Five things friday (frenzy)

This day has already seemed kind of like the month of January, which has so far felt like nearly a year... I'm ready for 2026 to be over already!

Although... it's not like it's been all bad. It just started off that way. I did score a couple Wilco tickets this morning, and I'm pretty pumped about them coming to town in April!

Anyway, here's five random things that you may or may not care about...

1. DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Yeah, there's that song... but also... my day started off with my watch not working.

A couple years ago I started wearing my Garmin Forerunner 45 watch around-the-clock (no pun intended). It tracks miles, steps, stress, and sleep (among other things). It took me a while to adjust to a healthy relationship with this - where I wasn't checking it all the time - and now I just check in a couple times a day. First thing in the morning is one of those times.

Well, apparently there was an automatic update last night... and it must have disconnected everyone's watch from their phones. At least that's what my app said when I went to check it first thing this morning. There was an apology, and it simply said to reconnect your device. Ha! Sure.

I tried and tried and tried to reconnect my watch to my phone... and it just pissed me off more and more. Finally I needed to get on with my life, so I just let it go. I did my run, went to lunch, washed the car... yada yada yada... and just now tried it again. It worked right away. I wish they'd have just told me to wait this morning, instead of me making myself crazy trying a bunch of stuff that apparently wasn't going to work anyway.

I suppose this is a 'first-world problem' though, right? (Is the USA still a first-world country?)

2. RUNNING

I've been running indoors for the past two weeks. I need to get outside again! Ugh.

This morning I ran 9 miles on the treadmill. I believe this is my last single-digit "long run" until the end of April. It really wasn't too bad - mostly because I wore a new pair of shoes (my white Glycerin 22s). I got one of the nice treadmills and didn't even listen to music or anything. I walked every 2.5 miles to take a drink (Tailwind berry flavored endurance fuel). Mostly I ran at 5.7-5.8 mph. I also saw a number of people and a couple of them chatted with me at different times while I was running.

All my runs these past two weeks have been on a treadmill, except one day I ran on the indoor track at the Y my daughter works at. Mmmmm... I didn't care for it too much. It was sooo hot, and it's pretty short. It takes 14 laps to make it one mile. I did three miles, and that seemed like a lot of times around. Plus I had trouble navigating the banked corners, especially if I was going around a walker, or the old man who was mopping. There are only two lanes.

Next week I hope to start running outside again. I hope...

3. RUNNING AROUND

I didn't have much time to lollygag this morning because I had a lunch "thing" at 11:30 this morning. That's partly why the watch situation upset me so (I ended up putting it in my watch manually - you know, because otherwise it doesn't count). 

Every month or so I meet for lunch with a group of people who work out at the Y where I work out (and where I used to work). Today we met at The Club Room at The Clyde, and there were fifteen of us. There are maybe a couple dozen if everyone ever showed up at the same time. Everyone is my age or older, and it's a somewhat eclectic group, if I do say so myself. Everyone is married, though myself and another lady don't ever bring our spouses, and one couple is two gay men (I don't know if they're married or not).

A few people are newer to the group and I don't know them very well, but otherwise I like everybody. We're all fairly different, but everyone has a pretty cool story. A couple are world travelors, a couple authors, two of the old guys played volleyball most of their lives (yes, they're tall), and... I don't know... it's just an interesting group. It's funny how we all just chat and don't really even have to think of things to say. I don't know that I've ever been part of a group of people like this in my life. It feels good to be included...

4. CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT ALCOHOL?

I get a lot of my news from the 1440 daily newsletter (email). It seems to be fairly unbiased, and generally gives me 'just enough' news, without too much... Anyway...

Today there was this article 'Can Civilization Function Without Alcohol?' that I found fairly interesting. 

It discusses "dry January" (we did a partial dry January in that we didn't drink at home, mostly), and the definite health benefits of not drinking alcohol. However, it also points out some of the benefits of alcohol on our society - especially in light of some of the alternatives we think are out there. I had never given much thought to any of this.

One other item of note, was the role GLP-1 use can play (which I was totally unaware of). As they say:

"GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may reshape drinking culture by accident. Designed for diabetes and weight loss, they dampen the dopamine reward pathways that make alcohol feel good. ... As these medications spread, millions may find themselves functionally sober as a side effect, without ever deciding to quit." 

Who knew???

5. THE QUOTE

“The worst thing a jerk can do is to turn you into a jerk.” —​ Frank Oppenheimer (boy, do I resemble that remark -- both sides of it!)

 

Okay, well... I know you likely have a way busier day than I do, so... get on with it!

Stay cool... (but not cold).