Pentagenarians & Beyond: January 18, 2026

[Traildoggie]

Yesterday I did therapy and Stacked upper body. this morning we did a park walk. about 80 minutes. it was cold and clear and just lovely. so quiet every little splash in the water was audible. when ducks dove they left a little patch of bubbles that must get squeezed out of their feathers as they dive. ive never noticed that before. its so lovely in the morning when you can only hear ducks.

agree with Cathy. nothing much worse than an ice storm. around here an ice storm takes out power almost for sure because of all the trees. we are all electric here so when power is out, we are stuck. we have a generator. camp stoves for cooking. not fun but we get by ok.
if power is out make sure you keep an eye on your plumbing. in areas of the country that usually dont freeze, pipes and water spigots are not protected. builders don't build homes for that. pipes along outside walls in non insulated places can freeze. like if your water pipes come in along an outside wall thru an unheated garage. Ask me how I know about this......

Carolyn hope you luck out and its not bad.

We have sold some old hiking gear but we sold it thru a 'NW hiker" site. thts not as open as something like craigs list. one person I had come to our house. the other person I met in a public area. these were items easy to move around. not sure how I would try to sell a large item like piece of equipment.

 

[WD]

It has been a busy week. Yesterday I did Senior Shape Lauren Walking Workout for Stronger Bones, high or low impact, 34 minutes, 218 calories, heart rate 133/166, and Arm Workout with abs and stretch, 44 minutes, 90 calories. Total time 78 minutes, 308 calories. Spent time clearing out desk ad office stuff that needed shredded then house cleaning. This morning I got a grocery order from Whole Foods before the snow started. Walmart cancelled on me. I guess they had a run on the store for groceries and did not want to do delivery orders or letting me pick up. I did a short Lauren cardio with a 10 minutes stretch, 41 minutes, 244 calories, heart rate 130/161. So, far it has been just a dusting of snow and freezing cold. My dog still thinks it is fun to go outside to play. The snow percentages seem to be dropping and I think we may not get what they forecast, but it is extremely cold. It felt like spring a few days ago. My husband pointed out that we did not have a snow shovel and it was cleared out with about everything we had in the garage. I stopped them from taking my Fit Tower when family was helping move some things to storage. I refuse to get rid of my weights, but let them take the 40# dumbbell to storage. I use that like Cathe does as an anchor for my tubing. No one noticed all of my kettlebells because they were in a corner with one of my stability balls on top. It was a bit rough letting go of my piano. It was my mothers. She got it from my Dad for her birthday when I was 12. My daughter in law has it though. My youngest daughter did not want it. She was the one my Mom wanted to have if I let it go. Anyway, I have a nice keyboard that takes up less room when downsizing. I plunked away on it a couple of nights before, and all of the memories floating by.

Judy, good job on the 45-minute Peloton ride, 20 minutes Peloton Upper Body strength, and 30 minutes of Restorative Yoga. I did the groceries today since yesterday was not working with Walmart. Amazon is not shipping anything till Tuesday next week here. I was going to get some laundry stuff and ordered my husband his Primal Beef Sticks for work next week. I got a couple from Whole Foods, but buying single ones costs more.

Carolyn, nice job on the walking and light stretching. I always worry about power outages with ice storms. I try to keep my cell phone charging all of the time just in case.

Cathy, good job on the Live Metabolic Mash Up. Right now it is 11 degrees outside and it says feels like -6. It has been windy. My dog sees me all bundled up and I think he wonders where my hands are when I wear gloves because he tries to pull them off when we play fetch.

Valerie, nice work on Stacked Sets Upper Body and therapy moves, and the walk. I hear you on pipes. We have had broken pipes in the past. I always have faucets dripping when it freezes. Both baths on outside walls. Years ago, we had an outside faucet freeze up and flooded a bedroom. Otherwise, we have been lucky, even the year there was a hard freeze and loads of ice. Our stove is gas and we have a gas fireplace so that helps. Hot water heater is tankless gas, but I am pretty sure there is some electricity hooked to it for something because when the power goes out, I end up taking a cold shower. I think there is a place around here somewhere with the same name that sells used equipment. Or at least there used to be one.

 

[Peaceful Rainbow]

My lower back, right at the top of my left glute is being cranky again. I ended up doing Restorative Yoga. Need to get it back to normal before the new workouts arrive. Cannot get my Dad to stay home. Thursday my sister did a grocery delivery for him, and yesterday he just had to go out for a couple things, then today he has a prescription to pick up. At least so far, he hasn't taken my mother out. It's sort of weird that with the huge storm going across the country we are sitting here below zero, but it's calm and sunny out. I'm good with not getting any of it, but it's not normal. Right now not only is my place at -1, so are my parents, Derek's -9 and Nick is at 18. My parents were actually colder than Bismarck when I woke up this morning!

Carolyn and Diane Sue, I hope the predictions for your places drop. It looks like Nick's have dropped some. I know he got home from work this morning, but he'll have to wake up before I find out how his drive was and he goes back to work at 11 tonight.

Judy good that you have it planned out so you can stay in.

Valerie I really enjoy those kinds of walk. Quiet and peaceful minus people.

 

[Traildoggie]

we are still cold and clear here, total anomaly in January. no rain for 12 days in a row so far.

we learned the hard way about exposed pipes. we had insulated covers on outside outlets and insulated the obvious pipe in the garage. the pipes that connected to outside spigots were in the wall and not accessible. the pipes to our kitchen sink are against an outside wall for 4 feet , inside the wall behind the cabinets,under the sink. those places have almost frozen more than once. keeping cabinet doors open helps. its cold here but 27 or so. nothing too hard to deal with and it warms during the day. we learned quickly where there was trouble.

one thing that is hard is finding most of the things you valued your whole life can barely be given away. whats valuable has dramatically changed.

Gas is not easily available here . all is electric. when power goes out there are few options other than a generator. or a wood stove.

things are not as slippery when its very cold compared right around freezing. still need to be extra cautious.

I did two therapy sessions today and then did the upper body pyramid work. I did cathys weight thru the whole thing and expect to be a little sore.