5

"It's hard to do my regular stuff when you're home," I said.

"I know," he said. "Sorry."

He's not feeling well and stayed home from work today. We're glad he still has a job. Unfortunately, he used up all his personal/sick time looking for work during the impending doom of the layoffs. So today he's on "vacation."

"It's okay. I'd just rather be with you," I said.

He needed medicine and we needed groceries, so I left.

I walked around the store for an hour, came home, hefted groceries out of the car, and put everything away up and down and up and down the stairs.

"I'm tempted to count shopping and putting away groceries as my exercise today. That should count, right?"

"Yeah." He's so agreeable.

Moderate, sustainable exercise is where it's at. Any exertion out of the ordinary counts as far as I'm concerned. Some days, I do count shopping. Today, I felt like I needed to do more.

"I'll probably feel better if I go outside," I said.

I went for a bike ride. The sunshine alone was worth it. So was the beautiful, light breeze, the warm but not too warm air, and the clear blue skies. Glorious. I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing the huge, fox-like cat run across the road; listening to the whistles, chirps, and chatters of the birds in the trees and bushes; feeling my legs ache in a healthy way and knowing they are getting stronger; seeing the painted patches of orange and green on the mountains; or watching a little boy gleefully race ahead of his grandmother as she walked him home from kindergarten. More than anything, I enjoyed the feel of the sunshine soaking into my bones, helping my body produce vitamin D-- "the sunshine vitamin." And I'd never noticed until today a breeze can gently lift the hairs on my arms.

Being home again with him is good too.

"Oh! A bird just crashed into our window," I said. It was a tiny thing-- maybe a finch.

"What?" he said. He didn't see what happened and it must have taken a second to register. I'm sitting right by the kitchen window typing. He was eating his lunch at the counter.

"It was a bird. It crashed into our window, but it flew away. It's okay," I said.

"It must have been on its cell phone," he said.