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I am very confused about days and dates.
This began when I took such a huge chunk of time off from work (almost
six and a half weeks) at the end of 2012... and then, in the midst of that,
I had my foot surgery, which meant that not only was I without the pattern
of working days, I spent a few day without leaving our bedroom (just moving
from bed to a recliner chair with my foot up when it was time for a meal).
Then, when January 2nd came and it was time to go back to work, I still
seemed to have lost any intuitive sense of what day it is. I resumed working
on January 2nd -- a Wednesday -- so I put in three days and then along
came the weekend. This past Monday I kept thinking all day that it was
a Friday. I have no idea why, but I did. And then on Tuesday, the same
thing happened; all day long I had to remind myself that it was not Friday.
I got through Wednesday and Thursday without calendrical confusion, but
today.... *sigh *... all day long I've been convinced that it is a Saturday.
(Okay, I admit that this final bit of confusion might be explained by noting
that I took the day off.)
Nancy and I got hooked on Downton Abbey. We went through seasons 1
and 2 watching them via streaming from Amazon.com
and then, this past Sunday, watched the two hour opening episode of season
3 on PBS. We especially enjoy Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess
of Grantham. One of the bits in season 2 was how she was puzzled by the
concept of a "weekend" (since no one in the gentry kept regular
business working hours).
I was recently chatting with a British colleague about Downton Abbey.
(And when I say "chatting" I actually mean typing text messages
back and forth using Lotus Sametime.) He assured me that British life today
does not much resemble either that of Lord Grantham and his family nor
that of Carson and Bates and O'Brian and the rest of the staff. But then
he reminisced about how when he was at Cambridge, they did have maids cleaning
their rooms, making their beds, etc....
One of the reasons I took today off was because Jill and I signed up for
a Friday morning tai chi class. (Another reason, of course, is that since
I am only supposed to be working 60% of a normal schedule, so I need to
take days off all along so that I don't end up with needing to take off
the last six and a half weeks of the year.) The class is small and informal,
but it was interesting and enjoyable. Also, I think I will learn some ways
of getting properly warmed up and loose before going for runs, etc.
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