Summer 2015 August 21 Friday

72 degrees this morning, walk 38:23 minutes

Coolish wind this morning, makes it almost as cool as yesterday.  There is a wide variance in how 72 degrees feels now and how it feels when the sun is up.

Katherine has her Facebook page, and I am proud of her for her restraint!  She actually did a really nice job on it. Another one of life’s milestones!

Friday already in late August.  As I mention frequently, time sure does fly.  Two years ago seems like another world, as I guess it actually is another world, a place I will never return too.

On the other hand, I could say that about any day or even hour, or even moment is a world apart that I will never return to visit.

Somehow I have slipped into my new age without any problems.  Some ages, it seems like I always say my previous age and then have to correct myself for six months, other ages, I say it without any hesitation.  

Stock market setbacks are always a little difficult to determine how to respond.  You know (and hear) “it always comes back”, but you have to wonder if “this time is really different”!  

The WordPress is advancing into areas I will probably never use, but I am glad to know about what can be done with WordPress.  One of those things you wish you had known about years ago, although I don’t know if I would have done anything with it even then.  

However, I think the important thing is the practice in using the basics of WordPress.  As I mentioned before, that is the way I learn something like WordPress, just by doing it.

School started yesterday for almost all schools in this area (or at least all schools in this area are now in school.  It means the hustle and bustle of school zones (motorists here really don’t observe school zones, which surprised me), school buses and school activities. 

In just a few days, I will have my two year anniversary of my “tooth implant”, at least the first surgery.  It actually took almost a year from my first surgery to the completion, and of course the quoted price skyrocketed.

It is one of those things, if I was asked if I would do it again, I would say, probably not, at least unless I had to due to an accident etc.  On the other hand, I probably would use a different Dentist and that could make a world of difference. 

We have been “lucky” in the sense that we have a primary care Doctor who we really like and who really fits the role of the Doctor who cares about his patients. 

Of course, Aliene was really fortunate to have the surgeon she did for her neck operation, he did a wonderful job.  

For some reason, my “GIRD” appears to be flaring up, which causes me to cough.  There is probably several reasons for that, but I decided to eat in smaller bits throughout the day, and take more Tagamet!  I also will need to revisit the things you are supposed to do to reduce the symptoms of GIRD.

I quit drinking any kind of carbonated beverages about 8 years ago due to the GIRD, and have to admit I haven’t missed them.  

Probably coffee is one of my culprits in the GIRD systems, but frankly there are a lot of other things I will try before I cut out coffee!

The weekend is coming!

That’s it for now, Friday, August 21, 2015.

Summer 2015 August 20 Thursday (Happy Birthday Katherine!:)

56 degrees this morning, 38:32 minute walk

Happy 13th Birthday to Katherine today!  13 has always been a big birthday (you’re a teenager!), but now you can also get a (legal) Facebook page!  I asked Katherine to be sure to “friend” me on Facebook!  

I can’t wait to see what will be on her Facebook page!  She is definitely her own personality and a lot of fun.  Again, have a really Happy Birthday!

56 degrees this morning!  I can’t believe I am actually sitting out on my patio in my usual place writing this!  Of course, if there was any wind I definitely wouldn’t be here!  

I wore my long sleeve “breathing” shirt and long sleeve jersey this morning for my walk, which felt fine.  I can’t give up on shorts yet, so I wore my shorts.  I was plenty warm, but again, there was no wind.

It is funny how you tend to stretch the seasons.  I normally can’t switch to my “summer” workout clothes (shorts and t-shirt) until it reaches the high sixties or even low seventies in temperature, but when it is Fall going into winter, I stretch wearing summer exercise clothes down to the low forties until I bundle up again!

Ditto on shirts etc. for regular wear, I wear my long-sleeve shirts too long into the Summer and my short-sleeve shirts (and no coat) too long into the Fall/Winter.

I am not looking forward to the long cold Winter, even thought we have a “mild” Winter here, it still just seems to grind on forever.

This year, I really am going to escape to someplace warm (no someplace HOT!) for at least a weekend in February or so.  The Winter just seems to last forever once it starts and it usually doesn’t “really” warm up until late May, whether it was here or in Memphis.

Went to a minor league (AAA) ballgame last night.  Probably had my last foot long corn dog of the season!  

It was fun, we left after 10 innings (and watched the 11th inning as we walked out).  I turn into a pumpkin (or something like that) at 10:30 p.m. or so, although I continue to function (I think).

I was pleased to learn that “our” team won in the bottom of the 15th inning on a “walk off” home run by our favorite baseball player, Darwin Barney.  

We watched (on tv) him play for with Cubs for several years with one of the best infields in the MLB.  He was one of our favorites then and we  were amazed that we would actually see him play for a minor league team, even AAA.  Of course, he is 30 years old, I understand the feeling although the circumstances are certainly different!  

I have probably heard the words “walk off” home run, single etc. but I never really knew what it meant until I looked it up.  (It means what it says, “you hit a home run, single etc. and “walk off”!  Amazing when you think about it!

Same thing with a “crooked number”  (any number but 1 if you think about it!).  It is so obvious that I didn’t realize what it was until it was explained to me!  Thank goodness for the internet!

In the enjoyment of the extra inning ballgame, I lost an hour of sleep, which is important to me.  I was surprised when I woke up at the normal time this morning, since normally if I go to bed later, I sleep an equal amount later.  (almost always 4 1/2 hours).  

Of course, that doesn’t count the naps I take, which probably add another hour or so by the end of the day.  Fortunately a short nap of even just closing my eyes, but normally 10 minutes or so, completely restores me. I am heading for my 30 minute nap right now and then I take a ten minute nap after breakfast. 

It works, what can I say, although I am going to have a “sleep study” (at home) next week, so more on that another day.

That’s it for now, Thursday, August 20, 2015 and a big Happy 13th Birthday to Katherine! 

Summer 2015 August 19 Wednesday

69 degrees this morning, no walk due to lightning and rain

Not as cold as they forecast (yet), but it looks like 69 degrees might be the high, at least for a while.  A lot of lightning and thunder.

The radar pictures on the weather app indicate we are currently in the worst of it and it will probably continue most of the morning, although not as hard.

Thinking about how small efforts can result in big results.  I probably write about 1 1/4 pages a day.  That is over 400 pages a year, which is a medium size book, assuming the written page is about equal to a “book” page.  It probably wouldn’t be a book anyone would want to read, but it is a book.  

I assume if you wanted to write a book, or accomplish any big task, if you could dedicate 30 minutes a day to it (or even 15 minutes) you could accomplish a lot in a year.  

I think the key is deciding how to prioritize your time, since there aren’t that many 15 or 30 minute periods in a day that you can dedicate to a single project!  

I remember when I was younger my parents had the “five foot Harvard Book Shelf” or something like that.  I remember reading if you spent 15 minutes per day reading them you wold obtain the same knowledge as a college degree.  What college degree, I don’t remember.

Of course, that wouldn’t be true now, since there has been so many changes, but it illustrates what a little effort per day can do.  

Also, the explosion in information has been truly a tidal wave of change that very few people could conceive before it happened.  

Of course, you can look at it the other way  also.  While it depends on what you consider a waste of time or “frivolous”  use of time, that also adds up!  Nothing wrong with frivolous use of time, I think everyone needs to consider balance in their life.  

I was just thinking, if I walk 40 minutes per day, say roughly 28 days per month, that totals about 224 hours per year walking.  That doesn’t seem right, but I computed it several times and that is want I get.  That would be equal to 28 work days (8 hours per day) per year, if I figured it right!

This thinking came up while I was thinking about the WordPress class.

It has been a good class, and I think the important thing is I am learning where to effectively find information on where to go look for something when I am trying to accomplish something on my web site.  I don’t want to do some of the project now, but I may in the future.  While I may not remember exactly how to do it, I am learning of where to go to get help and also some of the basics in navigation of WordPress.  

Also, I think in trying the more advanced features, I get to use some of the basic features which area  foundation of WordPress, so that is good  reinforcement.

Dream yesterday morning, a really strong dream, it took me a while after I woke up to realize it was only a dream.

Dream, Tuesday, 8-18-15

Dreamed I was in a high building with friends, a very high building somewhere it was cold in the winter (probably Chicago)  They had a hot tub in a car that hung out over the street with an “open air” view and a way of  getting back in where  it was difficult and could make you subject to falling.  (Kind of like an open air door with a step.)

At times, someone would come out and push the car/hot tub, terrifying me as he car rocked.

The same dream, but a different scene, I was worried because I had lost a child I was supposed to be watching.  While shopping (or something) I couldn’t find him.

I was never more glad to wake up and realize it was just a dream!

the characters in the dream are unknown.  Aliene was in the dream the child and his mother, but otherwise they had no dimension in real life.

I really was feeling like the dream was real.

The entire dream was in a big  city, not sure what i was doing there.  Really realistic 

That’s it for now, Wednesday, April 19, 2015

Summer 2015 August 18 Tuesday

83 degrees this morning, Walk 39:03 minutes

Clouds this morning, storms to the north.

A relatively high wind (for me) this morning on the patio, probably bringing in the forecast storms for this afternoon and tonight.  

At the baseball game last night, they had “foot long corn dogs”, something i have never had before and probably not healthy eating to say the least.  But oh, so good!  And I did only have one!

Still have been have active dreams recently, I just haven’t been getting them down right after I wake up.  It is amazing how fast you forget (or at least I forget) dreams even when they are so strong you wake up and it takes a minute for me to realize it is only a dream.  

Some of my dreams go back a long ways.  I don’t know the purpose of dreams, I just know they are very strong. It is strange I forget something so fast that is so strong.

Maybe if you consider the waking world and the sleep world as two different dimensions or even a different world, and there is a short transition between the two worlds or dimensions.  

Sometimes I think I have having the continuation of a  previous dream, but I really never know if it is a continuation or simply part of the single dream.  One of the reasons for recording dreams.  

I am scheduled to take a “sleep study” next week.  It will be at home, fortunately and I’m not quite sure what the goal is, other than to measure the oxygen in my blood?  Or something to that effect.  Since I can go to sleep almost anywhere and anytime, (and sometimes do), it shouldn’t be a problem getting to a deep sleep for whatever they decide to measure. 

School is starting this week for almost all area schools, so I guess that means the Summer is officially over, or at least it is the start of the end of Summer.  Of course, there is only about a month until Fall is officially here, although normally Summer type  weather continues for some time. 

WordPress class tonight and Thursday.  It has been a good class, if nothing else, it provides me with the incentive to start making changes and taking  some  initiative to make some changes on my site and just see what happens.  It had become rather static except for my journal.  

One of the students mentioned that “once you can do it, now what do we do with it”.  A good question, sometimes you feel like the wandering voice in the wilderness, with no one reading reading your web site, or, worse yet, if you had a web site and couldn’t think of a reason to use it. 

I have always found I learned something when I had a use for it and it is better if I decide what I want to learn to do and then learn it, rather than randomly learn something you may never use again, or at least won’t use soon enough to remember it or it will have changed so much you need to learn the new part and unlearn some of the old part!

Just started to rain.  I had to move from the outer patio to the inner patio (with a roof over it).  Strange the forecast said there was a 20% chance of rain at 3 a.m., 20% at 4 a.m. and 0%  at 5 a.m.  So, of course, it is now 5 a.m. and the first rain starts.  I guess it didn’t know there was a 0% chance of rain.

On the other hand, it has now stopped, so maybe it (whatever it is) read the app and realized it wasn’t supposed to be here!

Planning on a “Field Day” today at work.  I was hoping it wouldn’t rain until this afternoon.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Summer 2015 August 17 Monday

78 degrees this morning, 38:23 minute walk

The weather forecast is for a low of 55 degrees Wednesday!  If that happens (and it will probably be about the low while I walk), it will be a real shock to my system!  

The miles gather on my  shoes.  It has always bemused me to think about how something “new” becomes “old”.  A new car suddenly (or gradually) becomes an “old” car at some point.  I never know if that is 1, 2 , 3 or even 4 or 5 years, especially with the more reliable cars.  Maybe it is mileage, although with cars easily going 200,000 miles and much more it is hard to say that a car with 40,000 miles is an “old” car.  

Of course, the walking shoes are a little different.  According to “experts”, walking shoes become “old” and even dangerous after 300 to 500 miles, which doesn’t take that long if you walk.  

For some reason, the shoes I bought (about $30 more tan the “cheaper” shoes are supposed be good for an extra 200 miles.  If the life of a walking/running shoe is really 300 miles, an extra 200 miles for $30 is a real bargain.  I figure the first 300 miles are about .50 per mile and the next 200 miles are free, or very roughly, .33 per mile.  The cheaper shoes, if they will go 300 miles, about .40 per mile, assuming my math is correct.  

Of course, I also get a reasonably good looking and in condition looking shoes to wear for casual wear for years, so that is simply a bonus.  It is also a burden as the years go by and I need to find  a place for all of the old shoes.  

I used to wear them out, but that created foot problems, which really doesn’t make any sense.

Of course, the major advantage is that the more expensive shoes (in this case at least) feel much better than the “cheaper” (but still excellent feeling) shoes, so you could say the value of of the shoes is “priceless” if you consider the real value of a pair of shoes that are comfortable to walk in.  

Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t do all of this before I bought them!  

Such are the thoughts I have while walking in the morning!

I am listening to “Outlaw Platoon” about a Platoon that was sent to Afghanistan (yes, I had to look up how to spell it!)  I just started it yesterday morning, so am just getting into it, but the writer was musing about how a year before the action he describes, his biggest worry in life was getting to class on time.  

At the time, he was in charge of about 40 U.S. soldiers and other Afghanistan troops and every decision he made could be a life or death decision.  A real change in roles.

I always wonder how such situations change you in the future.  For years, I was always “on call” for possible decisions that may not have been “life or death”, but they were decisions that could cost or save money and affect residents or employees.  Now, after my work is done, it is done.  

Actually, I still don’t know how I feel about that.  The present is the present.  

Baseball season is almost over, at least the minor league baseball team we have tickets too.  We have enjoyed it and have a large number of games in the last two weeks (actually this week and the first week in September) as we scramble to use all of our tickets of our “half-season” tickets.  

One of the features of the tickets is an “all you can eat and drink” feature, which is both good and bad.  It is typically baseball food (hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken breast, cheese, chicken tenders, popcorn, peanuts, M & M’s  etc.)  Fortunately it includes drinks so I can have all the coffee and water I want, which is wonderful!  We have learned to moderate our impulse to eat junk food, but the temptation is always there.  I have discovered a special liking for “chicken tenders”, which is fortunately limited to baseball games (and very limited there)  as it is not something I would want to eat (health wise) on a regular basis.  

Monday again, the weekend is over!  Between baseball and my WordPress classes this is going to be a busy week!

That’s it for now, Monday, August 17, 2015.  

Summer 2015 August 16 Sunday

71 degrees this morning, Walk 38:38 minutes

Cool weather is coming!  Actually the  forecast was for mid-sixties this morning, although it normally does get cooler after my walk.

During my walk this morning I was thinking of how changes in your life occur.

I had always used “long, over the ankle” socks for all my socks, even for walking.  I also used a certain type of undershorts since I was a child.  (I don’t need to go into detail.)

Several years ago, at the CMA fest, a company named Gildan that makes socks and underwear etc. gave out free samples of socks and underwear (sounds strange I know) as well as t-shirts etc.

Anyway, being the way I am, I worn the free socks, which were the “low ankle” type and found I really liked them.  (They were smart enough to give away a high quality sock)  I also tried out the new style of underwear and liked it.

Anyway, four or five years later, I now almost exclusively wear  the “low ankle” sock and different type of underwear, unless I am wearing dress clothes and it all ties back to the free socks and underwear at the CMA Fest.

Of course, the only kind of summer shorts (as opposed to slacks or jeans, not the underwear type) I buy are “cargo” shorts (for summer wearing), although cargo dress slacks aren’t quite acceptable yet, I”m sure they eventually will be.  Most of my casual slacks are cargo slacks

Strange how our preferences are set and can also change.  That was a structural change.  

I just changed to listening to my “original iPad” during my walk when I listen to my book.  The “audible app” is just too nice, and somehow my “original iPad” will run it fine while my re-purposed iPhone 3 and 3S, won’t, for some reason.  

Several years ago I read where the “original iPad’ value  was “zero”, but  mine still has an excellent value as a music player, some old apps that run good, a photo storage/display and now I listen to my books on it during my walk.  It also operates our security system.  

My original iPod has just about lost any usefulness (mainly since the original iPad,  iPhones 3 and 3S serve the same purpose and are newer and easier to use). 

It is SO much simpler to listen off the app then to go through the hassle of downloading the book, usually transposing several chapters in the process etc.  I’ll see about the extra weight.

For some reason, the original iPad has a battery like iron, I can literally run it for hours without recharging the battery.  The iPhone 3 and 3S battery is still excellent, although I normally needed to recharge it each day or at least every other day.  

It is also useful in another way since it gives me another use for the many “backpacks” (very simple backpacks) I have gathered throughout the years.  

I used to back up audio books to CD’s to listen in the car, but now I simply run off the app on my iPhone.  It is so simple it is unbelievable, once I learned how to do it.  Before that it was frustrating and maddening, but at least I finally learned how it works.  Now it is as simple as turning on my car radio.

Weekend is already half over, and month of August is half over, school is starting next week etc.  I have a hard time believing summer is almost over, and 2015 is already into August! 

.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, August 16, 2015.

Summer 2015 August 15 Saturday

76 degrees this morning, 38:53 minute walk.

The weekend is here.  While I enjoy my job and look forward to the work, I really enjoy the weekend also.  A chance to catch up, have some down time etc. and just something different.  I especially enjoy it this weekend with the two WordPress classes I had.  

While I enjoy the WordPress classes and am learning a lot, it basically wipes out the evening.  

Of course, the meetings I had when I was at Lakeland and previous cites as City Manager also wiped out the weekend and it wasn’t unusual to have three meetings a week.  Not that I minded, but it did eliminate a lot of evening activites.

I still feel a twinge of guilt about my job now when I think of something that needs to be done during an “off hour” time.  However, since I can’t work more than 40 hours per week, I just relax and don’t worry about it! 

I think about past jobs and it seems unreal, like it was some kind of dream or maybe an adventure like in a book where the main character goes on a a journey (of whatever kind).  

I think once you complete a journey (or a job ends, or you move from a city), the experience becomes like a picture, a static experience in your memory.  Kind of like our China journey.

When it is over, it is over.  You can’t change it, but the memory remains and even that may change, but it is a static memory now, it doesn’t flow.  

I think maybe that is the truth about “You Can’t Go Home Again”, you can never return to the place where you were, even if you return to the physical place, it has changed and so have you and things can never be the same again.  

Kind of like when I was a child and took a trip, I was always surprised when I got back and found out things had gone on without me!  It is hard to explain the feeling without coming across as egocentric, which I don’t feel is the way I mean it.  

I think maybe it is the feeling of having to make decisions, once you go on one journey, you can’t go on the other journey’s and you have a sense of loss at the untaken experience.  Or something like that.

I always really identified with the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken”.  

On the other hand, if you worry about what you didn’t do, then you may not be able to fully enjoy what you are doing (or the road you decided to take), and I think it is a much better use of your time and emotional life to enjoy the road or journey you decided to take!

I guess it is kind of like me enjoying the summer morning, but bemoaning the fact that it will end.  It will end whether I enjoy it or not, so I may as well enjoy it and not worry about the cold weather  coming!  (Other than if I was a squirrel, for example, I would want to make sure I had   plenty of food for winter!  In that sense, you do need to worry about   the future.)

WordPress has a feature called “gallery” that I can display my photos etc.  Maybe it will encourage me to finally get my pictures organized!  

I have decided I need to approach my pictures like I approach “stuff” I have that I’m not immediately using.  I’ll look at it from the point of what I want to keep, not what I want to throw away.  Anything I don’t keep I’ll delete, if that makes any sense!  

Perhaps I’ll set some arbitrary figure and just keep the best of a category of that number and then delete the rest.  

Certainly if I was using the former “film” type of camera, I would have a lot few pictures!

That’s it for now, Saturday, August 15, 2015.  

Summer 2015 August 14 Friday

78 degrees this morning, 38:47 minute walk

Coolish wind this morning even at 78 degrees.  The moment on the patio is fleeting, as I expect  by late September it will be too cool to sit out here and do my blog.  (I can sit on the inner patio, but it’s not the same as sitting outside with a starry  sky over my head and feeling the cooling winds.)

Actually saw TWO cars on my walk this morning!  One of them was backing out of their garage and the other was obviously just leaving, so they are both neighborhood cars, at least. 

I still notice the difference in the shoes.  There is a real spring in them, and it has actually reduced my average time of my walk fairly significantly, although I realize there are other factors.  

Still reviewing the “Map my Walk” app to see if it is worth while getting rid of the ads etc.  There is a lot I like about it, but the continued marketing of ads, products etc. is a real pain.  There must be a better way.

I keep having this feeling that even if I “upgrade” to “no advertising” etc., they will keep trying to see stuff and more “upgrades”, kind of a “bait and switch” promotional type thing. 

It dose do a good job of keeping time and mapping my route, although since I walk the same route every day, I’m not sure how important that really is!  Of course, hopefully I will increase my walking area, plus it will help in biking especially.  

Learned a lot about WordPress this week, as I competed two classes  What I learned is probably elementary to most people, but it is new to me.  I’m glad I have some experience with it, it makes it a lot easier to learn.  

I have fun practicing it, which is the way I  learn information like that, learning about it, then doing it and then being able to ask someone if I need clarification on anything. 

I noticed, of course, now that we are buying a house, a lot of houses came up for rent in the area we wanted to live, some at very reasonable rent and some houses for sale, although not quite as reasonable since it is a desirable area for mid-cost houses.

  However, we are happy with our decision to buy a house here.  We (or at least I) feel much more comfortable buying a house in spite of the reasons it may be better to rent.  I don’t want to face moving again until I absolutely have to!  

I am approaching completing the one year “probation period” on my job.  The year has passed fast to say the least and I have learned a lot about something I really didn’t have any idea about before I started working there!  

Had a real intensive dream this morning, but didn’t note it down.  Another one I had yesterday during my nap after walking, I took some notes.

8 13 15 Dream

Very vivid dream.  I was in some kind of boarding house, I would work, and then sleep and then work again.  Not sure what kind of work I was doing, but it was a political job, or duty, working on a campaign.   

A number of people I know in Lakeland and here appeared in the dream.

Aliene was talking about buying some pens with political slogans on them .

Can’t remember much else.  It was like I worked and then took naps, as did everyone else,, so it must have been some type of intensive work. 

Don’t recall much else about it, except for the overall sense we were working on a campaign of sorts. 

Looking forward to the weekend, need to get caught up on some personal tasks and practice my WordPress site!

That’s it for now, Friday, August 14, 2015.

Summer 2015 August 13 Thursday

74 degrees this morning, 38:23 minute walk.

The heat of summer may be basically over.  At this time of day, 74 degrees is relatively cool.

The “Map My Walk” app is so full of advertising, it even interfered with the use of the app this morning.  I didn’t see, after “starting the workout” an ad popup.  The app is really almsot one big advertisement and marketing pleas for other products. 

Of course, you can pay to get rid of he advertising, but I’m sure the never-ending pleas to purchase other items or “upgrades” will continue.

i am going to try some other “apps” before I pay anything.  It almost seems like they are more interested in money then they are about making a good product, so I’m going to check with some other apps.  

The first day was great, the second and third were disrupted by the advertising of the app and their continuous pleas to upgrade or buy something I don’t need or want.  

Speaking of money, I was surprised to learn that many of the cities etc. that are raising the wages for ‘fast food” workers are just that.  Only “fast food” workers and then only if you work for one of the companies with thousands of outlets etc.  

I think it is disgraceful what some jobs pay, but singling out one specify class of jobs at specific companies sounds like political pandering to me.

What really surprised me was to find that, at least in this state, the average starting pay (or maybe the starting pay) for a teacher is about what they a mandating that the fast food workers get!  (The pay was around $31,000 a year, $15 per hour times what is consider “yearly hours” of 2080 is $31,200 per year, plus they get overtime pay! )  I realize the pay isn’t exactly comparable, but….

I always thought it was rather odd that we pay the least to the people who take care of what we value most (our children). 

I finished “The Believing Brain” yesterday morning, right as I was finishing my workout.  Strange how often that happens.  

Started listening to “Gulp” by Mary Roach this morning.  Not sure what I think of it yet and if I will continue to listen.  My stomach may be too weak in the morning for some of the descriptions (only partially kidding.)

I did learn that the reason a dog sticks it nose out of a car (or back of a pickup) isn’t because it likes the wind on it’s nose, it is because it “sees” through scents and odors.

I read a book once that described how many scents or odors a dog remembers and it is truly amazing.  7,000 or so sticks in my mind and it may be much more than that.  

Went swimming in the “deep pool” yesterday at the YMCA (the depth starts at 7’ and it is much colder than the “leisure” pool) and  really enjoyed it.  I still plan on taking some basic swim lessons so I can enjoy it more and make it more effective for me.

I am really enjoying the “WordPress” seminar although I have just had one.  (there will be five sessionsI).  I played around some with my WordPress site (www.RobertWherry.com) and will continue to do so.  It is probably a little bit gaudy now, as I try to get the colors right.

Field Day today, with a trainee.  Ought to be interesting.  

That’s it for today, Thursday, August 13, 2015

Summer 2015 August 12 Wednesday

74 degrees this morning, 38:57 minute walk

74 degrees almost seemed cool during my walk and certainly feels cool now, although it is a comfortable coolness.  If it was much cooler it would not be comfortable.

Thought about early morning schedule at the YMCA,still trying to work that out in my mind.  It is nice to be able to swim, but I want to work our some other exercise routines also.  (I will keep awalking in my neighborhood and hopefully bicycling)..  This  winter it will be nice to have the YMCA as a backup for walking if the weather is bad more than several days.  

I have never cared much for the “muscle machines”, although I know they work for a lot of people.  However, I am considering trying them for limited use, just to make sure all of the parts that should be exercising are exercising.  

I prefer free weights, and will try that first, but I do intend to get some training in using the machines.  If only I can emphasize to them I don’t want to be musclebound, I just want to very gradually build up to a limited workout.

Ditto with swimming, I just want to feel comfortable in deep water and get some limited swimming techniques for swimming for exercise, not to become a competition athletic!  

I think one reason I don’t like group exercises (such as the variety of exercises I can’t spell) is I remember the fanatic (to me) coaches in grade school and high school.

Still learning the “map my walk” app.  Somehow the volume was shut down this morning so I missed the “mile” announcements.  But I also missed the ads.  I will continue to play with it and learn from it.

Hearing mysterious sounds in the words behind my house just now, hopefully just an animal.   And a tame one (or a wild animal that avoids humans).  The sounds always send a chill down my back (as in “chill of fear”), but if I start imagining things I would never enjoy being out here.  I may bring a spotlight in the future!  

At some point you just have to be fatalistic and say “what will be will be” when there is a 99% chance the sounds are just an animal.  

Hopefully the dog will bark if it is anything really strange.

Of course around here, there is a chance it is some kind of nut hunter.  Nothing against hunting, but there are people around here who are stupid enough to hunt deer (illegally) in a housing area.

My new shoes have a definite “bounce” to them.  I am surprised at the difference in my new shoes and even my immediate previous shoes, which were good quality shoes.  Of course, they were for all intents and purposes worn out (300 miles isn’t really that much when you walk every day), so I am remembering how a pair of 9 month worn out shoes feel as opposed to a brand new pair of shoes.

The session on “WordPress” was interesting and I think I will learn a lot.  Part of my problem is always the fear I will change something and won’t be able to get back to where I was. With someone I can immediately ask questions that helps me explore more.  

Computer classes are probably the one class where they have a break and everyone either stays in the room and plays with the computer or just takes a short break and comes back early!

Field Day yesterday, have some classroom training today, although just several hours.  A new program the organization is starting that we all need to learn about.

That’s it for now, Wednesday, August 12, 2015.