Winter February 3 Monday

27 degrees this morning.  Thought it was going to be slick out based on "freezing rain", but wasn't bad at all.  Did my usual exercise routine, except  riding the bike outside.  Some of the small trees and plants do have ice on them and the trash cart was frozen shut.  Our weeping willow looks like it has laid down and fallen asleep.  (It is still small, but is large enough to be a real pain to try to tie so it is straight).

I didn't think it would take me long to read the on-line edition of the USA Today this morning (I read it while I eat breakfast) since it appears to be all about the Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads etc. that I could care less about.  I'm not much of a pro-football ban anyway (I probably hold the record for falling asleep while watching every Super Bowl ever held!  I feel asleep at the 1965 Super Bowl and at least dozed during every one since.  I'm not making fun of it, I can understand the passion for it, especially if your team is in it (I was for Denver, but....)  I feel that way about baseball, but pro football just isn't my favorite sport, although I enjoy college football.  

Back to the on-line edition of the USA Today, this morning they had some very informative stories this morning that took me longer to read than normal, they were so good.  I "saved" them and hope the app doesn't crash before I get the info.  USA Today actually has some excellent articles, among a lot of fluff.  I enjoy skimming the News, Monday and Tech sections (and occasionally the travel).

For example, it has an article about the "digital" news organizations basically being pyramid schemes (pump them up and sell them high) since the advertising support just isn't there.  (I always wondered where they thought the advertisers were coming from.)  Another about 'on line consultants" that will be valuable in the future, another about health (100 years ago, giving birth was almost as dangerous as breast cancer now, the average American RETIRES at age 62, 100 years ago, the average American DIED at AGE 51!!!  Amazing, if true!  In addition, the average person had 35 years of leisure (Holidays, vacation, retirement etc.) in 1990 and in 1870 the average person had 11 years of leisure!  If you earn $70,000 you are in the top .1% of the WORLD.  (This is from a story by Motley Fool).  

Still like my "Fitbit Force".  I am starting to wear it instead of a wrist watch (I can get the time by punching a button, but then every cell phone, computer and other gadget has a clock on it also.)  It seems to be a little too eager to count my steps (or I walk a lot more than I think I do.).  I did change the settings for sleep to "sensitive"  (and immediately saw my "time actually asleep"  (i.e., not awake or "restless") drop by an hour, but it isn't supposed to change the step counting.  

Busy day ahead.  May be some tough decisions to make in the next week.