1 MM

“The biggest commitment you must keep is your commitment to yourself.” — Neale Donald Walsch

I did it! I rowed 1,000,000 meters! Since March 12th, I rowed every day but two when we were out of town. As I approached 1MM, I committed to achieving this goal by Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks for so many blessings, not the least of which is the strength, determination, and commitment that it took to reach this goal. The 20-minute Gratitude Row was the perfect workout for this milestone and as a bonus, the soundtrack included the Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (IYKYK — “Melinda, Melinda!”). How does that 1MM compare to 500 miles? It’s actually 621.37 miles, about the distance from Delafield, WI to Toronto or the length of Lake Michigan from north to south and back north again!

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My Badges: Give Thanks, 1MM, 250 Days, Learn to Row, Race on the Charles, Fall 2021 Commit to Fit, 30 Weeks, 750K, Fitness Builder, A Stroke of Genius (Summer 2021 US Olympic Teams), Beginner Training Camp, 500K, Form Check, Spring 2021 Commit to Fit, 250K, Earth Day Team Workout, 100K, Variety Pack, World Water Day Race, Land and Sea, Team Player, and Wanderlust. Time to earn some more — Bring on 2MM!

Currently • November 2021

“Fear not November’s challenge bold — We’ve books and friends, and hearths that never can grow cold: These make amends!” — Alexander Louis Fraser, “November”

READING:

• The Book of Joy — Yes, again, but this time with a group of colleagues. The discussion has been wonderfully vulnerable and uplifting.

• Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era — “For years, Capote attempted to write what he believed would have been his magnum opus, Answered Prayers. [This book] recreates the lives of these fascinating swans, their friendships with Capote and one another, and the doomed quest to write what could have been one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century” (Goodreads).

• Out Came the Sun by Muriel Hemingway — “A moving, compelling memoir about growing up and escaping the tragic legacy of mental illness in one of America's most famous families: the Hemingways” (Goodreads).

WATCHING:

• Ghosts on Hulu — “A young couple's dreams come true when they inherit a beautiful country house, only to find it's both falling apart and inhabited by many of the deceased previous residents” (iMDB). Very funny!

• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving — It wouldn’t be a holiday without my Peanuts friends.

LISTENING TO:

• The new ABBA album, Voyage — What can I say? It’s a guilty, Scandi pleasure.

• Vince Guaraldi and George Winston — At this time of year, I crave cool jazz and piano solos, especially soundtracks from Peanuts holiday specials, Autumn as it’s transition to December, and perhaps best of all, the combo that is George Winston’s Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi.

FEELING:

• Proud/Accomplished — My goal was to row 1,000,000 meters by Thanksgiving. As I write this, I have a week to go and 25,000 meters; that’s a little over 3500 meters per day — totally do-able. I am quite proud of myself for committing to a regular fitness routine.

• Grateful — Thanksgiving is the traditional time of year to count our blessings and I am truly thankful for good health, family and friends, a sweet beagle, a steady job, and a lovely home. As we discussed The Book of Joy, someone recommended Two Minute Mornings: A Journal to Win Your Day Every Day: “This written exercise helps facilitate mindfulness and assists in the creation of a constructive daily focus – the right track to forming a permanent positive mindset. Features simple, quick prompts that focus on gratitude, letting go of stress, and setting daily intentions. A clean, yet effective page set up provides space to reflect on three daily questions: I will let go of, I am grateful for, and I will focus on.” I love the idea of not only being mindfully grateful, but of recognizing that, in order to be truly thankful and focused, we have to let go of something negative or out of our control to make room for the joy. I think this might be my “New Year’s resolution”.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

• Decorating for the holidays — I’m very excited to decorate this year, now that we have clean, white walls and new carpeting. I think everything is going to be sparkling and bright. I am decorating three Christmas trees this holiday season: the big one in the living room featuring all the beautiful white, silver, and glass ornaments; the Scandi tree on the deck with wooden ornaments, pinecones, and bottle brush birds; and a new, small Parisian ornament featuring the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, a macaron, an airplane, a wine glass, and a camera, along with glass ornaments in shades ranging from clear to dark gray. Those are the concepts. I’ll post pictures soon.

• Thanksgiving and Christmas Breaks — I really need them.

October 2021 in Pictures

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” — Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Links I Love • October 2021

“With an apple I will astonish Paris.” — Paul Cezanne

This month’s links featuring a love of October, Audrey Hepburn, Paris, Shaun Cassidy, puppy zoomies, and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture are quite eclectic, yet still so me.

• October Isn’t Just a Month Anymore. It’s a Whole Szn.

• 21 Apple Varieties To Sink Your Teeth Into This Fall

• The Audrey Hepburn You Never Knew — and Her Cheeky Sense of Humor

• You Can Now Rent the Iconic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Brownstone

• What to Wear in Paris: 14 Must-Haves to Pack for Your Next Trip

• The Very Best French Fashion Brands to Shop Online according to Marie Claire magazine

• 28 Facts About the Paris Métro

• National Library of France Finally Complete After a 10-Year-Long Renovation

• Bergdorf Goodman’s Guide to Paris

• Emily in Paris: A tour of the real Parisian hotspots from the Netflix series

• The Newest 'Teen Dream' — a vintage article in the Washington Post that made me smile.

• What Causes the Zoomies?: Vet Weighs in on What Makes Your Pet Race Around the House - Piper still gets them every night.

• 51 Best Airbnb Stays Across the United States — Wisconsin’s offering is a Frank Lloyd Wright.

Currently • October 2021

“October, baptize me with leaves! …October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” — Rainbow Rowell

READING:

• Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood — “A riveting tale of passion, love, and heartbreak, Mrs. Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway's marriages” (Goodreads).

• Warrior: Audrey Hepburn by Robert Matzen — “Completes the story arc of Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II. Hepburn's experiences in wartime, including the murder of family members, her survival through combat and starvation conditions, and work on behalf of the Dutch Resistance, gave her the determination to become a humanitarian for UNICEF and work on behalf of impoverished families” (Goodreads).

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy— “Enter the world of Charlie's four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons…” (Goodreads). My lovely and thoughtful new colleague, Jane, surprised me on a Wednesday morning with this special gift. The illustrations, the simplicity, the depth — everything is beautiful. Is it terrible, that I feel the urge to add that Oxford comma in the title?

WATCHING:

• No Time to Die (the latest James Bond film and the last one for Daniel Craig) — The movie was long and just ok, but it was so fun to go to the cinema after almost two years away.

• Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ — “Winner of 7 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Jason Sudeikis is an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team. What he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for in optimism, determination, …and biscuits” (Apple). Season 1 was heartwarming and funny; Season 2 is darker, but rich in character development.

ENJOYING:

• A final few warm evenings on the deck with wine, blankets and a fire in the solo stove.

• An October weekend in Door County — autumn leaves, crisp air, great food…

FEELING:

• Determined — I have rowed 900,000 meters and hope to make the Million Meter Club by Thanksgiving.

• Frustrated by work as well as home repairs. This week, we had issues with our furnace (brrrrr), with Eric’s car, and with two holes in our siding due to hungry woodpeckers.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

• Hygge — fires in the fireplace, soft sweaters and blankets, candlelight… As the days get shorter and the light wanes, at least we can enjoy the coziness.

Fall Colors in Door County 2021

“The trees are in their autumn beauty; The woodland paths are dry; Under the October twilight the water mirrors a still sky.” — William Butler Yeats

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“It is possible, even probable, to be told a truth about a place, to accept it, to know it and at the same time to not know anything about it. I had never been to Wisconsin, but all my life I had heard about it, had eaten its cheeses, some of them as good as any in the world. And I must have seen pictures. Everyone must have. Why then was I unprepared for the beauty of this region, for its variety of field and hill, forest, lake? I think now I must have considered it one big level cow pasture because of the state's enormous yield of milk products. I never saw a country that changed so rapidly, and because I had not expected it everything I saw brought a delight. I don't know how it is in other seasons, the summers may reek and rock with heat, the winters may groan with dismal cold, but when I saw it for the first and only time in early October, the air was rich with butter-colored sunlight, not fuzzy but crisp and clear so that every frost-gay tree was set off, the rising hills were not compounded, but alone and separate. There was a penetration of the light into the solid substance so that I seemed to see into things, deep in…I remembered that I had been told Wisconsin is a lovely state, but the telling had not prepared me. It was a magic day. The land dripped with richness, the fat cows and pigs gleaming against green, and, in the smaller holdings, corn standing in little tents as corn should, and pumpkins all about…Beside the road I saw a very large establishment, the greatest distributor of sea shells in the world--and this in Wisconsin, which hasn't known a sea since pre-Cambrian time. But Wisconsin is loaded with surprises. I had heard of Wisconsin but was not prepared for the weird country sculpted by the Ice Age, a strange, gleaming country of water and carved rock, black and green. To awaken here might make one believe it a dream of some other planet, for it has a non-earthly quality, or else the engraved record of a time when the world was much younger and much different…” — John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley (1962)