September 7th 2023

 This is the second post that could start with noting that it has been a long time since I posted anything...and I am not sure what I am going to say today.

It has been a rather desultory period, many days with the temperature up in the 'nineties, many days with not much to do except my daily puzzles, reading, and a walk at a time before the temperature has started to reach the mid-eighties. Sometimes we have taken short walks in the evening ... a Linnaean loop, or somewhere in the Forest Hills division--beginning on Albemarle. A couple of times when I have walked on my own I have ended up in Bread Furst and eaten a bun and drunk a coffee. The sparrows are very tame, and they come and pitch on your table.

Today the temperature is supposed to get up to the high 'nineties, and Joan--ever concerned about my health--suggested I avoid going on an outside walk. So I went to the exercise room and walked on the treadmill for an hour at 3 mph. While I was doing that, Joan went for her daily swim--which for her is a vigorous forty lengths. I think she has done that everyday since we came back from London.

Incidentally, 'they' were wrong in the weather forecast. At 4.00pm, the heat has only reached the mid-eighties.

(I like to be typing this memoir as I exercise my two-finger typing--which is getting better, and I do need to practice from time to time)

I brood about my age. I am not sure why--suddenly--I have become more concerned about my health, more inclined to feel--if not actually depressed--but beset by an increased level of anxiety. We have plans--and bookings and tickets--for a trip to London in October (Beatrice's wedding) and our usual January/February visit to Sydney. With both trips, I have this sense of 'tempting Providence'--that is, setting myself up for some form of misadventure, particularly a health problem, that leads to the cancellation of one or both of these trips.