Does anything work around here?

 I just realize why the scanner on my printer isn't working. I saw Tom, my cat, sitting on top of it looking out the window. Thanks Tom. 

A wonderful (active) year...

It has been another great year for me. I wanted to keep doing what I have been doing, this past year, in order to have a lifetime of being dis-ease free. As of the 12^th of December, I have been relaxing, just taking it easy for the rest of this year until January, where I will start up with all of the activities I enjoyed over the past year.

I am planning to join Planet Fitness, again, so I can get my legs in better shape for those long hikes and those long bike rides, 50+ miles at a time. My longest in 2016, 45 miles and I did that 4 times.

Anyway, here are my results for this past year:

ran – only 73.1 miles – (2015 - 235 miles, What a year a difference makes)

Walked – 425.4 miles – (2015-754 miles, ouch…)

Biked – 475.7 miles – (2015 - 410 miles)

Hiked – 294 miles – (2015 - 95.5 miles)  

Kayaked – 17 miles – (2015 - 4.2 miles)

For a grand total of – 1285.3 miles – (2015 1500.4 miles)

 Down a tiny bit, in some categories, and up a few in others, only because I either forgot to add the extra times to my recorder or my  GPS logs failed because the batteries on my phone died. But I did add a lot more other activities such as, Camping 6 times in 2016 (8 times in 2015), Laser tag, and going Zip lining.  

I ended up gaining about 15 pounds and maintained a weight of 200 lbs. for a large part 2016, considering I had lost 76 pounds in the prior years.  

I don’t know what I have doing for the end of this year, but I've gained 15 pounds since the end of November. I think it has to do with all that cake and Rum and Eggnog I have devoured in the last two week. Compounding the fact that I have done no other activities but sit and watch Movies on Netflix for the last two weeks.

In a few days I am going to have to get back on track and do what I have been doing for the last 2 and a half years. This year I plan to add more just to make sure that when I go to the doctor for my annual checkup all my numbers are lower than they were for 2016. 

I want to thank my wonderful cat, Tom, for waking me up this morning. He usually, after the alarm goes off, jumps on the bed and tries to pull the covers off of me. Then he nuzzles his head into my arms. But today, he decided to sneeze into my face. That woke me up!

I am prepping myself for 2017, 1 story at a time. #amwriting#amwritingscifi #writing #scifi #novelwriting #novel

To Poop or, whatever...

Of all the kitty-cat things: my ding-bat cat Tom will not drink from that Cat Fountain, I got for both cats a few years ago. There is a bathroom next to the Laundry room, where the cats litter box is located. For the longest time I thought Tom drank out of that toilet, only because I see him, actually, drink out of the toilet next to my computer room.

He may or may not drink out of the first toilet, but for the longest time I always see cat litter in the toilet. I had never really thought much about it. I figured that he would put his paws on the edges of the water and drink. I am finding out that is not the case, though.

My cats love to come into the bathroom as I sit on the toilet it never fails. I try to sneak up on Jerry, but he runs as if the cops are coming for him, cat-tus interruptus… Tom, on the other hand doesn’t give a poop. I usually never go in their room to spy on them but I was walking by and Tom was standing at the rim of the toilet. He was dipping his paws into the water, I would have to conjecture, washing his tiny paws off after he finished using his litter box.

I would guess, then, he wasn’t drinking out of the toilet in his toilet room, just dipping his feet in the toilet. However, he is still drinks out of the toilet I use most often than not. I don’t get that cat. If I close the toilet seat, he would rather die of thirst than drink out of that water fountain I have set up with both cats. Oh well

I made it to the 21st Century...

Amazon Echo Dot -- with Alexa

Automation…welcome to the 21^st century, as I listen to Amazon Alexa play soothing electronic music in the background. I can’t say that I am late to the game, I have had automation, with my lights, and only lights since the late 1970s. When I moved into my first house, in 1984, I took all of the switches and transceivers with me and automated the house.

I then purchased additional transceivers and wall switches so that I had the control to turn on all the lights in the house and a few other things I can’t remember, now. During that time, you could only control your lights by clicking the corresponding number on the transceivers the switches were assigned to. The system was called X10 Powerhouse, sold by Radio Shack, at the time. I still have all of my switches and transceivers.

However, three or so years ago my computer running XP, I purchased back in 2003, died and the X10 software was on that computer. The lights were programed to turn on at up to 255 times a day, if need be. Last year I found, at a local computer store, a hard drive enclosure. I put the old hard drive into the enclosure and sure enough, the drive wasn’t damaged and worked fine.

I hooked the drive to my main computer and all of the software was still intact. The only problem, Windows 10 isn’t backward compatible. I went online to find if X10.com had the software for Windows 10. For some reason, the site doesn’t look the same. I am guessing that some entity has taken the company over. They say there is software to control the switches, but I couldn’t download it. I was just SOL.

(I’ve gotta take another break – this break is brought to you by, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Kroger Eggnog, this Writer’s favorite winter and writing drink!)

 In the meantime, I just purchased timers for the main lights, the modern kind where you can have them come on at various times of the day or week. That worked well, to a point. I just had to deal with it and be complacent. Then I heard about Amazon Echo. I wanted it, needed it, but, at $199.00 (back when it first came into existence), it was a little too pricey for me, so I put in my Amazon wish list and just waited.

Out of the blue came, Amazon Dot. At first, I didn’t understand it. Why was it so small? Of course, I got the details later. I added that to my wish list and waited. Since I have been doing those online surveys I had been able to save about $20 a month, which doesn’t sound like much, but it helps where you want to get a few things on Amazon.

Lo and behold, Amazon lowered the price of the Amazon Dot to $39 in November! You will never guess how much I had saved. I knew exactly what I wanted and (before Amazon Prime) a week later I got my Amazon Dot. And so it began. I had to figure out what I could do with it, though. Now, actually a few weeks ago until yesterday, I just played music and asked Alexa dumb questions.

After many hours, (actually, many hours of YouTube and automation webpages), I figured out what to get first…Lightbulbs! However, I didn’t realize that connected lightbulbs were that expensive $15, up to $50 for one bulb. I thought only one type would fit and work, style A19 light bulbs. I purchased a four-pack for $20 only to find out you have to have connected lightbulbs. I had to return the four-pack.

I found some, near inexpensive, connected bulbs, only to find that the Home Depot, close to my home, had just two of the bulbs I wanted left. I decided to get a third bulb, a Phillips Hue bulb. I took the set home and put the Phillips Hue bulb in first. I had read that you needed a Phillips Hue hub to work with this particular bulb. Before all of that, I had purchased a Wink2 hub, reading that I have to have a hub to control of my automated toys and stuff.

I couldn’t get the Hue bulb to work. I checked the site and found out that the Hue bulb will only work with a Phillips Hue Bridge (hub). I started to think to myself, why in the world would I buy a Phillip’s Hue Hub when I already have a hub. The Wink hub said that it works with the Phillips Hue bulb. But, two hubs to work one bulb?

So I had to go back to the Home Depot and get a Cree connected bulb, they had one but it was slightly more than the two I purchased previously. Today, after all the work was done, I can now say, “Alexa, turn on all the lights…” and like magic, the lights come on. Now, I just have to figure out how to put the lights on a schedule.

I just realized that I only have five lamps in my house and only need to three of them on, at night. All the other lights are on switches, 24 bulbs, not including the garage and back porch, in all. So, I checked the prices of the switches, they start at about $30 and up for one switch. The fan, in my living room, for instance, is a dual switch and they cost about $70. I am guessing it is expensive to automate one’s home.

Some of the things, next on the list, a Nest Thermostat, automated front door lock, and a garage door opener. I am guessing if it will take a year to get my house automated, but it will be well worth it.

I wonder what else the future will bring – hopefully replicators, transporters, phasers, robots and other toys to play with, or do I have to wait until the 22^nd century?

Now that I think about it…what do I do with all of my X10 transceivers? 

The fly...

It was nice and toasty, in my house, this morning. I got a roaring fire going right now. So warm there was a fly flying (a sky raisin) around in my bathroom. I was wondering why the cat was sitting there. something he doesn't do much of.

I swatted at it a few times and it flew to the floor and stayed there, much to the surprise of Jerry, the fat cat. He chased it around for a few minutes...then ate it. I heard that sky raisins were tasty for cats and he seemed to enjoy one of his favorite treats.

My fanny is bigger than...

OMG!! Fanny packs are making a comeback!! I know I have a couple packed away down in the basement. I'd better go and dust them off! I saw this on the news, so it has to be true...unlike seeing it on the Internet...

Winner, winner...pants on fire?

I retired from my, a real job 10 years ago. I, then, decided that I would write novels and something I found interesting, at the time, taking surveys and entering contests, sweepstakes, so on and so forth. I can’t say that, in all that time, it has been lucrative, but I have won and received quite a lot of prizes.

During those years, I have received at least, if not close to $1000 in music, movie, and gasoline gift cards. Usually $10 at a time. Recently I saved enough $10 Amazon gift cards to purchase a backpack and a camping cook set. However, the two biggest things and most wanted things I have received were a 23in, all-in-one computer and a 55in TV, both in 2009. Nothing but Amazon and iTunes gift cards since. Of course, nothing in the lottery, or for that matter, all of those sweepstakes that offer million dollar homes and cars and stuff. Not a biggie though.

For the last year or so I have been watching a daytime TV show called Right This Minute, RTM. I got into it because they showed a ton of internet videos and I enjoyed most of them. Sometime last year they started offering iPad Mini’s and once a week a bonus prize, usually a LED TV, if you watched and sent, on the internet, your information and the “Word of the day” to their web site. That got me hooked.

I figured that if I play long enough I might win; then again, I might not win a thing. This sweepstakes usually lasted about 30 days, 3 times a year. This year I finally won that iPad Mini2. I always thought that if I won I would sell the iPad on EBay; I would rather have gotten the cash then the iPad, considering I already have a tablet and it does what I want rather well.

I received the iPad Mini2 this past Friday and, for all intent and purposes, it was a nice looking tablet. I, for whatever reason, decided to keep it. Then, I said to myself, WHY am I going to keep this tablet? I took all of the plastic off of the tablet fired it up and then started to add apps that I think I needed.

At that very moment I realized that having a second tablet was just a little bit much, overkill. I already have a laptop, a desktop, two smartphones and now two tablets. Both tablets doing much of the same thing. Moreover, an Apple device is a hard cookie to crack. There are a lot of little things my Nexus 7 does that the iPad doesn’t do and to me that it a distraction.

So now what do I do with it? Keep it in my bedroom and use it as an alarm clock? I can’t do that because my old and I mean old second smartphone does that. I don’t use it for anything else but wake me in the morning. It looks like I may end up selling it anyway, that is if I don’t find something for it to do.

Other than that, I guess I will just keep playing those online contests and sweepstakes. Now, if I can just win the lottery!

Yes, its official...

Yup, I'm losing it...it has been confirmed, again. I took that particular sweatshirt with me, camping, this past weekend. I know I put it in my bag. For that past four days I have been looking for that sweatshirt, to no avail. I really searched this house from top to bottom. Nothing, zilch...no sweatshirt could be found. Today I was going to finish raking the leaves in the back yard. I needed a cap, which I knew was in the dryer. Guess what I found in the dryer...my sweatshirt, where it languished for the last four days, hiding from me.

Survey says...?

I've been doing surveys and playing games that have big prizes for the last, well, since I retired, about 10 years now. During that time I have won a computer, the one I am typing this post on, a Big screen HDTV, tons of movie passes and Google music and movies and Apple Itunes music.

Nothing big, real big, so far, like a house or $50K, stuff like that. The last thing, kind of big thing, was about 6 years ago, the HDTV. Anyway, I just got a notice, today, that I just won another "mini" computer. I am still waiting on that $100K, or for that matter, anything more than $10 in the Michigan Lottery,

though.

I've lost my mind and I can't get up...

About 3 weeks ago, as I was sitting in my car going somewhere, I took the tab, on my phone, off so I can charge my phone. It broke off of the hinge so now I have to keep tabs as to where I put it. For the love of me, I could not find the tab later that day. I practically cleaned my car out looking for the tab. The tab keeps the phone water-proof.

A few days ago, as I was reaching into the armrest, you will never know what I found. Yes, it was that tab. I have no idea why I never looked in there first. What I had thought was, I put the tab in my hat and when I went to put the hat on, I thought I saw something, little and black, fly by me. I thought it was the tab and I decided to look for it when I got out of the car.

This past Saturday I went on a 4 mile hike and I took a lot of pictures. When I got home, I could not find my camera. I tried to remember what I did with it. Again, I searched the car, under the seats, in my backpack, in my hiking boots, to no avail. This morning, just before the alarm went off, I woke up and tried to think about where and what I did to lose my camera. 

 I turned it over in my mind for 10 minutes or so. I got to the part where I took the camera out of the camera holder I had attached to my backpack and I remember getting into the car with it. After that, everything drew a blank. I got up and went about my daily grind. I went out on my daily walk and the thought of not taking picture got me angry, for a moment.

A few minutes ago, as I was taking a shower, I happened to think about that tab, and I had to chuckle. Then it hit me! I remembered where the camera might be. I put my clothes on and went downstairs and out into the garage, opened the car door, lean in and opened the arm rest. Sure enough, the camera was sitting there laughing at me.

I am really going to have to give up drinking or when I am on a hike quit picking and eating them mushroom! 

Happy Birthday, Tom and Jerry!

Two brothers -- It's a love hate relationship

I cleaned out Jerry's water fountain yesterday. Scrubbed it clean, changed the filter and filled it with nice clean water. He loves it even more now, because every time I sit down he runs and jumps in my lap and his face is soaking wet. He would rather drink from the stream then out of the water bowl.

Not only that, since yesterday, as clean as it is, the water is coming out harder and further out into the water bowl, below. Now it sounds like someone taking a piss every minute of the day! Talk about annoying! I can hear it even when I am watching the boob tube.

I don’t have to worry about Tom; he could care less about that $100 cat fountain. He gets his water from the toilet. I once closed the lids and he acted like he was dying. He made it an issue that I open his water dish so he can stay hydrated. He whines a lot.

Tom

Anyway, October is Tom and Jerry’s birth month. I have no real idea what day they were born. I got them in early November and they were about 6 weeks old. So, say Happy Birthday to my two fat cats – Tom and Jerry! 

Jerry

Tom and Jerry

Sleepyhead Tom

Jerry hiding

Let's get ready tooooooo...backpack!

The last of my backpacking gear came into today. I packed everything into my 70+10L backpack. Total weight; 25 Lbs. (24.6). The only things missing, I only have partial food, (b'fast and 2 days of snacks.), water, (I ordered a water bladder, should be here in 5 days.) and I don't have any clothes in the pack. 
My next weekend trip is in 14 days. I should be totally ready by then.

I almost blew up my house and killed my cats!

I almost blew up my house and killed my cats!

I decided I would only walk today, I didn't feel like running, and I wanted some split-pea soup when I got back from my 5k journey around the block. So, I put a pot of water on and a few minutes later I poured a bag of split peas into the boiling inferno.

I turned the fire on low, on low it usually takes about 90 minutes or so for it to cook and get to that consistency I like, soupy. As I got ready to head out, I thought I should turn the fire up, just a little, I think it was a 2 or maybe 3 on the knob. Anyway, I put the top on it and went on to my daily walk.

About a kilometer into my walk I started thinking, what if that pot overflowed and the water started to spill out, that would put the fire out and the house would fill with gas and first, kill my cats and then would blow up when I entered the house. That thought stayed with me for a few more minutes and then dissipated as trudged onward.          

Sixty-two minutes later, as I sat on the ground, at my garage door, I decided to go into the house and rest for a bit, shower and then make my lunch. As soon as I entered the house, the smell of gas bellowed through my nose. I ran to the stove and shut off the gas and then went to the closest cat, Tom, to see if he was okay. I grabbed him and he slowly turned his head, looked up at me and said, meow.

I then went over to Jerry and touched his head; he seemed to be okay, too. To a small degree, I am glad left the back door wall opened. I went around the house and turned on all of the fans and the bathroom exhaust fans. A few moments later, I remembered to turn on the blower, on the furnace, which also is an exhaust fan. I thought of it first, but I thought that when I turn it on it might ignite the gas…it didn’t.

When I am at home, I have always, turn the fire on the stove to low when I am cooking any type of beans, and I love split-pea soup, (I never liked split-pea soup at all when I was younger). I do not know why I turned it up a notch today. I am going to have to be a lot more careful from now on. I would hate for something like the house burning down and losing my cats!

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...It just might be a T-Rex

I just read and saw on the boob tube that Scientists have suggested that dinosaurs coo'ed and quacked like ducks! Think about that for a second. A T-Rex quacking...before it ate you!

http://nerdist.com/dinosaurs-didnt-roar-they-cooed-or-quacked-like-ducks-says-new-study/

nothing has happened...

Nothing happened today, nothing, not a thing, zilch, nada, nothing..so far. I do know, I gotta stop throwing peanuts at my cats, those things are  too good to be throwing at those cats. And, to make matters worse, I only had one cup of coffee...go figure.

Don't mess with Grandma...

I went to Kroger to pick up some breakfast food and my favorite, Swiss cheese. Not just any Swiss cheese, but the big-eyed, cheap, (inexpensive) Swiss cheese.

At the deli counter, they usually have a number system to accommodate the customers, if a large number of people converge on the deli counter at the same time.  Today was not one of those days. At the time, it was only me and another lady at the counter and we were both being served, at the time.

A couple minutes later, an older woman, I would have to say she was in her late 70s, early 80s, five foot tall, strolled up to the counter and went straight to the machine that dispenses those little tickets with the current number, waiting to waited on. I looked over to her and said, “You don’t have to get a number.” She looked at me for a hard second and proceeded to pull a number ticket out of the dispenser.

I then said, “You must be a Republican!”

“What?” She grumbled, with a look of disdain and daggers being hurled at me through her eyes, 

The woman standing next to me blurted out, “He’s just joking, he’s just joking…”

“Only a republican wouldn’t listen. You didn’t have to pull the number; they would have waited on you without a number…” I said with a super large, silly smile glued to my face.  The older woman just smiled and gave me a thumb down and said, “Not me!”

I gave her two thumbs up, grabbed my Swiss cheese from the counter and High-tailed out of there.

Stranger things than writing...

I did it again...I went to a writer's conference this past Saturday and they talked about procrastination in writing. So, I said, at the time, this coming Monday, today, I would write at least 2000 words in my novel. What happened? I sat all day (well, after running 3.25 miles), and watched that Netflix series, "Stranger Things", All eight episodes. The stories were compelling, reminded me a lot like a few Stephen King novels. My only thing, where does season 2 take the viewers to? And was the end of episode 8 a "kind" of cliff hanger? I guess I'll have to wait until 2017.

Will the real coffee drinkers please stand up...

"Heard at the KDL Writer's Conference, in Grand Rapids, today; Her: "I love coffee!"
Me: "No you don't, you love sugar and cream..." As she poured a couple of teaspoons of sugar and then a lot of cream into her coffee. "Real coffee lovers drink their coffee strong and black.""



'via Blog this'

I've forgotten and I can't...

I consider myself a thinking person, someone who always has a brilliant thought on his mind. But, I guess as I progressively age, a guy just wants to have fun…but, alas I digress.

About a month or so ago my Keurig coffee maker died, or so I thought. What did I do, I went out and purchased a Mister Coffee, coffee maker for about $20. Prior to that I had purchased an expensive, well a near expensive couple bags of coffee, which I used in my Keurig coffee maker. That coffee was great, great taste and so forth.

The only problem, coffee tends to spoil after a couple of weeks (actually a week or less. I just can’t drink coffee that fast, though).  And, what made it even worse the Mister coffee maker left my cup of coffee with a bad plastic after taste. Yesterday, after having no coffee for a couple of days, I thought I would try the Mr. Coffee machine again. This time, the coffee was just terrible, I mean terrible! A biting, stinging taste on my tongue. I took one sip and had to spit it out, it was that bad.

This morning I opened up a jar of instant coffee. I have never really liked instant coffee, never. I usually drink it when I go camping. As of right now, eight hours later, I still feel that coffee in my gut. It seems to be hard to get out of my system.

Anyway, I remembered something my son told me a very long time ago…”Use YouTube, Dad!” Sure enough I went to the web and looked up Keurig coffee makers on YouTube and my exact machine came up and the video explained what was wrong and what to do about it. A very simple thing to do.

I now say to myself, “How stupid could I have ever been?” This is something I should have done two months ago and I wouldn’t have suffered as much as I have in the long run. And I have suffered. I need my morning coffee. Not because I like it so much, (love it), but it offers me the energy to get out of the house and do my daily run or walk or anything else that requires exercise.

If I can ever remember, old age seems to be doing that to me or I have been drinking too much…I’ve got to remember to use YouTube when something around the house breaks. Anyone wanna buy a Mister Coffee maker, cheap?

13 hours!

I had a dream this morning and they usually end up as a Sci-Fi story I want to write. After I woke up, fed the cats, made coffee, breakfast and read all of my emails, I thought I would flesh out my story. So I decided to go out and walk my three mile route and come up a story line.

When I got back I had the story laid out…in my mind. I was planning to write today, I have a bunch of things I wanted to get out and finished, let’s say, at least 2000 words worth. However, nothing happened at all with all of those thoughts I had, Nothing, nada, zilch, nope…Nothing!

Why you ask? I watched all 13 hours of the New Netflix series, “Luke Cage”. Thirteen hours! I watched six episodes last night and I was up until 1 am. Then when I finished with most of the things I needed to do, today, I hit up Netflix, again, and finished the rest of the series. Thirteen hours!

The good thing, though, I never let the idea out of my head. I don’t have a title, yet, but I know I will think of something sooner or later, so it’s “untitled – 10/2016”. I better outline it so I don’t forget.

When I get up tomorrow, I hope to find some motivation to keep my butt in this chair, in front of this computer and finish the novel I am working on now by at least November when the NaNoWriMo starts. That’s because I have another novel I want to start.

I am going to have to break some of these plates I have piled up over there in the sink. Because my plates are getting full and its getting hard to keep up. Fingers crossed… procrastinating? 

I got nothing...to write about

I got nothing…nothing to write about this very minute, nothing. I am sitting here watching the Lion’s football game and it’s at the end of the first half and of course the Lions are losing, go figure, so I am fuming, sort of. Heck, Michigan State lost last night and them damn Tigers lost, too. Really fuming now.

I just don’t have anything in mind to write about right but, I need to calm the *Frack* down. Anyway, them Tigers, what to do? They hold their fate in their own hands today, well, Toronto and Baltimore have to lose today. If that is the case, the Tigers will have to win, today, and win their make-up game tomorrow.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should just get up and wash the dishes, during the halftime show, and finish washing and folding my week’s worth of dirty cloths. Or heck, vacuum my rugs or just clean up. I am going to do something, just what…maybe take a nap. I'm due a nap right now. I didn’t drink a lot of coffee today so I am getting tired just sitting here and watching the Lion’s football game...I just bored watching the Lions lose. That’s too close to call… 

Wired!!

Fred Green: "I was going to take a nap, a little bit ago but, I have had so much coffee today, on National Coffee day...I guess that ain't going to happen! I'm wide awake. I did manage to clean the kitchen, wash dishes, fold some clothes...I would have made up the bed but my cat, who was lying there, grabbed hold of the sheet and wouldn't let go so I came down here to write this."



'via Blog this'

Today is National Coffee day, and I have had so much coffee I actually feel "High"!

Of all of the lost my mind things: I went grocery shopping this past Friday and I know that I purchased 4 packs of pancake mix. But, when I got home I could only find 3 packs. I went out into the garage and checked my car to see if it fell out. No pack of pancake mix.

Today, I planned to make dinner with foods in the freezer, so I opened the freezer door and grabbed a package of what I thought were frozen peas. It turned out to be that lost pack of pancake mix. It had been the freezer for the last four days. Either I am getting old and my mind is seeping out of my ears or I gotta stop drinking.

Today marks the beginning of a new Adventure!

To eat or not to eat...

Fred Green: "I've had so much coffee today, I forgot to eat lunch. Oh well, what to eat, what to eat?"



'via Blog this'

Break -- Fast

I broke my five and a half day fast this morning, normally, for the past 37 years, I have fasted for at least seven day, but I wanted to go hiking and get out on the lake and kayak a little.

I went to the grocery store yesterday to get all the food that I needed to break my fast and what I needed for the next two weeks or so. I usually average $130 when I go grocery shopping, and I usually get a ton of processed food. Stuff like, veggie burgers, canned stuff, lots of frozen stuff, stuff like that, (cookies, donuts, chips…). I thought I would do something different this time…considering that I do this just about every time I fast.

This time I was going to cook, my meals, again. So, I got a lot of vegetables and fruits. I did end up getting some of those frozen veggie burgers, they taste so great, though. When I finished my total bill was only $79! What saved me a lot, I didn’t get a ton of chips and cookies and donuts and way too many other sweet things.

Another thing I did was download and print as many vegetarian recipes as I could find, considering I have a Pinterest page of nothing but vegetarian food and all of the veggie burgers I could find. Heck, I have plenty of time to do what I need to do every day so why not cook breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I just so happened to find a recipe for a bunch of soup, I love soup. I really haven’t had a lot of soup because they come in cans and are full of sodium. As it is, my blood pressure is/was high enough, now. I haven’t checked as of late but, it doing well and I have lowered it in past months.

In my life, I have never liked split-pea soup but, as of late, it is one of my favorites, and Tomato soup. I found recipes for both. I will be cooking up a storm this week.

The one thing I have to watch out for and have done this just about every time I finish a fast, I eat too much at lunch. I usually break my fast with an apple and then, at lunch I make something with a lot of things with protein and find it hard to stop eating. I eat too much and regret it in the end. Not this time. I will not fall into that trap again and, so far so good.  Well, I did have two extra pieces of…

In 2014, I stayed away from a lot of sweets, chips and a lot of other junk foods and lost 78 pounds. Of course I also ran, more often than not, walked, hiked and biked over 1800 miles that year. In 2015, I figure that I could now eat more because I exercised more, now that I think about it, not as much as the year before. I still ended doing about 1300 total miles. However, I gained 10 pounds.

I weighed in at 200 this year and have stayed that weight all year. Today I am 14 pounds under what I was last Sunday. Now, it’s back to the old ways, staying away from all that isn’t good for me, maybe…, I not give up beer, though, I love beer! I hope it won’t be as hard as it has been, my entire adult life but every day is a learning experience. 

I am on my fourth day of my fast. I was going to fast until Sunday or Monday. I think I will break it Saturday morning, I want to get out and do something on Sunday. I can either go on a 40 mile bike ride to Harsens Island or a 8 or 9 mile hike. Decisions, decisions.

Happy first day of the Autumnal Equinox! Or as they say in America..."Fall", because the leaves fall off of the trees.

The End of Days...

Well, this is it! It's the last day! Get out and do something before it's over! You only have one chance at it. Enjoy the Last Day of Summer!

Recipe for iced coffee...

I laid down to take a nap, earlier today. So, I layed on my right side, unbeknownst to me my cat, Tom, would join me for his daily nap, and proceed to lay with his butt near my face...anyway, I digress. When I woke up my left shoulder was hurting as if I had laid on my left side. What's up with that? I am wired weird in my old age. Go figure.

It took me 9 months, 18 days to watch, Star Trek - TOS, ST:DS9, ST:TNG and I just finished Star Trek: Voyager last night. I really don't know if I want to finish the entire series, ending with Enterprise. I seem to have Treked out, for now. But, it's only 4 seasons...

Three Things...

 Three things:

Thing number 1.  I got up this morning and, as I laid on my bed and stretched, my sciatic nerve in my left leg said, NO! No stretching and you are not getting out of the bed today. Of course I ignored that dagger in my butt and got up any way.

I tried to put on my PJs, (I sleep in the nude) and tried to lift my leg and struggled to get my left leg in to my PJs. I limped to the window to look at the rain falling and then limped down the stairs to feed my cats, Tom and Jerry.

I was going to play racquetball this morning but, my butt said NO! For whatever reason I am becoming a servant to my butt, specifically, my pain. It seems that everything on my left side hurts. Anyway, I am going to sit here and write and then watch football for the rest of the day and suffer with the pain in my butt.

Thing number 2. After racquetball I was going to go on a 7 mile hike and finish with a picnic. When the food had been devoured I was going kayaking. Looking out the window, the rain hasn’t stop. I just checked the radar and all of Michigan is covered and the rain will be out of here by 5 pm. So, the organizer cancelled the hike and the Kayaking. But, she re-scheduled the hike for tomorrow. All in all I still might go and walk 3 miles, in the rain anyway, just because… (I ate two donuts this morning).

Thing number 3. Last but not least, this morning was a good thing, no, a great thing. A couple of weeks ago, while grocery shopping, I needed to get some coffee. Since my Keurig died I have been drinking Folgers Breakfast Blend and ran out. So, I thought I try something really different. Of course anything Starbucks is out of the question. Sometimes, what you don’t know may or may not hurt your, philosophically speaking, of course.

As I scanned all of the coffees on the racks in the coffee aisle and I spotted something different, a coffee I had not seen before. Since it was $2 cheaper it’s what I wanted, so I bought it. It turned out to be Seattle’s Best coffee, more on that later. Today, I opened that bag of Seattle’s Best coffee, brewed it and waited for a bit before I drank it. I was surprised by the taste.

Talk about the best tasting coffee I have had today, and probably for the next month, too! I am not a coffee snob, but I know what I like and I have tasted quite a few great tasting coffees and this was one of them, this month. Even though, in the back of my mind, I knew that Seattle’s Best was owned by Starbucks. I Googled Seattle’s Best and sure enough…Starbucks Best.

I don’t know why I cannot stand Starbucks coffee, at their stores, and I now know why people who drink it add lots of sugar and cream. Now that I think about it and I’ve had three cups of coffee, (my cups hold 3 cups,), I probably will stick with this brand for a while longer, considering it is the least expensive of most coffees on the coffee rack.

Oh well, it’s still raining, I guess I will sit here and watch the last three episodes of Dark Matter and later, Football … and finish that pot of “Seattle’s Best” coffee.