Torrid Tuesday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Since so many of you are having hot weather, I thought this was appropriate.

It is the mugginess here, not the heat. So it isn't so much the feeling of opening the oven and being hit with a blast of heat as going into a sauna that isn't quite hot enough. Every time we get moving around, we end up soaked in sweat. It has been raining on and off and we've stopped thinking about it and wearing jackets 'just in case' because if we did, we'd be soaked from sweat long before the rain made us wet!

I hope all of you can stay cool through the day.

Don't forget to drink lots of water!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

We are settled in at White Point now. The cabin has three bedrooms but we had to take the top bunk mattress down and put it on the floor because the 4 year old isn't safe to sleep up there. Then it was decided the parents would split up and each take a kid in their room. The 2 year old is awake now and playing with magnetic dress-up dolls.

This is our only full day here.

Dinner last night was Subway because all the restaurants in town are closed on Mondays and the first seating we could get at the resort was 7.15. Plus the cheapest entree was $27. It was actually good to eat something simpler for a change. Tonight will be the seafood diner.

Tomorrow will be on the ferry since it leaves at 5:30.

[CathyS]

Hi Kathryn! It's humid here. Dh had opened some windows last night because it was cool and breezy. This morning it's humid and now I have to get the house cooled down. Windows have all been shut and all fans and air conditioners are on.

There is clean laundry in the dryer and clean dishes in the dishwasher. I have the dryer on the wrinkle free setting, so I will race myself to get the clean dishes put away before the dryer buzzes.

[Harriet]

Good morning, Kathryn and Cathy - I agree with both of you, HUMID.

Our air quality today is called "poor" and it gives an index (with which I am unfamiliar) and places us at 135. I normally wouldn't know this but it's front and center of the news.

Last evening, perhaps it was a mistake, but I went out and watered the garden beds that require a watering can, so that was some toting and back and forth, rather than just turning on a spigot. I noticed that it seemed hazy and oppressive. From then on, I felt like I had the start of a cold , and felt it through the night, too. I hope I'm better this a.m. We've been informed of a package being left in our mailbox, but I don't even want to go out there an extra time.

Dreaded phone call duty this a.m. and two long appts I just knew weren't supposed to be scheduled so close together, time-wise, do turn out to be right. (2 months from now) I'm disappointed because it will make for a hard day then. I guess someone else's idea was to get it all over with at once. I don't know, sounds difficult to me.

Laundry upcoming for me, too.

Magnetic dress-up dolls sound like a fun toddler toy, Kathryn.

That is an unusual declutter of alphabet letters, Harmony! Sounds like you worked together well.

lol at lucylee's ds and his vacuum cleaner suspicions.

Atomic Habits book I mentioned last night - anyone have an opinion?

[MysteryWoman]

Good morning!

Well, my l**t and I disappeared last night. I had left something very important off -- dinner! I am one for takeout dinners when DH is not home (one additional way in which my eating habits could use improvement), but I've got a boatload of vegetables to use up. I think some will come on the trip with us. We typically take a large cooler anyway. I don't know if the room we have has a kitchenette or not. (At the place we're staying, about half of them do.)

So, this morning's l**t:

Meet (online) with dfriend regarding work (not happening first, but top of the list anyway)
Pay medical bills
Clean off tray table
Keep up with dishes
Tidy bathroom
Catch up on laundry: Reds (currently in dryer)
Catch up on laundry: Lights
Dead flowers to compost
Clean up my dining table hot spot
Make packing l**t

I've got DD in the kitchen making muffins to use up the blueberries. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough sugar, so we are using part allulose. It is supposed to bake well; we'll see. If it's a failure, well, we probably would have thrown out the blueberries.

Harriet, this nutritionist is new. I saw one in the past, but it has been long enough since I saw her that they have assigned me to someone else. My nutritionist referral ran out just before the refrigerator died. At some point thereafter, I was asked if I wanted another referral, but it seemed pointless when my access to fresh food was limited. In retrospect, I bet the nutritionist could have helped me find ways to eat healthy (or at least healthier) with diminished access to fresh food. Alas.

I am going to log on to the work computer to make sure I have things ready for the meeting, then I'll start on those bills.

[Twins' Mom]

We're supposed to have a high of 93 today but we also have smoke cloud cover going. We're into the Unhealthy level now.

I've walked the dog a mile. I almost had to chase down the garbage truck - I think P & P laughed about it in one of their books, although that was in pajamas. I saw the truck come in when I was on the other side of the circle, luckily he went down the "alley" or middle of the circle first and I got home, got the door poop (from walks) into the can and got it on the street. I even had time to come in and get the kitchen garbage bag and get it in, just as he drove up. The truck doesn't usually come that early!

Dental appt at 11 and then workout at 2. The dental office texted to ask if I wanted to come in at 10 because they had a cancellation, but I didn't think I could get there by 10.

Right now I need to finish a.m. routine, but breakfast and s2s are the two must-dos before I go out. At least I can check off walking the dog and getting the garbage can out.

Harriet, here's a site to monitor air quality if you're interested, I think Kathryn shared it originally. https://www.airnow.gov Ours is just over 151 on that site, but another that has local monitoring stations says the closest one to us is 171. There's also a link to a smoke map.

I read a good part of Atomic Habits I think when it was first published. Basically building habits that make incremental changes in your life instead of setting goals. Kind of like we build routines, which are habits with a reminder, I think. It is a worthwhile read.

[Lady Maverick]

Good Morning!

Yesterday afternoon I voluntarily stopped my normal activities while researching 10th grade curriculum. I was successful in finding the Math course that I think will work best for DS14. I am relieved because Math is a big challenge for him. I still need to find the curriculum that will work for the other subjects. School starts in three weeks, so I don't have a lot of time to prepare the lesson plans.

Atomic Habits chat - I love that book and have pages of notes that I've taken while reading it. IMHO the book can be life changing if adopting some of the methods it teaches. However, i found it to be like trying to drink from a fire hose. There is so much information that it can't all be learned and put to use at the same time. Here is a small cut/paste of my notes.

** Search for tiny improvements in everything you do.

** Hire a surgeon to teach the best way to wash hands to reduce the chances of germs on hand making us sick

** The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding.

** Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous.

** We often dismiss small changes because they don't seem to matter very much in the moment. A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to go a very different destination.

** Success is the product of daily habits - they are not once in a lifetime transformation.

** You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

** Your outcomes are the lagging measure of your habits. Your weight is lagging measure of your eating habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. You get what you repeat.

** Habits are a double-edge sword. Bad habits are to be avoided.

[Nancy]

UP at regular time no truck woke me today.
Got the coffee maker out on the deck and enjoyed my morning qt.
I have been watering.
Moved the can to the curb.
Got the patio chairs out of the carport and on the patio.
Set up a storage snack area on the deck for my video of the day.
Was going to paint the crates but will change that to a sunflower theme they will go with that.
Got the shelving back up and out I was trying to get bar height and I think I succeeded.
If you have a stand up bar how tall is it?
I am close with this with in a couple of inches I think.
41 to 43 Inches according to seri.

[CathyS]

Dishwasher got emptied and refilled. It's doing it's thing again. I prefer to run the dishwasher at night, but it was completely full, so it's going now because there isn't any room for tonight's supper dishes.

I did a better job with the dishes when we didn't have hot water coming out of the taps. The pots and pans were done in a timely manner. Now I'm letting stuff pile up again. Today I am trying to catch up.

Clean laundry needs to be put away.

Fence guys got here before I woke up. They set up the compressor and ran some extension cords to the garage door. Then they went for breakfast at a local diner. They are at the point where 2 are still putting in the screws and 1 is cleaning up and putting the scrap wood in our trailer. I will wait until the wind dies down before I have a fire. That won't be today.

Dh and I took a load to the landfill. We also had brunch. A neighbour just stopped by to tell us how great this fence looks. Of course dh needed to show him the hall way and the hot water tank.

[Lady Maverick]

Nancy - your new deck looks fantastic! What a wonderful place to enjoy the outdoors. I am so happy for you!

I have accomplished the first 4 hourly step goals of my day. I spent all four of them outdoors because it is still cool enough (95F) to be enjoyable. In a couple hours it will be 107F and I will switch to walking indoors.

A lifelong VDFriend called this morning and asked if we would move her empty trash can from the road (after trash truck came by) to the side of her home. This makes my heart happy for her to call for help. We lived next door to Megan when she was born, and we have watched her grow up and thrive for the past 40 years. When Meagan was born the cord was wrapped around her neck. She survived but the lack of oxygen has resulted in Meagan being uniquely her. She has lived her entire 40 years in this small town which means she is surrounded by a lifelong community that watches out for her. Meagan has been told the heat is dangerous and she is doing her best to protect her 2 boys. She needed to get that empty trash can from the road but didn't want to take her boys outside in the dangerous heat. She called for help to solve this "problem". If you know her, you know this is uniquely Megan. I love her.

More of my notes from reading Atomic Habits -

** Mastery requires patience. Change can take years before it happens all at once.
**All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision

Forget about goals, focus on systems instead

** Goals are about the result you want to achieve. Systems are about the process that led to those results.
** Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Successful and unsuccessful people often have the same goals. Obviously, both don't achieve them. What is the difference? Successful people implement a system of continuous small improvements that result in a different outcome from just setting a goal.

Achieving a goal only changes your life FOR A MOMENT.
What we really need to change are the systems that cause these results.
A system focus mentality means you can be satisfied (happy) anytime your system is running.


System is a cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. It is a commitment to the process that will determine the progress.