Maundering on About Exercise - Also Air Conditioning

I had a sore neck last week - which was good news, in a way.

I changed the way I eat and exercise last month - May 17. It involves adding five minutes a day to time I spend on a number of Wii Fit 2 exercises each week, until I'm up to an hour a day. I hit the 25-minute mark yesterday.

The first week was not encouraging. Between a determinedly sensible set of meals each day, plus exercise, I was feeling awful. I don't think pollen in the air, or spending hours outside one afternoon helped. I'd cracked that "if this is what being healthy feels like: you can have it." I kept going, and I'm feeling not-awful now. Which is an improvement.

Last week, I started doing an exercise that works my arms and shoulders. Over-doing would be more accurate. I had a slightly stiff neck by the time I went to sleep that day, and by morning it ached and was really, sincerely, emphatically stiff.

So I started turning my head left as far as I could comfortably, turning a bit more after that, holding, and repeating with looking rightwards. Stretching muscles 101 stuff.

That stiff neck was really good news: I knew that I'd started using muscles that hadn't been attended to in a long time. I also realized that being able to do something a quarter-century ago didn't mean I could jump right back and do it again now.

There. That's quite enough of some dude who's pushing 60 writing about the state of his neck.

My wife, son, and #3 daughter set up the window air conditioner - just behind my desk chair. This is now the coolest, driest, and almost the breeziest spot in the house. #3 daughter set up a line of box fans from here to the other end of the ground floor, in an effort to get some of the 'cool' down there.

It's almost 100 Fahrenheit outside - also windy. Summer is definitely here.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's a beautiful, clear, warm day here in central Minnesota. I've grilled burgers for lunch - and am doing a little catch-up in this blog.

My son gave #3 daughter a hangul keyboard for her birthday - which was much-appreciated. And yes, I know: it's 'supposed' to be hangeul, Hangul, hankul, Han'gŭl, or maybe something else. It's actually 한글 - hangul is one way of writing 한글 with the Latin alphabet that English uses, and I'm sticking with that. Sounded out, "hangul" is pretty close to the way we pronounce it - although I suspect we've got an upper-Midwest accent you could slice with a knife.

Moving on.

#1 daughter may be coming tomorrow - which I'm looking forward to.

I've started exercising regularly - and cutting snacks. My wife suggested an approach that seems to be working. I felt tired, among other things, the first week - but that might have been springtime. Pollen and all that.

The folks across the street north have what looks like a some-assembly-required lawn table in their driveway, sunshine is taunting me, and I've still got a task or two to do.

Release the Chickens!

Our #1 and #2 daughters - the latter with our son-in-law - were home for the weekend, partly for the Mother's Day family get-together in one of the Twin Cities' northern suburbs. I made it down there for the first time in several years, which turned out quite well.

Back here in Sauk Centre, we did some more catching-up. My son-in-law told me that ticks make it hard to work with the tractor in the timber claim: a roughly 10-acre woodland north of their home.

I'd like to spin a story about those North Dakota ticks having developed a taste for motor oil. The truth is remarkable enough. Those blood-sucking pests are so thick in spots that he can see masses of them moving over the undergrowth.

He and #2 daughter have a plan for dealing with the ticks this summer. They intend to get a sort of porta-coop, a high-capacity water & feed unit, and about 30 chickens. Chickens eat ticks - which is why they've already got a small flock of free-range chickens in the yard.

I suppose I could call it 'green' pest control: but the fact is, that's the way folks in this part of the world have been keeping ticks in check for generations. Some of us, anyway.

Transitions

I didn't realize, until after Easter, that this family has passed another milestone. For the first time in many, many years we didn't color Easter eggs this year.

I miss that activity: but change happens. And if parents do their job right, children grow up.