Crop Walk and Clothes

Hello, Beautiful weather today for the crop walk. It was shorter this year. Not sure why, but we walked farther to get a bit over two miles done. It was good to be out in the breeze and in the beauty of fall.

Many people participated this year. Hopefully it was not just a big group, but that much money was collected. A person suggested we come to their house afterwards. We did that and had a nice visit. Before we left, they gifted us with some beautiful romaine lettuce, large spinach leaves, and a butternut squash. What treasures! I have decided that my legs are size small and my waist is size medium. My top is also size small and again my waist is size medium. It seems that at some point everything that was movable, moved lower. Finding comfortable clothes is a challenge. On our bike ride yesterday, we met a couple on bikes and thought, “We know them.” Today, they both asked if they had seen us. They were headed in the opposite direction, going for ice cream. Another man at church asked, “Did you ride bikes?” I thought he meant to church, so I said, “No, we walked.” He explained that he meant yesterday. He was driving and waited for us to make a left turn. I thanked him for that wait because not all drivers do that. There are some careful people out there. Paula

Bike Ride

Hello, We managed to take a bike ride in the beautiful fall weather. The bike trial has been reconnected. It was great to have that new stretch along the urban trout stream. Some of the trees are gone, but hopefully more will be planted. Much of the rest of the way is canopied by trees. It is restful and relaxing to ride. There are some hills, but they are not so steep or long. Now if we could just get this done more often my body would adjust a bit more. We are not so fast, but maybe that is not such a bad thing. We can enjoy the scenery. One complaint. I had about fifty more steps that Leroy before we started. At the end of the ride, he had five thousand more than I. I wish I could get some credit for the bike rides. It helps my heart, but not my bones so much. I am reading a book by a man who, with his six-year-old son followed the Oregon Trail. I feel ready to get in the car and try that too. I have been in some of the places, but not all. The other book I am reading is on memory. It is so interesting. Good to know I probably do not have dementia. One more book is about troublesome words in the English language. I will have to find a fiction book to round out the collection. Paula

Bird Watching

Hello, This morning, we went on a city sponsored bird watch walk. We enjoyed this new experience. We spotted 16 different bird species. Mostly our leader identified them. Some of them or most of them were common birds for the place and season. No pictures to share. They only ones that were close enough to get a snap of were the turkey vultures. When seen closer they are indeed a large bird. Usually, we see them high in the sky. Our guide explained that they were waiting for thermals to hep them get higher. It takes a lot of energy for them to fly. Sometimes we could only see them clearly with binoculars. The guide was disappointed the we did not see more varieties of sparrows. New to us was the pied-billed grebe. We saw several of them on the water or on the opposite shore. I had never heard of the yellow rump warbler, but we saw several. There were some double crested cormorants. There was another woman who went. She had two dogs and asked if she could bring them. They are Cesky Terriers. It is a rare breed. They seemed to be nice dogs. They did not bark and they do not shed. They are originally from the Czech Republic. In the afternoon we walked to church to water plants. We have more than enough steps. On the way home we stopped at the community garden and picked okra, watermelon, and Swiss Chard. We are blessed in many ways, food and experiences. Paula

Learning About Health Care

Hello, At a luncheon at church the speaker talked about the free health care possibilities in the community. There are three places in the city that do this. One of them charges, but on a sliding scale. They will no longer accept people who are on Medicaid since the government no longer funds that. Another group does not charge, but they also no longer accept Medicaid patients. Those people have one last option. The third clinic accepts all who come. They never charge. They are able to survive because of churches supporting their efforts. One of the hospitals in town also contributes financially as well as with volunteer staff. It is so good to know that there are people committed to care for others no matter their circumstances. If the affordable care act is not to be funded by congress, they expect that a huge number of people will need their services. As it is she said many people who work do not have health insurance so they come for care. This is especially true of young people. As their jobs do not often provide insurance and they cannot afford the bill to get it themselves. There is certainly an advantage to being old enough to get Medicare. In the past Leroy’s job included health care. I know that was a big bill for the churches, but it was such a gift to us. Not sure that I was always grateful, but just took it for granted. At least originally, many people had health insurance through an employer. Paula

Spiders in the Fall

Hello, It seems there are spider web or just strings of webs in the air in many places. When going though an arch it is advisable to wave something in the air ahead of you or those webs land in your hair or on your face. Sometimes a long stick or broom handle is a great tool for defense. Fall is a time when spiders seem to be quite active, especially overnight. True confession, but we do find some in the house. Mostly we try to catch them in a jar and transport them out, but some are in such a spot that killing is the elimination method. Luckily most of these spiders are quite small so not so scary to me. People are decorating for Halloween with webs and spiders, not my idea of anything I want to spend much time with. One house that I delivered newsletters to is a candidate for the best decorated house in the neighborhood. Today on our errand run, we dropped off some clothes, used an expiring $4 off coupon at the drug store, enjoyed flowers in a park, stopped at a big box store, got groceries, and lastly bought a new sudoku puzzle book. It was good to get all of this done in one circle trip. So, satisfying.

Paula

No Bike Riding Today

Hello, It might have been good to get out again today, but it did not happen. We did walk to church to water plants. The heat was noticeable on the way home. Then we took another walk this afternoon so our ten thousand steps are in the devices that store such information. It helped that we hung out clothes. Three peace lilies are too many for our house. Thursday, I put one out with a free sign. It could not be out in the sun all day. It went out again some of the time on Friday. Today I asked a neighbor with a tree in front of his house if I could put in the shade of that tree. It is now gone. I am happy. It was nice, but I think Leroy brought it home from the museum so it has no sentimental value to me. I hope the new place is good for it. The doctor told Leroy to get fish oil to see if that would lower his cholesterol. He bought some only to see that if taking a blood thinner it is not recommended. He talked with a pharmacist. They were not sure so he contacted the doctor. The reply told him what dosage level to take. Leroy can relax about that now. We are learning new things that we did not necessarily want to know about. It is helping our brains, right? Paula

The Fourth Bike Ride

Hello, I have only been on my bike for the fourth time this season. I have great excuses, it is too hot, or it is too hard to get my bike out as it is behind other things. Consequently, I have become uncertain while riding. Today we decided to ride the bike trail south of Ely. We have not done that yet. We have to haul the bikes to Ely because we are not capable of riding that far in one day anymore. There was a certain amount of grumping as we had not used the bike carrier in some time. It finally got on the car with the bikes secured, but not before Leroy cut his finger. A Band-Aid helped. But the bleeding seemed a bit much, guess the blood thinner is doing its job. We rode a round trip of 9.4 miles. We were happy to get back to the car. Certain body parts were talking to us. Even though it was during the week, the trail was rather busy, we probably met or were passed by 30 riders. Maybe we were the slowest people out there as we did not catch up to anyone. We did see some wild life. The rabbits seemed to run faster than we rode. There were some wooly bears on the trail and a turkey buzzard in the sky along with a number of butterflies. Leroy also saw a small snake and a praying mantis. We went in the morning and by the time we came in the house it was 86 F. degrees. Certainly, time to be home. Paula