Today looks like a golf day as the Ryder Cup has started (without Tiger, of course) and then I'll be playing in the end of season golf tournament this afternoon. Overall, I'm thinking I'll probably not be riding the bicycle today.
By the way, a new word has occurred to me. Seems like everything you hear from Palin (assuming one can handle that accent) is just parroting whatever McCain tells her (although there may be some of that in reverse too). So here's the new word: Palindrone ... hehe. Whether it is said backward or forward, it all sounds the same and it tends to just merge with the rest of the political "noise" ... so just drone on.
Somedays it's so good just waking up to such a bright day ...
Later ...
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Coffee Time ...
Ahhh ... cool, crisp nights and sunny days. It's Fall again, and that means it's time for coffee. Started making up batches of that this week and it tastes really good. I use a flavored decaf along with a bit of Amaretto flavored coffeemate ... tasty! This is also a good time of year to be letting the sun in during the day so that the house warms up enough to make it through the nights (which are in the 40's and there's talk of being in the 30's for lows) without running the furnace.
Not really looking forward to winter but this is a good time of year ... and I am looking forward to two golf tournaments coming up between now and the end of the first week of October.
And about my carbon footprint ... besides having replaced all my lighting with compact florescent bulbs and getting newer, more efficient appliances (refrigerator, washer/dryer) over the past few years, there are more little things that I think are good to do. Reducing plastic bag use is one of them. So I have a cloth bag that I'm starting to take to get my (few) groceries in and I've been looking at things like how long the fridge is left open. It looks to me like it makes quite a difference in how much it runs by simply knowing what I want to get and taking only 5 seconds to remove it rather than 10 or 15. A check of the fridge was showing that opening it for 15 seconds allowed the internal temperature to get to the mid-50's, whereas with only 5 seconds of open time, it rarely reaches 45 degrees. It's all energy that is easy to save, so I say "why not?"
Have to really work at keeping the bicycling going this year as long as I can but I do take a day off now and again and it feels good. And, good news, I've finally gotten my "true" weight (i.e. with the new, more accurate, balance scale) back down to 160. So all is well (smiling). The only complaint I have with the SECA 700 scale is that the weight measuring arm tends to oscillate more than it should, often never stabilizing no matter how still I stand. It's not a big deal, but, for the price, the scale should have some built in dampening of that oscillation so that the arm quickly stops moving.
Later ...
Not really looking forward to winter but this is a good time of year ... and I am looking forward to two golf tournaments coming up between now and the end of the first week of October.
And about my carbon footprint ... besides having replaced all my lighting with compact florescent bulbs and getting newer, more efficient appliances (refrigerator, washer/dryer) over the past few years, there are more little things that I think are good to do. Reducing plastic bag use is one of them. So I have a cloth bag that I'm starting to take to get my (few) groceries in and I've been looking at things like how long the fridge is left open. It looks to me like it makes quite a difference in how much it runs by simply knowing what I want to get and taking only 5 seconds to remove it rather than 10 or 15. A check of the fridge was showing that opening it for 15 seconds allowed the internal temperature to get to the mid-50's, whereas with only 5 seconds of open time, it rarely reaches 45 degrees. It's all energy that is easy to save, so I say "why not?"
Have to really work at keeping the bicycling going this year as long as I can but I do take a day off now and again and it feels good. And, good news, I've finally gotten my "true" weight (i.e. with the new, more accurate, balance scale) back down to 160. So all is well (smiling). The only complaint I have with the SECA 700 scale is that the weight measuring arm tends to oscillate more than it should, often never stabilizing no matter how still I stand. It's not a big deal, but, for the price, the scale should have some built in dampening of that oscillation so that the arm quickly stops moving.
Later ...
Saturday, September 6, 2008
A Poem?
Cloudy, cool, air filled with fog
Window shades up to catch the sun
Should it choose to rise
Cold bike ride, slow day
Time to start the coffee pot ... aahhhh
Read a good book
Don't watch for that sun
Clock ticking, strawberry breakfast
Gray day, fall approaches
And the sun? Yes, it will
K. Lee
Window shades up to catch the sun
Should it choose to rise
Cold bike ride, slow day
Time to start the coffee pot ... aahhhh
Read a good book
Don't watch for that sun
Clock ticking, strawberry breakfast
Gray day, fall approaches
And the sun? Yes, it will
K. Lee
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Cold and Rainy ...
Brrrr ... autumn is really trying to make a comeback and it seems to be succeeding. Cool out (maybe 60) and it has been raining all day. The difference between today's ride in the rain and the last one I mentioned is that the air is colder and the rain itself is very cool. Gives you a clammy, "I wanna take a warm shower, now!" feeling. But it was OK as the answer was to use gloves and full length riding pants along with a skull cap and the old standby ... the rain jacket. And, at the end of it all, that warm shower did feel mighty good, I must say.
Stayed up late watching the US Open tennis last night but still got to bed around 12:30. And what's with those Cubbies? Hope they're not turning back to their old ways. I guess it *is* still possible for them to not make the playoffs ... but to keep that from happening the bats simply have to come back to life. Let's hope that happens soon.
Now I have had a pretty good spring scale in my bathroom for 16 or 17 years. And I've calibrated it before (maybe 10 years ago) against a balance scale and it was OK. But I've wondered a bit lately how accurate it really is. Then a friend of mine mentioned last month that it seemed to be reading a few pounds light. Well, that was the incentive I needed and so I decided to get a good balance scale and find out how accurate it really was. After all, as they say, the only thing worse than no data is wrong data. So I got a Seca 700 balance scale, complete with height measuring rod and did a test after it was calibrated. Sure enough, the old scale in the bathroom was reading around 2.5 to 2.75 pounds light. So I instantly gained 2.5 pounds! (heh-heh). But I could easily lean back and make the spring scale read the correct weight so I think that may be what happened when I originally verified its accuracy. It's easy to make that old scale vary by +/- 3 pounds. And it looks like the error is linear as I see a little bit less than 40 pounds when I weighed two 20 pound dumbbells. Again, of course, I don't know how accurate those dumbbells are but the data at 40 pounds is consistent with being only a few pounds off for a 160 pound weight (like me). Well, live and learn.
Got a haircut today and also hooked up my Nokia phone to the Mac via the WinXP OS running under VMWare's Fusion. Using Nokia's fairly complete set of Windows utilities was nice for making edits to contacts, etc., and also for backing up all the data in the phone. I've done simple file transfers using the Mac (via bluetooth) but Nokia doesn't have much in the way of Mac utilities yet. Also tried out Google's new Chrome browser (Beta version). That thing needs quite a bit of work but I guess that's why it's in Beta.
Finally, I refreshed my Moose Tracks ice cream supply with a Splenda sweetened version. It has less fat and maybe 25% fewer calories, so it's certainly worth trying out. After all, that means I can eat 25% more and still break even!
As I re-read the paragraph above, I realize that dreary days like this tend to lead one to take delight in small, sometimes vanishingly small, things ... well, whatever ... I'm heading off to the freezer to start the next taste test. So many different ice creams ... so little time ...
Later ...
Stayed up late watching the US Open tennis last night but still got to bed around 12:30. And what's with those Cubbies? Hope they're not turning back to their old ways. I guess it *is* still possible for them to not make the playoffs ... but to keep that from happening the bats simply have to come back to life. Let's hope that happens soon.
Now I have had a pretty good spring scale in my bathroom for 16 or 17 years. And I've calibrated it before (maybe 10 years ago) against a balance scale and it was OK. But I've wondered a bit lately how accurate it really is. Then a friend of mine mentioned last month that it seemed to be reading a few pounds light. Well, that was the incentive I needed and so I decided to get a good balance scale and find out how accurate it really was. After all, as they say, the only thing worse than no data is wrong data. So I got a Seca 700 balance scale, complete with height measuring rod and did a test after it was calibrated. Sure enough, the old scale in the bathroom was reading around 2.5 to 2.75 pounds light. So I instantly gained 2.5 pounds! (heh-heh). But I could easily lean back and make the spring scale read the correct weight so I think that may be what happened when I originally verified its accuracy. It's easy to make that old scale vary by +/- 3 pounds. And it looks like the error is linear as I see a little bit less than 40 pounds when I weighed two 20 pound dumbbells. Again, of course, I don't know how accurate those dumbbells are but the data at 40 pounds is consistent with being only a few pounds off for a 160 pound weight (like me). Well, live and learn.
Got a haircut today and also hooked up my Nokia phone to the Mac via the WinXP OS running under VMWare's Fusion. Using Nokia's fairly complete set of Windows utilities was nice for making edits to contacts, etc., and also for backing up all the data in the phone. I've done simple file transfers using the Mac (via bluetooth) but Nokia doesn't have much in the way of Mac utilities yet. Also tried out Google's new Chrome browser (Beta version). That thing needs quite a bit of work but I guess that's why it's in Beta.
Finally, I refreshed my Moose Tracks ice cream supply with a Splenda sweetened version. It has less fat and maybe 25% fewer calories, so it's certainly worth trying out. After all, that means I can eat 25% more and still break even!
As I re-read the paragraph above, I realize that dreary days like this tend to lead one to take delight in small, sometimes vanishingly small, things ... well, whatever ... I'm heading off to the freezer to start the next taste test. So many different ice creams ... so little time ...
Later ...
Monday, September 1, 2008
Labor Day 2008 -- Ice Cream
Looks like another slow Labor Day holiday for me. Saw a bunch of Harley's on the road today and that started me thinking about taking the motorcycle down to Conesville, IA (I've heard there's a rally there today). But I'm not sure I want to do that without having someone to ride along with me ... I've never been to one of these rallies before so it might be fun to see what they're all about.
I think I've finally decided on the very best ice cream ... ever! Yes, you heard it right folks. Lately I've been going back to an old favorite that I've neglected for some time. It's made by Whitey's (and perhaps others, but I think Whitey's is the best) and it's called Moose Tracks. It's "fully leaded" ice cream with fudge, some peanut butter and chocolate embedded in perfect proportion. I like almost any ice cream out there (including the "Light" stuff) and there are several fairly close runners up ... but, so far, Moose Tracks gets the nod.
Think I'll have a nice little lunch today with a sub from Milio's and then a quick visit to the local DQ for a Dilly Bar (yes, I know ... more ice cream ... mmmmmm). Probably get some reading done and don't know that I'll fire up the grill (again) this year. But it's great weather out and I've already had a good bicycle ride. If it was tomorrow, I'd probably mow the lawn, but it doesn't quite need it yet ... just so I get to it before it rains.
Later ...
I think I've finally decided on the very best ice cream ... ever! Yes, you heard it right folks. Lately I've been going back to an old favorite that I've neglected for some time. It's made by Whitey's (and perhaps others, but I think Whitey's is the best) and it's called Moose Tracks. It's "fully leaded" ice cream with fudge, some peanut butter and chocolate embedded in perfect proportion. I like almost any ice cream out there (including the "Light" stuff) and there are several fairly close runners up ... but, so far, Moose Tracks gets the nod.
Think I'll have a nice little lunch today with a sub from Milio's and then a quick visit to the local DQ for a Dilly Bar (yes, I know ... more ice cream ... mmmmmm). Probably get some reading done and don't know that I'll fire up the grill (again) this year. But it's great weather out and I've already had a good bicycle ride. If it was tomorrow, I'd probably mow the lawn, but it doesn't quite need it yet ... just so I get to it before it rains.
Later ...
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