Friday, 1 October 2021
The fog lasted and lasted this morning, although it just looks odd in this photo of the ghost elm.
Speaking of odd, a rough-skinned heirloom squash.
Another local sign. A now truncated parking area…gravel, so unorganized.
Saturday, 25 September 2021
I believe that today is number 365 of My Life with Apple Watch [not iWatch].
I have decided that of all the metrics for moving around and being busy on a daily basis, the most useful for me is “Move,” that is, the red ring. Move is portrayed as calories over baseline/basal counts (the calories needed to exist). Move clearly reacts to walking or running, and I assume cycling and swimming and skiing. Move still increases if you are active but not walking, and say gardening or house-cleaning. On this: yay for Move measurements.
Other places, Apple refers to Move as Active Energy, and and the basal metabolism as Resting Energy. Apple indicates that the units of both are calories, by which they mean calories just as you see listed in nutrition tables.
It is my belief that both these Energy measures exceed non-Apple calorie counts, so that they are below 75% of non-Apple calories, at about 72–73%. I derived this from looking at my two energies versus my approximate calorie intake, and watching it closely for weeks on end.
So I was not surprised to read this week a NYT article, “Your Workout Burns Fewer Calories Than You Think,” by Gretchen Reynolds (September 22), which says that despite careful measurements of energy expenditure, “most people seemed to be burning only about 72 percent as many additional calories, on average, as would be expected, given their activity levels.” I promise you I came up with 72% before I read the Reynolds article. The scientists who did the study do not know why the descrepancy.
I have said for a long time that a calorie is real and accurate in a test tube and in a laboratory, and it’s a great concept, but that energy does not measure the same in a body. Somehow.
Friday, 24 September 2021
Rainy evening cleared overnight, so we have a full barrel, yet no dry plants, and darned little growth this time of the year. The downspout was still dripping, hence the active distortion.
Our big event was that we drove to the nearest county library, which has a true, lovely reading room. Note the air cleaner tower, right, by the newspaper desk. I picked up a Louise Penny and an Anne Hillerman (daughter of…) for relaxation, while the Guru was getting us some moving picture entertainment using their sorta fast connection.
Taking advantage of the gorgeous day, I walked late, including along the edge of this christmas tree forest (lots of quiet shade away from the road). The orange flags are new, and I assume they indicate that these generously sized spruces are going on a trip this year.
Thursday, 23 September 2021
I tried to make a transportation theme for the day, and it could have worked except for this photo. And I had to include it because: proof of sun…when I walked this morning. Still: breezy and cold-ish, but some sun. Oh, yay.
Sometime after noon, or I guess 1pm, we decided that the afternoon probably would have windy, cold-ish, and no sun, so we’d head to A Small City for errands, groceries, and…a bite to eat. We discussed the options, west, southwest, and east, and their pros and cons, and decided on east: that is, Sault Ste. Marie.
For our final stop, a burger, we headed to Clyde’s, duh. Closed for the season. Oh, no. But we did get to see a school bus on the Sugar Island Ferry adjacent to Clyde’s parking lot…through heavy fog.
However, this summer, Newberry friends extolled the virtues of West Pier, which they prefer to Clyde’s. And it was open! For two more whole days! Lucky us—our first visit could happen. Excellent burgers, but no bison version, which is what we order at Clyde’s. This is how you broaden your horizons, folks.
And from West Pier, we had a great view of The Bridge to a Foreign Land, although traffic counts are miniscule with the border closed to all non-essential traffic. Also, we listened to the CBC as we left SSM, and heard all about their nationwide average of 80% of adults fully vaxxed, yet also too-full hospitals in rural areas in Alberta and Saskatchewan (if I remember correctly). However, a large stadium is expected to be packed for a hockey match this weekend. So, Canadians also…well, I’ll just stop there.
Wednesday, 22 September 2021
That is, here we are on the first day of autumn, and look at those leaves…a metric for the season-change?
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
So much individuality in these little free libraries. This is a brand new one, been around perhaps a week, at least in this location. [Note: individuality NOT personality.]
And, once again, an insect photo-bombs a flower photo. As they do.
Wednesday, 8 September 2021
This is not far from yesterday’s Tree of Refuge, and the parking zone (official? I do not think so) is at the bottom of a moderate hill…and the rain/deluge made the rides into a big blue metal pile. Abandoned property?
I think the slight haziness is my fault…a smear on the lens.
I was surprised to see that a cloud obscured some of the buildings…I thought it was clear, clear, clear.
This was after I cleaned the lens.
Saturday, 4 September 2021
We still have a few bills we have to pay in an addressed envelope with a stamp and the appropriate bells and whistles. Seems “so last century.”
“So last century” is a Guru phrase. Patented?
Friday, 3 September 2021
I had to look this beauty up (as in: trigger my iNaturalist app). I thought surprise lily-ish, but not quite. And it isn’t quite.
It’s a Lycoris species, native to a big swath of Asia, as far west as Iran. One of its nicknames here in the south is hurricane lily, as it blooms during…wait for it: hurricane season.
Friday, 27 August 2021
In Joshua Rothman’s “Thinking it Through” (New Yorker, Aug 23rd), I came across the term motivated reasoning. He writes that it’s when your gut tells you what to think and your mind then figures out how to think it (paraphrasing).
Earlier on the Gail/Anthony/Tony show, I had seen a clip of a woman at the mic at a school board meeting on mask-wearing by attending children, who declared, “Science is not facts.”
Sounds like motivated reasoning.