The kids are here visiting and my plan called for yoga yesterday. I did not want to spend an hour at the YMCA when I could be spending that time with the kids and the significant others. Taryn suggested I do yoga at the dock on the deck. I've taken it enough now that I know the sequences, the poses, and the transitions.
I got up before anyone else, around 6:00, had a cup of coffee, got my mat and some water and went down to the dock. I also had my phone which has Pandora installed and I found a yoga station so I even had the yoga music. Our dock has a sun deck on top, perfect place for early morning yoga! I climbed up and started the music to play softly.
It was so peaceful. The sun coming up over the water, a nice soft breeze blowing. And I did indeed remember the sequences from the class. It was a hard workout as I tried to hold the poses, especially plank poses, for longer than we do in class. On balance poses I had a bit of trouble because the water was of course moving and that would throw me off, but as long as I focused on the bank across the canal I was good. As I was holding "tree pose" I saw a beaver coming down the canal with a big stick. I stopped to watch him swim by, never able to see where he went.
Then I went on to "eagle pose", it's a bit more difficult to hold. I saw something moving in the water so I stopped to see what it was and it was a very large water (rat) snake. YUCK! He swam from the bank across the canal right into our dock where we would store the boat if we had one! Double YUCK. I went on and finished yoga. The beauty of the water, the coolness of the breeze, and the feeling of one with the earth was uplifting. I will be doing this again.
Later in the afternoon as we all sat outside on the deck Ben (Taryn's boyfriend) spied something in a tree a few yards from the deck. After further investigation we found that it was a large snake, and yes he was high up in the tree. It was another Rat Snake. Triple YUCK! Our neighbors came over and so it was quite a show. Although the menfolk tried and tried to get the snake down they were unsuccessful until two blue jays who were quite upset with the snake getting close to their next went crazy squawking and poking at him. The snake shimmied his way down out of the tree in a very timely fashion once he thought the jays were going to peck him to death. Upon his arrival on the ground our neighbor grabbed him and we spent some time getting to know this new addition. While it was a bit creepy, rat snakes are harmless and very beneficial because they eat mice and rats. The fact that he was around our house actually made me feel a bit better, this way I know the mice and rats will be taken care of!
Knowing that when I sleep in the hammock under the trees I may wake up to a snake staring from above is a bit disconcerting...not sure how I am going to handle this.
Today, Sunday, Terry and I got up early and went to the square to meet our new running buddies. Of course I am still taking it easy and not happy about it, but I did what my coach told me to do and I walked one mile, jogged two, and walked one. The jogging part was closer to running than I think my coach would like...it's difficult to go a slow jog rather than a run, but I did try. My knee feels good. No pain while running or walking, no soreness (yet). I'm hoping that all is good. I need to do some strength today and then it's on to tomorrow when I will have another week of low mileage easy running and lots of cross training.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all will be well in just a few weeks.
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