A different view

I chose a treadmill today that looked out the long wall of windows, but think I'll go back to my usual spot overlooking the punching bags and other tortuous equipment.  I did manage to walk a little over 2 miles, which is what I'm going to aim for every day.  Three or four is fine, but my legs hurt!

The view from the window:  it looks out on the 6 lanes of Sunrise Blvd (plus one lane that leads to the freeway).  Below the windows is a walled in playground area, with nice colorful murals painted on the walls.  Across the Blvd are the rooftops of my mobile home park - nothing to look at - and in the distance I could see the foothills of the Sierra.  I remember when I lived here in the 1980's and drove home from work every day, I saw a view that changed with the seasons.   For a while, the foothills would be prominent and there was no sign of the mountains beyond, sort of like today.  At other times of the year the foothills were not visible but the mountains stood out in all their glory.  While I love and prefer the Smoky Mountains, I'll have to say that the Sierra is a magnificent mountain chain!

The gym has a lot of different models of treadmill, and I didn't care for the ones near the windows as much as I like the ones I'm used to.  Maybe that's it - I like what I'm used to.  No TV's on the window side though, and that is a real plus!

Jeannie and I got most of our shopping  finished last night.  It was a real experience driving in the dark with headlights shining everywhere.  Streets that I know as well as the one I live on were totally unrecognizable to me.  It's a weird feeling.  I finished up today with two gifts I bought at Costco, and now I need to get some wrapping paper and gift tags.  I made my own "card" for Autumn's birthday present, with a paper in which I had sketched and colored in some Christmas bells.  I don't think she minded at all.

I painted my oranges on the small canvas today and will have to say I don't think much of the job I did.  When I paint in the background color I will post a photo of it.  I think I do a much better job of drawing and filling in with  colored pencils than I do with actual acrylic paints.  Now I need one more small canvas for the wall I'm going to put them on, and then I need to find a new theme.   I've done everything worth doing from my refrigerator!

When I took Jeannie home last night I stopped in to visit for a while - poor Autie has been sick with a cold/fever since her birthday on Sunday.  I had dinner with them - eating Donald's meals is always a treat for me.  Ara was baking chocolate chip cookies to give to a friend for Christmas, and she offered me one to taste.  When she wasn't looking I swiped two more.  Yum - I haven't baked cookies in so long, and considering I don't want to eat so much sugar I won't go back to baking.    I'm so hungry from all the increased walking that I could eat at any time I'm awake.   I must be doing ok nutritionally because I seem to be healing from the dental surgery fairly quickly.   I keep talking about traveling and forget I will be paying for partial dentures in a few weeks!  

It will be nice to get past the shortest day of the year, coming up real soon, and start on the trend towards longer periods of daylight.  And when it warms up a bit, I have a bumper crop of weeds to work on!