In May of this year, Bill nagged me to run in the 5K (3.1 miles) at Horseshoe Bay Resort with him and our youngest son, Jake. “Run with me” this time meant I was by myself, Jake was way ahead of me, and Bill ran the 10K, finishing long before I was done. This time I was able to run a bit for a 15-minute average pace. Yes, barely running, but not bad for out-of-shape, overweight cube farmer. It helped that there was one other woman about my age who was running and walking as much as I was. (And also why I won first place in my age group!) We took turns running ahead. In the last block, I finally “sprinted” past her to the finish. She was only 10 seconds behind me.

Bill, me, and Jacob after the Sunset Wine Tour 5K and 10K. Bill got first place overall Master (40 and over his trophy is a wine stopper), 2nd place overall, and I got first place, female, in my age group.

My next races (unless Bill comes up with another one before then) are the 5K and half marathon at the Walt Disney World® Marathon Weekend in January 2013, so I have plenty of time to train (I think). Bill, Jake, Alex (our oldest son), and I are all running in the 5K on Friday and the half-marathon on Saturday. Then Bill is also running the full marathon on Sunday. (Yes, he has a little OCD.) Disney requires that you keep a 16-minute pace or faster for the half, so I need to keep my current pace or (preferably) get faster. If you lose sight of the 16-minute pace runner, a van will soon appear, and people will wrestle you into the van and drive you to the finish. They have a schedule, people! (Just kidding about the “wrestling” part, but I do wonder what happens if you refuse to get into the van!)

I’m trying to increase the time I’m running and not walking. I’m up to Stage 10 of the Run Your Butt Off training plan, which is walk for 2 minutes, run for 13 minutes, and repeat for a total of 30 minutes. (I go longer if I have time and feel like it.) Training is not convenient. It means getting up at 5 am-ish, putting on running attire, and forcing myself to “just do it” for 30-60 minutes. I’ve worked out at lunch time, but it’s in the upper 80s-90s, and we have no showers at work. (I change clothes, of course, and use cleansing wipes and alcohol-based toner to wash off the sweat. I need to buy/make some sort of portable shower!) At least it gets me outside during the day so I can make some vitamin D, and the rest of the work day seems to go a bit faster.

Cheapest Form of Exercise?

People say, “Running is the cheapest form of exercise. All you need is a good pair of running shoes!” That’s not exactly true.

That’s a lot of money. And you probably want 2 pair of your running shoes, 2 bras, more than one set of workout clothes, etc., so, “cheap” I think not. And after you’ve added the price of races, transportation and lodging for out-of-town races, buying running stuff at the expo before the race, sight seeing at the place where you’re running (if it’s out of town), etc. that’s not cheap.

Of course, you can just put on your good ol’ sneakers and some comfortable clothes, grab the dog and his leash, and take a hike around your neighborhood. As long as you’re moving, that’s what counts.

My husband and I are not big coffee drinkers. I started drinking coffee when I was in college to stay alert in class and stay awake while studying for exams. I’m addicted to caffeine; if I don’t have any caffeine before noon, I have that nasty caffeine-withdrawal headache by 2pm. And if I drink caffeine after noon, I have a problem getting to sleep that night. Now and then I’ll wean myself off of caffeine, but all it takes is some iced tea at lunch to get me addicted again (and get that nasty headache the next day). So I try to maintain with just one cup a day to keep the headache at bay. (Coffee is also an antioxidant, slightly increases metabolism, and has other benefits: http://www.energyfiend.com/top-10-caffeine-health-benefits.)

I was a member of Gevalia for a while, so I have several 8 oz. bags of coffee that we haven’t used, simply because we don’t use the 12-cup brewer any more. The Keurig brewer comes with a disposable filter so that you can use up your ground coffee, and that works great. However, I like to compost the coffee grounds and they make a mess in my little compost bucket in the kitchen. (Also not a good idea to wash them down the drain. Just ask my husband who has had to snake out our drain several times.)

Instead, I like to use EZ-Cup Filter Papers by Perfect Pod. I get 50 of them on amazon.com for $8.49. Every couple of weeks, I fill around 20 of the EZ-Cup filters with ground coffee and put them in a resealable plastic container. Each filter has a paper “lid” on it, so you don’t have to worry about getting coffee grounds on the bottom of the filter when you set it on top of another filter full of coffee grounds. I usually take the paper lid off when I brew it so that the water hits the grounds, but you can leave it on.

Preparing the EZ cup filters

Then we can quickly and easily make a cup of coffee using one of the filters full of ground coffee and the reusable filter that came with the brewer. After the coffee is brewed, we toss the used filter into the compost bucket (to be taken outside to the compost bin later).

After brewing, just toss the used paper filter full of wet coffee grounds into the compost bucket (or trash if you don’t compost).
The little brown container on the left is the filter holder that comes with the EZ-Cup filters.

It does take a little effort–you have to open the bag of coffee, scoop coffee into the filter, and put the filter into the filter holder. (Whew, I’m tired just reading that!–she said sarcastically.)  There are many other “systems” available for making your own K-cups. I’ve used the filter holder that came with the EZ-cup filters, but I like the Keurig reusable filter better. We still buy K-cups from amazon.com or at the store, usually when they’re on sale.

Do you use a Keurig Brewer? Do you use K-cups or or do you make your own? What methods do you use? Let me know in the comments!

OH, by the way, we purchased our brewer at Costco. The pump in the first one died after a few months. We took it back to Costco and they gave us our money back, no questions asked! (And we’d already used up all of the K-cups that came with it.) We used a small 4-cup pot for a while, and then decided to go back to the Keurig–which we bought at Costco. This one hasn’t given us any problems. We only turn it on when we’re about to use it; it only takes a few minutes to heat up. We run vinegar through it once a month or so, even though we use filtered water when we make coffee. I think our hard water is what killed the first one.

*From amazon.com: Folgers Caramel Drizzle $28 for 24 K-cups ($1.17/cup); Folgers Caramel Drizzle ground coffee, $9.98 for 12 oz. (~$0.30/cup). I made 22 EZ-Cups with an 8 oz. bag of coffee, so you can make about 33 cups with a 12 oz. bag. The EZ-Cup filters work out to about $0.17 each. A bag of coffee for $9.98/33 = $0.30 per cup, plus the 17 cents for the filter comes out to $0.47 per cup (plus the cost of the plastic container and scoop, of course). If you use more or less coffee per cup, your mileage may vary. And even the K-cups are cheaper than Star Bucks!

This blog post is for my sister and my brother-in-law, whose computers always seem to have issues. I offer these tips with no guarantees or warranties. No one is forcing you to try it, but it might avoid problems down the road.

For the techno elite that might run across this article, it’s not written for you. It’s written for someone who doesn’t want to learn any more about computers than absolutely necessary. It’s purposefully simple. (As simple as I could think of without going to Baytown to do it for her.)

In Windows, there is usually more than one way to open a dialog box. I’m only explaining one way of doing these steps. That doesn’t make your way wrong, just not the way I’ve written it here. I’m also writing it from the standpoint of Windows 7. The steps are different on different operating systems (OS), but the premise is the same. If you’re still on Vista or <gasp!> XP, run, don’t walk, to your nearest computer store and get a new one. (On my Netbook, I was able to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 online. Easy peasy.)

This Microsoft support article lists several Windows shortcuts that can save you time and frustration. When you see a key name, a plus sign, and then another key (ALT+TAB), that means hold down the first key on the keyboard while pressing the second key, then release both keys.

You DO NOT have to be connected to the Internet. If you have to manually connect to the Internet, don’t connect. You don’t need it. If your computer automatically connects to the Internet (i.e., you have cable Internet or some such), that’s OK, you can leave it connected. This is mainly for my sister who has a USB Internet connection.

Step 1: Uninstall applications you don’t need

Before you start cleaning, it is a good idea to uninstall—delete—applications that you no longer use. Some people (certainly not you!) just blindly click, click, click, through installation wizards and don’t pay attention to what it’s doing. (READ the messages!) Sometimes it’s installing “free” applications that you might not want. For example, some might install a free virus toolbar that appears when you open a browser. That’s not malware or a virus, but you probably don’t need it.

To uninstall applications that you don’t need

1. Open the Control Panel by clicking Start > Control Panel.
2. Click Uninstall Programs.
3. Scroll through the list of programs to determine if there are any you absolutely don’t need. If you’re unsure, leave it alone. Or, you can do a search for that name to see what it is. For example, go to www.google.com, then in the search box, type Adobe Reader. The search results will tell you without even clicking on them that you need Adobe Reader to read PDF files. That one you don’t want to delete.
4. If you find one you do want to delete, right-click it, then click Uninstall. Wait for it to complete before deleting another one. When it says to reboot, skip it. You will reboot later.
5. It’s OK if there are no programs to delete; move to Step 2.

Step 2: Delete unnecessary files

Most applications “poop” all over your hard drive. When they run, they leave bits and pieces in various places on your hard drive so they can do their thing. Most of them are notoriously bad at wiping their own butts, so you have to do it for them. That’s Step 2 in keeping your computer clean: delete unnecessary files.

To delete unnecessary files

1. Open Windows Explorer by pressing the Windows key+E.
2. Right-click the C: drive (in the left pane), then click Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click Disk Cleanup.
4. Let it do its thing. It will probably take a while. It is searching for files that it thinks you can delete.
5. Eventually, a Disk Cleanup dialog box appears. If you scroll through the list, you will see that it may (or may not) have found Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Offline web pages (cache), Recycle Bin, Setup Log Files, System error memory dump files, Temporary files, and Thumbnails. You can delete all of them. Leave the check boxes selected.
6. Click Clean up system files. Again, it will go off and think for a while. Under Description, it will say “Remove system error memory dump files.” Click OK.
7. If any check boxes cleared when you did this, select them again. A message appears that asks if you’re sure you want to delete these files. Click Delete Files.
8. The Disk Cleanup message box appears and shows progress. Depending on how dirty your computer is, it might be a long time before it’s done.
9. Leave the Properties dialog box open for the next step.

Step 3: Defragment your hard drive.

Think of your computer’s hard drive like an old-school record player. It has a flat, round, flimsy piece of recordable media called a “platter” (think of that as the album) and an “arm” that moves back and forth across the platter to read and write the data (similar to the stereo’s arm with the needle that reads the grooves in the album). That noise you hear when your hard drive is working–sometimes called “seeking”–is the arm going back and forth across the platter either trying to write data or trying to read data that you want to use.

Your computer installs applications somewhere on your hard drive (usually in Program Files) and stores data that the application needs (in ProgramData, User > Application Data, and numerous other locations). Because of the extremely slow way (compared to RAM) that the hard drive reads and writes data, it just dumps it in the most convenient locations. It might store 100K here, 50K there, 1MB over there, and so on, until the whole program is installed or the data you want to save is written. And while you’re using your computer, you may have installed and deleted stuff numerous times since your last cleaning. As a result, your hard drive becomes “fragmented”–through no fault of your own–and you need to tell the hard drive to clean up its act, AKA “defrag”!

To defragment your hard drive

1. Back in the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
2. On the Tools tab, click Defragment now.
3. In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the C: drive, then Defragment Disk. Again, this will take a long time if you haven’t done it in a while (or never) or if you have a very large hard drive. It’s best (and faster) if you don’t try to do anything else while it’s running. It will be much slower and counter productive because you are likely creating new files while it’s trying to clean up—that’s like trying to bathe your dog while he rolls in the mud. (Note: If you also have a “System Drive,” leave it alone.)
4. When the computer is done, it will display a message saying it is complete. While you’re in this dialog box, why not set up a schedule? This way, you don’t have to remember to do it. Choose a time when you are not likely to be using the computer and when it is on. Click Configure Schedule and follow the prompts.

Step 4: Run Windows Update

Windows is the most popular OS in the world—and as such it makes a good target for hackers to exploit. Microsoft frequently finds and plugs security holes and fixes bugs in its software. Microsoft is not trying to steal your information, they are not trying to make you dependent on them, they are just trying to fix their buggy software so that you curse them less often. This is why you need to run Windows Update regularly. The best way to do this is to set up a schedule.

I have a little Netbook (a laptop with a 10″ screen—the precursor to tablets like iPad) that I only use when I travel. Because it’s off and in a drawer most of the time, it can’t run regular updates. So a week or so before I go out of town, I get out the Netbook, connect it to the Internet, and run update after update. Before my last trip, it needed to run 37 updates! So setting up a schedule is not always ideal, and you will have to do it manually.

To run Windows Update 

1. Click Start > All Programs > Windows Update.
2. Click Check for updates.
3. If/when it tells you there are updates available, install the “Important” updates. You can skip the “Optional” updates if you want.
4. If it tells you to reboot, then reboot.
5. When you are all done installing updates, click Change settings.
6. On the Change settings page, click the down arrows to specify that it should:
• Install updates automatically (I think that’s the default)
• Install new updates Every day at (whatever time you won’t be using your computer)
• Select each of the check boxes.
7. Click OK.

Finally, a clean computer!

Reboot your computer and notice how much faster it responds! If it still doesn’t respond, there could be numerous other issues, such as a slow CPU (need a new computer), not enough RAM (buy more if it can hold more), too many things running at startup (stop applications from starting automatically), malware, or viruses (keep your antivirus updated). Too much to cover in this blog post!

People who can afford to go to the doctor have jobs that pay for medical insurance. The majority of people who have jobs that pay for medical insurance tend to work during the daytime, sometime between 7 am and 7 pm. Doctors’ offices tend to be open and available for appointments during the daytime, around 9 am to 4 pm, often closing for an hour in the middle of the day for lunch.

What does that mean for someone who needs to go the doctor or who has a child who needs to go to the doctor? That means you have to take time away from work. Of course, most companies who pay all or part of your medical insurance also offer paid time off (PTO). In my case, my PTO hours are for sickness, doctor visits, vacation time, or anything else I want to do with my time. That means that if I take time off to go to the doctor, I don’t get that time for vacation. You have to be good about budgeting your time, which most people are not.

The easy solution is to offer appointments at night, early in the morning, and on weekends. Like most people, doctors, and their support staff want to work during “normal” working hours. But if you’re going to offer a service, you should offer it at a time that’s convenient for your customers (patients).

Have you ever gone to an “after hours” clinic or “urgent care” clinic at night or on a Saturday? Packed house, right? I would say that is a pretty good clue that after-hours and urgent-care clinics are in high demand. It makes sense to pay a premium to go to an urgent care clinic at 7 pm after your child slips in the bathtub and needs stitches, right? But does it make sense to pay a $75 “encounter fee” at an urgent care clinic when you need to get your annual pap smear? No, and I don’t think they even do that there.

Women and children have numerous annual checkups, tests, immunizations, etc. that require a doctor visit. Your appointment might only take 5-10 minutes, but you have to drive there, wait in the waiting room, and drive back to work for a total time of about an hour and a half (plus picking up/dropping off your child if the appointment is for him). I’ve had to wait in the OB/GYN office for 3 hours because the doctor was delivering a baby and had no doctors covering for her. To play it safe, I usually take a half day so I have plenty of time to and from and waiting. So let’s say 4-5 days of your PTO each year is spent going to, coming from, waiting for, and seeing a doctor just for routine check ups. If you only get one week of PTO per year, no vacation for you!

Recently, my son was trying to register for college, but couldn’t complete the process because he needed an immunization. I was going take time off from work to drive him to the doctor’s office, but had trouble finding an appointment that wasn’t a month away, and many I called said they didn’t offer the meningitis vaccine. Then I remembered the home care service that the company I work for subscribes to, but I’d never used it before, so there were several things that needed to be coordinated. Then I found out that Walgreen’s provides immunization services, so we went to Walgreen’s–on a Saturday.

Several years ago, I was coming down the stairs, tripped over a shoe in the middle of the stairs, attempted, mid-flight, to hop over the dog asleep at the bottom of the stairs, and instead rolled down the remaining stairs, slamming into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. My foot swelled up to the size of a watermelon and my back was not happy. I went to an urgent care clinic the next day, Saturday, to get my foot x-rayed to be sure it wasn’t broken. Thankfully, it was not broken, and I was sent home with a brace and pain pills. I commented to the doctor about how packed the waiting room was and the doctor said he and his partner were “surprised that there was such a need for urgent care during off hours.” Seriously? You didn’t realize people needed a doctor at times other than 9 am to 4 pm?

When I was a child, most cities “rolled up the sidewalks” at 6 pm or so. If you wanted a gallon of milk, you’d just have to wait until 9 or 10 the next morning when the stores opened. These days, there are few service-oriented establishments that are not open very early, very late, or 24 hours—with the exception of doctors, dentists, optometrists, veterinarians, and so on. How hard would it be to take appointments Tuesday through Saturday? Partner with other doctors for 24-hour coverage? Or take Wednesday off and work Saturday instead? Or even a half day on Saturday? Or open later in the morning and stay later that night two times per week? Even my dog’s doctor is open until 7 pm and takes Saturday walk-in appointments for half a day—and they are always packed, too.

So why do you keep seeing articles about people not getting annual checkups, tests, and immunizations? Perhaps it is because doctors are not making it convenient to do so.

Years ago, my mom sent me a book about birth order. The section about three daughters and then a son exactly mirrored our family dynamic. Recently, while perusing Kindle books, I found a new version of the Kevin Leman book, The Birth Order Book.

Apparently, we form our personalities by the time we’re six years old and there’s not much we can do about it. It’s not as cut and dry as “if you’re the first born, you’re a leader” or “if you’re a middle child, you’re the black sheep.” There are other dynamics, which Leman calls variables, that affect personality, regardless of birth order.

For example, my parents had three daughters and then a son. Because my brother is the first-born son/only son, he exhibits personality traits of a first-born child. My second oldest sister is the classic middle child, because she is between my sister and me. She takes a laid-back approach to life. I’m the third daughter of parents who wanted a son, so I might have youngest-child traits or I might have middle-child traits. A middle child can be friendly and outgoing, like my sister, or an introverted book worm, like me. Because I am the last daughter, I was always the baby girl (“Little Karla”), but when anything went wrong with my brother and I, I was often told I “should know better” because I’m older. Contradictions like that, as well as being constantly reminded that you were the third daughter born to parents who wanted a son, can really mess you up.

Dr. Leman describes my family exactly: “This family has two last borns, a last-born boy and a last-born girl. This almost always guarantees friction between the two last borns. It is very common for alliances to form. The way this usually happens in this particular sequence is that the oldest girl forms an alliance with the youngest girl, and the second-oldest girl forms an alliance with the boy.”

Dr. Leman describes “the setup” as a particular skill of the last born that involves bugging an older sibling until he or she lashes out in anger; then the baby of the family runs screaming to Mommy for protection. Anyone who is not the youngest of their siblings is all too familiar with “the setup.” My brother was quite skilled at this. He would pick and pick and pick and pick until I could finally no longer stand it, and then I’d get into trouble because “I should know better.” I eventually learned that if I ignored him, he would get bored and leave me alone.

My husband is the baby of his family. He exhibits classic baby-of-the-family traits (including picking at me until I explode), but also there are several years between his older brother and him. Having five or more years between sons can make the younger son exhibit some of the traits of a first-born child. In his case, he is obsessed with doing everything “right”; he can plan a project for days and weeks without ever actually following through for fear of not doing it “right.” Probably because he’s a baby/first-born mix, some things he’s very picky and precise about and other things he couldn’t care less about.

We have two sons. My oldest son is the same as his dad as far as procrastinating because he doesn’t think he can do something the right way. He started out as a classic first born: very much into knowing and following the rules, an A student, took advanced placement classes in high school, and started college with enough credits to be a sophomore. But once confronted with how much harder college is than high school, he just gave up. He made steadily declining grades and then just stopped going to classes, got an “administrative failure,” and was put on suspension. He moved back home and hasn’t moved on yet. Five years later, he’s still unemployed, and doesn’t have many opportunities to get employed without a college education.

My youngest son is a classic baby of the family: active, entertaining, likes to have lots of friends, and likes attention. But there are four and half years between him and his brother, so he exhibits some first-born/only traits as far as ambition, achievement, wanting to do things perfectly, and so on.

Knowing how birth order affects personality and behavior can help us to understand each other, to work around each of our little quirks. Dr. Leman offers tips for parenting first borns, middle borns, last borns, and everything in between, including blended families with step children. He, a trained counselor and parenting advisor, also tells stories of when he screwed up.

I’m not sure how knowing this helps just yet, though, and it’s too late for my dearly departed parents. My own kids are grown, but I’ll still keep reading to see where I went wrong. Maybe it’s not too late for you.

A while back, a coworker commented, “I bet you’re loving that Prius now that gas prices have started going back up.”

I said, “Yeah, and it spits out fewer emissions, too.”

He said, “You know the Earth is actually cooling, right?”

He totally misses the point! Does anyone remember air pollution??

In 1975, we had our first Earth Day. Back then, we talked about air pollution, water pollution, excessive consumption, and litter. These things are still problems, but they’ve been pushed aside by the global warming/global cooling cults. Now that some hacked climate-scientist emails “debunked” global warming, it’s OK to pollute the air, throw trash out the car window, and dump toxic waste into the ocean? Why does that make it OK?

I used to live in Southern California. I know what air pollution tastes like, smells like, and looks like. It’s gross. And it’s mostly caused by the millions of cars spewing exhaust into the atmosphere all day, every day. It wasn’t until AFTER the problem got so bad—with no going back—that they starting investing in public transportation and bike lanes. From my back yard in the Paradise Hills neighborhood of San Diego, I could see the San Diego Bay—on a clear day, which was only a few days per year. And that was almost 20 years ago. I’m sure today even with the Santa Ana winds, seeing the coast would be difficult from my old back yard.

Here in San Antonio, we have our occasional “air quality alert” days, but we have the benefit of the jet stream and Gulf breezes to clear the air. Most of our air quality alert days happen when Mexico is doing their annual burning of their fields. With more than a million cars, though, we do have air pollution.

If companies want to do their part to curb air pollution, save wear and tear on the highways, reduce insurance costs, save electricity, and take part in many any other “green initiatives,” they need to set up a telecommuting program. I’m a writer, and spend my entire day at my computer. I rarely have meetings to attend, and usually the only time I see coworkers is when I go down the hall to the bathroom. Most of my interaction with coworkers is via email, instant message, and phone. Occasionally, a coworker will stop by to chat, or to answer a question that I emailed him, but usually it’s just email. I can do that just as easily from the comfort of my own home. Not only would I not have to drive my car to work, wasting an hour or more of my day, but I also wouldn’t have to take up office space, or use the company’s electricity, heating, cooling, water, etc.

I don’t have small children to distract me while I work at home, and I have dedicated office space (which I share with my husband). There are many people with distracting children or spouses at home during the day, or who lack the discipline to work unsupervised at home. But given the opportunity, most people who work at a computer can be more efficient at home, and not be tied to the 8am to 7 pm hours. Some of my most creative thoughts come at 3 am. My only distraction is the dirty house screaming to be cleaned; a cat who likes to walk in front of my monitor, pausing just long enough to get a reaction; and my son’s Labrador. When I work at home, there are no coworkers to stop by and chat (but if I wanted to do that, I could do so with Skype, Go To Meeting, etc.), no car problems or accidents to make me late for work, no worries about dress codes (unless you do video conferencing), and back to my original premise—no air pollution!

OK, we’d still have air pollution, but less of it. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get 2 weeks of groceries for a family of four in my backpack, so I’d still have to drive my car to the grocery store. You’d still have to run errands, go to the movies, take the kids to karate practice, whatever. But what if all of the people who live on the west side who drive to the east side to go to work every day, and all of the people who live on the east side who drive to the west side to go work every day, and all of the people who live on the far north side who drive downtown every day stayed home?? Just imagine what traffic would be like, how many fewer traffic accidents there would be, how much less wear and tear on the roads and highways, how much lower your car insurance would be, and so on, if most of us could telecommute to work?

“The idea that we have undergraduates who don’t read books distresses me. Of course, I know that they do read. …  They read in print and electronically. They read articles. They read blog posts. They exchange these items on Facebook and elsewhere. But reading a book, even a popular novel, requires some measure of sustained attention, and reading a serious book requires concentration and intellectual effort to comprehend and absorb the material. “

We aren’t born knowing how to read, but we are born knowing how to speak. Babies learn their local language, including grammar, syntax, and even word choice by listening to people around them talk. If you “goo-goo” and “gaa-gaa” to your baby, that’s the language he’ll learn. If you speak to him in proper sentences using “grown up” words, those are the words he’ll learn to use. But that doesn’t mean he’s literate. Literacy requires the ability to read.

It wasn’t until mass-produced books became available that literacy became important. Gutenberg starting printing on his press in 1436, but printing didn’t really go mainstream until the 1800s when iron presses were operated with steam power. At first, illustrations were a large part of the book (because the average person was not literate), and group reading out loud was the norm. You didn’t read a Bible passage and interpret it using your own view of the world; a priest told you what you should believe.

Unfortunately, many people in the US today, still, are only functionally literate. That means they can read just enough to get by. For example, immigrants and children of immigrants in the US are often considered functionally illiterate because of language barriers. They speak their native language at home, and then are expected to speak English in school and at work. My father quit school after the 8th grade so that he could work to help take care of his family. He was a hard worker and a talented artist, but I rarely saw him reading anything, not even the newspaper. Most parents expect the public school system to teach their children to read. I’m shocked when I hear people say, for example, their child is in first grade and still can’t read! Reading to your children early and often, and letting them “catch” you reading, is the best way to teach your child to read.

Give your kids a good reason to learn how to read, and they will. When my oldest son, Alex, was between 2 and 3 years old, my husband worked as a field service rep. He was home about 1 week out of every 4. He liked to play a computer game called “King’s Quest” that required the player to read something on the screen, then type a response or make his avatar do what the text said to do. Alex loved to play that game with his dad, and when his dad was out of town, he wanted me to play. I was working full time, going to school part time, and raising a 2 year old basically on my own, so I often told him he would have to play by himself. (Besides, I had no idea how to play the game.) He would cry and beg me to play, and I would often read to him what the screen said, but then I would tell him, “If you want to play that game when Daddy isn’t here, you’ll have to learn how to read.” And that’s exactly what he did! Before Alex was 4, he could read on his own. One night we were at the airport waiting for his dad and there was a newspaper on the seat next to me. Alex stood facing the seat, leaning on it with his arms folded, reading the paper. A man nearby chuckled and said, “That’s so cute; it looks like he’s actually reading it.” I was so offended that he would think my child couldn’t read! I didn’t realize at the time that reading at such a young age was not the norm.

But why is it not the norm? My youngest son, Jake, didn’t learn to read nearly as early, but certainly was reading by Kindergarten. He had three people helping him, so he never had a reason to learn to read (or walk) as early as Alex did. There is a term in psychology called “Learned Helplessness,” which is a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation. If someone is always doing things for you, you never learn to do it on your own. For example, suppose you ask your son to put away his toys, but he takes longer than you want or doesn’t do it as well as you want, so you do it yourself. Or you see that he’s struggling to read the cereal box before pouring himself a bowl, so you grab the box out of his hand and pour the cereal for him, because you’re in a hurry. Eventually he learns that no matter what he does, it’s not good enough for you, so why should he even try? And that carries over to his school work and, eventually, his adult life—unless he figures out that it’s not his problem, it’s yours. The problem is that you’re not patient.

Patience can be very difficult, especially when you’re watching your child struggle to learn something. When I would read to my kids at bedtime, I would point to a word and they would read the word instead of me. At first, it was words like “and” “if” “cat” and so on, eventually working up to the entire sentence, and then the whole story. You have to be patient, though, and let your child struggle with sounding it out and making mistakes, waiting for them to figure it out. (Meanwhile, you want to rush through the story and put him to bed, so you can have “me” time.) Of course, you have to also provide him with the tools to figure things out on his own, but if you always take over, he’ll never figure it out. Give him small achievements, eventually building up to bigger achievements, so that he knows he can do it without your help.

Knowing how to do a thing and wanting to do it don’t always go hand in hand. If your child hates to read, find out why that is. Maybe the problem isn’t that he can’t but that he’d rather be outside playing soccer than inside reading. Perhaps if he reads a chapter of a book on soccer skills tonight, he can go outside and practice those skills tomorrow. Maybe there is a movie that he wants to watch. Give him the book of that movie to read. Maybe what he’s reading is way too easy or way too hard for his skill level. Don’t just hand him a book to read. Sit with him and have him read it to you—you’ll see then if it’s too hard or too easy.

Whatever the reason, work together to find the solution. Reading is not instinctive, it’s a skill. Like any skill your children learn, it takes time (yours and theirs!) and lots of practice and patience.

‎We also have a problem of technical illiteracy in the US, for which technology itself is partially to blame. (More of that “learned helplessness” I mentioned earlier.) But that’s a topic for another article.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

Large Wide Size Sofa Gel Comfort Style Bike Seat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I Want To Ride My Bike

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I Want To Ride It Where I Like

…

Fat Bottomed Girls They’ll Be Riding Today

So Look Out For Those Beauties Oh Yeah

I just want to ride my bicycle without pain. I’ve tried a variety of seats and seat cushions, but none allow me to ride for any length of time. I often follow my husband on his marathon-training runs, which can last for hours. It has been two days since I followed him on a 13-mile run, yet sitting down still hurts! Bike seats are just not made for fat-bottom girls!

Bike saddle manufacturers seem to assume that everyone who rides a bike is rail thin with 32” hips or less. Those of us who are trying to lose weight aren’t there yet, and we certainly aren’t racing, so we don’t need a narrow racing saddle. What we need is a wider saddle to fit the width of our sit bones. Especially for those of us who have had children—the pelvis widens during pregnancy to accommodate the baby’s head during child birth. My widely spaced sit bones sit on the edges of my so-called women’s saddle. This position is not comfortable for long rides.

Ideally you’ll find a seat with a rear shape that fits the width of your ischial tuberosities…your sit bones. These are the 2 points you feel when sitting on a curb. The right saddle will support and cushion you in just the right spots.

– http://www.bicyclewarehouse.com/buyers-guides/are-you-riding-the-right-bicycle-saddle-pg481.htm

Ischial tuberosity pain is a “common occurrence in bicycle riders [resulting] from the weight on the saddle being born by the ischial tuberosity.” Bicycle shorts do not solve this problem. I’ve tried the ones with padding in the crotch area, but that’s not the area that hurts. Well, that area does get very numb if I wear padding there. The solution, therefore, is a wider saddle. Much wider. Maybe something like this:

That’s a seat for a riding lawn mower! Doesn’t that make sense? Something that you’re going to sit on for 2 hours ought to be fully supportive and comfortable. I just need to figure out how I would fit it to the stem that holds the saddle. (Yes, I realize people would point and laugh at me.)

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered yet another bike saddle from amazon.com that claims to be wide enough even for my widely spaced pelvis bones. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Why running?

My husband, Bill, started running 2 years ago. He weighed about 230 pounds. Now he weighs about 160. He did that by running. He used myfitnesspal.com to track his diet. He discovered that he never eats enough because he’s always running! He’s run 3 marathons and 14 half marathons, so he’s always training for something. I often follow along on my bike, but 8 mph isn’t much of an aerobic workout. (The muscles of my legs and butt get a workout peddling up hills, though. If you don’t believe me, try it. Park your bike at the bottom of a steep hill, then peddle up the hill.) Obviously, running has worked out well for him. Not only has he lost fat, he also lowered his total cholesterol, raised his “good” cholesterol, lowered his triglycerides, lowered his blood pressure, and so on. In other words, he “got healthy.”

Meanwhile, I’ve been watching what I eat (mostly), cutting simple carbs, eating more fruits, vegetables, salads, etc., and trying to exercise enough to actually raise my heart rate and burn some fat. But that’s not enough. After a woman gets to “a certain age,” her metabolism slows down, especially if she took a 25-year break from exercise and got a desk job! To get the metabolism started up again, I need to run.

Learning to run again

No one who hasn’t run for 25 years is going to run a marathon. Or even a 5K. First you have to walk. And walk. And walk. That takes time and is usually quite boring, unless you live near a nice state park or a beach board walk, which I don’t. Getting motivated to walk for 30 minutes at 6 am when I’d rather sleep for 30 more minutes is difficult. To help with that, I bought Run Your Butt Off! a book from the editors of Runner’s World magazine. In Run Your Butt Off!, Sarah Lorge Butler, Leslie Bonci, and Budd Coates take you from not running at all to running 30 minutes over 12 “stages.” (Not 12 weeks, because each stage might take you more or less than a week.)

In the first stage, you just walk non-stop for 30 minutes. If you can do that 3 or 4 times in a week, you’re ready for the next stage, which is walking for 4 minutes, then running for 1 minute, and repeating that four more times. In each subsequent stage, you walk less and run more (2 minutes, then 3, and so on), until the final stage in which you run non-stop for 30 minutes. They offer helpful advice for both weight loss and running, and “coach” you through each stage. Just reading the first few chapters is motivating and puts you in the “get healthy” mindset.

Finding the time to run

In the first chapter of Run Your Butt Off! they discuss the number one reason people don’t exercise regularly—no time! The author writes, “You don’t blow off going to work every morning, nor should you skip your exercise appointment.” That’s true—but I won’t get fired if I don’t exercise. (However, studies show that healthy, attractive people tend to get and keep jobs more than unhealthy and unattractive people. Not fair, but true.) The running coach in the book, Budd, comments that it drives him crazy when the parents at his son’s gym practice complain about not having time. He runs while his son is practicing and says, “If you’ve been sitting here for an hour, you have time to run!” He has the same mentality as my husband—“my run is more important than watching my son practice.” I never enjoyed sitting out in a field watching my sons’ soccer practice, but I know they appreciated my being there. Most moms can relate to this excuse, and instead we try to fit exercise into our time (as if we have any!), not our family’s time. And if that means getting up an hour earlier, then that’s what we have to do.

In conclusion…

I’m struggling with whether I want to post “before” pics and measurements—I wouldn’t want to gross you out and scare you off! Over the next 12 weeks, check in here with my blog now and then to see how I’m doing (and “Like” or “+1″ me to up my stats!). Maybe I’ll post pics and measurements. Maybe I’ll post some tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way that might help you “get healthy,” too. Maybe in 2012 I’ll be running in the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon! (OK, maybe just the Family Fun Run.)

“Sports Events Impacted by Irene”
“Business Impacted by Irene”
“updates from governors and emergency managers in impacted areas”
“travel impacted by Irene”
“millions could be impacted by Irene”
“How you can help turtles impacted by Irene”

I was taught that wisdom teeth can be impacted and meteorites can impact the Earth, but people are “affected.”

I think the problem comes from people’s confusion over “affected” and “effected.” (To review the difference, see http://writeriam.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-of-american-english-grammar.html.) Just like “who” and “whom,” no one is going to convince native English speakers that there is a difference between impacted and affected. And even the Chicago Manual of Style says that it’s OK to use impacted in this way. When it comes to informal speech or writing, pretty much anything goes, as long as your audience understands you. But formal writing is different. My definition of formal writing includes user guides, journals and newspapers, white papers, really any sort of business writing, and certainly academic writing.

According to most dictionaries, “impact” is a stronger word than “affect,” indicating “strike forcefully” (as in a meteorite) or to “fix firmly by packing or wedging” (as when a molar is unable to breach the gum surface). But they also list the definition “to have a direct effect or impact on” which is how most news sources and marketing writers use it. (Really? “Impact” means to have an “impact”?)

My main complaint with using impact(ed) in place of affect(ed) is that it is over used. While watching the news this morning, a reporter was describing an area affected by Hurricane Irene. She used impact and impacted in almost every sentence. At least change it up a bit and use different words to make it less grating on the ears.

Well, my ears, anyway. I know I’m unusual. When I write or edit for my job, I try to remove most of the instances of impact, simply because it sounds/reads bad if you use the same word over and over (unless you’re writing poetry or songs). Here’s an example of academic writing that overuses the word, from http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/weather1/pielke.html

Most people wouldn’t notice that and couldn’t care less. However, when I read writing like the example above, the message is lost on me, because I’m focused on what I would consider to be errors.

You know how sometimes you’re reading something and you stop, then read it again, and maybe again, before you can understand what the writer is trying to say? That’s noise. When you write or edit, your mission is to generate a message that is clear and concise and has no noise that would distract your readers from the message. Impact screams out at me from the page, radio, or TV so loudly that I have forgotten what the story was about.