An Easy Day

Bartlett Pear

 The shape and color of the Barlett pear is perfect to sketch and paint. I removed the produce sticker easily. However, the skin of the pear sticks to the sticker. 

Anxiety is like that. It sticks to you no matter how you try to manage it. Despite snow in the forecast, I decide I would not miss the dental appointment I need to get to. I told myself if the anxiety becomes too sharp, then as before, I can cancel. The world will not fall apart and neither will I.

Everything this morning went well. I didn't wake up tired, cranky or very anxious. I didn't send myself into a tizzy figuring out what to wear. My focus is to get out the door to the appointment. So I did.

I was on my way home in less than a hour there. In all of it, nice people, clean place, good information, spot on answers to all my questions at Aspen Dental.*

As a treat, I stop at a favorite place to pick up a sandwich and coffee on the way home. I planned to go back out to do errands, but instead, me and my sort muscles (from the closet clear out yesterday) dozed off. Now I'm awake with a hot chocolate, and wearing my new sweat pants as I sit on my deriere.

How has your day been?

*Not a sponsored post 

Stuff, Sourcing, & Surprises

Finding stuff while cleaning out a closet can be fun as well as depressing. Fun because I'm glad to have found stuff I was wondering where they went to.  Depressing because now I have a ton of shredding to do. 

Single Bed Duvet

A Source for large pieces of fabric:

Duvet Covers

Closet diving, I find the twin size duvet cover I bought at a thrift store last year. I opened the seams, and then cut the fabric in half. I will sew a French seam in the middle. The fabric is a light sturdy weave that will be easy to machine wash. The plaid gives the room a cozy cabin vibe that's comfortable any time of the year. In the summer, my mind can go to a cabin at the lake vibe. The label is gone. If I remember right, it is from Pottery Barn.

The surprise* of the day is finding only 2 large bins of fabric! In the past, I've had up to 5 large plastic bins of fabric, and a couple of sweater containers. Only 2 containers tells me the last time I sorted fabrics, I did a good job. This round, I'm organizing the remanants. There will be only 1 fabric bin when I finish sorting.

*Another surprise!

I found my birthstone ring that I lost last year,

It was on a tiny bottle pencil holder under some plastic milk bottle rings.

Excercise: The Stretch

The warm up and stretching are a priority. Cold muscles are grumpy muscles. Grumpy muscles are an injury waiting to happen (like what happened this morning leaning over the dust pan).

On my right side, I felt a muscle cramping up. Immediately I stop what I'm doing when that happens. As slight and brief as the muscle cramp was, the area is still tender.

No matter what age, I believe, stretching is a component of keeping yourself healthy.

I learned in the late 1980s when taking martial arts instruction, stretching my muscles properly is as important as the action itself. Sitting on the floor in a leaning position with my head on the floor, I nearly fell asleep, I was that relaxed. The sensei explained to me to follow the right amount of stretching.

This morning is a wake up call. I am old. Stretching must be a daily routine. The odd moment of remember to stretch something isn't enough. A routine for all muscles at my ability level is the best way for me to keep healthy.

The Importance of Stretching, 

Harvard Medical School, Harvard Health Publishing

Stretches for Exercise and Flexibility 

American Heart Association

Justin Timberlake - Say Something (First Take) ft. Chris Stapleton

How many times can you spill coffee on your sweater?

It's like this.

You have two hands. In one hand is a napkin. In the other hand is your coffee mug. What do you think happens when both want to get to your face at the same time? Yup. Coffee clash!

The spill flows down my sweater to be quickly soaked up with the napkin. Seconds later, feel a cold trickling on my arm, soak up of coffee that went inside my sweater sleeve. 

Have a Dry Sweater Weekend!

Bake potatoes

Cut out a string of snowflakes

Make a big plate of nachos

Draw your favorite chair

Read about relativistic mechanics*

Watch a funny movie

Make paper beads

A Winter Sunset in Addison County Vermont

* Quiz at a later date

Day 19 of week 3 January 2024

 

Where do sparrows sleep?

I recently Google that question. The answer tells me they group in trees and shrubs. There are and have been numerous shrubs near the building where I live. Yet, I have never seen a sleeping group of sparrows.

I Googled group sparrows sleeping. No images appear in the results. I have seen groups of sparrows in shrubs. They aren't sleeping. They hop from branch to branch making a lot of chirping noise.

Update on learning my iphone 13:

It is creepy how my iphone 13 will slide on the least little incline. Online, I read that the surface is slippery. 

My question is why make a phone that slippery? You need a cover on the phone that keeps it from sliding. You can sit there and watch it slowly slide, like a ghost pushing it because the incline is so slight it looks flat. The phone won't stop sliding until it bumps into something or falls on the floor. 

Black screen iphone 13 problem. Press power button, seconds later the screen goes black. Multiple times, slide, opens, goes black. Manage to put in passcode to open phone, screen goes black. Try again, have to log in again, screen goes black. 

Caution. If you log in with iphone passcode 6 times in a row, the device will lock you out.

My phone requires multiple log ins. If I use the phone, put it down for a few seconds, it goes off requiring me to log in again. I shut off the passcode requirement.

After I manage to use the phone for a few minutes, the going to black screen appears to stop. I searched online for a fix. I manage with great effort to restart my phone. So far, the black screen problem appears to have stopped.*

*Update late morning...black screen on and off problem hasn't return. 

The phone is a pleasure to use without a passcode.

Yo Yo Ma - Bach Six Cello Suites - The Odeon of Herodes Atticus Greek Live

A Busy Day Being Busy

Bird Seed at Sunrise

Bird tracks in the snow are such a joy to see. Why do they hop around here and there, stop, look like they're thinking, and then hop around more?

Have you ever been busy doing things that take you away from what you planned to do, and then wonder at the end of the day why you were so busy? That was my afternoon yesterday. It began with needing to out to get coffee and bird seed. 

After a few very cold days sitting, my vehicle needs a warm up. A drive to the thrift store I go. Yay me! I found a dip dish to put bird seed in (a butter crock, ceramic tiles for coasters, and a plastic covered loaf container). On the way home, I remember to stop for the coffee. Leaving there, I remember ah, the bird seed. I brought my haul inside using my plastic sled.

How was your day?

It is Cold Outside

 Sunrise  Vermont, 7:30 AM EDT

 13ºF

at Lower elevation of 282 feet

Digital photograph taken from indoors

snowfalling16Jan2024

A Blog Snow Day

FYI. In the photo (right) the white square on a pole is my indoor television Winegard 50 mile antenna that with a dumb TV receives 28 signals. The smart TV receives only 4 signals. 

The antenna is clipped to a wood slat taped to a clothing stand I can move around for the best signal, (handy in bad weather).

Mourning Doves
Don't see me

The photograph of the mourning doves is taken through the patio window. The cell phone is being held up over the curtain so they aren't scared away by seeing me.

Birds saw me

In the last photo, they doves did see me after I opened the curtain. One stayed, but flew away when I moved.

I'm not sure the orange froze or the birds pecked at it. The inside is pretty much shrunken to nothing. The other half disappeared.

Today feels like a snow day on the blog with no subject planned. It is the kind of day for an egg salad sandwich (toasted bread), and chocolate milk. The snow isn't coming down bad enough to not venture out for the chocolate milk. It's that it makes no sense energy and environment wise to go out for one thing that I can do without. I have cocoa and milk that I can make instead. No sandwich because on purpose I did not buy bread. I want to try to make my own. Thus, dinner will be leftovers.

What kind of sandwich do you like on a slow snow day?
Are you a chocolate milk fan?

What puts a feeling of doom over Earth is the 2024 Iowa caucus results. 

On the other hand, maybe folks that think he will go away, will step up and take notice, and speak out.

On my home front, changing my lifestyle in 2024 is progressing well. There are small changes. The best part is that my momentum isn't not waning. Winter blues have not taken hold. After pulling out of a late summer, autumn depression episode, I'm am determined to not spend winter with awful running in my background.