Yesterday I bought a used recliner. It looks like leather but I suspected it was faux leather. Sure enough, there was a label on the underside. This label left me with more questions than I had to begin with. Clearly, my knowledge base of modern materials is lacking.
How can something be 23% leather? Can you really mix leather with other materials and have it only be a percentage of the whole? I have only known “leather” or “not leather”, and I can’t stop thinking about this complex question.
How do you determine 23%? Is it by weight? How does this statistic help anyone? I wonder if there is a particular section that is real leather, and the rest is fake? Where is that 23%? It all looks the same to me. And why is there no mention of wood, or of metal, which is clearly most of the chair weight? Can I call it a leather chair if it’s only 23% leather? That’s not a lot. Is leather better when it’s mixed with polyurethane, polyester and cotton? So many questions.
I will probably think about this every time I sit in this recliner. It is comfortable. It is an upgrade from the previous recliner. And, unlike many other chairs, it is thought provoking. Definitely worth the price, just sayin’…
Thinking twice usually means that the second thought negates the first. But not always.
Today it was warm, for March anyway. It was fifty degrees at the height of the day. The roads are bare and dry. I got a brand new bike back in December, and it had never been out of the house. I thought to myself “you should go for a bike ride”. My second thought was “yes, do it because you’ve been a slug all winter and need to get moving.” I had a few more cautious thoughts as well, mainly because it’s an e-bike. I’ve read the instructions several times and forgotten them several times as well. The “on”, “off” and a dozen other button pushes are a little complicated and take some getting used to.
Danger, danger, slushy ice ahead. Yes, this bike has a display screen. Technology strikes again.
So, even though it’s supposed to start snowing tomorrow night, I decided to go around Hayward on the bike path. A few circles around the parking lot seemed to go well. The bike has several different modes but I decided the one closest to OFF would be sufficient. Every time I did a turn on the pedals, the motor kicked in. So easy, so quiet. I wondered how I was going to get any exercise.
One shady part of the path had some slushy ice and snow which I could not avoid going over. My “old lady” caution had not kicked in yet and I did have a moment of panic. The bike slipped and I was on my way down. Thankfully, the step through frame let me get my feet on the ground and save myself from a fall. I really don’t want to wreck this bike before I’ve gotten some miles on it. And that is part of the pressure of having a nice bike. I worry that I’ll run into something and wreck it, or it will get stolen.
The bike path is from 6 – 10 miles long, depending on whether I take the short cut through town. I had just taken the direction of the longest route, when it started to rain. I was already cold, but the thought of being cold, and wet, was worse, so I turned back.
Going through town is a little freaky for me because there are more cars. There are lots of intersections and lights, pot holes and other obstacles along the route. There is a lot to watch out for. One convenient feature of the bike is the throttle. It’s like a gas pedal and makes it easy to get going. When the green light goes on at an intersection, I can mount up and quickly get through . One inconvenient feature of the bike is also the throttle. It sometimes kicks in a little enthusiastically when I’m not expecting it. I know I will get used to that with experience. Hopefully I don’t wind up in front of a moving car first.
I made it home in good shape. But I now know that 50 degrees is still a little cold to be going 15 miles an hour. I should have worn a snowsuit. I didn’t get much exercise either. The only energy expended was the calories I burned to keep from freezing.
I know it’s going to be winter for a few more weeks yet. Today was simply a nice little window into the coming spring. Now, no matter what happens, I can say I had at least one ride on the new bike.
I need to give the bike a cool, descriptive name. It’s brand is Aventon. Suggestions welcomed…
This year has produced three times with GwennieRu so far. The first was in December – February when she had her heart surgery, the second was when she visited Wisconsin in April, and now I am with her and the family again at the end of May.
I chose this date to come because Daddy Kevin and the boys were traveling to a baseball game in Baltimore for three days. During that time, it was me, Julia, Gwennie, Ryleigh and her girlfriend, and Reagan and her girlfriend holding things together at the farm. We all helped with baby care. I helped with farm chores and some landscaping projects. We women can do some awesome getting along when we set our minds to it.
The boys left Thursday afternoon, earlier than I was expecting. I was out getting my food supplies when the nanny called me and wanted to know who was taking over, as she needed to get home. I did a U-turn and came home to relieve her. Julia was soon home from work and we started our time without the men.
Friday morning – well, first I must explain about the dogs. Back in February I mentioned the mating of Penny the lab, and Hanky Panky the poodle. Eight puppies resulted from this union. The planned kennel area in the basement had not materialized and the puppies had been born and raised in the living room and kitchen, upstairs. Sales of Doodles have dropped off since Covid time and the six remaining puppies are now 10 weeks old. Previously, it had been a challenge living with the three adult dogs who are good at being in the way at every opportunity. Now there are nine dogs. Six of them are still in the process of being trained. Six of them are small enough to slip under the chain link fence when left outside. Need I say more.
We are so cute, and we know it.
Friday morning my first trick was mixing cereal, getting Gwennie in the high chair and feeding her. It didn’t go quite as planned. When Gwennie doesn’t want something, like sitting in the high chair, she makes it impossible to happen. Fighting her and the newfangled baby equipment resulted in a bowl of cereal upside down on the carpet and a distressed child (not to mention a distressed grandma).
Julia left for work, and I took Kevin’s usual job of watching Gwennie until the nanny arrived. I had not quite caught on to the morning routine, and Gwennie could tell. I picked her up to comfort her and walked to the kitchen in time to see several puppies, outside, on the wrong side of the fence. Babe in arms, I rushed out to secure them before they ran away.
Calling “puppies, puppies, puppies” as I had heard Julia doing, I opened the gate expecting them to come back in the yard. Instead, the puppies who had still been in the yard ran out to play with their siblings as I struggled to control the flow. Gwennie was mesmerized, clinging to me as, one handed, I tried to scoop them in the right direction. Once in the yard, they followed me into the house and I shut their doggy door. Thankfully, the nanny arrived and I went out to find the new escape route and block it.
Doing that, the feeding chores, and a good bit of weed whacking took most of my day. Later that evening, as I was telling Julia about my morning, she dejectedly asked me if this visit was turning out to be as bad as the last time. Seeing the situation on the farm through the lens of my writing had been kind of hard on her. That is the tricky thing about writing experiences of the kind where one has to laugh to keep from crying. In reality, Julia has to do this ALL THE TIME, and I know she is doing the best job she can. I am now learning to laugh more while in the midst of the normal chaos. Just so you know Julie, my visits to you and the family are rich with all kinds of experiences that I do not regret or shy away from.
Tomorrow, my week of substitute nanny begins. I am looking forward to being with Gwennie, the family, the dogs and puppies. Just sayin’…
Don’t worry Grandma. You will get the hang of it, eventually.
I do not know if helpee is a word, but its meaning is pretty clear when I combine it with helper, right? These two positions are inseparable, and sometime in life, most of us will get a chance to experience both of them.
Recently, an elderly neighbor who had lost her husband, and her beloved dog decided that she had to have another dog to keep her company. She found a retriever mix in a shelter and brought it home. The trouble started when she found it was difficult to walk the dog. She was having trouble with her back and it was easy for all of us neighbors to see it when we watched her walk. I love to walk, so I offered to walk the dog for her.
My friend Shasta was always happy to accept a walk.
She accepted help, because she had to, for the dog’s sake. But, because it made her feel like she owed me something, she was always rewarding me with money, gift cards, pie, when a simple “thank you” would have done. She was not going to be beholden. Her independent spirit would not allow it. She had not yet learned to be a gracious helpee.
One day she fell and had to call 911. Even though she spent a couple days in the hospital, the doctors couldn’t identify what was wrong and she was sent home to wait for test results. She fell again. This time she didn’t want to return to the hospital, so she didn’t call 911. She stayed on the floor for quite a long time until she was able to reach a family member. She ended up going to the hospital anyway. She will now have to go through a couple months in a rehab facility to regain the ability to walk.
I admire an independent spirit. I am all for people taking care of themselves and their own business for as long as possible. But I wrestled with my neighbor’s attitude toward receiving help when she really needed it, when it was offered with no strings attached.
I came one morning to walk the dog and she told me she had not slept well at all the previous night. Her bedroom smoke alarm started beeping because of low battery and drove her nearly crazy. I offered to do that quick and easy chore for her. No, she said. She didn’t have any new batteries. I told her I had a lot of batteries and would be right back with one. No, she said. She would have her grandson attend to it that evening. By this point in our relationship I was used to being a little aggressive, so I told her it would drive me crazy if I had to listen to that noise all day – I was going to change it for her. No, she said. She was going to stay in the living room, with the TV on, so she wouldn’t hear it. Her grandson would fix it later. No, no, no. Don’t help me.
Sometimes, the idea that we are bothering someone, or that we will owe them something keeps us from accepting reasonable help. In the end we can cause more trouble and frustration for those who want to help. It caused a lot of trouble for my friend’s family, who had to respond to her second emergency at an unexpected time.
My new theory is that we are all here to learn two things during our lifetime. The first is that we should care about others, learn to serve graciously, and love one another. The second is that we are all going to find ourselves helpless, at the end of our rope, not in charge, and in need. We will need to graciously admit that fact. Do you see it? Helpers and helpees… If helpers have no one to help, they can’t learn the first lesson. If helpees have no one caring for them, they don’t learn the second lesson.
Gracious acceptance of help is a hard lesson, one I am not eager to learn. But, I have given it a lot of thought lately, and because of this experience, my attitude toward being helped is changing. I want to be gracious, when the time comes.
Which of these lessons is hardest for you? Have you had to accept help? How did it make you feel? What roles do pride and humility have in this equation?
Today I told God to do anything he wanted with my schedule. I have found this is always a good idea.
Today I walked to Walmart and wandered around, looking for seeds, a screw eye, and milk. I found all three. It was entertaining as usual.
A new addition at Walmart – signs of our time.
Today I installed the screw eyes on the sides of my patio. I attached ratchet straps to them and fastened my awning down so it won’t rip off and fly away.
Today, while getting tools for the above project, I found a jar of screws and odd gadgets that came from mom’s garage when she moved. I have my own jar like that so I combined them and got rid of a not needed jar. I straightened my tools while I was there.
Today I found an ugly cup holding pens and pencils, and was going to dispose of it. I thought better of that and scrubbed the ugly pink and black decal off the cup and put the pens in another pen holder. It’s not a bad cup.
The not bad cup.
Today I planted the seeds I bought so that later this summer I will have a pot of cherry tomatoes and some cucumbers. I moved my raised planters to get better sunlight.
Seeds in the sun, bright orange strap holding my awning down.
Today I had trouble closing one of my kitchen drawers and had to clean and re-arrange the things in it. The electric knife was in the drawer and I remember that the blades wouldn’t eject when I wanted to use it. I spent an hour figuring out what was wrong, fixed and cleaned it and back in the drawer it went.
Clean drawer
Today I emailed some friends and cancelled a biking trip that was scheduled for Thursday. It’s most likely going to be raining that day. I don’t like to bike in the rain.
Today, since I’m not going biking this week, I took my twin bikes to the shop to be made clean and safe. They will be used a lot this summer and need some love.
Today I washed last year’s ants out of the hummingbird feeder, made some sugar water to go in it, and hung it out where the hummingbirds can find it.
Today I talked with my auto insurance adjuster and made an appointment at the auto body shop to fix my car’s tailgate. I ran into something last week and I like my car too much to leave it with that rather large dent.
Today I made arrangements for my next visit to Gwennie Ru and contacted my favorite people who let me rest at their homes on the way.
The day is not over yet. Although I haven’t done anything of great importance, there were numerous small things that were satisfying, restful, and worth doing. I won’t question God’s decisions about my day. He knew I needed a day with sunshine and small successes. It was a good day.
A righteous man has kind regard for the life of his animal… Prov. 12:10 AMP
My recent experience tending the animals on Julia’s farm while she and Kevin were in the hospital with Gwennie brought a lot of things to mind. I did manage to keep them all alive and well. (Click here for list of chores)
People who work with the land, with animals, and with plants have an important connection to some basics of life. Doing chores regularly, faithfully, with a watchful eye to the welfare of other living things is all about character development. Having access to the outdoors, specifically to a farm is a blessing. I worry about generations of children who have no idea what I’m writing about.
I can quickly give some of the complaints that people have about this kind of work. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. There’s too much dirt. I’m tired. I hurt. It’s inconvenient to do it now. There you have it, and it’s all true.
However, what I find every time I’m given animals to feed, is that I like it. Animals are glad to get their food. They don’t actually say “thank you” but they act grateful and make me feel like I’ve done them good. They get used to the times they are fed, and act calmer when on a schedule they can depend upon. (I know how I feel when I’m hungry and there’s no food – it’s stressful!)
A couple days of doing farm chores gets me into a comfortable rhythm too. I get more familiar with my charges. They become more interesting to me and I start noticing small behaviors that I missed before. I get satisfaction from faithfully showing up with life sustaining food for them. Most everyone who has had a dog or a cat knows that people bond with their animals, and that goes for any animal, really.
I learned a lot of my large animal care from my friend Carroll Barnhill, in Florida, on his horse farm. Animal food can be expensive, but his animals always had plenty even when he had trouble making ends meet. He was out at the barn every morning early, turning on his coffee pot in the feed room, and getting busy. Every animal got fed, their water buckets washed out and filled, their stalls cleaned, and fresh hay put in the feed box for them to graze on during the day. The finishing touch was to clean the corridor with the blower so everything looked neat and tended. The stable wasn’t fancy, but it all made sense for the needs of the animals. And it was satisfying.
When it’s hot, I like to do chores early in the morning when it’s cool, and in the evening when the sun is lower. When it’s cold, I put on a coat and gloves. Dirt washes off almost everything. I can work tired, and I rest better when my work is done. I find ways to deal with pain, and actually hurt less when I stay active. And life is inconvenient in so many different ways, how could we expect chores to be different? Being faithful, regular and vigilant leads to fewer inconveniences. It’s a rule, I think.
I should learn never to say that I will do more writing tomorrow when I know writing is not my first priority.
I have been using Lumen for a little over a week now, learning as I go. It is also learning me, which is interesting. It is 95% ready to give me my first flex score, which will give me an idea how adept my body is at switching fuels when needed.
It took two days on a low carbohydrate plan to get my system to switch to burning fats. When I was pretty consistently using fat as the major fuel, I was awarded a carb boost day to see how easily I would switch back. The goal is to move back and forth easily, as needed, which is why it’s called a flex score.
One aim each day is to wake up in a fat burning mode after a night time fast, in which any carbs eaten for dinner are used up. The carbs are always going to get used first because they are the body’s preferred fuel. Preferred because they are the easiest fuel available, but not the cleanest burning.
The Lumen device showed me that I succeeded in being in fat burning mode every day, even after the boost day when I had more carbohydrates.
This is the graph I see when I check in each morning.
1, 2, and 3 are fat burning modes. 4 and 5 are predominantly carb.
How do I feel about the program thus far? There are some revelations that it is showing me. The first one, and one I kind of expected, is that I was a bit addicted to carbs. I always want more bread, cereal, and sweet fruit and berries. It’s not exactly a craving, because I do forget about it during the day, and am not exactly hungry. But I do miss the taste and textures of these foods.
Another problem I’m having is how to get all the protein the plan suggests. I can’t seem to meet the requirement without going over the limit on fat, carbs or both. There just aren’t too many proteins that don’t come combined with other macro nutrients.
On the plus side, logging what I eat is much easier than it was with Noom. Any thing I buy with a barcode is read easily – the app takes a picture of the barcode and records all the nutrients for me. I only have to put in the amount I eat. If the app doesn’t recognize the food by name, I can log the food by putting in the macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrate or fat) myself.
Using the device is not hard, as I can still inhale for 4 seconds, hold my breath for 10 seconds, and exhale for 10 seconds. It’s a sleek, small, and somewhat expensive, piece of technology. I’m trying to be very careful with it but did drop it once (eek!). It sits on the charging station most of the time and has a little bag to shield it when I take it somewhere with me. It’s kind of fun to see it work. Results show up on the app within seconds.
I don’t think I’ve lost much weight yet, but I don’t weigh in very often either. As I said, I’m not feeling hungry very often, and if I do, I can have a lot of vegetables that don’t count in the carb column. So the plan is very vegetable friendly because it allows complex carbs. I’m kind of sad about desserts, and the occasional soda which are discouraged because they DON’T HAVE NUTRITIONAL VALUE. I knew that.
So we shall see what another week brings in the weight loss category. I’ll post results here but I’m not saying I’ll do it tomorrow, because I’m smarter now. (Maybe my mind is getting better, since better focus is one of the promised results of the Lumen program.)
Every now and then, there are enough disturbing changes in my health to make me reexamine what is happening and act. I would say that stress precipitates most of the changes, and that a lot of the stress is unavoidable. Still, to not pay attention and consider taking action that might help is, well, it’s stupid.
That is why I sometimes spend money that I would have thought excessive at another time in my life. The difference now is that I know how much it costs to deal with chronic illness and how limiting it is when my body succumbs to things gone awry. Health care is expensive. I would rather spend now to avoid spending later.
The “thing” I’ve done now is called Lumen. It’s getting a lot of coverage on Facebook, and the marketing is extensive. It’s a small device that measures CO2 in the breath and tells what fuel the body is burning at the time of testing. It helps me know when I’m burning fat instead of carbohydrates. An accompanying app on my phone helps me understand what I need to do to switch from one fuel to another, and when are the best times to do that for optimum health.
Last year (or maybe the year before – I’ve lost track of time.) I experimented with Noom, and learned a lot about metabolism, weight loss, and the psychology of eating. It worked well for me but I gradually stopped using the platform because I felt my good habits had been formed. Then came the illness and death of my husband, the birth of my grandchild, lots of travel, lots of decisions. My good habits took a back seat. Comfort eating kind of took over.
Lumen is very similar to what I learned in Noom, but now I’m not guessing whether I’m in a fat burning mode. I know, because of the Lumen device.
I thought it might be helpful to others and valuable to myself as I look back, to record my experience with Lumen, so here we go.
That was the question in my mind as I traveled south to be with my daughter’s family for a few weeks. And not just to sleep, but to lay out my suitcase, charge my computer, and all the other things that people do when they live someplace. I have stuff with me. Where am I going to put it?
River Bend Farm has a large farmhouse with four bedrooms. However, the rooms are occupied with Julia’s three stepchildren, and of course, Julia and husband Kevin. They don’t even have a designated spot for the baby when she comes.
My plan was to look for something portable, like a camper trailer, and to do it as soon as possible after arriving. During the first week, while I was borrowing one of the children’s rooms, I started looking on Facebook marketplace for used campers. Having never owned an RV of any kind I knew nothing.
I looked at little, cute and retro. But there wasn’t even room to set my suitcase. I looked at large and roomy but it was 16 years old and I wasn’t sure I could handle that much brown in my living space. I was saved from further deliberation when my son-in-law said a friend had a nice later model camper and was willing to sell it underpriced, as a personal favor. It had space for 10 people to sleep, which was a little frightening, but we went to see it. I now own it and have jumped on the learning curve of RV life.
Quibble
I have named it Quibble (model 295QBLE). It came none too soon. I got sick and needed a place to retreat and quarantine. It came home with Kevin and I the same day we went to see it. He parked it close to the barn where there was an electrical outlet. That’s when I learned that you have to be somewhat of an electrician (which I am not) to match your electricity with your camper. Even after watching a You Tube video on amps, volts and watts, the thought of having to figure out that equation for every one of my devices was too much. Kevin kindly drove to town and got adapters, so I could run the AC. That was enough for one night.
You also have to be somewhat of a plumber (sorry, also not) to feel peaceful about your faucets, toilets, water and pumps. Kevin and I finally got a small stream of water to run into the kitchen sink by hooking a hose up to a hole labeled “city water”, no city anywhere close. But who knew that I needed a drinking water hose, a water filter and a pressure regulator. Not me. My water pump, which shouldn’t have been turned on at all, was supposed to be whisper quiet. It started making enough noise that I could hear it even above the AC unit. I may have made it permanently very quiet. I have watched videos on water, gray water, and black water. Even I could figure out what those were.
One day I figured out the refrigerator. The next day I got a ladder and gave Quibble a good washing. Yesterday I drove back to meet the previous owner and got the title transferred and notarized. Today I tried to figure out insurance and registration. And in the days ahead I will learn about the stove and the propane tanks and the outdoor kitchen, and why the lights in the slide out don’t work. There are YouTube videos about all these things. I am discovering a whole new world of fun things to do.
But now I have my space. I almost feel guilty retreating to my air conditioned fiberglass box
Sometimes when you pay attention to something it becomes satisfied and goes away…
The snow blower (and my brother) have had more than enough to do this winter.
I was sitting with Mom this morning in our usual places – looking out the window at our small street. My brother was out blowing away the latest snowfall, even as it continued to fall. Suddenly huge clumps of the stuff came flying through the air and hit the side of the house. But most of it landed in the yard where it has been accumulating all winter. The lilac bush that is only slightly shorter than I am is buried once again.
Yesterday I thought it would be fun to play in the snow for a change. Mom has been pointing out how the snow is so high in the yard that she no longer can see which cars are coming and going. She takes her job of monitoring our neighborhood seriously and the snow was cramping her style. I decided to shave off a foot or two of the bank in front of her window, so she could see better.
The view down the street, with no lilac bush in sight.
I was surprised to be able to walk on top of the huge drifts without sinking in. There have been so many layers of ice in between snowfalls that I was supported wherever I walked. It is so strange to be standing on top of a bush that you know is probably at least four feet tall. I carefully picked chunks of snow from around the tender branches and twigs of the bush until the top of it was exposed.
And then last night’s snowfall…
Our furnace has gone out twice in the last two weeks. Since we have a boiler that heats the cement slab floor, it takes a while for it to cool down (and a while for it to heat up again). It is a beautiful way to have even temperature and nice warm floors. I don’t usually notice something is wrong until it gets down to 67 degrees inside. I pulled out the small space heaters from storage and tried to keep the husband comfortable while my brother called the repair man. After a good cleaning, the boiler was back in operation and a day later all was normal.
A week later it happened again. I couldn’t believe it – so soon after having been fixed. This time I was surprised to hear the repair guy up on the roof, shoveling snow. The exhaust stack, which is about two feet tall, had been buried by a huge drift. Uncovering it fixed the problem. Thank you winter.
So it is still definitely winter in March, as well as January and February, well… and December, and probably November. And possibly April. Yeah.
To live up here in northern Wisconsin, it is best to patiently make peace with winter, and even give it a little attention. As long as we aren’t in danger of freezing, or having to drive on ice, it can be exciting to see how extreme conditions can get.
This has been a very snowy winter, one in which I have been more restricted to being indoors, have skied less, have been less social. On the somewhat brighter side, daylight savings ends next week and we will have longer afternoon light again. I will also have one more full moon this week and one more chance for a moonlight ski. There’s always something to look forward to. (Like winter being over… shhhh, don’t tell it.)
I Just Have to Say... 