Weird Day

Tried to get some writing done today, as usual that lead to some odd Google searches.  First search was for when was barbed wire invented? Turns out it was 1867 which is great, my book is set in 1875. 

When looking up barbed wire, I saw a link to a gentleman named Gail Borden, and since that’s close to my name (Gail Barden Williams), I thought I’d have a look at him because I’ve never before come across a man with the name Gail (it’s usually Gale for men).  Apparently, he helped plan the cities of Houston and Galveston in 1836 and in 1853 created a process to make sweetened condensed milk. 

The internet can lead you down some weird rabbit holes.

Then this evening I’ve had to google birth dates of Gary Numan and Gary Oldman.  Why? Because a Twitter post pointed out that Gary Numan is 13 days older than Gary Oldman, so I had to check that out.

The rest of the day I was making up chores just so I didn’t write.  I tidied up the corner of my bedroom that’s been a mess since I moved in (20 years ago). I washed down the wall by the bin – it needed doing but didn’t have to be done today. And I put all clothes away, which just goes to show I’ve too many clothes because I can’t get them all in my closet.

Then after a blue-sky morning of getting washing out on the line, we had a sudden and odd thunderstorm so I had to go get everything off the line.  Rain caused flash floods in the area, and thunder rumbled on oddly but we never saw any lightning.

Despite all that, I still managed to write 1600 words, and I’m pleased with that.

Straightening out

Exercise is beneficial in treating depression, yet even knowing that, I’m struggling to encourage my fat backside off the couch. Not sure why, I enjoy exercise when I get to it, I just seem to have some invisible barrier between thinking about exercise and actually exercising.

The bigger problem than the width of my backside, is the state of my brain. The more I don’t exercise, the more my head tells me I’m lazy and worthless. It’s a downward spiral that feeds straight into the dragon of my depression.

Since I am trying to slay that dragon, I needed to get up today and do something. Exercise wasn’t happening so I needed something else.

Modern advise is that the average women needs 2,000 calories daily. Rubbish. Aside from anything else, there’s no such thing as the average woman. The thing is that figure was calculated many decades ago, back when there were a lot less time / energy saving devices. The ‘average’ woman had to work harder at the housework.

Back when we first got together, my husband and I couldn’t afford a new washing machine, so we got an old twin tub that would otherwise be scrapped.  It took hours and effort to wash clothes then.

My point is doing chores use energy. So instead of exercising, I dealt with the basket full of clothes that’s been nagging me to iron them for a fortnight.

The pictures 10 yrs old, but only one I could find of ironing.

After taking three hours to work to the bottom of the pile, my legs and back certainly feel like I did a workout. More importantly, it feels good to have achieved something, to have ticked something off the to do list.

This probably sounds like nothing to most, but when in a depressed state, it’s hard to do anything, so doing something is good.