A WALK IN THE WOODS

I was really knocked out on Sunday. I could barely move. I could barely speak. And breathing wasn't working too well either. I did wake up yesterday, Monday, feeling infinitely better, although nowhere near 100%. Nevertheless, in the afternoon, I was able to take an urban hike. After my complete system-wide malfunction on the previous day, it felt really good to stretch my legs. I plan on being completely cured by Wednesday. I know that things don't really work that way, but it is important to have the mindset of health in order to be healthy. And even if that is completely ridiculous, I can't see what harm can come of it.

I have started reading my next Bill Bryson book. As anyone can attest, it is very easy to get hooked on a Netflix TV show. It certainly takes a bit more effort to get hooked on a series of books by the same author. Naturally, the payout of reading a good book far exceeds the payout from watching hours and hours of a TV show or movie.  The next Bryson book that I have just started is A WALK IN THE WOODS.   This book details the travels of Bill and a 'friend' of his as they hiked the entire 2000+ miles of the Appalachian Trail. Although I only started the book today, I can tell that I am going to enjoy this journey. Although thus far, my hiking expeditions do not include overnight camping, still there is much about this experience which I am going to vicariously enjoy.  Bill Bryson is a great storyteller. Each page of each of his books is enjoyable. The reader eagerly reads each page with the anticipation of the best of any Stephen King thriller. The Bryson books appear to keep the horror in much smaller doses. Still there are some minor horrors and many more bits of humor.  This book was actually made into a major Hollywood Movie - which until about 5 minutes ago - I had never heard of. The movie stars Nick Nolte and Robert Redford.

A quick check of Netflix has confirmed that A WALK IN THE WOODS is not available for streaming. But Cape Fear starring Nick Nolte is... and that sure is a great movie and in this specific case, a non-sequitur. The thing with blogging and bloggers - we don't have editors. Of course, that is obviously obvious. (An editor would surely have ripped apart that last sentence!)

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Your Food Diary For:

Monday, September 19, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal	600	108	10	16	0	4
Quaker - Chewy Granola 90 Calories	270	57	6	3	240	21
	870	165	16	19	240	25
L U N C H
Read - 3 Bean Salad, 1.67 Cup (85g)	300	65	0	5	1,500	40
Cabbage Soup	200	20	0	5	157	11
Fried Chicken Tenders	300	17	20	14	766	2
Home Made - Garden Salad, 1 bowl	100	6	0	4	400	4
	900	108	20	28	2,823	57
D I N N E R
Fried Chicken Tenders	300	17	20	14	766	2
Home Made - Garden Salad, 1 bowl	100	6	0	4	400	4
	400	23	20	18	1,166	6
S N A C K S
Hersheys Dark Chocolate Bar	500	28	38	9	100	11
Oreos	200	31	9	1	175	18
Hostess - Banana Twinkie, 3 cakes	405	69	14	3	540	50
	1,105	128	61	13	815	79
Totals	3,275	424	117	78	5,044	167
Your Daily Goal	4,179	522	139	209	2,300	156
Remaining	904	98	22	131	-2,744	-11
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 2,249 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Monday, September 19, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
11 Mile Urban Hike	134	2,377
Daily Total / Goal	134 / 30	2,377 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	134 / 210	2,377 / 4,130

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I guess this step count for Monday makes it easy for me to quantify how much better I felt yesterday compared to Sunday.  On Sunday I managed to 'accumulate' a grand total of 2031 steps for the entire day. On Monday my step count was 20103. This is nearly a 1000% improvement (989.8% for all the 'rainman types' out there)  Yep, I definitely felt better on Monday. 

and one more thing of some note...
a few weeks ago, a wished myself a Happy Anniversary which commemorated the important day that purchased my fitbit. It will probably be a good idea today, to wish myself and my wife a Happy Anniversary which commemorates the day we were married 19 years ago. So I will.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, JENNIFER
I considered adding something sardonic and/or sarcastic and/or humorous here... but I think I will just stick with the basic good wishes.  Why risk the delicious fondue dinner that we have planned for this evening? 

THE LOST CONTINENT

On Sunday I was simply out of it. I could barely speak two words without going into a fit that would surely have bested Hillary Clinton in a one on one coughing contest. And remember, coughing is one of Hillary's best talents. (Is lying considered a 'talent'?)  I had intermittent chills interspersed with intermittent sweating. My fitbit tells the story, I accumulated 2031 steps over the course of the day. I suppose that 2000 steps is about what one can accomplish by walking to the refrigerator and bathroom over the course of one day. Yesterday was a day for reading. 

The first Bill Bryson book that I ever read was A Short History of Nearly Everything. This book should be read by everyone and then re-read. I can't remember much of that book, only that every page had information about...well... nearly everything.  Another Bryson book that I read some time ago, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.  A week or so ago, I finished reading Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States.  Every single page of this book was fascinating. Naturally, I can remember almost none of it. This book needs to be read and re-read as well.

Since I was completely incapacitated and barely able to speak on Sunday, I spent my time reading The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. This book was endlessly fascinating to me as Bryson recounts his travels through small town America. This is the America that I know best.  

It was too easy to simply copy and paste the description of this book from wikipedia as the description was perfect. So here it is:

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America is a book by travel writer Bill Bryson, chronicling his 13,978 mile trip around the United States in the autumn of 1987 and spring 1988. It was Bryson's first travel book.

He begins his journey, made almost entirely by car, in his childhood hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, heading from there towards the Mississippi River, often reminiscing about his childhood in Iowa. The journey was made after his father's death, and so is in part a collection of memories of his father in Des Moines while he was growing up.

The book is split into two sections: 'East' and 'West', the former part being considerably longer than the latter. These sections correspond to two separate journeys made in the autumn of 1987 and spring of 1988. The first section covers the Midwest, the Deep South, the East Coast and New England, before returning to Des Moines. The second section focuses on the Great Plains, the South West, California and the Rocky Mountains.

Bryson's goal in this trip was generally to avoid tourist destinations, instead choosing to experience the real every-day America, stopping at small towns and forgotten points of interest. This book is an overview of the United States from Bryson's point of view. There is less focus on factual insight into the history, geography and culture of the destinations in this book than is found in some of Bryson's later books, focusing instead on observations made with the intention of being humorous.

Now that I have read four Bryson books, I realize that he is one of my favorite authors. Lucky me, Bill Bryson has written a bunch of books, and I am going to make a point to read them. This guy is insightful, interesting and often very funny. (And I can say this knowing that he is no Republican - what can I say? No one is perfect.)

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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, September 18, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal	450	81	8	12	0	3
	450	81	8	12	0	3
L U N C H
Hormel - Mary's Corned Beef Hash	340	22	22	15	900	1
Eggs - Grade A Large, 3 eggs	210	0	15	18	210	0
	550	22	37	33	1,110	1
D I N N E R
Cabbage Soup, Homemade	400	41	1	9	313	23
Roundy's - Center Cut Bacon	210	0	12	21	660	0
	610	41	13	30	973	23
S N A C K S
Oreos - Oreos, 9 cookies	480	75	21	3	420	42
Nestle - Dark Chocolate	400	42	23	5	0	0
	880	117	44	8	420	42
Totals	2,490	261	102	83	2,503	69
Your Daily Goal	2,017	252	67	101	2,300	75
Remaining	-473	-9	-35	18	-203	6
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 87 extra calories from exercise today

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Publication Order of Travel Books

The Palace Under the Alps	(1985)
The Lost Continent	(1989)
Neither Here Nor There	(1991)
Notes From a Small Island	(1995)
A Walk in the Woods	(1998)
I'm a Stranger Here Myself	(1999)
In a Sunburned Country	(2000)
Bill Bryson's African Diary	(2002)
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island	(2015)

Publication Order of Language Books

Made in America	(1994)
The Mother Tongue	(1990)
Bryson's Dictionary for Troublesome Words	(2002)
Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors	(2008)

Publication Order of Science Books

A Short History of Nearly Everything	(2003)
A Really Short History of Nearly Everything	(2004)
Seeing Further	(2010)

Publication Order of History Books

Icons of England	(2008)
At Home: A Short History of Private Life	(2010)
One Summer: America, 1927	(2013)

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid	(2006)
Shakespeare: The World as Stage	(2007)

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