March 2024

Weather: Rainy and high of 490. Nasty.

Exercise: None.

Stoic prompt week 9 (2-024)

Cultivate Indifference

Weather: 60° and partly sunny. Humid.

Exercise: 4.0 miles on the Greenway with Teddi, leashed. No sign of the limp.

Weather: 60° and overcast. No wind. Humid

Exercise: Brisk 4.5 mile walk on the Greenway.

Sat outside with Jill listening to music while she drank a glass of wine, and I smoked a cigar and had a cuppa tea.

Weather: 75 ◦ and sunny. Moderate humidity and no wind-

Exercise: 4.0 miles with Teddi on the Greenway. She was tired and hot, but no sign of the limp.

Reflections

Team Israel

Weather: 70° and overcast. Moderately humid. No wind.

Exercise: Brisk 4.5 mile walk on the Greenway sans Teddi.

Weather: 70° and partly cloudy between the storms. Very humid.

Exercise: 4.0 miles with a very tired Teddi. She hates the humidity. No sign of the limp.

Observation

Wycliffe Gordon

Weather: 75° Sunny and humid.

Exercise: None. Turned on the AC and stayed on the couch all day, dozing.

Weather: 65° and overcast. No wind humid.

Exercise: 4.0 miles on the Greenway with Teddi - no sign of the limp.

Weather: Overcast and 70°. Very humid. Windy.

Exercise: Very brisk 4. 5 mile walk on the Greenway.

Weather: 65° and Sunny with low humidity. Windy.

Exercise: Nothing formal.

Toured the Redcliffe Plantation, about ten miles from our Airbnb. It is an awesome place to visit. The docent, Jordyn, was very knowledgeable. It is a quick ninety minute tour and all your questions will get answered. The buildings are in good shape and contain many artifacts and oil paintings. The site is run by the South Carolina Park Service.

There is no attempt to minimize the reality of slavery and the descriptions of the founding plantation owner’s management practices, James Henry Hammond, were quite explicit. So much so, that his detailed diaries and instructions to his white overseers included specific instructions regarding the weening of slave children from their mother’s breast and a manual for punishment proscribing no more than one hundred lashes for a slave on any given day.

His mortifying views on siring children on his young female slaves, and his acknowledgment of sexually abusing his own four nieces, puts him in a club all by himself. This, from a former South Carolina Governor and United States Senator. He was more than just a man of his times, he was despicable man on any time line.

In addition to his notoriety as a pedophile, he famously coined the phrase “Cotton is King.” The New York Times, in a January 29, 1989, correctly called him Monster of all He Surveyed.

Weather: 60° and sunny. Dry with a light wind

Exercise: 4.0 miles on the Greenway with Ted di. She was very chipper today. She trotted a bit on the leash and did not drag ass today. No visible sign of a limp. Fingers crossed.

Stoic Prompt Week 10 (2024)

What Expensive Things Cost

Weather: 65° Sunny and low humidity. Light wind.

Exercise: 4.5-mile brisk walk on the Greenway.

Weather: 75° and sunny. Moderate humidity.

Exercise: 4.0 mile walk with Teddi on the Greenway - got her out there before it was too hot.

Musing

Spring is in full swing in South Carolina. It is so nice to walk or sit outside and listen to the birds and the bugs. All the flowering bushes and trees are in bloom and the trees and bushes are either full of buds or already showing their new leaves. On our visit to the Redcliffe Plantation this past Sunday we walked through a large field with Teddi. When we got back to the parking lot, I noticed my shoes were covered in green pollen. One of the things we enjoy most about wintering the mean months this far south is that we get to experience spring twice. Once down here and again at home in Vermont a couple of months later.

Weather: Sunny and 80°. Light wind.

Exercise: 4.5-mile brisk walk on the Greenway.

Weather: 70° and cloudy (in between the rain).

Exercise: 3.5 mile walk with Teddi. Until it started to rain. Jill rescued us and we went to Burger King to celebrate.

Weather: Sunny and 75°, no wind.

Exercise: 4.5-mile power walk on the Greenway. At this point, even if Teddi could go two days in a row, I don't think I will go back to it. I can't take a power walk with her, because she is a distraction and it slows me down. This way I can get pumped and push myself and lengthen my stride to limber me up some.

Weather: 65° and overcast. Light wind and humid.

Exercise: 4.0 miles with Teddie on the Greenway.

Stoic Prompt Week 11 (2024)

Think about it from the other person’s perspective

Weather: 60 ° and cloudy. No wind and humid.

Exercise: 4.5-mile power walk on the Greenway. Got Teddi a bath today. Very fluffy.

Weather: 55° and very sunny. No wind. No clouds. Arid.

Exercise: 4. 0 miles with a very happy Teddi

Musing

Got my "Dad" speech for Lauren’s wedding written and reviewed by Jill today. Glad I got that box checked. Even though the wedding isn't until June 22nd, it weighs on my mind. Got tired of writing it in my head while on my walks. Time to get it on paper.

Now it doesn't get any better than this. Sitting outside in the sun, smoking a fine cigar, drinking some really fine Vienna roast coffee, and reading a book; all without a care in the world. The icing on the cake? My beautiful Teddi lying next to me in the shade of a tree on this South Carolina lawn.

Huzzah!

Weather: 75° Sunny. No wind.

Exercise: 4.5 mite brisk walk on the Greenway.

Smoked a cigar, read my book, and listed to the Tigers crush the Twins 12-3. I know. It's only spring ball. Still fun to listen to, though. The Tigers have not finished above .500 since 2016.

Go Tigers.

Weather: 750 and sunny. Humid. Light wind. 20° in Colchester, Vt this morning. Yuk.

Exercise: 4.0 mile walk with Teddi. No limp. Good news.

Weather: 60° and rainy. Most of the day.

Exercise: None. Couch potato.

Weather: 60° and overcast. Humid. Light wind. Vermont is getting hammered with up to two feet of snow. Yuk.

Exercise: 4.0 mile walk with Teddi. Her first brisk walk since her injury.

Sat outside, smoked a cigar and listened to the Tigers play the Yankees. Beat ‘em, too. Still spring ball.

Weather: 60° and sunny. Light wind

Exercise: 4.5 miles on the Greenway. Very strong pace.

Listened to the Tigers beat the Rays by one run while reading my book and smoking a cigar.

Weather: 60° and overcast. Moderate cool wind.

Exercise: 4.0 mile walk on the Greenway with Teddi. Two good brisk walks in a row. She seems to have regained her stride.

Stoic Prompt week 12 (2024)

The Portable Retreat

Weather: Overcast and 60 'degrees. Humid. moderate wind.

Exercise: 4.5 mile walk on the Greenway. Third to last walk before heading north.

Weather: 60° and overcast. Moderately windy.

Exercise: 4.0 mile walk on the Greenway with Teddi. One more Southern walk to go in 2024. I hope the winter is in the rearview mirror in Colchester, VT.

Musing

Part the cost to stay in an Airbnb for three months is buying used office furniture for Jill. Each year we have purchased a cheap folding conference table and a chair. Jill is still working and we want to make sure she is comfortable while she makes the do-rae-me. We get the chair at Habitat for Humanity and a new folding table from Office Max.

Today I took it all back to Habitat and gifted it to them. While I was there unloading my donation, one of the crew noticed my Vermont plates and he couldn't wait to tell me that he is a huge fan of Heady Topper I.P.A. Imagine that. Heady Topper even has fans in South Carolina. I told him that before I quit drinking in 2015 Heady was my poison of choice.

Tomorrow, we load up the car so we can get an early start on Friday the 29th.

Travel days. No exercise.

First night in Roanoke, VA. Very tense and windy drive with lots of Easter holiday traffic the whole way.

We spent the second night in Easton, PA. Much easier drive. Went to dinner at an old stone constructed Colonial Hotel, built around 1760, wonderfully restored in the late 1970's by a school teacher who had a passion for opening an Italian restaurant. Poor bastard died three months after it opened in 1981: Elpedio's Ristorante. Food was OK, not great. Wonderful building with original door jams and decorative sconces and some original stained glass saved from the ruble of a local church.

Third night: home sweet home.

Stoic Prompt week 13 (2024)

Say No to the Need to Impress