A nice little break

And not much to write about today.

Because I was visiting family, and because I seldom write about my family (other than Hershey the dog), there's not much to say.

It was very good to get away. I've been home since February, when I went to Tennessee to attend my daughter's law school graduation. And I've been working on something – volunteer stuff or house stuff or Whole 30 stuff – for months. So it was good to get away.

Following a primal/paleo plan 90 percent of the time means you can have a couple "cheat" meals each week. I had one Saturday night, and got right back on track Sunday morning. It was HARD watching the rest of them eat cake for breakfast, but really? If I eat cake, I know I'm going to pay for it in more ways than is comfortable for me.

Priorities.

Stopped at Trader Joe's and the Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market on the way home. Two of my favorite places when I go to North Carolina.

I checked the electric meter at the water pump yesterday morning and we're still averaging 1 kWh per day, which our pump installer says is what we should be averaging. Since we've been using 20 kWh per day, and since during the cold months it jumped to 50, I'd say digging holes in the front yard was all he needed to do.

The lawn ornament is finally gone.

Seriously. He didn't do anything. Pulled the pump out of the ground, put it back, dug a bunch of holes with a backhoe looking for leaks, didn't find any, filled them back in, and charged us a reasonable amount of money for his trouble and effort.

I think I'll reduce my treks to check that meter to about once a week from here on out.

I have a lot of events and projects coming up, and I don't want to forget anything. It's good to be busy, but bad to drop the ball on something I said I would do. So the next thing on my to-do list is to … make a to-do list!

Day Two DONE

Did you know you were going to get a blow-by-blow description of every day of this Whole 30 when you started reading again? HAH! Maybe you will, maybe you won't – I doubt I can come up with something new to say about paleo food and long walks for the next month.

But yesterday offered a bit of a challenge, and had I not been blogging again, I might have blown it this early in the game. SO THANK YOU. Because you are reading again, I stayed on plan.

I had to put together a cheese-and-cracker tray for a get-together last night. No one was in the house with me when I was slicing cheddar and dumping crackers in a basket. I quick-quick covered

everything as soon as I was done. Hershey got to eat the too-thin slivers of cheese – in the past, those would have been MINE.

Cheese and crackers were requested; that wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's done now, and none of the leftovers came home. TAKE THAT, CHEESE AND CRACKERS! I own you!

Hah!

Food was great yesterday – completely on plan. (I didn't go to the event last night, just provided food.) I had a bacon-and-egg breakfast, a tuna salad (made with mashed avocado instead of mayo) for lunch and leftover paleo chili for dinner.

Took two walks – four miles in the morning and two in the late afternoon. Along with my normal everyday walking around the house and garage and yard, I hit 20,000 steps for the day – only the second time I've done that since I got the FitBit in December.

So there you have it. Two days done, 28 to go, feeling terrific, lots of energy, accomplishing things and oh, I'll probably have to walk in the rain today. I remember running in the rain during training for my first half-marathon oh-so-many years ago. I didn't melt. And I won't melt today, either.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading. And I really mean that.

Morning has broken

Until my friend Wendy got her new iPhone, I didn't realize my Samsung Galaxy S4 had a panoramic option on the camera. I'd never even explored all the camera modes.

When I looked outside this morning as the morning light overtook the darkness, I saw the perfect vista for trying it out.

And the coolest thing is, the camera goes back to Auto Mode on its own … so I'm not taking a panorama the next time I snap a photo.

We had lovely weather yesterday. I did laundry and took a walk. On my way back from the walk I started feeling ill, and all I could do for the rest of the day was … rest.

But I'm back to normal this morning and the plan is to walk and mow. I'll be out of town for a few days – my husband and Hershey will be holding down the fort – but might get a chance to check in while I'm gone.

One thing I MUST do today is put the remaining spaghetti and butternut squashes in the garage. It's supposed to go below freezing one night while I'm gone, and I'd hate to lose them. I'm cooking one of the spaghettis today, to add to a pot of chicken soup.

And, that's it … enjoy your day.

Workin' for the weekend

Hah!

I don't have a "real" job, but my volunteer jobs sure take a lot of time and energy. So it's nice to have a little downtime in the schedule.

Hershey and the dog sitter will be holding down the fort as my husband and I travel to her birthplace. We rescued her from a filthy barn on a Kentucky hillside 11 years ago as we attended the same event we're going to today.

She's a lucky dog.

And we're lucky owners, because Hershey is a super dog. Obedient (most of the time), healthy (unless she eats deer bones), playful (although she's slowing down a bit in her dotage), affectionate (ALWAYS). She probably won't eat much while we're gone, but she'll be ecstatic when we pull in the driveway again Sunday afternoon.

I won't be completely unplugging, but more than likely I'll take a blog break. Have a great weekend!

One foot in front of the other

Success breeds success.

Who's heard that one before?

But who remembers it when faced with a bowl of free chocolate candy?

THAT WOULD BE ME!

Went to a fairly long meeting last night, and there's always a bowl of Hershey's Miniatures near the center of the table. I happened to sit down almost right in front of the bowl, and the person across from me moved it to make sure it was DIRECTLY in front of me.

You know. Just to make sure the test was hard enough. Heh.

Three things combined to keep me from sampling the goods:

1. It was a busy meeting; I was taking a lot of notes.
2. I was aware that, perhaps, someone there might be reading my blog.
3. Why mess with what works?

Seriously. I feel pretty good. I do believe the toxins which I introduced into my system are still on the way out, as I've experienced some unusual and best-left-unsaid symptoms the last couple of days. All in all, though, my energy levels are increasing and I'm truly feeling back on the track that works for me.

Yesterday was a get-it-done kinda day. I walked in the morning, took a short rest break, dismantled the garden fence, harvested about half the squash (the rest are still maturing), mowed the front yard, did two loads of laundry, did a bunch of computer work, and went to an evening meeting.

I couldn't have done all that in one day last week. I know I couldn't have. A few days without sugar and grains … quell difference!

July 23 - Macro

X-treme Hershey close-up!

Surprise, surprise

My 4th of July weekend was off the rails as far as food goes. Completely. Utterly. I'd decided ahead of time to just roll with it, taking into consideration the fact that one evening we would be picnicking and that a birthday party was happening two days later.

I haven't eaten than many carbs in that short a time in more than a year and a half. I'll spare you the food porn. But there was cake.

The good part is my weight, which I haven't checked since sometime last week, stayed the same. I may even be down a pound. I didn't write the number down last week, but I'm definitely in the same ball park.

The other good part is that eating all those carbs made me feel horrible. Why is that good? It's a great reminder that choosing to eat whole, fresh, unprocessed foods WORKS FOR ME. I may not have celiac disease or diabetes, but gluten and sugar make me feel bad. I had a strange-but-short (thankfully!) bout of nausea Sunday morning. I found myself zoning out at times, unable to pay attention to what was going on around me. (This happened twice, both times when I was part of a larger group of people.) I can only attribute those feelings to the change in diet.

I took a couple nice walks while I was gone. The usual North Carolina-in-July heat and humidity postponed its arrival until I left the state. The weekend weather was surprisingly lovely.

Other than feeling bad from eating food I wasn't used to, I had a wonderful time. It's good to get away once in a while.

But it's good to be home, too. My little Hershey dog was beside herself when I got out of the car. I love how dogs are happy to see you with their entire bodies. She doesn't act like that when I come home from a trip to the grocery, but she certainly misses me when I'm gone overnight.

Truth be told: I miss her, too.

There are some muscles …

Do you water ski? I used to, back when I was a kid and my family camped along the Ohio River every summer. The first skiing session of the year always made me think, "There are some muscles you only use when you water ski."

Likewise, there are some muscles you only use when you're pushing an immobile riding lawnmower.

Yesterday was do-or-die day for cutting the grass. I kept putting it off, hoping for one more rain that still hasn't happened. The dust seriously aggravates my eyes and ability to breathe following a mowing session, but I just couldn't keep postponing the chore.

Our house divides our front and back yards, and it takes about 90 minutes to do each section. I had finished the front and was very carefully skirting the blackberry bushes, which are protected from the birds with netting.

You know where this is going, don't you? Yes, one of the mower blades nicked a corner of the netting and that corner was all it took to wrap yards and yards of it around the shaft of the blade, rendering the mower useless for anything but a large and quite stationery industrial-type lawn ornament.

I had to push the mower a fair distance to get it to a place where I could work on it. And after trying to untangle the mess on level ground I had to push it some more, up onto some bricks to give myself a little more room. This was a disaster in the making, but fortunately the mower did NOT slip off the bricks and land on my arm.

But those pushing muscles. Oh, are they sore today.

After one frustrating hour, I had to go get a neighbor to help. All I could think was that the blades would have to be removed. Our neighbor simply continued doing what I'd been doing – cut with a blade, tug with needle-nosed pliers. I felt bad asking for his help. But I was willing to let him do it if he was willing to jump in and finish what I'd started.

By the time I finally finished mowing I'd been outside for SIX HOURS. That heat and sun will take it right out of you. I was bushed. Beat. Dead-dog tired. The only perennial work that got done yesterday was moving the plants from the back of the truck to a spot in the shade, so they wouldn't fry.

Today is supposed to be warm, but overcast – a pretty perfect day for gardening.

Speaking of gardens – we were, right? Just now? Heh. – FIVE deer were nibbling the tomato plants as dawn filtered in this morning. I'm so mad. It looks like from now on I'm going to be a squash gardener. They haven't touched any of either the summer or winter squash plants. I sent Hershey out to chase them away.

And as for the berries, I replaced what was left of the netting, because those hybrid berries are so much bigger and easier to pick (they're thornless) than wild ones are. But look what's been going on behind the mulch pile:

I love free food. Heh.

There are hundreds of berries, dozens of bushes and more growing IN the mulch pile. I shall very carefully extract mulch from around those plants, because the spot where all this is growing is easy to access and there will be more than enough fruit to share with the birds.

I'll need to wear long sleeves and gloves to pick them, since they're wild and DO have thorns. But wow – what a haul. Can't wait!

June 28 - Bed

Hershey on her soft fuzzy dog bed in the den. Just about anything
qualifies as a bed for her, but I'm glad she likes the one we bought for her.

The longest day

This is it, folks. We now begin the gentle descent into full-on summer – heat, humidity, pop-up thunderstorms, weeds and more weeds.

Hmmm. Sounds a lot like what we've been experiencing for the last week or 10 days.

BUT GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX! Oh, and there's no such thing as climate change. <snort>

We had a lovely storm yesterday that dropped four-tenths of an inch of rain on my very thirsty garden. I sat outside as the wind began to push the storm our way. Hershey was nearby; ever since the derecho in 2012 she's been a little nervous during stormy weather.

Once it began raining I left the porch and just watched it pour. The first shower didn't last long, but another one came through and stuck around for a while.

I walked yesterday in the late morning, a little more than six miles. I'm up to 621 miles for the year, which is 130 short of where I should be. OH WELL. Ever since I had that leg cramp Monday I've found that four miles is about my comfort limit. After that my right leg stiffens up. I'm not willing to cut the mileage, however, I just keep walking but at a bit slower pace. My leg doesn't hurt at all when I wake up, but as the day goes on, the soreness returns.

In a couple of years, my neighbor's
sedum border will look as lush and
gorgeous as this. I hope.

What can I say … I'm in my 60s, after all, and most women my age have some aches and pains. That doesn't mean I have to settle for it, it just means I shouldn't be surprised.

After I had some lunch yesterday I grabbed some tools and some plants and a watering can and walked to the neighbor's to spruce up a tiny little spot in her front yard that I promised I would do after her husband died. She has a lovely handmade wooden sign with the name of their farm on it, mounted on fenceposts. I put a hosta in the space under the sign and beneath the posts, with a sedum border all the way around. She's always put annuals in there, but they never do very well. I think this combination will work. Practically zero maintenance, and it'll be there every year.

Aaaaand … that's all I got for today. Happy Summer Solstice to both of you!

Happy birthday, West Virginia!

I'm not a native Mountaineer, but my dad was born in Huntington, so I'm halfway there. My husband, who was born 12 miles from our current home, is a full-blooded native son. Hershey was born in Kentucky but we call her a West Virginia Brown Dog anyway.

West Virginia attained statehood on this date 151 years ago. It's a state holiday – county courthouses and state government offices are closed to celebrate West Virginia's independence from the Confederacy.

Huh?

Yes, it's true, despite the Confederate flags you'll see adorning front pick-up truck bumpers and flying in front yards around here. Virginia was part of the original Confederate states, but union sympathizers in the western part of the state worked valiantly to break away when the Civil War began, finally succeeding – and seceding – in 1863.

The Rev. J.T. McClure offered the state's inaugural prayer 151 years ago:

We pray Thee, almighty God, that this State, born amidst tears and blood and fire and desolation, may long be preserved and from its little beginning may grow to be a might and a power that shall make those who come after us look upon it with joy and gladness and pride of heart.

That didn't exactly happen, now, did it?

I'd love for West Virginia's reputation to grow to meet those lofty expectations, but it hasn't happened yet. We're making progress, certainly, and we have so much to offer. Tourists come for the rivers and mountains and fishing and hunting, but they leave because, while West Virginia is a great place to retire, it's not exactly an area families flock to when looking for job opportunities.

That's changing, though. West Virginia has the 3rd fastest growing economy in the country. That's pretty cool, and if you're on the outside looking in it may be hard to believe. And, frankly, it doesn't much look that way here in the southern part of the state. But some areas are booming – Bridgeport/Clarksburg, Huntington, the Eastern Panhandle – and that's good for the general economic outlook.

We make up for our lack of jobs with an abundance of natural scenic beauty. The West Virginia Hills, one of our four state songs, could have been written about Summers County, where I live. (Honestly? I thought Almost Heaven was the state song when I first moved here. Took them until this year to make that happen!)

I don't know how much longer it will take for the rest of the country to not stereotype West Virginia. You know what I mean, right? I don't have to go into detail. I'm originally from Ohio, and I know how I used to view my neighbor to the south.

When my dad died, in an emergency room in Princeton, WV, one of the nurses comforted me by saying he really must have loved West Virginia, seeing as how he was born here and chose to die just nine miles from the southern border, on his way back to his then-home in Florida.

He really did love this state. And I'm really learning to.

Happy birthday, West Virginia. Montani! Semper! Liberi! Mountaineers are always free!

May 26-Pet

Poor Hershey is not traumatized for the remainder of the day. She hates having
her picture taken, rarely looks at the camera and usually moves as I snap the shutter.
I got somewhat lucky this time. But I think I owe her a treat for being patient with me.

May 5 - 4:00 p.m.

Hershey's kibble goes in her dish at 4 p.m. She usually doesn't eat until we're finished
with our people food a couple hours later, though. Because she might get people food!

March 25 - Soft

Hershey's sweet, grey and soft little muzzle.

Dodging that winter storm bullet

We watched the radar and paid close attention to weather updates all day yesterday. As temperatures dropped, we watched the afternoon rain become the dreaded "wintry mix," and, finally, turn to snow after dark.

But it stopped. By 9 p.m. it was no longer precipitating at all.

This morning the porch and driveway are ice-covered, which isn't all that wonderful, but at least we won't be struggling with the snow shovel.

I think it's safe to put it away for the season.

Yesterday was a great day, even with the wintry mix. I was able to log five miles, beginning in the early afternoon and finishing up just as it began to rain. Perfect timing. I hadn't planned to do five, but the farther I went, the farther I wanted to go. It was only that impending rain that made me turn around at the 2.5-mile mark.

I picked up the pace a bit:

Yesterday's route was on hills, and I even ran up a couple of them. The Saturday walk
(yes, I know it says run but whatev) was on a flat route. And it was much slower.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The feel-good endorphins hung around most of the afternoon. If you'd been here, you'd have seen me dancing around the living room – solo, with Hershey and with my husband. Music and running are both great mood-lifters.

I just looked out the window. It's beginning to snow again, lightly. Maybe it won't stick (she said hopefully). And maybe I should keep the snow shovel handy.

Just in case.

Good day for a reboot

The first day of any month is a good day to start over, yes? And so today's the day for me. Enough nibbling, enough poking around the edges of paleo, time to get back on board and work it, baby!

Because it really does work. FOR ME.

Jen's comment about a plan being defined by what isn't has a ring of truth to it. When I describe paleo, I don't say enthusiastically that you can eat all the vegetables you want. Maybe I should, as that frames it in a more user-friendly way.

Maybe.

No, I say paleo means no, no, no, no: no sugar, no grains, no legumes and no dairy. But honestly? I don't miss it much at all. Especially when I stay away from it. Just one Hershey's Kiss has been enough to make me want more.

Jen also says it must be hard to climb back on, and she's oh-so-right about that. Which proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that grains and sugar, especially, are like crack for me. (Strangely, I've not missed peanuts or beans at all, and I'm able to tolerate dairy in limited amounts.)

The other thing I'm really missing is that daily walk. I got five miles in yesterday, and am hoping for four/five/six today. Rain is approaching and my walking date is at 1 p.m., so we'll see what happens.

I still have the elliptical. Maybe THAT will happen. That's how committed I am.

Or maybe I need to be committed? Heh.

Anyway … taking a break from daily writing has been a good thing for both of us, probably. The 20-week abortion ban bill is still working its way through the legislature and that's all I can think about. Instead of railing about it here, I've been writing to Delegates and Senators and TV station managers and anyone else who has a say in the issue. Some of our Delegates have been real champions for women's rights.

Mine? Not so much.

I'm going to try my darndest not to bring it up here again until it's resolved – either killed in committee (which is what I hope happens) or voted on (which almost certainly means it will pass). Film at 11 on Tuesday (that's when Health and Human Services is taking it up).

In other news: If you appreciate good writing and satire (in a Jonathan Swift-esque style), do not waste any more time. Go read this.

Mañana!

And then there's Plan D

OR: That's a helluva way to clean the refrigerator.*

So yesterday's schedule got all discombobulated and the "walk" ended up being less than half a mile outside the hospital while our patient was undergoing a test. It was, indeed, nice enough to go further, but we (my husband and I, because Lynne and I had to bag our plans because of my discombobulated schedule) needed to get back to the room.

Why is it people get sicker after admission? Hospitals are no place to be when you're sick, lemme tell ya. We're certainly hoping for some improvement today.

And we're certainly hoping to take a longer walk today. The forecast high temperature for this afternoon is 51°! Hope springs eternal, ya know. Heh. I said "spring."

So we finally got home yesterday and I fixed bacon and omelettes for dinner (because Plan D didn't include eating out) and while we were eating I heard a loud POP from the kitchen. Hershey heard it, as well. She stood stock-still, hackles raised, while I investigated and found … nothing.

But a couple hours later there was this burnt electrical odor emanating from the refrigerator and the freezer wasn't freezing and by 8 o'clock we were hauling food from the house to the garage. Thank goodness we have a chest freezer and a dorm fridge over there. Everything fit, too, although it will be a bit inconvenient to cook and serve meals for a while.

Grrr.

The Google Appliance Center says it's probably not worth repairing a 15-year-old refrigerator with a blown capacitor (if that is, indeed, what it is). We certainly don't have time for refrigerator shopping with everything else that's going on here in the Middle of Nowhere. I'm really not sure what we're going to do.

Other than GO FOR A WALK THIS AFTERNOON!

*And now you know what I mean.

59 Days

Less than two months and it'll be spring!

Oh, my, I can't wait. Obviously I have no choice, but SERIOUSLY! I'm so ready for warm.

Football is nearly over. College games are done and we will know tonight who plays in the Super Bowl two weeks from today. The Winter Olympics will then tide us over for a bit, until March Madness.

And then … gardening and running and going outside without a coat!

Like I said: I can't wait.

I was both a sloth (too cold to walk outside and I was unmotivated to get on the elliptical) and a hungry, hungry hippo yesterday. NOT a good combination. I can only be grateful that I don't have junk food in the house.

And that I can push the reset button this morning.

If I begin my day with a serious breakfast – bacon and eggs or a pumpkin mug muffin seem serious enough – I do well. If I begin with fruit, though … not so much. I'm not sure why that is, and I don't have to know. It's been a pretty consistent phenomenon and I'm going to pay attention to it.

We had a lovely dinner last night (thus resetting my day before the day was done), after a mostly snacky breakfast and lunch. I made a good old-fashioned beef stew from cubed grass-fed chuck roast, white sweet potatoes and organic carrots. I thickened it with arrowroot and practically licked the bowl when I was done.

Hershey did lick her bowl, after I mixed some of the gravy into her kibble. I found her food dish halfway across the kitchen floor when I took the dinner dishes in.

I can reset the exercise module today. It's already in the 30s (it never made it out of the 20s yesterday). I can bundle up and walk before the first game this afternoon.

Thanks for reading yesterday's water rant. You'd think a disaster like this would be the "what's-it-going-to-take" moment to embrace regulations and strengthen environmental laws.

Apparently not.

Sadly.

December 12 - Joy is ...

my Hershey girl. I'm still surprised at how much of a dog person I am.

December 2 - Where I stood

I stood in front of my kitchen counter filling 50 snack-sized plastic bags
with Hershey's Kisses for tonight's meeting.