Monday, July 18
Sunday, July 17
Vanilla Cappuccinos
It was not until a Starbuck's Kiosk moved into West Town Mall in Knoxville that I decided to have another one several years later... and, while it was substantially more expensive than the ones I purchased in Norfolk, it was still worth the price.
My wife noticed my interest in Starbucks and began giving me gift cards for my birthday and Christmas and suggested that same gift for other members of our family and soon I had over $100 in Starbuck's gift cards, stored in the car to be used.
Not too long ago, a Starbuck's kiosk opened up at a Food City grocery store about 7-10 miles from the house and recently I discovered that the Vanilla Cappuccinos were just as good there as in Knoxville for about $1 less in price. The Starbuck's in Knoxville is about 40 miles from the house.
A NO BRAINER is what a decision of this kind is called...
Sunday Morning Valley Thougts
I enjoy living in the East Tennessee Valley and have been doing so since 1990 (32 years) so one might ascertain that I understand (at least somewhat) what life is like in the Valley...
July in the Valley is hot and muggy and is a time for either staying inside with the airconditioner on or staying outside in a pool of water either in-ground or above ground... since being in the water is the key...
My pool water temp is 84 degrees which makes lowering myself into the pool is rather easy and relatively comfortable, especially since I am more sensitive to the cold.
We are receiving cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and bell peppers from our garden... most of which are cooked and eaten as they are harvested while some, but very few, are frozen for later.
Cooking these veges in a frying pan with olive oil, black pepper, and soy sauce is a delicacy and a daily treat.
My comfort zone surrounds my retired life with the knowledge that I have been debt free for over 15 years, but that I have saved enough money the handle this bullshit inflation through which we are currently living. I don't spend money needless but I have everything I need...
I AM NOT WEALTHY... I WOULD CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE LOWER MIDDLE CLASS... and, want for nothing... mainly because I planned for my retirement and so I knew what I was getting myself into and made all the necessary preparations to live like I wanted to live...
I live simply and don't spend money foolishly... It is safe and secure in the Valley... We buy in bulk whenever we can... We don't overeat and we exercise daily... We don't buy anything we don't need... we save coupons... we buy when there are discounts... we vacation in the off season... we vacation during the week avoiding the high priced weekends...
PLEASE DON'T MOVE TO THE VALLEY AND SCREW THIS UP FOR ME...
Politicians and their Agendas
Why do I feel this way?
The problems that we were trying to solve in the 1960s and the same frigging problems we are trying to solve in 2020s... Are we simply not smart enough to figure this shit out... are we so smart that we don't want to figure this shit out? Either way, it does not look good for these Federal Government politicians.
The other issue with these "good for nothing" politicians is that they are more interested in what the party wants than they are interested in doing what is good for the general public.
Here's a good example of what I mean...
The Democrats were so set on getting Trump out of office that they elected a man who does not know his ass from a hole in the ground. On the first day of office, he killed the Keystone Pipeline and then use his influence to pass one stimulus package after the other...
Results:
- Worst inflation in 40 years
- Worst Illegal Immigration EVER
- Afghanistan Withdrawal - a global embarrassment
- Perpetuating racism through BLM & CRT
- Mainstream media censoring the news
- ran on the idea he would unite the nation
IRONICALLY, only a little over 50% voted for him which mean only a little under 50% did not vote for him... THEREFORE, he had no mandate to do what he did... he let the party rather than the people influence him...
THIS IS POLITICS AT ITS BEST/WORST...
His policies caused INFLATION which has now caused a RECESSION... there is no telling how many years it will take us to climb out of this recession...
STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES...
CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD FOR ME???
Country Living
Many people associate country living with the SOUTHEASTERN US... but that is as misleading as President Biden announcing that our economy is healthy and growing...
Country living is life in an area... any area of the US... that is not considered in the city... in other words, country living can take place in any state... and, it is also safe to say, that those folks living in the country will always be different than those folks living in the city...
WHY?
- Less congestion
- Less traffic
- Less crime & violence
- Less polution
- Less waiting time
- Less stress and anxiety
- More friendly
- Help each other
It is the people living in the city who are a pain in the ass to live around and who would just as shoot you as they would smile at you...
Country living folks can walk around their communities just about anytime of the day or night that they want to.
Country living folks can have vege gardens in their back yards if they want to.
Country living folks can have pools in their back yards if they want to.
Country living folks can cook food on a grill in their back yards anytime they want to.
Country living folks can play outside in their yards with their children anytime they want to.
Country living folks can ask their neighbors for help without concern they will be charged a fee or robbed.
During my 74 years of life, except for the first 2-3 years, I have always lived outside of the city and have never once wanted to move into the city because I thought it might be a better place to live. I have always had an acre of land or more on which I could do anything I damn well pleased. I always shared my vegetable garden with my neighbors.
Maintaining the outside yard as one gets older becomes a tad more difficult but it gets you outside and being outside is better than staying inside...
Country living is not living off the grid...
Made in America
American manufacturers are increasingly bringing production back to the US to reduce their reliance on global supply chains that proved vulnerable to disruption such as the pandemic.
An overwhelming majority of American companies with production operations in China have already moved some back to the US or plan to do so in the next three years, according to Kearney's 2021 Reshoring Index.
Almost four in five corporations companies have already shifted production to the US and at least 15% are considering it due to high tariffs and ongoing supply chain challenges, Kearney's report shows.
However, imports from low-cost Asian countries to the US still increased last year.
"Reshoring" manufacturing has also been spurred by geopolitical disruption triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war.
General Motors announced in January it would spend $7 billion on four plants in Michigan. Last year it spent almost $40 billion buying parts from some 5,600 US suppliers.
The manufacturer behind Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Hummer announced its biggest investment to increase its battery cell production to achieve its aim of becoming North America's biggest electric vehicle producer.
GE Appliances is also investing on expanding US production to make products closer to customers and create more American jobs. READ MORE...
Your COVID Protection
A used mask is seen on beach at marine protected area located in St. Martin's Island, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on March 13. Greater COVID transmissibility due to Omicron variants means greater transmissibility in any setting, indoors or outdoors—even if outside is still safer, experts say.
MOHAMMAD SHAJAHAN—ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
The outdoors have always been a sanctuary—even more so since the advent of the pandemic.
Spreading COVID outside was possible, but not probable, experts advised in 2020, urging cooped-up citizens to turn to Mother Nature as an antidote to the isolation of lockdowns. Events, dining, and even entire classrooms were moved outside, when feasible.
But Omicron was a game changer, in more ways than one.
The original Wuhan strain of COVID-19 had a reproductive rate—also known as an R0 or R-naught value—of around 3.3, meaning that each infected person infected another 3.3 people, on average. That put COVID-19 among the least transmissible human diseases.
Slightly less transmissible were the 1918 pandemic strain of flu, which had an estimated R0 of 2, as does Ebola. On the higher end of the spectrum, mumps has an R0 of 12; measles tops the list at 18.
In order to outcompete, successful COVID variants have become more transmissible with time. Delta had a slightly higher reproductive rate of around 5.1. Then came Omicron, with an reproductive rate almost twice as large: 9.5.
So called “stealth Omicron,” nicknamed for its ability to evade detection on PCR tests, was about 1.4 times more transmissible than BA.1, so its reproductive rate was around 13.3, Adrian Esterman, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, recently wrote on academic news website The Conversation.
New studies suggest that BA.4 and BA.5, currently sweeping the U.S. and countries around the globe, have a growth advantage over BA.2 similar to the growth advantage BA.2 had over BA.1. Thus, the latest dominant COVID subvariants have a reproductive rate of around 18.6, tying or surpassing measles, the world’s most infectious viral disease, according to Esterman.
Greater transmissibility means greater transmissibility in any setting, indoors or outdoors—even if outside is still safer, Maimuna Majumder, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, recently told NPR.
Upping the ante is the fact that recent subvariants like BA.4 and BA.5 are the most immune-evasive yet, with the ability to dodge antibodies from both vaccines and prior infection.
All this to say your protection outdoors isn’t what it was in 2020—and it may be time to begin thinking more critically about outdoor gatherings. READ MORE...
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator
If you've never taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, it's a personality assessment that groups people into one of 16 personalities or types based on their preferences. And in the case of ENTJs, this powerhouse personality type is known for getting things done—just don't expect them to be sensitive about it. Think Gordon Ramsey or Steve Jobs.
Here's what to know about the ENTJ personality type.
The ENTJ personality type.
ENTJ stands for extroverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging. According to John Hackston, head of thought leadership at the Myers-Briggs Company, they make up just 1.8% of the population, and they are more likely to be men.
"These natural leaders can be described as curious, energetic, self-confident, pragmatic, creative problem solvers, and decisive," Hackston tells mbg, adding, "Those who have personality preferences for ENTJ are verbally fluent and get energized by interacting with people, exchanging ideas, and making things happen."
Take entrepreneur Bill Gates as a prime example of an ENTJ. This type isn't discouraged by a challenge. In fact, they love it and have had historical success in making great achievements in everything from politics to business.
When under extreme stress, however, Hackston notes they can feel alone, underappreciated, and overwhelmed with self-doubt. Even still, "They won't openly show their feelings," he says. READ MORE...
Saturday, July 16
Retired and Cooking
One of the conditions of her retirement that I had to start doing my own cooking and cleaning up... I wasn't worried about cleaning up but I was wondering if I had the ability to cook...
It is now 2022, 7 years later, and while I am not a professional chef, I have learned a thing or two in the kitchen, however, the dishes I really like to make are the ones that are typically the easiest to make... GO FIGURE?
I have beans and lentils soaking in water and this is what I plan to do with them:
360 calories for 1 cup of Pinto beans
110 calories for 1/2 cup of lentils
20 calories for one bell pepper
20 calories for one yellow onion
30 calories for celery stalks
10 calories for a cup of chopped mushrooms
120 calories for 10 cherry tomatoes
200 calories for 1/3 cup of basmati rice
990 total calories
My first task will be to put the beans and lentils in an instapot and pressure cook them for 12 minutes. While they are cooking, I will dice up the bell pepper, onion, celery, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms...
Once the beans are done, I will pour in the other ingredients, along with a hefty amount of black pepper, and some basil and oregano and sweet dill spices. This mixture I will cook on the soup setting so it will boil for 30-60 minutes. It is really depend on when the pinto beans start making a thick soup.
In order to pressure cook the beans, I will have used 4-5 cups of water... so, no more water is needed when I dump in the rice. Once it starts boiling again on the setting, I will set it to slow cooking for 2-3 hours... checking to see if I need to add any liquid.
This concoction should make about 3 servings with each serving being 330 calories...
I try to maintain a diet of 1,600 calories a day which gives me 400 calories for 3 meals and 400 calories for an afternoon snack. If I go over 1,600 I try not to go over 2,000.
If I don't put rice or noodles into a mixture like this, then I chop up a turkey sausage into quarter size slices.
I have stopped eating red meat, focusing instead of fish, chicken, turkey, beans, and veges... I may eat a juicy cheeseburger and/or a hotdog with chili and slaw once or twice a year but no more... and, I may eat a fully loaded pizza (without anchovies)every 3 months or so... but, other than those deviations, I stay with my regular diet.
I really like COD and SALMON and have gotten into the habit of cooking them in an airfryer for about 12-15 minutes right out of the freezer.
Cooking can be fun if you don't try to be too fancy with your imagination... simply is easy to cook and tastes just as good.
Staying Healthy
In 1987, at the age of 40, I quit smoking cigarettes after smoking for 20 years and consuming 1-2 packs a day. Also, I stopped (with moderate success) eating red meat and drinking alcohol, focusing instead on fish, chicken, beans, veges, and fruits. I also started walking for 90 minutes each day or about 3 miles.
I limped along with this goal until age 60, when I suffered a heart attack, and then my focus on my lifestyle was acute and determined.
For me...
HEALTH is more important than WEALTH and hopefully you will learn from my mistakes...
While my back surgery was not a result of me being inactive, but a result of old age, it could have been worse if I had not been in good health... my recovery could take me 6-18 months to return to my previous physical condition.
That's a long frigging time and it is not easy to stay focused on the goal since it is so far out in the future... but, that is what I must do...
Small improvements each day... not large ones is my new focus...
Regardless of my back issues...
- exercising is important
- eating the right food is important
- relaxing is important
- work and recreation are important
- stress management is important
- maintaining friendships is important
- determination is important
- discipline is important
Obviously, we are only given one body and obviously there are pre-existing conditions inside our body at birth... but, aside from all of that... we can still HONOR OUR BODIES by treating them in an appropriate manner...
DIET
EXERCISE
WORK
REST
FAMILY/FRIENDS
Prehistoric Egg Identified
The only almost completely intact Genyornis eggshell ever discovered. It was located by
N. Spooner and collected by Gifford H. Miller, South Australia. The presence of four
puncture wounds on the egg indicates that it was predated by a scavenging marsupial.
Credit: Gifford H. Miller
A years-long scientific controversy in Australia about what animal is the true mother of gigantic primordial eggs has been settled. In a recent study, scientists from the University of Copenhagen and their global counterparts showed that the eggs could only be the last of a rare line of megafauna known as the “Demon Ducks of Doom.”
Consider living next to a 200 kg, two meters tall bird with a huge beak. This was the situation for the first people who settled in Australia some 65,000 years ago.
Genyornis newtoni, the last members of the “Demon Ducks of Doom,” coexisted there with our ancestors as a species of a now-extinct family of duck-like birds.
According to a recent study by experts from the University of Copenhagen and an international team of colleagues, the flightless bird lay eggs the size of cantaloupe melons, presumably to the delight of ancient humans who most likely gathered and consumed them as an essential protein source. The research was just released in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Since experts initially found the 50,000-year-old eggshell pieces 40 years ago, the huge eggs have been the subject of debate. It wasn’t known until recently if the eggs genuinely belonged to the family of “demon-ducks,” also known as dromornithids.
Since 1981, the identity of the bird that lay the eggs has been a source of controversy for scientists all across the globe. While some proposed Genyornis newtoni, others thought the shells were from Progura birds, an extinct member of the megapode group of species. Progura were “chicken-like birds” that only weighed between five and seven kilos and had huge feet. READ MORE...
Swimming Camels
Arabian camels were seen swimming in the Arabian Sea to Masirah, an island off the coast of Oman where camels frequently go to forage. They are known to travel back and forth regularly, approximately 10 km each way .-
Rare Viking Era Gold Ring
We’ve all been there—scrolling through eBay or stopping at a roadside antique store, sorting through jewelry and thinking: “What if I find a really valuable antique in here?”
Most of the time, that doesn’t happen. But a young Norwegian woman, Mari Ingelin Heskestad, found herself living out that dream when she purchased a collection of cheap jewelry from an online auction house, only to notice one object stuck out.
Heskestad had an inkling the twisted gold ring was something unique. “It was really heavy, and shiny,” she told the newspaper Bergensavisen, BA. “It looked very special.”
But instead of bringing it straight to a dealer or auction house to cash in, she delivered it to the municipal cultural heritage department of Vestland County, in Western Norway.
Karoline Hareide Breivik, the acting head of the department, confirmed in a statement that the ring dated to the late Iron Age or Viking Age.
She noted that the find was extremely rare; it also marked the first time she was aware of a ring from the Scandinavian Viking Age having been found in an online auction.
“We’re so impressed with her—the fact that she reacted exactly as you should when you find something you might believe is of historic value,” Sigrun Wølstad, a senior advisor to the county, told Science Norway. READ MORE...
“We’re so impressed with her—the fact that she reacted exactly as you should when you find something you might believe is of historic value,” Sigrun Wølstad, a senior advisor to the county, told Science Norway. READ MORE...
New Covid Cases Rising
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha says the “vast majority”
of COVID-19 infections aren’t being counted. GETTY IMAGES
While fears may be growing that another COVID-19 surge will be upon us in the coming months, there is some indication that the future is now.
There’s a reason data show that, while the U.S. positivity rate of COVID tests has spiked to five-month highs, and hospitalizations have steadily climbed to four-month highs, new daily COVID cases have held steady for the past couple of months.
The new cases are being undercounted because results of widely available at-home tests aren’t being reported for government tabulation. The Fourth of July holiday has also caused reporting delays. And many states have stopped providing daily updates, as the New York Times reported.
“There’s no question in my mind that we’re missing a vast majority of infections right now,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said on NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” on Thursday. “The truth is, there are probably several hundred thousand, four or five hundred thousand, infections today happening across the country.”
That would put the daily case count at levels seen during the January surge of the omicron variant. The current outbreak is now mostly the result of the fast-spreading BA.5 subvariant, named the dominant strain this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. READ MORE...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)