Relaxing Vacation

Mark and I are in Georgia visiting my dad and step mom. They live on a salt-water creek to a river to the ocean. It takes about 10 minutes by boat to get to the ocean. So far we have caught four fish each day--that's three of us fishing and only four a day.

Because Mark and I are conserving money, we will be back here in October for this trip that costs us nearly nothing. Dad said the fishing is better then. At least the sun is out; I've been taking naps every afternoon on the boat.

In the evenings after dinner, the four of us play cards. I won a game of hearts a couple nights ago.
Woohoo!

I'm not a very strategic card player, so it was quite the accomplishment.

My single known faithfull reader of my blog may be losing her job at a small town in Michigan. Earlier this year, her company was bought by new owners, and the employees were unsure what would happen. Sophia, if they offer you a decent buy-out, take it. In 1995 I accepted a $10,000 buy-out from a company I worked at for three years. I won't say it was the best decision of my life, but I was young and single and traveled and didn't take my next job for another eight or nine months. Of course, I moved back in with my mom, rent free. We can get a lot more for free when we're young, can't we?

Dad just stuck his head in and said dinner's ready. Adios, y vaya con Dios.

Set Small Goals to Achieve Big Ones

I haven't posted a health & fitness tip in a while. And the picture has nothing to do with the story, I just want to post it because I like it so much, yet it doesn't go with any specific story. It was taken in northern Colorado.

Many people think that setting out on the journey to a healthier self is too monumental a task to undertake. Yet we’ve all seen or read about big successes in some people—people who were obese but are now a healthy weight thanks to a wholesome lifeplan including exercise and a balanced diet.

Starting to become more fit doesn’t require you to jump right on the exercise bandwagon or to incorporate the recommended nine or even five produce servings a day. Sure, for long term weight loss, you must exercise and eat right, but those are pretty big goals, and if you don’t reach them, you may just give up all together. Setting smaller healthy goals is key to lasting weight loss and health.

Achieving smaller goals will give you a sense of accomplishment and set you on your way to reaching bigger ones. Pick one or two of the following smaller, achievable goals—or come up with your own—and try to stick to them for a month.

If you succeed, then try tackling more of the minor suggestions or a major one—like exercising regularly or eating right. Those are the two biggies. Trying to accomplish both at once will seem overwhelming, and you’ll likely give up the effort, so make sure exercise is a habit before trying to stick to a strictly healthy diet, or vise versa.

Healthy Habits to Gain
Pack a healthy lunch twice a week or more.
Consume one serving of fruit with breakfast.
Use the next floor’s bathroom—and take the stairs to get there.
Buy and read a fitness magazine: Men’s Health, SHAPE, Fitness, Self, Health, Muscle & Fitness. Reading about being healthy is very motivating.
Eat at your kitchen or dining room table but nowhere else in your house.
Rise 10 minutes earlier, and before your shower, march in place while you watch the morning news.

Anti-Healthy Habits to Lose
Visits to the vending machine
Eating after 7:30 p.m.
Second servings
One hour-long TV show (exercise instead)
Whole milk
Your need to find the closest parking space
Smoking (OK, not a small goal, but you need to quit in order to be truly healthy.)

Try to re-form habits rather than making your small goals numbers-oriented like, “I will lose 30 pounds.” The numbers on the scale will fall as a natural result of your smaller, healthier decisions.

Copyright by Elizabeth Evans Fryer

An Inconvenient Truth

Mark and I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” last week. It’s a documentary of sorts; it’s Al Gore’s movie about global warming, and it was pretty scary what is projected to happen in the foreseeable future.

What I find most interesting about the experience is that I was a touch bored with the movie while Mark was entirely captivated. See, my BS is in Environmental Engineering, so I’ve known for 20 years the perils due this world if its population—mainly the United States—doesn’t “wake up” soon and limit its emissions of carbon dioxide and other green-house gases.

Since global warming is such a problem, I assumed that everyone in the general public was familiar it: what it is, what causes it, what we can do to lessen it. In fact, I remember Mark saying some years ago that he thought it was just a hoax or just a natural ebb in our environmental health that would naturally fix itself. So I thought he was basing that opinion on some knowledge of the facts.

But in “An Inconvenient Truth” Gore tells about an extensive literature review that was undertaken, the results finding that 0% of scientific papers concerning global warming were in doubt of its seriousness while 52% of articles written by the general media cast a shadow on the authenticity of the problem.

I think that was eye-opening for Mark, that he formed his opinion after reading an article written by someone ignorant on the issue, at best, or by someone spreading propaganda, at worst.

At the end of the movie, text flashed on the screen with ideas to help slow global warming. One of those ideas was to get as many people as you can to watch “An Inconvenient Truth,” and Mark, Mr. Doesn’t-Get-Excited-About-Much, is spreading the word.

Another of the ideas was to pray that our leaders realize the seriousness of the issue before it’s too late and that they legislate change. That’s what I’m doing, besides the creed by which we live:

Reducing what we need
Reusing what we have and
Recycling what we already used.

What can you do?

e-Jukebox

The editing is slow at work now. There are natural dips and peaks in the work, but I don’t remember if this is a usual slow time of the year.

To keep busy, I’m doing some data entry into a chemical database for my project manager. It’s nearly mindless work, so I’m listening to music. I’m unable to listen to anything while editing; I get too distracted.

The music I’m listening to is popular music from the early 1960s. A site on the Internet lets listeners choose a music era from prior to 1940 to 1984 and listen for free. Site managers are hoping to expand into more recent years. I like 1980s music best, myself.

Check it out. http://www.tropicalglen.com/

Travel Writing

Last night I sat down at the computer to write a travel story about our trip to Yellowstone. Before I started writing, I checked to see how many other travel stories I have written which are ready for publication (that have not already been published). Nine! I have already written nine fun travel stories ready for publication.

One is about our tour of the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory in Fairfield, CA. Another is about a day in the early 1990s I spent in NYC with my brother, including our visit to the top of one of the World Trade Center towers.

Pike’s Peak, The Great Sand Dunes, and Colorado Springs are all about places in Colorado.

Rounding out the last four are Oahu, HI; Olympic Peninsula, WA; the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, MI; and Campobello Island in Canada, just a bridge across from Lubec, ME, the easternmost city in the USA

Funfunfun stories. I love to write travel stories.

Mark is taking me to a surprise destination on June 8-10. The only clues I have are that it’s a one-and-a-half to two-hour drive and we will not be hiking and doing the general active things I like to do, but he said we would be walking around. I have also figured out that it’s not a festival that happens only that weekend.

So, hopefully I can get a travel story out of that trip too. And I’m hoping to stop at Smoky Mts. National Park on the way to my dad’s in GA when we go Memorial Day week. I’ve never been.

If you’re interested, check out my previously published travel stories—complete with pictures—at www.OurNationsTreasures.blogspot.com.