Accomplished

Soreness has overcome my large muscles.  While I probably could do a reduced intensity treadmill session, maybe even should do, I opted a second consecutive recovery day following two days of driveway snow removal that maybe would have been better delegated.  Yet getting the snow cleared by hand with a shovel over several paced sessions gave me a significant measure of accomplishment, one worth some soreness that will run its course.  I produced some other achievements.  Apple Walnut Pie takes some organization.  I have acquired enough experience with this by now to take out all ingredients, separated by crust, filling, and topping.  I measure what I will need for each, combine what I can to minimize containers that need washing later, then make the crust in a food processor.  Adding liquid sometimes goes well, sometimes leaves me with a sticky blob, but always better when chilled for a bit.  This time it rolled out easily on a granite pastry board, transferred to a porcelain pie plate more easily than usual, and I remembered to prick the crust after it was in the pan and trimmed to size.  Preparing the apples has also improved with practice.  I know to use five moderately large ones, peeled and then cut one at a time before going on to the next.  I halve each, as it lets me see where it needs to be cut to avoid the core, then slice.  Add to premixed custard in my biggest bowl, then dump all into the crusted pie plate.  Then high oven for ten minutes, followed by moderate oven for 35 minutes.  This time I checked the crust halfway and shielded it with foil, as it typically overcooks.  For the topping I usually use my minifood chopper but decided to take a chance with the larger food processor instead.  All ingredients except walnuts just get whirred a bit.  Walnuts placed in sandwich bag, then pounded with a heavy can of tomato sauce.  For the final fifteen minutes it gets distributed atop the partially baked pie.  It came out just right this time.  

This effort creates a few racks of milchig dishes, which I also scrubbed in pre-determined portions.

Snow removal and baking are usually started and completed on the same day, this time over two days.  That is not true of larger projects that progress one stage at a time over weeks to months.  Without an end point, they become impossible to fulfill.  I set a reading schedule, allotting six months but always completing before that.  The rules have been and still are one audiobook, one e-book, one traditional book distributed over a novel, a book of Jewish theme, and one of general non-fiction.  All done.  What Retirees Want by Ken Dichtwald as an audiobook which I used for a lecture, The Great Partnership by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as a traditional book, and O Pioneers by Willa Cather which I secured as an e-book from the public library's hoopla service.  All completed five weeks into the calendar year.

There is much to be said about either setting a challenge, as the reading or pie, or having one imposed as snow removal.  All create a feeling of having accomplished something highly tangible.  I can drive where I want because of the sessions with the snow shovel, enjoy the pie for dessert with milchig dinners, have ample kitchen capacity with washed utensils, gave a suitable lecture from the audiobook, understood Jewish philosophy better from one of the masters, and focused on fictional character development by reading a classic.  And at least with shoveling, sometimes I need a reminder that I have that useful personal attribute of Grit, the insight to segment a project that takes more than one step and the tenacity to pursue each of the steps as part of a completed whole.