cheeseburger therapy

When I went to exercise class yesterday, I told the physiologist that I was going to be a good test of his mood elevating properties of exercise theory. I told him that my mood, given the gray weather of late, was about a 3 on the mood scale with 1 being crappy and 10 being giddy.

By the end of the hour, I was about a 7. Not giddy but not ready to hitchhike to a southern climate either.

I have been craving cheeseburgers. Every day I wake up and start scheming about how I can achieve a cheeseburger that day. After exercise class, we stopped at Guenther's and I had my cheeseburger fix. They make a great one...hand made patty, nice toasted bun, ketchup, mustard, pickles. A simple pleasure.

Here's a view from the last booth, of which there are only three. You don't want to go here when it's the peak busy time, like at noon. We go around 10:30 so you can still have breakfast but you can get lunch if you'd rather and you don't have to fight anybody for a booth.

poem

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”

Resting on the page, the word
is as beautiful, it touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from some place distant
as this morning — to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing,

that also needs accomplishing.
~ from “The Word,” by Tony Hoagland

I was looking at my blog posts from last year and found this poem. I thought it was time to resurrect it. I love reading old blog posts. Usually, I don't remember them (there are almost 2,000) and it seems like somebody else wrote it. Sometimes I laugh out loud. That's pretty good if you can crack yourself up with a goofy post you wrote years ago.

A little sunlight would be nice. It's after 7 and it still looks like Siberia out there. I'm surprised there aren't more crimes of passion in the winter. But once I have written that, I decide it makes sense. Who could work up enough passion to commit a crime when it's gray all day and dark all night? I have enough trouble working up the energy to do the dishes.

Regis just asked if I am in the winter doldrums. Yes, I would say. I'm going to haul out all the doldrum cures today: yoga, scented candles, music, exercise. Reading and writing are good but if I sit in my chair and stare out on the bleak landscape, it makes me want to go back to bed.

Regis is taking Gus out. I told him when he comes back I want to talk about February and things to look forward to. He is a minute-to-minute guy but he tolerates my love of planning. A guy has to do something to combat the winter blues.