We finally have sunny days in Tennessee, after too many rainy ones. Plenty more sunshine is forecast, too.

Despite not being able to be directly in the sun for any amount of time, I still love it. Everything is — literally — brighter.

It improves my mood, too.

Missing the sun

The dark days were part of my dislike for Wisconsin’s winter. (As well as the snow, cold, sub-zero days and nights, bad roads, wind chills …)

Winter’s short days are depressing, too. Thankfully, we still are headed toward our longest day — June 21, when we have the greatest amount of light.

The longest day. I’m not sure how I’ll celebrate this year. The Alzheimer’s Association suggests you do what you love that day to raise awareness and money for the Alzheimer’s cause.

Last year, I biked. Maybe I’ll do that again. I’ve barely been on a bike in months, though.

I’ll have to find something I enjoy to mark the day. All that sunshine deserves celebration.

 

Sunny days

While I could have rented a bike in Portugal, I did not, choosing instead to walk or take public transportation. Friends would drive occasionally, or we’d take Uber.

It helped that it was so often bright and clear. Sunny days made it easy to want to get out and walk.

So, I’m out of practice for biking — especially on Tennessee’s hills. I need to get in better shape for biking.

Now for hiking, I’m pretty good. Lisbon, like Tennessee, is built on hills, so you’re almost always going up or down.

A funny story: A friend and I were trying to find the location for a meeting, so she had her map app open to navigate there. She pointed at the screen and said, “It should be to the left here.” We reached the end of the block and turned to the left — a full block of steps lay ahead — uphill for us. Ah, well.

Truthfully, I’d rather go uphill and down steps. I find it harder to walk up steps than down them, and it’s harder on my knees and feet to go downhill without steps. My feet slide forward in my shoes, and I resist the urge to pound down the hill, which is what I feel like I’m doing anyway.

In my neighborhood in Lisbon, called Alvalade, I would take routes that would let me do that when possible — take steps down but walk uphill. That’s the beauty of exploring a place on foot — you get to know it really well. I found little short cuts and pretty streets that I’d take even if they were a block or two out of the way — just because I liked them. On my laptop, I have lots of sunny pictures from my daily walks.

I miss Lisbon’s sunny days, the blue skies and the beautiful weather. Maybe we can mark the longest day with a Portuguese BBQ-style picnic. That might be a great way to celebrate the sun, the longest day and my love for Lisbon.

Be a Better Writer Tip

Change how you write

In my last blog, I suggested a tip to change up your writing. Use today’s tip in conjunction with that tip or on its own. Try both!

Change up how you write — the physical way you do it. If you’re struggling to write, stuck in a rut, distracted or bored, try a different writing technique.

If you usually write on your laptop, try writing with pen and paper, or vice versa.

Actually writing things by hand takes more time, but it helps you remember it, too. For me, it seems to activate a different part of my brain.

You also can try writing on your cellphone. Open the notes program or a writing program, and type away. This is handy when you’re someplace without your computer or pen/paper, but you’ve got some time to write.

If you’re not able to type, you can use the voice text option on your phone to take notes for you. You will need to clean them up later, but it’s an easy way to get your basic ideas “on paper.” This is helpful when you’re taking a walk, for instance. I’ve written some blog posts while on a walk using voice text.

Send the notes to your email when you’re done, then dump them into a word-processing program to clean them up.

Bonus tip: You can add punctuation to your voice texting by saying “comma,” “period,” “exclamation point” or “question mark.” Quote marks sometimes will come out correctly, too.