As I was starting my walk back from Albertson’s yesterday, carrying a bag with 10-15 lbs of groceries, I was conscious of many sources of complaint emanating from various and sundry parts of my body. My right arm, of course, but my right ankle was also speaking up, along with my left shoulder. It finally dawned on me that even the limited activity that I have been engaging in was pushing things a bit too hard, so I grabbed a bus to cut down my walking. Over the past couple of days I discovered that the 181 bus, which comes up Magnolia from downtown and has a stop 250 yards from my house, morphs into the 131 at Wardlow Station and takes me right here to Steelhead, and to points beyond as far as Belmont Shore and Seal Beach. Doesn’t get much better than that, as far as I am concerned!

I have also realized that trying to type with my right hand was counter-productive, so I am now sitting here dutifully resting my right arm on my leg while my left does all of the work. Speaking of sitting here, a large part of my daily practice now consists of sitting here and at the same time keeping my core fully engaged and doing various shoulder and heart opening isolations. Just put my feet up on the chair across from me and working on my dandasana. In a few minutes I’ll step outside and do some folds, squats, and roll-ups. It’s been a cold morning, and the sun feels real good!!!!

Had some sad news yesterday when I heard from Evelyn Grauten, core coach extraordinaire and member of Team John, notifying me that her long-running mat Pilates at Yoga World was being discontinued (super sad faced emoji here)! That class was a key component of my core-building program, and will be greatly missed. Luckily, Evelyn works at other locations around town, including Long Beach Recreation. I also want to give a shout-out to another member of Team John, Edna Pestaño, who was kind enough to make a house call to cut my hair and also help me wrap my wing in shrink wrap so I could take a heavenly shower. You can find Edna at her new location at the Supercuts in Seal Beach.