My Day - October 28

I had a good day today. When the alarm went off and it was still dark in here I did not want to wake up and get up. Hey, I hadn't slept all that well during the night and wanted more sleep. I got up and turned on my bedroom light, then hit the snooze button & back to my mattress for a little while, snuggling under my comforters. Then I got up and had a shower, dressed & off I went to my TOPS meeting where I was weighed and found I dropped 1 pound. After the meeting most of us went for lunch together. Next some of us went to the Bargain Bin, our favorite 2nd hand store. I picked up a really nice jacket & a vest & blouse as well as a few bits towards Christmas gifts. As always, we then went for desert, this time to McDonald's where I had an ice cream cone. When I left there, I drove to nearby city of Vernon to pick up some D-Ribose which has helped a lot of people with Fibromyalgia, and some bulk mixed nuts. I ran into a gal there that I've known for years & stood there chatting for some time, then drove home where I took some D-Ribose and some other 'natural' pills that I take for anti-inflammatory purposes. I kicked back and played some Solitaire on my computer, then off to town again to join a group that meets every Thursday to 'wand' each other for health. I find that after a wanding I have less pain. Tonight I had them work mostly on my left wrist/hand (the broken one) and my right shoulder which has been hurting a lot for some time now. When I got home, with my wonderful cat Mewsic curled up beside me, I watched TV, Gray's Anatomy then Private Practice, and played some more Solitaire. Now, some blogging and it's time to get ready for bed. Maybe I'll sleep better tonight.

Sweet dreams!

Shopping

I never shop online, do you? I guess lots of people do, and I've been tempted a few times when I browse around sites like rocawear and see nice things for not loads of money. However, I'm the type of person that likes to touch and feel things, to look at the way clothes drape, to see the colors in the different lights, and of course to try them on to see how they fit, how they look on me. I can't really tell from seeing them on a model if they would look and feel good on me or not. I actually don't even shop a lot in the stores either. I occasionally go to the second hand store that I like and look there for what I want or need. Usually I find what I'm looking for and get it/them for very reasonable prices. I have 2 sisters and I know neither of them would shop in second hand stores, especially for clothes, but gladly I am not them. Without second hand stores I would be running around naked or at least in very old, patched, out of date clothes. Yup, I like my second hand store when I actually have to shop.

Recumbent Bike

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to buy a recumbent exercise bike in good used condition for $15, so I grabbed it. I don't like the regular exercise bikes, but find the recumbent bikes much better. This isn't exactly like mine, but gives you a good idea....


The other day I finally got on it and used it. I did 15 minutes, non-stop. I didn't do it super fast, but did a fairly decent speed and steady for that full time. Today I got on it again and this time did 20 minutes while watching TV. I must admit I did not do it non-stop this time, I stopped twice, once to grab the nail polish & hand lotion from the desk beside me which only took seconds and I used the lotion while peddling. Then I stopped for a couple minutes to put the polish on my nails and continued peddling, letting my nails dry as I worked. Oh, I know it would be easier, less work, to just go to www.dietpillswithephedra.net and have them ship me pills to take for weight loss, but that's not my style. I want to give my cardiovascular system a good workout, to keep my blood sugar levels in check, my muscles strong, and loose the weight all at the same time, so I choose to exercise. I plan to get on this bike every day, or at least nearly every day, and work out on it. As I get more used to it I will do longer times and/or tighten the wheel so it's harder work to peddle so gives more workout in the time I am doing it. I am looking forward to my new healthier body.

Moisturizing

I have never really been one to 'pamper' myself, to use face creams or hand andbody lotions or stuff like that. I've always just been 'natural'. Lately though I have been thinking I need to start taking better care of my skin, after all, I'm not getting any younger. I used to like wearing nail polish, but my nails would dry out and break every time I did, and with leading an active life I don't really take care of long nails. I used to work with & ride horses, not a 'nice nail' activity. More recently I 'pulled wrenches' helping to build my trike, also not 'nail friendly'. I long ago just accepted that my nails are what they are, short and okay, not something you polish up. Now, having had my left arm in a cast and having limited use of it, my nails on that hand have grown fairly long and I'm liking it. My friend Joyce has really long, thick, strong nails and she says a lot of it is the Mane & Tail Hoofmaker lotion she uses. I just 'have to' try it, so bought some of this the other day. My hands have been almost painfully dry lately and normal lotions haven't been helping a lot, so I have been happy to use this as it is moisturizing my skin. Hopefully it's also going to strengthen my nails. I'm even going to order some nail polish from Avon, inexpensive but good quality, and paint my nails again like I did when I was young. I've started using moisturizer lotions on my face lately too. Oh, their not exactly a fancy anti wrinkle treatment, but a good step in the right direction before I get a lot of wrinkles. Apparently as we age our skin dries out more, so we need to keep it moist, so here goes.

See The Difference??

I don't know about you, but I wish I had some money coming in and could get a good cash advance. I want to file for arbitration against the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) regarding the value of my trike, and I need $318 to file, but don't have it.

Can you see the difference between the two motorcycles in this photo??
Don't look for anything but the really obvious.

They are both Yamaha Maxim 650
One is 1983, the other a year newer or older, not sure.
So what is the difference?

One is a trike... 3 wheels instead of 2. It is a one of a kind custom conversion. Can you see that? Did you pick that out right away? The 'officials' at ICBC can't seem to see any difference between the two. The value/cost is very different, over $6000 different in fact, and there in lies the problem. Mine is the trike, the 2 wheeler was parked on the street near the office I was going to one day so I parked in front of it and took this photo on my way in.

Any thoughts on how to get ICBC to see the greater value of my machine would be gratefully accepted... post a comment.

Loving The Ride

All summer long I rode my trike, leaving my truck parked at home. I put very nearly 6,000 kilometers on the trike in just under 4 months of riding it... then got wiped out by a car. I so loved riding, being 'in the wind' on my own 'ride'. This was my first motorcycle though it won't be my last. I will build another one. I so enjoyed being in the sunshine and even didn't mind a lot when I had to ride in the rain, I found a way to carry a cup of tea to my destination so I could have it to drink when I got there. I found that riding the trike I could not eat while driving, like I can do driving my truck. I just somehow felt happier and different about me & my life. Riding my trike I would never need even best weight loss supplement, the trike was my weight loss supplement in an odd way. I really just love the ride. Maybe it's a spiritual thing.

5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays in one month

I was just watching the local TV news and the news guy told the weather man that he heard 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays in one month only happens once every... I forget if he said 600 or 700 years. He stated that he hadn't done research to see if it's true or not. Just for the fun of it I decided to do some research on it and I found one web site that says it happens all the time. They even include pics of calendars from other recent years that have this. I continued to search a bit more and found other sites that say the same thing.

Some Cool Stuff

This evening I went to the big mall in the small city where I live. I hadn't planned on going there, rarely ever do go there, but was with Joyce & she needed to go there. While there, I met up with a very long time, wonderful friend, Diane. I haven't seen Di for a couple years though just last night I was talking to some ladies that know Di & said they had seen her on Wednesday. Now I see her. It's funny like that some times. In the mall there was a big 'garage sale' happening & I found out it was the Animal Care Society. They paid for me to take my dog to the vet & to have surgery when she needed it and I couldn't pay for it. Tonight I bought a beautiful, framed picture of a wolf for $15. Not big time, but at least it will help a bit. I wish I had more to give... maybe one day. I do plan to write a will one day and put them in it. I bet many people will be buying things from them & many of the stores in the mall with plans to give them to loved ones as Christmas gifts. Yup, it is that time of year when people are thinking of and even purchasing gifts for 'the season' which is just around the corner. Every year I tell Mom a few things I would like to have and she usually gets me one of the things, or two. I want a Wii so will tell her this, though I think it is too much a 'big ticket item' for her to get me. She might consider getting me wii accessories, though they would do me no good without the Wii... sigh.

Ya.... maybe I'll go back to the mall tomorrow & grab a thing or two for gifts.

Autumn... or Fall

Ahhhhh.... fall, or as some prefer to say, autumn is upon us with all the leaves on trees changing colors and falling to the ground. Gardens by this time of the year are usually harvested though here we've had such warm, wonderful weather that the season has been extended. I have turned on my heat a couple of times for long enough to 'take the chill off' though haven't had to keep it going for long. Now, I lit the pellet stove today and may need to keep it running until spring. This is the time of year when sports nuts start thinking of football gifts, of hockey games, when many put away their motorcycles or 'muscle' cars, when people dust off their 'sleds' and prepare for the start of snow.

Harvest Time

I am fairly sure it will freeze here tonight, so I have covered my garden to save my plants. I must go out and harvest everything tomorrow or loose it all. There are still tomatoes, peppers, carrots & beets as well as 2 kinds of parsley & several kinds of mint that I want for making tea. I really enjoyed having a garden this year, enjoyed having the fresh veggies whenever I wanted to go outside & pick what I needed... fresh!! I would like to have a greenhouse or even just a room in my home where I could set up hydroponic systems and grow my fresh vegetables all winter. It would be so awesome to be able to have fresh, home grown veggies all winter.

Trike Returns Home

Thankfully, I have always been blessed with nice skin. Oh, I get the odd outbreak, a zit here or there, though nothing to where I would require acne products. I've always felt blessed to have this kind of skin, not even having the usual megga zits in high school. Now that I have arrived in the mid 50s, I am blessed to have very few wrinkles & the ones I do have are not very deep, mostly just 'laugh lines'. I am very aware that I got off 'very light' in the motorcycle accident I recently had. After the car hit me, I was thrown off my trike, hit the car, then hit the paved street. When I later examined my helmet and saw some pretty heavy scraping on it, I sure was glad I'd been wearing a good helmet or my head & possibly my face would have been severely damaged.

I got my trike home yesterday. Though the insurance company & I have not agreed on a price for them to pay me for my wrecked trike, they offered to sell it back to me for salvage. I agreed, happily, and some friends helped me get it home. Having a good look at it once it was here I got to see that it has even worse damage than I had tough. No wonder the insurance company said it can only be used for parts & can never be repaired & put back on the road.