Use it or lose it.

Weight gain and lost fitness.
I was looking to put an old pair of jeans on to do some work around home on my day off. They used to be loose, but now they don't fit comfortably! I have put on weight! Because of my sore knee and lately because of the remnants of the flu, I have not been running for months. Even though I have been walking up my mountain and going for a bike ride every now and then I have put on weight and lost quite a bit of my fitness. Also for around thirteen years for several months each year, virtually every Saturday I was a builder, working on Habitat for Humanity homes. This regular work, combined with regular exercise kept up a certain amount of flexibility and "hardness". I have pulled out of this sort of commitment to Habitat. On Saturday I did some digging, sawing and pegging out of a little bit of boxing on a Habitat house. I discovered I had lost some of that "hardness." (I do know that by not being involved in Habitat my Sunday services are better planned... I used to have to work really late on Saturday nights if I had spent 8 hours on a Habitat site on Saturday.) I realise though that I am in danger of becoming old! I could become a portly old retired guy who watches life, instead of participating, "getting physical" and doing challenging things. I have to work out ways to work around my sensitive knee, but I need to get back into regular exercise. But the remnants of the flu still make me wheezy.

Stressed
Today I had a day off. I went up town to buy a couple of things, one of which was to fix the windscreen wiper on the car. When I got home I was annoyed because I had bought the wrong sized part. ... town is about 11k away. I headed out to clean up an area of our section. I couldn't find a wire container I wanted to store twigs and bark in. Again I got annoyed and agitated. I got out the weed eater and it didn't start straight away. I got the little electric one out but it appeared to have a fault. I went back to the petrol one and it started. But I noticed how easily agitated I was getting. This is my day off! I began to see that I have been working pretty hard in recent weeks. I have always seemed to have extra things thrown in. It was a grey, windy day, which did not help my mood. My wife knew I wanted to fit in exercise and encouraged me to go do it. So at 5:30 p.m. I went "up my mountain". ... boring!... no never boring. I have begun to look at my diary for this week and it too is very full. I host the inner-city ministers at our drop-in centre room for a meeting. ... I sometimes struggle to feel at home with them. I have a supervision session with the student on placement and a couple of other extras. I keep trying to lighten the load but everything conspires against it...e.g. people die and I get asked to lead their funeral!

Here is why I never find my mountain boring...

There was a little breeze blowing there today.

This is a picture of gorse... It was imported into NZ by early settlers for hedges between paddocks. It is now an annoying weed. But the flower is pretty. You can sometimes see big expanses of yellow on hillsides. We had a pair of Rosellas in our backyard today. They would not sit still for a photo opportunity. They are a very colourful Australian bird. The story is that Rosellas escaped from a sailing ship which beached in a bay over the hill from here (Blueskin Bay ... Waitati) and that is why there is a population of them in this area.  Not all imported Australians are as ugly as the possum.