Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 2/14

Traildoggie

Cathlete
good morning.
we ended up with a foot to foot and a half of snow yesterday. way more than predicted but things tend to vary widely here with geography. still snowing this morning. supposed to change to rain later today creating an even bigger mess. this was predicted so i am well stocked and wont need to go anywhere for sdays if it gets uglier. the transition might involve freezing rain and that, along with lots of heavy snow, can bring down trees and cause power outs.
we have a service to plow our roads but they were pathetic. made one pass for a not even a single lane and piled a big berm in front of each driveway and mailbox. the problem is snow here is not predictable so we don't get serious businesses taking on the job, just some local guy with a pickup and a plow on front. last snow we had was Feb of '19, which was similar to this.
anyway, my 3 hours of shoveling and "brooming" yesterday made for a good workout. wooden decks are easier to sweep if the snow isn't too deep. cathe workouts have kept me in good shape so I'm not even sore.
 
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Today I did a short gentle yoga, 18 minutes and 50 calories. The weather with all of the snow, ice, and rain is really something in much of the country. We have only had cold and rain so far, but that might change later this week.

Hello to Everyone and have a wonderful day.
 
This morning I did IMAX 4 followed by the extended lying stretch. My arm is a lot less sore today, so hopefully, it’ll be okay for weights tomorrow.

Valerie that’s not good that you may be getting rain, freezing rain to add to the snow you have. I’ll take snow any day or ice which is so much more dangerous in multiple ways. Shoveling that long would be a heck of a workout. We can do our own drive, but there are lots of people who plow and generally they get plenty of practice.

Carolyn good job with the yoga!
 
Today I did Coffey Fit Raw Just Step 4, 131 calories, heart rate 116/149, 31 minutes, 3,110 steps. We have a lot of snow right now. I went out twice and cleared the door step and a path from the gate. I did have a grocery order that was supposed to come from Whole Foods, but really did not expect it anyway. I called the heating and air people and he put me on his list and said when he could get out of his driveway. They are usually very quick helping. He called back a few minutes later and said one of his technicians got out in his truck and was in my area. Thankful that it was an easy fix. The heater kept firing up and then shutting down. It was getting cold in here. He just had to pull out a sensor and scrape it off and put it back in and checked it and it is running now. It is getting nice and toasty. The wind is giving us below 0 wind chills. This morning they said 13 below wind chill. There is a second round supposed to be coming in. It is the light stuff that piles up into drifts. There us back ice in areas and under the snow. I am glad it does not do this every year. Usually we have pretty mild winters. I couldn't get my mail box open yesterday. It is like ice is deep into the key slot. I tried to order deicer from Amazon a couple of days ago and it was ship at the end of the month, so I did not do it.

Valerie, they often predict worse than we get, although this time they were right. I was hoping it would go around us or something which happens most of the time. I am not well stocked. I had house showings and grandchildren here and we kept having to leave the house with Gertie. I did have my husband stop at Dollar General and sit in the car with him to pick up milk, bread and canned items. I do not drive on icy roads so I never got back out for fruits, vegetables, and almond butter. I had those in my Whole Foods order which I tried to get Thursday, but they were not delivering. Then my husband looked and they had two delivery openings for today. I put it in for one and they messaged me yesterday saying delivery today between 5 and 7. With how deep the snow is I knew this was not going to happen. I made soup and peanut butter protein balls yesterday. Trying to come up with ideas for healthy food till I can get out or get my order. I had oatmeal this morning, which I do not eat often.

Carolyn, my son was saying they were having rain and lows in the 40's in Florida. I am sure he does not miss Nebraska right now. This cold front has slowed everybody down. Amazon deliveries I put out said Thursday for shipping. I will see if that happens. I do not like being cold. I have been sitting around the house with a jacket on the last few days with the heater acting up. I was going to add yoga today , but ended up snuggled under a blanket and took a nap, then went out to move some snow.

Cathy, I am glad your arm is feeling much better. I really like I Max 4, but I get the lowest calorie burn with it. I have quit looking at my watch lately. It just makes me angry when I know it is wrong. I should be enjoying the perks of the watch, so I guess I will enjoy the steps and other functions on it. Our last house had a long driveway that went to the back of the house. It was further north so we got more snow there. I felt jealous when I was shoveling and the neighbor across the street would get out his snow plow and do his long driveway and the lane in the road in front of his house.
 
I did Disk 16 today. Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. Really wasn't sure about my forearm last night when I was setting up all my weights and equipment, as it wasn't happy just moving the weights around, but it really didn't bother me. We had some more snow over night and may get some again later today, but it's only a couple inches so far. Other areas were getting up to 7". It is cold though. Windchill has been around zero or below for a few days now.

Diane Sue very glad that you got your heat fixed. No fun to sit in the cold. I hope you get your order. A lot depends on what the delivery people are driving.
 
we got more snow!. a few more rounds of shoveling, raking to clear it. today is warmer and precipitating in some way, rain/ snow mix. driveway is all melted out because we didn't let it pile up. ended up getting 2 feet but its all compressing down. Ugly stuff. sigh.... at least we are not very cold! warmer is a lot messier but cold is just cold! next we will have flooding so not sure which is worse, that or minus 2 degrees. both bad in their own way. did not get any wind which is also good since that is the usual "power out" generator.

did 30 on the elliptical yesterday all at level 10. ready to ease up into level 11. will do something today since I dont need groceries yet and tomorrow is a hair appt so would have to go out anyway.
 
This morning I did JS HiiT Walk which was 30 minutes and 216 calories burned. My average heart rate was 133 and maximum heart rate was 153. I had to change my planned workout today because I wasted a lot of time waiting for my primary care doctor to call for a telemedicine appointment. He finally called an hour and a half after scheduled time! I decided to do a 30 minute workout to avoid having a total waste of my morning.

Cathy, great job with disc 16 Chest Shoulders and Triceps. That’s good that you didn’t have pain during the workout.

Valerie, nice work on the elliptical. All of that shoveling is a definite workout.

Diane Sue, I see that Oklahoma is being hit pretty hard by the storm. I hope that you manage okay without serious problems.

Hello to Judy, Deb, and Lori. Take care everyone.
 
Hi Everyone,

I did Peloton rides this weekend, 70 minutes on Saturday and 75 on Sunday. Today I did Turbobarre. We are getting more snow tonight. It looks like we will have 8-10 inches by tomorrow morning and more later in the week.

Deb-I'm glad your doppler test was negative. I also have a hard time putting the firewalker bands on while standing. I'll have to check out that Perfect 30 premix. Thanks for mentioning it.

Valerie-That is a lot of snow! It's good that you didn't get high winds too. Shoveling is definitely a good workout.

Carolyn-Nice job with the JS HiiT Walk. I'm sorry that you had to wait so long for your telemedicine appointment.

Cathy-Great job with STS! I'm glad that your arm is feeling better.

Diane Sue-Great job with the Coffey Fit Raw Just Step workout. I hope you are doing ok with the weather.

Hi to Lori,
 
.I did Cathe Live 101 Step and Pump Cardio and Blast only, 33 minutes, 169 calories, heart rate 122/165, 3,199 steps. I then starte the Sculpting RX premix cardio and floor, but stopped after 9 minutes when Kelly was ready to go to the floor, moved on to Raw Body Training (33 minutes) which brings me to a total of 42 minutes, 108 calories, heart rate 87/116, 1,827 steps. This was much harder than I expected. I liked the standing portion which was active and targeted lower body, but when I got to the floor which was the last about 13 minutes it was rough. I wore my weighted 4 # vest for the lower(which was a suggested option) and took it off for floor. I did not even get through all of the floor as Kelly did as it was too much on my shoulders. The flip around crunch move was hard to get. I think I could. There was plank/down dog/shoulder push ups; inch worm push ups; close triceps push ups as some of the moves. I stood up and did some triceps kickbacks with light weights. The front of my shoulder is sore now.
Total time was 72 minutes, 277 calories, 5,026 steps.
I went outside and shoveled snow to get some of it moved before the next bunch hits tomorrow afternoon. It sounds like this will carry over through Wednesday. There is ice under the snow from the rain that started at first. It is slick and I can't scoop that up. The governor is asking people to use their big appliances less, like dishwashers and unplug things that are not being used to help avoid blackouts. I looked in the garage and we do not have our generator. It is in storage in a pod. We do not get big snow storms often. Ice storms yes, but not snow storms. Just once in awhile. Funny thing is I was looking at the weather forecast and it says 60 on Monday. Our weather is so weird. I really expect Whole Foods to cancel my order again. I did not get a message tonight saying it was going to be delivered tomorrow like last time. These delivery people use their own vehicles. I understand, but would love to have my order.

Cathy, nice work on disc 16 today. I am glad that it did not bother your forearm when you did it. I am not liking the snow. They were saying -13 wind chill tonight.

Valerie, nice that you are moving up on the elliptical. Our snow is so fine and powdery and the wind whips it all over the place. My problem with the walk way is it built up between our house and the one next door and I have to wade through it. I scooped and carried it out to the back fence line so when it melts it goes out to the street behind our house rather than leaves a river on the walk way where it still tends to back up because those workers did not achieve what we asked for. It was covering the dryer vent and outside water faucets. I can only imagine what the next will add to it all. I mentioned our water lines to my husband and he reminded me that the plumbing in this house all runs down the midline of the house which is better. We found that out when they put the plumbing in for the extra bathroom. They had to locate lines to decide how they were going to do it. Also they had to make a heat vent under the bath cabinet. I haven't had to worry about the faucets here in the past. At our house our children grew up in, I had to finally wrap the pipe coming out of the wall with insulation because the water would freeze inside and if I used the washing machine when it drained it would come back up the pipe and onto the floor. We had a flooded bedroom at that house once too. Not pleasant experiences. All in all the snow is beautiful. Particularly the first day when no one went out and it was untouched.

Carolyn, I have never tried a telemedicine appointment. Too bad he was that late. I can see those appointments being beneficial for a lot of visits unless tests need to be run or they really need to look at something. I often think my Arthritis appointment where I don't get blood work done or tests seems like a waste of time. I wait, they update info, and the doctor talks to me and I go home. Just follow ups I guess. I hope everything is okay. I had out Walk Strong 3 this morning and contemplated doing the 4 mile walk download, then ended up changing my mind. It just wasn't one of those days where I was feeling much of anything.

Judy, nice work with the peloton rides. It seems there is a lot of snow around. You probably handle it better there and are used to it. Here, it is not often like what we are getting. Most people are not prepared for it. Funny watching the news the first day you could see it was pretty much all trucks and suvs out. Although my husband had no choice, but to drive his Taurus. I guess he could have driven my little Spark. He probably would have been laughed at when he got to work LOL. It probably would have been buried in a drift.
 
Did S&S ramped upper body yesterday. that's the disk I have to turn off the sound track. SO LOUD. I like the workout itself although I don't do cathe level weights for this one. no 35's! felt well worked after this one.

DH has done several of the telemedicine appts and was impressed with how well they worked. won't work for everything, but worked well for him, especially for any kind of followup. faster, no driving or exposure involved. works for both patient and doc.

there will be a lot of plumbing issues after this cold wave. just opening cabinet doors around pipes along outside walls helps. and wrapping pipes in insulation. builders don't usually bother and the first time its cold, you can find out the hard way. we always cover our outdoor spigots with caps. usually not needed but if you do it in November, you dont need to worry if its unexpectedly cold.
 
No workout today. My doctor prescribed another medication to take with my current blood pressure pill, but it is not going to work for me. It's a diuretic, something I've taken in the past, but this made me feel very lightheaded and gave me a headache. I took it yesterday and again this morning and I have felt awful all day. I set up for my workout, but decided not to try it because of the lightheadedness. I will need to talk with him about another option. My BP has been inching up recently which is what he is trying to address.

Hello to all and try to keep warm.
 
Today I did Jessica Smith Walk On: 4 Mile Power Walk, 81 minutes(75 actual as I had lots of text messages and to go downstairs and get math pages) 355 calories, heart rate 117/162, 7,306 steps, 3.37 miles. The children's Dad is going to try doing school work with them as the roads are terrible.
Amazing, I got a text from the Whole Foods delivery person and she was asking for help. I opened the garage and helped get the groceries into the garage. I was shocked when I got the text as I really did not expect them to have people out in this weather. Her car was a red hybrid, not something I would expect for snow driving.
I went out and did more shoveling till my fingers were stinging badly. My Harley gloves are not warm enough for this. Gertie gets her exercise though. She just runs and hops all over the place in the snow. Hard to believe she is getting grey and still acts like a pup most of the time.

Valerie, sometimes Cathe does some extremely heavy weights for upper body. I guess I go pretty heavy for rows, but not as heavy as I used to. Usually 30 is my top end and I have a hard time with even 25 for biceps anymore. Lucky if I do 20#. I am sure the plumbing business will be overwhelmed after this. My daughter was glad they had winterized their pool as her friend did not and it is ice right now. There are some things that I think it is not necessary to go in for. I am thinking of having my daughter do my blood pressure when I see her and sending in a read out of the readings I have gotten with my Withings upper arm blood pressure monitor and hers and canceling my appointment this month to just go to the heart doctor to get my blood pressure checked. I will think about it, but it just seems like something not necessary.
 
Did revd up rumble this am.
Getting my hair done now. I’m transitioning to gray . Decided not to continue the coloring process as I seem to be getting itchy from the dye. My head ears and back are getting itchy and if it’s the dye, I want to be done with it. 3 days snowbound gave me time to think and I want to see if it helps . I can always change my mind if it doesn’t help and go back to color. the itchiness is not a recent issue but might be more widespread than it used to be. could be some other dermatology problem unrelated but gotta give this a try. I was getting tired of settign my schedule around getting my roots done too.


ETA Im back and had some foil done to lighten some sections on the top so there is not the distinct skunk line.

I do 25 lbs ok but 35 is too much. Occasionally 30 for one arm rows. . Strangely I can do heavier triceps than cathe but not biceps and or flys . and anything over my head I'm a little more cautious on.

Wow, a whole lot of people are going to learn about not being prepared in a very hard way. Power outs and freezing temps will be costly and uncomfortable for so many people. rotating power outs would at least keep refrigerator food OK as long as door doesn't get opened much. my sister was complaining about her daughter who is in texas but sounds like she didnt learn anything by living in Wisconsin for almost 30 years. Im sure I'll hear plenty about it.
 
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This morning I did Live Steptastic and I've now followed it with three rounds of shoveling. I've got the drive about 3/4's done. DH's been working all day, so I didn't want to have all the fun. What he can't finish up today, I'll do tomorrow. Nowhere to go till Thursday anyway. Our drive varied from 8-18" thanks to blowing and drifting. We actually did get 8-10" though. On the plus side it's been sunny and pretty calm all day.

Valerie great job on the elliptical and with S&S and rev'd up rumble.. I agree the melting is not fun. Our drive is downhill and ends up a muddy mess at the bottom in the spring. They redid our road in 2019, so I guess will see if what they did at the bottom is still holding.

Carolyn Good job with the workout! Sorry to hear you had to wait so long for your telemedicine appointment. And then to have the problems with your new medicine. I hope it gets straightened around.

Judy Wow those were some long Peloton rides! Fantastic. shh about the more snow later in the week. We have enough!

Diane Sue I saw your state was part of the all the storm warnings yesterday. Crazy that 25 states had them. Is Oklahoma better off than Texas what a mess there. Great job on the workouts! Glad you got your Whole Foods order.

Just heard something and looked out and the neighbor is snow blowing the bottom of the drive. I'll do the turnaround tomorrow. DH was just getting ready to go out, too.

In other news, Nick decided last night that he'll be going to Texas Christian University for grad school studying Kinesiology-Exercise Physiology. They offered him an assistantship, plus $9,000 a year stipend, tuition waiver to cover the normal amount of credit, teacher a PE class, help teach a lab or two and help with research all totaling about 20 hours a week. He's very excited. I'm not thrilled to have him so far away, especially with Derek 7 hours away in the opposite direction, but I'm working on acceptance. LOL
 
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I started on the natural hair color road yesterday. stylist did a foil process to put in a layer of highlights mostly along top of my head to minimize the skunk line. it looks nice! blond-ish highlights blending nicely with the brown so the grow out will be blended looking. I'm pleased. was getting tired of the root cover up process. in the last year or so its gotten way more obvious and I didn't like my schedule ruled by hair appts. I could do it myself but then there is the itching issue and I would like to sort out whether hair dye is part of the problem.
Cathy sounds like a great opportunity for your son. college and post grad is the time to get out and explore some new areas to find out what's important to you, before commitments tie you down. I didnt have a chance to go away to school and made up for it after my first job. theres a big world out there and seeing other places is IMO healthy and mind opening. Texas has limited appeal at the moment however!

need to get some car service done mid day today so wish I could go somewhere to walk but not going to happen.

today is a really lovely day, sunshine for the first time in what seems like weeks. still all snow covered tho roads are clear and its normal temps for here. probably 45 or so by mid day.

Carolyn, my DH is on a lot of BP meds and it is a balancing act to get it dialed in right. maybe a half dose or splitting the dose between am and pm? not playing doctor here, but DH went thru a lot of gyrations before he got it right to where he didn't have discomfort.
 
This morning I did a Strong and Sweaty Bootcamp timesaver for 38 minutes and 247 calories burned. Average heart rate was 127 and maximum heart rate was 174. I did 5 of the 6 rounds. I’m feeling more like myself today after the yesterday’s weirdness.

Diane Sue, great job with JS 4 Mile Power Walk. I’m glad that you were able to get your Whole Foods delivery.

Cathy, nice job with Live Steptastic. Congratulations on your son’s graduate school award and plans. That’s a great career choice.

Valerie, nice job with Rev’d Up Rumble and getting your hair done. The highlights seem like a good transition to gray. Today I decided to try the new medication again, but taking it after lunch. That way I’m not taking two pills at the same time. I’ll see if that helps.

Hello to Judy, Deb, and Lori.
 
This morning I did CDorner #89 Intermediate Step, 47 minutes( I think it is a little less I had so many interruptions) 200 calories, heart rate 108/139, 4,658 steps. I also started another she had that was basic step as I wanted to see how high my heart rate would go with Fitbit as she was saying something like 134 to 138 range. I only got 4 minutes in and had to deal with my husbands phone some more. I just finally gave up, but that one was 4 minutes, 18 calories, 102/129, 340 steps. I liked that the workout was no high impact stuff. Just a fun step workout with some turns and stuff. She instructs well, and even when she messed up once in awhile I pretty much had the pattern down.
That makes the total 51 minutes, 218 calories, 4,998 steps. The CDorner workout was fun and I really liked the music. The other one she I started was supposed to be 80's music.
More snow last night. My husband had to scoop snow from the main street that turns into our neighborhood when he came in this morning at 5 and had to scoop to get into the garage. I did more shoveling today myself. Neighbors worked together to get our mail out of the mail boxes. One lady had a flower pot with hot water and a guy tapped the lock on mine with a hammer because the key would not go in all of the way. They said 40 Saturday and now they are saying in the 30's. I want it to go away. I keep working on the snow up the walk way because if that all melts it will be ice and a lot of it. Think two houses about 4 foot away from each other filled with snow on our side. This does not affect him, just us. His rain gutter is not attached and water was dripping off this afternoon hence the already ice patch that was there when this all started. Someone wants to look at the house Saturday and it will barely be over freezing unless that changes. I am not driving out of here in my little car. I told my husband he could put it in the parking lot and I will sit in it with Gertie.

Valerie, you would think that someone who had lived in Wisconsin that long would know something about handling weather. It was sure unexpected here and normally we would have our generator just in case and the blower. My husband put almost everything in the garage except a few tools in storage and he has a lot of stuff. It is not handy at all because we keep needing things. Thankfully the snow shovels are still here. They keep talking on our news about all of the temperature and snow records. I have a friend who let her hair go grey and she started with highlights to help it blend at first. It looks good on her. I hope you like it.

Cathy, I bet you burned a lot of calories and got a lot of steps in today. Mine have been up with all of the snow shoveling around here. It was still lightly snowing when I got up this morning, but the sun peeked out for awhile this afternoon. I am not sure about Texas. They are farther South and are usually warmer than here except where the panhandle area is. I haven't talked to my son for a week or so. He drives to Dallas often for work. He says he would rather drive the 3 and a half hours than spend the time it would take to fly and rent a car when he got there.
That sounds like a wonderful opportunity for your son. I know how you must feel with him being that far away though.

Carolyn, I hope that you can get that worked out with the blood pressure. I do not like trying new meds. My statin is left sitting in the cupboard. I had to work out timing with the hydroxychloraquine and dosage as two a day made me feel weird and total useless. I only take one now and I take it around 4 or 5 so I have had plenty of food eaten and it will be settled down by morning. I think I am pretty used to it now, because for awhile when I was sick, I upped it back up to two and it did not bother as much. I am supposed to go back to get my blood pressure checked again because I have a leaky valve or something. I am glad that you are feeling more like yourself today and was able to work out.
 
Today I did Rev’d Up Rumble for 41 minutes and 298 calories burned. My average heart rate was 135 and maximum heart rate was 259.

My medication worked better yesterday after I took it in the afternoon. I will continue with that and see how it goes. I had to go for lab work this morning. I was worried about the roads, but there was no problem. We had rain but the temperature remained above freezing. We have been very lucky with this weather system in that we are just outside of the areas with snow and ice.

Diane Sue, nice job with the C. Dorner step workout. Was that a YouTube video? I can’t believe that people are still coming out to look at your house in this weather! Clearly they have more than a passing interest. Maybe they will be the ones to buy.

Hello to Valerie, Cathy, Judy, Deb, and Lori.
 
Tried to ski again this morning but the snow was awful. I am getting really tired of all the driving with zero payoff. will do indoor something in a bit.

carolyn DH is on 3 bp meds. he has bad genetics apparently because he does all the right things but still needs meds. he spreads things out but I'm not sure what he takes and when, but it was a trial and error process to get it right.

very sad to see all the problems in Texas. much of the blame lies on their elected leaders. there should be back up and redundancy in the electrical grid and water supply. doing things on the cheap because you don't think anything will ever go wrong is extremely shortsighted. you get what you pay for. trying to blame it on a few non functioning windmills is total baloney. for the people who are suffering, I hope this is a big wake up call. no one is immune to big weather related problems, and every adult and family should have emergency and back up supplies to get through unexpected rough patches. how many hurricanes have hit texas? My sisters daughter had winter clothing in Wisconsin so no idea why she is whining. common sense is unfortunately not common.

I agree with Carolyn, people looking at houses in crapped-out weather are serious buyers. when we have snow and ice, I try to stay home so I dont contribute to crowding on the road. enough people are driving because they need to. I stock up with fresh food ahead of time.
 
This morning I did Boxing Hiit Express and then went shopping. We are supposed to get 1-3" today, but got nothing out of the morning snow flurries, but now it's coming down a bit hard so we'll see. LOTS of empty shelves today. Especially produce. Between the weather and the virus things are getting slowed up. Can't remember if I chimed in on the gray hair thing. I quit dyeing mine when quarantine started. I was just tired of doing it. It's already grown out quite a bit and I just really don't care right now what it looks like. LOL It's not like I'm going out and seeing people other than shopping. If I put it in a ponytail, everything on my head is grays and the pony tail is brown!

Back later to finish this.
 

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