hot, humid and more than a little hazy

This week it was hot, hazy and humid. Pretty much the definition of summer. But I walked anyway. Mostly because I'm crazy.

I read this article online that a woman takes a selfie at every walk to keep her motivated. I usually take pixs at walks, but the selfies are generally with other people unless I'm documenting something. Instead I  find other things to shoot that are  a lot more interesting than me. (A mini version of my sister.) Selfies of me are scary. But what the heck, I decided to give it a try. I'm in a rut.

My sister Barb was in town for the weekend, and we originally planned to go to the HMT on Monday, but decided to wait till the next trip when it wasn't so hot and humid. Monday was the start of the heat wave. When I left for work at 9:30 it was hot, but the humidity hadn't settled in.

The first photo is the glass at the STEP building on Lehigh's campus. Never noticed it before.

As you can see in the Neville Hall window selfie, I have an exercise top on. I brought a work appropriate shirt with me. And a wash cloth. This is the best type of selfie. One where it's actually hard to see you.

Tuesday, it was hotter. Bonnie and I walked in her neighborhood. At 7 AM. We were soaked when we got back. Look how tall and skinny we look. Another great selfie.

Tuesday I went to put the car away, and hit the button to close the garage door. Click-click-click-crash-boom-bang. The whole middle caved it. Daddy was still alive when we bought it, so I guess it's time it wore out.

Wednesday the garage door repair person declared the door dead. It's so old he couldn't get parts. And it's not to code.  I took the car to work. Thank goodness. It was so hot, walking back and forth to the garage I was sweaty. I can't imagine what I'd be like walking the generous mile.

I took this at Coca Cola park on Wednesday.  I met my colleagues from Lafayette for the game. We were in the printer's fancy air conditioned sky box. We sat outside in the heat. The ball park is 1/3 mile loop. You have to be single minded to make it thru. There are fitness land mines everywhere—people, food, mascots, children and beer.

I decided to try cropping the selfies when I took them so they were less scary. It didn't work.

My vintage iPhone fell out of my pocket no less than three times. It took till today to notice the broken screen. But it still works. Technology is not safe with me.

Thursday Bonnie and I did the Hellertown Rail Trail. Again, 7 am. I think this was the most humid day of all. We turned around at the Reading Road trail head, and to take the selfie below. Then Bonnie noticed the fountain. Look, there's one at doggie level.

 The half way selfie. Don't be fooled. We were drenched with sweat. And I should have left my wet hat on. Later I was scheduled to walk with my friend Pam, but the humidity breaking storm hit instead. This is one day I cheered for rain.

Today walking to work I wore regular clothes. It is hot, but not humid. That straw hat is my formal hat. Baseball caps are just not work appropriate.

After looking at this post, all these selfies are obnoxious.  And pretty ugly. Experiment over. Need to find another motivator.

another water review

I stopped at the Sheetz for water on the way home. Clearly miscalculated the amount I would drink while walking. And I walked on the shady side of the street.

At first I just saw the purified tap waters and the ordinary spring water. It was looking like Poland Springs for me. Then I saw them. The over-priced odd waters.

There was Fred in his flask, Fiji, and a couple others. Then I saw two that looked new. One from California in a really cool bottle and with a really graphic label. However, I sensed it was purified tap water.

The other was Volvic. Another mineral water from under volcanoes. Do I sense a trend? It's fancy French water that ultra filtered and then the minerals put back in. If the importance of it is to drink the minerals, why not leave them in there? Seems bass-ackwards to me.  It's naturally ph balanced and has electrolytes. It tasted like Allentown unicipal water. And leave a bit of an after-taste.

When I was heading to the check-out I saw a sign that said bananas, apples, and grapes were on sale with your Sheetz card. I have one of those. Bought two red delicious apples for a dollar. Time to break out the home made peanut butter from the farmers market!

slatington

Well, I couldn't do it. I had scheduled a walk in Walnuport and nobody sent a RSVP that they were coming. But instead of walking in the hood, I drove to the trailhead at the appointed time. Just in case someone changed their mind. No one did.

So I'm hanging at the trailhead waiting—I arrived 10 minutes early believe it or not—so I took my selfie. Now what, pray tell is this obsession with selfies lately?  I read an article by a larger woman who does ultra run (50K+) and she takes a selfie every day to keep herself motivated. Miss a day. Miss a selfie. Seems harmless, so I'm giving it a shot until the end of August. We'll see how I do.

There are three trials at the Slatington Trailhead—The D&L, the old D&L which is now the Walnutport Canal Trail, and the Slatington Heritage Trail. I've been on them all multiple times. The bike rental guy wasn't there, so that wasn't an option. I decided to walk to the Fireman's Statue.

There was a lot of Pennsylvania History markers, and Slate Belt History Markers. I'm wondering if the route into town is part of the Heritage Trail. I looked it up. Nope. As a side note, if you click on the link you will see that it's created in one of my favorite (sarcasm) typefaces—Papyrus. Now I understand why the donation box near the bathrooms (I-4.5) was done in Papyrus. I guess it could be worse. It could be Comic Sans.

Did you know that Slatington was the blackboard capital of the world for more than 100 years? Neither did I. Walking not only improves your fitness, but time after time, it also works out those brain cells.

 Every Amrican Legion needs a gun. This one is no exception.

Finally I got to the statue/fountain. It's much smaller than I remember as a child. The walk from the trialhead was only a half mile. That's a stroll.

So I remembered reading on Roadside America (no, not the mini village in Shartlesville where time has stopped) that the real statue was in a graveyard 1/4 mile away, at the top of the hill, on Cemetery street. I love that website because everything is weird. Anyway, I started walking up the hill. I saw lots of cool stuff. Some historic houses, some beautiful Victorian Mansions, a reservoir, but no cemetery.

I ran out of sidewalk and was in the next town. I turned around and went back.  On the way back I saw this restored ghost sign.

I picked up the car and then headed out to find the cemetery. It was exactly 1 mile away. I'm not sure if the statue is bigger, but the base sure is. This thing is massive.

I was headed back to the car and saw cannons. Always an important element in a cemetery. Especially one named Union. Indeed there were two. Pointed at the poor soldier. It was a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) monument. Why would they point the cannons at their guy?

All in all I walked 3 miles.

west allentown

Today's group walk was supposed to be a Volkksport walk in Allentown. But nobody could come. I toyed with the idea of just walking here, but I always think someone won't RSVP and then get pissed off. That's just my worry wart gene. It has yet to happen.

I really didn't want to walk in the park, so I walked around the block. It was 3 miles.

I headed up Ott to Chew, thru Muhlenberg, past the cemetery and fairgrounds. Then down 19th and back by J Birney Crum.

I took a lot of pictures.

 Muhlenberg Campus. They recently repainted the red sculpture.

I spent too long at the cemetery. Lots of beautiful angels kept distracting me. Can you imagine what these would cost in 2015?

 At the fairgrounds I was distracted by the Grange quilts on the buildings.

But ultimately I headed back to the car. Not the planned walk. But a good one.

Tomorrow I had planned on Walnutport. But so far zero RSVPs for that. I think I'm going to walk around here.

not really a workout.

Today I took Eryn's boys to the Mack Museum in Allentown. It's the first time I've taken Bubba since his meltdown at Christmas. He did better today. Maybe a B, or a B-.

I picked all three kids up and left the girl child at my house to weed. She's going to Shady Maple tomorrow and wanted to earn money to spend. I have weeds that need to be pulled it's a win-win.

I left her with Sharon and Pat, and we headed to Mack. While in the car, I went over the outing rules with Bubba in the car. Basically, if you piss off or embarrass Aunt Gayle you're going home and never getting in my car again. It worked.

To get there, you go to Lehigh Street, Turn on Vultee and pretty much follow the detour for the Parkway. (Note to Bonnie: ALL the detour signs are now up.) When you get to the end of the detour you keep going. When the road ends you're there.

The boys loved having to stop at the guard gate.  She told us to follow the road to the right. I have no idea why. The museum was right in front of us. Above us was the old test track.

The museum is part of the old factory. There are big rooms and halls.

We went in and we checked in with the receptionist. We had to wait about 10 minutes for our tour guide. I didn't realize it was a guided tour. I now know more about Mack Trucks than I ever cared too. And he gave us the "kids" tour because I told them the young child had a short attention span.

Finally we started. I gave Bubba my iPod and he took over 200 pictures.  (I burnt him a disk and then deleted most of them from my computer.)

The first show room had the oldest vehicles. The second room the newest. Including the Megatron from Transformers. This model has plastic extras in the front. Movies, all smoke and mirrors. They were able to climb into a brand spanking new truck and a garbage truck in this room.

Then it was a long hall of engines and toy mack trucks. As well as other small items. This is where I took the camera away. He took 15 pictures of just the pins. Then we entered another large showroom of old trucks and fire engines. Here they got to sit in two old fire trucks. There was also a turbo powered truck there.

Museums are often a good workout. But this one wasn't. Everything was tight and compact. It was old fashioned, like museums should be. No interactive displays and computers. Just a bunch of old trucks and people talking about them.

Kool J also lost interest from time to time, but it was easily brought back. He told me it was a lot of fun, except when the men in the group talked about engines.

Bubba lost interest ... except in photography. He has the attention span of a gnat. But he asks a lot of questions.  He's also rude and asks the questions while other people are talking. And often they are not relevant questions. He walks in front of other people while they are taking pictures. I sense he has not been taught boundaries. We'll try another local trip before we try the Philly Zoo.

Here's some trucks:

Sound  proofing panels. This was a show room of trucks, but in a former life the would test the noise level of each model here. If they would be different colors, it could be art.

The oldest truck. It's actually a bus.

fitness challenge: the park fitness course

The first time I saw one of these fitness courses was at Camp Helena in Hellertown. We goofed around on it. I have sprent years goofing around on them.

This afternoon Angel and I approached the one at Louise Moore Park seriously. It's not the most difficult I've seen. Nor is it the easiest. It's somewhere in the middle.

Neither of our pants had pockets. We had to workout and keep track of our keys. And the camera. Oops.

First we took around the trail. It's new since the last time I was there. It's made of loose ground-up tires. No bound together like running tracks are. It's actually difficult to walk on. You sink in and then have to pull your feet out. It's kind-of like walking in wet sand at the beach.

First we did one loop. It's fairly flat and it was a 19 minute mile. We were not lolly-gagging.

The second loop we did the fitness stuff. Let's rephrase that. Angel did the fitness stuff. I attempted, and failed frequently.

First the original balance beams. There's actually 2 fitness course. the original wood one, and the new plastic one. Success here. No success on the new one.

Monkey bars. (Is that still PC?) Again these are the old ones. I couldn't get off the first step. I have no upper body strength. Though I toyed with the idea of grabbing the middle bar, taking a swing and landing on the other side. I could do this easily at 12. (Do you remember the jungle gym at Ft. Hill playground? I digress.) Not any more. The new "ladder" bars were too short. I could walk them on my tip toes.

 Then I got to climb over this old wall. Again, good thing I'm tall. Not too much effort needed.

Then it was time for push ups. I did four before almost crashing my chin into the bar.

All the upper body items came next. I failed at them all. There was also a stepper, which I could do. And this odd leg lift thing, that I could also do.

We did the incline board last. I could do the sit ups...okay 2, crunches, and I could do the leg lifts, if not lifting your butt counts.

I was hot and sweaty when I reached the car. I guzzled my bottle of water, which was still relatively cold. The metal bottle kept the cold in. By the time I got home I was stiff and sore. Especially in my arms and shoulders.

I must have been doing something right.

I need to work on Upper body strength
Lower bbody strength
Flexibility
Agility
Well pretty much everything.

I also walked to the south Bethlehem farmer's market this morning and carried two bags of groceries home. I need a shopping cart.

walking to work today

I didn't walk to work on Monday. The humidity was a million percent.

When I arrived, both my colleagues said "Please tell us you didn't walk today." They were happy I brought the car.

Today it's warm and beautiful. And I was back to walking. I needed to go to the South Bethlehem post office , so I went up the campus Square stairs to Packer. I headed out Packer toward Zoellner. Nevill Hall is glass. I guess I really never noticed until I saw my reflection. I thought I was styling.

I have photographic evidence that I wasn't. Next time I'm so inspired I need to empty my hands. I also need to block the meters.  And most importantly not wear a shirt that makes me look ready to deliver.

I cannot believe how much I look like my sister Sharon.

water review

Wow, it's been a long time since I've done a water review. June 21, 2014 to be exact.

For those who don't remember, I try really hard not to buy bottle water. I try to remember to take my own. Bottled water is an ecological nightmare, and just downright wasteful. I am happy with tap. I certainly will not buy any of those purified tap waters.

And full disclosure, I do have a full case of Deer Park in the garage just in case the situation calls for it (ie. Road Trip).

Today after walking I was thirsty. I had nothing left in the car, so I decided to stop at Wawa.  None of the convenience stores have had anything different lately and it looked like that would be the case today. And then I saw it. Waiakea.

Stunning typography and a blue transparent bottle. The graphic designer in me was yelling "Yes, yes, yes"

It is Hawaiian Volcanic Water, naturally alkaline and electrolyte rich. I'm guessing this would be artesian water.  It' also carbon neutral until someone doesn't recycle the bottle.

Look, they made a video.


It's smooth, but bland.  You can't taste the minerals. It tasted cold and wet.

Package design I'd give an A.  Video I'd give an A. Water, just an average C.

one walk. two states.

Today was the two states walk. At 6 am it didn't look like it was going to happen. Then all hell broke out with lightening, thunder and really hard rain. My street was a river. By 8 am it was clearing up.

Angel called and asked if we were still on. I said yes, and she and Darrell chose to walk downtown. They were across the street at the farmers market when I arrived.  I didn't see them, so I went back to the car for my phone. When I arrived the second time they were waiting for me. Duh, should have looked across the street.

Darrell's back was hurting so he decided to stay behind. Farm markets, coffee shoppes, dunkin all held more appeal for him. And frankly, he looked like crap.

According to FB, Dave and Barb were at the market, beeping at us. We were oblivious.

 So Angel and I headed out. We went up Northampton, to sixth and then went up to the library. Then headed down the Church street alley, and over to Spring Garden. Down Spring Garden past the pretty houses, to Scott Park. Then we picked up the bridge ramp and headed over the toll bridge.

It was Angel's first time walking over the toll bridge. Knowing her, she hasn't driven over it much either. There's a free one a stone's throw away. We took the exit and went under the bridge down to Main Street. At Main we turned and headed into town.

When I'm in P'burg, I like to climb the Bollman Street stairs. And we did. At the top we turned left  to come back down the street. But then we discovered

Another set of stairs! We had to go up them. So we went to the corner, around the block and up those stairs. Then it was back to Main and over the Free Bridge.

At Scott Park we found our first Little Free Library. We crossed over to third and headed up third to Ferry.

Angel shot this as we past Sette Luna, near the post office. I must remember not to wear shorts. Those back-of-knees are disgusting.

At the post office we found another Little Free Library. This one apparently had a leaky roof. The books were wet, and it stunk a little. Love this side with Curious George, Clifford the red dog, Charlotte, and the Cheshire cat.

Then it was back Second to Northampton and the search to find Darrell.

It was about 3 miles, covered two states and two towns.