Cold, Argh and Kindness - I'm All Over the Place Today

Yesterday morning was cold, and today is even colder. Oh well, that's what good clothing and good outerwear is for. Today, at least, I do have my boots, and I don't think there's a wicked wind blowing as there was on Monday. I suspect our wind chill temperature isn't much different than the ambient, which leave me at 4 Fahrenheit, instead of sub 10. It's almost a summer on the patio temperature - LOL. Yeah ... not really. 

It's a heat wave. Of course, that's totally tongue in cheek, 
since it's only 7 F (-13.8 C) outside. I'll be bundled up 
for my wait for the door to be opened. At least today I 
have my boots, so I'll be a bit warmer than Monday. 

I'm off to the pool in a half hour, and it's also my "day off" and trash and laundry day. I'll take the bins out to the curb when I leave for the pool, and I already have my first load of laundry in the washer. I'm hoping to get a serious jump on my day, but I have to be very time conscious today. I have a zoom call scheduled for 11:00 am with the founder of WildFit - Eric Edmeades, and I don't want to miss this call. We rarely get the opportunity to chat with him personally, usually we're listening and exchanging thoughts with one of the senior coaches or the head nutritionist. It's always a treat to get to chat with Eric. 

I enjoy listening to Eric speak, and I've really enjoyed 
the few other times I've been able to interact with him 
in a live session. It's always a treat. So I'm looking 
forward to this too. He did a three-hour live 
presentation a week or so ago, but I simply didn't 
have the three hours available. I still haven't been 
able to see the recording, but I did sign up for 
the class he was offering. He's one instructor I try 
to take when I can because he's an excellent teacher. 

He's publishing a book next year that will deal with holistic health for humans. It deals with food, exercise, and mental clarity and I'm looking forward to it. He's also teaching a Master Class which I've signed up for. Hopefully the times/dates won't conflict with my work life. The last time I only got to listen to half of the live sessions because they were on a work day in mid-day. 

I love my Xtrainerz bone induction headphones and I'm 
using them not only in the pool, but almost every day 
on and off. I get wonderful sound and I can still listen 
and react to what's going on around me. I just have an 
issue with the controls. I wish the OFF button was 
placed somewhere other than between the "forward" 
and "backward" buttons. I'll be writing the company 
to suggest that because this is highly annoying. 

I was within a half-hour of finishing my current audio book when I attempted to turn off my headphones. I accidentally pressed the "next track" button and it brought me to the beginning of the book again. I know, from having gone through this with Customer Service last week, this is irreversible. I sighed. It's a 14 hour book and I really didn't want to listen to the entire thing again. I recharged the headphones and before I went to sleep, I started it playing. It's now almost seven hours along, so I'll be re-listening to an hour while I'm swimming, I'll let it play until 9:00 am, at which time I'll actually be within two hours of the end. That's easy to listen to as I do my chores today. 

Taking a closer look at the headphone, maybe you can 
see what I mean. There are three buttons on the 
underside - Back, Off and Forward (l-r). The 
on/off button is smaller than the other two 
and positioned between them. When I'm in a rush 
or my hands are cold and it's harder for me to 
have fine touch, it's easy to hit the wrong 
button. In a playlist it isn't a problem. For an 
audio book, it brings me tack to the beginning 
of the book. That's a BIG problem. 

The controls are the only thing I don't like about my AfterShokz Xtrainerz. With the exception of pushing the incorrect button (which would only knock me back one song on a playlist - but a book is considered a single audio item), I love the headphones. It's the first time I can be in the water and hear clearly, no matter what, no matter the stroke or the agitation of the water. I just have to be more careful when I'm turning it on and off. 

It's always a good thing to practice kindness. 
There are so many things that can hurt in 
this world. Let's try to now make that worse. 

So, time to plug in some photos and start my day. I have things to write and things to do and things to listen to. I have groceries to buy (I think only my local grocery store today), and I need to continue cleaning up after my card preparation. Hopefully I'll have a prompt for this week's story and can spend some time writing fiction. I'm off to the pool, have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Please be kind and a bit forgiving of others today. Everyone seems to be on edge these days, and it's a hard season of the year for many people.