“COLD AS ICE” – Foreigner 1977 “HEAT WAVE” – Linda Ronstadt 1975

Welcome back to SOLO at SIXTY!

Holy Cow it was “COLD AS ICE” here last week. The “Polar Vortex” extended down to Charlottesville and temperatures plummeted to a low of 7 degrees. Thank heavens not as cold as Chicago where The Today Show said your eyeballs could freeze! A “HEAT WAVE” hit as we warmed up to a balmy 74 degrees yesterday! Amazes me how fast weather can change from one extreme to the other. But I’ll take it! And since Punxsutawney Phil (aka THE Groundhog) did NOT see his shadow, spring should be arriving early. I am discounting the fact that he is wrong 60% of the time, because that means he is right 40% of the time, so come on Spring!

Since the springlike weather had NOT arrived as of Saturday, I decided to stay inside. And what better way than to cozy up in a movie theater! Saw “The Green Book”? Have you seen it? If not, you should. Based on a true story, it took place in 1962 when I was 7 years old (not afraid to reveal my age since my blog title tells it all). It was eye opening for me. Thankful for the changes in our lives since then. Go see it. You won’t be disappointed.

“A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.” Marcel Proust

Sunday was a springlike day and my older daughter called to see what my plans were and suggested I come visit and go for a good long walk her and my granddawg. My son-in-law was working on a project I’ll share when he finishes. I jumped at the invitation and an hour later I was there. We walked 3.5 miles throughout her neighborhood, talking as fast as our feet walked (I’m not sure who was walking who – us walking the dog or the dog walking us!) and ended up meeting my son-in-law at Sedona Tap House in their neighborhood for a late lunch. Ate outside on the patio, enjoyed the rare warm February afternoon, and basked in all the love and attention shown to my granddawg, Paige, aka the People Magnet. Everyone always wants to pet and love on her. Understandably. After lunch we walked back to their house, soaking up every last minute of warm sunshine, before I left to get home in time for the Super Bowl.

Let’s walk!

Gma always has a treat for Paige!

The girls at lunch!

“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.”

Speaking of the Super Bowl, what did you think? Were you pulling for the Patriots or the Saints, I mean the Rams? Any traditions? I always make chili in bread bowls for Super Bowl Sunday and this year was no exception. Baked the bread bowls Saturday and put the chili in the crock pot before heading to church Sunday. Came home to a great easy dinner! Watched the whole game which I found a bit boring, quite the opposite of the excitement of the playoff games.

“When life brings big winds of change that almost blow you over, close your eyes, hold on tight, and believe.” – Lisa Lieberman-Wang

It has now been 9 weeks of no running for me, which is hard and very disappointing when I was running about 25 miles a week, especially when we have these surprisingly warm days in the winter. I was lamenting this fact, well, complaining actually, when I got a call that there was an opening in Physical Therapy (for my knee). Always helps to work where the best Physical Therapy practice is located (and to have friends there!). Ran over, ok, walked since I am not running, and met with the therapist (the one who did the dry-needling on my hip – success story there!). Long story short, she made my day – told me to go for two 2-mile runs before my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon next week because he will want to know what hurts after running. Silly as it might sound, I think I might have cried a little. Then told her she had just made my day. Came to the appointment grumbling about not running, so down about my knee, and left knowing I would be running the next day in 73 degree weather. What a turnaround!

“When you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”

Did I run? Yes, but it wasn’t really pretty. I was limited to 2 miles, so I ran 1.5 miles to UVA, walked a mile, then finished up running my last half a mile back to the office. It did hurt a bit but really loosened up that last half mile. And I was able to wear a tank top in February! Go figure. Passed a lot of people wearing no shirts – men of course. 74 heavenly degrees on February 5th! WOOHOO! Get to repeat it again tomorrow (Thursday) when it will be 71. Then I meet with the surgeon on Monday. Patience is not a virtue I possess, so this has been trying to say the least. But I am thankful it is happening in the winter (even with these warm days) instead of the summer. And I am following the rules and trying very hard to be patient. I mean, I always thought I could do just about anything, but this has forced me to take a huge step back.

“Challenges come before us so that we can discover the magnitude of our inner strength, and without such challenges, we will never really grow stronger.”

I have experienced and learned a lot over these last 3 years. Things can change drastically in a day, a week, a month, a year. Good and bad. As simple as the weather or a sporting event or as life changing as a relationship, your health, your life. But I have also learned that you gotta roll with these changes. You should too, because they’re gonna happen. And nobody hates change more than me, but you know what? I can accept change a lot better than I could 3 years ago! Discovered that not all change is bad. And life rolls on, with or without our cooperation.

“Life is about change. Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s beautiful. But most of the time, it’s both.” Lana Lang

Roll with the changes y’all. Life has a wonderful way of surprising us. Just when we think nothing is going right, it all turns around. I am proof! Remember, every day is a gift, because as we all know, none of us is promised tomorrow.