Every night, before I go to bed, I promise myself that I will change my morning routine. If I don’t start walking again soon, I may never make it a habit again. So, I will walk before I do anything more than drink my coffee.

Well, it didn’t happen again today. Instead of walking, I fell back on what has recently become my morning routine: pour a mug of coffee, open my iPad and check the latest postings of blogger’s I follow, “like” most, ignore a few, comment when I have something to say, grumble at those on which I can neither like nor comment…wait for the power to come back on by drawing…pick up where I left off, and scold myself for not walking while the sun was still low. The only interruptions are when the dog gets bored and brings me his ball for a short game of catch-and-retrieve-the-ball-for-him-from-under-the-sofa-and-repeat. I think the dog laughs every time I lie on the floor and reach under the furniture. He has me trained. 

So… After telling myself I will visit the community pool around 2:00 PM when the sun is less brutal, I finish household chores, pick up my Kindle or iPad, glance up at the clock and curse for letting the day slip away without walk or wade or sun, and begin thinking about dinner. While food is cooking, I clean up the mess the cat made when he brought in his lizard snack, set the table, and wait for my husband to make his appearance. (Often, I eat without him.) Since we still have no TV service, we may settle back after supper with a selection from Netflix, but usually we just read. Going on three months of no television (and only a week with Netflix), I find myself barely missing the news. Maybe tomorrow I will get a call that cable will be installed, but I will not hold my breath. Island time is island time. Period.

Lastly, I go to bed promising myself that tomorrow morning I will walk, first thing.

There is no doubt that I need to get out of this rut. All it would take is leaving the iPad until later. But what would I do if I didn’t have posts to review while drinking the coffee that boosts the day? That’s a problem, because I know if I did not pick up the tablet, I would not get engrossed and forget my walk. If I did not need my coffee jump-start, I would not pick up the tablet. If I stayed in bed…

But I get sucked in by blog posts. (If I didn’t have those, I would be reading the news and getting depressed.) Since I visit the sites of each person I follow as well as new blogs when someone new has read or commented on a post, it takes hours to go through my email notifications before I am finished–especially on a day when it seems every blogger I follow has chosen to post something. I suppose I could just visit the sites and click on the like button without contemplating the art work or latest story; but I can’t seem to make myself do that. Good thing I am a reasonably fast reader, or I would spend all day reading WordPress posts. 

And then there is my own blog to write…and errands to run…

Let me think about how I can force a change in this routine and fit in the things I want and need to do. All I know for certain is that it’s time to rout this routine before it routs me.

Happy blogging!

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#educ_dr