Even in this sweaty weather, it's all small stuff

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life ~ by Richard Carlson, 1997, psychology, 248 pages

This book tells you how to keep from letting the little things in life drive you crazy.  In thoughtful and insightful language, the author reveals ways to calm down in the midst of your hurried, stress-filled life.  He suggests making small daily changes by choosing your battles wisely; reminding yourself that when you die, your 'in' box won't be empty; and making peace with imperfection.  Learn how to:

• Live in the present moment
• Let others have the glory at times
• Lower your tolerance to stress
• Trust your intuitions
• Live each day as it might be your last
• Make your life more stress-free.

We've had "sweaty weather" in St. Louis for ages, it seems.  The other day, I decided to walk around one of our buildings by going out a door of my building near the back of the other building, then walking around it to the Café door.  I hadn't gotten ten steps before my glasses fogged up.  Yes, really!  As I reached the far corner of the other building, the heat evaporated all the moisture off my glasses.  I have never, ever had such a thing happen before.  With temperatures near 100° or more all week, the weather has been miserable around here.

The Everyday DASH Diet Cookbook: Over 150 Fresh and Delicious Recipes to Speed Weight Loss, Lower Blood Pressure, and Prevent Diabetes ~ by Marla Heller with Rick Rodgers, 2013, health, 231 pages

A healthy diet is only as good as the food it provides in its plan.  In this guide to cooking the DASH way is everything necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  It includes recipes such as Cinnamon French Toast with Raspberry Sauce, Filet Mignon au Poivre, and Chocolate Fondue with Strawberries.

This book I have found among the mixed-up books on my bookshelves after my move this summer was my friend Donna's fourth DASH Diet book.  In the middle of it are color photos of many of the meals, and they look delicious.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.

Weekly roundup ~ at the end of July

International Friendship Day is celebrated on July 30.

I have this small poster of Snoopy lending an ear,

because he's a good friend, of course!

(It's across the room from me, but it's late, so I found the image online.)

Sunday Salon

The Peter Principle ~ by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, 1969, humor, xviii +170 pages

Why is incompetence so maddeningly rampant and so vexingly triumphant?  This book answers that question.  The authors say that everyone in a hierarchy — from the office intern to the CEO, from the low-level civil servant to the president of a nation — will always rise to his or her level of incompetence.

This book explains why incompetence is at the root of everything we endeavor to do:  why utopian plans never generate utopias, why governments condone anarchy, why schools bestow ignorance, why courts dispense injustice, why prosperity causes unhappiness.

This book is older than my blog, which means I read it so long ago that I have never mentioned it here.  I'm sure it will get a high rating when I re-read it, since I remember it from over half a century ago.

Monday Musing

Maybe I've been overthinking this, but few or no comments on things I post during the week with comments only on Sunday seem to indicate that most people read only my Sunday Salon posts.  I've decided to dump a whole week's worth of books and thinking into a weekly post.  This is it, folks, so enjoy!  (Or not.)

TWOsday

My TWO things for TWOsday are at the top, where I've shown TWO Snoopy posters for International Friendship Day today.  See what a good friend he is to Woodstock?

Wednesday Words                       and/or                       Wednesday Workout

I was reading THIS article when I happened across "gonzo journalism," which I've never run across before.  So I looked it up and learned on Wikipedia that it's "a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative."  The article is about a 24-year-old guy in the Netherlands who is "a cognitively fit and healthy young man [who] has chosen to live on the dementia ward at Verpleeghuis Groenelaan (Green Lanes Nursing Home), ultimately just to see what it’s like."  He has written a bestseller in the Netherlands and says, "I don’t have dementia.  But by living with people with dementia for three years, I know a lot about life in an institute, and I listen to people.  In fact, listening to people is the main thing I do."

I wrote about this "exercise block" this past week, promising myself that I would start attending exercise classes regularly here at the Crown Center.  The next class meets tomorrow, and I plan to be there. 

Thursday Thoughts

Why would the app on my iPhone tell me that the nearest Walgreens is over 11 miles away, when there's literally one across the street from my apartment building?  Google maps says it is 15 minutes away via highway, but I walk to my store and back in less time than that.  I saw it and took photographs of it from my former window.  See?

Long, long ago, I read this online and just came across it again.  Hmm, it's too small (and faint) to read.  Here's what it says:

ATTORNEY:  Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  Did you check for breathing?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  How can you be so sure, Doctor?

WITNESS:  Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

ATTORNEY:  But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?

WITNESS:  Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Book Beginnings on Fridays

The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution ~ by Marla Heller, 2018, health, 264 pages

Beginning

The DASH diet (based on the research, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and the Mediterranean diet have both been acclaimed as the best of the best in the world.  Both became famous for their amazing impact on heart health.  Both help reduce inflammation and are associated with lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, certain types of cancer, and a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Now for the funny part:  I remembered having four DASH Diet books on my shelves before my recent move, but one day I noticed there were only three of them now.  I turned to put down whatever was in my hands and then went to the shelves to gather those three while looking for the fourth book.  But when I got across the room to the bookshelves, there were all FOUR of them together.  I probably blinked, like "what just happened?"  Then I realized there were THREE on a nearby shelf.  Yes, the four together all have my name in them, but the other three do NOT.  My logical conclusion is that those other three must have been my friend Donna's, and her sister gave me those copies to share with someone.  Maybe I was supposed to donate them to the Crown Center library.  I did discover on this blog (HERE) that Donna commented on this book in 2018:  "I will give it a try."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Caturday

Clawdia's special day is the last day of every week, though she would say that every day should be Caturday.  She is almost settled into our new apartment.

So is this it for the week?

Maybe, but perhaps I'll add special posts.

Something may come up unexpectedly, something I cannot wait until next Sunday to post. If so, I will post it and mention it in my next weekly roundup.  Otherwise, let's just see how this compilation works out.

Is it hot enough for you?

The Washington Post reported that scientists say we are living through earth's hottest month on record.  I read that the heat wave has put over half of U.S. population under heat alerts  The heat seems to be all that's on people's minds right now.

My friend Nancy called from Pennsylvania, and we talked for at least an hour and a half, until I had to leave to hurry to a music program I'd signed up for.  I lived with Nancy and her husband and their children for part of the time we were studying for our Master's degrees at Emory University (on the right), so our friendship goes back to the 1980s, almost four decades now.

Earlier that day, I had lunch in the Café with my friend Sue, who is also Clawdia's friend.  I shared three DASH Diet books with her.

Thursday Thirteen ~ DASHing

1.  My brother posted one of those "I'm going to see how many read this whole post" things on Facebook about diabetes devastating our family and how taking Metformin "may encourage the onset of dementia."

2.  He told us to copy and paste for friends to read, but I wrote that "instead of just posting this information and moving on past it, I'm going to share with you how I got OFF of Metformin, little brother.   I love you enough to share what worked for me."

3.  Here's how my story unfolded.  My doctor in Chattanooga suggested the Mediterranean Diet and, when I moved to St. Louis, my doctor here suggested the DASH Diet, I have followed each of these diets.

4.  Here's basically what I'm still doing:  Since having quadruple bypass surgery in February 2009, I have chosen healthy foods over processed foods and have lost 67 pounds slowly and carefully and safely over eleven-plus years.  Now I'm down from 224 pounds to 157 and still losing at an easy pace, by choice, by watching my intake.  I eat lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods.  The less processed, the better.

5.  I have bought three DASH Diet books by Marla Heller, a registered dietician.  These have been very helpful to change my eating habits.

• The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution is at the top, promising "the best eating plan to control your weight and improve your health for life."
• The DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution, on the right, says on the cover:  "2 weeks to drop pounds, boost metabolism, and get healthy."  It has two stages, starting with a two week "jump start" to reset your metabolish.
• The DASH Diet Younger You (below) promises on the cover that you can "shed twenty years — and pounds — in just ten weeks."

6.  Here's the link to these three books by Marla Heller that I've purchased.  I think it's enough to just get the blue book at the top, which combines the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH Diet into what Heller calls the MedDASH Diet for short.

7.  A key point is to think of "diet" as every-thing you choose to eat, and I told Jim (my brother), "Your library probably has a copy, if you don't want to buy it, or I'll have Amazon send you a copy, if you want it."

8.  I also told him there are Facebook pages for people to encourage each other to stick with the program, and I'm in two of them.

9.  If you are interested in the Facebook groups, the most important one for me is the MedDASH group, using the blue book at the top.

10.  I'm also in the  DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution on Facebook, which uses the gold book.  I joined it before the MedDash book was published, then added that one when the MedDASH book came out.

11.  There are other books by Marla Heller that I didn't buy, including The DASH Diet Action Plan and The Everyday DASH Diet Cookbook, if you want to explore all of them.  You don't need a separate cookbook, however, because she makes meal suggestions in each of the books.

12.   Did someone ask what DASH means?  DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

13.  Ask me questions in the comments, and I'll try to explain better.

The only rule for Thursday Thirteen is to write about 13 things.  For more information and to sign up, click on New Thursday 13.

Planning, in case of quarantine

What food (NOT toilet paper) would you stock up on in case you need to be quarantined?  I came across an excellent article by Marla Heller, author of the DASH Diet books on my shelves.  Before you say, I don't need to diet," let me share a quote:

"A diet is a food pattern.  An eating style.  It doesn't just refer to a weight-loss plan" (p. 4 of The DASH DIET Mediterranean Solution, 2018).

Marla shares the food supplies she herself has bought by categories:

• Freezer
• On the counter
• Refrigerator
• Pantry, including staples

I'm happy to say that I have a pretty good selection of these on hand myself, though I didn't think of nuts.  I love cashews, so maybe later I'll run across the street to Walgreen's and buy a package or two.  Tell me what you think of her article Quarantine!  Does it give you any ideas of food you may need to get?

Med-DASH Diet

The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution: The Best Eating Plan to Control Your Weight and Improve Your Health for Life ~ by Marla Heller, 2018, health

The DASH diet has been a staple of the dieting world, recommended by doctors and nutritionists, and #1 on the US News and World Report's best diet list for 8 years in a row.  But popular tastes and medical guidelines have evolved, and The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution presents a new approach to the time-tested diet program that highlights the benefits of whole foods.  Marla Heller, who has an MS degree and is a Registered Dietician, has overhauled the DASH plan to reflect the latest, cutting-edge research on hypertension, diabetes, depression, and other health issues that impact millions of Americans.  Meal planning gets a new focus on unprocessed foods (less sugar-free jello and more fresh fruits), with new seafood options and even a whole section examining vegan and vegetarian choices.  She has included four weeks of menus along with lots of strategies and research for a new approach to health the DASH diet way.

This book was published on Monday, so I don't yet have a copy.  But I have already joined the new Mediterranean DASH Diet group on Facebook.  The Med-DASH check-off form was added today on the official page of DASH Diet forms.  Does anybody want to join me so we can work on this healthy way of life together?

DASH Diet books ~ and two study groups

Hey, there are DASH Diet forms available online for use with Marla Heller's books:

• The DASH Diet Younger You (2014)
• The Everyday DASH Diet Cookbook (2013)
• The DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution (2012)
• The DASH Diet Action Plan (2007)

The New DASH Diet support group on Facebook shared this information today.  Click the top link to find the forms or the link in this sentence, if you are interested in joining the support group, which uses the "gold book" shown here.

Two Books, Two Study Groups

A Gospel of Hope ~ by Walter Bruggemann, 2018.  This is the book we'll use in the Tuesday Evening Dialogue group, starting day after tomorrow.

Brueggemann offers penetrating insights on Scripture and prophetic diagnoses of our culture.  Instead of maintaining what is safe and routine, he encourages readers to embrace the audacity required to live out one's faith.  This volume gathers his wisdom on topics ranging from abundance and anxiety to partisanship and the role of faith in public life.

Days of Awe and Wonder: How to Be a Christian in the Twenty-first Century ~ by Marcus Borg, 2017.  The copies we ordered should arrive on Tuesday, which means we'll probably start our discussion next week.

Borg helped shape an enlightened view of Christianity with a new way of seeing and living an authentic life.  Two years after his death, we have an anthology of his explorations of the miraculous and wonderful, his understanding of conviction and fulfillment, and his contention that we must keep an open mind and question assumptions in all our religious journeys.

 L'Shanah Tovah!  Wishing all my Jewish friends a sweet new year, as 5779 begins on this Rosh Hashanah.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Thursday Thirteen ~ food and other stuff

1.  Donna (sitting at the right) and some of my other friends attended the "Bagels and Schmears" workshop on June 6th.

2.  Crown Center regularly has workshops in our culinary kitchen, which shares space with our library.

3.  Here's a look at some of the finished bagels the attendees got to sample.

4.  Speaking of food ... Celery May Help Bring Your High Blood Pressure Down.  This article also mentions the DASH diet.

5.  Donna says this is the best article she's read in years:  I Don't Know How to Explain to You That You Should Care About Other People.  I agree with Donna.  Here's a taste of the article:

"Personally, I’m happy to pay an extra 4.3 percent for my fast food burger if it means the person making it for me can afford to feed their own family.  If you aren’t willing to fork over an extra 17 cents for a Big Mac, you’re a fundamentally different person than I am.

"I’m perfectly content to pay taxes that go toward public schools, even though I’m childless and intend to stay that way, because all children deserve a quality, free education.  If this seems unfair or unreasonable to you, we are never going to see eye to eye."

6.  When I first started blogging in 2007, I joined the Something About Me Reading Challenge.

7.  Each of us chose five books that say "something about me."  Then we read and reviewed books chosen by the other bloggers.

8.  Here are the five books I chose to tell something about me:

* Evensong ~ by Gail Godwin, 1999, fiction
* On Tap ~ by J. Frances Alexander, fiction
* Booked to Die ~ by John Dunning, 1992, mystery
* Go Out in Joy! ~ by Nina Hermann Donnelley, 1977, memoir
* The Dance of the Dissident Daughter ~ by Sue Monk Kidd, 1996, memoir

9.  I listed these five books on this blog, too, when I posted that I'd joined my first ever reading challenge:  Something about me.

10.  I discovered a list of 50 Underrated American Towns, which I looked through because the first photo showed a bridge that reminds me of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, my hometown.  Click the link, and see that this is a bridge in New Jersey over the Delaware River.  I love the flowers.

11.  It's been over ten years since I met John Dominic Crossan, and I heard him speak again the following year.  I recommend his books on theology, if you are interested.

12.  Take a look at The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God by Steve McSwain, 2010.  This quote is from page 30:

I am sometimes asked, "If there are many ways to God, how do you understand Jesus' instruction to 'Go and make disciples' (Matt 28:19-20)?"  When Jesus said, "Go and train everyone . . . in this way of life" (Matt 28:19), he meant, as it is correctly paraphrased here in The Message, that we are to teach people his way of life, his way of thinking and living.  Jesus did not say, as most Christians have mistakenly thought, "Go and train everyone to believe in me," or worse, "Go and train others to believe as you believe."  Jesus said to spread around his "way of life."  The world around you will never change until the world within you does.  That's the message Christians know as the good news.

13.  Seems like there was something else I wanted to add.  Hmm, I lost my train of thought.  I think it has something to do with old age.

The only rule for Thursday Thirteen is to write about 13 things.  The New Thursday 13 is hosted by Country Dew and Colleen.  If you want to read lists by other people or play along yourself, here's the linky for this week.

Thirteen things on my mind ~ including books

1.  My great-grandson Jonathan and his family were stranded at a Walmart when their car broke down three hours from home, as they returned from a great vacation.

2.  Here's some humor from Facebook that seems to apply to my life right now:

• Aging ~ "I love being over 70.  I learn something new every day ... and forget 5 others."
• Diet ~ "I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet in 3 hours and 20 minutes."
• Exercise ~ "I just did a week's worth of cardio after walking into a spider web."

3.  Changes are coming to the Crown Center, as this notice of a public hearing attests.  I plan to attend tomorrow's meeting.

4.  Someone was in the Art Room Saturday afternoon, so Donna and Alyssa and I went outside to read out loud together in the gazebo.

5.  Our DASH group is still getting together to exercise.  Here's Barbara holding one-pound weights.  We meet in the Crown Center's fitness center.

6.  Colleen's recent Thirteen post started with a joke:  "When Donald Trump looks at a half-filled glass of water, he doesn’t see it half-full or half-empty, he sees his own reflection."

7.  Donna made us another Taco Pie, but this time she used tortilla chips instead of Fritos.

8.  The Smithsonian Magazine recently had an article about a corduroy road, with logs as the roadbed.  The "W Road" up Signal Mountain near where I raised my children began as a corduroy road.  The road got its name because the three switchbacks formed a "W" as it traversed the steep palisade.  This is a photo from 1914, long after the roadbed of logs had disappeared.

9.  My friend Jane will be moving into her new apartment soon.  She showed it to Donna and me on a recent Saturday.  Oh, by the way, Jane is Donna's sister.

10.  This week marked 3 years since Mike Brown was killed, sparking the Ferguson Uprising, so the West County Community Action Network (WE CAN) honored his life at Saturday's Black Lives Matter vigil with 4.5 minutes of silence.  Next Saturday, they will be in Creve Coeur from 11:30 to 12:30, atop the 270-Olive overpass, South side, to uphold the message that Black Lives Matter.  My friend Joy is in this group, and I met several others at lunch after the vigil.

11.  After the recent storm of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, I posted a video on Facebook from the Rev. Traci Blackmon who was among the people inside the church.  That prompted me to tell people about Traci's book:  White Privilege: Let's Talk ~ A Resource for Transformational Dialogue ~ by Traci Blackmon, John Dorhauer, Da Vita McCallister, John Paddock, and Stephen G. Ray (2016).  This resource is only 99-cents for Kindle, and facilitator's resources are available free from the publisher.

12.  The book I was reading earlier in the day had referred to a book by Richard Dawkins.  When I sat down in my recliner in the late afternoon, I noticed the sun was reflecting off the windows of the other Crown Center building through my window onto a stack of books I'd put there many days earlier.  Do you see which book was "calling me"?  Yep, it's highlighted:  The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006).  After taking this quick photo, I sat back down and glanced again at the stack.  The sun had moved and was no longer shining on the stack, much less that particular book.  How funny!

13.  New fence at the Crown Center.

Burnt tree.

Partially burnt tree.

Now you may be wondering why I'm calling these "burnt" trees.  As I was parking in a spot facing these trees a year or two ago, I saw the "burnt tree" burning.  Literally burning, with flames.  I reported it to the office.  A few days later, I saw a worker from the building (which is now BEYOND the fence) flick a cigarette to the base of that partially burnt tree.  Aha!  Now I knew why the trees were burning.  My first thought when I saw the new fence going up was that now we wouldn't have any more burnt trees on our side of the fence.