Tulip Millionairess --- Day 6/293

Walk: T. Joe's by cab
Distance: Up/Down x 3, exercises/asanas/pedals

So if this were Holland during Tulipmania, Ciwt would be rich, rich, rich thanks to a wonderful friend who surprised her with her favorite flower today.  

Who Can Capture Dusk? --- Day 6/292

Walk:  To and From 3 Jackson bus, couple of blocks on Fillmore - back in immobilizer.  Ciwt is                      being  a good patient
Distance: A few blocks, Up/Down, exercises/asanas 1.5 hours

One of Ciwt's favorite things about this long twilight time of year is 'official' dusk.  It is a little dusky now even at the height of day, and something in Ciwt resists that. But then she looks up and sees the low light has mellowsd into something beautiful, irresistable.  Soft, gentle, glowing with elongated shadows in unexpected places. And sad in an ambiguous way that somehow doesn't upset Ciwt but touches her deeply.  She wants to hold on to the look, the feeling, but when she looks up again,  twilight has ebbed into dark night.

Kat and Kitten Kitsch --- Day 6/291

Walk: No
Distance: 0 by PT orders, 2 hrs. exercises/asanas

Advent calendar (?!) sent by friend.  Ciwt hasn't encountered one of these since childhood.  These are her types of cats though - long hair, puffy - so she keeps it on display and dreads opening all the little windows right in the middle of their cute faces or ears or eyes.  Somehow doesn't seem entirely thought through.  Fingers crossed a few of these look alikes will come into Ciwt's life.

And what do we have here but another puffy cat sent by a friend who is an accomplished accordionist - even had her own band? The dog doesn't look too thrilled though by the personal serenade he's getting.  

It appears art tour impresaria Ciwt has been so long in her pink environment she's even broken her No Cute Cat Pictures Around the House rule and is enjoying some that have arrived.  Wonder what her place will look like when this healing is complete...Maybe by then she'll have returned to the Dogs Playing Cards she's tried all these years to forget. (Please see CIWT 5/284)

Non-linear --- Day 6/290

Walk: new PT
Distance:  14 blocks, a few exercises

So, when they tell you healing isn't a linear thing, believe them.  

Necessary Rain and Relaxation --- Day 6/289

Walk: No, rain and still kind of recovering from last few days 
Distance: Various circuits around the pad, flexion routine every 1/2 hour, yawn...

Color Ciwt like this today.  Reading a good book (Saints for All Occasions) in the subdued light as it rained today - oh, except for the blond hair, the teenage years, and, sadly, the cat.  Still a very nice day for Ciwt and the Bay Area which loves the rain.

Ole* --- Day 6/288

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Coco)
Distance: 1.5 miles, some exercises, probably a good day to back off

So, if for no other reason, go to Coco for the visuals.  Not just because there is a lot of (Ciwt) pink.  They are vibrantly alive fine art - so captivating Ciwt would have eagerly watched every frame even if Coco didn't have a story line.  But it does, one that sneaks up on you before you realize how deeply touched you are.

Then go for the voice acting.  The charmingly handsome Gael Garcia Bernal is charmingly handsome even as a skeleton's voice.  And a twelve year old boy (Anthony Gonzalez VIII) does a great job voicing a twelve year old boy - when so often animated movies use women to voice young boys and girls.  Benjamin Bratt is excellent as are all the members of the cast.

As she watched and got a little confused herself about what was life and what afterlife, Ciwt wondered if the children in the audience were following the plot and engaged.  Well, spontaneously after the movie as the credits rolled this happened: 
(Kind of hard to capture in the dark but the kids ran up onto the stage and began dancing around.  All the grown ups, including Ciwt, were standing around watching and taking pictures.  So unexpected and heart-warming).

*For people wanting to budget their time and only see excellent movie making be warned there is an unannounced and (as one viewer said) 'utterly asinine' 20-minute Disney short before Coco.

(Too) In The Pink? --- Day 6/287

Walk: To car for longer-than-a-few-blocks road trip to Legion of Honor
Distance: A few blocks, Exercises/Asanas/Pedaling 

For some reason Ciwt was drawn to works by San Francisco photographer, Rachelle Bussieres,  which she encountered in a photography gallery the other day.  They were just so sort of unexpected, soft, kind of odd - and definitely pink.  Does Ciwt like them or has she just been under house arrest for so long her sensibilities have turned pink?

 Like her living room

                  and her coverlet (with kitten advent calendar -even! -sent by friend)

 And the sky outside her window

Three Cheers to Three Actors --- Day 6/286

Walk: AMC Van Ness (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Distance: 1 mile (without immolizer!), sit for a whole movie, lst bus, lst escalator, lots of exercises seemingly more bendy. Happy Thanksgiving to Ciwt

One reviewer Ciwt read said it well: It would hardly be fair to call this [role of Mildred] one of her finest performances because, frankly, when is Frances McDormand ever not great?  The marvelous thing is that McDormand is matched by Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  Some viewers actually feel Harrelson's performance is better than McDormand's, and Rockwell's role is so fluid it is hard to imagine how he grounded himself enough to play it.  Ciwt suggests you go see for yourself; besides the acting Billboards is a complex, highly unpredictable, quirkily American movie.

--- Day 6/285

Walk: CPMC/PT, Paper Source
Distance: 2 miles, Much Flexing, Exercising

Aaron Shickler, Woman Reading, 1962, pastel on paperboard

Gone Little --- Day 6/284

Walk: 2 Challenges: Union Square/Scene of the FALL, Trader Joe's pre-Thanksgiving
Distance:  10 Blocks, ROM and Strength Exercises

Somewhere in her 10 week (so far) house arrest/knee operation recovery Ciwt must have slipped into a regression.  Into being a teenager - or resonating to stories about teenagers.  Little stories to be exact.  

She can actually relate quite well to the teenagers, adults, issues and community setting in Celeste Ng's intriguing Little Fires Everywhere. She's a few pages from the ending and has appreciated that Ng moves the book through complex adolencent and adult issues with intelligence and quite a bit of depth.  A friend told her she'd be curious about Ciwt's take on the ending, so now Ciwt is curious too.

Then there are the 'girls' in Pretty Little Liars - Aria, Spencer, Hannah and several other names she finds her real teenage self distant from.  Here come the actresses' actual names - Sasha, Troian, Shay, Tammin to name a few - which Ciwt can't relate to at all.  But the names thing is easy for Ciwt compared to all the other aspects of the characters: the perfect make up, the totally chill (or whatever) shoplifting and fluid sex, the parental contempt, and the evilness of course.  You can take a look at them above - age 17 (would you have guessed?) - carrying the coffin of their equally vampy and luscious 16 year old friend  murdered a year before.  The depth of the story continues from there.... 

Unlike the other Little, Ciwt is not close to the finish of Liars.  Not by a long shot.  She has watched episode 1 of the 1st season.  There are 8 seasons altogether.  Will Ciwt's regression continue?  Will she return to her 'mature' self?  How many seasons might she watch? Will her knee have healed by then?  Will she start dressing like the Little girls?  Only time will provide these answers to Ciwt and her readers.  She does know one thing: the Little Liars binge was recommended by a seemingly terribly sophisticated and very English woman (wife, mother, grandmother, business owner, the works) who is actually older than Little Ciwt and has watched all the episodes.  

Morning Pedal --- Day 6/283

Walk: CPMC PT, Hood for Thanksgiving food
Distance: 2.3 miles, Hard PT, Pedal 20 minutes, some exercises/flexion

Okay, Ciwt, up and at that pedal machine!

Next week Ciwt begins with new Physical Therapists because her current ones are moving to an inconvenient location.  The new ones are a Russian husband and wife team who specialize in Pilates as well as PT.  Ciwt keeps thinking of all those Russian Olympics coaches, just the general Russian approach to training.  Incredibly focussed and demanding.  She has images of standing ultra straight, stomach more than in, gritting her teeth, strettttching her knee way, way beyond where it can go - and then going further. Like Now!

The Town House Redux (and Great!) --- Day 6/282

Walk: No, Rest
Distance: Up/Down (2), Pedal (2), Asana/Exercise/Flexion (3-6).  Finis for today/Whew

When she went back to Minneapolis in August Ciwt took her iphone camera to the her grandparents' city house.  The Town House where the family would roller skate in the ballroom on Christmas Day (see CIWT Day 355) and my grandmother would keep everything very formal and on schedule the rest of the year.

Ciwt was so happy to see the house in such sparkling repair.  Not a chipped brick or yellow blade of grass, and the cream colored paint positively glowed.  Some teenage or young college boys were enjoying each other's company on a new patio off the dining room; the young energy felt great! The family obviously loves their house.

Of course, still being a teenage boy about cars, Ciwt had to check out the garage, a separate, two-level affair where the shiny cars never had a speck of dust.

  .

It looked clean as a whistle too, and Ciwt hopes the boys' completely cool cars are sitting inside.

First Comes Driving --- Day 6/281

Walk: Clay Theater (Novitiate)
Distance: 9 blocks, Up/Down, ROM Exercises/Flexion, moderate 

So, today Ciwt received the one 'gift' of her injury: the coveted Disabled Parking Placard.  With it 'properly displayed'  from her mirror she is eligible for things like: having her car refueled at self-service rates, parking in designated disabled spaces, even parking at meters indefinitely.  Now if she could only advance from her pedal machine to more agile car clutch movements..

PS - About Novitiate, if you have ever experienced an agressively repressed teacher, like a few of those at Ciwt's boarding school, you will break out in a cold sweat just watching Melissa Leo walk into a room. She doesn't have to say a word, but then she does and gets even more scary.  A darkly complex woman; such excellent acting - by most of the cast - but especially by her.  Best Actress Oscar Nominee for sure.

Seat with a View --- Day 6/280

Walk: CPMC PT, The Hood, Golf Club
Distance: 3+ miles, 1Hour Rehab, Up/Down at Club and Home - (Probably sore/swollen tomorrow,
                but worth it for freedom on a beautiful day

View Out Her Window as Ciwt Pedals, and Pedals, and...

Home Work --- Day 6/279

Walk: No, Rain all day.  Research for Tour
Distance:  2.5 hours various exercises/asanas/pedaling/flexion (the usual)

Ciwt, Exercise Schedule Over Art Research Notes, Calendar Above on Bedspread, iphone, 2017

Something Else --- Day 6/278

Walk:  PT and other things in the hood
Distance:  2.5 miles, Tons of Flexion exercises, Yoga asanas too

Gees Bend quilt by Arlonzia Pettway

The majority of Gees Bend, Alabama residents bear the surnames of the white people who once owned their forebears -- Pettway, Young, Bendolph.  "We all got slave master's names," quilter Arlonzia Pettway explained. "We all was something else." 

That 'something else" in her her great-grandmother, Dinah Miller's case, was a young African woman who was abducted and brought in bondage in a slave ship.  Miller also brought her knowledge of free style ("My Way") African quilting which was handed down - along with oral recollections of antebellum history - to subsequent generations.

As Pettway explains:  They was in slavery.  They worked all day then they'd go under the pile of brushes, and set the log down to sit on and make a quilt.  The slave masters didn't allow them to piece a quilt.  They didn't want them to do nothing, they didn't want them to learn how to write, they didn't want them to have no beautiful quilts, they didn't want them to have no correct language.  That's what she told me.

Now Working as a Quilt --- Day 6/277

Walk: CPMC 
Distance: 2.5 beautiful, sunny, crisp miles,  a little exercise/asana

Annie Mae Young (b. 1928, Gee's Bend Alabama; d. 2012, Gee's Bend, Alabama), "Bars" Work-Clothes Quilt, ca 1970, Denim, cotton, curdroy, printed cotton polyester blend and cotton plain weave pierced and quilted.

Ciwt finds this quilt now hanging in the de Young Revelations show so moving.  It's made from actual old work clothes and you can see the bends that have premanently shaped the knees, the fading over years of long days in the fields.  Made by Annie Mae Young in 1970, it is timeless, capturing the pre-Civil War community's countless hours of hard labor and the endless dirt rows they furrowed and picked year after year.

Party Time --- Day 6/276

Walk: No, Drove! to Trader Joe's (first car errand)
Distance: Couple of blocks, Up/Down, Several exercise/asana/flexion sessions

So it has been Nine Weeks since Ciwt's fall, and she's giving herself a pity party.  Nine weeks without proper exercise (her happiness lifeline), nine weeks of near constant house arrest with no cat, nine weeks of boring boring exercises.  What else?  Nine weeks of being apprehensive for the first time in her life when she thinks of doing things like going downtown, giving an art tour, going to a movie, frankly even going for a simple walk - what if something happens?! - a part of her worries. The head thing is probably the worst part.

But they say all will return to normal.  The leg, the intrepid spirit, the zest, the long hikes and fun exercise.  It just takes so damn long!  There was the (supposed) six-week goal and when she got there, it was "good for you; now at eight weeks, you can start weaning from your immobilizer." Then at eight weeks, "well, actually it's at twelve weeks we feel you've healed enough to begin serious re-hab - as well as a (sort of) normal life. " "But, not so fast, Ciwt, because we're talking six months before this, and maybe eight months before that...."

Wahhhhhh.  Poor Ciwt today.

Okay, blow out the candles, Ciwt,  chin up, Onward with vigor!!!!  (and patience)

Bird Walk --- Day 6/275

Walk: Home Gym Day
Distance:  0, Pedalin, Pedalin, Stretchin, Liftin, Etc.

Figuring the theater would be empty and suitable for her immobilizer Ciwt got up at the crack of dawn to go to an early movie yesterday.  It's a mother and daughter/coming of age affair by an excellent actress, now writer-director.  Not Ciwt's usual draw, but it had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100 which is quite unheard of and also gave Ciwt a much needed excuse to make a 2 mile round trip.  (Too bad it can't be a 10 mile hike because limited exercise is by far the hardest part of being injured for Ciwt).

She thought the movie was flawless (Delightfully watchable acting, quirkyand lively script, strong music choices, excellent cinematography) - and also kind of missable in a middlebrow way if you don't happen to get to the theater.  What does Ciwt mean by missable?  Well, it's a nice movie, very polished and well acted where just what you think is going to happen does in a very nice way.  But to Ciwt 1st Ever 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating suggests something exceptional, edgy, thought-provoking; something other than sweet, nice and predictable.

The walk was Great!

Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf as daughter and mother in Lady Bird

Veterans Day 2017 --- Day 6/274

Ciwt gives honor, respect and gratitude to all the men, women and animals who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that America can continue in peace and freedom.

Piece by Piece --- Day 6/273

Walk:  Re-Hab, Garage to DRIVE car 1 mile
Distance: 1 mile, Lots of exercise sessions and stairs

Ciwt loves the soulful show, Revelations: Art from the African American South at the de Young Museum until April when the newly acquired pieces in the show will be rotated into the de Young's superior - and now more so - American Art collection.  Each work and its story is so devastatingly powerful.  Here's just one:

Willie (Ma Willie) Abrams, (b. 1897, Rehoboth, Alabama; d. 1987, Rohoboth, Alabama), Quilt: Roman Stripes Variation - detail, c. 1975, cotton corduroy, pieced and quilted

Willie "Ma Willie" Abrams grew up "in a world where did not speak until you were spoken to," her granddaughter Louise Williams explained.  "I think this is how she was able to create many beautiful quilts...in her moments of quietness she would think of things to do and visualize (a quilt) and just make it." Abrams helped her daughter, Estelle Witherspoon, manage the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative in Alberta, Alabama that grew out of the Civil Rights movement and ensured that quilters earned fair wages for their work.

Corduroy is a densely woven fabric that is difficult to work with in small pieces. Abrams would have been @87 years old when she created this full size quilt.

Half Way Out --- Day 6/272

Walk/Lyft: de Young Museum (Revelations show to begin tour preparation)
Distance: 1/2 Mile, Up/Down, Exercises/Asanas, Sooo good to be (halfway) out

Still under doctor's orders to use immobilizer and cane when outside, but Ciwt loved being at the de Young Museum today and the kindness of Lyft drivers and security guards.

Mary, Mary ... --- Day 6/271

Walk: Out Patient Re-Hab
Distance: 15 Blocks, 2 Up/Down, Flexion & Mobility Exercises

CIWT readers, you've seen this garden before.  This is what it looked like this unsettled afternoon on her way home from PT.  It goes with the sandstone house from a few days ago.  It's a half block long spilling out toward the street, lovingly and very skillfully maintained and always beguiling.  Ciwt walks by it nearly daily and always stops to admire, be touched, maybe capture an image.  The house that belongs to it was sold a couple of years ago, and Ciwt (others too probably) was concerned that the new owners would forsake the garden.  But, no, the same talented gardeners are there and the garden is always an enchanting, evocative showpiece. Ciwt thinks its not impossible that maintaining the garden and the gardeners may have been a condition of sale or a big reason the new owners bought the house.

Who knows?; she loves these quiet little San Francisco stories and vignettes that only walkers truly notice.

Rhipsalideae --- Day 6/270

Walk: CPMC/Laurel Village 
Distance: 1.4 miles, Drive a few Blocks, Exercises, Up/Down, Walk around home immobilizer free

Andy the gardener brought this cactus to Ciwt's building around Christmas one year, so Ciwt has always assumed it was a "Christmas Cactus."  But here we are a few weeks from Thanksgiving, and like it does year after year, our little cactus is approaching full bloom. 

Ciwt wouldn't be surprised if the last little bud didn't turn into a full flower on the very day, so she was interested to read that one species of this cactus is actually known as a Thanksgiving Cactus!
And to learn (and promptly forget) this small cactus is known scientifically as "Schlumbergera, "with the 'higher classification "Rhipsalideae."  Whee, don't you love those names?  In its native country the cactus is known as the May Flower because that is when it comes into bloom in Brazil.

Hang It Up --- Day 6/269

Walk: Trader Joe's cab practice, 4 block loop (car driving practice!)
Distance:  4 Blocks,without immobiler! 2 x Up/Down without immobilizer!, 4 exercise/asana/flexion 

See Ciwt's immobilizer off her leg for the first time in two months

It's not quite Goodbye Old Paint to Ciwt's immobilizer but, as of today, she gets to go without it - completely! - at home.  Onward...

Hello Darkness --- Day 6/268

Walk: No (kind of overdid it yesterday)
Distance: 0, a few exercises, basically rest

Day One, 4:00 pm

Even when she knows they are coming, the first short days of "fall back" are always a let down, then somehow Ciwt adjusts.   (kind of) 

Pedaling Along --- Day 6/267

Walk: Dine-in Kabuki Theater (The Departure)
Distance: 2.3 miles, Up/Down x 2, Practice Car Clutch, Exercises, Pedaler 20 minutes

Ciwt's Stationary Bike

As a friend of hers texted "Your biking looks really, really boring."  Well, what can Ciwt say?  Her friend of course goes to a club back east that has televisions on their bikes so she can watch classic movies as she bikes instead of the San Francisco sky.  Maybe Ciwt can rig up something like that.

And when she does, she will not be watching the movie she went to today.  Does a sub-titled documentary about a Japanese monk who devotes himself to keeping people from committing suicide seem like a draw to you?  No, not Ciwt either, but a local reviewer said "Don't miss this one!"  So she chose it as her practice movie to see if she can sit in a regular theater chair yet.  No, luckily in some respects, because she could promptly leave the movie - and scratch the local reviewer off her list - with no guilt.

By Myself --- Day 6/266

Walk: Pad, Hood, Without Immobilizer for a while!!!, Backed car in and out of garage (Huge!)
Distance: 4 x Up/Down/ 6 Blocks, 5 minutes pedaling, 5 minutes pedaling (arms), Exercises, Now                     we're getting somewhere!

Weaning from Ciwt's immobilizer begins!!!!  

Days End . --- Day 6/265

Walk: Mollie Stone's
Distance: 1.5 miles, 6 exercise, 2 Up/Down

 Another home day draws to a close; time now to put things back in place after all the icing, stair climbing,  exercising and stretching every 30 minutes, flexion, pad and street walking.  Rehab is a full time occupation; nice to see the Fall evening appearing.

Twenty Years --- Day 6/264

Walk: Legion of Honor (Klimt/Rodin) (Out again!!!)
Distance: 1 mile, 6 Exercise

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1962-1918), Portrait of Bildnis Sonja Knips, 1893, oil on canvas

Gustav Klimt, The Virgin, 1913, oil on canvas

Both these Klimt paintings are square and approximately the same size, but, oh my, what a difference twenty years has made in Gustav Klimt's painting style!  Looser, freer, bolder use of color, more sensuous.  No wonder Klimt felt constrained by the academic style of his artistic training and joined with other Austrian artists of many modalities (music/Mahler, architecture, sculpture) to form the Vienna Secession movement.  And thank goodness, or the world would be without paintings like The Virgin, The Kiss, The Woman in Gold and other visual delights.

It is rare and special to have 30 major works by Gustav Klimt not only in the United States but right here in San Francisco.  Go to the show if you can; you'll really enjoy it, Ciwt promises.