|
Marvin Theobald
I’ve been negligent in staying touch lately but have had a lot going on. My next door neighbors wife divorced him in mid-January and I invited him to stay at my house while we were in Florida. Having a roommate since my return from Florida has been a big change in my lifestyle. He closed on a house a week ago and has now finished moving his vast array of belongings to his new home. Life may start returning to whatever “normal” is for me now.
My son was here from New Hampshire the past couple of days and my daughter from Texas with my ex-wife (who is in a fairly advanced stage of Alzheimer’s) were in town as well. In addition to all that that has been going on, I managed to get 29 tomato plants in the ground this week along with some fencing in an attempt to avoid last year’s deer invasion of the garden. I have a friend that has some farm property nearby and he has kindly offered space for me to have a tomato garden. It is great to be able to have an unlimited tmato supply during the summer as well as freeze enough for chili in the winter. I supplied the neighbor hood last year and they should be plentiful again this year.
I totally enjoy the humorous stuff that so many have been posting. I will add one at the end here.
Jim – I get your attitude toward maintaining your house and wanting to make some changes. My house keeps me pretty active trying to keep up with yard and landscape needs. However, I feel that physical activity minimizes or delays a lot of deterioration of this aging body. I look at the physical work as a form of exercise and try to focus on the physical benefits as well as the satisfaction of creating a nice environment to enjoy. As you prepare for this new adventure you are considering be sure keep those “potato sacks” handy to get the exercise you need.
Speaking of exercise, I encountered an article about walking 10,000 steps a day. It was interesting to note that until recently there has never been a real study on that number and that the number of steps per day is pretty arbitrary. In reality the number is dependent on your physical condition. If you can manage 2,000 then that is your number, then every few weeks you can add 1,000 or 2,000 if your strength increases. The important thing is to keep moving as much as you can. Also, 7,000 or 8,000 is more than adequate and 10,000 is not adding much benefit.
The article I mentioned suggested loading an app (Apple Health app) on my cell phone to track my steps. I would encourage any of you to try it. My son and I went to the Merwin Nature preserve Monday and at the end of the day I had walked over 7,500 steps. We went back yesterday with my daughter and I finished the day with over 11,500 steps. That will not be the norm by any means for me, but, I am going to be paying more attention to how much I am walking to stay as mobile as possible for as long as possible. I am looking for a couple of old 10# potato sacks to carry around since Jim thought that would help.
|
