I withdrew into my cocoon this afternoon in response to a somewhat intense week, the first of my book tour. I fended off various attacks from several quarters, had some good readings, got a new exercise bike for my broken heart, and immersed myself in a great novel and some fine music.

First, off, I am worried about Red. He hasn’t eaten in more than 24 hours and has been licking his lips recently, and at different times. Lip licking can mean a number of things, usually the dog is trying to send a message or make a statement, in this case, I think it means nausea. He did vomit the small amount of food he was given.

Tomorrow, the vet. I confess to being concerned about Red, every border collie I have owned has gotten sick around this age, I don’t wish to get ahead of myself, it’s probably just some bad thing he ate out in the yard or the pasture, where there are lots of awful things for dogs to eat.

We’ll see tomorrow.

I faced some issues in my life directly this morning, and wrote about them on the blog. That is grounding for me. Maria challenged me to understand that there are some angry and disturbed people in the world, and it generally has little to do with me. I understand this, and I am learning to listen to her. I am not good at listening to people about my own issues, I’d rather talk about theirs. But Maria is wise and honest, I listen to her.

Today, we (Maria) assembled a new bike I ordered, it a simple one, without all the digital timers and mountains and bells and whistles. I need to be mindful of my heart, and it’s need for a certain kind of exercise. I love to walk, but that isn’t enough, and sometimes my angina makes it difficult to walk  up hills, which I always loved to do.

I look at it this way. I have a broken heart, and it has been somewhat repaired, but I can’t forget about it.

My heart condition is very real and needs attention. So I got this bike and did an hour on it, this afternoon. I overdid it a bit for the first time, of course, and my legs are protesting. But there were no issues with the angina and I listened to Lorde, Van Morrison, Alison Krauss and the music from the play Hamilton.

I intend to do four or five hours a week on the new bike, which works very well.

Towards the end of the bike ride,  which has a reading stand, I read from Elizabeth Strout’s very beautiful new novel, Anything Is Possible. Tonight, we went to the Bog to have dinner with Scott and Lisa Carrino, they are up to their necks in work preparing to open the Round House Cafe 2.0, it was fun to see them. The new cafe sounds quite wonderful.

This week, the book tour halts. I’ll be posting topics on Facebook from my book “Taking To Animals,” still fending off that beloved pig on Amazon. I’m beginning to get some lovely reviews for the book, perhaps it is finding its own place in the sun.