I walk 3.6 miles in the morning each day starting at 5:10 am; with laps interspersed with Taijiquan forms practice. I teach yoga 3 or 4 evenings each week from 5:20 - 6:40 pm. I lift weights at the gym 5 days each week from 4 to 5 pm.
We both work on home improvement projects, water, and garden each day. During the hottest time of each day, we read, research and write indoors. We use a simple evaporation cooler and a couple of fans to keep us comfortable during the hottest time of each summer day.
This summer I will complete Phase 4 (indexing and concordance) for my Tao Te Ching project. As usual, I will post to the Cloud Hands Blog each day.
We listen to a lot of New Age music in MP3 digital format as well as use Pandora. I also listen to a good deal of string quartet music.
I have four books of intellectual history that I plan to read, as well as the Essays of Michel de Montaigne.
This summer I will learn and use Photoshop CS5, AskSam 6, and the Atlantis word processor.
I plan to watch parts of the Tour de France starting on July 4th. I enjoy the scenic and historical commentary, as well, of course, as the tactics and athleticism of the bike riders. I seldom have ridden a bike in my lifetime, although I rode small motorcycles for 12 years for transportation in the city.
Karen and I will complete the repair, painting, and remodeling of our back porch. We will finish removing three dead trees and four overgrown trees in the wrong locations. We will rent a dumpster and clean up materials stored in our far south field. We will tend our summer vegetable garden and enjoy the harvests.
Our children and their families will be visiting us in late June and early July. Karen and I will join my two brothers and their wives in Bodega Bay, California, and in Peyton, Colorado, for the Blaize Reunion. Karen and I will also go up to Portland once.
So, assuming good health, we will have a busy, productive, and pleasurable summer vacation.
If our son is fortunate enough to get a kidney transplant (he has waited 4 years), then Karen will go to Portland for six weeks to help him during recovery, and we will help with finances. That event would make it a wonderful and perfect summer.
Hi Michael, I hope you enjoy the Tour De France. This year the Tour will start off in the beautiful and historic Dutch city of Utrecht. This start is the socalled Grand Depart. It's about 45 kilometers from where I live, so hopefully I will be able to see it live.
ReplyDeleteIt looks you have your summer planned this year. Lot's of great projects. Hope you have a great time. I also want to thank you for all your effort in putting the pages together on all the QiGong and Taijiquan stuff. I also find your concordance on the Tao Te Jing very helpful in studying this material.
I don't know if you are aware of this but some of the verses in the Tao can not be understood without the knowledge of the Annalects of Confucius. Look for instances at Verse 38 which is the first verse of the book Te. It references directly the ideas of Confucius on kindness and ritual.
It is telling in my view that the book Te talks about a kind of inner strenght (to do good or be viruous) while Confucius was laking about it more as a character trait. For me there is a difference.
Anyway. Thanks for reading and enjoy your summer.
Nico ( a Dutch fan of your work).
Nico,
ReplyDeleteLast year, the Tour de France started on the beautiful island of Corsica. This year we get to visit Utrecht. I'll get to to some sightseeing in your area. Fantastic!!
My long range plan is to link Chapters of the Daodejing with similar or comparable thinking by other authors, East and West. I will look at Verse 38 as you suggested and make a note.
I am pleased to hear from you that you might have found my webpages on Taijiquan and/or Qigong useful in some way. I get positive feedback from many people - especially about shorter forms.
May you also have a fine summer season,
Mike