Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 6/3

fox2star

fox2star

Cathlete
Good morning,

Today I did the first 53 minutes of Athletic Training and basically collapsed after that. I don't know how anyone finishes this workout. None of the pre-mixes really cover the whole thing so I thought I would just "go for it" and that is what I could do. Next time I may do the w/u, 15 minutes of the step part, then go to the rest.

I'm starting to not like Saturdays....

One of our dog club friends ( Judy) was found dead in her bathroom this morning...she was 59. Two women who were best friends both of their husbands passed away within a short time of each other. One is a piano teacher, the other ( the one that passed away) was a kindergarten teacher. They decided to move in together. Well, Pauline found Judy this morning in the bathroom. Unbeliveable. Last Saturday our next door neighbor died.

Raining and dreary today, no work outside possilble I can hear the weeds growing and laughing at me.

Lots of HouseMax to do anyway.

Take care,
 
Deb I'm sorry for your loss.

It's been dry here so I've had a lot of watering to do. Temperatures were so high in May and now they are more normal. It seems odd that it is cooler now than in May.

Dh will be busy at work the next couple of months so I'm not sure we can get a vacation in before I go back to babysitting. Of course if dil doesn't get a job it won't break my heart.

Joan
 
Hi Deb, Joan, and any later posters--

No workout for me this morning because of Commencement. Final public honor for me. Despite the rain that just started pouring here 5 minutes ago, Commencement was sunny and not too hot. I was under a canopy with the honorary degree recipients and faculty, so it was really quite pleasant. It's amazing to see how crowded the campus is in the morning, and now, it's like a ghost town with everyone gone. Just as an aside: for the years I was having hot flashes, I just could not DO commencement. We wear these gorgeous and colorful gowns (mine is U. of Chicago and mauve), and a lovely velvet hat, but if you are having intermittent hot flashes, it's just awful.

The Commencement speaker was Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and professor at Harvard Medical School. For once, there were no platitudes. It was a really good speech about how to rescue at the point of imminent failure. He started with a story about an 87 year old patient, who had gone blind in one eye because of a stroke caused by a blocked carotid artery. The surgery, though risky, was successful, but then she had a terrible complication--a volvus intestine (I probably don't have this spelled correctly, but it sounded like what happened to the dog Marley), and it was a resident who called this, what was believed to be simple constipation, to the attention of the surgeon, who at first, just thought it was being alarmist. She had to have another surgery, of course, but it depended on acknowledging the problem in the first place, which took awhile because the original surgery was a "success." He went on to extend this to the BP oil spill and our current do-nothing policy on the economy. Of course, he also writes for the New Yorker and has a bestselling book on being a surgeon. I was very pleased, because I have been to too many totally fatuous bloviating speeches about, well, nothing really.

Deb, I know this might surprise you, but the step portion with all the repeaters is only 8 minutes long. I know, I know--it's followed by more work to keep your heart up, but even so, the cardio portion is basically over in 25 min. I start off on the 4 inch step and add a riser on each side when she goes all the way up to 3. Otherwise, I think I would be in trouble. I will still have an office, because I have writing to do. That's really sad about your friends. Was it very sudden??

Joan, wouldn't that be nice for you if you could get off the babysitting?
 
Good morning,

Nothing new here, I did not get up to work out this morning, had a really bad night, could not get to sleep until midnight, then up and down.

Garance, there was only one decent speech at my cousins commencement Saturday, and it was done by the Chief of Dectives of the Buffalo Police department who was getting his Masters.. I used the 4 inch step as well and only added one riser on each side as well. As for my friend, it was very sudden, apparently a heart attack, not expected at all. She was 59.

Joan, I hope your DIL does not get a job, ( as long as they are ok with her not working) so you get a break. You deserve it.

Dinner with my boss, and his boss and about 20 other people tonight. Fun Wow.

Take care,
 
Deb, that is so sad! I remember thinking ( a long long time ago) about 59 being "old". well, of course now it seems positively young and a terrible shortening of her life. the only good thing that can be said is it was probably mercifully quick. still, so young! I have friends and family (who will remain nameless) are old at 59 but for most people it's far from that.
The step part of AT is pretty rough! I skip a few reps along the way but mostly can get through it now though not in perfect form. my feet and arms get all confused when things go so fast, and I don't want to trip or fall off the step. This might be a good one to slow to 80% on your DVD player and see if that helps.

Linda we watched "the Iron Lady" last night. what a nasty movie, an absolute hatchet job by someone who really wanted to stick it to Margaret Thatcher. you were correct, way too much emphasis on her older years and dementia. Meryl Streep was, as always, excellent, but I would not sit through that again.
That would be a volvulus. it's where the intestine twists around on itself and strangles off the twisted part. I don't know more except it's a surgical emergency. I keep thinking it's a fairly common problem in horses? Sounds like it would have been an interesting and different commencement speech rather than the usual hot air about nothing in particular. .

Oh yes, hot flashes. so glad that's behind. I remember when I said I would "just ignore them" and not take hormones. Ha. Ate those words!! I was mostly OK during the day but nights were wall to wall flashes then chills. one right after the other, like the thermostat was broken. I'd say "a nightmare" but I never got enough sleep to have one.

Joan, sounds like a wonderful well deserved break.... if DIL can't get a job right off you can get a break from baby sitting.

we didn't do much saturday, got the bikes loaded and it started raining. fiddled around waiting but it didn't stop enough to ride. so pretty much a day off. Sunday we did a hike looking for a new trail connecting to an old trial. forest service closed off the access road. we're hoping we can ride the closed road on mt bikes to the old trail head, and as a backup plan, use the trail we explored yesterday. too much snow to be sure. not very high but solid 10 or so feet of snow. about 6 hours walking, up and down without finding the trail connection we'd wanted. probably the sign is buried yet.
 
Hi Deb, Joan, and Valerie--

This morning I did After Burn (54 min.).

It sounds like we are going to have a whole week of a front that just keeps circling and bringing intermittent rain and cool temps. Ugh! What happened to summer?

Iron Lady is just another acting tour de force for Meryl Streep. I wouldn't watch it a second time either. Yes, it really was one of the best commencement speeches I have heard (and I have heard a lot of them, believe me). My all-time favorite wasn't a speech, but Yoyo Ma playing the cello. Now that was incredible. I think I will have to at least take a look at Gawande's book, which apparently was an international best seller after being translated into other languages. How can a book on surgery be a bestseller??

What's the occasion for the dinner, Deb? Is someone retiring?

I'm with Deb on the babysitting, Joan. I always thought being a grandmother would be great because then I could enjoy them, but they would not be my responsibility. It sounds like you have the responsibility all over again of raising them, which, at least from my perspective, is a lot of work. So, if the job is not a necessity, I hope you get some well-deserved time off, too.
 
Good morning,

just finished CC#1-R. It took a lot of convincing to get me down to the treadmill this morning. I had to argue with myself. Did you ever do that? LOL.

Valerie, I was very lucky, had hot flashes for a while, both day and night, but they didn't last long and were not severe enough to have to use any treatments, I did use a combination of soy and vit e and thought that helped. Now Soy is a "no -no" supposedly. It's got a really bad rap (?) now.

Garance, we have the same weather front, cold, dreary like early fall weather. It would be a nice day to sleep in.

Off to get ready, running a little late today, because I took too much time debating on a workout or not. I am glad I did it.

take care,
 
Hi Deb--

This morning I did LIC (51 min.).

Sounds like we are in the same mode for different reasons. I seem to have caught a cold and had a very bad night. I almost didn't work out but argued with myself that I couldn't sleep anyway, so I might as well get up and see if a bit of sweat would make me feel better. Not really--but I also don't feel any worse. A no-win situation.

Same old front here with fall-like weather. Blech! Doesn't help my mood either.

Hi to everyone else who shows up!
 
I "flashed on" for a long time. tried cutting down on meds and they'd come back. Deb, I tried every non prescription measure for the flashes but nothing touched them. I ended up taking HRT for a good 10 years and eventually tapered off. I don't give a damn what the risks were, I'd have died without it.

I started STS again yesterday. I've been debating restarting..... felt my shoulder was back to normal, so without a lot of fanfare, did disk 1. Even did most of the pushups, but I've been doing pushups regularly, though not THAT many. Still balk at the staggered ones. I cut weight slightly from my last run since it must be a year and a half by now. I wanted a little soreness but not misery, and I was right on target. little soreness today but nothing serious. I'd forgotten how much furniture moving and equipment variety was involved! took me way too long to get thru but as I re-familiarize myself, it will get faster.

We're suffering the same cold, wet, dismal weather here. I turned the heat on this morning. only 59 in the house when I got back from yoga. I was convinced this year was better than last, but only a few nice spring days so far. seems much worse than usual for May-June. only the weather statistics people know for sure.

I back off workouts with head colds. It's different for all of us, but I seem to get much sicker for much longer if I don't lay low. DH usually keeps working out whereas I do better with a lot of sleep. Whatever... hope yours isn't too bad and at least you aren't missing any good weather.
 
Good morning,

woke up with a terrible headache today, probably sinus. The weather must have something to do with it.

Nothing much going on, I am trying to pull together some items for our basket auction at the trial this weekend. Judy and Pauline were handling it, and had not done them yet.

Work, then the club meeting tonight. That's all for now.
 
surprise, I woke up with a headache too. (Come on, Advil!) yesterday I did my yoga class and 30 on the treadmill. also some garden work but it kept raining on and off so it was more work than I expected with all the running in and out. crummy weather. garden is looking nice though. we wanted to cycle today but it's cold and wet but will go at the first sign it might dry out, since tomorrow is supposed to be even wetter. there are times I wonder why I live here.
 
Hi Deb and Valerie--

Did not do anything this morning because of this head cold. I did have a good night's sleep, though. Used neosynephrine night time, and it seemed to really do the trick. This was recommended to me by the otolaryngologist I saw about the nosebleeds. I was worried about blowing my nose and getting another bad nosebleed, so he said to use this when I felt very congested.

Today is the mammogram. I am also readying a lot of my papers for the college archive, which is really kind of nice. They want them because someone will probably do a history of the period when the college went from being all male to co-ed, and I was the first woman hired in the English dept. and did a lot of "pioneer" work both academically and administratively. Better than throwing all of this stuff out or trying to store it somewhere and have it mold away. I've had an interesting career, too, because of all the controversies around Plath and Hughes. When BIRTHDAY LETTERS was published in 1998, I was interviewed by the NYTimes and was invited by the Academy of American Poets to speak at a special event, so I saved all of that. Saved videos of me on a CUNY film program and my appearance on an A & E bio of Plath. Haven't looked at this stuff in quite awhile, so I am goiing down memory lane as I get this stuff ready for them to box up and take away. It also saves me a lot of trouble.
 
Good morning,

what's up with the headaches and head colds? Has to be weather related. The club meeting was nice and short, Lots of donations for our basket auction. Looking forward to the trial this weekend, I am working it all day Saturday. This is the one I was going to enter Keegan in, but he copped an "I don't like this anymore" attitude right before the entries closed so I didn't enter him.

Valerie, our garden is looking good too, probably because of the rain. One thing, it does make weeding a lot easier when the ground is wet.

Garance, I don't remember the last time you did not do a workout. YOu must be feeling awful. Wow, some very nice mementos you have.

I bet Josie is having a good time right now on the ride.

Off to get ready, take care.
 
Got a nice break in the weather mid day yesterday and did a road ride, 26 miles. about 2 hr 15. thought it would be busy but fairly quiet. I didn't feel right ll day yesterday but the ride helped. got a good nights sleep and feel much better today. I think I slept in a funny neck position the night before, could not get rid of the headache.

Linda, being the "first woman" to do things must bring back good strong memories. the younger generation does not have any concept of the kind of insidious barriers that popped up (expectedly or unexpectedly) to derail the best intentions. Now there is history and no one stops to stare and wonder. senseless roadblocks are not so routine anymore.
Why is Plath considered so influential/important?
Good luck on the mamm. those always cause plenty of anxiety until the results come back.
Off to yoga.
 
Hi Deb and Valerie--

This morning I did the Gym Styles Chest and Tris (48 min.).

Deb, I am still fighting this cold, but felt good enough to do a workout this morning and chose this one, remembering that it was just a bunch of repetitions of standard exercises.

This is alumni reunion weekend, and I'm having lunch today with one of my former students who has grown into a friend.

Valerie, I've written a couple books and several articles on Plath, so it's very hard to give you a couple sentences on why she's important. One of my colleagues who is also a lover of her work and I agree that her poetry just remains startling, fresh, new. For feminists, she was so important, because her voice was so strong and womanly. Of course, for many people she is a tragic figure because she died so young. If you want an ongoing sense of her importance, you should check into Peter Steinberg's blog, which you can find by googling "Sylvia Plath blog." He is relentless about keeping up with all things Plath. Oh--and you can also listen to her recite her verse on youtube. "Daddy" is probably the one most listened to.

Off to lunch, and it's a sunny day for a change.
 
I'll take a look. I just know "The Bell Jar" as a crossword puzzle clue. I did well grade-wise in English lit but I didn't like it. I got through it but hated every minute.

Another thing I feel terrible about is that I never had a class in modern American History. we only got up to somewhere before WWI. due to poor planning, I assume. I don't remember anyone ever explaining why, but time ran out.....and that was it. I've done some pleasure reading but somehow reading/learning for tests, and discussing things in class sticks with you better. I always feel so ignorant about much of the 20th century.

Wow yoga was tough today. she is sometimes merciless. I can't stand on one foot to save my life. either one. I can do a lot of other moves but not that.

I'm sticking in a link to a cartoon that ran today. Don't know if this is a regular one in your newspaper but I loved it. Hope it works. Stone Soup | Comics | Seattle Times Newspaper
 
Ok, I voted... cute little guy.

Had an aggravating shopping experience. my dental floss "tool" broke. It's a plastic "Y" shaped handle. wrap floss across the points of the "Y". it's 100x easier to reach especially back teeth but makes the process easier and faster. I've used one for decades. cost maybe $5 and I've used it thousands of times. you can use bulk floss, any brand or type you like.

so went to pharmacy#1, nothing like it. went to pharmacy#2, not there either. went to a 3rd and no luck. shelves full of bags of single use plastic throwaway crap with floss already on. could not believe it. I've tried samples of these and they don't work well, and just more junk for the landfill.

so came home and went to amazon. sure enough there it is, along with comments from dozens of people saying exactly what I said here. works great, inexpensive, does not generate tons of unnecessary trash. uses any floss strung as tight or loose as you like. and everyone said the same thing..... suddenly no pharmacies carry it. so now deciding how many to order in case it goes extinct! I hate it this and I resent pharmacies pushing us into single use disposable junk. Ok off the soapbox for now.
 
Valerie, thanks for voting!

I didn't know that there was such a thing .....**gulps** embarassed...I have actually purchased bags of those one time use ones....will head over to Amazon and get one of the ones that you have...
 
Hi Deb and Valerie--

Well, my cold just got worse--runny nose, runny eyes, a cough--so I decided to sleep in again. I haven't had a cold like this one in ages. I guess the Cold-eez just stalled its final "fruition."

Deb, I voted for Dodger too. What a cutie.

I don't really know what either one of you is talking about with the floss. I just wrap some around my fingers and floss.

Campus is overrun with alums at the moment. According to my former student, it costs a lot to participate in the events, so I guess it's the college trying to make some money.

Hope I'm better soon so I can go see Prometheus. Maybe it will scare the last of the cold out of me.
 
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