2016 Summer July 4 Monday

77 degrees this morning, walk 37:18 minutes.  

July 4!  Overall it has been a good weekend, and I expect today will be good also.  

For the next three years, Independence Day will be a week day, one day, holiday.  While I enjoy the three day holiday, I also enjoy the “one” day holidays that are in the middle of the week.  I think Independence Day, Veterans Day, and Christmas and New Year Holidays are the only ones that are in the middle of the week any more.

Actually, I didn’t realize five of the “Holiday” days could be in the middle of the week until I wrote that.  

Overall nice rain yesterday in our area. Probably not enough to really help the trees, bushes and grass, but every bit helps.  

Read a story yesterday about “private equity”.  To show their influence, legislation (at both the state and national levels) was considered, to make “private equity” be more “transparent”   (becoming an overused word), especially when public or retirement funds are involved.    

Of course, instead of “private equity” becoming MORE transparent so that employees would know what exorbitant fees their retirement plans are paying, the private equity funds “lobbied” (paid off) the “elected officials” so now they can be even more secret about their high fees than they were before!  

While that falls into the category of “not much I can do about it”, I still feel like I have to at least state my opinion on that!

Back to “time efficiency”, I am always trying to make my time more efficient, especially in the early morning hours 

I have been taking my walk, doing my exercises, then taking a shower before I write in my journal.  They I take a nap, ride by bike and take another shower

Of course, it would be  more efficient, everything else being equal, to wait and take a shower after I bike and skip the shower immediately after I walk.  Obviously I feel better if I take a shower after I walk, so I guess you could say I have been making quality (feeling better) over efficiency (saving time by taking only one show after I bike).  

While it sounds like a simple plan, saving 20 minutes or so by only taking one shower, the importance of the quality of the next hour or so from taking the shower right after my walk (especially in this hot weather) is especially high.  

This morning I decided to to test my theory by not taking a shower until after my bike ride.  I’ll see what happens and decide if it is worth it to take the shower right after I walk.  

One consideration is the shower after my walk is my “main shower” (I shave, brush my teeth etc. then), so actually I’m not wasting a lot of time on my second shower, since I just take a quick shower.  

I also got the chance to swim last night, although normally I take a shower after I swim also, so I guess this shower after my bike ride this morning will make up for two other showers!

I am pleased that, just like my walk and weight exercises, riding my bike is just becoming another part of my day.  Probably riding when it is cooler was a good idea at least at first.  

Of course, for years, I rode my bike only in the dark and almost never in the light except perhaps on weekends  

Looking forward to the Independence Day holiday today.  Hope everyone was a wonderful and enjoyable July 4!

That’s it for now, Monday, July 4, 2016.