Cold Weather II

Well, I learned this week, after a week of sub-freezing temperatures with 8-12 degree wind chills, that my body is better in cold weather than I wrote earlier, so much so I can walk in weather in the low 20's with a wind chill into the low-mid teens.

It's a matter of adding a layers of clothes, especially the legs since I wear above-the-knee shorts now all the time. I dragged out all the winter clothes I used over my 13 years of doing year-round field work in Oregon, Arizona and Washington.

Much of the clothes have shrank some, even though I'm smaller and weigh less than when I did field work, but there was enough to use to keep me warm under the NorthFace Gore-Tex two-layer coat wiht a down inner liner and some Marmot gloves for Reynaud's Syndrome.

In addition I changed my morning breakfast snack to help fuel the body better for the walks. And adding bread now adds some carbohydrates. The only problem is when it gets into the 30's and colder my nose runs faster than I walk so I go through a hankerchief every walk.

That said, I got out five days this week in sub-freezing weather is only problems with walking into 15-20 mph winds. Wind goes through Gore-Tex, but the underlayers do a good job keeping me warm. Only the face gets cold.

I learned I prefer 40's and rain to 20-30's and clear and windy. I can stay dry, but staying warm takes more work, although walking on the pre-dawn, moonless, clear mornings offer the stars, where in some places there's very little light from the area.

What's cool on some walks are the places where you can stop and hearing nothing, just silence except for the natural sounds, owls, etc. You can just stop and listen for awhile to the quiet, until commuters drive by which you can hear a mile away,

In other news, I've done more food experiments, some good and most not so good. I'm still limited on the vegetables (carrots, celery and peas) after trying a few more. The same happened with fruits, all but organges are out, including bananas.

Meat is still regional free-range turkey and some natural, drug-free brands of sandwich ham after trying a range of beef, veal, pork, etc. Seafood is ok occasionally (crab, shrimp). I haven't tried any fresh or canned fish yet, and probably won't for awhile.

Bread is still baguette, sourdough bread, some croissants (depends on bakery), cornbread and Ritz cracker, while muffins, biscuits, scones, etc. are out. Not sure why but it's the reality for now. I haven't tried regular breads yet, and like fish, won't for awhile.

The same applies to other foods, such as grains (rice, oats, etc.), meaning haven't tried them yet. Potatoes (white, yam, sweet, etc.) are ok occasionally in small quantities. They're great as a base for toppings.

Anyway, that's it from here for early January. The cold weather isn't stopping the walking, only bad food experiments are.

Newspaper

My parents and their siblings went through my paternal grandparents' home in Valley Falls, Kansas, in the mid-1970's moving all the furniture out to various family members, which I got the last of the bedroom sets from the 1880's with a rocking chair (their wedding present), and wholesaling out the rest of everything in the house.

Before the wholesaler's crew came they went through the house one last time. The basement was full of everything they saved from the day they move in after my grandfather had the house built around 1910 before sending for his future wife.

In the attic, more of the same, boxes and cupboards full of everything they saved. Surviving through the depression my grandmother never threw anything out she could save. In one cupboard in the attic they found this framed page from the Valley Falls Vindicator newspaper, dated September 28,1949.

They had no idea why she saved that page and had it framed, but they set it aside. Later reading the page they found the reason buried in the public notices.

My birth announcement. It's been hanging on my bedroom wall the day I got it to remind me one day those years ago someone cared to remember me. My parent would eventually go on to kick me out of the house in 1968 for failing their expectations in college.

I would enlist in the US Air Force and rarely return home, only for family reunions or emergencies, and my father rarely spoke to me during those visits. I would later learn his treatment of me was because his father (my grandfather) did the same to him as he did to me.

In 1940 after failing his father's expectations in college (one of the Kansas univerities) my grandfather kicked my father out of the house. He joined the US Army and later transferred after the war ot the US Air force when it was separated from Army (Air Corps). 

My father also rarely went home again, and rarely spoke to his father, not even attending his funeral in the early 1950's when we were stationed in Virginia prior to being transferred to England. I never knew the reason my father acted toward me as he experienced with his father, only that he did

But I always knew my grandmother loved me and kept a reminder I keep today to remind me to thank her.