Thursday, March 31, 2016

Free food

We have a post in the backyard with a birdseed feeder, two suet cages and a finch-seed sock.  The suet or fat is what the woodpeckers go for.  Those birds are used to being upside down on a trunk or at any other angle.  They are experienced with being in a vertical position, holding on with their feet and finding something delicious.  The suet can be pecked between the bars of the cage holding it.  The woodpeckers go right for the suet every time.

The finches land on the seed sock and each season need a little time to get used to it.  They peck right through the cloth but as the dozens of eaters do their work, the level of the seed inside naturally drops.  At first, some birds land at the top of the sock while the seed level has dropped below that point.  They peck a few times and realize they aren't getting any food so they slide lower to where the seed is.  After a couple of hours, they know to look at the seed level before landing.


The robins and junkos are used to finding seeds and such right on the ground and are not comfortable eating from a feeder.  The crows and some jays and blackbirds are literally too big to fit on a feeder but carefully comb the ground under and around the feeder to find food that has been dropped or spilled from the feeders on the pole.  

Most of the aggression I have seen appears to be within a species. Males will fly as though to land on top of a female and she will fly off, sometimes to another eating spot and sometimes not.  From what I can tell, males will displace other males and females will displace other females but almost always within the same species.  It does seem that smaller birds stay away from, and out of the way of, larger birds.  Doves and crows are among the largest and when they land, the smaller birds often leave.


There is a large almost hemispherical baffle on the post holding the feeders and it generally seems to discourage squirrels from getting into the feeders.  Two or three squirrels regularly comb the ground under the feeders very carefully as does a chipmunk or two.  They have been doing so all winter.  I guess rabbits and deer may also eat some of the grain but I haven't actually seen either at the feeders nor clear sets of tracks in snow.


We purposely put the feeder out in the middle of our back lawn where we can see everything there.  We have had the feeder up for about two years and so far no hawks or cats or other predators have appeared.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Searching, sampling, shopping for a good book

I like a Kindle because I am basically impatient and lazy. From signalling I want a book to reading page one usually takes less than a minute.  Each book is weightless and available on several devices at once.


Amazon does a very good job of helping me be aware of books I might like.  Today, "Pushout: the Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools" by Monique W. Morris came into my Kindle and my Kindle archive on their machines.  I pre-ordered it before it was actually available and it was released today.

 

When I am reading an engrossing book, the Kindle is really good. But, it isn't quite as good when I am deciding on something to read.  The Amazon web site is good at suggesting new things for additional purchases but I already have more than 1900 ebooks and about 1800 of them are unread.  I don't want to just keep buying when I have already bought many excellent books.  I want to look over what I have.


Book shelves are great for perusing, searching, browsing, shopping:

IMG_0709.JPG


When I look along a shelf of books, I can rapidly reject those I don't want and note those I might be in the mood for.  The Kindle does not have a really equivalent display.  The grid in the Kindle app on an iPad shows about twenty book covers at a time:

IMG_0710.PNG


It doesn't seem as helpful as the shelf.  The geometry of the shelf is helpful for remembering the location of a book and the shelf shows more books at a time.  Maybe superior reading comes not when a book is open in front of me but when I use the best methods for selecting my next book or keeping several going at once.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

4 part body maintenance

Once past 75, it seems to me, that it is easy to decide that body is no longer capable of advanced performance and that exercise should be dropped.  I don't want to do that.  I try to use four parts to an exercise program.  They seem within reason, valuable and not too strenuous.  If I am too tired after exercise, I figure I am overdoing it.


Part one- Yoga - I like to do four yoga exercises when I wake up on an exercise day, which, for me, is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do 10 cobras, 40 sec. Child, 8 bridges and 8 kickbacks.  Takes about 10 minutes.


Part two - Short run - I run a half mile with two spurts at my top speed for about 300 feet each. Another 10 minutes.  At this point, I usually have morning coffee and some breakfast.  I like to do the yoga before running and I find I can run better with a completely empty stomach.


Part three - Walk - I walk between a mile and 2.5 miles.  40-45 minutes.

Sometimes, it works better to move to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday because the MWF set is the most popular at the gym and gives me a good chance of having to wait to use a machine.


Part four - Weights - I do eight lifts on a standing squat machine, eight leg openings and eight leg closings, 8 chest/arm lifts, 4-6 pull-ups on with 40-30 lbs of assistance, 6 rotator cuff lifts and 6-8 jumping jack-type lifts on a wobbly inflated hemisphere.  About 15 minutes. I am not a big one for timing but the parking meters give a maximum of 20 min and I usually have about 5 minutes left on my meter.


If there is bad weather or meetings and appointments interfere, I move some of the program to another day or skip it. I sometimes use an exercise bike instead of part two but I don't like extended time on a bike or treadmill.  I do much better exercising outside than on aerobic machines.


When we travel, I don't do any of the program and a longer trip can mean lots of sitting.  We got back from our 18-day trip a week ago and today was the first day I felt up to doing all four parts.


I have read and used many fitness books over the years.  I am not a fitness nut and have no interest in spending any more time exercising than seems to give a good payoff.  I feel good, both energetic and virtuous, when I have done all four parts.  The best book lately has been "The First Twenty Minutes" by Gretchen Reynolds, one of the writers on the "Well" blog in the New York Times.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Monday, March 28, 2016

What happened....NEXT?

How did it turn out?  What happened?  I mean what happened NEXT?  And then, what happened?  The story can come to an end: The End, Fin.  It can arrive at the present moment, catching up to us and "where we are in time", now.  For further information, see tomorrow's news reports or call us.   But even when we think of a time in the past ( Remember that time when our bus tried to make the curve in a little Italian neighborhood and got stuck?), the details, the fore and aft of the story grow faint.  When was that, exactly?  Who was with us?  What did we do next?  What did we do then?  We can't answer all the questions and we can't fill in all the gaps.

When we had been married for 50 years, we made a deck of index cards, one for each married year.  For some years, we could not recall a single event for that whole year!  We could have fudged a bit and put in the birthdays that mathematically had to have been in that year.  We could have listed the main holidays like Valentine's Day and Labor Day but we wanted to actually recollect, see?, re-collect, memories and experiences of that year but nothing came to mind.  We have many photos and with effort, we might have found some on the computer whose properties, metafiles, would have given the date of a missing year.  We could have gone through old checks to see where we spent money and on what.


Scientists now say that every time a memory is pulled into consciousness, it is altered slightly.  I suspect that my basic impulse or feeling about the memory, even before recalling it, affects how it will be tainted when I think of it.  If that time is associated with losing my wallet or being in a car accident, some of the laughter and cheer related to the memory might get deleted.  If I want that to be a time of little or no cheer, I will probably strip a little of the fun out of the memory just to make it fit that part of my mental scrapbook better.


We don't want to die and if we do, we often try to persuade our friends and loves to remember us.  They often tell us they will and they will hold us in their hearts forever.  Sometime between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago, native Americans came to this continent.  Ok, they weren't native at first because they were born elsewhere.  The trek from the top of Canada down into South America had to have taken a long time, many generations and many lives ended along the way.  Meanwhile, William the Bastard, later to be William the Conqueror, if you know what's good for you, lost soldiers in a battle for England.  You and I don't know each of the native Americans who died on the migration nor each of the soldiers who died in the battle of Hastings.  Some are just forgotten and that's ok.


Eventually, the memories will just trail off into time and that too is ok.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Flowers and flies

We spied our first housefly this morning.  It was outside on the screen of a window, looking in, hungrily, annoyingly, impolitely.  Later, I saw one waiting for someone to open a door.

We do have flowers and heat, buds and sun.  It is glorious!  But it is not just glorious for us.  All forms of life are getting renewed and recharged, not just the ones we like.


From Leeuwenhoek to Pasteur to current interest in the human biome of microscopic life in and on us, humans have spent the last 300 years learning about life that is quite abundant and persistent but that is everywhere and invisible at the same time.


Yesterday, I read Melissa Hogenboom's article on the five second rule: "pick food from the floor and eat it if it hasn't been there for five seconds or more".  She is a science writer in Britain and the article is here:

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160322-what-really-happens-to-food-when-you-drop-it-on-the-floor


She interviewed several microbiologists about picking up food and eating it.  One said,"In most cases, you can lick your toilet seat and not get sick."  I will not go that far.  But it helps explain how dogs can pull some of the things they do.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Saturday, March 26, 2016

I am somewhere else

Where am I in the year?  Near spring, which comes slowly around here.  It was 7°F this morning, about three hours ago.  Now it is ­29° and it expected to climb into the 40's, 50's in a few days.  If I misunderstand where I am and put on sunscreen and my bathing suit for a sun bath, I will be in for a reminder from the air outside about my location.


I can forget where I am.  I can be directed by strong impulses that are part of my basic living structure.  That impulse to award the muscular, shapely body the highest level of admiration needs correction.  It doesn't come from rational thought but from biological impulses equivalent to forgetting where I am.


The drive to be sexual and ripe and productive is not the only one that continually misleads me.  The other one relates to food and maintenance of life.  My biologically implanted urges tend to aim me at the meat and potatoes.  The most imaginative writing I have met about food is that of Brian Wansink of Cornell University.  He has collected all sorts of great data and information about the food selection habits of us humans. We still tend to go right for the carbs and meat.  Our noses and our eyes drive us to the most calories and the longest lasting physical hunger satisfaction.  Wansink has lots of evidence that we have a natural drive toward meat and salty, fatty carbs.


I know that trained and re-trained people have trained themselves to avoid meat or chips and go for lettuce, kale, radishes and cucumbers.  I have some of that re-training, too.  I still have to catch myself not to open up and stuff everything in.  With a little forbearance, I eat well and I feel good afterward but I still have to remain alert to messages from brain and eye that don't know where I am in life.





--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Friday, March 25, 2016

Older bodies

As soon as we think of older bodies, we seem likely to think of wrinkles, decay and problems.  I have an older body and I have wrinkles, some types of decay and some problems.  But I am focusing on a reminder that, roughly speaking, we are our bodies.  Just as we are more than our elbows, we are also more than attractiveness, prestige from great appearances, and king because of our biceps.

Keep in mind that if the body fully ceases to function, it is ready for cremation.  Your head and brain and eyes and muscles are all part of your body.  So, it is fundamental, more so that just stuffing for a bathing suit, more important that a source of shame that I am not the male model of a 20-something. It is true that I am not such a model but if I have expensive plastic surgery done so that I do look like I am a young weight lifter, I will be a grotesque ghost of youth.


It is like my mind.  My knowledge and my experiences are not what they were.  I have no wish to have my brain rearranged so that I know and believe and hope what I did at age 25.  My mind and my opinions and my body are what they are and happen to be quite marvelous.  You can marvel at them if you wish but they are still fine, still wondrous if you skip this opportunity.   


When Mrs. Hughes, the head housekeeper of Downton Abby, played by Phyllis Logan, was asked by Mr. Carson for her hand in marriage, she worried.  What might he think of her body on their wedding night?  She was not a young woman in her biological prime.  He might be displeased or worse by her appearance.  She engaged her friend, the chief cook, Mrs. Pattmore, to talk to Mr. Carson.  Maybe he just wanted a relation of convenience (no sex and such).  Nope, he wanted the whole deal.  Trepidation and quaking (!) (very arousing!!)


I guess it all worked out all right.  They were smiling and friendly toward each other over the next days. At first I thought, how cute, how quaint.  Then, I realized that between the media and our natural biological stereotypes as to what a hot female and a hot male should look like when nude, it is very easy to feel ashamed of one's older body.  This despite the fact that this body has transported one's mind and gut and heart ever since birth!


Ok, maybe you don't want to run your hands over my chest any more.  But have a little respect! Wrinkled and deflated, chunks of fat and all, this body has won many battles and continues on, the very symbol of excellence and achievement.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Staying picked up v. other fun

When we come home, the house is neat.  For a few hours, it gets steadily more scattered and littered. It is surprising little bits and pieces get all over the place.  It is still cold out and a good wind on an overcast day.  So, hats, gloves and jackets have to go on when we leave and be removed when we return.  If we are going to leave again in a little while, we often put the clothes in a chair instead of taking the time to hang them up.  Old newspapers don't get put on the shelf right away but linger on the kitchen table, the living room coffee table and the sofa.  Mail is lying here and there.  Some pieces might be of interest to the other person if not the addressee and should be left out.  Some pieces are bills and need to be paid.  Quite a bit is recyclable and needs to be torn up and put in the special trash cans for recycling.  Of course, if clothes are dirty, put them in the dirty clothes baskets but some are not dirty and there is no use laundering clean stuff to death.  So, on a chair or clothes tree, for now.


We can go around the house a couple of times a day and spot things that need to be put away, hung up, tossed in the trash.  Whenever we do something, a little waste is produced and a little disorder is created.  So meals and working at the computer and filling the birdfeeders and getting the cars fueled and having the oil changes all make for things moved out of place, sales slips to be tossed, keys put where they can be found.  The cord that can be used to connect an iPad to some tv's is still in a bag and not hanging behind the main tv, where it belongs.


The small amount of disorder can be put right without too much effort and there is a payoff of feelings that come with the straightening.  How neat we are now and how virtuous!  What an orderly house!  How nice to know that things are where we keep them, waiting there for the next use.  It is fun to take a walk, to go off shopping, to read a good book such as "All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation" by Rebecca Traister.  But it is fun to put things where they go, trash what needs to be dumped and get the house in order.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Yoga, mind, body

It seems to me that the most basic training for the mind is attentional.  Sitting for 10 minutes with my attention devoted to one thing gives me training in noticing when my attention shifts.  It is going to shift.  I am a live animal and my attention is built to shift.  Watch a bird at the birdbath.  One sip and a quick look around, just to check on the environment and possible predators.  Checking out the surroundings just makes sense.  When waiting for the timer to ring, I can practice keeping my attention on one target and training myself to notice when the old attention has slipped off the target and gone wandering.


As you may know, breathing is an old friend as a place to put one's attention while training greater awareness of what is being attended to.  Breathing is an odd duck in that we can watch our breath and observe how we are breathing but we can forget about breathing while the basic body processes take over and keep the breath going.  Besides watching the breath as an attentional focus and ignoring it, say, while talking or sleeping, we can consciously elongate and deepen our breath.


There are those who are convinced that deeper breathing with slower, more complete breaths can benefit both the body and the mind.  In many yoga classes, one part of the session is deep, slow, conscious breathing in a relaxed physical position, say lying on the back and totally relaxed.  When we read "The Body Keeps the Score" by Van Der Kolk, we read about yoga as a practice to help people who have suffered trauma regain their mental and emotional balance.  That book led me to "Yoga and the Quest for the True Self" by Stephen Cope.  The book "Cure: a Journey into the Science of Mind over Body" by Dr. Jo Marchant and others make clear that the current emphasis in Western medicine on the physical and impersonal investigation of the body and its health miss some important (and inexpensive) tools for better living while at the same time, finding useful methods and tools that would not be uncovered without scientific investigation.


The book by the popular therapist Dr. Mark Epstein "The Trauma of Everyday Life" shows that we can be hurt deeply or frightened deeply by events and ideas that on other days get ignored or accepted without a problem.  My friend, Prof. Arthur Herman, made a history of yoga decades ago and explained that yoga can consist of tightening and relaxing each muscle in the body progressively over the whole and not use any of the well-known yoga stretches.  A useful key seems to be paying attention to the exact use of and feeling of the body for some time each day.


Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby


--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Fwd: Well: A Quick Road to Happiness and Fitness

I read Gretchen Reynols' book a few years ago and found it very helpful.  She is one of the writers on the NY Times blog "Well".  Here is the latest free weekly summary.
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: NYTimes.com <nytdirect@nytimes.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 19, 2016 at 7:03 AM
Subject: Well: A Quick Road to Happiness and Fitness
To: olderkirby@gmail.com


View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

The New York Times

well.blogs.nytimes.com »

The New York Times

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Subscribe during the Spring Sale and save. Get The Times from just $2 a week for one year. Act now.
A Quick Road to Happiness and Fitness
This week on Well, Gretchen Reynolds found a shortcut to happiness: Look at pictures of green spaces to boost your mood. If you're short on time, remember that just 20 seconds of all-out exercise can boost your fitness.  And if you're feeling down, adding meditation to your exercise routine may be just the fix.
The autism writer John Elder Robison offers a fascinating look at a new autism treatment that opened up his emotional world and challenged his marriage. For families making college decisions, don't miss the advice college deans are giving their own kids. Plus important advice about quitting smoking, pregnancy and back pain and leaving the hospital.
Stay Well
Tara Parker-Pope
Well Editor
 
Editor's Picks
Greenery (or Even Photos of Trees) Can Make Us Happier
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Being in nature helps reduce stress — but so might looking at photos with trees in them.

Ask Well
20 Seconds to Better Fitness?
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

A reader asks: Is there a specific amount of time at which to keep your heart rate up during interval training to get the most benefit?

Phys Ed
Meditation Plus Running as a Treatment for Depression
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Meditating before running could change the brain in ways that are more beneficial for mental health than practicing either of those activities alone.

 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
Well Family
Ties
An Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My Marriage
By JOHN ELDER ROBISON

An intervention to switch on my emotions succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, but it turned my life upside down.

Advice College Admissions Officers Give Their Own Kids
By JENNIFER WALLACE AND LISA HEFFERNAN

Admissions officers tell their own children that high school is far more than just a pathway to college — it's a time for maturation, self-discovery, learning and fun.

The Best Way to Fight With a Teenager
By LISA DAMOUR

New research suggests that constructive conflict between parent and teenager hinges on the adolescent's readiness to see beyond his or her own perspective.

 
Live
Quitting Smoking Cold Turkey May Be Your Best Bet
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Smokers would be better off picking a day to stop cold rather than gradually reducing the number of cigarettes they smoke.

Most Dangerous Time at the Hospital? It May Be When You Leave
By DHRUV KHULLAR, M.D.

Discharging a patient from the hospital is among the most difficult and dangerous aspects of providing medical care.

Ask Well
Pregnancy and Back Pain
By SHARON JAYSON

Simple exercises can ease back pain in pregnancy, including arching the back like a cat.

 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
Your Health
For a 7-Minute Workout, Try Our New App
By TARA PARKER-POPE

The New York Times is offering a free mobile app for the popular Scientific 7-Minute Workout and the new Advanced 7-minute Workout.

Well
New C.D.C. guidelines on opioids like Percocet are likely to have sweeping effects on the practice of medicine.
The Weekly Health Quiz: Opioids, Screen Time, and Family Feuds
By DHRUV KHULLAR, M.D.

Test your knowledge of this week's health news.

FOLLOW WELL Facebook FACEBOOK Twitter @nythealth
Get more NYTimes.com newsletters » | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps for just $0.99. Subscribe »

ABOUT THIS EMAIL

You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Well newsletter.

Copyright 2016 The New York Times Company | 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018

Popular Posts

Follow @olderkirby