Category House and Home

What Color Is Your Parachu– er, Sale?

Michael 2 Comments
Today is another day we’ve been waiting for. Green Monday.
 
People who do marketing know certain colors evoke certain emotions in shoppers. Red imparts urgency, limited time offers, or great reductions such as with clearance sales. Blue suggests confidence and brand trust. And green? Besides being the color of money green symbolizes healing. That must be why so many banks and hospitals use green in their logos and signage. 
 
Green also suggests environmental friendliness. Green Monday? Environmentally friendly sales Monday? Supposedly eBay came up with Green Monday some dozen years ago and claimed just that. According the online giant, online shopping is an environmentally responsible way of shopping.
 
Shopping on online indeed saves the gas and emission used and released by my car on the way to the store but I’m not sure if they count what energy is used to get the UPS truck down my street to deliver my purchases in the greening of on line buying frenzies. And have you ever bought anything from eBay? I have. The package came in a padded case wrapped in bubble wrap, packed in a cardboard sleeve within a corrugated cardboard box filled with packing peanuts. Perhaps the energy used to created all those layers doesn’t count either. In fairness to the company, the sellers are responsible for shipping their products to the buyers, eBay just sets back and collects the money. The green if you will.
 
So, no, I can’t say I’m buying the notion that Green Monday is a celebration of the environment and that every purchase we make will add to the planet’s longevity. I think Green Monday goes back to that earlier thought … it’s the color of money. 
 
20191208_231616As far as I’m concerned the color of money is a fine thing to celebrate. It will go good with the green savings I celebrated on Black Friday, or will save on linens at the January white sales, fitness and wellness equipment on Blue Monday (the third Monday of January), or if I happen to be in Southeast Asia on March 17 on candy and flowers for White Day, or almost anything else at the Red, White and Blue sales between Flag Day and the Fourth of July.
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Hmmmm, I wonder if the best time to buy Scotch Tape is on Plaid Day.
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Yet Another End to Yet Another Era

Michael Leave a comment
Overly dramatic is just about the norm today. Television newscasts no longer report the latest news, it’s now “Breaking News!” even a followup from something that happened 4 days ago. Weather is no longer weather, it’s “Severe Weather!” even on sunny days (UV you know) and every storm gets a name. Every year, sometimes every month, brings a new “[Fill In the Blank] of the Century!” Movies are spectaculars, books are blockbusters, and when Hollywood speaks, everybody listens. So the end of an era is pretty much ho-hum. The retail world experienced an end of an era this week and believe me, this will not go unnoticed. 
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Philadelphia based Five Below operates over 850 stores in 34 states carrying an odd assortment of electronics, toys, games, gadgets, t- shirts, and novelty items loosely targeted to teens but shopped by all generations. In an early corporate press release they called themselves the “Five and Dime for the iPod Generation.” The five here though was not the nickel F. W. Woolworth was after. It’s the paper five featuring Honest Abe’s countenance. The common thread holding their disparate inventory together was the price point – everything retailed at $5 or less. 
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Monday November 18 all that changed when in a statement the company acknowledged they’ve been pricing items up to $10! Certain tech gadgets they’ve increased prices on are now featured in a separate section called “Ten Below Tech” and everything else ranging in price from $5 to $10 had been lumped into the “Ten Below Gift Shop.” It doesn’t seem like much. Surely there would come a day when suppliers who keep raising wholesale prices outpaced Five Below’s defining pricing philosophy, although Dollar Tree still manages to cap their inventor’s price point at a buck a piece. But here’s the thing, the name isn’t changing. It’s still Five Below. Hmmm. It’s bad enough when certain so-called dollar stores claim to be “dollar stores” because all their products retail for at least a dollar but I always thought Five Below was above that sort of consumer manipulation.
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imagesDollar stores, true dollar stores or their first cousins the 99 cent stores, would never let you down like that. I remember once being in a dollar store, turning the corner and finding an end cap filled with mini-blinds. You know,  those things that cover your windows and might sell from $6 to “woah that’s a lot!” in your typical home improvement store. I don’t know what got into me but I stopped a passing store employee and ask how much they were. “What’s the sign say outside?” came the answer. “If the sign says everything’s a dollar then everything’s a dollar.” Who can argue with that kind of logic. I picked out 4, brought them to the check out register, paid with one crisp (or maybe worn, that was a while ago) $5 bill, and got change back. Now that’s the way to run a business. 
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I suppose I’ll still stop at the local Five Below whenever I pass by to see what new things are on their shelves. I just have to remind myself not to expect much change back anymore.
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You’re Doing It Wrong

Michael 2 Comments
“You’re doing it wrong” is no longer a just a great line from the underrated 1983 John Hughes scripted film Mr. Mom. It has become the tagline of some 5 bazillion e-zine “articles” and YouTube videos. You know the ones: You’re using your oven drawer wrong. You’re storing you’re spices wrong. You’re cooking your eggs wrong. These “experts” have zeroed in on kitchen activities but then food is a fairly universal topic. And to be fair, I have seen s handful of articles telling me about what other things that I am screwing up in my life. You’re washing your car wrong. You’re wearing your seatbelts wrong. You’re cutting your grass wrong. You can find contradictory “expert” opinion on how to best accomplish just about anything. But that I add milk to my eggs before dumping them into a pan because I like my scrambled eggs creamy instead of fluffy is not wrong, just different. Nor is it wrong that someone else prefers water over cream although they are more likely pandering to the YouTube crowd rather than the “that’s a darn good tasting breakfast” crowd. (Please no nasty comments. The world is divided enough.)
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Most activities have multiple means to reach their ends and how you get there is your choice depending on how you prefer to make the trip. None of these articles is wrong on how they present a way to do something. If that were so I’d have titled this “You’re Writing Those ‘You’re Doing It Wrong’ Articles Wrong.” If you are of a like mind with the person who wants to use water in scrambled eggs go right ahead. I’ll still splash some cow juice in mine and not feel at all slighted. But there is one expert process I can’t say presents a viable alternative to how I’ve been doing it for years. That is washing dishes. 
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If you are of an a certain age, one that I passed an age ago, you’ll recall the days when there was but one way to wash dishes. Fill a basin with soap and water, grab a dish cloth, and commence wiping. There might once have been an alternate method but mothers put their collective feet down when they noticed the young’uns headed for the stream to pound the dishes against the rocks while doing the table linens in an early effort to multitask. Otherwise it was soap, water, and elbow grease and not terribly much of the third until you got to the pots and pans.
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I saw the headline, “You’ve been washing your dishes wrong,” and the teaser, “Read this before you wash another dish by hand.” Being the well trained lackey who still routinely washes dishes by hand of course I did just that and read this (er, that) before I did another. What I read changed the way I think about hand washing forever. It won’t change how I do it but I’ll think about it now each time I plunge a scrunge into soapy water.
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Apparently the faux pas is not of the order. It’s still glassware, table ware, serving utensils, eating vessels (plates etc.), cooking utensils, cooking vessels. (Whew!) Nor was it a definitive decision regarding the always controversial “bath v shower” methods of water used. (Double whew!) It was not even if you are better served with grease fighting detergents or scouring pads. No, the way those of us who are still washing our dishes by hand are washing our dishes wrong is that we are still washing our dishes by hand. (Read it a couple of times. It’s a legitimate sentence, really.) (I think.)
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WaterHeaterThe “experts” claim to properly sanitize dishware the wash temperature must be a minimum of 140°F (60°C). Actually that’s not right. “Sanitizing” or the eradication of common kitchen pathogens doesn’t happen until 175°. That’s why modern dishwasher rinse cycles are set to heat the water internally to 180°. Anything less is just “cleaning.” However there are some pathogens killed at 140° so that temperature could be partial sterilization. Most domestic water heaters are capable of heating water to 140°. Why isn’t this good enough for hand washing and get at least part off them sanitized?
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Just how hot is 140° anyway? If you’ve even been in a hot tub or sauna you’ve been in 100° water. (I used to keep mine set to 101° but that was because I liked the way the digital readout looked.) That morning hot shower is around 105°F. An electric blanket maxes out at 115° and a heating pad typically eases your sore muscles with 130-135° heat. Temperatures higher than that aren’t so well tolerated. That 140° we want to wash out dishes in will burn your skin in seconds. Third degree burn. In single digit seconds. Six seconds to be accurate. That is why even though water heaters can heat water to 140° they shouldn’t. The recommend maximum temperature for domestic hot water is 120°F (49°C). At 120° you would suffer those burns after exposing your skin for 5 minutes.  (Don’t think you can split the difference and set that heater for 130°. Third degree burns will happen at 30 seconds of continuous exposure to 130° water.
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That would seem to validate the claim that handwashing is a somewhat futile exercise. Or is it? If you’re goal is complete sanitizing before you set those plates back on the table at the next meal it is indeed futile although no more futile washing in 140° water. And is there really such a thing as more or less futile? Futile is futile, right.
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On the other hand, if you are happy with just for clean like we were so many ages ago, go ahead and use the sink. Trust me. You won’t be doing it wrong.
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Who’s Calling Please

Michael 2 Comments
Happy Veterans Day. I would have come on sooner with that but there is no death of greetings for veterans in early November. Everybody wants to thank somebody for his or her service. Personally as a veteran myself I’d rather we also be remembered in February or June or whenever I’m struggling across the supermarket parking lot with a cartful than everybody figuring they’ve done their duty for those who did their duty by offering an extra 11% off (with valid ID) on the second Monday of November.
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What I really want to write about today is a new twist on an old scam that is making its way around the globe thanks to our reluctance as a society you to reconsider using real money now and then. But before we get to that I want to mention two other things I read in the past week that tie these pieces together like a granny knot that’s been caught in the rain over a 3 day weekend.
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In a recent “letter to the editor” in a national magazine in response to an article on phone scams, the writer seemed quite proud that he never answers his phone without knowing who is on the other end. If it’s important they’ll leave a message. On land line phones this is aided by the use of real Caller ID assuming the caller and the ID actually match (stay tuned). Anybody with a cell phone, which is just about the same as saying everybody in the the known world and probably most of the unknown other worlds  know there is no such thing as real Caller ID on a cell phone. Rather we only “know” who is calling if the caller is in our personal contacts list. Why on a system where you can send text and data, transfer money, and even make video calls can no one figure out how to identify who is on the other end of that signal? Well for whatever reason, the writer does not answer a call unless he can identify the caller and encourages everybody else to do the same.
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In another issue of that same magazine there appeared an article on how to avoid fraudulent phone calls. It was actually subtitled “How to detect and defeat the latest phone fraud.” In my opinion that was a little fraudulent. The article explained how with currently available low priced and even free apps anybody can alter their phone number to make it appear to the reciever as any number the caller chooses, even the receiver’s number. This is called “spoofing.” Their recommendation for “defeating” this fraudulent practice is to assume no number you see on your screen is the actual number of the caller. I’m not sure who just got defeated but yeah, sure, that will show them a thing or two!
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Now, let’s put those two thoughts together. The user says to not answer any call from any number you don’t recognize. If it is important they will leave a message. The expert says to assume every call is from an unidentified source and a potential scam, even if you recognize the number. Ergo, nobody answer any call! Instead, check your voicemail each time the phone rings. If it was important, there will be a message. If it is a voice you recognize and can identify, you can call him or her back but knowing that person will likewise screen all calls, expect to leave a message which may or may not be listened to. It is very possible this can instigate a world record attempt at the longest game of phone tag but nobody will ever know because nobody will take the call from the Guiness people because nobody knows their number nor for sure if they are them.
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imagesSo where was all this going? Oh yes, the new scam. But first, a question. Do you have a Zelle account? A more pertinent question, do you know if you have a Zelle account? Zelle is a money transfer system used by almost every bank in the U.S. Interestingly, if you have installed your bank’s mobile app on your phone you almost certainly have a Zelle account whether or not you know it or want it. It’s just waiting to be activated. And there is the next biggest scam we’ll not hear about until some Senator’s son is duped into losing his allowance.
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The scammer using an already available low priced or even free app calls you after having spoofed your bank’s phone number. You answer because you recognize that number and you are told it is the bank fraud department calling because they noticed unusual activity on your account. Don’t, they say, give them your account login or password, just confirm if these were your charges and rattle off a couple obvious non-purchases. Of course they aren’t yours and you say so. Good, they say, they can take care of this. You are told to open the bank app, again reminded to not give them your login or password. Once you have the app open they will text you a verification code to enter on the login page. At that point they begin to change your user ID and password, open the Zelle account and transfer your balance to a disposable phone which is then discarded as soon as they re-transfer your money to their account. Because you entered the code on your own device, the bank does not act on it as being potential fraud. They will email or text you a notice that your user ID and/or password had been changed. You may not even get that notice if the scammers took the extra time to change your contact information. Even if they did not, Zelle transfers happen so quickly, by the time you would contact your back to inform them that you did not change your user ID and/or password it will be too late.
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Moral of the story. Check your accounts and even if you never asked for it, see if you were enrolled in Zelle, and anything else, “automatically for your convenience.” If you are planning to use it, set it up yourself then lock it.  If you aren’t going to be using it, ask if it can be removed from your service package or at least locked from being activated.
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And maybe make a note of the Guiness record people’s phone number and start screening your calls. Just in case.
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A Mean Trick

Michael 2 Comments
Yesterday it took over local social media, legitimate news reports, even grocery store check out lines. Are they postponing Halloween? That’s right, postponing Halloween. We’ve screwed around, pushed around, and rewritten every other holiday, so why not this one. Why? It’s supposed to rain today. Not remnants from a hurricane which we’ve had on past Halloweens. Not a threat of a tornado which we’ve had on past Halloweens. Not a forecast for as much as a foot of snow which we’ve had on past Halloween. Rain. Just rain. 
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Personally I think the cry for postponement of Halloween (I can’t believe I’m even writing those words) is because it’s Thursday. The requests for postponement (sheesh) are to Saturday when the weather is predicted to be clear but some 25 degrees colder than today with evening temperatures in the 30s rather than say Friday when it will be clear and then temperature closer to 50. If everyone is so concerned about giving the kids a more comfortable night top Trick ot Treat, Friday would be the way, or the day, to go.
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I think those people wanting a Halloween Rain Delay (sigh) aren’t looking forward to coming home from work to the kids already in costume, fidgeting around the dinner table, rushing through their own meal, and then having to drag themselves out in the rain instead of resting with the traditional after work adult beverage.
20191031_133600Without playing “Remember the Good Old Days” I remember Trick or Tearing in ponchos and rain boots or snow suits and galoshes more years than not. Even my  not-yet-thirty year old daughter took the opportunity to take her turn on the Remember When Machine and remind me of the year she went out in pursuit of a bagful of candy through snow drifts taller than she was. (I remembered that year. 1993. She was 4 and dressed up like a clown before clowns were too scary to be for Halloween. I held her above most of that snow on her candy trek.)
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Whoever led the charge got their way. Yesterday evening around 7 I recieved the automated call from our Chief of Police announcing Halloween (or more accurately Trick or Treating) had been rescheduled to Saturday.
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I think in a few weeks I might start a campaign to ask for the New Year holiday to be shifted to April when the threat of ice, snow, and sub-zero temperatures has passed. Probably not. New Year’s Eve on a Monday this year. We wouldn’t want to mess around with a four day weekend that didn’t take an act of Congress.
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Oh, in case your wondering, it reads raining earlier but right now it’s clear and sunny and 69°. I think I want an adult beverage now.
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Corn Sweet Corn

Michael 8 Comments
Darn that pumpkin spice craze. The real flavor darling of the season rightfully should be Candy Corn. You read that right – Candy Corn. Capitalized Candy Corn because it is something special.
 
Candy Corn is not only the perfect candy dish filler but it is also a perfect food and a superfood all in one. It’s a perfect food in that it contains the four basic food groups – water, sugar, corn syrup, and artificial colors and flavors. It’s a superfood because it is fat free, low calorie (compared to a bag of chocolate bars), and tastes better that kale. And Candy Corn has it’s own day that isn’t even Halloween orThanksgiving. Take that, kale!
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CandyCornDay
 
Candy Corn has been around for a long time, and contrary to some thinking, it isn’t the same corn every year you see in the stores. You would be confusing Candy Corn with fruit cake. Candy Corn first hit the confectioners’ shelves in the 1880s. It wasn’t until after World War II that it become really popular but like all things genius, Candy Corn took a while a catch on.
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As far as candy goes, Candy Corn is a healthy snack. Umm, healthier snack. Each serving, officially 15 pieces or one generous handful, is fat and cholesterol free, low sodium, and contains 22 grams of sugar and only 110 calories. Unlike real corn it is also fiber free so they’ll be no uncomfortable bloating if you should go wild and eat an entire bag in one sitting. Not unheard of, let me tell you!
 
Thirty-five millions pounds of Candy Corn are made each year. That’s nine billion (9,000,000,000) kernels. Give or take a few. Candy Corn sales will bring in $340 million this year! That’s not chicken feed, which incidentally was Candy Corn’s original name. Those numbers are just the commercial production. Candy Corn is easy to make at home with recipes abounding on the internet even from the likes of celebrity chef Alton Brown, no fancy molds required. 
 
You still have a couple days to get ready for the biggest fall holiday, October 30, National Candy Corn Day! Whether you make your own or buy a bag, celebrate responsibly this year with Candy Corn!
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Paradise Squashed

Michael 2 Comments

We are deep into the throes of PSL season although as previous rants of mine have shown, pumpkin flavoring goes far beyond latte, this year including potato chips. But I must admit, even though I detest almost everything else pumpkin, baked goods – pie, bread, rolls, cookies – made with real pumpkin is food heaven. But anybody who has made anything out of real pumpkin starting with that round, orange vegetable perched on the kitchen counter waiting to be dispatched by your biggest and strongest knife will tell you making those tasty tidbits is food hell! Thus the popularity of canned pumpkin. Well now, who else saw the breaking news earlier this week? Those cans touting 100% real pumpkin within typically contain 0% real pumpkin. Yes, canned pumpkin is not.

libbyssolidpackpumpkin

Americans should be used to foods not being what they seem to be. Euphemisms abound in the grocery store. Pigs become pork, cows are turned into beef, and I don’t even want to think about capon. The vegetable world makes soy beans tofu and wants to rename every chili when sold dried versus fresh. Maybe that’s where it all started, with those chili peppers we know weren’t called peppers until Chris Columbus and his crews landed in the Caribbean and called everything pepper.

The mysterious case of the missing pumpkin in canned pumpkin is kind of like Columbus and his peppers. It’s not simply a matter of masking the fact that those roosters were crowing soprano before they became a five star restaurant entree. It really is something else in that can but we’ve spent 200 years calling it pumpkin so there will be no stopping now.

The mystery substance is no mystery at all. According to Emma Crist of MyRecipes, that orange stuff “is made from a variety of winter squash (think butternut, Golden Delicious, Hubbard, and more). Libby’s, the brand that produces about 85% of the country’s canned “pumpkin” filling, has actually developed a certain variety of squash that they grow, package, and distribute to supermarkets” and because the FDA won’t quibble over what variety of squash is used “it’s perfectly legal to label a food product as ‘pumpkin’ when, in reality, it’s made from a different variety of squash.”

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To clear that up, in a 1988 compliance guide the FDA states, “Since l938, we have consistently advised canners that we would not initiate regulatory action solely because of their using the designation “pumpkin” or “canned pumpkin” on labels for articles prepared from golden-fleshed, sweet squash, or mixtures of such squash with field pumpkins. The policy itself begins “In the labeling of articles prepared from golden-fleshed, sweet squash or mixtures of such squash and field pumpkin, we will consider the designation “pumpkin” to be in essential compliance with the “common or usual name” requirements.”

So there you have it. My only pumpkin refuge in a sea of pumpkin spiced latte is actually butternut squash pie. Oh well. Pass the whipped cream please. Umm, I mean the water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (including coconut and palm kernel oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skim milk, light cream (less than 2%), sodium caseinate, and natural and artificial flavor.

 

Black and White

Michael Leave a comment

Do you remember “White Sales?” I might need to address that to the over 50 crowd only. Over 60? For the under 30 crowd, no, that’s not a racial thing. Go find an old person for clarification. Well, White Sales popped into my brain just yesterday when my tablet went black. How do I know why? It just did. I gave up long ago trying to figure out my brain. It was giving me headaches. But there I was with a black screen on my tablet and White Sales on my brain. And they say it’s not a black and white world!

Fast forward to this morning when I stepped out of the shower and pulled a black bath towel off the bar and again thought, “White Sale!” But my thought didn’t stop there, oh no. It continued, “I need to start looking for a new tablet.” By now everybody either knows from experience or determined through careful inquiring and/or slapdash Googling that White Sales and tablets do not go together. Again, I’ve given up on brain figuring.

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The interesting thing about White Sales, at least the last ones I remembering patronizing, is (was?) the lack of white linens. Just now I had to get up and check my closet to see if I even have any myself. I indeed have a set of white towels and white sheets although I don’t remember the last time either was out of the linen closet. It was probably when I moved and they made the trip from one closet to another. Neither set has been in the regular rotation for, well for years. Considering I actually had to go looking for them should tell you it’s been lots of years. It probably also tells you I don’t clean out my closets as often as I should but that’s a post for a different day.

The interesting thing about my tablet is it might be as old as those white sheets. For a piece of portable electronics it’s held up remarkably well. It gets a lot of use. I’d say constant use but there are a few hours each day that I can say I don’t have it in my hand. I know I had it for several years before I moved and I moved 4 years ago. It’s so old that when I read an e-book on it I have to wet my finger to turn the page. Well maybe not, but it is quite old. It has an old operating system, limited RAM, and if it wasn’t for the Micro SD Card it would have almost no memory. But I like it. I like the size, the screen quality (when it’s not all black), the battery use, even it’s case. I know I’ll never find another one that will last however long this one has been with me. Seven years? Ten years? And I am certain one today will probably cost twice as such and last half as long.

I need a sale!

With luck I can hold out until Black Friday. Electronics are always on sale during the Black Friday Weekend. And if I can’t find one then maybe I can make it until January. After all, that’s the traditional month for White Sales.

And they say it’s not a black and white world!

 

 

Food For Thought

Michael 2 Comments

It’s time to clean out the refrigerator. For me it’s that time every time this time of week. I’ll be getting ready to cook.

Perhaps I should start in the middle. When I was in the hospital, because of why I was there my sister naturally was also in the hospital. That took two members of my immediate family out of daily activities including, among other things, cooking. The other two spent much of their time at the hospital while were inpatients, limiting their available time for daily activities including, among other things, cooking. But friends and other relatives eased that burden by creating food chains or meal trains. When it became evident that I was destined for a much longer than anticipated hospital stay and recovery period, those friends and relatives along with friends of relatives and even relatives of friends presented us with the modern equivalent of hot casseroles, gift subscriptions to meal services. So many in fact that this Sunday we will be preparing the last of the gifted meals.

We in this case are my daughter and I. We’ve been spending a day a week almost every week since mid-June, first in her kitchen now in mine, preparing the following week’s meals. This is hardly unique. Much of the working world preps and even pre-cooks the upcoming week’s meals. Even when I was part of the working world I would do some manner of advance preparation. Then it was often a matter of my daughter and I chopping, seasoning, arranging, and storing in a suitable cooking vessel that day’s dinner before I went off to work and she to school each morning. Sometime after her return in the afternoon she cookrd and plated as I dragged myself in from another day at the rat races. (I always bet the #7 rat to win the 7th race by 7 lengths but he never came in.)

So you see, meal prepping is in our blood, or at least on our resumes. Little things like my daughter’s own entry into the working world and my entry into the limited lifting and standing world, coupled with the fact that we no longer live in the same house, make daily prep pretty inconvenient. But the once a week plan has really made life much easier for me.

Something else it’s made me is it’s made me think how fortunate I am to have a daughter who is willing to give up one of her two free days each week to spend with her father. It’s also made me realize that if there are a few others like her out there maybe this world isn’t destined for global annihilation as soon as the last of the Baby Boomers leaves it. The few hours it takes us to chop and season, arrange and cook, store and clean up make for some pretty quality time. And so does the eating and sitting and chatting and re-bonding after.

A family dinner really is a gift. Even a bunch of them all at once.

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All In The Family

Michael 7 Comments

My cousin and his wife are out walking. They are in Italy right now. Or maybe Germany. Could even be France or Switzerland. You see, they are hikers and are wandering around the Alps on this trip. I’m not sure when they started hiking. When I remember those childhood days of visiting him two whole states away I attribute his current walking prowess to his wife because as a 10 year old I seem to remember reluctance on his part to cross the street on foot. Now the two of them have even adopted a portion of the Appalachian Trail to keep it free of litter and debris.

I wish I could be like them. In my more agile years I had often trekked through various state, county, and local parks’ walking and hiking trails. I even had a hiking merit badge in the Boy Scouts. (Oops, they don’t use “boy” in that organization’s name any more. Something about not being inclusive. Someone should mention that to the Girl Scouts. But I digress.) I liked to walk. I still do. Now my walks are more along the line of up and down the sidewalk in front of my building and a half mile is as much trekking as I do at one time. I remember walking a half mile from the parking lot to the trail head in some of those parks.

Walking might come to me genetically. The hiking cousin takes his walks to the extreme but everyone else in my family is quite comfortable lacing on a good pair of walking shoes and hitting the pavement for a few miles close to if not daily. My daughter has taken her pavement pounding to the extreme in that she sees her daily two mile walk as just something to do between tooth brushing and showering and runs for her “real” outdoor exercise, a bad habit I might have instilled in her before she was even born. Fortunately I saw running for the folly it was and after a few years and a couple half marathons I returned to the peaceful pace of multi-mile walks. She on the other hand never met a marathon she didn’t like and has run the local marathon (half-marathon version) for seven consecutive years and shows no sign of breaking that streak.

BootsI’m quite content with my daily strolls at distances now measured in yards rather than miles. I do it with a cane and I do it slowly but I do it. I figure if I keep that up every day or at least almost every day I can still outrun heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and crippling arthritis even at my slow pace. And if they get too close I’ll just beat them away with my cane. It’s one of those good sturdy aluminum jobs so I should be able to put a decent dent in bad fortune with it.

If I keep up with that routine, if I ever get to the Alps I might not have the stamina to hike my way around them but I’ll still be strong enough to make it from the parking lot to in front of the fireplace in the lodge. I figure that’s just the right distance for me!