White Marches

..... came w/ at least a 1/2 in of snow

The conditions were brutal for March end. Snow blew in on howling winds. The temperature stayed near freezing and we will warm up form now. Total accumulation was under and inch but wet , sticky snow.

The snow is gone or was gone upon waking
The wind stayed plus the damp. The temperature reads 37 F and this represents the air w/out the sun

Reminiscing

and remembering

Memories are important , just ask a cat (  ' Cats ' the musical )

Thus , you should save those pictures

Weather turned cold and there is a dampness that forebodes foul weather. We will not get ice ( or very little ) and snow is unlikely.
further north , maybe , not here.

An Age Thing

.......... no doubt

Recently , I  had lunch and drinks w/ a student who graduated in 1979. We had seen each other at my retirement do. However , on FaceBook we made contact.
A marvelous tete a tete.

And a girl that I dated in university ( I'm not sure , but it was a 3 month long association ) wrote a letter. The content was that she was a grandmother etc. The upshot was she recalls not treating me very nicely. Ah , yeah , no .... water that flowed under the bridge and ........... dunno

Is it FaceBook or age 

" is analysis really worthwhile , is the theatre really dead ? "
Paul Simon

Weather is partly everything , w/ a Texas low about to explode south west of us and bring snow / ice north of the GTA. Here in the city , the forecast is for rain and wind. Hey , we can do rain and wind.

We are selling the 'bee or the QuarterMile House ( QMH ).
Thus , the 8 yr mission to fish and enjoy will come to a close soon.

The thinking is that I'm 67 y.o. , in ten years can I still take care of 2 houses - no , not likely.
When we bought , I gave us a ten year window. At the end of that ten , we would re - evaluate. Early , but I don't want to get caught in a situation where selling is critical and physical stuff is hard.
Everyone wants perfect timing. Never , happens.

 I'm biting the proverbial bullet and letting go. And its hard to do.
B/c , I can still do things. But 77 , who knows. 

A So So Spring Day

The spring ish rain is washing the streets clean

Thus , weather is OK.
And complaining is good , only at Walmart or some such
The Walmart staff must take a lot of guff and lies

Stormy Weather

really drizzle and gray

The major themes for to day

Temperature , cool and damp feeling too boot.
If you're a duck , happy webbed toes !

The dice have not been kind. I was on a roll made three points. Then bingo bango , all the money was out there and the call             ' seven and out '
All gone

No regrets , bet the way that I wanted , nothing worked out
Couldn't hit a $300 win
Like , really , really ,you thought

I Was Down $ 13 thou

yepper , not me but the guy beside me

He was parlaying a 9 X bet and rolled twice. He had enough riding to get a payout of 2700 if the ten hit again.
He didn't make the third parlay.

Then he said ' I was down 13 thou and made it back on a parlay bet '
EEK ! 13 000 dollars

See my life is ver.....rrry simple

Dub , Dub , Ugh !

A Netflix offering , tickled my fancy , after all , we paid for the month and haven't used much data.
I chose ' Admiral ' , who fights the English. It was captioned in English , in Dutch ,  Eek !
TG , Dutch is close enough that you can tell what they mean.

Well done , overall but actually , a good B movie only.
However , I figure that most movies are B s anyway.

OK for free , shut up and suffer.

Weather is warmer going for the 50 s but damp and dismal

Early PM , yepper , still raining

I'm Trying This quote out on you

on CBC this morning . Tom power on ' Q ' repeated this line

" music is the liquid architecture of our lives '

author ( didn't get the name )

You can comment

Weather , drab and damp but promises of warm
We will expect wet for several days
Looks as though Brett A .is on the money , so far 

the Eternal Blue Sky ( of the Mongols )

is on show.

Chilly ,but promises of warm.
did you notice , Brett Anderson predicts ' wet and wetter ' for 3 weeks in the Great Lakes

We are predicted to get temperatures in the 40 - 50 s very shortly

Now , for gardens , apparently , you need to do the bare bottom test.
Drop your drawers , and try and sit bare bum on the ground
Nope ! not for me

The chia pet project. I'm drinking soaked chia seeds , daily.
Weight is stable
Pooping is terrific
and my short High Intensity , Interval Training seems to be allowing me to hold my weight. Of course , the H.I.I.T. is primarily for cardio maintenance and obviously burns , way less calories
I've been looking for and easier ' off day ' exercise routine to reduce the strain on my knees b/c some days , I know that I need to watch the knees.
HIIT on the non - free weight days is , warm up -2 min , elliptical
calisthenics for 4 minutes and then
all out burst on the elliptical 2 1/ 2 X normal pace
rest for 3 minutes
Repeat burst 2 more times
calisthenics 4 minutes
cool down

We shall see said the Zen Master

Reality

Alrighty , some basic assumptions. One , that this blog is cathartic , thus good for me
Two , that although a daily entry is the norm , there are days that I've missed , thus 2 entries for a day is , well , OK

I mentioned the ' simple life ' quote from Bilbo Baggins
And further , that my life gets over poweringly not simple

BTW , I've felt this over powerlingly not simple my whole life.
In the past , I've resolved the problem by chucking out all the complicating factors which are normally people but could as well be financial.

And , my biggest fear seems to be that I will never get an opportunity like this ' whatever ' again.
To wit , when I was 16 yrs old , I decided that I needed a catamaran.
This vessel was styrofoam hulls and drop centre board w/ a sail.
Yepper , master mariner. dad helped finance my $400 adventure.
One , I wasn't a sailor and the catamaran ( just ) wasn't meant for the weedy channel and lake that we were cottaging on.
I tried many times to adapt the catamaran for different uses , sadly , no re - incarnation ever worked i.e. was practical.
Admittedly , wrong headed notions that I've had or acted on , never cost a lot and no one was hurt , physically or financially , except Daddy.
Betcha , my notions cost Pop close to $2 000 all in. However , spread over 35 yrs , not bad.
My one whim that was more costly , namely a cottage , came in at $35 000 in 1982. My father insisted on a joint ownership w/ my brother. Ken and I fished fall seasons and some summers for 12 years until his illness and death. 
I kept that cottage  , primarily at my father's insistence. On my father's passing , I sold the fishing cottage. The selling price was $168 000.
You can understand , not all of my whims are negative financial experiences.
As you can guess , I'm on the cusp of another , well , not whim but definitely a financial adventure. The down side is  , no daddy to cover my losses or appreciate the deal.
In the movie 'Roughriders ' , the story of Teddy Roosevelt and the AmericanVolunteer cavalry during the Cuban revolution , after the battle at San Juan and Kettle Hill , Tom Beringer as Teddy says ' we will long live its shadow ' , meaning the taking of San Juan Heights.
I still feel , as though, I'm living in the shadow of my father.
Silly , sure but the shadow is there.

Brrrrrrrrr y cold

Arctic air has flowed over us
We are in the 20 s for a bit
And the next 3 weeks as per below looks like " wetter "

Brett Anderson from Accuweather put out his long range forecast

Some sneaky cold air may get back into the eastern Prairies after April 4; however, the models do not show that at this time.

Spring Start #2

Well ,if this is spring , it gets my vote
not super warm but sun and light winds

The winds are cool - ish

The boys of JHU dropped another game this one very close but a loss

" I am reminded to - day that it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life "  Bilbo Baggins , the Hobbit , J.R.R. Tolkien
to mark his 111 th birthday under the party tree

I'm all talk , try as I may , my life seems to build to climaxes all the time. simple , Pah Zhook , as the Klingons say

The evening is grand ...... sunny and brilliant

Spring has sprung

... the grass has riz
I wonder where the robins is

Damp and gray , hello Spring

The Chia report. My weight is stable but then its been good since FE 10 when we got back.
The chia supplement is the little black seeds and I soak the seeds for 2 h. As a fibre source , chia is excellent , giving a soft stool.

The new heart rate monitor is giving me a bit of a conundrum.
The watch can be set for target zone HR and I've set it for Min 107 and max 122 , which is pretty much what I would do. The LifeTrak doesn't show elapsed time for work out period. Plus the reportage on calories burned is suspect or coded , as in , my regular work out produces readings of 3060 Kcal which is not comparable to any other reading that I've seen before.
I mean , I thought the Timex produced high sounding results , e.g. 500 kcal for a session.
If I divide by 6 , I can see the results being , sorta alright

I will look for a pattern

a White Lawn

but clear driveway. The blizzard was mostly show

The skies are gray but we should clear out by mid day. And a warming trend is in the offing

from the s GWN

as you know , many people from Sudbury and area , call themselves Southern Ontario. Sudbury is north about a 4 h drive from here.

The weather is not as bright as yesterday , cloudy and gloomy. The wind picked up again but we are supposedly on a warming trend

Yesterday , at OilChangers , I was told to put on my jacket , ' Its not that warm out there '
Yes , it was !


LIAR     LIAR  !

A blizzard happened. Took about 1/2 h to start then got intense and now has trickled off to flurries

Beware ! the Ides of March

etc.   Shakespeare

I took my coat off at the oil change place and was told that its not warm , yet.
Dunno felt pretty good
Blue sky and sun and the wind died
TG

" you don't how , you have tempted God , el Lawrence "
from  ' Lawrence of Arabia '

Overall .......

we missed a lot of snow. Not , near as much as predicted..... ah poor  , snow brakes , wait til next year

We are cold and windy in the s GWN. The wind howled , last night , off and on pretty much til we went to sleep.

Bitter cold ( or really windy )

definitely , not pleasant out there. Gray and dismal looking

I went out anyway , to the Post Office , to pick up the new watch / monitor.
And figured to make a useful trip out of the morning. Got a haircut , b/c its been 10 weeks , since the last one
Picked up a newspaper and sushi
Gazinga ! now , there's a morning done

No change really. The day looks grim but not much has happened , so says he who has been in the house since 10 : 30 Am ,w/ coffee and soup
on the computer , thats all

Dummy , Gets his Wish

the forecast is still for 3 - 4 in of snow

And the newly mounted snow brakes get a trial run.

Can't wait 

And its cold , still.

On the fitness front , the Timex heart rate monitor has now passed into the realm of totally unreliable. I pressed start at least 5 times before a pulse registered ( yes , I was breathing ) and the average HR finished out at 165 and max was 195 ( no heart attack )
My new or latest purchase is en route via Canada Post.
Amazing , I can track the package on line

And 
Ready for pick up at the Post Office as we were out and the postie dude left a notice

And the Timex worked perfectly ( I know it was scared of being replaced )

Arctic Air

sweeps through the Great Lakes and the s GWN

Bright skies and threats of snow but just dustings are coming down
as like icing sugar

Follow ups : watch crapped out last night , failure incorporated

In case you are wondering , yes , still keeping up w/ the BJ s of JHU
BUT , Disaster City. In back to back games they have been humiliated by an unranked Princeton team and #17 ranked Towson.

Dark days indeed .

You know , you gotta wonder , about how stupid a person can be.
To wit , the roofing company came back and put up snow brakes on the roof where I decided to leave the brakes out. they charged under $200. and I shovelled about 20 tons of snow over the years away from the foundation.
I was thinking a good snowfall would test the new snow brake system
Well ! dummy gets his wish , up to 4 inches of snow is possibly on its way

Rumours of ..........

In ancient lore , tales survive
of an Elephant graveyard
Lost bones of pachyderms
Who went to a common grave
And who would comment 
thereafter of similar tombs
Where dwell the broken
and discarded watches
and video glasses fallen
on hard times and end

The temperature is truly arctic out there
brilliant sun and blue sky ( the Eternal Blue Sky , of Mongol lore )
we've run out of episodes of Marco Polo on Netflix.
someone in their wisdom cancelled the making of season 3 , thus saving us from more nights staying up to 11 Pm following his adventures.
Oh well , all ends  , we know
I live in fear of starting another series and getting stuck again.

BTW , the new watch shipped from the warehouse ( wherever that graveyard is )
And , natch , the present heart rate monitor worked a charm last night
But I gave it a chance to prove itself and gave up the pursuit of ever lasting

Be notified , the ' bee or QMH is going on the block

Same post ( blog entry 1621 )

this is the same post as below

When I imported the data for weather , the program won't let me type below the image

The new watch : the new one is $45 all in incl shipping
When I sent in a Polar ( brand ) heart rate monitor for repair. The repair was $27 ( new battery and water proof seal , for depths up to 20 ft , like if ever ) and shipping both ways $16 and I had to pick the package up at the Post Office.
The company called Shop.ca has free delivery ( to the door ).

Of course , if I keep doing this ( buy a new watch , everytime ) well, I'll have a collection ( bigger collection ) of broken heart rate monitors - to match my collection of broken video glasses ( which you remember is a set of 8 broken glasses )
The watch collection consists of 2 Polar brand watches , 1 Curves heart rate watch ( M got it for me ) and now a Timex.

I'm rationalizing by saying
a gym membership at the Y w/ pool is $ 800 a year
The elliptical cost $ 1800 , six years ago
and the cost of watches , likely in the $ 400 range , so far

I figure that I'm ahead

At Timex , the top line heart rate watches go for $ 500

Cold but sunny out there

New HR monitor Watch on Order

Yep !


This is us in the s GWN

UV: 3 (Moderate)

23^°F

Feels like: 7

Mostly Cloudy

Visibility: 24.1 Km
Sunrise: 6:39 AM
Sunset: 6:17 PM

Chia Pet and Me

chia seeds and the author

I've aded chia to my diet ( what I eat , not leave out ) , this is day 3.
My weight is down , a bit.
The last 3 weigh ins , have been 172 . 4 , 171.2 and 170 . 7 and to - day was 169.4.  The last is the chia number result.

Now , the chia is supposed to make you feel fuller , longer.
Chia induces higher rates of a fat storage preventing hormone , adinopectin ( ? ).
Actually , its called the lap band effect as in the surgery. Chia makes you eat a little less , you're fuller on less.

And chia reduces sugar spikes which evens out moods and energizes you.  Not yet.

Sunny , right now but 60 % chance of snow sprinkles , later in the day.

Go , Chia Go !

The heart rate monitor ( watch ). I started the watch up before entering the exercise room and / or starting any device in the room.
Worked a charm the whole 40 minutes or so.

We'll try again,

Sunny , Whew and near 40F

Yep

Watched more Marco , last night
Sex , intrigue , betrayal

BTW , Marco Polo is set in the time of Kubla Khan , grandson of the Ghengis of legend.
I re - watched a separate movie called ' Mongol ' , on the rise of Ghengis from Temudgin.

The heart rate monitor watch. Now , before you say it " buy a new one " read ................
Last night , started the heart rate function , well away from the exercise room. The watch started and performed well the whole work out. Why ? Dunno
but success
second try is to - night

Chia pet project or growing chia in my gut.
No results ,yet. The chia addition is supposed to keep you full and reduce fat uptake etc
In essence , a bloody miracle.

We shall see said the Zen Master.
You know , I'm going to find the video cut of the interaction between Seymour Hoffman ( late ) and Tom Hanks in the movie
'Charlie Wilson's War ' and put it here.

Warm , Wet Winds come our way

yes , we are still doing Marco Polo , Season 2 and Episode 5

The temperature is up going for 50 + but the rain is drumming away.

Build Your Own Chia  Pet
In Womans World , an article on ' diet '  recommended chia seeds.
Yes , the stuff of chia pet. BUT you eat these seeds. The local chain grocer didn't have my fibre bread. I decided to try chia seeds as a supplement or additive to food.
The chia seeds are purported to absorb water and contain massive fibre in a 10 to 1 ratio. WW suggested chia seed pudding. Test subjects ( called women ) who used chia , were way more successful than other regimes at weight loss ( aren't they all )

A tasting of the chia seeds ; innocuous. And they soak up water like crazy. 

Bright and Cold Pt III

guess ,  you figured that I ran out of pithy titles

On the philosophy of living. Will Rogers said that he didn't have one.

Me. Not really.
But I can segue into a thought that I had this morning.
I've said many times to people. Coffee , bacon , butter are no - go s for me.
Meaning if the doctor said ' you have to give up C B B , my answer would be no.
Even when I was dieting  , losing weight , I didn't give up  C B  B.
Firstly , coffee starts the day. We use a lb of butter every 3 months , so butter is not a daily thing. Bacon , we eat bacon or sausage approx 2 X a month.

On the follow up front. Yes , the heart rate monitor watch worked , again. I started the watch away from the elliptical machine. What has this move got to do w/ anything , Dunno. 
A fluke ?  
Something in the room ? 
The elliptical sends a signal ? interfering w/ the watch
The elliptical has much electronic capability

More to follow

From Brett Anderson at Accuweather , the Long Range forecast using the European model mainly

Below is my latest interpretation of the European long-range forecast output. I also take into consideration the U.S. CFSv2, but the ECMWF typically has a greater skill level.

Looks like a fairly fast jet stream flow across southern Canada for March, which means a lot of fronts with mild spells followed by sudden turns to colder weather. It does appear that the core of the cold will be confined across western Canada for at least a couple of weeks.

Bright and cold Pt II

same as yesterday

Recurring themes and follow up

the heart rate monitor watch. Trouble as reported

Thursday night , no results for work out at all. Friday , during the day , I tried on the watch and chest band sensor. Twice , the watch recorded data , smoothly.
Friday night work out , I said  ' it works just standing in the house , so , turn it on away from the elliptical and then approach the machine. Why ? Dunno.
however, bingo bango , success , normal recording happened

The next attempt , will shed more light on the mystery
maybe, the watch and sensor is just plain intermittent and glitchy and has nothing to do w/ anything that I try.
Its only that I seem to have the most trouble standing on or near the elliptical. Maybe , the elliptical ' s sensor sends a signal - why would it - it should be a receiver only.

We shall see said the Zen Master

Netflix : we watched Marco Polo Episode 7

And watched MP # 8 / 9

Bright and Cold

The beginning of March , should be about this temperature , close to freezing.

Not So , Bright ????
We have re - enrolled w/ Netflix at $ 10 / mnth plus data usage on the internet
This step is supposedly , one more on the way to cutting the cord or dish , in our case.
Not , yet , I fear

Our binge , meaning 1 or so episodes a night is ' Marco Polo ' the series ( Netflix , I presume ). M notes that there seems to be a lot of naked women ( hareem girls or concubines ). Well , its not a hareem unless there's more than one , right.
We saw episode 4 last night , and there are about 10 more.
On the web , somewhere , there was news that the series MP was not re - upped and is over.
We're not to the that part , yet.

Brett Anderson of Accuweather posted his spring outlook.
And spring for the Great Lakes area , to the east and slightly north calls for average temperatures and above avg rain

Blast from the Past

Winter came back

Brett Anderson predicted a post FE 25 return of cold arctic air 
and , boy , does it feel arctic
Any moisture in the air came down as snowflakes

The steel roof has been terrific , and its been about 6 or 7 years , now.
but on installation , I opted for open roof w/ no snow brakes on part of the back.
The snow coming off the back half of the roof can equal the area of the driveway. And I move the snow away from the back building wall for run off purposes.
I gave up. To - day , maybe , they come and add snow brakes to the back roof.

we shall see said the Zen Master.

We were out and doing from 10:30 Am on. I left our cell # on the door , in case the Roof guy came.

Nope . 
But like a fool , I grabbed the ladder and went to check from the back deck.
All done !
I had to look twice
All done.

Wow. And here I was worried about the cold and wind
They were going to call and say   ' next time , we're around your area '