glitter fell from the sky

It's February in Pennsylvania, so that means it's snowing. Again. But today was different.

I woke to about 2-3 inches of the finest snow possible. I was out shoveling and it sparkled. Like Mother Nature dropped a bottle of glitter. I'm guessing it was micro pieces of ice. But I have no idea. It was beautiful. Made my day.

I shoveled it and it blew right back. It was that light. After clearing the front sidewalk, I walked up the hill and back down the alley and did the back. Then retraced my steps and went home.

The only other walking I did was my scenic route around the college.

Otherwise I've been working on my resumes, job hunting, and trying to build an online portfolio.

Saturday, I'm doing the Tail on the Trail snowshoeing event. I have to call and reserve.

ice, ice, baby

February weather is just not cooperating. I picked a really bad month to post everyday. Today's trouble maker—ice.

I tried walking at lunch time. Little tiny shuffle steps. I stayed upright but didn't go far.

Every hour or so I jogged for a count of 100 at my desk.

I ran up and down the steps.

If I finish my online class early enough (school is cancelled, again) it will be time for Leslie.

slippery walk

Today, I walked two hours on some tricky sidewalks. Mostly, I stayed in the street when I could. I was spurred on by my disappointing number on the scale this morning. (+2)

I left here close to 11 to do errands. I headed up the hill, out Sioux, up Findlay and out Moravia. Then down Hertzog and Lechauwecki. While I was on Moravia a man passed me. He was walking and doing exercises at the same time. Productive, but really silly looking.

Once I crossed Broadway I headed to the Wawa to use the ATM for Pat. Then I headed out Smiley to Dodson and started up the hill. A car came slowly up the hill. It was one of my former students. I think he was going to offer me a ride, but I told him it takes work to keep this Rubeneque figure. He laughed and went on his way.

At Graham, I turned right and went down the hill, past the hospital and out Ostrum. At Brighton and Cherokee I headed up Cherokee and checked my fit bit — 40 floors and only 8k steps. Really? Is that all?

I headed down third to the alley before Broadhead and went thru the parking lot by Henry's apartment. Then it was out Broadway for some shopping at Ahart's. I divided the groceries into two bags and headed toward Wyandotte. Then it was up, up, up Wyandotte. This section had the worse sidewalks. At Sasafrass I checked the fit bit. Still not at 12K, and at 60 floors. I went down the hill, turned right and went right back up Fiot, and came down again.

I was almost at goal of 12500, and had 69 floors. Will try to get 75 before the end of the day. I'm also shooting for 15000 steps.

UPDATE: I've changed my Instagram name to . Now it matches the blog a little better. Thisismygymtoday works better as a hashtag.

dang it was cold

When my friend Pam and I decided to walk today, it was a balmy 45 degrees out. What a difference a couple of weeks makes.

We planned to go to Cedar Creek (beach) Park off of Hamilton Street.I awoke this morning thinking, "does the city do winter maintenance"? The parks are heavily used, so I hoped they did. the backup plan was Trexler Park. I was fairly sure they plowed that.

As I was driving down Ott I could see the left side was plowed. Yes!

Pam was waiting for me by the pool. We headed east around Lake Muhlenberg. But when we went to cross the bridge quickly realized the other side was not done. We headed toward the sidewalk but that had drifted shut. We returned to the pool the way we came. After crossing Ott we went south towards Cedar Crest College. (All directions are totally random. Hopefully after hearing landmarks you can make your way around.)

After we went past the rear of the college there were city trucks working. They were pruning and removing trees. It was 30 degrees out. Maybe. Why? Seemed like a more appropriate job for spring, summer, autumn ... not winter. Pam had a great theory. Maybe it's true. Many of the trees run along the creek. Perhaps the banks of the creek are so soft and unstable that they do it when it is hard and frozen. And the trucks won't fall in. Sounds plausible. I'm sticking with it.

When we finished the loop at Ott, we decided to go around again.

As we returned to the pool, Pam told me the Allentown JCC was  having a Polar Plunge and was I game. It's supporting their aquatics program. She always goes with me on my adventures, so I said yes. Yes, I know. No spending money. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

On the way home I took a picture of this fellow on Hamilton, across from the park. Clearly he is a Phantoms phan. He's built on top of the snow bank and pretty hard to miss.

A friend posted this race on FB. It's in York. I am so tempted. How many times do you get to race around a giant shoe? I will resist. It's 3 hours away.

Sunday is the Tri-to-help Triathlon. I signed up to do this event, but my friend backed out. Not really interested in doing it alone. It's a two-hour drive. Probably will just skip it.

i resisted the allure of donuts

 Did you see the news yesterday? Our local turkey farmers turned mega-developers have bought the land that will connect the D&L in Allentown with the D&L in Hanover Township. Be still my heart. Finally, you'll be able to get from point a to point b without a car. Of course it will be years before that rail-to-trail is done.

Today walk I knew would be a challenge. It snowed. It rain. It froze. It melted. It froze again. Sidewalks are not all bad, but corners are horrible.

I'm in Easton today, so I thought campus would be fairly good, and it was. But the streets around it were a mess. I decided that breaking my leg was not on the agenda today.

The post office is in the basement of Farinon.  I went down, mailed my packages, and went up to the second floor. I looped around and came back down. Out the front door towards Acopian. I skipped Hogg Hall because the porch is tile. Tile in winter is not good. In summer it's beautiful.

I reached Acopian and the sign in the window said "donuts and lutron". They were set up in the lobby. Handsome, thin, professional, young men offered me donuts. They weren't busy and had a lot left. But it wasn't noon yet. I went right past them and to the back staircase and up to the top (ground level is 3), around to the other end, and back down the 6 flights. Then it was back around and back up to the third. Walking past the donuts again! (photo credit)

I finished the loop around the quad and head out past the Arts Center toward Cattell Street. things turned ugly quick. I carefully made my way back to the "birds nest".

yikes! i opened an instagram account

I opened an Instagram account last night. Yeah, it scares me too.

It all ties into doing social media/web for the walking group. If I'm taking pixs with my iPod, then they can be uploaded to Instagram and right to their FB page, I think. Maybe. I'll have Lydia help me.

Anyway, if you want to search for me my name is thisismygymtoday. Yeah, it does look more like a hash tag. Right now everything is generic. But I added 2 test photos yesterday. And they showed up.

It looks like you really need to be sure you want to post it. I do not see an edit or delete button, at least on my desktop. Maybe there is one on the iPod. The mobile interface is much more robust.

The only part of this that truly excites me is writing hash tags. I find myself glancing at the pixs and then just reading the hashtags. My favorite from yesterday is"wishicouldblastmymusicbutsomeoneisnapping"‬. I just need to figure out how to do it. I think you just write using the pound sign.

We'll see how it goes.

Today I substituted, so no time for a long walk. I was going to take the walking path around campus, but there is no winter maintenance. Maybe I should take my snowshoes with me to school. So I walked around and thru buildings and up the stairs. Somehow I managed to get 9K steps in. So last night, after dinner with a former Girl Scout, and putting in my final grades, I walked back and forth thru my house for the remaining 1K steps.


Mission accomplished.

Now I just need to do that everyday.

fat girl, shoveling

Last night it snowed. They were calling for 6-8 inches. I had thought about going and clearing it, but it was still snowing pretty heavy when I went to bed. There was maybe 3 inches.

This morning at 6 I go out to shovel. It is three inches of snow saturated by rain. It felt like it weighed a ton. The drain that I so carefully keep open, was covered in snow. So I shoveled that first. The water came like a river and it was two inches deep, for a while.

Messy. Messy. Messy.

We had a two hour delay for work which is great. I would have been late. It took well over a half hour to shovel that little snow. When I came in, I actually took my blood pressure. It was fine.

There will be no outside walking today. The sidewalks are icy and the curbs are awful. At work there isn't even a cut to walk thru. You get to walk thru knee high slush. Fun.

Update: I barely reached 5K steps Monday.

do you wanna build a snowman?

Everywhere we walked today we ran into three snowmen. 'Tis the season, I guess.

Lydia arrived about 11 and we headed downtown. Normally you can still park on Main Street at that hour. But it's Sunday, and there is a very large, active church there. There's no spaces for a mile. So we decided to go under the bridge (Festplatz). When did that become contacted parking? (And where do the "contracted" cars park during all the festivals?) We had to drive down Conestoga, out Union and back Old York Road, to park at the Luckenbach Mill. Craziness.

We started our walk in the historic area, then headed out the way we drove in. We came back Conestoga, and loops the small festival area near Sand Island. Then we went up Main to the Hotel Bethlehem, and back down the hill.

Sadly, our route was only about 2 miles and took over an hour. But we met lots of frozen friends.

After doing a few errands, then eating lunch, we took Adonis for his half-mile walk.

The Idita-Walk and Winter Challenge walking has official begun.

cold and windy walk

Big News! I was able to create a simple one-page website for the Liberty Bell Wanderers. It went live this morning. And it's still there. It hasn't crashed.  So relieved.

After that success I really wanted to walk and celebrate. I text Lydia to see if she was free. She was. So after walking the dog and making pizza for lunch, we did the south Bethlehem volkssport walk. In the process we discovered that Lydia only has one more walk to finish her thirty walk book. So we are doing it again tomorrow!

It was cold and it was windy. But otherwise bright and beautiful. We actually drove to the Comfort Suites start point.

When we arrived at the Greenway it was snow covered. Just the little snow from Monday. The larger snow from Saturday had been plowed. But it had melted and refroze and was really icy, so we left the Greenway and walked thru the adjacent parking lots all the way to Polk street. The we walked out Third to the casino. Then down and around and back First Avenue thru Arts Quest. It was 2.75 miles. Which considering my track record lately is pretty damn good.

Tomorrow begins the winter challenge and the Iditawalk.  So I have to step up my game.

Oh, the Penn State lion now has a hashtag—#ifoundthelion. I'm going to go look to see how many clones he has. Maybe, we'll go on a lion safari in spring.

coins to the bank

I've been seeing these signs all over town in the past week. Today when I was out walking I took the picture. Correct me if I am wrong. A patient obtains these items two ways—buy them outright at the drug store. Or get them at the drug store thru your insurance company. If you buy them with your money why would you sell them. If you get them thru the insurance company and sell them, isn't that insurance fraud? Not to mention really stupid and life threatening? (Unless, of course, you've changed monitoring systems and have a surplus.) Color me very puzzled.


My walk today was a simple square. First stop was to the bank at the 5-points. Both the coin containers on my desk were full, so I thought I'd walk them down and placed them in my canvas lunch bag. It wasn't too bad. I have carried heavier bags of coins. The grand total was just under $90. Not bad.

After leaving the bank, I headed up Wyandotte street to Sassafrass. I learned pretty quickly that is a bad idea during snow season. One sidewalk was shoveled above Sioux Street. And the block between Fiot and Sassafrass was downright horrible. I walked in the street. At 3 pm. Not smart.

So it wasn't a long walk, but I got out.

I managed to walk, even just a little each week.  Four days I even reached 10K steps.  Thank goodness.

The Idtawalk and the Winter Challenge begin Sunday. The winter challenge has two levels—30 miles in 30 days. Or 90 miles in 30 days. You know I'm going for the ninety.

On a different note, the new Liberty Bell Wanders website goes live tomorrow. T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D. Could someone remind me of why I volunteered to do this?

two bridges

Today I walked over the Hill to Hill and back the Fahy bridge, with a few errands in between.

I heart winter. I heart everything about it, except maybe snow days. We have to make those up, or I don't get paid. But it does add some challenges to walking.

As I was walking I thought (more times than I could count) that the city could raise all shortfalls by enforcing the laws. Mainly the one where you're supposed to shovel your sidewalk after it snows. For pedestrians it's beyond sketchy. There were more than a few times when I almost went down. I know that citation would be on my door the one time I didn't shovel.

Another problem for pedestrians is crossing the street. Even when the homeowner or business shovels to the corner the plow comes thru and closes it back up. If the property owner doesn't come back out and dig out, again, you get to scale humps of snow. Or worse, cold messy slush.

But if you are able to navigate those challenges. You get to see the frozen canal.

Or where cars have played spirograph in the empty parking lot.

Tomorrow we are to get another storm. I've heard everything from four inches to two feet.  time will tell. My snowshoes are ready.

fat girl, shoveling

First time I've typed those words in 2015. It took a generous hour to shovel the front sidewalk, the garage and the back sidewalk. I'm thinking we received about 6 inches. I was not missing the days where I had to do five sidewalks. The first round of shoveling netted me about 1500 steps. Cool.

Thank goodness we got the snow and not the freezing rain. Ice is pretty, but it's dangerous.

I'm really itching to go snowshoeing. I could have walked up and down my block. They didn't plow until 12:00. (The alley at 12:30.) But alas, that is not in the cards today. Shoveling, school, now driving to the airport will take up my daylight hours.  I did manage two trips around my personal block, looking to see what was shoveled and what wasn't.

Another storm is coming Monday. Looks like Mother Nature has finally synced her calendar.

Do you want to build a snowman?

today

Tail on the Trail announced today the winter challenge. 30 miles in 30 days. Not much of a challenge. But I'll do it anyway.

Today's walk was hilly. I got to thinking as I walked it that I used to think these hills were steep. They aren't. I think I need a new neighborhood.

Today's walk  was down the hill and back up to Seneca. Then down Seneca, and up Clewell to Jeter. Down the steep hill at the hospital (almost lost mama in her wheelchair on that one!) and up St Luke's Place. Then down Fiot, and back up Fiot and home.

Again, it wasn't a long walk, but I got it done.

I took my iPod and took a pix of these red berries. It is my first picture for 2015. I need to remember to take it with me for the camera function. (All the music on it stinks. Never buy workout tapes.) I'll have to borrow the SLR from school for the Niagara Falls Volkssport trip in May.

I've also been busy unsubscribing from race-fitness emails. My in-box used to be filled with  them. So many temptations. But if I stick to "buy only essentials" I can't be tempted. I'm weak.

I nearly failed at this goal about a week ago. I found a Nordic Walking workshop in King of Prussia. I was literally filling out the form to sign up and I stopped myself. The same day I found a Chi Walking workshop in NYC. Both were about $100. Plus travel. Clearly non-essential.

The only other pre-paid events on my calendar are the Idita-Walk, Tri-To-Help in Lancaster in February, and the Yuengling Loger Jogger with my niece and friend in April. I was doing the Tri-To-Help with a fitness friend, but she withdrew to do yet another half marathon. (Her plan is two a month for the whole year. No thank-you.) Other than that it's Volkssport walks/events and just plain old walking.

Now where is my log info for the Idita-walk?

no, I haven't abandoned the blog

No, i haven't abandoned the blog. I have nothing to write about.

Today was going to be my big walk for the weekend. The sidewalks were icy. The rain was falling. It wasn't pretty. I stayed in.

Yesterday I walked in Fountain Hill. Pretty much the same route as I always take, lots of hills. Including the steep one into the woods at the Stanley Avenue Recreation area. (Aka Fountain Hill Playground.)

Friday I didn't walk. Pat had two doctors appointments and I had a trip to Lehighton.

Monday thru Thursday was the first week of school. I went out at lunchtime, but not far. Still trying to adjust my schedule.

My health insurance bill came. No cards. No instructions for a website. No book. It really is worthless. Maybe after the bill is paid?

Not much success on the healthy eating front either.  I am eating a lot less. I thought I was eating better. But the calorie app says otherwise. I'm eating all fat and carbs and not enough protein. All the protein I like is filled with fat. It's an endless cycle. I am doing much, much better not eating takeout.

I'm not even charting my food today. I ate potato chips and brownies. If I am eating this little and it 1500-2000 calories, I must have been eating 5000 before. Will start again tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am also back to three jobs. Let the merri-go-round begin.

it's a balmy 35 today.

I haven't walked much in the past few days. The bitter cold turned the sidewalks into skate rink. At least in my neighborhood.

Today it was a sunny and balmy 32 when I headed out around 12:30. The sun, however, was deceiving. It was still cold. Especially when the wind blew.

I did my typical hilly walk with minor changes. Instead of going up Fiot, I went up Ontario. I don't think that it is quite a steep. Maybe. (But I still achieved 35 floors today.) The sidewalks on Wyandotte stunk. Icy sidewalks and 8% grade do not mix. But I stayed upright. Then I went up 8th and thru Lehigh's campus.

I went down Taylor, and came back the Greenway. Out Broadway, Up Wyandotte and out Sioux to home. I guess it was about 2.5 miles.

I take a variation of this route often. There was just nothing new to take a picture of.

School starts again tomorrow. Vacation is over. Let the merry-go-round begin.

road trip—philadelphia

It was 9 degree when I entered the car yesterday. What the heck had I gotten myself into?

For a Christmas gift I bought Bonnie a road trip to Philly. We were combining three things into one spectacular day. It was supposed to be Tuesday, but with the snow we pushed it to Thursday. Not because we were afraid of driving or walking in a little snow. Rather we were afraid of spending the day on the turnpike or worse, the Schuykill, behind the 15-car accident that was sure to happen.

I picked Bonnie up at 8 and we ultimately left about 8:15. We arrived at the Schuykill at 9:24. It was nearly 10:30 when we arrived at 4th and Arch. Part of that was my fault. The turn fro the Ben Franklin and the turn for Arch street were next to each other. I picked Jersey. It cost $5 to come back!

Firs stop, the Wyndown Hotel at 4th and Arch to sign in for the Philadelphia West walk. (There are  four Philly walks.) By then it was a balmy 18 degrees. In hindsight it was probably dumb to do a Volkssport walk in 18 degree weather. We read nothing. We looked at little. We just kept moving. I picked this walk because it went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We were going down the street to the Museum of Natural Sciences to see the "Chocolate" exhibit.

It was nice. But much smaller than I anticipated. The dinos were cool — Bubba would love them, and the butterflies were beautiful. The best part was when we were on the 3rd floor. There was a school group being read the riot act by the teacher. (He must have been a former Marine. If I was in that group I would have wet myself.) Let's just say he was not a happy camper. "In 15 years of chaperoning students I haven't never had a group as bad as this one." Thank goodness we were not around to see what they did. They were so bad he was placing many of them on a "no field trips" list. Including an upcoming one ice skating. They were 6th, 7th grade.  Glad there are still teachers who discipline students.

Because chocolate was the theme, and it was freaking cold, we skipped the part of the walk that went to the art museum — it looped back — and headed down 19th to Walnut. There we went to 15th to look for the restaurant — Max Benner's Chocolate Bar. Yes. A chocolate restaurant. We only had the best hot chocolate. Ever. I bet the deserts are to die for. If you go, it's really on 15th, not Walnut, and it is not a cheap place to eat.

At some point we discovered we lost our Volkssport directions. But I remembered it having us go out Walnut, up 6th, around Independence Hall and back to the hotel.  Since the north-south streets were really windy and cold, we did a two east, one north, pattern to break it up. And ended up going to far north.

Can we talk parking in Philadelphia? It's crazy expensive. The hotel lot was $12 for the first hour and $10 thereafter to a $32 max. We saw some higher. One or two lower during our walk. But that seemed to be the average price. Add to that a twenty percent—20%—parking tax. I spent almost as much for parking as I did for a fancy lunch. My parking lot total was $42. American. To make matters worse, we paid for parking and when I inserted my paid card in the machine, it wanted to recharge me. That would have been crazy.

It was 21 degrees when we got in the car to go home.

All in all it was a great day. My camera is broken, so no pixs from me. Bonnie took a few with her iPhone. When I get them, I'll post them. It was just too cold to take gloves off to take pictures.

soaked

Today we had the every popular "wintery mix". It snowed. It rained. It freezing rained. Sometimes it seemed like they did it all together. Since it rain now, I've decided not to clear my walks. It's supposed to be 60 tomorrow.

I kept stalling, but finally at 3 I had to go out. Because of the storm it would get dark early. I finally cracked 10K steps, and 25 stairs, using the Fountian Hill route. The downhills were more slippery than the uphills. Whatever possessed me to go down Hertzog is beyond me. I took baby steps and sort-of shuffle ran. I prayed the whole time I wouldn't roll down the hill head first.

When the trees go out to the curb, it's a clear sign that Christmas has come to an end.

short, but hilly

Today was another day where I was on my butt all day. A 2+ hour drive, a very long hairdresser appoint, and a fun trip to the car dealer. At about 1:15 I looked at my FitBit and I was still under 1.5K.

I was exhausted and had nothing to show for it. I finished what I was doing on the computer, and announced I was going out.

"Again?"

"Yes, I need to walk, My total is under 1.5K. That's horrible."

"You are just doing that to get away from me. I annoy you." [True, but not the reason I was going.]

Since I didn't have much time till it was back in the car for another 2-hour drive, I decided to do hills. I went up Fiot, down Wyandotte, up Eighth, down Brodhead, out Summit, up Wyandotte and home. Not very far but FitBit gave me 22 stairs, so it was pretty aerobic.

While I was out they were spraying saline for tomorrow's storm.

turkey's trotting

Yesterday was the Turkey Trot in downtown Bethlehem. This race is huge. There is probably 10K people entered. There are three categories—run, competitive walk, and fun walk. All were 5Ks.

Only Megan and I went. Bonnie was afraid of falling. Since she already had surgery on her hand, it would have been devastating if she fell.

The line began near the stone bridge at the Luckenbach Mill and wove it's way down to the log cabin. That's where the competitive walkers started.  The fun walkers started up the hill further. You can see the vast amount of people in the photo.

The route was also altered slightly to accommodate the snow and ice. No canal path. Instead we walked around the "fairgrounds" twice. It was a tad weird.

Megan looked at the clock when we started —it was chip timed—and it was about 2:45 when we crossed the start. It was 55:47 when we crossed the finish so we figured we finished in about 53:05. The official record says 54:18. I do not understand why.

It was cold, and Sand Island was icy. Our first and last legs were indeed quicker than the middle one. We watched for black ice.

and it isn't even thanksgiving

It's snowing. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Clearly global warming is messing with mama nature's calendar again. So begins the winter—in fall—shoveling.

The snow is wet and heavy. It's been a few degrees above freezing all day. So it's like falling slush. We have maybe three inches of it. The ground is warm so the main streets aren't too bad. But I wanted to get the slush up before it froze after dark. That would be a nightmare in the morning. And I have a 5K in the morning.

Shortly I'll be walking to the grocery store for some last minute items. I'm taking the direct route so it's going to be barely two miles. Though it's silly to be shopping since I am not cooking the big meal this year. (That's a good thing. I'm a horrible cook.) But the roomie is really looking forward to these calorie laden holiday treats. So I'll make them.

Between shoveling and the walk—I'm taking the most direct route today—I might, get my 10K steps in today. In an effort to get my mojo back I reduced my fitbit goals. Maybe actually meeting goals will propel me forward. They also designed all new silly icons. I like the old ones better.

Three hundred and sixty eight days till my sixtieth birthday. How the hell is that possible?