at home or in the yoga space at work. I was able to stand up for walking meditation before the line got to me. I was not at all confident I would be able to stand up quickly. My knees go to sleep when I hold still for half an hour. Everybody has one foot fall asleep, which is also a challenge for walking. I was pleased I managed the standing up. My walking had a decided limp, but I did it. Whatever clarity of mind I had from the zazen was lost in focusing on getting my muscles to walk at the same pace as the other people. The second half of class was private conversations with the teacher. He was very encouraging.  

 

I can see that talking about two zen teachers is going to get confusing. I'll call the local zen priest "Teacher D.". He has been training for a long time and recently was promoted to Roshi, which means he is fully qualified for teaching at all levels including new priests. I'll call my teacher "Roshi M. ".  Roshi M. is also a sixth dan in aikido. He is the one who brought zen practice to my dojo. Roshi M. is the abbot of a Zen monastery located 80 minutes north of here. The two teachers have different styles. I like Teacher D. as a person, but I am not a fan of his teaching approach. He will talk at great length about Buddhist philosophy. I'm not Buddhist. I can sit politely and see if there are any practical tidbits in the lecture, but mostly it goes over my head. Roshi M. tends to take a more direct approach. Teacher D. also considers Roshi M. as his teacher, so he will understand that I want to talk with Roshi M.

 

In local news, both Cleo and Elf have been low energy or sick for weeks. Elf is supposed to be seeing a medical person about dealing with long covid fatigue. Cleo has been working to get all the specialists to talk to her primary care provider so that they can put together a unified treatment plan that actually works. Cleo is understandably frustrated about the "just take more pills" approach that she keeps hearing.

 

On the one hand, I am sympathetic and want to be supportive. On the other hand, I am frustrated with the continued mess in the kitchen, absence of chores and lack of communication. Dumbledore is fed up with that. The weather got nice the last couple days and temperatures were in the upper 60s (~20ºC). The young people turned on the air conditioning. At least they remembered to take the winter cover off the air conditioner first. Really kids, you could have opened the windows. Better yet, they could have talked to Dumbledore first. His office is downstairs and got really cold. I do not approve of using the HVAC system to cool the house when it is colder outside than the desired temperature. I especially do not approve of cooling the house to a temperature that is lower than what we heat it to in the winter. If they are too warm in their room - they can go outside. We have a lovely screen porch with comfy furniture.

 

It is a good thing that I am working in the office today. I hope Dumbledore has a more positive conversation with them than I would have.

[Harriet]

So are zen classes meditation? It sounds like it goes hand it hand with the aikido. 

[Scaly Freak]

That is great news about finding a new zen class. Are you planning to go every Tuesday from now on?

 

9 hours ago, Mistr said:

On the one hand, I am sympathetic and want to be supportive. On the other hand, I am frustrated with the continued mess in the kitchen, absence of chores and lack of communication. Dumbledore is fed up with that.

 

You two have the patience of angles. 

 

Remember what else angels have? Righteous fury.  

[Mistr]

I had a nice long weekend and got some real spring cleaning done. I washed all the curtains in the house for the first time in ummmm years. Probably less than 5 years, but I wouldn't swear to it. I also cleaned and put out the patio chairs and moved the hose reels to their summer locations. I did some cleaning in the garden. There is a ton more of that to do, but that is normal for spring.

 

I noticed that I am still having trouble getting myself to do things, even fun things. That mental resistance is still there. Not as bad, but not gone either. I'll just keep working on doing what I can. Part of my strategy is letting myself have free rein in most areas, which is not helping at all with weight loss.

 

Dumbledore went out for coffee with Elf to restore normal communications. That went well according to both of them. The same afternoon, I took Elf clothes shopping. I had a $30 coupon from the last shopping trip and a 30% off offer. Between the two, Elf got two pairs of shorts and five summer tops for $65. 🤩 

 

I dropped Elf off at the clothing store and went next door to buy myself a new pair of athletic shoes. I checked with them ahead of time about if they were comfortable shopping solo. They said they were. A nice step in self-confidence for them. We also had another learning experience on shopping for women's clothes. After I got my shoes, I met up with Elf and they showed me the items they had found. There was a pair of shorts they really liked. I suggested getting two pair, since they had no shorts last summer. We looked at the display and could not find another pair of blue denim shorts in Elf's size. There were white shorts, so I suggested they try those on. Elf said "it's the same brand, can't I just assume these will fit the same as the other color". Sorry kiddo, that is not a good assumption. And so it turned out, the white shorts did not fit. Luckily we found another rack of shorts that had a style and color that did work.

 

On the way home Elf reassured me that they were not falling into old bad habits and avoiding me and Dumbledore. They just have been sick for the last six months and have not had energy. The shopping trip was fueled by Red Bull. Elf and Cleo spent a lot of time out on the porch over the weekend, so they are getting fresh air, I am seeing them in passing, and we are not fighting about climate control. Yet. I expect a problem when it starts getting hot out.

 

On 4/11/2024 at 12:57 PM, Harriet said:

So are zen classes meditation? It sounds like it goes hand it hand with the aikido. 

 

Zen classes always include meditation plus other activities. Most people think of seated meditation as zen, but actually seated meditation is called "zazen" and is just one activity in zen practice. Classes usually include walking meditation (called kinhin) and often have chanting. There is a question-and-answer session at the end.

 

Zen practice dovetails beautifully with martial arts. A lot Japanese martial arts teachers also practice zen. There is a tradition in the Rinzai Zen lineage call Zen-Ken-Sho, which means study of zen, martial arts and creative arts. Sho refers to the brush used in calligraphy and painting, but flower arranging and other arts are included. Playing music has a lot of the same sense of being in the moment as zen.

 

On 4/11/2024 at 9:12 PM, Scaly Freak said:

That is great news about finding a new zen class. Are you planning to go every Tuesday from now on?

 

No, I'm planning on going about once a month. Every Tuesday is too much pressure on my free time.

 

On 4/11/2024 at 9:12 PM, Scaly Freak said:

You two have the patience of angles. 

 

 

 

On 4/11/2024 at 9:12 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Remember what else angels have? Righteous fury.  

 

I will keep that in check for now. I still have hope that things will improve. At least both of the young people are actively pursuing medical help. Elf saw an occupational therapist last week. This weekend they went out longboarding (before 9am!) to get in some exercise.

[Harriet]

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

Zen practice dovetails beautifully with martial arts. A lot Japanese martial arts teachers also practice zen. There is a tradition in the Rinzai Zen lineage call Zen-Ken-Sho, which means study of zen, martial arts and creative arts. Sho refers to the brush used in calligraphy and painting, but flower arranging and other arts are included. Playing music has a lot of the same sense of being in the moment as zen.

 

Ahhh, so a a zen-ken-sho-ist is a bard of sorts--good at everything. Arrange flowers, dispatch enemies, sit calmly. Sounds great actually.