A New Toy aka A New Piece of Electronics to Play With

It's Wednesday, my "day off" and my first load of laundry is already working through the wash cycle. I start my day off with a bang - meeting with my Physical Therapist for what may be my final time, at least until I manage to screw something else up with my body. I'm going to hope that's a long time in the future. I'm going to make Joseph work hard today, though. I need him to go through the exercises I've accumulated and they need to be fine-tuned and condensed so that I can actually manage them within my alloted time span at the gym on the three days a week I'm working the floor. I plan on being in the pool for the other two days. 

I'm not fond of running, in fact, with my osteoporosis, I'm only supposed
to do a fast walk, no serious impact stuff like running would be. So I
walk really fast around the track, but that's BORING. I have my tempo
tracker to keep me on step, and I listen to books, but it's still really boring
to get my two miles on the track into my schedule. 

I got a new exercise/heart monitor delivered yesterday. The one I've been wearing for the past few months was great for non-water exercises, and it was water tolerant, so no problems with the shower or even if I forgot to take it off when I started my swim. However, it didn't track my swimming, and I needed one that would do that. So I did what I usually do - started researching on-line. 

I wanted an exercise band that would also work for my swimming. After
reading a lot of reviews, I decided on the Honor Band 5. It's
affordable and after I get used to how to put it into various modes,
I think it will be a good choice. If not, I'll return it. I'm giving
myself two weeks to get used to it before making up my mind. 

The Honor Band 5 tracks a lot more sports types. The most important thing I purchased it for, however, was the fact that it will track my swimming laps in freestyle, breast stroke, back stroke and butterfly (although I don't swim the fly). Right now, in the pool, I'm a lot slower and I'm not managing more than a single lap in any single stroke before switching to a different stroke. This is allowing me to avoid straining my shoulder, but it's also making it impossible for me to track laps easily. I've been swimming via time spent in the pool. I need to do better than that. 

Wrist-work fitness monitors are very common these days. They're
inexpensive (at least most of them are) and they do a great job
of giving us feedback on how active we are and how well we
are sleeping. I've been wearing a fitness band on my wrist for
several months now and I love them. 

I had a credit at Amazon from a defective product I had returned, so my fitness band ended up costing me less than $20. For that money, I'm willing to experiment. These fancy things always take a while to get me trained - how best to use them, how to switch from one mode to another, etc. I'll give it a couple of weeks and see how it's working out. Worst comes to worst, I'll go back to my previous band which worked just fine for everything except the pool. 

So, that's the excitement in my life right now. But it's my "day off" and truly, anything can happen - LOL. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Growl and BRRR and Hugs For A Friend

My Ranger Distress Inks seem to be hiding extremely well. I had asked DH to keep an eye out while he was working in the craft room yesterday, but he thought he was looking for bottles, not the small metal trays I have them stored in. By the time we got the container straightened out, he said he had indeed seen them, but couldn't remember exactly which bin they were in. They're small, and basically he ended up in the same problem I had - seen them but can't find them a second time. 

I enjoy using Ranger Distress Ink pads. Their light coloration allows
for some really fun blending. 

I went down to the craft room early this morning to take a quick look in the one bin that was more likely to have the inks, and every bin has a "No" sticker on it, yet both DH and I are sure we came across the darned things in one of them. *sigh* Finding my inks, which is REALLY important, will be more of a hunt than I really wanted. But I'll have to buckle down and search. I need the colors. 

Although I think I liked my first fitness tracker
better, this is my new replacement. The
Letscom Fitness Tracker was a little bit
less expensive. The screen is B/W only,
and it is a different company - EXCEPT,
it really seems that almost all of these
trackers actually come from the same
manufacturer. Se we'll see how this one lasts. 

I got my new fitness tracker yesterday. I guess I had decided to go lower key than the fancy one I thought I had ordered. I'm actually just fine with it, but it's only for walking, running and biking. Still, that's 90%+ of what I do, and it's still waterproof. There are two things it doesn't have that my previous tracker did - it doesn't have a color screen, and it doesn't measure blood pressure. Since the blood pressure was never accurate, I can live with black and white. I'm just happy to have a band around my wrist once again. I missed it. Today will be the first day on the running track with it, as well as the first time to shower with it. Time to break it in. 

I just love this picture of my friend "Poo" and her
hubby Jim. They actually made a really good
couple, and were together for many years before
making it a legal marriage. He was a Vietnam
veteran and she used to work for the City of
San Jose. I know she's going to miss him a lot. 

A dear long-time friend of mine's husband passed away earlier this week. She's going to miss him a lot, and it's not going to be easy for her - being on her own after so many years. He was a veteran and many of his physical problems had been exacerbated by his time in Vietnam. He was a binge on-line buyer, a bit of a hoarder, and also had left no insurance. It's going to be tough for her, but I'm hoping he left something she can resell to fill that money gap. I have no idea about any spousal veterans benefits, but if there is such a thing, I hope she can get some help there too. 

We've had our first snows, although they haven't stayed on
the ground for long. Still, it's biting cold right now and it's
about a month too early for these temps. I'm going to
be bundling up to head for the gym. BRRRR!

On that note, I'm bundling up. Once again it's unseasonably cold out there and it'll be a cold wait while standing outside the gym doors in less than an hour. Eventually I'll be sweating as I work out, but right now it just looks like a cold time in the old town today. Have a great Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Changing One For Another

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a wrist fitness unit that I hoped would help me keep track of my steps, my general fitness goals, heart rate, etc. It actually was pretty good, and at under $30 (plus shipping), it was affordable. I've wanted a FitBit or something similar for several years. So I purchased the FitFort Fitness Tracker, synched it to my phone with Bluetooth, and wore it 24/7. Unfortunately, over the weekend the Bluetooth decided it would no longer cooperate and after a frustrating 48 hours of trying to link back up, I decided it wasn't worth the anguish. 

I really liked my FitFort fitness monitor. It had a few issues,
though, and needed to link to the Bluetooth app on my
phone. It just wasn't linking properly, so I'm sending
it back tomorrow (I'll pack and label it today). Amazon
 will refund the cost to me. 

I contacted Amazon and arranged to return my FitFort, printed the return shipping label, and I'll drop the box off at UPS tomorrow while doing errands. I really loved the concept of a wrist-worn fitness tracker, however, and was right back on Amazon's website last night, ordering a different brand of a similar item. I won't actually receive it for another week or so (wanted to take advantage of free shipping), but I'll soon have a different fitness band to wear. I chose my new one based on the exercises I do - walking/running, stationary bike, floor exercises, and daily general on-the-move activities. I'm hopeful that my new "toy" will work better. I guess I'll find out. 

The LetsCom fitness tracker I ordered last night tracks many more
fitness options than the FitFort did, but it doesn't do blood pressure.
That's OK, though. The blood pressure reading on the previous band
never was accurate anyway. I'm hopeful I'll get a better read on
my activities with the new band, but I think most of them are
quite similar, and may actually be made by the same Chinese company. 

I did manage to finish the ornament portion of my holiday cards yesterday morning. Well ... I ALMOST finished. I still need to punch the hole at the top, thread it with glittering thread, and stamp and decorate the mini envelope, but in essence that part is complete. Today I'll rearrange my work area and start working on the actual cards, beginning with the front. Tomorrow I'll hunt for my twist drill in my tool boxes to get those final steps with the ornament completed. With luck and some time, I might be a step or two ahead by the end of the week. 

I don't think I have any of the pliers-style jewelry punches
in my tool kits. The tips tend to loosen and break on those
too quickly, so I shy away from them. I do have at least
two of the twist-style punches, however, and those I use
quite often. I need to grab one to finish the actual ornament
in this year's holiday card. 

Today is Chickie's final "day off" for the year. Normally I don't even allow staff vacations during November/December, but circumstances got our of our control and she ended up with her final day scheduled today. It's also Election Day, although most of the elections are simple local things like members of City Council or, in the case of St Paul, a rather contentious garbage issue that's had the residents in a bit of an uproar for more than a year. I suspect the polls in St Paul will be well attended today, while the rest of the greater Metro area polling places will either be closed or sparsely visited. 

If your area is having an election today, make your voice
heard. My area doesn't even have a Council vote today, so
our polls are closed, but Chickie will be voting in the
St Paul garbage collection issue which has been very
contentious. 

On that note, I'm off to the gym. Today is a fast-walking day - 2 miles in 30 minutes. It's a good workout and I'm already missing my fitness monitor. Oh well, I'm looking forward to the new replacement. Have a great Tuesday, stay warm (or cool if you're one of my Southern Hemisphere friends), and I'll be back tomorrow.