2022 is now officially open

Swiped from others... I think it's a beautiful graphic of hope for the year just starting, don't you?

Sunday's high temperature topped out about 20 degrees, but as the sun started dipping toward the horizon, it streamed in the bay window, and The Prisoner got in the spirit of taking advantage of every bit of sun he could find.  In my mind I titled this photo "sunset longings".

The first Monday of the New Year, thoughts naturally turn to what's coming up.  In my life, it's the annual medicalizing, arriving at just the same point as the next surge might start to impact my community.    

Tuesday morning sunrise:

Monday was warmer than those weekend temps, topping out over 40℉.  Tuesday gave more of the same.  The snow is melting.  The temperature is about to plunge again; the wind is howling out there.  Wednesday they are telling us the high with be 9℉.  Which is chillier than Sunday was.  Welcome to our roller coaster ride.  We are entering the time of year where historically we get the coldest temperatures, but we've had these little breaks.

Tuesday is news conference day for the local Public Health department, at which they bring us up to date with the latest in local case counts, hospitalizations, and putting out the pleas to the public by way of the news media covering it... to do our part.  The public schools had been planning on lifting their masking requirement for students and teachers... and announced at the last minute that they changed their mind.

Post-Christmas and New Years... well, things are not looking wonderful.  The Delta variant is not done with us yet, and Omicron has started to arrive.  53% of the cases in Nebraska that have been genetically sequenced recently have turned up Omicron.

I was surprised to see that although our risk dial is now all the way into the Red, the health department is not reimposing the directed health measure.  Leaving masking in public as "strongly recommended".  Unfortunately, in my observation, "strongly recommended" without the requirement leads to a lot of unmasked faces.  

Of course, you all have your own local levels.  Do your best to stay safe where YOU are!  Wednesday, I think I shall hunker down.  Thursday I have my annual appointment with the eye doctor who is monitoring my cataracts and glaucoma.  Friday I have blood work and my medicare "wellness" interview.  Just trying to preserve health so that I am clear to go for these checkups.

Here's to a healthy week for us all, to open the New Year!

Life is good.  Spark on!

Grateful for neighborly kindness

 

The little drifts on the steps was about as bad as the snowstorm got.  The photo is from shortly before the snow started tapering off, New Year's Day afternoon.  At that point, I went out and cleared the steps.  

I also cleared a narrow strip of driveway, down to the sidewalk.  That is my normal method of determining the depth of snow I will have to deal with, as it covers where it drifts.  

This morning when I arose the phone told me it was minus 5 Fahrenheit.  For those of you who speak Celcius, that works out to minus 20.  Brrr.  Luckily, the steps, being protected from the north wind, stayed clear.  The driveway strip... not.  Drifted right back in.

After session 1 this morning, the driveway strip and the front sidewalk are cleared, but I came back in to thaw my hands.  I have the North sidewalk, and the driveway to finish, and I want to get out before the wind kicks up.  Raw temperatures are not so bad when the wind is calm.

I shall return for the next warming break!

Turns out, the next warming break was when it was done!  I cleared the North sidewalk and started in on the remainder of the driveway.  As I was headed out with my shovel, the man across the street came out with his snow thrower.  

He proceeded to clear his walks and driveway.  I had only about half of the drive to go, and was getting close to deciding to come back in for the next warming break, when my neighbor wheeled his machine across the street gave me a hand signal that he'd work on my remainder!

He not only helped me finish, but when he got that cleared, he proceeded to go clear off the other neighbor across the street.  These folks are on a trip, not there to take care of it themselves.  I didn't talk to them before they left, but I do hope they are seeing the grandmas!  It's hard to live half a continent away from your grandmas!

There is something so peaceful about the sky being blue, the sun being out, the wind being calm, and the temperatures being frigid.  Great skiing weather for those who enjoy that activity.

Yesterday's soup is re-warming for lunch, the cats have been out and are back in, and the church service is on YouTube Live.

It's time to remind ourselves that we are starting a brand new year.  Fresh start.  Renewed hope.  Another chance, just as we have every day, to take care of ourselves.  Let's do our best, this one and only Sunday, January 2,2022 we'll ever get.  And when the day is done, let us declare it as sufficient, release it, and give ourselves the gift of a good night's rest.

Life is Good.  Spark on!  ✨🎇💖🔥

Welcome to 2022 - Happy New Year

Does this look like the promised snow storm?

Welcome to the Winter Storm.  The warning when I went to bed last night had it starting here at 3 a.m.  The phone when I got up told me to expect snow at 7 a.m.  It is now a minute to 9, and the snow is lightly falling.  It started about 15 minutes ago.

I went to bed early last night, because I was tired.  I had no social plans, especially due to that storm forecast.  I got up early, because I wanted to be SURE the cats were inside, when I woke up between 5 and 6 a.m.  I expected to see snow on the deck!  But it was not there.

Nonetheless, I proceeded with my plan to start a crock-pot soup.  I had seen a recipe somewhere online, that starred corn and potatoes, a chowder.  And I had veggies in the 'fridge that need cooking up, so here it is:

It has half a large red onion, diced, a bunch of broccoli florets, two small potatoes, peeled and diced, about 2/3 a bag of frozen corn kernals, a can of no salt cream of mushroom condensed soup, a box of chicken broth, a couple of handfuls of frozen pre-cooked smoked chicken breast tenders, and about a cup of 1% milk.  Crock on high for the first couple of hours, to make sure the frozen bits get started, including the need to thaw and cook.  Then keep on low for the rest of today.

Stay warm my friends.  Stay safe.  And have a happy and peaceful start to your 2022!

Life is good.  Keep on Sparkin'

💖✨🔥⛄❄❆

Foggy Start to New Year's Eve day here

 

It's a foggy morning, as I pulled my trash bin back from the curb to the garage.  Still not bitterly cold, that is predicted to show up later in the day.  The snow storm is to start here overnight.  

I'm feeling pretty good, though, as my pantry is stocked enough to last through the weekend, and I've never been a huge New Year's Eve celebrant.  I'll just stay off the roads, in the house, safe and warm.

Sometime today, maybe this evening, I will have my yearly ritual of setting up the pebble jar array for 2022.  Congratulations, readers!  We made it through 2021!

Here it is with all 365 pebbles, representing one pebble a day.  It's been a full year.  It saw the delivery of the vaccines to those who were waiting in line.  It saw early on a very disturbing violent conflict on the steps, grounds, and inside the US Capitol building in Washington, DC.  It saw the reality that changing administrations does not magically make our problems or divisions go away.

It saw fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, bitter cold, oppressive heat... and for all the hype, it saw the resilience of people, mostly at local levels.  

It saw the demise of our beloved SparkPeople web site.  But the owners gave us an ample transition window to save off our content and migrate to new sites.  I chose to move my own blog here.

As hopeful as we were about the vaccines, 2021 did not see the end of the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease we call Covid-19.  It has seen variants arise, thwarting our fondest desires to have things go back to "the way we were".  We know more than we knew at the start of the year.  Particularly for those of us at statistically higher risk, we have learned when to hunker down, what activity is worth the risk, and how best to mitigate it... for ourselves.

For me, it saw the return of being with loved ones on a more regular basis, balancing vaccination status, masks, whether in or outdoors, etc.  It saw me go from curbside pickup of purchases, to in the store with mask, and back to curbside pickup for the next/current surge.  It saw the prioritizing of working out, including accepting that for me, the benefit of working out with the trainer (in mask whenever the risk dial went higher than green) was worth whatever risk remained.

We were going to end up here, sooner or later.  I shall enter this New Year 2022 with hope, as well.  Hope for the next phase of the pandemic to be its conversion into endemic status.  That does not mean that the next couple of months won't be hard, and especially hard for those who work in health care.  Even a "milder" disease challenges those who have little protection.  

There are things that each of us can control.  

• We can control what we choose to feed ourselves, and how much.  We don't have to be dictators about it, but we can nourish our immune systems.  There are tools that make it easier.  Many "Spark refugees" have found trackers that we're finding appropriate to continue our healthy lifestyles.  
• We can control our level of activity, based on the real level we are starting with.  Some of us are old-er and not as able as once we were.  Some are recovering from injury or illness.  We may have limitations to sight, hearing, mobility.  The old saying "where there's a will, there's a way" very much applies here.  The information is out there.  A little effort, a little research, and we can find a level that is healthy for us right where we are... not where we were ten years ago, but where we are NOW!
• We can control our habits around things like bedtime and wakeup routines.  We can work on things like screen time, alcohol consumption, and procrastination.  Again, with kindness toward ourselves, and starting where we are, not trying to do everything all at once.  My own challenge is to get back at the de-stuffing, the "Swedish death cleaning" project.  I hope I'll be able to re-start some of the re-doing the house tasks. It is important in all these things to budget our energy, or we'll burn out and get stalled.  Patience!

OK, I think I've talked enough in general about the things I might be able to control, and work on.  But I have yet to get around to the "restaurant lotions" (© Alicia363 - "I’ve always been a New Year’s restaurant lotion skeptic").  I think I might save mine for a later blog, lest this one get too long.

Meanwhile, I'm wishing all of you a safe New Year's Eve, a Happy New Year's Day, and the oomph to make 2022 a healthy year, best can do!

Life is good.  Keep on Sparkin'!

From me to me

Gifts to self?

I'm a bit on the cheap side when it comes to technology.  I only replace things when they break.  I've been limping along with a printer that was on its last legs for a couple of years, and it's almost tax time again, which means I shall need to be printing for reals.

I took advantage of the functional need to also upgrade the tech so that this printer is on my home network, and I can print to it from any device, anywhere in the house.  It's not tied down to a single computer by a cable!

It arrived Wednesday and I set it up using my phone, then set up the computer to "see" it, too.  Ahhh... now maybe I'll write some Christmas letter responses!  Just a couple.  

I tried it today (Thursday) and had to jump some hoops to get it to print from the computer, but it did a fine job, and I now have an "annual update" letter on its way to a friend I collected at my very first corporate job, back in the 1970's.  We still exchange snail mail letters at holiday time.  She's the one who taught me how to make lasagne, back when I was young!  She was young then, too, but she was of Italian heritage so she learned that among her base cooking skills!

Another gift from me to me was that the donation to my university's alumni association that came with socks, and what's a Christmas without socks?

Year to year comparison

Do your tracking apps send you "Year in Review" e-mails?  Mine does, and it told me that I averaged 7537 steps per day during 2021.  I'm cool with that, based on studies related to health versus steps that show among old-er folks (average age of participants was 72), 4500 steps was enough to show improvements in health, and the positive impact increased with additional steps, topping out at 7500 steps a day.  Above that, there was not any additional health benefit.

Year end weight was about the same as the first weigh in of the year, so it was a "maintenance" year.  While I'd like to do a little better in that regard, I'll take maintenance!

Weathering the weather

Kid sis Ace and I survived our "acclimating" walk in yesterday's cold temperatures.  Today it has bounced back up again, pushing the 40℉ mark for a high, which is in fact "seasonal" for Nebraska.  But tonight it's going to plunge again, and overnight Friday to Saturday they are telling us to brace for snow.  Brrr!  Perfect time for a major snow storm, starting at midnight, New Year's eve?

Hopefully that's not the whole country, just my own neck of the woods, and at this point, we'll just have to be prepared.  The neighbor across the street was just test starting his snow blower when I walked out to get the mail.  If the storm track decides not to come here, I'll be happy.  But looking at the models, I'm likely going to have my "workout sponsored by Mother Nature" over the weekend.

The Pep Talk

All that said, let us live the days we are given, one at a time.  This is the only Thursday, December 30, 2021 we'll ever get.  Whatever we choose to do, may it meet our expectations of "enough".  And may we all rest well tonight, having done just that.

Life is Good.  Spark on!  💖✨🔥

 

Twixtmas and the weather can't make up its mind

Bonus outing to the dog park

The trainer's workout schedule is mixed up this week, because of varying client outages, so I got my workout early today.  I was glad, because when my son messaged asking if I was up for a trip to the dog park, I was already done and dusted and home.  I said "sure", so got to go for an outing with Carl and "the kids" (meaning the mythical son and his girlfriend).

Carl found a twin looking dog toward the far end of the park and they happily engaged in play fighting.  

Carl is behind his twin in the first shot, and he's in the orange collar and vest in the second.

I saw a video that instructed me on the fine art of telling when your dog and his "friends" are play fighting versus when they are in real aggression situations.

It said, sensibly, that if the dogs have exaggerated and loose "bite" behavior, and they both keep coming back for more, with raised tails (as seen here), it's likely play fighting, and healthy for them.

In any case, Carl seemed quite happy with his outing, as did we three humans.

Sharing the wealth

As we chatted, I found out that Lacey (GF)'s aunt, a nurse in a nearby city, had been feeling ill.  She opted out of the Christmas gatherings because she did not want to spread whatever it was.  She was concerned she might have Covid, but finding tests is challenging.  So... opportunity... I dontated my remaining at home test kit for her, and the kids were going to do a contact free delivery of it to her door.

Later in the day, I got word... she used the kit and tested negative.  Yay!  But she wasn't feeling well, and you know, it doesn't matter WHAT the illness, you don't want to spread it around!  I'm grateful I had the kit available to share, though, for her peace of mind.

What about Skittles?

The little blue birdie in this photo is Skittles.  He's the one who has been ill.  Chumley the Cockatiel pictured with him is no longer with us.  I think I blogged when she passed last Summer.  

Skittles has had health swings over the past week or two.  His humans took him to an avian specialist, who gave him antibiotics to treat an infection, but now the antibiotics upset his tummy.  The followup treatment involves apple cider vinegar.  

He is recovering slowly, helped by a LOT of human vigilance and pampering.  We're hopeful.  They've had this birdie for seven or eight years, Lacey's dad told me when I asked.  Makes me feel good to know how loved the birdie is!

So, that's me, a cat lady who loves dogs and birds!

Weather ahead

Tomorrow we're going to get real Winter temperatures, and the weatherman is on right now talking about the potential for a "significant Winter storm" come the weekend.  Well, you know we've been spoiled so far!

Here's hoping that whatever the weather, we all take good care of ourselves... tender loving care comes in so many forms!  I feel as though we've made the most of this one and only Tuesday, December 28, 2021 we'll ever get... don't you?  Now let's remind ourselves that whatever we chose to do was enough, and we are worthy of our night of rest!

Life is good.  Spark on!  💖🔥✨

How was your Christmas?

 Was it impacted?  How?

Thinking back over the years, I have to acknowledge that there have been many Christmases, impacted by various conditions of their year.  I distinctly remember the first Christmas when I could not spend Christmas eve with my family, because I had to work.  I don't remember what else was going on that year, but I do remember going to work on Christmas eve and having the spirit of the holiday descending on me, despite the circumstances.  The teenaged me thought I had all kinds of reasons to not be happy that holiday, but I found a sense of joy.

I remember Christmas 1996, the year we had experienced so much loss in our family.  My husband's brother, and both our mothers had passed on during the Summer.  Writing Christmas cards in a hotel room in a distant city, where I was working, I decided to call a friend I used to work with, not knowing at the time that she had lost her daughter the same year.  As it happened, my voice sounded a lot like her daughter's, and when she answered the phone, it took a minute for her to sort out who was calling.  We had the nicest conversation about how some years, rather than having a big celebratory Christmas, we might need a quiet, holding it to your heart Christmas.  We would "keep" Christmas, 1996.

Yet another Christmas, I ended up overnight at O'Hare airport, having been on the road for work, and missing the last connection home.  I did not get a hotel room, but stayed in the airport overnight until my 6 a.m. flight "the rest of the way home" to be with my husband and son.  I observed the decorations in the airport and watched the work crews, cleaning overnight, and coming in to work in the morning.  I understand there are many in those kinds of circumstances with travel disruptions this year.

Yes, Christmas can be impacted by many, many challenges.  Somehow, in my experience, as changed or challenged as it may be... it still shows up, just like in Whoville, in Dr. Seuss's original story.  Nothing can stop the power of the event!  Even if you are hurting this year, even if you're longing for "normal", Christmas itself is far from "normal".  It is extraordinary.  And sometimes, at least in my own life, the challenges just make it sweeter.  And yes, sometimes my eyes leak just thinking of it.

Love is the root of Christmas.  Even if you feel alone, lost, worthless, or unappreciated, Christmas (as in the dawn of Love, the birth of the Christ-child, for those of us who follow that faith) reminds us that we are not abandoned by our Heavenly Parent!  Substitute your own faith story that gives hope, if you need to.  I don't want to be exclusive, even though I am talking about my own experience of Christmas.

Christmas 2021 at OneKidsMom's place

Rubia (the blonde) and The Prisoner (gray tabby) enjoyed canned food on Christmas morning.  

The weather was beautiful, with the high temperature above 50℉.  So those kitties spent a good deal of the day outdoors, sunning themselves on the deck or prowling about.

I had no company invited; this was planned to be a quiet day!  I did drive across town to deliver a few leftover of those baked olive cheese treats to Alicia!  We made it a short visit, deliberately.

I went for a walk in the afternoon, and snapped a quick photo of folks out playing pickleball on the basketball court in a nearby park.

Greetings of "Merry Christmas" from a safe distance accompanied the whole circuit, lifting the spirit with each repetition.  I mused on the reason we say it, to lift one another up.

My Christmas Dinner was the vegetarian chili I made earlier in the week, topping a baked potato.  The transition from the eating excesses of treats back to feeding nutrient rich meals has resumed!

I'll leave you on Boxing Day with the reminder to do your best to take care of yourself and your health this one and only December 26, 2021 we will ever get!  You are worth taking care of... this, and every day.  At its end, remember that whatever you did to work toward health and fitness was ENOUGH for today!  Appreciate your efforts, and rest easy, in the knowledge that you are indeed loved.  We can only live one day at a time, and each one counts as its own part of life.

Life is good.  Spark on!  🎄🎁🔥✨