Edward aka (Renaissance Granddad) – Day 23823 (Dec 21, 2016)
Woo! Hoo! Today is the Winter Solstice!! That of course means, today is either the shortest day of the year or the longest night! I prefer to look at it as the shortest day and from here until the Summer Solstice the days keep getting longer!! I used to hate it when it was dark when I went to work in the morning and again when I came home in the evening.
For years i ran at 5:30 after work. I always hated it when daylight savings time ended and it would get dark before 5! I particularly hated it the night I sprained an ankle coming off of a sidewalk and not seeing the two by fours that someone had put along the curb so they could jump the curb! From that night on I have been leary of running at night!
Now that I work in the mornings and could run in the afternoon before it gets dark, I am not running at all! That has got to change soon!! The only thing I due hate now with these short days is getting up and ready for work in the dark! Come On Spring!!
Morning Exercises and Meditation
For the last week or so I have changed up my morning exercises. For most of 2016 I have done various yoga routines in the morning. On the days that I don’t work I had been sporadically doing a routine that includes: Kundalini yoga, weights and bands. I used to do that set of exercises each morning when I worked at Lippincott. When I did it on those mornings. I did 5 minutes Kundalini meditation called “Long Ek Ong Kars” followed by 5 minutes of various Kundalini exercises and a few typical exercises – leg raises, bicycle, etc. The last five minutes was composed of weights and bands exercises.
By doing that routine regularly, I always was able to maintain my weight at the same level even through periods when I didn’t run. Then came retirement and babysitting. Over the last two years, I have run less, but thanks to Oliver I had long walks two or three days a week. Well, back in June that ended, when Oliver went into full time day care. The result, I gained weight not a massive amount but enough to bother me.
While I have not gone on a strict diet I have cut down and have not really lost any weight. So the other day I thought maybe I will try to do the old routine on a daily basis again. I modified the routine so that it looks like this now 3:00 minutes “Long Ek Ong Kars”, 7 minutes Kundalini and other exercises, and finally and 9 minutes of Weights and Bands. The whole routine ends with a 10 minute meditation.
Like I said earlier I started this about a week ago and since then I have felt a lot better, more energetic, etc. I actually feel like I could start running again!! Damn you cold weather! Anyway I think may have lost a little weight (my scales gave me two different weights this morning) but I do feel like I may have lost some inches! Overall, we’ll see where it takes me! Wish Me Luck!
The Soundtrack: Joseph L Young – Ethereum
Joseph L Young is a world-flute master and keyboardist. Ethereum is his fourth album. His music brings together global music traditions that mix primal earthiness with modern synthesized sounds. His primary instruments are a wide variety of ethnic flutes from around the world. I will write more about the album soon!!
Jazz Birthday of Interest (at least to me): Hank Crawford
You can check out a complete list of Jazz Birthday on this day here
Hank Crawford – (December 21, 1934 – January 29, 2009) From the Artist Biography by Thom Jurek at AllMusic…..
With an unmistakable blues wail, full of emotion and poignancy, altoist Hank Crawford bridges the gap between that tradition and that of jazz more completely than any other living horn player. Born in Memphis, Crawford was steeped in the blues tradition from an early age. He began playing piano but switched to alto when his father brought one home from the army. He claims his early influences as Louis Jordan, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges Read More
Wildflower is the only Hank Crawford album in my music library and it’s a good one! Again from AllMusic
….This record is so hot the only soul-jazz it can be compared to in both its contemporary form and funky feel are Grover Washington’s Feels So Good and Mister Magic issues. In other words, Crawford’s Wildflower is indispensable as a shining example of ’70s groove jazz at its best. Read the Full Review
Today when I was reading about Hank Crawford I also checked out his vast discography! I decided that I would listen to his 1987 release After Dark. After Dark is an editor’s pick at AllMusic. You can check it out here at Spotify
About This Post
This is the first of a new kind of post. I hope to continue the idea is to give you a glimpse of my ADD Days on one or two pages! The page may cover my exercise for the day, the music I’m listening to and the book I am reading. Maybe I should say plan to read! Sometimes I plan to read more than I can get through!!
Oh ED K Day at the top of the post is the number of days I have been alive!!
