Snow!

I have a sore back.  I would not have one, I guess, if I practiced stretching my back as the doctor showed me.  So, I will be more diligent about doing some stretches before going to sleep at night and again when I wake in the morning.  When I emailed friends that I was too sore to walk this morning, I was surprised by the response by one that he wasn't going to take a walk either because of the snow.  Snow? I hadn't opened the blinds so I didn't see about an inch of white everywhere.  It is our first of the year.  The street bed and sidewalks have cleared by warmth and melting but lawns and trees are still very white. It has been about 20° all day with a noticeable breeze.

"Too cold!"

Today is definitely the coldest day we have had lately.  I called a friend and asked if he was interested in taking a morning walk.   "No! Too cold!"  It has been in the neighborhood of 30°.  That is definitely colder than recently but the serious part is the wind.  Between the temperature and the wind, it can turn people off to being outside even though we often feel that 30° is rather warm when it is that temperature in late March.  Right now, my computer reports 33 degrees outside.  Tomorrow night, little kids, some dressed in tutus as ballerinas, are planning to go from door to door in search of candy bars.  Poor babies!

Our new outdoor thermometer says 24°F and that is definitely colder than we have had since last winter.  

Another friend cut our walk short and took a shorter route back to the warmth of his car parked at my house.

Changes in my habits

Recently, I have made some changes.  My nurse-practitioner said my report of feeling funny made her suspect I was practicing dehydration.  She recommended 50 oz. of water drunk a day.  Most days, I reach 50 oz.  See the book "Quench" by Cohen and Bria.   One source on Google says that 75% of oldsters are dehydrated much of the time. 

I am reading "Bitch" by Lucy Cooke aloud to Lynn.  Cooke is a zoologist and is tired of the widespread assumptions, in various forms, that men are superior to women.  Cooke says that the Victorian period was especially clear that women were inferior.  On the other hand, see Ashley Montagu "s "The Natural Superiority of Women".

Recently I read this article

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-and-sleep/202308/cognition-boost-of-226-from-aromatherapy

I bought an inexpensive atomizer and a set of 10 "essential oils" of 10 different scents for Lynn and the same thing to me.   We both give ourselves aromatherapy each night since September.  Neither of us feels we have observed any big cognitive change.

Takedown!

Language, a single language such as English, is always changing.  That language is always changing is something of a motto of the language professor John McWhorter.  I have listened to a couple of McWhorter's audio books and read some of his print ones.  When we watch a 20 year old movie, especially if it involves the lives of young adults, we often hear language that has changed or gone out of use or come into use or a new use.

I wrestled in high school and college.  That was 7 years of the sport.  All of those years, my wrestling matches consisted of three periods.  The first I faced my opponent for three to five minutes with both of us on our feet, circling around, looking for a good chance to lunge at him and wrestle him to the mat.  The other two periods we started in a special position.

In the 2nd period, one wrestler is in the lower position and in the last, the other wrestler gets the lower position.

So, when my wife says it is "takedown", I am surprised.  She doesn't wrestle!! Then, I remember: she means this day and the next few, artists in her "Q Gallery" group are going to take down the work they have been exhibiting and put up new pieces.

My sister and stairs

I have noticed that buried in my head are two pictures of my sister and stairs.  When she was quite young, maybe four or five, she was trying to get onto the front porch.  She must have gone out the back door but she was trying to come in the front door.  She was standing on the top step, outside a child protection gate fastened across the entrance to the porch.  She was trying to get the rather elaborate mechanism open so she could come in through the front.  If her older brother had a brain, he would have helped her.  He didn't and, struggling to get the gate open, she fell off the top step.  She broke her right arm when she landed.  That changed her from a right-handed person to a left-handed one.  My mother, my sister and later, my stepdad were all lefthanded.  I was the only right-handed one.

Years later, when my sister was in senior high school, she struggled to get down the stairs to the ground floor.  "What is the matter?", I asked.  My mother said tryouts for cheer-leading had left her very stiff.  She made it down ok and I have never seen her so impaired since.

eBooks

Just about every day, if not multiple times a day, I hear of a book that sounds interesting. I use the app Libby, which I have on my iPad, but both public libraries and the local university library have limited funds so the book I just heard about hasn't been purchased by that library yet.  Or, maybe it is in transit or in short supply.  If Amazon.com is not charging too much, I may shell out the money for permanent ownership of an ecopy.  At the "worst" in my view, is buying a paper copy since it will take up space and add weight to my shelves. Ebooks have big advantages in my view but I can get them from Amazon only.  I can borrow them from the libraries and maybe from the Amazon series Kindle limited that allows me up to 10 borrowed at a time, but only books the editors put into that series.  When I have 10, thet Amazon computers know which ones and show me to let me return one so I can get the one I am trying for now.

Sometimes, when I get an ebook in my own collection out for a re-look, to re-read it or maybe keep up with a book club re-read, I have comments in a file, comments from 5 or 10 years ago.  Often, I am so eager to get the book read initially that I forget to mark highlights.

It is possible to take the view that I read too much but I don't.

Started up again

I finally returned to my weight room.   I have not been what I consider a fitness  nut but I know that a little weight lifting is good for me.   I like weight machines.  They are designed for me to do exercises correctly, they don't take long to change the setting.  Here is a blog post from August 2012 Weights and muscles 

It is still accurate but as a guy in his mid-eighties, I am advised to lift twice a week, not three times. I only do four lifts: squats, shoulder/arm, rotator cuff, and balance. Each visit is short and quick

Positive features of Firefox browser

Positive features of the Firefox browser

1. If it tracks me or spies on me, it doesn't show it. So, I don't get bothered.

2. It provides the Pocket feature free. Pocket in Windows enables a choice on the mouse short menu on most web pages to save that page in Pocket.  I can switch easily and quickly to Pocket, see what was just saved and send the link to others who may enjoy it.  

3. When somebody or other, demands I state my email address, I can give a one I make up on the spot and Firefox to use that for responses by the demander.  My normal email will be undisturbed, as I understand it. I don't use that feature much but I like the idea.

4. There is a password manager and the whole operation is under the partial control of Marc Andressen, internet pioneer.

5. It doesn't seem to me to be as rigorously against competitors as Apple and other computer companies.

My style

I just asked my wife of over 63 years what she thought of my style.  She answered "To be perfectly honest, I have never liked it".  Do you see what I mean about vague statements being hard to interpret? When this woman thinks about "style", she mostly means dress and clothing. That is understandable coming from a woman.  She spent time looking at catalogs and store windows to see what was current in clothing.  I spent more time seeing what I wanted to read in non-fiction.  I have tried a little to avoid wearing colors that don't look good together.

When, about 80 years ago, I came home for lunch as a kindergartener, I thought I would spiffy up for the afternoon session.  I was wearing a t-shirt but to fancy up, I put a pre-tied necktie around my neck.  My mom was busy elsewhere so I returned to school without being seen.  My teacher thought my effort so cute, she called home to tell Mom.  See?  I was attuned to being hip, a expression that was in style once.

The style of clothing isn't what is haunting me just now.  No, it is the question of parking.  I am confident that firemen and police officers and other manly men around here always back their car, no, pickup truck, into their space.  That way, they are all set to zoom off to save damsels, grandmas and such immediately without wasting time getting the vehicle properly positioned.  My wife advises me to continue going front end in and backing out cautiously.  Guess I will.

Wabi phooey

I have a friend who looks down on the Japanese aesthetic wabi sabi. It's the admiration of things that are old and used.  At least, I thought it was.  When I looked it up just now, the article in Wikipedia said that it was the acceptance of aging. I much prefer "the honoring and admiration of the appearance of usage, including scars, scratches, scrapes and wrinkles".  I may have a tough time getting knowledgeable Japanese and philosophers of aesthetics to accept my definition. I admit I don't plan to work very hard at spreading my better word.  I further admit that I was moved to write about this by my intelligent wife's clinging to the idea that scratches and wrinkles detract, and do not beautify.

Influencers

"Influencers" is a term being used as the descriptor of a person who appears on the Internet, usually on YouTube.  They may have a gimmick or a line of goods they tout.  The idea seems to be try to be interesting, provocative. Just today, I learned of the book by Taylor Lorenz, a woman who is well-known for her coverage of internet happenings.  It is called "Extremely Online".

When I began teaching at UW-SP (1968), computers were new.  Television was not new but computers enabled inexpensive transmission of coordinated speech and pictures.  The University of Wisconsin had arranged "distance education" since the 1920's but it was hand-written papers mailed to an instructor.  The recent covid measures reminded many of us of the difference of face-to-face human behavior vs. mechanical simulations of classroom interaction.  When teachers are required to get master's degrees, they work on advanced degrees or certificates after a day of teaching.  Teachers in Rhinelander, Wisconsin have to drive 90 miles for a class at Point through bucks chasing does randomly and without warning.  Collisions between cars and adult deer can kill, and injure humans and cars.   So, transmitting a good signal between campus and high school can be a big help.

The emergence of the internet and computers eventually enabled anyone to start a blog for free.  Bingo!  100,000 thousand people all over the world are enthusiastic followers of your teaching, your dog training advice and your puns.  Jones Shoes will pay you to mention the virtues of their products and you are launched as an influencer.

Monster and tree

My friends are temporarily house-sitting a cat.  The cat met the monster yesterday.  I expected to find out the dog or a vacuum cleaner is the scary item but it is the Roomba.  Have you met the Roomba?   It is about the size of a dinner plate, it is self-propelled and it is a self-guided, pretty smart vacuum cleaner.  For you, a human being, it may be pesky but it is probably not terrifying but for a feline predator, it is.

https://www.irobot.com/en_US/roomba.html

We tried explaining to Tabby that it is not dangerous but speaking wasn't very effective.

Another neighbor has an impressive Wisconsin fall tree:

Timers

When I was in the 8th grade, I often cooked my own breakfast on a school day.  Then, I ate 3 soft-boiled eggs.  We both like soft-boiled eggs once in a while despite my doctor saying to keep eggs in any form very scarce.  I try to be careful and avoid over-cooking them.  To me, that means start the eggs in water from the tap, wait until the water is fully boiling and then set a timer for 3 minutes.  These days, Lynn eats one egg and I eat two.  I put two extra eggs in the pan.  I remove the 5 the two of us will eat but after three minutes put the extra two aside in the covered pan for 7 more minutes.  The heat already in the water cooks the extra 2 into hard-boiled.  We keep the extra two hard-boiled on hand for egg salad sandwiches or quick snacks. We have 5 soft-boiled about once a week.

Sometime, I discovered that our kitchen timers have a forward-running feature.  If I just turn a timer on, it runs without a set time to stop.  I have to turn it off and I can do that when something I am interested in timing reaches a certain point.  So, if I am interested in how long it takes for a wet spot to dry, I can turn on a timer when it gets wet and stop it when I see it is dry.  Then, I have an estimate of drying time.  Normal use to run for a special time causes a bell to ring but "time without a stopping point", in a "stopwatch" mode, ends quietly without loud sound, handy if somebody is sleeping. 

New pocketsized cell phone

Got a new pocket sized phone today. My pockets are small and I get few phone calls so once I get settled with a Tracfone, I'm good. But I am not settled yet.  Just typing in credentials takes a long time when I don't know the keyboard and its use.  To make matters more complex and demanding, there are symbols and signs that are required.  It is not easy when I don't know how to make needed symbols and signs. I will get there eventually.

Family birthday celebration

You and I both survived gestation, birth, childhood, and adolescence.  That is not always easy.  It is nice in some ways that we don't have to do it again.  Once is it.  There may be some days that I don't want to live over again.  

Birthdays are a good marker of achievements and accomplishments.  Given the foibles of memory, I am confident there are some not so wonderful birthdays I have had that I don't remember and some that were peachy but are forgotten.

Yesterday, Lynn and I along with Justin, a son-in-law, all marked our birthdays.  Lynn had one recently and Justin's was actually yesterday.  I have one coming up soon but we wanted to avoid tiring out family birthdayers and I think we did.  There was certainly energetic conversation among 13 people in attendance.

Email address snobbery

When I retired, I had a Gmail address and an email address with my former employer, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point (UWSP).  I learned the department (School of Education)  official secretary kept up the list of retirees and others who had an email address listed.  The School of Education is a bit different from "academic" campus departments.  They give students knowledge, such as French or history of art.  SOE prepares students to teach, mostly in Kindergarten to Senior Year .  A student can be quite knowledgeable about one or more subjects but not be impressive as a candidate for a teaching job. Public schools accept a wide range of students and are often involved with political forces and groups. Teachers in publicly financed schools run from taxes are required to have licenses from the state.

As I was retiring, I wanted an email address not connected to my former employer.  One of my nephews had just earned a master's in computing and I saw that he had a Gmail address from Google. Taking him as a model, I signed up with Google.  The account is free and includes access to about 240 apps and tools.

These days, when I see email addresses of att, aol, ones that to me represent a fairly old company, I wonder if that person has considered what I consider a more modern email address.  I guess Gmail has more functioning email address holders than any other company.  Google search says more than one billion people (roughly ⅛ of humanity) have Gmail addresses. Gmail addresses open the door to a set of programs that, to me, completely eliminate the need for Microsoft Office programs and that is just one aspect of the free stuff that is available with Google.  I realize the main objection I have heard is that Google copies my information and sells it.  I don't know much about that or much else that snobbery and myth guides in my life.

What will I be for Halloween?

I enjoyed dressing up in some costume for Halloween as a kid.  I know about 8th grade, I was a Scotsman.  I think one year I was a woman.  Otherwise, I don't recall other years.  I like acting and trying to get my mood into being a different person. When I was five, I was a mysterious guest somewhere in a Christmas play, and when I left the stage, the cross on my back revealed I was the Christ child.  In 8th grade, I was a tenderfoot on a dude ranch.  In my senior year of high school, I was Captain Queeg of the USS Caine, an unstable commander of the Caine USS minesweeper, famously portrayed in the movie "The Caine Mutiny"  by Humphrey Bogart.  When Queeg was under tension, which could come at unexpected times over unexpected issues and subjects, he would "massage" a pair of ball bearings steady and rapidly in his hand round and round each other.

Three shots!

This morning, both of us got our third shot.  Now, we have Covid, flu and RSV vaccines. It can be a struggle to get an appointment at a pharmacy that has the vaccine one needs, a working web site or other clear method for getting an appointment and that has openings reasonably soon.  Looking to make this final inoculation, I found many non-functioning websites. Lynn was hired by my department once to look at documents and web pages to check out how our UWSP graduate School of Education was doing communicating and accommodating graduate school students who were teachers. I remember the culminating meeting she arranged to explain to officials and professors what she found.  

North of Stevens Point, Wisconsin communities are far apart.  She showed explanations of the procedures and permissions required of experienced teachers who had taught a full day, driven 90 miles, only to find that this office or that registration official had closed up.  They could get to a particular office only to be told they lacked a signature or a stamp or something else.  They could sometimes get the missing item if they got to another location on the other side of campus within the next five minutes.  Many people didn't understand web pages but Lynn won awards for her web pages for departments and a husband.  Even today, hours change, fees are required, deadlines change and web pages get out of date but people often don't realize the web or pamphlets need updating.

THAT MANY?

Several times lately, I have found myself doing subtractions between two dates, such as how long I have lived in Stevens Point, or how long I have been married and being surprised at the answer.  I have found that somebody put more years into so many things. The number of years between now and one thing and another "back then" keeps growing.  I have long been an enthusiastic, impatient sort of person but I have discovered that everything in the past keeps receding!  I expected my own age to keep climbing but not EVERYTHING! I am beginning to fear I am not going to be able to keep up.  What can I do?

Columbus

On October 12, 1492  a crew member on Columbus' ship, Pinta, spots land!

Some people seem to get rather excited about statements that Columbus discovered the American continents.  If I write that I discovered the Alexander McCall Smith novels, I bet no one will think I am asserting that they were completely unknown to everyone before I discovered them.  The people already living in the New World had a major event happen to them as well as the Europeans.  I realize Vikings had made their way here and Native Americans did so much earlier.  Still, the Europeans in search of a seaway through the North American continent persisted in calling the Indians "Indians", just as many of us do today. Whatever else you call the event, I think you can consider it a major event in history.

Getting the news

I basically have three sources for daily news.  Several of my friends have made it clear that the main broadcast tv companies, like CBS. ABC and NBC are their main sources but we have gotten in the habit of using the internet, not broadcast tv.  My sources are CNN's "Five Things", Google News and NPR News.  

I find it is possible to get too involved in media dispensations and news.  I do like knowing about damaging weather and gun misuse but it is little items of minor news that can strike me as odd, unpredictable and demonstrations of how surprising twists and turns can show the complexity of life on this planet.  

CNN's "Five Things" seems like an intelligent selection of items to know about.  The text is often composed by Alexandra Meeks.  I like her rather delicate and restrained language that strikes me as calm and moderate.  Google News, news.google.com gathers items from a wide range of sources.  I guess that NPR news tends to be less dramatic but I haven't made any even slightly careful comparisons

Carrying a walking stick, as in old times

I knew I had read what was labeled as an old riddle about an animal that goes on 4 four legs, then 2 and then 3 legs.  I didn't remember that the riddle includes the information that 4 legs are used in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 3 in the evening.  Since I fell on a neighborhood walk twice recently, and the answer is "man", the riddle applies to me.  The daily time is a disguise of the answer and the times are meant to describe early parts of life, middle parts of life and latter parts, when a walking stick or cane is used.

I have been getting used to the idea that I am in the latter part of life.  I have seen the difference in the safety I feel when I am carrying or using a walking stick, just as the riddle predicts.

This morning, I again went off from the house without a stick or cane.   After a little walking, I realized I had forgotten a can or stick.  I am getting used to the idea that I should carry a stick.  When I realized I had walked off with a walking stick, I told my walking friends that I was going to shorten my walk.  As I got near the house, Lynn popped out the front door brandishing a cane.

Writing notes of themes and events that interest

I often hear that reading widely can add in interest to life.  There is nothing wrong with reading mysteries or love stories as long as they are fun and reasonably satisfying.  But as I age, I get more and more impressed with writing.  This is still a good time to buy pads of paper or spiral notebooks.  I find that 6 or so notebooks are handy to keep in convenient places.  I like ball point pens ready to go, too.

My concentration wavers more and I often lose track of what I am doing.  A note helps enormously and reminds me.  

I like to just list notes of importance one after the other.

Miscellaneous

1. It is cooler here.  No frost yet but soon.

2. A helpful item in cooler weather is an undershirt.  I haven't looked into body heating but maybe the closer the undershirt to my body surface, the more heat gets captured.

3. It is impressive to me what treasures we have stored here and there.  Books (of paper), CD and DVD's, clothing we haven't used since last cold season, clothing kept in the back of our cars.

4. Grandchildren in the grass

1. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, UWSP, is world known for instruction and experiences in working to have a good and habitable Earth.  We may get classed with others who work for the environment based on our small areas of "prairie". In '93 we moved here and I tried to avert having a lawn.  But we we realize that little grandchildren would get lost in prairie grass, we shunk our tall grass areas and left some cutable parts where kids could play.

5. Many people have not heard of a yodeling pickle.   That's ok but in case you want to know more:

1. https://www.amazon.com/DR-DINGUS-Yodeling-Pickle-Entertainment/dp/B0C2N6XDM1

6. There have been some helpful articles in Firefox's Pocket
   https://getpocket.com/read/3882900487 talk to yourself, it helps

7. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-profound-effect-of-americans-living-longer-lives?utm_source=pocket_saves

8. Write what pops into your head https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/know-yourself-better-by-writing-what-pops-into-your-head/?utm_source=pocket_saves

Tricky temperatures

Where we live, we have the enormous Lake Superior across the top of us and the enormous Lake Michigan along our eastern side. I have heard that these Great Lakes are sometimes referred to as "inner oceans".  We are in early Fall.  People take trips just to see the fall colors of the deciduous trees.  The many pines of the Northwoods lose needles but don't change into the dramatic reds, oranges and yellows that some others do. However, their steady dark greens supply an important note in the color symphony.

These days, we can have outdoor high temps of 80°F and in a few days, have a high of 40°F and then maybe back up to 70°.  All the while our daylight hours are shortening.  We now get up at 6 AM but that is before sunrise and we are getting closer to eating dinner after sundown.

Attoseconds

Nobel prizes are being given out this week.  One is for attoseconds, incredibly short bursts of light that enable physicists to see atomic phenomena otherwise not observable.  The information includes the fact that an attosecond is to a typical second as a typical second is to 30 BILLION years!

Myers-Briggs scheme of human personality

Ever since Larry Riggs and I took a little workshop together, I have enjoyed knowing the Myers-Briggs scheme.  Myers and Briggs are daughter and mother who created a typology of human personality.   They based their scheme on the work of Carl Jung.  It has gotten critical examination over the years and there are people who feel it is meaningless and even damaging.  I am confident that it can be damaging if it is misused.  

It consists of questions about your personality and ways of thinking, acting and behaving.   After answering, one gets a personally descriptive result of four letters.  Each letter is one of a pair.

Extrovert or Introvert

Intuitive or Sensor

Feeler or Thinker

Judger or Perceiver

I, for instance, came out as an ENTJ.   These letters describe me rather well.

Some researchers have not found that people fit into the categories very well but I was glad to take the quiz a 2nd time even if I don't find I think or behave as predicted all the time.

Stretching before and after sleeping all night

I had a sore back pop up so I went to a local chiropractic office to get advice on not having back troubles..  The practitioner I saw remembered seeing me years back, maybe ten.  As soon as she came into the room, she asked me if I remembered her from back then.  I did.   I explained I had a sore back the other day but had not had it when I woke up.   I said I was there for advice.

She advised me to stretch before going to sleep and when I woke up.  The stretches she demonstrated were somewhat like the child's pose. 

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-3&type=teff_10019_FFW_ZZ&grd=1&p=yoga+child%27s+pose+image

The soreness, sometimes rather severe that I felt, feels related to not using my back muscles all night.  I think as I age that I develop soreness more easily than when I was young.  No one has advised me to develop the habit of stretching appropriately before and after sleeping and I am eager to see what advantages and improvements I can find.

A good movie

I have an app on my iPad called "Just Watch" which helps to find where an old movie can be watched.  Yesterday, we re-watched "Cold Comfort Farm".   The book by that title has been made into a movie several times.   When Lynn, her brother and I attended a church they didn't like, one of the characters in that movie, the version starring Kate Beckinsale, reminded Lynn of the pastor, she mentioned the movie.  I looked it up in Just Watch and we watched it on Vudu.

It was really a pleasure.  I forgot about other ways to find a movie, such as searching with Google or on YouTube.  We had seen Cold Comfort Farm before and it was genuine fun seeing it again and hearing some of the lines that stick with a viewer.  I recommend looking at it while alert since it includes nonsense and clever plotting both.

CNN Photos of the week - 10/1/2023

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/28/world/gallery/photos-this-week-september-21-september-28-ctrp

Bill