Baby steps

[DianaCox]

I've still been pretty sedentary lately, but trying to move a bit more - so after a day spent recovering from last night's Seder, attending a telecon for nearly 2.5 hours on a topic I find maddening, and writing an argument to be signed by an expert in the field of reproductive medicine for my daughter's insurance appeal (her doctor wants her to do oocyte cryopreservation because she is at high risk of losing her ovaries to stage 4 endometriosis, but her insurance insists that the ONLY purpose of the procedure is the excluded treatment of infertility, while the fact is, her need for it is to PRESERVE her fertility), I needed to move. I've been both sedentary, and tense and wound up all day.

Charles suggested we take a walk to get our dinner. We live in an area that I guess is best described as somewhere between urban and suburban - residential community of mostly small single family lots (house, driveway, house, driveway), with pass through streets that mostly have houses on them, and occasional main streets which also have a lot of homes on them. There aren't a lot of businesses we can walk to conveniently. We have a fancy upscale Italian grocery store a couple of blocks away that we use for small purchases that don't rate a drive to Costco or Safeway, a combo Taco Bell/KFC, a fancy looking but crappy Italian restaurant, a Starbucks, a sketchy taco place (though the food is pretty good), and that's about it. And at the far end of our neighborhood, at a gas station, a food mart with a Subway shop that just opened.

So, we walked the almost 1.5 miles roundtrip to Subway for dinner. It felt good to stretch my legs and back. I got a spicy Italian with double meat, to ensure that it lasts TWO meals.

I need to keep moving, before moss starts growing on me. Well, on Saturday, I fly back east for 9 days - that means getting up and getting dressed and going into the office every day - that should help break my sloth-like current habits. Charles promised the bikes come out as soon as I get back on the 28th.

Between sickness and FINALLY getting himself motivated to finish some big projects around here, including renovating the garage to build himself a workshop, and getting all our crap reorganized and either tossed or put away properly so we can dump the storage area we've been renting for almost 4 years, he's lost 20+ lbs and now weighs less than me. This is unacceptable. Since I certainly don't want to fatten him up, I'm going to have to get motivated to get back in shape myself.

Walking for my dinner was some baby steps.

 

[Terri]

Great job!
I would love to live in a beautiful climate like where you are, I have a great-nephew who lives in San Jose as well. Albeit, I would definitely miss my 4 seasons, which we had this week. It was in the mid 70's Sunday, rainy and 50's Monday, Yesterday we had snow flurries. Last night everyone scurried to bring in and cover all of their plants.

I do look forward to getting out and walking around the neighborhood as soon as the weather starts cooperating a little better. It will probably be after surgery so I too will be taking baby steps.

 

[DianaCox]

We have 4 seasons: Spring is a split of gorgeous warm days - after the ubiquitous "late night and early morning low clouds and fog, clearing by mid-afternoon" - and cooler weather. Summer doesn't start until July - the month before is called June Gloom for the cloudy days that don't clear until well after noon. Summer is relentlessly warm to quite hot - but it's a dry heat, that cools off in the evening. Fall is fabulous - but doesn't start until October. And then December to March is monsoon season - if getting a total of 15" for the year in 3-4 months can be called monsoonal weather:

San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a subtropical Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb).[36] San Jose has an average of 301 days of sunshine and an annual mean temperature of 60.5 °F (15.8 °C). It lies inland, surrounded on three sides by mountains, and does not front the Pacific Ocean like San Francisco. Because of this, the city is somewhat more sheltered from rain, giving it a semiarid feel with a mean annual rainfall of 15.82 in (402 mm), compared to some other parts of the Bay Area, which can receive about three times that amount.

The monthly daily average temperature ranges from around 50 °F (10 °C) in December and January to around 70 °F (21 °C) in July and August.[37] The highest temperature ever recorded in San Jose was 109 °F (43 °C) on June 14, 2000; the lowest was 19 °F (−7 °C) on December 22–23, 1990. On average, there are 2.7 nights annually where the temperature lowers to or below the freezing mark, and 16 days where the high reaches or exceeds 90 °F (32 °C).Diurnal temperature variation is far wider than along the coast or in San Francisco but still a shadow of what is seen in the Central Valley.

When you come visit, no matter what time of year, you need a sweater at night. I like that. We're sleeping with the windows open these days.

 

[Terri]

I am in Evansville, IN. We have been named fattest city in the US and I believe something like the most depressing city to live in the US. However, we have also been named An All American City. I don't know who they ask these questions to. But we are in the Ohio river valley so the spring and fall are horrible allergy seasons and summer has the most oppressing humidity. I did live in Milwaukee for a couple years when I was at the ripe age of 21 but I missed my family horribly. My parents have both passed on now as well as my DH's parents. This has always been home so we continue to live here.

 

[JackieOnLine]

the older I get the less tolerance I have for bad weather. for me, that means long periods without the sun. if this wasn't true I would have moved to Portland or possibly Seattle.

Diana, your climate sounds like heaven.

 

[southernlady]

Well, we DID have the windows open til 2 days ago when a cold front moved thru. While this is unusual, it is NOT unheard of here.
We (dh and I) live in an isothermal belt.
And yes, we get all four seasons here...MOST years, spring is in full force by late Feb...summer is not as hot here as it is just 20 miles south of us. In fact, it can be a good 10 degrees cooler than the two major cities just south of us (Greenville, SC and Spartanburg, SC). We don't get the snow like Asheville, NC does. And fall is absolutely GLORIOUS!

Apparently we are in an ideal climate to grow apples (almost 100 orchards in a 25 mile radius of us), grapes (several wineries around here) and lots of veggies.

 

[JackieOnLine]

OK, now THAT sounds like heaven*. tell me you get a lot of clouds, Liz, so I don't have to move there.

seriously, I should get an RV and just admit I can't stay put.


I love love love apples!! and grapes. and wine...