mowed the grass. lost the fitbit

Today I finally mowed my jungle ... I mean lawn. It's been raining so much I'm growing beautiful mushrooms on a regular basis. I keep picking them and putting them in the compost.

I have what's called a natural lawn. So it does get long. It's supposed to get long. But so much rain. It's growing like the weeds it is. It had to be done. I was going to a memorial service late in the afternoon so I decided to wear my jammies out and then take a shower and get dressed when I got in. I'm in my yard at 8 am, who'd see me?

Before I went out I put my fit bit in my wrist carrier and put it on my wrist. All this work is done with the arms, not the legs. I needed a record of exercise for Noom.

I got out the weed whacker and started doing the old flower beds (the invasive Bishop's weed has eaten all my flowers) and the edges of the garden. Then it died. I was about half done. Normally I'd weed wack and then use the hand mower because if there was high spots I'd whack them. I drug out the electric mower.

Wouldn't you know it that the new neighbor came out and introduced herself. Then she offered her tween/teen as lawn boys. Like right away. I was almost done so I said no. But if they are still interested in spring they should knock on my door. (I wonder if they shovel snow?)

I came in, washed up and checked my phone. How many "steps" did I take the hour I was outside. It said zero. Hmmm. I checked the fit bit and it was GONE. Duckit. I'll find it in a couple years. Of course they only make wrist versions now, so I have to find something else. I'm so pissed off.

paw paw, book talk, and west allentown

 My friend Pam is editing a book her father-in-law wrote. I'm designing it. The project is finally coming to an end so we often walk and have book talks. Early in the week we planned to have a book meeting, brunch in the sukkah and a walk. We'd start at her house in West Allentown.

By now you should know I love tasting odd fruit. I remember seeing on Azur's FB page that they had Paw Paws. Just gaining in popularity, pawpaws are actually native to the eastern United States and Canada and were favored by the indigenous people. They are ready in September and you get a lot in a short amount of time. Like mama's persimmons, you eat them when they are bruised and battered. That's when they are the ripest. After work on Thursday I stopped at Azur's and they were out. I was disappointed.

 

I arrived at Pam's at 8 and there was something odd on her kitchen table. Green potatoes? We talked about the book, we dug for photos and we finished the meeting. As we cleaned everything up Pam asked if I ever had a Paw Paw. I said no and told her the Azur story. She has three trees in her back yard. I went out to meet them.

We headed out for a walk around her neighborhood going past Max Hess's mansion and the W house which used to be a school, then we head back to her place. We probably only did about a mile, mile and a half because Pam is having issues with her back.

Brunch was homemade yogurt, homemade granola, blue and black berries. And paw paws!

They taste tropical, sort of like mango, banana and pineapple. They have a soft, orange-yellow creamy custard-like texture inside, although on the outside they look like a yucky decaying stubby bruised greenish blackish potato. My friend Lorraine has been told they are also called "custard apples". They are nothing like an apple to me. 

 

I borrowed these photos from Lorraine's FB page.

 

To eat one, you just cut them in half and then scoop out the custard with a spoon. You can also peel them and sort of slice them if they aren't as ripe. Spit out the seeds! They're not good to eat - they look like a big black bean. The skin is also not supposed to be eaten. Pam throw her pawpaw waste into the trash instead of the compost because she doesn't want all those seeds sprouting. There's a lot of seeds in one paw paw. (BTW they were not in my Noom food log data base. Hmmmm.)

 

Some of you might be curious about the sukkah. Hers is made from fabric samples and old clothes. She made it when her first two children were little and they've been using it since. Sukkot is a week-long Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection God provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. It's a temporary shelter. Hers is made on an aluminum pipe frame.

it's been a full month since I posted.

 It's been a full month since I posted. That must be some sort of a record for this blog. I did do a wonderful walk with Pam and Lisa the Friday of Labor Day weekend but I never got it posted. I've been averaging about 3000 steps a day. That's just short of sitting on my ample ass all day.

Why?

School started. I've been so busy prepping for school, and then 5 classes. Plus book deadlines, Writing Wrongs weekend, a hurricane, taking care of the twins ... that I ignored everything. The cupboards were bare. The house dirty. The laundry piled up. The dishes look like an episode of Hoarders. I was tired and cranky and stressed.  It was a perfect storm where I drop all the balls I juggle and they crash to the floor. Pam sent a text last week asking if we were walking Friday. I turned her down. I just wanted to sleep or do nothing.

I think I've got it back under control. My ego took a hit the first two weeks of school. (Technology failed me at every turn. I wasn't as prepared as I thought. Different modalities. Long commutes.) The Labor Day weekend I was at Writing Wrongs. It was relentless. 

My school schedule sucks. Monday it's 11-2 with a 45 minute commute and 1/2 hour office hours. Tuesday is Hell-day. 9-11:30 on Zoom.  2-5 online then 6-9 in person plus short commute and office hours. Thursday is 9-11:30 with an hour+ commute. Last weekend I just relaxed. I planned my time and got everything done with a bit of time leftover.

Pam and I will be walking Fridays. Hopefully I can get back to Saturday and Sunday walks. 

Speaking of that last walk, September 3, Pam needed to stay local. We also needed to talk about the book project for her father-in-law. So we did the Historic Bethlehem "Farmlands" walking tour which took us all over the southside. We met at the Banana Factory. The walk actually started at the library, but I wasn't walking over the bridge. The stops on the bridge were for the canal, river, and railroad. We headed out 2nd Avenue and then stopped at the Steel Workers Memorial. I showed them where my daddy's brick was and how I pretty much demanded money from my siblings for it.

We also listened at the stops for the Banana Factory and the train station. Then we headed up the bridge ramp to the Wilbur mansion.

Next stops were Nativity Church, the Sayre mansion, an overview of Delaware Avenue and Third Street, and the Linderman-Schwab Mansion and St. Luke's. Then we turned around and headed down the fourth street hill and heard about the flat iron buildings, firehouses, and finally ended up at St. Michael's cemetery.

The cemetery didn't look as bad as it once did. They cleaned it up. But I think they removed a lot of stones. The cross from the Walker Evans photo was missing so I acted as a stand-in. Didn't work.

Since the tour was over we headed down to Hayes, and then returned the Greenway. There was a concrete pad on the Greenway. I think they are getting another sculpture.

Updates:

I'm on my 22nd week of Noom, still no progress. I'm not doing the work. My brain has given up hope that anything will stick. I'm just going thru the motions. I found out this week that my sister-in law and her daughters are also doing Noom and dropping pounds. One lost fifty. If I was losing weight I'd have a different attitude... I guess... I hope. 

I still have ducking bed bugs. They are coming on Friday to kill them ... again. I'm supposed to be hopeful and happy that the bugs they are finding are dead. I'm not. Pat is still being bit. The little mothers are still alive and well and hiding there snarky little asses. I think I need to toss every item in this house to get rid of them. And maybe not even then. I think they are in the baseboards. Probably would need to fumigate the empty house.

I'm hoping things get better. I'm hoping to get out there and walk everyday by the end of the year. I have at least twenty pounds to lose before April. Maybe 30.