Chilly Sunny Sunday Sikes Lake Walk With McNutty Yoga

The outer world at my planet location was chilled to 8 degrees below freezing last night.

An hour before noon, on this third Sunday of the 2021 version of December, I covered myself in a few layers of outerwear and ventured out in the cold to Sikes Lake for a walk with the geese. And a few ducks.

And a flock of seagulls.

I took a picture of the seagulls, but it turned out blurry. There were several dozens of the white birds roosting on the cement berm which crosses Sikes Lake for no reason apparent.

I do not know why seagulls would be flocking so far from any sea. But, they are seen frequently at this non saltwater location.

The temperature was 41 when I began the walk around the lake. I quickly found out I was overly layered in outerwear. Zero wind helped keep the chill level down.

About a month ago the entity who goes by the name McNutty claimed she had begun an intense yoga program. Yesterday McNutty proudly boasted she was now able to get into the Lotus position. I then said I would need photo documentation of this feat before I could believe it to be true.

That Lotus position photo documentation arrived this morning.

I don't have fancy yoga wear like McNutty has, so I can't photo document myself in the Lotus position.

I am sitting in the Lotus position right now, in my computer chair. The Lotus position is extremely salubrious...

Happy Birthday B.K.S. Iyengar You Yoga Monster

This morning's attempt to do a yoga routine did not go much better than my last attempt. The Reverse Plough, which I used to easily do, continues to vex me.

And then, a few minutes after being vexed by the Reverse Plough I go to look up something on Google to suddenly find  myself wondering why is Google mocking my yoga woes?

However, I quickly figured out that I was being hypersensitive regarding my yoga issues, with all knowing Google knowing nothing about them.

I eventually figured out the reason a skinny cartoon figure was doing yoga positions on my Google screen was due to today being the 97th birthday of someone named B.K.S Iyengar.

I had no clue what this Iyengar guy had to do with yoga, so I Googled his name to learn....

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar, better known as B.K.S. Iyengar, was the founder of the style of yoga known as "Iyengar Yoga" and was considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world.
I do not know what the style is of the yoga I am inept at doing. I'd not heard  of the Iyengar Yoga style til today.

I suspect B.K.S. Iyengar was easily able to do the Reverse Plough position, likely up til the day he died.....

Swimming In Dense Fog Before Experiencing No Go Yoga

What you are looking at here is the view from my patio balcony lookout on the outer world, looking through a dense fog at an increasingly cool pool, and the white ghost which has taken up residence in one of the pool zone's trees.

I did not have to much trouble navigating my way to the pool this morning, despite the almost zero visibility.

Til I took up residence in this landlocked part of the planet I thought land had to be near a large body of water, like an ocean, to have dense fog events.

The 24 hour temperature average continues to be well above 50. A 24 hour temperature average below 50 is my threshold beyond which I do not get in the then too cool pool.

Yesterday when I took myself to River Legacy Park in Arlington I had not intended that to be a jogging excursion. However, two miles from vehicular cover heavy rain turned me into a running maniac. I had no idea I was now able to run two miles at semi-high speed.

Decades ago I took up yoga. I used to get back aches, decades ago. Yoga pretty much put an end to back aches. Over the following decades my yoga practice became a reduced routine of my yoga pose favorites. Like the Bhujangasana Cobra Pose. A couple years ago I discovered I could no longer the Halasana Plough Pose, let alone the Revere Plough Pose.

It was an increase in the diameter of my mid-section which made the Plough Pose impossible. I have since reduced the size of the diameter of my mid-section, and while I am closer to being able to do the full Plough Pose, it is no where near the effortless act it used to be, long long ago.

A decade or so ago, during a previous moment of madness where I decided to once again become a Yoga Maniac I bought The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga.

Well.

This morning I was distraught to learn it is not only the Plough Pose that is no longer effortless for me. Pretty much all the Poses, except the most simple, are not an easy stretch.

This morning I had absolutely no problem with the Tadasana Mountain Pose. Basically this Yoga Pose involves standing still with your feet together, arms stretched down. That's it. One is supposed to center oneself. I aced this one. The other Poses in this section presented various levels of difficulty. And then I came to another one I aced.

The Plank Pose. Basically the up position of a push up.

My next failure was the Vashishthasana Arm Balance Pose. Ouch.

The next chapter was all about bending backwards. Up first was the aforementioned Bhujangasana Cobra Pose. I can do this one. But I don't feel good about it. The next one to cause me trouble was the Dhanurasana Bow Pose. I used to be so flexible. This morning I learned this is no longer the case. There are multiple Bow Poses, all of which flex vexed me.

Then I came to one I do all the time, the Urdhvamukha Shvanasana Upward Facing Dog Pose. Basically the Cobra Pose only you keep arching further back with the help of your arms, help which is not part of the Cobra Pose.

I shall mention only one more Yoga Pose failure, because to list them all is just way too depressing. The Ustrasana Camel Pose. This one is so simple, or it used to be.

Well, I am determined to get myself back being a Yoga Master. When I reach that point maybe I'll make a video to document it. Yeah, I can really see that happening....

Walking Softly While Wielding A Big Stick With Yoga & The Indians At Village Creek

A Man With His Club Heading Towards A Yoga Group

Is the moon full? Is it the lunatic time of the month?

I could not see the moon, even if it were dark and possibly visible, because we are under a thick cloud cover, currently, in this sort of parched part of the planet.

Rain was predicted for today. But, so far, none has fallen on my location.

It is currently 61 degrees. I tested the temperature of the swimming pool this morning. I deemed it not swim-worthy. Tomorrow morning I suspect it will be.

Back to today's walk with the Ghosts of the Caddoan Confederacy, the Native Americans who made up the Anadarko, Bidais, Caddo, Keechi, Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Waco, Waxahachie and Wichita tribes, who used to live in a huge village that has now been reduced to being made note of via the existence of Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

Today there were a lot of people haunting Village Creek. In the picture, above, you see a club wielding man heading to a group of women doing yoga, led by a giant of a man of what looked to be of African-American distinction.

I met a couple dressed in what looked to be Middle Eastern garb, with the female of the couple wearing a head scarf and the man of the couple speaking on a smart phone in what sounded to be Arabic. I am almost 100% certain they were not on a terrorist mission. They greeted me in a very friendly manner, as I passed by, with the man taking a time out from speaking on the phone, in Arabic, to give me a very nice Texas accented "Howdy."

A family of 5, with a baby in a wobbly stroller, pushed by a dad wearing droopy drawers, which he cinched up as I approached, greeted me with a nice Mexican accented "Howdy."

I love how multi-cultural going on a walk in Texas in Village Creek Natural Historical Area is at times. Like today.

Miscellaneous Monday Bread Dough Kneading In Fort Worth

We've had a cold front blow in. It's only 85, right now, coming up on 3 pm at my location in the far eastern zone of Fort Worth.

It did not seem very chilly when I did my crack of dawn swim. I think if I keep up the swimming I'll soon have my minor case of obesity under control.

Towards that end I went hiking at my favorite hiking spot around noon, that being the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It being warm, it was a hike half au naturel type of day.

This morning Washington's Reigning Scrabble Queen mentioned that her personal trainer had made her sore all over. I don't quite remember the context, but somehow that caused me to mention that this strange, difficult to do, yoga exercise, that I'd been doing for a couple months, had given me those 6 pack ab things that I thought were supposed to require a lot of bother to acquire.

Besides that 6 pack deal, making the core zone way stronger seems to have had useful improving effect on both biking and hiking. And walking up stairs. And other areas that are not the type details I'll be talking about in this venue.

I told the Scrabble Queen that I thought the name of the yoga posture had bread in it. Maybe it was something like the Kneading Bread Posture. She's Googling to try and find it. I can see why it might be called Kneading Bread because when you get it working right the motion going on in your stomach zone does sort of looking like bread dough being worked.

So, that's my day today, so far, in Fort Worth, swimming, hiking and kneading bread dough. And spending too much time at the computer.

Yoga Keeps Me Young

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about a 90 year old Yoga Master, Kantilal Talati, who has been doing yoga for decades, after he had a heart attack when he was 44.

When asked how old he is, he always says "18".

He's never sick, never gets a headache. And takes no medications.

I'm often asked why I look so much younger than my 39 years. I attribute my relative youthfulness also to decades of yoga. It keeps you limber. Yoga is really easy to do. You just have to keep at it til the postures become second nature. The head stand took me the longest to perfect. It's great for cerebral blood flow.

Now get out of that chair and go stretch yourself. Or quit sitting and stand on your head for awhile.

Matthew McConaughey Baby, Me & Yoga

Matthew McConaughey is a native Texas boy. He has a house down in Austin where he likes to get naked and play his bongos late at night. He and I have a lot in common, because I enjoy naked bongoing, too. Earlier in the evening though. And my preferred herbal stimulant is tea. Red Zinger.

When Matthew is visiting the D/FW zone he likes to run in River Legacy Park.

I am very grateful to Matthew McConaughey for one good reason. He taught me the right way to do the Cobra Yoga position. I've been doing the Cobra Postion correctly for a year or so now. It's made my back so much stronger. And when I do get a back a bit out of whack, like a couple weeks ago, I think the proper Cobra gets my back back working real fast.

I don't remember when last Matt was here running at River Legacy. He's been busy because he got himself in the family way with his girl friend, a model named Camila Alves. The pair are not married, but yesterday they became proud parents of a little boy named Levi.

Levi will likely be taught the proper way to do Yoga Positions from a young age. I wish I'd had that advantage.