Cobbler

 And is this a happy Thursday morning, or isn't it?  The temps are comfortably cool outside, (68 F) and the sky is clear.  However, to day is the last of the 'moderate high' days, starting tomorrow the thermometer is going to begin to climb.  Heat is moving in from the west.  I'm so glad for my Central Air.

I did bake a fresh peach cobbler yesterday, and believe me, it is delicious.

There are still quite a few left over, so I'm going to freeze them for later.  If I were my grandma, I'd can them, but I'm not.  She also wore an apron when she cooked.  Do people still wear aprons?

Some friends stopped by last evening, they have a new puppy, a chocolate Labrador who was supposed to be a service dog.  The individual who was supposed to get her, was too elderly, so they ended up with her.  Named her Seneca.  I told them that's her official name, they will end up calling her something else, like Siegfried became Biggie.

Americans didn't make a lot of babies last year.  In fact, the count is the lowest in over a century.  Some of the blame is on Covid, some of it has to do with women just not wanting to have babies till they're older, but mostly, at least this is what I think, is the cost of raising a child is exorbitant.  American Capitalism, you know.  It's all about the bucks. Prices keep going up because everybody 'needs' to increase revenue by 5% yearly.  That 5% is not balanced by wage increases.  Nope.  And everything goes up, even your utility expenses, you see, they need to grow by that 5%, too.  As a result, people aren't making babies.  I can remember when a single income was enough, now it doesn't come close.  Maybe corporations shouldn't be so greedy.

The Price of Babies

On an average day we get to see quite a few people at the paint desk and while some may pass us by, quite a few order paint.  Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed what seems to be a trend.  Since one person's trend my by normal to others, I started asking my associates.  "Is it me, or are we seeing a lot of pregnant women"  Everyone agreed with me.  We're a high volume store so it's not unusual to see one or two expectant mothers daily, but some days we're seeing as many as 8 or 9.  Yesterday I counted 12.  And there's nothing mysterious about these numbers.  We had a nasty, little winter, lots of freezing rain and ice.  Couples stayed home and tried to "keep warm," and in the process made a baby.  We are a very prolific species so making a baby is not that difficult.  Of course, babies mean change, and I'm not just talking about on the personal level.

Twenty years ago, when I bought my house, this was a small suburb with a population of around 6000.  Today we are the fastest growing community in the region and the population has ballooned to nearly 28,000.  That's a big jump in 20 years.  That's a lot of new housing, and a hell of a lot more traffic.  I went out this morning and took a couple of pictures.

This is the new West Shore Hospital.  Actually, these are the physician's offices and, being that it's Sunday, the parking lots are empty.  The Hospital proper is on the other side.  It's big.  Twenty years ago this was all forest. 

This is the new Giant Supermarket they are building.  It's 2.5 miles from the Giant Supermarket I use and that supermarket is 4 miles from the Camp Hill Giant.  Three years ago this, too, was all forest.

This is the construction site for the new Weis Market they are building, which just happens to be across the road from the new Giant they are building.  That's right, we're going to have two massive supermarkets separated by the macadam of a 3 lane road.

Traffic is already so bad I felt the need to order a Road ID just in case some moronic driver sends me flying into the gutter.  I should probably look on the bright side, the new West Shore Hospital is only a hop, skip and a jump away.  This is the price of babies.

    

Hitting 50 means it's time to start working your ass off!

It's that time of year again where some people are actually making a concerted effort to lose a few pounds and maybe get in shape.  By this time all of those New Year's Eve resolutions doomed to be crushed underfoot have been long been forgotten and all of those 6 month gym memberships that were purchased have been classified as a poor investment.  Yet there are those who are making the effort.  Some of them go to the gym and others do their workouts at home.    If you are one of the latter chances are you might have bought a work out video, there are a shit load of them out there.  One of the most popular is the P90 program.  I also do an abbreviated version since I don't have an hour and half every day just to run through the routines.  Also, I never play the music since it's not something I enjoy listening to and I don't find it at all rousing nor do I find it inducing enthusiasm.  Another thing I rarely complete are the push ups.  I have always hated them, for as far back as I can remember, which is nearly prehistoric.  Quite a lot of the routines, however, are beneficial, if you tweak them to be age appropriate.    I'm not thirty, so jumping around like I am might result in injury.

In addition I include weight training in the form of dumbbells and a medicine ball. As we age, both men and women, our muscles tend to atrophy - they get smaller.  How often have  you seen an elderly person and realized their musculature almost matches that of a baby?  I see in all of the time.  That's one thing I don't want to grow into, which is why I advocate weight training.  I think it might even be more important the jumping around I do with the P90 programs.

If you do this often enough you can start wearing the cute, little black shorts.

I use a 12 pound medicine ball and love it.  The routine is simple and takes about 7 minutes to run through.  It's great for stretching!

My cardio usually consists of a hour three times a week done on either my Sole elliptical or my bike which is mounted on a Cycleops trainer.  

Why do I do cardio, free weights, and stretching?  Because as we get older we need to do all three.  I do four if you throw in the Yoga which is something I definitely need to work on since it is the one thing I tend to forget (something about bending over to do a double dare dog or what ever it's called seems odd to me).  Staying active is important as hell. Once you've decided you deserve to sit on your ass ad relax you start losing the battle.  The weight will pound on, your energy will dissipate.  I know because I see people like this every day as they trudge through life.