Musings

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.

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on One year

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.

Posted at 7:31 PM | Comments Off on Sunny sun sun

That is, here we are on the first day of autumn, and look at those leaves…a metric for the season-change?

Posted at 7:57 PM | Comments Off on Maple measurement

Thought I’d offer a visual to go with the reference yesterday to an artesian well; here it is—I returned today. And when I was there it was lightly spitting rain. That let up fast and the sun came and went all day, although my device indicates that it will fall into the high 40s tonight. That’s almost 20°F cooler than last night. Have to go switch to the heavy quilt. Again.

Posted at 7:11 PM | Comments Off on Follow up

I felt like walking more than usual when I started out this morning, and made my goal an artesian well over on the next mile-road. Which means I got a drink and turned around. Wonderful.

The farmer had this pond made so he could pasture cattle instead of grow hay on these fields, way back when I was in elementary school. No cattle; back to hay. And nature is infilling the pond. As you’d expect. [Same farmer, however; he’s gotta be in his mid- to late-80s.]

Posted at 6:27 PM | Comments Off on About five miles

Just north of Clare (MI) on US-127, the road goes up a hill, or what’s a hill in these parts. I think it’s a glacial something, moraine perhaps. Anyway, this is it. If you were riding a bicycle, you would certainly notice this hill. North of it the country is rolling and the soils are different, and thus so is the vegetation. My mother always called this the North Country Hill, and her voice had such seriousness, that I always imagined it to be capitalized.

This set us up to get to The Bridge, and the local drive-in, Clyde’s, where we got a late lunch/early dinner of bison burgers. Mmmm.

Did the most urgent cleaning and unpacking, and walked down to the lake to catch the last of the sun on the trees on the point. Our point. It’s far less of a point than it used to be, a victim of much higher water levels and scrounging of the rocks that made it by neighbors. The rocks were below the water line, so there was nothing we could do.

Despite irregular setting of the apple blossoms and the negative effects of an earlier infestation of leaf-eating Lymantria dispar (used to be called gy- -psy moths), we do have some apples. I don’t think they’re on the “best” trees, but they will do. Great color.

Posted at 8:11 PM | 1 Comment »

Once again, I create a post while the Guru is driving and by the miracle of technology I can upload it for your reading plezhur.

This morning was quiet-with-coffee, then a mini whirlwind of organizing, packing, cleaning, and miscellany. Then, under intermittent rain, we headed into the mountains, where the rain mostly ceased. After a hundred miles or two the overcast disappeared, and the sunset was clear. In Kentucky.

And after I make this post, the plan is to head on into, tahdah, Uh-hi-uh. Yup, northbound, we are.

Posted at 7:30 PM | Comments Off on GA to KY, and beyond

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.

Posted at 8:09 PM | 1 Comment »

The vegetation is still mostly green leaves and late summer, but this flower caught a dry oak leaf…thinking it might be last year’s…but, then, how’d it get airborne?…leaf blower?

Posted at 8:45 PM | Comments Off on I’m over-thinking

Streets were quiet this morning, more quiet than I expected. I did check in on the construction site. It’s going to be a while before anyone moves in.

If they were here, I’d give these flowers to our friends who married today in a Covid-careful (limited to close family only) ceremony in another state. They have our love, and this flower photo from the Deep South, with our bestest weeshes.

Posted at 8:17 PM | Comments Off on Special day