Oddly, the thing that has signified our household's return to mental health has been... shopping, as well as the same amount of exercise. Ola has been going to Curves, eating well, losing weight and being really happy. Greg just took his thrashed bicycle in to the bike shop yesterday where he was told that it needed a complete overhaul because he's been riding it so much. I've been keeping track of my swimming and I've already gone five and a half miles this month. Of course it's just back and forth miles and if I were on the road I wouldn't have even swum to work yet, but it's keeping me feeling pretty okay. However, it the shopping that's odd.

As you read in the previous post, I hate to shop. I hate stores, I hate people in stores and I hate unfettered capitalism and the marketing of desires generally. I'm a pretty happy person -- and there is stuff I like such as books, food, warm socks and postage stamps -- but shopping to me is only a necessary evil. So, when it's grey and gloomy outside I don't do it at all. Then one day around when the buds were coming out on some of the trees, I said "Crap! there are things we need!" So thanks to the miracle of online ordering, we got a 250 GB hard drive ($100!) and a bunch of writable CDs. I got a travel sleeve for my laptop and some old postage stamps on eBay. Greg has a new pair of sneakers and some lounge pants. My Dad sent us some Valentine's Day apples and pears a bit late. So, we have an impressive stack of boxes and no longer feel like we're hunkering in our miserable little room waiting until we can go outside again. We're making CDs for friends and backing up our trove of movies and teevee shows to the hard drive. I can use my laptop without burning my lap, and I'll have stamps in hand for sending off postcards on my quickie trip to Boston next week.