reviving a cemetery

My friend Pam invites me to do all kinds of crazy things. This time it was cleanup at the Jewish cemetery. Of course I said yes.

The Jewish cemeteries are on Graham Street near Dodson. There is a huge one near the corner that is part of Congregation Brith Shalom. A little further down the hill are three smaller ones adjacent to Fountain Hill Cemetery. They are in a row. According to the speech the rabbi gave before the cleanup these three were managed by Jewish groups that have since disbanded. The last one in the 80s. Ownership was transferred to CBS. The area is mowed, clear of litter and weeds. It really didn't need to be cleaned. What needed to be cleaned were the tombstones.

One group went to fix groundhog halls and other manual labor. The rest stayed to clean tombstones.

Our first stone: BEFORE

First you pour water on it and then use a soft brush to losen the algae and lichen. Rinse. Then you spray it with something called D/2 and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

Then you move on to the next one while its processing. That's Pam above spraying the D/2 on another stone. As we started to uncover the Hebrew and the English we started calling the tombstones by their names.

 The man on the far left was cleaning a brown stone. I turned around and could see the word "Abraham". I told him it looked great. He called me over. You should have seen the top. It was full of symbols. Some symbols I recognized—menorahs, Star of David, ect. But there was some I didn't know. I asked Pam. She said we should ask the rabbi. She didn't want to get it wrong. But the hands looked like Star Trek.

We go get the rabbi, and I demoed the hands and asked what they were. He said "the Vulcan salute". I said, not in 1926. As we were walking down to the stone he told me Gene Roddenberry borrowed it from Judaism. A pair of hands with the fingers spread in the Vulcan salute indicates that a Kohen, a member of the priestly clan who bless the Jewish people while holding their hands in this position, is buried there.

What I thought was a lamp of oil was really a pitcher of water referring to Levite, who is honored with washing the hands of the Kohen before the Priestly Blessing is administered.

My final question was why some of the words in Hebrew had boxes around them. He said he had to read the whole thing to know. It was a prayer and the names were the names of the people Jacob and Rickla.

The first stone I did at the top of this post was the toughest one of the day. I washed and scrubbed it at least three times before Dora's information could be read. 

 After

Amazing difference. But wait, there's more. The D/2 will continue to work for a week. They should be even lighter and brighter.

I know this wasn't traditional exercise, but I worked my arms off so it counts.

Yesterday I did chair yoga and the exercise class at the senior center. Sharon played hooky.

the heat wave broke

Not that I'm blaming the heat wave for my lack of exercise, or even my lack of posting, but it is a consideration. For example last week it was so hot in my house that I laid on the couch and entered a book coma ALL weekend. Then I ran out of books.

Now in all fairness I did walk with Pat almost every morning, and one day when it was really hot she said can we just walk at Walmart?  (Our Target is being renovated.) So we did. And we got out of there just buying a jar of peanut butter. When the heat comes back she wants to go to Costco to walk. I may not have any money left.

Monday it was still hot but we did Milly anyway. Our butts stuck to the chair and they were wet, but we did it.

The weather people go on and on about the heat ad these storms that will break the heat. We get the heat. They lie about the storms. But the heat did break on Monday. It was nice enough Monday that we sat on the porch because it was cooler than in the house. And then we watched the three stooges fill the hole that UGI made. By the time they were done the stooges multiplied to five.

Yesterday Angel came over to work. Our publishing company Parisian Phoenix Publishing is doing a fund raiser book for the cat rescue. This book was in the works before but hit the front burner when Angel had an emergency with some of her fosters and ended up with a huge vet bill.  

One of our friends, writer and artist Rachel Thompson created a cartoon for the anthology and we had to scan it and add the talk bubble. It was huge. Apparently Rachel likes to work big. I sat at the computer while Angel manipulated the art in the scanner. We were able to do it in three pieces. Then I put them all together. Free of work constrictions we could walk.

When we first hatched this plan a week ago the temps were nearing 100 and the humidity was nearly that high. We seriously talked about mall walking. However, since the temps have fallen the humidity dropped considerably, we walked in the hood. As we went down the hill I asked left to Fountain Hill or right to town? She chose right. We didn't plan to go far because she's been having some problems with her left hip. Aging sucks especially with CP.

The sidewalks in my hood are less than desirable, and Angel has been having issues with falling so let's not tempt fate. I took her thru some of the best alleys that South Bethlehem has to offer. Then after crossing the Five Points we crossed again before the construction at Aharts. Then she saw Dunkin. We could go get coffee or is there an indie place. I told her Deja Brew was two more blocks and Roasted three. We went to Deja Brew.

If there is such a thing as a college coffee shop, Deja Brew is it. It's eclectic. It's a bit of a dump. It's got character in spades. All the things a place like Dunkin lacks. We ordered and Angel went looking for a seat. There was two other people in the place. It was empty. She picks the one spot where the old wooden floors have heaved up like they tried to squeeze one too many boards in. Angel begins to fall. Thank goodness she was able to stop herself. I straddled the hump.  I like a building with character, but that one is a series safety issue.

Angels coffee was expresso and milk with sugar and chocolate and ice. Mine was ice tea. Both came in mason jars. I should have taken Angels pic before she mixed it.

Then we headed back to my house, once again highlighting all the alleys. Different alleys. I even walked her up my back alley, thru my hellmouth of a back yard and in the back door.

It felt good to walk again.

sunday in new york, but not with george

For those of you who aren't Broadwayphiles the title is a play on words from the Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park With George. Not a good one, but whenever I can sprinkle Sondheim into a conversation it's a good day.

My friend Pam had tickets to a guided mansion walk in NYC on Riverside Drive in the upper West side. The mansions were from the guilded age. Sadly most are gone or apartments. 

I almost cancelled. I wasn't sure if I could keep my shit together on this type of trip. NYC is not known for plentiful bathrooms. I was much better that Friday, and had no occurrence of the issue from Saturday so I hoped this adventure was over. I took precautions. Was it food poisoning or the Vitamin D? I don't know. But to be safe I didn't take the 50K units Vitamin D, I wore a Depends (dang are they uncomfortable), I wore booty shorts under my skirt as an extra layer of protection and I took a plastic bag to sit on.

We met at Rt. 33 Park and Ride and we were on our way. Pam drove and we parked in the city. It was clear sailing into the Lincoln Tunnel. How that happened I don't know. We arrived an hour early. We walked the four blocks from the parking lot on 81st to the meet point at 83 and Riverside. There was an entrance to the park. There was also a children's play area and a building. A bathroom perhaps? It was. For children. The toilets were very low. There was only one regular size one for the care taker to use. So we used the kiddie ones...and I didn't get stuck!.Then ate the food we brought along, walked around the park—they had a cool water feature of the Hudson—hit the bathroom again and joined the group.

I only ate a half of muffin and about 3 ounces of water. I was going to spend the walk, and the day,  dehydrated. I think my bottle was only 16 ounces.

We joined the group, met Esther our guide, and we were off. The tour went from 83rd to 109th. 26 short Manhattan blocks. The first stop was in the park at a huge boulder. The boulder had a memorial to the man credited with developing and nurturing this upscale neighborhood. We returned to the street and went in the next opening to another boulder. (The one above.) This was Edgar Allen Poe's Thinking Rock. It was also the place he'd bring his wife Virginia for air as she was dying of consumption.

With one exception we stopped every block to talk about the building or the building that used to be here. Plus there was some dirty laundry aired. These resident's weren't Rockerfeller or Vanderbuilt rich. They were strutting their stuff down Fifth Avenue and flaunting their wealth. These were self-made men like Carnegie who were very well off.

Do you see the dog above? Best behaved dog ever. It was hotter than Hades and he just kept walking and lying down in the shade. The blue thing his owner is holding is the water dish. Luna used it almost every stop.

The 1.5 mile walk was fairly shady, but still very hot. We learned lots of stuff, most I don't remember. 

 

This is the reproduction near the bathrooms.

After the group dispersed we walked up to 109 and Broadway and hailed a taxi to the east side. I am so glad we decided not to walk across Central Park. Between the lack of food/water, and the heat I was really tired. Not to mention I'm out of shape. The taxi dropped us at 85th and 5th and we walked to Neue Gallery. Pam wanted to see the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1 by Gustav Klimt. Bonus they had a nice restaurant. And bathrooms. I felt like I was the mom of a toddler keeping an eye out for bathrooms.

The museum closed at 5, so we walked to 5th to look for the house in a book Lisa and Pam are reading. It's about Huguette Marcelle Clark an American painter, heiress, and philanthropist, who became well known again late in life as a recluse, living in hospitals for more than 20 years while her various mansions remained unoccupied. The main one was on 5th Avenue at 77th. It's not there anymore but we went looking for it anyway. Hey, we got to walk past the Met. So all was good.

We hailed another taxi back to the west side to get the car. Pam saw Zabars and said, "what's that?" I replied a grocery store, sort of. We got out of the taxi at the garage and walked back to Zabars so Pam and Lisa could experience Zabars. We didn't buy anything.

I had no bathroom issues all day. Although I used more bathrooms than I ever did before. I thought my gastric issues were over. I ate my beet salad and had no ill effects.

When we returned home I chugged water. I was up all night, but mostly peeing. I thought this is it, it's over. It was food poisoning. Boy was I wrong.

Miles/Steps:  11,339 steps for the day
Weather:      90s, sunny, humid
Surface:        concrete, asphalt, gravel

Today I took my 50K Vitamin D pill and within 45 minutes of breakfast I lost it. Lunch was worse. Plus I had no warning. Kaboom and there was shit everywhere. I'm tired of laundry and cleaning bathrooms.

Today Pat and I also did Milly. Today's word was "exercise."

walked with someone different

 

I gotta hand it to Pat. We're out walking every morning before 6:30. But she won't go further. I've tried.

A few weeks ago I received an email from my brother. They were trying to start a walking group at his church. Today was the first walk.

I sent in a bunch of trails for them to pick from. They chose the Greenway and the walk began at the Skatepark. There was only two of us crazy enough to walk in the heat and sun. We started at 9 and headed to New Street. We had those getting to know you conversations. It turns out that Candice has a degree in journalism from Kutztown and worked with Angel at the Chronicle in Easton. Talk about a small world.

Oh and I even wore my new Fitbit. Okay, it was in my pocket, but I had it.

At the turnaround -- Adams street since the last block was fenced off—I farted. But it wasn't a fart. It was watery, stinky, shit.  Did she notice? If she did she was too polite to mention it.

I was shocked but not surprised. I have had the shits since Thursday night. Thursday night I thought I ate something bad. I was up every two hours shitting. But then it continued on Friday. What was different? I'm blaming it on mega doses of Vitamin D. But as I think about it it was progressively getting worse all week. I started the D on Sunday. 50,000 units. Then 4K every day. I googled the side effects. Constipation and diarrhea.

If I eat or drink anything I'm in the bathroom 45 minutes later. I cleared that time this morning and thought I was safe. Wrong.

I sat on my yoga mat coming home. Then I took a shower.

Tomorrow I'm going to NYC. I'm going to wear "Depends" and take imodium before I leave since it will be very difficult not to eat or drink.

Miles/Steps:  2 miles
Weather:       mid-80s, sunny, humid
Surface:        asphalt
SLF Killed:     one red nymph

but i hate watches

 

I've been helping Sharon out since her knee surgery in May. She buys me gas and breakfast. I call it even. 

Monday she called all excited. I have a present for you. I tried getting it out of her, but nada. I forgot about it.

This morning Pat sent me for bagels at Main and Market. I called Sharon and said I'd be down the block getting bagels, was she interested. She said yes. I called when I left the bagel shop. Five minutes late I was on her doorstep and she was coming out. I handed her the bag of bagels and she handed me a Fitbit. I nearly fell over. 

She remembered I lost mine late last September and they were selling them on QVC. (OMG that girl is a consumer. Thankfully she has no computer or the Amazon truck would be there daily!) According to the Fitbit webpage this does everything but launch people into space. "Shine a light on your mind, body & health with a wellness tracker that doubles as jewelry. With all the essentials, you'll be unstoppable."

It features:

All I really want is to count steps. And I always enjoyed the counting stairs. But notice that's not on the list. So 50% of what I want it doesn't offer. But the 5 day battery is nice. It also comes with a free subscription to something called "Premium". I guess that unlocks more useless shit. I didn't turn it on.

I took it out of the box —it's pink— and put it on. The band was too short. I dug in the box and found the fat girl band. Then I hit YouTube for a video on changing it. It wasn't in the box. Then I charged it.

It was around Christmas when I deleted the app. What was the point in having it? I didn't have a device. I reinstalled the app today, then unsynced my old One, and synced my new Lux. All my old data remains in my account. 

I'm ready to go. Only one problem remains. I hate wearing a watch. Never wore one. Don't want to start now. I only wear bracelets in the winter, and sometimes those end up in my purse. I've had this on my arm for an hour and want to rip it off and throw it across the room. I'm guessing I'll need to hook it to my pants or bra or something because it won't be on my wrist. I looked on Etsy and there is only one necklace accessory and 15 pages of cool bracelets. 

I'm determined to keep this on until after my two exercise classes today. Both yoga and the senior center are seated. I want to see if it records anything.
 

volkssport walk in pottsville

 "What big jelly rolls you have" said Little Red Riding Hood never.

The Chester County Red Rovers are running walks this summer on Tuesday and Friday. Many of them are LBW walks. Today's was in Pottstown. I don't think I was ever in Pottstown. I haven't ridden down Rt. 100 in a long time. I feared that it would be a giant strip mall. I was pleasantly surprised. There was more development but not nearly as bad as I've seen it other places.

You had to RSVP because the walk leader didn't want to stand in the heat alone waiting for people. the walk was scheduled for 10. Yesterday I got an email asking if I wanted to go earlier. I was the only one coming. Ultimately we went for 8:30.

But I got lost after I left Rt. 100 and ended up being nearly 10 minutes. By the time we did the paperwork and I changed my shoes we probably didn't leave until close to 9. But that was still better than 10. About 50% of the walk was in the shade. And I'd say probably 75% was in parks and trails.

 Pottsgrove Manor

It was nice to be out walking. But I felt it when we were done. I'm not used to a 5K any more. And yes it was stupid to drive two hours round trip for a 5K.

We walked for a while on the Schuylkill River Trail.

One thing we talked about while walking was going to the Olympiad in Texas. The walk leader is boycotting Texas because of their policies and politics. Although I don't agree with the people who are running the state would I really boycott a whole state? If that's the case I might have to move after the election in November. So much to think about.

Monday Pat and I did Milly. The secret word is Move.

Miles/Steps:  3.6
Weather:       88, sunny, humid
Surface:        concrete, macadam, grass, gravel
Wildlife:       At least 2 sords of Mallards along the creek in the shade. A few swimming. Three bull frogs, two geese.

has anyone see my vitamin d?

About three weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and went on the physician's app and made an appointment with the doctor about my right torso pain. The appointment was yesterday. My torso stopped hurting Saturday. I thought about cancelling but then I heard Bonnie nagging me in my head—she kept telling me about how I really should tell the doctor this crap. Yada, Yada, Yada. In addition on Tuesday I bit the bullet and went for my blood work. Wednesday the app started dinging. The results were in.

Now the last time I went for blood work was early in 2020 before my surgery. In the meantime the doctor retired and I got a new person who didn't know my history. It wasn't pretty.

I feared looking to look at these numbers. Would these be as bad as the post Covid ones? I looked. Overall not bad. There was one glaring bad number (and no Bonnie, it was not sugar. I have an out-of control sweet tooth.) I was feeling pretty good when I walked in.

My first impression, back in April of the "new" doctor wasn't good. Actually it was awful. I wasn't looking forward to seeing her again. But she was 100% different this time. Maybe she was just having a shitty day the last time. Maybe. Just maybe. I'll keep her.

So I describe where the pain was and she asked a bunch of questions. She had me bend and twist and all kinds of stuff. Since the pain was gone yesterday (it's back today) she couldn't be 100% sure. But my answers led her to believe it was a latissimus dorsi muscle strain and I probably did it while rock climbing to that trail at the Lehigh Gap. That's when the pain started. I blamed it on the new medicine I was taking.

It's freaking huge muscle and it takes a long time to heal because you used it constantly. Maybe not if you stayed in bed. But I got to tell you that's the least comfortable spot. And don't even think of laying on that side. Now I have a series of stretches I have to do daily and before exercise. Thankfully yoga and Milly do some of them.

So then we reviewed my BP and blood work. BP has stabilized and yesterday it was 118/80. I presented my list of BPs and she liked what she saw. I now only have to take it once a week.

If my next A1C is clear I don't have to have that done anymore either. Hurray. My cholesterol was "perfect". But remember I said earlier there was one problem child?

Vitamin D. It was in the toilet. There is very little room for it to go down further. I'm outside a lot. I'm told that it's happening a lot because everyone is wearing sunscreen. But I'm so bad at sunscreen. The derm yells at me all the time. It's so bad I have to take prescription strength Vitamin D once a week for 8 weeks for a total of 50,000 units! Plus daily I have to take 4,000 units until my next test. Holy moley. 

Exercise wise, Pat and I are walking every morning for a half mile. I'm still doing Milly on Monday's, even on holidays. I'm also still doing chair yoga with Pam on Wednesday. Otherwise I get out and walk when I can.

I've made arrangements with David's church friend C to walk next Saturday on the Greenway. They wanted to start at 10 am. I got them to back up to 9. Honestly I'd prefer 6 or 7.

This week I also finished the D&L 165 mile challenge. Usually I'm done mid-June. Thank goodness for Milly, Chair Yoga and yard work or I'd still be logging my miles.

 

Speaking of yard work, it's July 8 and I just got a plant on my front porch. 

 

My college student niece has been helping me with whipping my yard into shape. Something had to go with all my care taking and home responsibilities so that went. I've signed the kids up next door to mow. They are taking turns. My niece and her fiance helped dramatically cut back the forsythia, trim the dead wood out of the azalea, and get things re-potted. They have now begun weeding but it's so dry.  

Because it's so dry I wanted to put down mulch. Not that horrible dyed crap that is pallets, real mulch. I had to go to several stores to find it but I only bought three bags. That's all that fit in my trunk. I'll spread that tonight. (I put chards around the pepper plant so it didn't dry out!) I think I need to borrow a turbo washer to clean my siding. Can't rent one, they don't fit in the car.

I guess that's it.

(Anatomy photo Wikipedia)

i can't see a way to do the road trip to texas.

 

 

When I first heard that the international Volkssport Olympiad was in North America for the first time I was excited. Then I heard it was in Texas and thought that might be doable. I just spent the afternoon seeing how many more states I could pick up.

I have a lot of time on my hands right now. It would be perfect in the summer. But I understand that Texas is hotter than Hell in summer. But right now I'm just watching and Ubering the twins and Lydia around. The drive as I mapped it would be 3,709 miles and take 56 hours. That's 3 days driving non-stop. Or a week stopping to walk every day. In states I haven't walked in, I'd like to stop in Memphis, Hot Springs, Austin. Then coming back hit Shreveport, Jackson, and Montgomery. 

Plus I want to drive an additional three hours from San Antonio and go to Loredeo so I can walk over the bridge to Mexico, get a taco and come back. Simply to say I went to Mexico. Ridiculous. I understand that. Six hours of driving for an hour activity. Sadly it's not the first time I've done that and it was just Cape May. It costs four quarters to walk the bridge to Mexico and a single quarter to come back. From what I've read the crossing over is easy. The crossing back often has long lines up to an hour at customs.

The Olympiad runs February 19-23, and then the Texas Roundup (like our Freedom Festival in Virginia) is February 24-26. Smart. That way people don't have to make two trips. But here are my issues:

Might be doable: It's in the middle of the term. I might be able to move the class to Zoom, but for three weeks? That's 6 classes of Type I at NCC. I have no idea of any other schools That would make it more complicated. One term I have 5 classes. In fall I have 1. 

Less Doable: I'm going to GS camp for a weekend in August. I had to get someone to stay with Pat. I'd have to be sure nobody had appointments in that time period, stock up on groceries and find a Pat-Sitter. That's a huge ask for free. 

Driving: Do I really want to drive 60 hours alone? I'll be shot to shit and not able to walk. A solution would be to take a train. Only $200 (today), no hotels, no Buckee's, but a really sore ass. I also can't pick up the other states. Angel was interested but I don't think she'll be able to take 2 weeks off from work.

Oh well. I have till September 30 to decide. That's the registration deadline.

This week I started doing 20 minutes of stretching before I get out of bed. Then the half-mile walk with Pat. Monday I did Millie, and Wednesday I did chair yoga. Today I scouted some places to do the August volkssport shady walks. I'll do the same tomorrow.