Just in Time for Memorial Day

Our backyard

 
Peonies always remind me of Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as our Grandmother Benefiel called it. We were sometimes out of school before May 30 -- this holiday was always on the 30th before "Monday holidays" existed -- and we would be at her house. Grammie and our great-Aunt Mary cut peonies from their bushes to take to their relatives' graves. They took jars (mayonnaise or pickle jars or the like), and they dug little holes in the ground in front of the gravestones and put the jars in the holes. They'd place the cut peonies and some water in the jars.

Their brother, Roy Matthews, died in France in 1918. They decorated the grave of my great-uncle, Cecil Benefiel, who enlisted in the Army during WWII when in his 40's. They also decorated the graves of their parents and another brother.

During the Victorian era, human qualities were applied to flowers, and peonies were associated with bashfulness and compassion. Additionally, peonies are said to symbolize a happy life and a happy marriage.  (Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac.)

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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