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I was right about the rowing yesterday. This morning the aches in my body were intense and unforgiving. I can see why people use rowing machines for exercise. They ensure a work-out in a number of different body areas.
As well as my shoulders, there were aches in my arms, my thighs and my back. Muscles had been discovered and awakened after a very long hibernation due to a general lack of use. I can only hope the aches won’t be worse tomorrow.
There were inaudible groans as I headed to the ICA first thing. Though that may also have been because I was operating on about four hours of sleep. There was also an ache in my eyes as they tried to stay open. This wasn’t just on my way to the shop early on. It was also very difficult to read in the late afternoon.
On the way to the shop, I noticed the advance of the asphalt replacement.
I would have thought that they would do it in stages but it looks like they are going to rip up the old before they begin putting down the new. That will mean there will be an interesting slalom effect for anyone wishing to use the footpath once they begin phase two.
Mind you, I think the heat would have made the laying of a new footpath rather difficult. With memories of the summer roads in Oz as I grew up was enough to make my feet squirm. Metaphorically of course.
Things are pretty bad in Germany, truth be told. I read today that with temperatures rising to 41.7°, trams have been stopped in some cities because the melting roads have made the tracks impossible to use. A lot of people blame inadequate road building materials. I blame too much climate change denial.
Youthful days of bubbling tar on bare feet and the fate of German trams aside, the temperatures this summer seem to be making poor Freya suffer more than absolutely necessary. We have been forced to reverse cycle the heat pump so the house remains cool enough for her. Even so, she sleeps for most of the day and doesn’t each much before 6pm most days.
Her lethargy today was so full on that I had to keep checking that she was still with us.
Then, while Mirinda played guitar on the deck, Freya was up and about and listening intently. She was almost back to normal.
A little later, the dogs were on the sofa with me in a strange reversal of positions.
Normally they are the other way around. Emma even had a go at lying on the back, just like Freya does when she’s up to it. She didn’t last. Freya has the weight advantage when it comes to balancing on a narrow, squishy lounge back.
Actually, we think that Emma realises that Freya isn’t well and is taking care to leave her alone rather than act in her usual bullying way.
As for me, I worked on my next Letter From Sweden which will feature the exploits of the M20. I will have to spruce it up a bit because the results of my typing were not exactly inspiring.
I also cooked, of course, making another Geraldine dish for dinner (spring lamb stew) and a lot of perfectly cold gazpacho for Mirinda.
She said it was perfect.
