Here it is, the last day of May, 2019 and a mere seven more months to reach my goal. So, I’m just like this girl featured above, trying to get my steps in and keep a smile on my face at the same time. I’m up to 362 miles (583 km) as of this morning’s walk. After it got lighter in the morning, I was able to add an extra mile, even a mile and a half to my daily tally. If it was a storm in the morning, and it cleared up at day’s end, I walked after work. Just this week, I had computer issues at work and two mornings were spent dealing with our tech, so I walked in the evenings to not lose any steps. In the evening, it’s not the same ambiance and experience at the Park, and I knew that would be so, but I went anyway. So onward and upward to meet my goal – fingers crossed I make it, but I must admit my confidence is sagging a wee bit. Sure, there are seven months left in the year, but December cannot be counted on for regular walks due to potential snow/ice, sometimes even November for the same reason, and, when the sun rises later in the morning in late September/October, my steps get cut down. And there is always the weather to factor in. I understand we will have a cool and rainy June, a dry July and a very hot August. I still have 880 miles (1,416 km) left to meet my goal – there will be a whole lotta walkin’ goin’ on for this gal!
I saw a story on Michael Posner, the walker I told you about that is trekking across the U.S. on a 3,000-mile (4,828 km) journey. Mike took a few days off this week to visit his home state of Michigan for a wedding and a benefit concert, then he was back on the road again. This side trek means he is not walking through Michigan near me now. That’s a bummer, as I thought I might like to join him for a few miles if he was close by. This was purely a social visit in his hometown and no walking was done. You can click here to see a recent article The Detroit News did on Mike’s walk across America.
My favorite meteorologist says this is not the wettest Spring on record, though it sure feels like it – we had rain 25 of 31 days this month. I hope that June will be drier, but I’m not going to complain as the weather across the U.S. is not just abysmal like ours – it is also deadly. It takes my breath away to read about the damage from the worst tornado outbreak in a few weeks’ time in history. Some tornadoes were in Ohio and Indiana, essentially states that are Michigan’s neighbors
Another casualty of so much rain, often on the weekends, is there has been no chalk art on sidewalks and driveways to photograph and share in my posts. Perhaps the kids don’t want to waste an afternoon creating chalk artwork that the rain will just wash away. I can’t say that I blame them, do you?
I made a grand find last Sunday at Council Point Park. Some enterprising young artist (or maybe more than one) had taken their chalk and created a slew of flowers and abstract images, including this girl featured at the top and bottom of this post. They were smart to draw under the pavilion roof where their artwork is protected from the raindrops. The drawings were vivid and the artist(s) left some of their chalk behind, and I was tempted to be like my friend Ann Marie who often leaves a message in chalk when she sees chalk drawings.
Just like the first picture below that features the sun, we are also enjoying a sunny day today.
Hope you like the flowers and flourishes in the images below. I’ll leave you with this quote:
“Look at life with the eyes of a child.” ~ Henri Matisse
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Things are looking up! 🙂 Happy good Friday, Linda!
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Thanks Uncle Tree – finally a sunny day today, got some extra steps in too. (Smiles and miles.)
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Love that quote!
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Glad you liked it – it fit with these chalk drawings Ruth.
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glad you had a sunny day – love the chalk art – and matisse quote
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I thought you might enjoy this chalk art and the quote Yvette. The sunny day was appreciated – we have two storms coming in early afternoon/late afternoon or early evening. We have the Grand Prix events this weekend, so the organizers are all aflutter about that, not just rain, but potentially severe weather.
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Hope the weather does not impact the Grand Prix too much
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They had to shut it down for a few hours. The storm rolled through the area right at 3:00 p.m. and the event today (Chevy Duel) was to go at 3:00 p.m. They had to get spectators off the island as there is no place for them to seek shelter, no concrete buildings, so they had to get them onto shuttle buses ASAP and to a big building in safety. The storm blew through and I lost my four for 3 1/2 hours. The weather is so erratic anymore … we have more severe weather coming later this evening and it’s been rumbling out there for around an hour and torrential rain. This is not the norm for our weather at all.
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Oh wow – we had some heavy rain last night here in VA – but today was nicer
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My friend Evelyn in RVA has been mentioning your stormy weather … we have rain this morning, but since it’s not a work day I can get out for a walk when it is over mid-day, though they said gray and gloomy and more sprinkles. It is a little exasperating.
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oh sending virtual sunshine your way and hope you get your steps in for the weekend 🙂
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Thank you Yvette – it worked. It ended up being a nice day after all and I did get 6 miles in today.
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Woo
Hoo
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Awe Linda, what a shame Mike didn’t walk near you. That would have been so nice! You are doing so good. I can’t imagine walking 362 miles in 5 months!
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I was bummed Diane – I thought it would be fun to catch up with Mike if he was near me in the day time … he will visit other locales in Michigan, (as far as I know) but not near here. I stepped up my steps the last few weeks when it got lighter and I don’t like the long-range predictions of lots of rain, then lots of heat – ugh. But, I still will strive to get it done if possible. The weather has been so fractious … we have two storms today, early afternoon and later in the day. The Grand Prix is in town and they have races scheduled on Belle Isle both days … it is an island and they block off vehicular traffic except for shuttle buses or bikes, so they are worried about evacuating everyone to shelter, off the island, in the event of severe weather.
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Yikes!
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I think it’s amazing that you have as many miles in as you have. And rain 25 out of 31 days – that is crazy! I would say we are close behind – and certainly haven’t had many days of sun the whole month. Today was supposed to be sunny but was overcast again. I’m way behind again in my Reader Linda – but just checking in. Another busy week of appliance shopping etc. I’m looking at sinks and faucets on the weekend, but am wondering if I should just let the plumber order one. It’s not like I’m going to spend a ton of money on some designer stuff stuff anyway, and he can probably get a discount. Not only am I behind on here, but my veggies all sit waiting to be planted some sunny day – rain and thunderstorms again tomorrow. I wonder if they’ll spend the summer in the garage.
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I am surprised too Joni – I keep a log and hadn’t looked since the end of April. I usually give an update once a month and was a little scared to look at my walking log. I have walked a few times after work because of stormy mornings – my wet weather gear sits but that’s okay, I did get out at night … we have some bad weather coming in this afternoon and evening – two different stormy events. We have the Grand Prix in town three days – yesterday was Free Prix Day and kids/parents could say “hi” to the various drivers, visit the pit crews, etc. We have one race this afternoon and big one tomorrow. The organizers worry about getting everyone off the island due to lightning and severe weather this afternoon. You are lucky you did not plant your veggies – I think they would have “wet feet” … I can remember planting mums one Fall. Two days later had horrible rainstorms (not predicted or I would have kept them under the patio roof in their pots) … the dirt eroded away and they got root rot … yikes! I am going out in a few minutes. Already very humid out … thanks for catching up here. I am behind in Reader. Nodded off last night as it was hot in the house and had left off the A/C as storms were expected overnight … worked late last night (nearly 8:00 p.m.) as my boss is out for a week beginning tomorrow a.m. and I could not remote in to work for almost two days due to a Comcast issue. I would let the plumber pick them because most certainly he will get a discount and you are not going with designer appliances … that’s what I would do.
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I think that is what I will do. Lowes had the same one he picked out for 40 dollars more. I looked at paint samples today – and bought a small pint to try out on the wall. Sales clerk suggested I look at it day and night, shade and sun – HA! He must be joking. When I came out of the store I got caught in a torrential downpour. Sat in the car for twenty minutes before I could drive. Now it’s raining again. I am being stubborn and not turning on the A/C yet, as it is supposed to get colder again. Have you got your new computers from work yet, and are you struggling with Windows? Is your shoulder better, now that you are not posting as much?
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Hi Joni – Yes, let him get his discount, plus anything he needs for hooking up anything as well. The rain – you are getting what we are getting – we had rain three times (torrential each time), storms twice yesterday. I walked in the morning – hot and humid. I turned on the A/C yesterday morning – it was only 74 in the house and I don’t turn on the Ac til it is hotter, but the humidity was very high and I knew we had a stormy day so I hoped to take much humidity away … it didn’t help though. I have forgotten to make the appointment for their routine service check – it was so cold. I usually have them in early June. I have to do that tomorrow … it was so chilly I never thought of it and sometimes if it is too chilly, they can’t do the check and cancel the appointment. The storm came through at 3:00 p.m. and I lost my power at 3:02 … off for 3 1/2 hours and was hoping to catch up here and in Reader as I didn’t want to start a post with a lot of pics due to the volatile day. I came back here to WordPress after the power came on and within minutes it started rumbling outside … stayed here, then it got stormy and I was fed up and went to bed. They said it would rain this morning so I just slept in – shouldn’t have and should have done things in the house, but exasperated with the weather. It is still drizzling but will clear up later and we’re going to 40 degrees tonight. It dropped 20 degrees after the first storm.
I got the new laptop on Thursday night – he had not done anything to it to configure it – I had three hours of updates and he showed me how to turn it on and off and he set my home page (work) and put in the wireless info … I had hours of updates and then shut it off. I have to plug it in as I unplugged the laptops during all storms and left them unplugged all night which I normally do for my laptops (my regular one and this one I’m on now – very old and missing keys, and has no battery power, but I never unhook them anyway) … it is a workhorse and thats why I wanted another HP but he ordered a Dell so hopefully no issues. I don’t have Office on it either – he will have to remote in to do that to the new computer – have to have Word as the computer system at work will go down and have to be able to still function. Windows 10 overwhelmed me to be honest – I watched a video last week in anticipation of him bringing the new one (which he only did because he had to test if I could remote into work if I didn’t use Comcast – he used a “hot spot” (his smartphone) to do so. ) My shoulder is much better but I attribute it also to sleeping with an empty paper towel cardboard tube up my PJ sleeve. It forces me to keep my arm straight – that could be one thing as I noticed I was sleeping with my arm in the same position so essentially only when eating or walking or standing up was my arm not in that position, and I have done less posts.
I will try to do three this week – hopefully one today and two during the week – I have a lot of photos accumulated and don’t want them to get stale. But I think posting only 2 times a week maybe is helping it too. I don’t have much pain in that I can reach behind my back to put the fanny pack on – I couldn’t do that in the Fall and I can reach above my head (most of the time … doing my hair into a high ponytail is still a challenge and when I go outside I have a little knob, as I put it into a small bun in the front of my head as I can’t reach further back) and I have some better range of motion in my arm. I try to hang my arm down when I’m not typing, just reading. I think that is helping too. Thank you for asking me about it Joni.
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I hate all those computer changes…..but you’re better with computers than I am, so I’m sure you’ll have it mastered in no time! But it sounds complicated, with plenty of potential for things to go wrong. It’s good to hear your arm is better, probably from a combination of things. I find now that I’m not on here as much, I’ve been too busy to miss it, but it’s also my favourite time of year so I want to enjoy it when the sun does come out – the weather hopefully will get better this week, with rain only for Wed. Hoping to get some more yard word done and my veggies planted tomorrow after the electrician comes for the quote. I hope he remembers to come! Still have not had a quote from the painter, although he seemed nice. Nice does not always equate to getting back to you though! Enjoy your day – it’s sunny here finally, but a cool north wind.
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I hate computer changes too Joni and I’m not going to worry at all about the accounting program right now (the software is all new and will be a stand-alone program … our current Timeslips is 2003 and this will be Timeslips 2019). We have to keep using the old database for the rest of the time in business. So I have to put all the client info/rates, etc. in before using it. I’m in no hurry for getting that done as we’ll keep using the old accounting program – we could not transfer our data to the new program as it is too old a version that we were using. So I just checked in at work and my boss e-mailed me that he told our computer guy to do the installs while he is gone this week so I said he really can’t as you can’t remote into your work station to check e-mail, respond to clients. And I haven’t looked at the new computer. And Ron never dropped off Robb’s computer. Everything is messed up and as confusing as your kitchen remodel. Hopefully the electrician does not forget you and I was amazed when you said the one contractor was booked up til September. Maybe people do more renovations in Spring/Summer? We had a cool day, tomorrow too. but it ended up being sunny and nice in the end. I did my long gosling post as I had tons of pictures from yesterday and Friday to sort through. I think, like you said, it is a combination of things. I am sitting at this old laptop and I can stretch my left arm out straight and type that way. At the regular laptop I use all the time, I put a wireless keyboard there … that was supposed to alleviate any hand issues trying to reach the keyboard. I’d like to know the origin of the problem but can’t see going to a doctor for it … my mom went to PT for weeks and weeks and we continued the therapy at home, even rented the TENS unit and got the hot packs, to no avail. We actually have a few nice weather days coming up – one thunderstorm Wednesday night. I will get more miles in to try to make this goal, especially since June did not sound promising … many chilly rainy days on the horizon.
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Messed up and confusing leads to feeling overwhelmed! My electrician did show up, he was very nice and very smart – I had a good feeling. Of course it wasn’t all good news as I apparently don’t have enough circuits – you need separate dedicated circuits for each appliance now – which I’m not surprised about as the hydro has never been upgraded in this old house. So it is what it is. I guess the best we can do, with my project and yours, is just take it one day at a time. I did yard work all afternoon, pruned the rest of the dead wood from the rose bushes, I figured if it wasn’t growing by now, it wouldn’t, planted my veggies, picked up the branches from the yard from the Sat. storm, and cleaned up the daffodils and tulips – so I’m beat. Will read tomorrow. Did your rose bushes and lilacs finally recover or are they dead? I lost one rose bush and one Rose of Sharon.
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I’m sorry to hear that Joni and it is probably like that here too … my mom used the toaster oven all the time as it was easier for her than bending to get stuff in/out of the oven, especially after her carpal tunnel surgery and she once made a pumpkin pie for Canadian Thanksgiving, and her wrist was not strong enough and the pie went skidding off the cookie sheet and onto the floor, narrowly missing burning her legs (which would not have been good considering the cellulitis issues in her legs). I had said I’d put it in/out of the oven for her on Sunday, but she was a little stubborn and wanted to do it on the actual holiday. When my mom was confined to bed and I was cooking and using the toaster oven, I did not like how hot the cord got, even though it was a heavy-duty cord and I don’t like to use it – left it there, but unplugged. Electricity issues scare me and I recently noticed when I have the radio on and turn off/on the bathroom light, the radio clicks and makes a noise. Don’t like that either. Sigh. You have so much to get done with this remodeling job – are you sorry you embarked on it? I forgot to tell you last week because of the computer issues at work, then the stormy weather, power outage, etc., that my old lilacs have not gone anywhere, but the Miss Kim mini lilac, has bloomed after all these years – I planted it in the 90s sometime, maybe mid-90s. Not a lot, but maybe 10 blooms which is better than 0 blooms like it has done. My roses are not back and I’m not sure I will try to mess with them this year … this would be the third year for them not greening up and they no longer get sun on one side due to my neighbor’s high vinyl fence and there is shade from the trees on the other side … that no doubt does not help them in the Summer – no sun and they’ll be riddled with blackspot. I am a little fed up in the yard to be honest. And I came home one day to see water all over the sidewalk – I knew it wasn’t raining and looked up to see a dove taking a bath in the gutters. A dove so that much water!!! That told me there was lots of water in the gutters which were cleaned out in late November – they are usually done June and November. So there was elm seeds slopped down the sides of the gutters in two places and the maple seeds had not yet fallen, so there is some other type of blockage up there. Saturday it was hot and humid and 75 degrees when I left the house and yesterday I wore a Winter coat and there was a strong north breeze and it was 44 degrees (p.s. – I was cold and had a sweatshirt on underneath). The weather is ridiculous
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Yes I am sorry I embarked on the kitchen reno project. If I had to do it over again I wouldn’t, but then I may change my mind again when it’s done, if I like it and it all works out. I just still have paint to pick out, and cupboards to pack up, but I have several weeks to do that, so maybe just one or two cupboards a day, break it up into mini-jobs so it’s not so bad. Then, as my mother said, my part is done – and it’s up to the rest of them! That is so weird about the Miss Kim Lilac – it’s almost as if she knew you were talking about/disappointed in her! My Bloomerang lilacs have no smell, so I am disappointed in them, although they are a nice deep purple colour. Too bad about your roses, but then maybe they had just run their course – my mother had a nice one at the side of her house, which bloomed for a few years, but then died – not enough sun. A dove taking a bath in the gutter – now that would be a sight to see – you should have taken some pictures! I enjoyed being out in the yard yesterday because it was a coolish north wind and so fresh out – will not like the humidity moving in for tomorrow. I still need to get the patio furniture hand-washed, and the mildew off with vinegar and water. That is work I do not enjoy, but it needs to be done. A yard is a lot of work. I have not actually sat out on my deck yet, as it is either too cool or raining, but someday…… My nice neighbour blew all the maple keys off for me as I don’t own a leaf-blower. I did manage to get my veggies planted, and have had several salads from the lettuce I planted the first week of May, and have given some away, as it’s all ripe at once. Must get reading – I’m trying to stay caught up, even though I haven’t posted for two weeks. I skipped last week, but have a Literary Review to go up on Thursday which I had written back in March.
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You have lettuce already – I didn’t know it grew that fast!!a I know my mom and I always said “why did we embark on this and there will be clean-up every night and after the job is done” and I went through mess after mess in 2017 with the plumbing jobs (multiple), the all-house insulation (every room, garage and outside – a big mess and would not do it again). I caught up in Reader and have posts in my head and lots of pictures but have had no time. Wanted to catch up in Reader and that took way into the evening as I was so far behind. Today we have a stormy day and it is pouring out right now … no walk and it will storm and rain all day and very warm and keeping the A/C off anyway due to the storm, and the poplar fuzz is all over the place and will go into the condenser unit and I have not turned on the water, not taken out the hose as it had been so cold. So I can’t spray it off. I am behind in everything and the yard is overgrown – don’t care about the back right now so much as no one sees it but the front and side need to be pruned … I am going to set up the new laptop today as I may not be on here much due to the stormy weather and Robb, my boss, is away on business. Going to try and get up to speed with this new laptop – Ron has not come to do the work stations yet. P.S. – I did take the dove’s picture peeking over the top of the gutter and I took more gosling pics yesterday as it was a sunny day … have not looked at them yet. I need a week to myself to sort out everything and catch up. After today’s rainy/stormy weather we have good weather until Monday – yay for that!
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Lettuce is one of the few things you can put in in early May. I did cover it up with burlap though during a few frosts. And of course all that rain we had helped a lot! Another torrential downpour early this morning, it’s stopped, but not good for the farmers – so many don’t have any crops in and it’s getting late. Good luck with your computer! I’m going to spend some time today packing up dishes….
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We had torrential rain too and are supposed to have another storm before the sun goes tonight. Sigh. When I moved everything around on the table, I plugged the new cord in (the one that goes into the wall) and it was shorter than the HP cord by three feet. Three feet made a big difference. So I called to Dell to ask if they had a longer wall cord as my HP cord is 6 feet. I was put from one place to another and had to explain my story, and didn’t have an address for them to look up info (why I don’t know as I gave them the tag number) so after the fifth person transferring me, someone dropped the call. Irked, so I wrote and asked our computer guy to find out if using a regular extension cord was fine or did Dell have a longer wall cord? Texted him from the computer and e-mailed him – haven’t heard from him. You got your post done and I did a swan post, though I had thought to make it with a slideshow – last time I was able to switch to Classic Editor and do the regular slideshow. Nope, no longer can do that. So deleted some of the photos and just launched it like that (gallery style). I was fed up with computers today!
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I do not have fond memories of Dell. My first laptop was a Dell in 2000 and I ordered it online or via phone, so no instore tech help. I remember the cd player on it didn’t work right away and having to get another sent, and how frustrating it was to deal with them. Linda, are you still doing your posts in the new Block Editor? I switched back to Classic after the one.
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My first desktop was a Gateway right after Y2K, then I got a Dell – I had the old-style monitor (that looked like the old TV monitors) and the monitor never worked from day #1. We had it delivered to the office and my boss drove me home and carried it downstairs. I don’t remember if it was a convex or concave issue but the screen images were distorted and looked like an hourglass. So, therein a back-and-forth to the factory with two different monitors and finally my boss (who had purchased the Dell online via our computer guys) just told me to go to Best Buy and buy a new one which I did (a flat panel monitor, my first one) and never had issues afterward. I had asked for the HP as I’ve always had HP in laptops,. This one is very big – 17 inch screen which will be nice. I was disgusted with it yesterday and its short cord, so I didn’t use it all day and had some things going on at work as well during the day, plus we were expecting a stormy day (which didn’t happen until last night as I went out to walk and it was sunny when I left around 6:45 but before I got home it started to pour, not storm though). Grrrr. I am continuing to use the Block Editor, but a few weeks or a month ago, I did a post in Gutenberg, then switched to Classic to add a slideshow in that format. Trying to do a “hybrid” post, I did the slideshow, saved the changes and closed out of the post which was still in draft format. Returned to it and switched to Gutenberg and launched it that way – I had the best of both worlds, justified text, bigger headlines and a slideshow. I tried that last night – I could not find the Classic Editor icon at the right-hand side, so tried their gallery and the pics were so small, I scrapped the entire thing and loaded less pictures onto the post and did it one by one. Another thing, if you use the gallery in Gutenberg, you cannot adjust the picture size, nor center the pictures. They need to do more tweaking in my humble opinion.
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I think you are very brave for continuing on with it when it is still a work-in-progress!
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My patience has been tried with it … he is ordering me a 12-foot cord directly from Dell and I’d rather do that instead of using a regular extension cord. I worry about fires.
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I enjoyed the chalk art.
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I thought you would Anne – I remember you said you liked chalk art and I sent you some prior posts with it. This was really good art – I wonder if it was a child who did it? I’m guessing it is … they left a lot of chalk behind. It was nice to see it – I have seen zero chalk art … too many storms to wash it away. We have not one, but two storm events today, one of them severe. I have another post started – maybe I can finish when I return from walking – not sure and stayed late to finish all my work for Robb so I didn’t worry about getting it done around the storms and could get my walk in as well. The Grand Prix is in town and the organizers are very worried due to the weather – you can’t park on the island so to get off in the event of a storm, you have to take a shuttle bus. Hopefully the severe weather fizzles.
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Oh! Your weather!!! You don’t need any other entertainment.
Yes, I like chalk art. I never go anywhere to see it, so I loved seeing yours.
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Yes, I am frustrated with it and this is the second Spring like this so it is now my guess, even without a meteorological degree, that this is the “new norm” … they keep saying all this is a result of climate change, but we had three inches more rain in May last year, but not the volatile storms and even not volatile storms, just the ever-present threat of them. I hope once the rain is over and the kids are out of school to get more chalk art for my posts. It is raining now and I slept in, but it is clearing up mid-day so I’ll walk then. Clearing up as in chance of sprinkles and still gray and gloomy, no sun – it is on a holiday til tomorrow.
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I have faith in you, Linda. I think you will get your walking goal accomplished! Maybe when the weather gets cold again you will need to buy some Yak Trax. They slip on over your shoes and allow you to walk (or run) over ice and snow. They are not very expensive and I use them all the time.
We have been getting some rain here in PA, but it definitely is not our wettest spring on record. That was last summer for us. It seemed like it rained every day. Yesterday was beautiful – sunny and bright with low humidity. Earlier this week, we had some tornadoes touch down close to us. The house next to the one I grew up in was featured in the newspaper. No damage to the house, but lots of uprooted trees, some of them huge ones.
Thanks for sharing the chalk art with us. It makes me want to buy some chalk and make some sidewalk are. Unfortunately, we don’t have sidewalks where I live!
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Thank you for your vote of confidence Laurie … I just see this weather being problematic over and over again. I was willing to try walking in the rain, yet we have had several mornings with storms so I steered clear of that. I did walk after work – it was cooler and refreshing by then too. Even in October, there are mornings where there is black ice on the asphalt path at the Park and you have to be careful not to wipe out on it. Actually I have some Yak Trax and got them the last year I worked on site. Last Fall I bought a pair of crampons because my mail carrier told me she fell on the ice two or three times using the Yak Trax and I had gotten the stronger pair which was what she had. So I decided this would be better for at the Park, but you still have to wear boots to get there as they don’t work on cement. I usually try to be almost done with the goal by Thanksgiving. A few years ago I got fooled when we had early December snow/ice and I ended up walking laps in the salted parking lot a few blocks from my house. There is a big indoor holiday display so they have a large salted parking lot – perfect for getting my laps in with regular boots. I hate to let myself down!
I got a nice long walk in this morning – hot and humid, but we had a big storm around 3:00 p.m. I lost my power for 3 1/2 hours. I just got it back and sat down here and it started rumbling and it is a torrential rainstorm out there right now. I may be getting off here shortly before the power goes out again. Luckily it came back, only 32,000 people lost power but this second wave of storms may be severe once again.
Chalk art can be your June new thing to do Laurie – are there neighborhoods not too far from you that you can do it? Or cement at a park? It would be fund to do with your grandsons as well. Last year there was some chalk art on a sidewalk near my house. It was done by a child, but the next day I walked by and the father was outside watering. He told me it is a new kind of chalk spray and can withstand several bouts of rain before washing away. The colors were incredibly vibrant.
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I will run in the rain if it is not too cold, but I am very frightened to get caught out in a thunderstorm. Once Bill and I were running and a man on his porch called to us and told us there was a tornado coming! We took shelter in a nearby convenience store. The tornado touched down about 2 miles away from where we were.
I love the idea of chalk art for my next new thing! I will have to give it some thought.
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I have been in the rain many times while waiting for the bus, but luckily never in a bad storm that suddenly blew up. I was driving once and it started to hail two miles into my trip. It was sunny when I left the house. I had tiny dents on the roof and front/back of the car where hail had pinged it. Not enough to ruin the paint job, but you knew they were there.
You were lucky that the man told you and Bill about the tornado – wow! My grandmother grew up on a farm with her eight siblings. Someone she knew (and I don’t remember if it was a relative, neighbor, etc.) was out working in the fields and a storm blew up. There was no way for him to get to safety as he was far from the house. He was struck by lightning and died. My grandmother was haunted by this her entire life. She was Catholic and she had holy water and would always sprinkle it around the house every time there was a bad storm.
I think you should do the chalk drawings as your next new thing Laurie. You already were an art major before switching to science,, so the chalk art will be just another type of art for you. My friend Ann Marie responded to this post that she still takes her chalk with her on her walks, and sometimes does her own chalk art or responds to others, but all the rain has limited her doing so. Go for it and post some pictures!
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I was in a rental car once that was damaged by hail. I was with 4 other women in South Dakota on our way to a marathon. I wound up not having to pay for the damage, though. My credit card covered the entire thing.
That must have been a very traumatic experience for your poor grandmother. She remembered it her whole life!
Still thinking about the chalk art. There are no sidewalks near me, which is one drawback.
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I don’t know if my grandmother witnessed it (I doubt that) or just heard her parents talking about it, but she did that her entire life. I know she said her father went out in the fields early in the day – her mother walked out and took him his lunch and he didn’t come back til dinner time. There were no buildings, just land. The hail pelting down on the car was something I’ve never forgotten – you were lucky there were no charges on the rental car.
That’s a drawback for sure – you’d be limited to parking lots, like at a school – we had asphalt, not grass, back in elementary school, or a church. At Council Point Park a year or so ago, someone wrote inspirational messages along the pathway – I was clicking away taking pictures of them – just white chalk but every so often there were these messages.
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You have a lot of the year left and last year you surpassed your goal so I am positive that you will again. You never know when you will get a string of nice days together.
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Thanks for your positive thoughts Kate – I am trying to stay positive too as I hate to let myself down by not making my goal. We are supposed to have a dry July and a hot August – hot is fine, I usually walk early anyway, but when it is exceptionally hot and humid, I walk at the grocery store – Meijer is large like a Super K. I walked early today but we have had horrid weather this afternoon – two sets of severe weather. I lost power for 3 1/2 hours, and it just came on and round 2 is going on now. There was quarter-sized hail and 40 mph wind … I didn’t hear hail here though. Rumbling, heavy thunderstorms and torrential rain … I think I’m going to get off here soon.
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Wow! The worst of our weather has moved out.
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Ours is still rumbling – I have the A/C off and listening for wind/hail and more rumbles, then I’m off. I don’t like being on the laptop during a storm. I think we have severe weather warnings until midnight tonight. They had to move thousands of people off Belle Isle (a small island in Detroit) because they have the Gran Prix there this weekend. They had a race at 3:00 and there are no cement buildings where people can go for cover/shelter. They had to shuttle them back off the island to Cobo Hall downtown. We just had a big roll of thunder – my mom would say “God is moving his furniture.”
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We had a surprise storm last night. My husband caught the weather this morning and the forecaster said he had no idea what would happen today as all the models were different. Maybe a storm late afternoon but nothing like what you get.
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We have rain again this morning – they predicted it and I went to bed after it started storming again … the rain will be over mid-day so I’m going to eat and get outside and a walk in, but likely not straying too far as rain is expected again, and very gray and gloomy, but no storms. They consulted multiple models here and they always say they “conflict” … they they had known about the two storms in advance for yesterday but they were monitoring the weather closely to be able to evacuate the island for the Grand Prix event. There were no cement buildings to shelter in … so they had all the “big guns” who are normally off on the weekends, monitoring the weather for SE Michigan.
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You can do it, yes you can! June is here; the weather will clear. If you put a poem-like slant to everything, it makes it better, right? LOL. Chalk drawings are the best. I don’t know if we knew each other last year, or not, but to show you how creative people can be, here’s what happens with chalk in my hometown. My daughter isn’t participating this year since she moved, but last year I was pretty darn proud of her and her drawing and the other participants. I can’t imagine how they must feel when the rain washes their daylong work away. https://www.quaintrevival.com/chalkfest-2018-dementia-friendly-eau-claire-county/
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I love seeing the chalk art Shelley and have featured it maybe 7-8 times since I started this blog. Last year I saw chalk art made of a chalk spray and resilient to several rain storms before disintegrating/washing away … I don’t blame the kids for not using up their chalk in this stormy weather. Today we have two different storms and it is torrential rain out there now – the chalk would be off the sidewalks in a heartbeat. Thanks for sending me the link – I will check it out right now.
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Yay – that’s so nice of you to take time to look at the art and to feature it on your blog. You need to make business cards and hand them out to the people so they check out your blog post about the artwork! Yikes…more storms!?! Sigh…I hope today’s weather is better. We have sun here today, but it was only 44 degrees!! Chilly…
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I actually had business cards made up because I would talk to people in various parks and I was always writing out the name of my blog and keeping several in my fanny pack, so I would hand it to them. Because it is such a long title for my blog, I could not just rattle off the name and expect them to remember it, so Vista Prints had a sale and I ordered some cards. I’ll take a picture and show you – I like the concept of the nature picture I used, but the font size is very small but it works for what I need it for and it is much easier to just hand out the card and say go here. That is what I did last week at the 5K and the guy I took pictures of him and his relative and his Road Runner car. So he went on later and commented and had the pictures to look at.
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I should’ve known you’d be on top of that idea! Way to go!!!
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🙂 If I had an easy blog post title like yours I could tell them. I have had people take out their smart phones and put in the name to look later too. I also did it because one time I was taking pictures of doors on a ritzy street in nearby Wyandotte. The pictures were of the beautiful Christmas wreathss and I ensured I had no address in the photo or I knew I could crop it out. Someone in a car followed me as I was walking home (this street is on a boulevard that begins in my City) and asked why I took pictures of their home. I said because I was doing a post on Christmas wreaths and they had a gorgeous one on the front door and in every window in their second story … they had a huge wooden sleigh with pine boughs and I said my house was too small to do that. They seemed okay with it and I said I didn’t take your house number and gave them the website info from a piece of paper in my pocket. I said in the next few days look for a post called “Wreathed in Smiles” … I suppose they did but didn’t comment. Whew! After that I always carried the website info with me. Then last year got cards.
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My daughter helped me pick a short Blog Name, so I must give her credit for that. You’re smart to have cards – your walking adventures lead you to many cool spots to take photos. That’s a clever title…”Wreathed in Smiles!”
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I should have thought of a shorter title when I was picking the title, but I wanted to leave myself some wiggle room in case I wrote about other things than walking, knowing how fitful our Michigan Winters can be (not as fitful as the Wisconsin Winters I have come to know through you.) I got the idea for “Wreathed in Smiles” after seeing all the wreaths on that nice street and all their holiday decor and, like the Christmas song days, everyone is smiling and wishing one another “Merry Christmas”.
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Hi Shelley – I went to the link and it looks like comments are closed, so I returned here … what a beautiful job Sarah did … I would be proud of her too. What a wonderful idea and excellent way to bring dementia awareness to others. There was a chalk artist that was visiting at the botanical gardens at Heritage Park last Summer. They have small music ensembles every Wednesday night right in the gardens – very nice. I can’t make it there after work on time, but there was a 3-D chalk artist there last August. I thought I would go the following morning to see his artwork on the pavilion and it rained overnight so I figured the artwork would be smeared … or gone, but I’m going to try and go this year. He does fun 3-D drawings while people watch – there was a video of him on the Heritage Park website … but here is a link to his work. He apparently shows up at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs as well – he lives in the area.
https://zinnart.com/2015/11/far-flung-and-underfoot-traveling-street-art-2015/
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Thank you for checking out Sarah’s work – yep, I’m one proud mom, that’s for sure. Thanks for the link to the 3D drawings – very talented artist. That’s so cool!
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That was beautiful artwork Sarah did. This guy is talented. If I find the video of him creating something I’ll send it to you to see. I don’t recall if it was on Heritage Park’s Photo of the Day site or the Botanical Gardens. Once the flowers are out, that will be a great place to take pictures. I went last year, and spent an afternoon there.
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Thank you :-)! Great, thank you for sharing the links. I bet you can/will get great shots!
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Yes, I’m going to look on his Facebook page, perhaps follow him or send a message to see if he is going to the gardens this year. It was too bad it rained overnight as he was in a pavillion area and did his artwork on paver bricks and you just walk in there – no gates or “start time”.
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Good thinking – bummer on the rain. You sure have had enough rain this year!
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I just sent David Zinn a message to ask if he’d be in the area or at the gardens this year. I saw this video on his Facebook page.
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That’s great – I hope you do get to meet him in person. I love his artwork – it’s so fun!
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Yes, I do too Shelley. I’ve not heard back from him yet, so I can always try to find out through the Gardens’ site.
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So good that you are keeping yourself fit! Keep on truckin’! 🙂
I was in Walmart Thursday, and when i went to get some grape juice a man who was way overweight and who was in a Walmart Electric chair was in that isle stuffing himself with potato chips; he could even wait to take it home or pay for it. I understand that some people have weight problems and such, but some people don’t even try. More of us need to take more responsibility for ourselves.
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Thanks Tom – I did a good walk today despite the heat and humidity and then we had a bout of severe weather (with more coming in now). I lost my power for 3 1/2 hours as a result of it. I’m happy it wasn’t worse out there as they had been predicting some nasty weather. I don’t understand that either and I see people at my grocery store in those electric chairs doing the same thing. At some point you have to admit there is a problem and you are killing yourself with every bite that you are taking. I think at that weight it is advisable to have the gastric bypass surgery if you cannot will yourself not to overeat.
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It’s really sad; these types of people really need serious counseling. It really is something akin to chronic alcoholism.
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Yes I agree – and a lot of it is just mindless eating gone way out of control. They don’t even enjoy the food anymore, just eating it to pass the time while watching TV or on their devices. It is sad.
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Miss Linda…………………………………actually I have been leaving chalk pictures and words around on my walk this spring……………………………………but some days it’s so wet I feel let down…………………but I keep the chalk with me just in case there’s a dry spot around
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You should send me pictures of your chalk art and I’ll put it in my posts Ann Marie – I knew you’d like this art and it got a little smudged as people walked on it under the pavilion area but the rain had not gotten in to wreck it … as of yesterday’s storms, probably a different story though.
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Nice chalk art in the park, Linda! We get a little in our neighborhood from kids, but mostly they don’t seem to play outside these days. Hopefully the weather cooperates with you so you can get your steps in. We had a very wet spring too and even sunny California had tons of rain until just recently!
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I will see more chalk art in the streets and sidewalks while walking to the Park once the kids are out of school and if we ever get rid of this rain and stormy weather. We have rain this morning but it is clearing up mid-day, but gray and gloomy, so I’ll wait til then to walk. If there are young kids about, they are sometimes playing on the the playground equipment but rarely outside anymore … when I was a youngster, we were out from early morning til about 7:00 p.m. and only coming in for meals.
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Awww the chalk artwork is so sweet. This just gave me flashbacks to my childhood! I don’t see much chalk art around here. Thank you for sharing, Linda!
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Glad you liked it Mackenzie … it still looked pretty good yesterday, no rain had touched it but people had smeared it a bit by walking over it. We have a stormy day today and it is a torrential rain out there now … no walk today so will tackle the new laptop … all my stuff is on the other one … if I can figure out things (also it is a Dell and I have only used HP and requested an HP, but he ordered a Dell) I’ll put my stuff on a flash drive and transfer over my favorite sites, etc. He did not load Office on it – I had other software including Word on the computer I use all the time. I don’t draft my posts on WP, but in Word so this is a pain as well (for me anyway as I’ll have to adjust). My friend Ann Marie walks every day and has her chalk on hand and scribbles notes and draws pictures. She is a very young 76!
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Awwww I love that Ann Marie does that! I didn’t quite put that together the first time I read this- but so awesome. A young 76 for sure! And good luck with figuring out the laptop- you’ve got this!! 🙂
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I didn’t say much tin the post, but she is not on WordPress and I e-mailed and asked her if she still does it like she used to and she elaborated more to me. Yes, she’s a young 76 for sure. I moved everything around and was going to try it today and the cord is not long enough to stretch to the kitchen (I plug it in the living room) … it is sitting on the glass-top stove right now until I get an extension cord to use.
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Oh I see! Now that four days have passed since I’ve been able to read this have you had any luck with it?!
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Well the cord was not long enough so had to get a longer cord for the wall outlet from Dell. It arrived Saturday, so I gave the laptop itself the old college try this morning to configure it a little and discovered there was only one 2.0 hub/port. Not great as I had two 2.0 devices to plug in. Googled at my regular computer since I had not done anything on Windows 10 yet … they say the ports are “reverse compatible” (their lingo) … hmmm. Then the wireless keyboard would not talk to the laptop. I was frustrated and shut it all down and ate the “go cup” of Nutters Butters I bought for the squirrels. It was just a momentary burst of happiness. If not too late tonight, I’m going to try a different mouse. I don’t want to do it in the morning and be late getting out to walk. I don’t like the interface as it seems too busy to me, but remember I don’t use a smart phone so not used to apps and such on a screen. Sigh.
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I feel your pain! Technology can be SO frustrating !!! I hope the new mouse worked and nothing nutter butters can’t fix 🤗
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I am ashamed to say I still haven’t tried it but I’ll do it this weekend as it’s going to rain and I have more patience on the weekend and can do it without Nutter Butters as a crutch!
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Teheh ! Best of luck 🙂
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I hope the weather picks up for you to be able to achieve your goal as you have achieved so much this year already.
I love children drawing with chalk on the pavements, there is something so nice and joyful about the being in the moment feeling that they are in ❤❤
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I was pretty lucky this week Zena – it only rained one morning and I walked that evening after work. We had a pretty good weekend – it just started raining a few minutes ago. I love seeing those chalk drawings too – very joyful moods for those kids and nice to see them off their devices and doing “kid-like things”.
it r
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So glad the weather is on your side ❤
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We’ve had a great run on sunny days – tomorrow will be ugly and stormy and the weekend is unsettled, but considering that we’ve had in the past year or so, I’ll take it.
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