Middle of the week

Day of the Dead Art Show
Host: Dandelion Botanical
Artist: Evie
Date:Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time:6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:Dandelion Botanical Company
Street:5424 Ballard Ave NW
City/Town:Seattle, WA

Walking has been pretty good this week. I did 5K on Monday and today. On Tuesday I only did 2 miles because my walk was cut short by a rain storm. I don't mind getting wet but the air to ground lighting is a downer. ;-)

Walked by this house on Lamar and it's all decked out for Halloween. A bit early for it but it still makes you smile.

Obesity Growing as Cancer Risk for Women - Science & Health News Briefs | Newser

Obesity Growing as Cancer Risk for Women - Science & Health News Briefs Newser
AP Summary) – Being fat could become the leading cause of cancer in women in Western countries in the coming years, say European researchers. Being overweight or obese accounts for up to 8% of cancers in Europe. That figure is poised to increase substantially as the obesity epidemic continues, and as major causes of cancer, such as smoking, drop. Colorectal cancer, breast cancer in menopausal women, and endometrial cancer accounted for 65% of all cancers linked to being fat.
"Obesity is catching up at a rate that makes it possible it could become the biggest attributable cause of cancer in women within the next decade," a researcher says. Between 2002 and 2008, he says, the number of such cases almost doubled to 124,000. Scientists aren't sure why being fat boosts your cancer risk but suspect hormones play a role. As people become fatter, they produce more hormones such as estrogen that help tumors grow.

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Walking has been nice so far the past few days. Sprinkled during my walk again this morning and it was a cool 65 degrees. I'm lovin' this!

More Rain!

More rain last night and this morning made my walk much different from yesterday. It could have been 5 to 10 degrees cooler to be perfect but I won't complain too much since the rain is so very nice. While traffic was heavy the hike and bike trail was almost deserted. No dogs running around, no young moms pushing huge strollers, and no people sleeping on the benches. Loved it! Froggy would have liked the puddles. :-)

Monday, Monday

Felt really tired last night and found myself making excuses not to walk this morning. When I woke up I still felt the same but I got up and got dressed and left for my walk around 7:45 or so. It was very humid and in the 70's with almost no wind making the air feel close and well just plain icky. I only did 2 and half miles but I guess that's better than nothing. Cool front on the way tomorrow so maybe it'll be better. Cowboys lost last night. :0( Chalk it up to bad execution and some bad luck. Lots of odd bounces of the ball went the Giants way. People are already calling for Romo's head. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

More than halfway through September

Did great in my walks this past week. 4 miles one day and 3 to 3 and a half the rest of the week. The cooler weather makes me feel more energetic so I go do a little more. The recent rain brought out lots of flowers, most glorious, the School House Lilies shown growing around the pagoda in the back yard. The lilies are popping out every where though along with lots of other flowers. Also pictured are the back doors of the house. I cleaned and taped the windows off, Frank sanded and painted. Football season is here and in Austin you would know it. Lots of Longhorn and Texas Tech fans in town along with sports news crews and the blimp. The Horns won, avenging a bitter loss to the Red Raiders last season.

Mussings

My walking routine has been more pleasant since the temperatures have dropped to a more comfortable level. I did 4 miles yesterday and 3 and a half today. At the park this morning while I was getting a drink of water I suddenly found myself surrounded by several young men dressed in running shorts and shoes. They all looked fit and were friendly. I walked a short distance away from the group and was going to take a photo but alas I was too slow and they all took off again after they had completed their water break. An older man dressed in shorts and a burnt orange windbreaker was shouting at them to move it. Perhaps they were distance runners for the Texas Longhorns since the coach was wearing Texas Longhorn colors.
Lots of flowers have popped up since the heavy rain we had a couple of days ago and our area is starting to look like Austin again.
I had one of my check ups and my blood work numbers were pretty good except for some border line blood sugar and kidney numbers. The doc wants me to go back in three months and have them repeated. Still not diabetic which is great and he said that he was pleased by my holding the line against diabetes because he himself had no patients 65 or over that had high blood pressure and high cholesterol that were not diabetic except for me. He reiterated that my walking 5 days a week was a big factor in my fighting off diabetes. Me weight was the same as the last time which is okay although I would be happier if I had lost a few pounds. I also had a bone density test and that came out normal so no osteoporosis. Yea!

Old sayings are sometimes true

I've always heard be careful what you wish for and today I got a taste of what that means. I've been crying, no, begging for rain for months now. We've been getting dibs and dabs lately but today we got the big gulp. 3 inches in less than an hour. It was great! The only problem is that the house we live in is split level and the living room can get flooded in a heavy rain. The back yard tilts down from two angles which sends water flowing towards the base of the house plus the gutters were overflowing and couldn't do the usual good job they do keeping the water away. So Frank, Krys, and I were out in the pouring rain digging out and widening the area beside the house where the water was running and sweeping debris like leaves and bark from the raging rapids swirling around the base of the house. The good things were that the room didn't flood and we also got our Saturday night baths early which was quite a treat. ;-) Also it cooled the temperature off a lot and we didn't have to turn on the AC at all today. The bad thing was all this beautiful rain didn't fall on the lakes which supply water to the city so it didn't do much for the drought. We're very happy it rained so much but we're ready for more. can't wait for the fall season to get here.
The Horns won in Wyoming and Bama is winning as I write this. Also loved seeing Tiger get back to his usual spectacular, record setting, golf playing ways. Hope he does the same tomorrow.

Tuesday feels like Monday

Well the summer is officially over and I wish that Central Texas paid attention to the calendar. Alas triple digits are in the forecast for at least a couple more days and only 10 percent chance of rain. This is not good. Summer, summer, go away, don't come again til June 2010. Took a couple of pictures of a display near the Hike & Bike Trail. It's meant to encourage people to clean up after their pet and I hope it has good results. The hill shown is dirt that represents the collective poo that all the dogs in Austin proper produce in one day. Ick! Had a nice walk yesterday and today despite the heat.

Saturday had its up and downs

Frank enjoyed watching all the football games on Saturday including the Alabama/Virginia Tech game. It was a hard faught game and a close one until the last ten minutes or so. His little elephant mascot started out watching the game just fine but would up on his side from all the action. The Longhorns was a yawner.

Into September already

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day." A nod to Barbara for the above message.
Only got four days in so far this week. Had a doctor's appointment and a bone density test on two different days. One was early enough so I could get my time in before it got hot. Sadly we got into the 100 range again for two days and maybe some more on the way in the coming week. Summer will be over one day soon, I hope.
Seems Pres. Obama can't do anything right for some people. Pres. Reagan and Bush both spoke to school children without sparking an outrage. Also I don't know where this 'socialism' thing comes from. Do the people spouting that garbage even know what socialism is? I'm inclined to think they do not. The dictionary definition is "a system of society or group living in which there is no private property. a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done." No way, no how is the Obama administration supporting anything like that. Health care reform would be like Medicare, Medicade, CHIPS (administered by states), and Veterans Health Care. All of these programs have problems but for the most part they serve the people well. Horror stories of private health care denying claims and people dying as a result of these are too numerous to mention and it's weired to see people standing up for these giant health insurance companies who make a profit off of peoples ills. People being shouted down at meetings and carrying guns to town hall meetings. Hateful comments and slurs demeaning the President and his family are spewed out every day and wait for it...no one's getting arrested for it like they did when people were arrested for wearing t-shirts saying they didn't like the previous president. Preachers praying for the death of the President!! It's all crazy and I'm horrified and angered by it at the same time. I had hoped for a change but not this decent into madness. I don't like people for the most part and the actions of many are proving to me that I'm right to stay away from them. Whatever happened to do unto to others what you would have done unto you?