Energy - Monday, April 5, 2015

Wherever does a person find the energy to keep going throughout the day? My energy level is pretty high, but has gone down over the years. Bob used to call me "the Energizer bunny."


In my 20s, I went to Jazzercise classes three or more times in a week. For 18 years, I have been Volksmarching all over the United States.

When we lived in Hawaii I belonged to a women's health club where I took Zumba classes three times per week and worked out on weights two to three times per week, plus Volksmarched about once a month. Bob and I also walked all over the hills in our Kapolei, Hawaii neighborhood in the evenings, or went to Ko Olina and walked along the lagoons.

While I still Volksmarch regularly, I have not found an exercise dance class here in Texas that is convenient to where we live. I joined Planet Fitness, but they do not have exercise classes. And I have been remiss in going there to work out. Shame on me. Working out definitely creates more energy.

I've noticed that on a sunny, cool day I have lots of energy. But if it is too hot or too humid, the energy level goes down in a hurry.

Today I grocery shopped, vacuumed, scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathroom. Doing the laundry was on my list too, but I didn't get to it.

When I sat down to write this blog, I told Bob, "I need to write my blog about energy, but right now I don't have any." We laughed.

He told me, "Because you're exhausted, you have no energy to enlighten or entertain your readers." (Hey, do you think he's getting into the "e" words?)

Energy comes from lots of different places. Some people drink coffee for a burst of energy. (We don't drink coffee.) Getting plenty of sleep and eating correctly produce a healthier life which means you have more energy. If you're excited about activities in your life, energy emanates from deep within you and that motivates you to keep doing those activities.

Another type of energy comes from your words...

"Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble."
 ~Yehuda Berg

Bloggers, you have energy in your words! Stay excited, stay lively, and good luck on your A-to-Z Blogging Challenge (if you're participating).

"The energy of the mind is the essence of life."
 ~Aristotle

Un-Comfort-Able -- Sun., Mar. 31

Dis-"Comfort." That's how I'm feeling today. You see, I made a boo-boo and it made me feel un"comfort"able. It's also a play on words.

I was all pumped up to do an Easter Volksmarch in the historic, antique-y town of Comfort, Texas. The local Volkssport Club was sponsoring an event that sounded so much fun. The walk was to start at Comfort Park in Texas Hill Country, criss-cross the historic town, and go along Cypress Creek under majestic Cypress trees. In addition, decorated Easter eggs were being placed along the trail and, if we found one, we could trade it in for a prize. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

We drove almost an hour to Comfort this morning, got to the park and no one was there! I was so disappointed. Bob says, "Are you sure you have the right day?" I had the flyer in the car, opened it up and, guess what? It was yesterday, Saturday, March 30. It said so immediately under "Easter Walk." I was sooooooo disappointed! But I should have known. Who would go to a Volkswalk or volunteer to work at one on Easter Sunday?

Well, we made lemonade out of my sourpuss and thought quickly about what Volksmarch we could do  in the area. There was a Volksmarch in Boerne (pronounced burney) we hadn't done yet: the Cemetery Walk. The walk starts at the "Comfort" Inn. (At least there was some comfort today!) Because the walk box is in the lobby of the motel, we could check in and pick up the walk instructions even on a holiday. So that's what we did.

And here are photos of our 10K (6.2 mile) walk.

The Boerne water tower.

View of Texas Hill Country--a bit hazy because of high humidity.

Nice residential areas:

We crossed Frederick Creek.

Front yard full of pink evening primroses.

White-lined Sphinx hummingbird moth (Hyles lineata)

Pipevine swallowtail butterflies on thistle.

Cemetery we walked through.

Very old headstone

Another old headstone

Courtyard of a Mexican restaurant in Boerne.

Field of bluebonnets.

Church

Cedar waxwing.

Easter service in the Boerne town square.

Interesting information on the Theis-Bergmann House

Wow, smart mule.

Turtle

We like this sculpture!

That was it for the walk. We headed back to the 5er.

A brief re-cap of Saturday: We took Mom and Jan to the airport at 4:00 a.m. for a 6:00 a.m. flight. Went home and finished sleeping. We woke up around 10:30 a.m. Nice!

Bob had a project he wanted to do. Our water pressure in our 5er has slowed way down for no apparent reason. He had changed our water filter at the park spigot already. Today, he wanted to remove the panel on the backside of the water pump which necessitated completely unpacking our "basement" and removing a panel which covered the working parts of our water pump. He took out the original filter and made a trip to Camping World in New Braunfels to get a new filter. When he returned to the 5er, he installed the new filter. We continued to have the same problem with low water pressure. What makes this perplexing is when we turn on the water pump, our water pressure is strong and normal. Thank you, Bob, for working on that.

Saturday night we watched our latest Netflix movie selection: Ruby Sparks. I enjoyed it and gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Bob rated it a C. It's a chick flick with a geeky guy as the main character. He is an author/misfit/introvert/psychology patient who writes about his dream girl and she appears in his life exactly as he has written about her. Quirky-cute movie.

Tomorrow starts the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. I did it last year and enjoyed it so much I decided to do it again. The goal is to blog every day (except Sunday) in April starting with the letter A on April 1, B on April 2, etc. Sundays are blog-free days (unless you want to write on Sundays). Some bloggers choose a theme for all their blogs, others write about random topics. It's fun to visit other people's A-to-Z blogs during the challenge too.

Travel Bug out. Happy April!!