Taste Like Chicken Mon Jan 8

Linda, I’m glad we avoided all the snow. You have been on a cleaning and organizing jag. It’s really cold there. I don’t blame Minni for cuddling under blankets.

My DB waited to retire until he was 67 last year, so he could get full SS. 

Kathy, did you like the FitBit?  I can get a free one from my insurance company. My Apple watch is 2nd generation and the battery holds a charge for half a day and I don’t want to invest in another when I really just want it to count steps. The Garmin sounds a little complicated for me.

Karen, how was your class today? Was it full of January resolution makers? How’s the cold?

It’s still cold and cloudy but no precipitation. Tomorrow will be warmer but with rain. Nothing special going on today. 

Thanks for the start, Chele. Glad you and GF were able to get together yesterday. I was afraid that might not happen. Great lunch, and even greater to have enough for another meal. YIKES on the idjit. I'm looking forward to seeing fewer of them now that the bulk of the tourists are gone. The Japanese persimmon seems to be the one most commonly sold in this country. Congrats on getting local apples at such a good price. It's encouraging that replacing the smoke detector resolved your problem. We aren't sure which of ours is the problem because they are tied together. We know the one that alarms in the summer is in the garage when the heat decreases in the storage area above more quickly than in the garage itself. Too much heat definitely was not the issue the other night. I got Dale a USB chargeable hand-held air compressor for Christmas, so he got to try it out yesterday and it works very well. He says he probably needs to do it every 2 or 3 weeks. Not holding my breath....We'll have them all replaced at once, so hopefully that will take care of the problem, which will help if dust is the problem (but is it?). I retired at 63 but didn't start taking SS until I was 66. One more benefit of the state system I worked for was that they paid health insurance until I hit 65 and my pension kicked in as soon as I retired. Class was pretty intense today and I wonder how many of the resolution people will be back. Every once in a while she would tell us she loved us, if that tells you anything. But I did get more than 1/3 of the weekly intensity minutes. Still a bit sniffly, but not as bad as over the weekend. I was a little hoarse before I went to class, but I kept hydrated and it wasn't as bad this afternoon. We have a 90% chance of rain starting tonight and into tomorrow and the mountains are under a high wind warning for gusts up to 85mph. If you can get a free FitBit, jump on it! The only reason I switched to Garmin was it was a better option when I was a triathlete and works better for swimming. It also means I can run both my smart watches through one app. Otherwise, I would probably still wear a FitBit.

Kathy, I saw about that Fort Lauderdale tornado. That's kind of unusual for them to have without a tropical system. At least the damage was minimal. I just realized this morning that my Garmin calculates my VO2 Max when I run. I'm planning to register for a longevity challenge that starts next month and VO2 Max was one of the baseline tests I needed. So at least that much is done. It's amazing what that piece of technology on our wrists can do. I was able to turn off the menstrual cycle nagging. I'll try to remember how I did it and let you know. We're expecting "plummeting" temps as well. But tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 50s with rain. Bottom drops out by the weekend.

I think there would be anarchy if someone tried to get rid of Social Security and/or Medicare, Linda. Congress needs to develop a plan to replace the money they stole from SS a few years ago. Our entire healthcare (which is actually sick care) system needs an overhaul, but Medicare is only a small part of that problem. That's A LOT of snow! You were warmer than we were this morning, but not by much. I think our low got to 27. Arya did like Minni did this morning and didn't get her walkie until this afternoon when it warmed up. You are definitely in clean out mode around your house. I need some of that energy you've had lately.

We are officially undecorated as of this afternoon. After I got home from class, I got a lot of stuff done I had planned for tomorrow, including a couple loads of laundry, cooking beef and oats for Arya, vacuuming, and taking the decorations down. By bedtime I'll have 12K steps. Tomorrow will be a good day to not do much of anything because we could get between 1 and 2 inches of rain.