The Fitness Situation

 I tried to make the pictures look fancy in another photoshop document but the damned app kept crashing the computer and after the 5th time I decided to give up.  This photo was taken Tuesday, November 10.  This one was taken less than 24 hours later, the next morning on November 11th. Ah, living in the north! It does make the morning exercise (walking/running, yes, I started running again) a little more difficult, especially when ice piles up on the sidewalks and the streets, but it's kind of exciting. Cold weather running is my favorite kind, although my fifteen and a half minute miles aren't all that much more strenuous than my fast walking, so the calories burned tend to be about the same. One day I might get back down to twelve again, but whatever.  Quite a contrast between Minnehaha Creek on a sunny morning and off of Lake Nokomis on a very eerie and ominous-looking day. 

I'm finding that some of these workouts are a bit difficult to research. For instance, this video, which had to have been released sometime in the early 90s, is only available through Amazon, which gives no info on its origins and nor does Denise Austin's wikipedia or personal website. I know this was released in the early 90s because a certain scholarship program I participated in (AND WON) used almost the exact same music playlist and many of the same pieces of choreography, as did the program from the next town over from ours and this was in 1993. What a time for country! Out in the sticks, anyway. The songs: Achy, Breaky Heart (Billy Ray Cyrus); Boot Scootin' Boogie (Brooks and Dunn), I'm in a Hurry (Alabama), Down at the Twist and Shout (Mary Chapin Carpenter), Elvira (The Oak Ridge Boys) If you don't have a deep burning passion for country music or at least a nostalgic connection to it for memory's sake, don't bother with this video. However, if you en

Despite being a bit on edge last week during the prolonged election drama, we did still manage to keep up on the walking commitment, although I did not remember to take any photos (my mind was on other things).  There were two days so warm in the morning we actually decided to get a couple last bike rides in, during which I tried to chill and send out positive vibes through my Election 2020 Playlist .  Here are the photos from the week leading up to the election, starting with a nice snowy October day. Those mums unfortunately never really recovered from the piles of snow that weighed them down, but the squirrels seemed to enjoy eating all the elements of my fall planters as well as playing hide and seek with the smaller pumpkins.  And photoshop attempt: