Tag Archives: yoga

It was a rough week

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Last week was a difficult one to get through. But even the short few days since Scott died have lessened the shock of it. It was such an eye opener and reminder to live life to the fullest, every day. And although it shouldn’t be, it is a difficult thing to do. Especially working, it feels like being on a treadmill.
But the good thing is, the weather is improving, business is picking up and the world is full of color!
Sometimes, when I take a photo, I know I “got” it!
Farmer’s Market is open and although I missed the first day, Saturday was so much fun, and took my mind off the depressing reality of the death of someone my age. I met Susan and Janet at Janet’s house and we went on to the market. It was one of those brilliantly beautiful northwest days, when the blue of the sky is so dark and transparent, you swear you can see right through it, the mountains brilliant and snow-capped, silhouetted against blue. Beaver Valley Rd was picture perfect, cattle lazing in the sun, tractors out mowing, really amazing! The market itself was wonderful, early flowers and veges in good supply. Lots of new vendors, lots of young farmers which to me, is one of the best things to see.
This week, I got back to work, and the pr is going well. So packed and sent out several packages of nuts and I just got an email saying the local TV station wants to do a segment about me and the local paper is doing an article. I am to meet Patrick, who I have worked with before, on Friday. It will interesting being interviewed, instead of interviewing :) and I am not too sure about being on TV! What do I wear? And oh good grief! I need Tate up here to do my hair!! Who knows, maybe I will be discovered! Ha ha! 
Yoga is good – and I got the last spot in the next session! I am getting to really look forward to it. It totally absorbs my mind and body while I am doing it, about the only time my mind is not racing around all over the place. Now I just need to start doing it at home every day. I think out on the deck would be fun, nobody is ever out so no one would see me trying to become a pretzel.
I just saw our two resident Canadian geese cruise by with four tiny babies in their wakes! I wonder how many will survive the predatory eagles and coyotes?

techie geekie stuff

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Well, the last few days have been all about tech stuff that is tweaking my brain! 
Who would have thought this could get so complicated and stressful!
We’re into Phase 2 of revisions on the site and one of the things that had to be done is to move the site from one type of hosting service to another. The original business hosting was basic on a shared server. This means that there are other sites also hosted on the same one and it apparently couldn’t handle the video stuff we want to be able to use. So I checked into VPS, which are virtual private servers so you basically get your own home server that would be able to handle what we wanted. More money of course! 
But then when we started the revisions which are not going to use as much video, I asked Charles of wicked_pr about the VPS and whether we should still migrate the site. He explained that being on a shared server is not a good idea because if you share with some nasty site (you don’t know who your room mates are!) who gets blocked, that means we would get blocked too as we have the same address. And I thought, well, when you google nuts you get a lot of porn sites, so decided to move to the more robust servers.
I was told that it would take from 24-72 hours to move and that the original site would remain live during the migration.
So guess what? The site disappeared! I was on hostgators live chat for what seemed like hours. Initially I was told everything was ok – it was just taking time. I had done everything right, changed nameservers and IP addresses to point correctly. So I waited. And waited.
Last night late and still no site! YIKES!
So back on chat for what seemed like forever! First thing they said, you’re not supposed to cancel your original account! Well, of course I hadn’t. Oh! So then they dug deeper, and found there was a problem on their end with the nameservers they had assigned to us. Several emails later and back and forth between godaddy (where the domain was purchased)  and hostgator, name changes and IP changes and the site popped up! 
What a relief! “Wow, what a beautiful site,” from the hostgator tech guy! That was cool :)
So this morning, more emails, changing stuff again, back to different nameservers and IP addresses and now I am waiting for the updated usernames and passwords so I, and the programmers, can access the back end, or behind the scenes part of the site so we can continue on.
Man. talk about stressful! Good thing I go to yoga today!
But now I can move on to the rest of the stuff that needs to be done.
It’s OJT for me, very cool.

Saturday morning and it’s dark outside

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It’s Saturday morning, still dark out, but not freezing. This has been the warmest January on record so far and there is no sign that that is going to change. If this was a normal winter, I could live here year round. But we all know it’s just El Nino doing her thing and we will most likely be slammed next year. The opposite is true for California where they are experiencing more cold than we are.
It’s been a quiet week, with time for contemplation and yoga, both a real treat for me. And still plenty of time to complete work that needs to be done on the site, and to prepare for work on the dockside project. The wicked-pr guys are starting on the nut project next week in earnest. I made some changes to the site that they recommended and after talking to Annie briefly, have created more signage for the shipping boxes and bags. Still tweaking things on the programmer side and they will be onboard to make changes when Brian and Charles (wicked guys) make their recommendations. Both Brian and Charles are about Ryan’s age, which for me is so much fun, as I so enjoy working with young people. Their ideas and energy are wonderful energizers for me. Sometimes I actually wish I worked in an office environment with youngsters like them – then think, hmmm maybe not. I would lose my sense of freedom – maybe part-time? Something to ponder.
Because, getting up way early for me seems to work, that way I can get lots of computer work taken care of, take time in the middle of the day for things like yoga and then pick up again in the later afternoon. It takes some planning out, but works. On yoga days, I plan my errands around the class, seeing as it’s not just a matter of popping round the corner for my class. It’s a 40 minute drive to get there so it’s a big chunk out of the day, so I make it worth while by going to the bank, the grocery store etc. You get the picture. So I figure I will be gone for four hours, but then I don’t have to deal with icy roads and darkness if I were to run errands after a traditional working day.
I love working for myself!
All the stuff for taxes for last year is almost completely gathered together – this will be a first to get them filed by April 15! And I can’t see why I will have to pay anything at all – in fact, I think the government might even owe me. That would certainly be a bonus.
It’s time to think about starting my veges and building the raised boxes. I watched and helped Chris last time, so I know how to do it. They are not going to be so big this time, as it is only me here. And I hope I can find some recycled lumber to use. Freecycle might work – a wanted post usually gets me what I need. I will most likely make two 4×4 18″ high beds. And get the organic soil from Roger Short’s farm, as I know how he makes the soil and that it really is organic. Then when the time is right, plant out the starts from the sun room and pretty soon will be eating fresh mesclun and then all the other wonderful stuff.

The M.S seems to be under control, haven’t had any bouts of headaches or tiredness. The only weird thing is I get hives (urticaria)!  I don’t seem to be allergic to anything, they just happen out of the blue so have taken to carrying antihistamine pills around with me, and pop one when I feel and itch coming on! They disappear as fast as the show up. Very weird. Debbie is making an appointment for me with Dr. Jadin so hopefully I will be able to understand her with her strong French accent. It’s difficult enough in person, long distance phone might be a challenge, but I need to do it so I can continue the treatment.

What a Day!

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This morning is phenomenally beautiful! Sun just came up and casts that wonderful golden light on everything. The trees are lit up, glowing and casting reflection onto the still water. It is super high tide, with the dock ramp above parallel which doesn’t happen very often. I might even go kayaking later when the temperature gets to about 50F.
This winter, so far, has been so mild except for the one freeze at the end of November. And I was reminded on the news this morning, that exactly two months from today, spring will officially be here! But I am afraid that this weather has fooled mother nature and our trees which are budding, and bulbs that are shooting up, will get blasted by another cold snap. But we’ll hold warm thoughts. Pretty soon I can start my spring vege seeds and build some planter boxes.
I never thought, really, that I would become an “almost” webmaster. Not that I am making huge changes or anything to the site, but I sure am learning a lot! Sitemaps, google webmaster tools, xml files, .tpl and .php files, where they live on the site and root folders and how to get to pages, and how to fix minor things without screwing up the entire site! I think that, although I prefer to think of myself as a creative soul, my logical brain must be quite good as I actually can see how this all comes together! Maybe my right and left brains are balanced! And of course, taking brain pills helps.
Scott is working on getting the site stuff ready and funded so we can move on that. I have been checking out flip page magazine software and systems and tried one yesterday which is way cool! Much better than the original one, but of course, a lot more money but I believe the ROI will be better as it has so many features to allow dockside to charge for features, like adding video and audio and forms etc. Plus this company provides training, which the other didn’t. So I just have to wait and see what he decides – or more, what the investors want.
Yoga yesterday! I love it and wish it was more than twice a week. But I think that once I am comfortable with the poses and know that I am doing them correctly so I don’t hurt myself, I will do more at home. It does cut into the day though, but I don’t feel too bad about it as I am up so early to work with the fellows in India, and then in the evening so I always put in more than an eight hour day.
OK, off I go for a walk in the sun! What  a treat.

Yoga, spring bulbs, web 2.0 and more

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That’s a bit of a mix, I’d say. When I look at the title of this blog, it really fits my life at the moment – a bit of an oxymoron. Yoga and spirituality doesn’t necessarily fit with web 2.0 and life on the internet – or does it?
But it’s what I do and it feels comfortable so maybe it’s the new way of life, combining the spiritual, the natural (the garden) and the technical.
The yoga – it was fun, relaxing and invigorating all at once. It’s something I have wanted to do for years. I remember trying it years ago but the instructor had her own spiritual agenda that did not fit my ideas at the time, so I baled out. This time around, there is no agenda attached and as I have my own beliefs about the mind body connection, this works for me. And I like that it is beginning yoga, so if I choose to continue the practice, I will know the basic poses and the correct way of doing them so I don’t hurt myself. I am amazed how stiff I was, finding muscles I haven’t used in used in years.
And what is making the class even more enjoyable, is Susan joined me in the second session! It’s always more fun to do things like that with a buddy.
On to the bulbs. With our very mild winter – so far – my spring bulbs are showing their little faces! The irises have been up for a while, but yesterday I was out in the garden and saw that the tulips are just breaking the soil! Now I hope we don’t get some horrendous freeze that kills them off. Which could happen as we still have a couple of months to go before we are through winter. But the days are definitely getting longer, too, which is a blessing.
I am looking forward to working with the PR guys on the site. I believe that working with the people in India has been a good thing, getting the basic framework for the site up and running, and the backend all sorted, but I thing Brian and his crew are going to be able to make the site work a lot better, and improve the look and feel. I am going to work with them on this, bridging between them and the programmers, plus implementing some of the changes myself when I can. It is going to be a huge learning experience – being paid to go to school – love it! I am so glad that Annie and crew are on board with the whole thing and understand what needs to be done.
So this evening I will be online late, checking in with India, going over what needs to be done.
My other project is waiting for Scott to get back from Minneapolis where he went for his 60th – so I hope that next week, I can get the proposal on to elance.com and get that going. And I will definitely make sure the funding is in place before I do too much more.
Yesterday was curry day! Susan and Pam are coming for lunch today, and as I love lamb curry, I made a big pot of it, and it is yummy. While it was cooking, Susan called and suggested a movie – so put everything on hold and drove to Port Townsend to see Up in the Air with hunk, George Clooney. He is always a pleasure to watch – sort of like going to watch Sean Connery. The movie was good – lots of funny parts but really drove home the idea of relationships and loneliness – and it just reminded me too much of how isolated I am down here and how important relationships – romantic, family, friends – are. So that made for a bitter/sweet movie for me.  Oh and I love the song on the soundtrack, Help Yourself by Sad Brad Smith

Something I have put off for ages

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I started a yoga class! Finally! It’s been something I have been threatening to do for years. Not only will this be good for my body, but my mind too. It makes me get out of the house at least twice a week and go to Port Townsend. Otherwise, unless I have something specific that needs to be done, I am here in the house, alone on the sand spit, with my kitties. Not good.

So when I saw the class advertised through the the local community college, at a very reasonable rate, I immediately (well, not right away) signed up. It is held in a wonderful old building in Fort Worden at the Madrona MindBody Institute. It is the original gym and it has been restored beautifully as you can see from the picture – this is the room where the class is held. Ceilings have to be 15 feet high and lovely wood floors. The windows are original and you can see how the glass has slipped – the bottom of the panes are waffly where the glass is thicker!

Poor kitties are not feeling good today, I took them for their shots yesterday and they have really been knocked for a six! Buddy had to have a sedative before we went to the vet as he is petrified in the car – throws up and poops! – but it lasted well into the evening. Poor boy was wobbling around all over the place, couldn’t stand up. And today they are both just sleeping and not eating – something very unusual for them. But as we are always told, “It’s for your own good.” And I know they will be just fine by the end of the day.

The site is slow, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do! Just not packing enough orders but I understand there is a PR firm coming on board to help with that. And I am working on the Dockside site plan but Scott is away in Minneapolis for his 60th birthday so will have to wait until he gets back. But if he wants the site up and running by April 1, he is going to have to get on the stick and commit.

It is brighter today – and we are supposed to be a little drier for a few days. It really hasn’t been THAT cold, more spring-like temperatures, just very soggy. Too soggy to walk but at least now I will be doing the yoga – so off I go to get ready!