It’s August 1st.  Maybe you’ve already noticed this fact about today.  Brad and I, and about ten other people in our regular Monday yoga class, failed to note the class schedule change that took effect at the end of July and showed up at the normal time for our class today; but our teacher wasn’t coming until tomorrow.  So I offered to lead the class — and people were willing to go along and we did a yoga class together, which was very fun for me.  I’ve been doing yoga on and off for about 20 years, but I’ve never taught a yoga class before.  We moved our bodies around (safely) together and did some fairly elementary variations of the Sun series and breathed and laughed together.  Tomorrow we’ll go to our regular real class with our regular real teacher and I’ll stand facing my usual direction and be grateful to be a student again.

Haven’t posted for the past few days because we have fun visitors here from Boulder.  Dave Jilk and his wife, Maureen, arrived Friday afternoon, which meant that Friday I cleaned all the small nooks and crannies and corners of kitchen and bathrooms with Clorox Wipes and ran both the upstairs and downstairs Roombas and put clean fluffy flannel sheets on the guest bed and bought and arranged fresh flowers and did all the things that I think are necessary to be ready for company.

Only on page 321 of Infinite Jest because I’ve been staying up late talking with Dave and Maureen and looking at maps of Alaska and deciding that time zones are strange and nonsensical.  Dave and Maureen got up and out of the house this morning to take the water taxi across Kachemak Bay to do some hiking and glacier viewing in the park.  Brad and I stayed in bed, which is really one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning.  Going to go for a long walk on the Homer Spit (an ugly name for a beautiful spot) while Brad runs, and then probably take an afternoon nap before Dave and Maureen return.  We’re heading to Halibut Cove for dinner at The Saltry and are hoping that the sun will shine sometime today.

It’s a gloomy cloudy Sunday morning, following several other days of gloom.  Sometimes when I first get here I get overly enthralled with the idea of what it would be like to really move to a town of 4,000 people with great coffee, and a bookstore where you can get detailed advice on hiking trails as well as books, and super fresh sushi, and the limitless expanse of ocean and mountains.  It was extra easy to spin out these fantasies this year because the weather really was inordinately hot and sunny (almost 70 degrees) for the first 3 weeks or so.  But now we’re back to the reality of temperate climates, which is lots of clouds and the possibility of spatters of rain at any moment.  I couldn’t take months of not seeing the sun on a regular basis, which is certainly part of why we’ll be going back to Boulder on Labor Day.

I hardly ever get sick, but Brad brought me the gift of some kind of virus from the Lower 48 that started to take hold Friday afternoon with a sore throat, and has now developed into a full head cold with lots of goo in the face and that sensation that the brain is wrapped in a layer of fuzzy cotton, making the world seem soft and distant and faintly echoing.  I didn’t feel too bad yesterday, and got lazy with the fluid intake and didn’t swath myself in eucalyptus oil at bedtime.  I am definitely sick today.  Brad has headed off to yoga without me, which is a first for the summer.  I think I will just roll with this virus today, and be lazy and mostly stay in bed in my ancient Apple sweatshirt and cups of hot tea and orange juice.

It’s the anniversary of the moon landing (1969) and Google has done a really cool thing with NASA imagery of the moon.  I read the More About section and found this:

. What happens if I try to zoom too close?

Well, you’ll have to go and find out, won’t you?

Definitely DO zoom too close and see what the moon is really made of.

Today I got my monster ass kicked by ashtanga, which is actually a good thing.  My regular yoga teacher was off today, and the replacement teacher taught a full on ashtanga class, including jumping from down-dog directly into staff pose and then back to plank over and over again with lots of poses in between and many bound twists and half-moons and pigeons.  Extra aerobic and challenging.  We ended with headstands, which makes me feel so victorious when I can really press into it and feel everything aligned upside down in opposition to gravity.  I’m a bit fearful about what tomorrow will bring.  I may be like the Tin Woodsman and need some oil in the morning, but it sure felt good to move around today.  Oh, and did I mention that the teacher couldn’t have been younger than 65?  Maybe 70?  Incredibly strong and fit and flexible and kicking the asses of people 30 years younger.  Total inspiration.