Food was on plan yesterday, weight up a tiny bit. I hate that weight fluctuates, but it just does no matter what. I hiked Bell Pass 7 1/2 miles with my 23 pound backpack on this morning. It was no problem, but when I was coming down the tiny black bugs are out that correspond to the Saguaros being in bloom. They will be gone soon. They don't bite, it's just that they land on my arms and I can feel them. Otis and I went for a nice walk when I got home. I'm not even going to bother trying to walk him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is just too stressful for him. Dh was going to take him for a short one yesterday because I left so early. The recycle truck came by just as they were coming out the gate from the back yard and he finally sees how nervous Otis gets.

The meeting about the HST backpack turned out as I hoped. I'm fairly certain my cousin will be able to get us an administrative camp site at Lodgepole in Sequoia for 3 nights before our backpack. That will be a big help in our being acclimated to the altitude. It seems that the others are on board for that too.

GardenerJoy Those UTI's in the elderly can really be a problem. They never seem to have the symptoms to let them know they have one and then they can be so weak, confused etc. I hope she gets in someplace soon to help with her recovery. Not a good time for you and dh to need to be involved.
Curlyjax I'm glad the new fridge is in place. What a busy day you had.
Bill Great you were able to find the plug you needed. I love whales. Have you gone to Hawaii on the whale watching trips? So fun. I wish Otis's water additive could be used by me. I hate having to go to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned.
Maryann Yes grief sure does come in waves. I'm glad you have put together a self care plan. Hopefully you have some good things planned for the weekend.
Waving to Penny.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Made a trip to the brick-and-mortar library - just like the olden days except that I couldn't go in. I put my library card on a tray and the nice librarian brought out my book, To make their own way in the world : the enduring legacy of the Zealy daguerreotypes. It's about the black-and-white photographs taken of seven slaves for the (back then) renowned Harvard University scientist Louis Agassiz. Agassiz wanted proof of the inferiority of Africans. Agassiz also went to the grave rejecting Darwin's evolution by natural selection. The Peabody Museum at Harvard that owns the photos published the book as part of trying to come to grips with the university's complicity in the racism of those times. There is angst; the seven slaves clearly didn't give their permission to have their pictures taken. There is a lawsuit by a person who claims to be a descendant. There are researchers trying to give depth to the lives of the seven people. Fascinating even while painful.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was omelets, broccoli, and roasted winter veggies. I do love the roasted Butternut Squash. We ate on the patio outside enjoying the evening air. The birds were loud and constant, including the House Sparrow who came to the ground level bird bath despite us sitting four feet away.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - That's so much work in that fragile space between "clearly can stay at home" and "clearly needs to go to a care facility" - when family caregivers can nearly kill themselves. Good luck with your efforts and decisions. And Super Congrats for making a discovery about how you like your hair.

Karen (karenrn) - Neat that your planning for your backpacking trip is working out. Nope, I haven't been whale watching in Hawaii - still on my Bucket List.

curlyjax - Congrats for pressing through to a fully installed, undented, new fridge. Ouch for twice swapping the food.

Readers -

SiL successfully got MiL admitted to the hospital yesterday. Apparently it was quite a struggle to get a diagnosis that insurance would accept. Too weak to stand wasn't enough. Sheesh. They eventually determined that she was severely dehydrated enough to impact her kidneys (not permanently, thank goodness).

From the hospital, it's easier to get her to a nursing home for a recovery period, which is probably what she really needs, but we couldn't get that to happen before Monday, even though we started on Thursday.

My hair appointment went well. I've been going to the same stylist for over a decade, so it was really great to see her and catch up with her life and how her kids are doing.

Exercise +40, 620/1400 minutes for May

Good morning coaches,

Today is a day off from hiking. I will be walking Otis cause dh is heading out to golf soon. I also need to do a little housework before I head to an early lunch out with a friend. I got a text from my brother last evening to ask if they can come stay tonight and tomorrow. They are on a driving trip from WA and have visited the national parks in Utah on their way to Arizona. All of a sudden life is getting a bit busier than it has been for months. I guess part of it is that more hikes are out of town where it is cooler and that makes for all day or several days instead of part of a day.

GardenerJoy It seems like a person pretty much can't get into a nursing home without being in the hospital first. I'm glad things got worked out for mil. Glad you like your hair and enjoyed the appointment.

Bill You have some heavy duty reading for sure. I've been enjoying listening to some really light weight novels, but I do have a couple of other books that I need to get too soon.

Have a great Saturday all of you!

Good morning, Coaches.

I am relieved to have put the week behind me. The school eventually sent a team of counselors into my class at my request. It was short, vague but did come with an offer of personal counseling for any student who needed it. I was satisfied. I have also received several personal out reaches from many kind teachers who recognized my distress and, even though I hate to be so visible with my emotions, I think in the end it helped me get through the week. I had some wonderful comments that touched me. "We know what kind of teacher you are with your students." "It is wonderful to see you interact with them." That makes me tear up because I never think what I do is enough.

Ben's death was ruled accidental which was a relief to his family. But the tragedy of a boy on the fringes of a gang which could provide a gun can not be easily reconciled as an accident. Friends set up a GoFundMe account which is now at 21,000. That is a phenomenal number considering how small my town is. It shows how deep the grief goes.

I did carry out the two day "Student Self Care Lesson Plan of Inside Out" for my freshmen. I did not do it for Ben's class since it would not present the respectful weight of what that class was feeling. But my freshmen are like puppy dogs. Some rolled their eyes at the lessons. But they voted to work through it ( OK i told them we would do it or take notes on Canada geography )The clips were good and the lessons were pretty profound: Sadness is sometimes the hero because it brings comfort from others and resolution. Forced happiness is isolating. Events always carry "emodiversity" which is simultaneous conflicting emotions. I gave the example of DH leaving yesterday - bittersweet that I don't have my baby boy anymore and thrilled this young man is off to find his life. Each kid had to pick and event and, if they felt comfortable, share. I had some very thoughtful shares.

I want to thank you all for letting me share this. Writing it all out helps.

As for moving forward, Thursday I go some of my vaccines for Machu Pichu. The pneumococcal vaccine, of course ,gave me a temperature and chills so I went to bed about 6 pm last night but feel better today. At least the kitchen closed early
I have two planned hikes this weekend on the gym machine. I am trying to hike 1,000 feet elevation with a ten pound pack in an hour. I will also bike tonight.

Karen: Remind me again about your hike this summer Is it the Tahoe Rim Trail? Are you going with a group?
Gardenerjoy: I am so glad you MIL is in good hands. You do not need that added stress right now.
Curleyjax: LOL that a new fridge makes the rest of the house look bad. I always feel that. Well, that means I need a new ......
BBE: That whale picture is beautiful!!! I might get that book for my dad.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was chili made with hamburger and 13 bean soup mix. A favorite winter dish just as we're breaking out. Dinner was rather late for us because the cook is also the gardener; hates stopping outside work while there is still daylight. Evening snack was my Cosmic Crisp Apple.

Got some paperwork done. We have to refile our application for residential exemption on our house for our property taxes. A bit of a nuisance that amounts to a bunch of paperwork for all parties to retain the status quo since we've lived here forever. When I get to be Czar, bureaucrats will have to fill out a form, in triplicate, to apply to ask folks to fill out forms. If that doesn't deter them, I'll add forms to request the forms, LOL.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats to you and your SIL for getting your MIL into a hospital so that the next step can be evaluated. Love hearing of something so normal as getting to chat with your longtime hair stylist.

maryann - What an extraordinary lesson for those kids. I wish I was in your class. So good to hear that counseling for the kids in Ben's class is being made available.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for a busy life - as if normal life were within sight. Having lunch with a friend sounds normal.

Readers -

Yesterday's eating was hit and miss, mostly because I didn't have some of my normal foods prepared or time to fix them. I'll take care of that today. I've fully written a food plan to get myself back on track.

I took a long walk with a friend and attended vigil for the first time in a month. I both appreciate the return to normality and realize that socializing drains me. Today will be a recovery day.

Exercise +60, 680/1400 minutes for May

Good Morning, Coaches.

Yesterday was perfectly unplanned. I booked passage to Machu Pichu paying the upgrade to business class which means I get seats that can lie flat for the red eye portion of the trip. It wasn't that much extra. Also, United has waived change fees. I can tell the airlines are in some desperate times. Grateful to putter with laundry and eat simple meals. I also continued to binge watch Death in Paradise. It is an Agatha Christie type show set in the Caribbean. I find it very calming.

Credit for 71 mins of the climbmill which is 708 feet elevation with a 10 pound pack. I added to my absurd attire of day pack and hiking boots by tying a cooling towel around my forehead to stop sweating into my glasses. Worked like a charm. Credit also for going back after dinner with DH and doing the bike and spa. We have a cold plunge that helps with the plantars fasciitis and a wonderful outdoor jacuzzi that is always empty in the evening. Weight is at ticker.

Gardenerjoy: Socializing is draining to me as well. I must plan lots of solitude - even from my loved ones.
BBE: LOL the gardener is the cook. That reminded of a a study I saw once of the salary a housewife would get if all her jobs were paid at market rate.

Good morning coaches,

Dinner was out to Mexican and more than I needed, but it had been a long time. I got up and hiked Bell Pass at 5 with my 25 pound backpack on to burn a few of those calories. Lunch yesterday though was light with my friend from ID who has been widowed just 6 weeks. It was such a shock as her husband had a stroke precipitated by clotting related to his unknown stage IV pancreatic cancer. He was only ill (that they knew of) for a month. She knows only a few people in ID because they just moved there in the fall. I might fly up to see her and hike mid-July. She would like some company and to get more into hiking. I would much rather do that than attend my high school class reunion. Db and sil arrived mid afternoon yesterday and we are having a nice visit with them. We'll go on a hike tomorrow morning before they leave.

Maryann My first backpacking trip will be about 1/2 of the Tahoe Rim Trail. I'll probably drive over 6/24 and then we start with the group on 6/27. The first 4 days will be with the association starting at Kingsbury Grade and ending near Mt. Rose. We'll stay the night in a motel and then Kathy and I will continue on the next day ending a few days later at Tahoe City. Our next backpack is the High Sierra Trail beginning 8/12. We'll be staying in Lodgepole for three nights before leaving on a 7 to 8 day trip which ends going over Mt. Whitney to Whitney Portal. How do you do with altitude? Has your group provided information? I imagine you'll be flying into Cusco. I'm really excited for you.
GardenerJoy I know what you mean about socializing. I feel like I'm in a re-entry training program. It has been so many months without a whole lot going on it will take awhile to not feel drained with more people in my life again.
Bill Do you ever get the dinner going when the gardener is busy? I'll have to say my husband doesn't, but he's pretty good about dishes and lots of other household chores.
Curlyjax I hope you're having a good weekend.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Nice long walk, CREDIT moi, through the neighborhood over to one of the best bakeries around. Just wanted to sniff the hot bread baking and to remember back when we could go inside. A young lady stood outside at a table by the sign that said "Wait here for your order." One makes choices at a bakery by one's nose. How is that possible over the Internet? Also dropped by our plot in the community garden. The sugar snaps are about eight inches high - not yet desperately clinging to the fences. The tomato cages look huge and barren with small plants at their base. Our cages are old and rusty but at my suggestion that we're rich enough to afford new tomato cages I meet, "Why should I replace them?" Two gardens down ("next door but one" as the Queen would say) are brand new cages built of Sherman Tank material certain to last a hundred years. I'm suffering from tomato cage envy.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Resistance exercise was hauling the five Coleus planted in our large white, plastic planter to the front of our house as we do each year. Each year I offer to buy DW a new planter. Each year she reminds me that this one was a gift from a lady who lived across the street who couldn't take it with her to the retirement home. It has the key feature that it sits outside all winter with no threat of breaking as might any of the grand ones that I'm offering to buy. My take is that gardeners just don't do new.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Great to hear that you took a long walk with a friend. Happy Recovery Day.

maryann - Congrats for booking your flight to Machu Pichu. Green with jealousy here.

Karen (karenrn) - You sound busy - the good busy type. Nope, I do cleanup and dishes but don't cook dinner. We tried that but DW was never satisfied and always stepped in to add something to make the meal "balanced" by her view of balanced.

Readers -

That is really wierd, I know I posted yesterday. Maybe I closed my laptop before it "took". Anyhow, yesterday I went for a walk https://www.towerhillbg.org/ with manfriend and another friend. It was very fun, we all joked around. I'm trying to emotionally distance myself from manfriend and it was easier to do with someone else there. We all sat on a bench yawning at one point-the joy of being with your peers who understand your energy level. I took a nice nap after, I've been so tired recently and it was very restful. I've been doing terrible with eating but I did eat outside friday night with friends and it was wonderful. Saturday's excitement was fixing the frig handle after it came loose-after only two days!
Gardenerjoy:- glad things are better with MIL. Socializing drains me too.
Bill- I thought of you as I got to browse in a library for an unlimited time Saturday morning. It was wonderful!
Maryann-glad you're feeling better. Great job training for the trip, how exciting.
Karen- glad you're having fun with your brother. I imagine things are getting quite busy for you. Sorry about your friend, that was quick.

MiL's still in the hospital -- getting both better care and better diagnostics. They're looking at an enlarged heart, distressed kidneys, and a possible blood clot. The treatments and further tests are complicated by some of those things needing the opposite of others. But SiL is really happy with the hospitalist who is treating the whole patient instead of the currently most acute situation which sometimes exacerbates other problems. For example, the hospitalist switched the antibiotic for the UTI because it wasn't an appropriate one for someone with kidney problems.


We're hopeful that she'll get moved to a nursing home today or tomorrow for recovery and PT to get her stronger.

There's not much I can do about any of that, so I'm going to focus on my projects. My experiment that I mentioned a week or two ago -- focus on no more than three projects to completion -- is working. I finished one and made lots of progress on a second. I'll start numbers three and four today -- since I finished one, that's still only three projects a time.

Exercise +55, 735/1400 minutes for May

maryann: Thanks for the reminder about Death in Paradise. I enjoy that one -- partly because it doesn't take itself very seriously, partly for the British guest actors who I recognize from other shows, and partly due to the setting. I've missed a couple of seasons so it's time to think about catching up.

Good Morning, Coaches.

Credit for another training session at the gym although I was only able to do half of what I did the day before. I wasn't feeling that well. I have a Drs appt for tom. which hopefully will get to the bottom of the bleeding. I set up two trips down to SIL who is practicing for the Tahoe Rim trail like Karen. She has lots of elevation hikes in San Bernadino Mountains so we will hike together to continue to train. i haven't had any trouble with elevation before but I haven't been at 13,000 feet. The Dr. told me I won't be able to take the elevation med because my blood pressure is naturally so low.

Food was a little sloppy but weight is holding.
Karen: I will be in Tahoe around that weekend of the July 1st. I will do my best to private message you with my details. i would love to meet up with you and your friend for a meal.

Good morning!

I finally checked in to see how everyone is doing. I'm still doing my workouts but white knuckling the diet, so yeah, no change.

Recent happenings in my life: my 14yo son was very happy to finally be able to get the vaccine. Now I just have one more kid waiting for approval. My mom is in the hospital with really bad pneumonia and didn't think she was going to make it the first day, but now is close to discharging home later today. And lastly, the dh finally got a new job after being let go of his old one in January.

The Kindle has both Sapiens and Bogelheads dropped in from the library. I think those recs come from you guys.

Maryann, I'm so sorry about the tragic death of your student. That is so sad!

Joy, the bit about not being able to treat your MIL because of insurance not considering a BP of 210 high enough...ugh. I'm glad she is getting cared for.

Good afternoon coaches,

I didn't get on the scale this morning and I think you all know what that means. Yesterday's dinner was higher calorie than usual and I thought I'd give myself a day to see a better number. I'm being careful today. This morning I hiked with db and sil. My brother was a triathlete and has even done a couple of full Ironman competitions and is several years younger than I am. He has put on about 25 pounds and is not doing much for exercise these days. He used to give the stink eye to my other brother and me cause we were the pudgy non-athletic ones. Boy has that changed. It bothers me to see him settling for being this out of shape. He has been retired for almost 5 months and I hope that soon he get interested in getting the weight off and getting back in shape. Both of our grandmothers and our Dad had type II diabetes. Of course that will all be up to him. Sil is normal weight so that is good.

Penny I was not even very hungry a few days back, but today I'm kind of white knuckling it too. I'm glad to hear your Mom is doing well. That had to be scary. Glad also that dh got a new job.

Maryann My bp runs low too, but I have taken low dose Diamox at times, 125 mg once or twice a day. Unfortunately most physicians are not very well informed about doses. Heck one of my hiking partners was just prescribed a Scopolamine patch which is for motion sickness, not altitude sickness. Mostly likely you won't need it anyway. There are some studies that say Ibuprofen is helpful. I probably won't take it this year cause I'm not going that high on the TRT and on the HST I'll have been on the trail a number of days before we go over Whitney. I'll take it along just in case.

GardenerJoy I'm glad mil is in the hospital getting good care. We can be pretty complex beings especially as we get older and have more problems. I wish I was inspired to do some projects. One of these days.

Curlyjax Tower Hill looks very pretty. That fridge door handle must not have been put on very well. Hopefully it will be fine now.

Bill I will have to say I both wish we had an excellent bakery nearby and I'm really glad we don't. I guess I've probably had my lifetime share of baked goods truth be known. I used to have beautiful Coleus plants years ago in Washington. I even had a large one with smaller leaves that I had as a houseplant. They are so pretty.