April Snow

"April is the cruellest month....."    -- T.S. Eliot

Mother Nature's April Fool's Day Joke

Easter Sunday fell on April 1 this year, and just like an April Fool's Day joke, it snowed!

Flowers in the back yard

April 3's News-Gazette reported that we received 4 1/2 inches of snow which made this the snowiest Easter Sunday ever.  The previous record was 2 inches on April 4, 1920.

Furthermore, this also set a record for snowfall on April 1.  The previous record had been 4.3 inches in 1962.

April 2  -  Early morning

I suspect some people attending Easter Sunday mass at St. Matthew's may have thought they were living an April Fool's Day prank.  The first Sunday morning mass is at 8 a.m.  But for the past few years, Easter Sunday's mass start time has been 7:30 a.m. in order to reduce the parking lot congestion between the 8:00 and 9:30 masses.  Those people who seldom attend church were probably surprised when they arrived to a full parking lot and the mass already begun.

Out-of-Sync

November 2

Two weeks ago my Fitbit would not sync to my phone.  To be clear, the Fitbit was working ... it simply would not transfer the data to my account.  This went on for a couple days so I emailed Fitbit Support.  I followed their suggested fixes.  We communicated back and forth a couple times, but the Fitbit still would not sync.  They finally threw in the towel and mailed me a new replacement Fitbit Zip.

The new Fitbit arrived, but I could not get it to sync.  According to the information on my phone, it appeared to be a bluetooth issue between the two devices.  I took the equipment to the cellphone store and explained the dilemma.  The guy checked and said bluetooth was operating o.k.  So he reinstalled something, and presto-chango, I was back in Fitbit business.  So happy to have it syncing like it should after two weeks of not working.

lost data
Oct. 27 - Nov. 2

Sadly I lost the data from those two down weeks.  And, it included an 11-thousand step day!  That's huge for me -- I seldom make it to 10-thousand steps in one day.  And I'm also bummed because the two weeks of missing data means my next award will take longer to achieve.  The last award I received was the Italy Badge for walking the length of Italy, north to south (or vice versa).

earned Sept. 28, 2017

States That I Have Visited

Admittedly, my only claim to a few of these states is driving through them.  I think we crossed into South Carolina just so I could say I'd been there.

Now, these are the states where I've actually slept a night:

Albeit, I was just passing through Arkansas on the way to Houston, Texas.

Note: I've never been to Alaska or Hawaii, but I had to tint them in order to include them in the graphic.

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Movie Quote

-- "The Quiet Man"

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Inside vs. Outside

Humpf.  Until I saw these FitBit activity stats side-by-side I thought I was covering more distance and using more steps while inside.  Based on glancing at the FitBit apparatus when returning home after the walks it looked to me like the numbers were lower when walking outside.  But apparently not so.

My thought was that while I am outside I do not have a clear-cut notion of the distance that I need to walk to complete one hour.  While indoors at the rec center I'm walking a track of pre-determined distance.  Plus there is a clock so I know when I'm at the 60-minute mark.  When walking outside I sure would not want to be several blocks from home when the hour time is up.  One hour is my goal.  Not trying to set any records.  So I sort of tend to maybe walk a bit slower to stretch out the time in my estimated distance.  On occasion I've tagged on an extra loop or walked around the block instead of approaching home on a more direct course.

The FitBit is a novelty.  And it sometimes is an incentive to reach that magical 60 minutes a day.

One hour outside vs. One hour indoors
Note: These are snapshots of my activity at the end of my walking time
and do not represent the entire day's activity

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Broadway in Chicago

I reckon this will be the closest that I get to the real Broadway.

Once again, Patrick hosted me for a day in Chicago, and we saw a currently playing Broadway musical: Hamilton, winner of numerous awards -- 2016 Tony for Best Musical, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, as well as many other awards.

Patrick planned our itinerary:

9:00 a.m. I will meet you at Union Station and we will head to my apartment to drop stuff off and do other administrative tasks. We’ll take the el to my apartment. 10:00 a.m. Pastries at Alliance Bakery, near my apartment. We'll grab an Uber to the bus tour. 11:00 a.m. Untouchable Gangster bus tour 1:00 p.m. Lunch-- get something small at a fast food place in River North 2:00 p.m. Hamilton 5:00 p.m. Dinner 8:00 p.m. Train home

After our stop at P.'s apartment where I gave him a couple surprises (brownies and a hand-crafted hot-air balloon picture), we stopped at the bakery and ordered delicious croissants.  I had an almond one, and P. chose a more savory one with cheese and red peppers.

We modified the itinerary a bit as we went along.  Following the gangster bus tour, we shared an Italian sub at a Potbelly Sandwich Shop as we walked to the theater.

May 14, 2017

Following the fantastic production, P. suggested we walk towards the train station and find a place to eat.  That didn't quite work out as planned.  There wasn't much to choose from: just no restaurants or they were closed on Sunday.  He checked his phone several times, and when he found something, it turned out not to exist when we got to the address.  Alas, our supper was in the food court at Union Station: Kelly's Cajun Grill, which turned out to serve Chinese food.  We shared what looked to be the last of the food for the day, bourbon chicken.  

Hmmm--

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

As expected, we did a lot of walking.  My Fitbit can attest to that:

 

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