The Day sneaks away...

First you start laundry -then a computer needs help- then you deliver some fruitcake and then you go to the flea market and then you get company- and then you do a little research for someone...and the day just slips away...
Butch seemed to think the Presidents job took up much of my time but now I do not have that and I am busier than ever. I really do not mind as it feels good to be needed most of the time. My only fear is forgetting something or someone I have promised.
Still on my to do list is to continue asking "What is there about you that would surprise people if they knew." I need a few more answers from different people on that question. It sure has sparked much conversation.

I helped Gil Shymanski start a blog. He is doing very well with it and if you look on the left side of this page you will see a link for Shymanski Says and that would be Gil's blog. Go have a look.

A friend told me just the other day that if I do not post something every day she gets a bit peeved with me. I guess there will be days now and then where she is peeved.

Christmas is right around the corner and most everyone I know and who feels near and dear keeps tabs on us through the blogs.
www.brooker3.blogspot.com
and/or
www.magnolianews.blogspot.com
We would love to hear from any or all of you in whatever communication form appeals to you.
Best Wishes Always!

Funny....

It is funny that I thought it was funny...or is it?

Gary and Jason in the famous "curdled" neck sweaters

They hated these sweaters but I thought they looked really cute in them and I still do!! Hmmm...about 7 and 5 years of age

How Our Ancestors Used to Sleep

I know personally many of you have concern about your sleep pattern. But perhaps you should not.

Barb

How Our Ancestors Used to Sleep Twice a Night and Highlighting the Problem of Present Shock

by Jeremy D. Johnson on August 25, 2013 in stories

8 hour sleeping is a modern invention.

Imagine you are a denizen of the 18th century. It’s just past 8:30 P.M., you’ve got your night-cap on. You blow out your candles and fall asleep to the smell of the wax and the wick, which gently fills the air around your bed. Some hours pass. 2:30 AM. You awaken, grab your coat, and visit the neighbors because they, too, are up. Doing quiet reading, prayer, or even having sex. Well, apparently before the age of electricity, sleeping twice a night was completely ubiquitous.

Back in those times, we slept twice a night, getting up for an hour or two for recreation before heading back to bed until dawn.

From Slumberwise.com:

The existence of our sleeping twice per night was first uncovered by Roger Ekirch, professor of History at Virginia Tech.

His research found that we didn’t always sleep in one eight hour chunk. We used to sleep in two shorter periods, over a longer range of night. This range was about 12 hours long, and began with a sleep of three to four hours, wakefulness of two to three hours, then sleep again until morning.

References are scattered throughout literature, court documents, personal papers, and the ephemera of the past. What is surprising is not that people slept in two sessions, but that the concept was so incredibly common. Two-piece sleeping was the standard, accepted way to sleep.

“It’s not just the number of references – it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge,” Ekirch says.

An English doctor wrote, for example, that the ideal time for study and contemplation was between “first sleep” and “second sleep.” Chaucer tells of a character in the Canterbury Tales that goes to bed following her “firste sleep.” And, explaining the reason why working class conceived more children, a doctor from the 1500s reported that they typically had sex after their first sleep.

Ekirch’s book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past is replete with such examples.

But just what did people do with these extra twilight hours? Pretty much what you might expect.

Most stayed in their beds and bedrooms, sometimes reading, and often they would use the time to pray. Religious manuals included special prayers to be said in the mid-sleep hours.

Others might smoke, talk with co-sleepers, or have sex. Some were more active and would leave to visit with neighbours.

As we know, this practice eventually died out. Ekirch attributes the change to the advent of street lighting and eventually electric indoor light, as well as the popularity of coffee houses. Author Craig Koslofsky offers a further theory in his book Evening’s Empire. With the rise of more street lighting, night stopped being the domain of criminals and sub-classes and became a time for work or socializing. Two sleeps were eventually considered a wasteful way to spend these hours.

The science seems to back up our history books. In a 4-week study with 15 men living with restricted daylight hours, something strange started to happen. After catching up on their “sleep debt” – a common state of affairs for most of us – the participants began to wake up in the middle of the night:

They began to have two sleeps.

Over a twelve hour period, the participants would typically sleep for about four or five hours initially, then wake for several hours, then sleep again until morning. They slept not more than eight hours total.

The middle hours of the night, between two sleeps, was characterized by unusual calmness, likened to meditation. This was not the middle-of-the-night toss-and-turn that many of us experienced. The individuals did not stress about falling back asleep, but used the time to relax.

Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience at Oxford, points out that even with standard sleep patterns, this night waking isn’t always cause for concern. “Many people wake up at night and panic,” he says. “I tell them that what they are experiencing is a throwback to the bi-modal sleep pattern.”

Although the article mentions there are no benefits for sleeping twice a night, it’s difficult to imagine there wouldn’t be some major effects on our daily consciousness. How much would we benefit from a few hours of “unusual calmness, likened to meditation”? Seriously. I haven’t tried “bi-modal” sleep, but I think many of us, including myself, have stumbled into it. Our maddeningly busy digital schedules prevent us from considering the possibility, and benefits, of interloping with the sidereal realms of consciousness for more than an 8-hour “sleep debt” crash.

But we can’t go back to a pre-electric lifestyle of early-to-bed, early-to-rise. Yet, maybe we can utilize this knowledge to enhance our quality of life, and open us up to alternative modes of mind and time.

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Youtube Video

We spent two summers in the area and loved it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BUOQ_yPW_0s

Won the weather lottery!

We have not only been let out of weather jail we have now won the weather lottery! We have had a few days of perfect weather and they say a long stretch of weather goodies are on the way. Peg and I were on our way to Hobby Lobby today and we were talking about how difficult it is to think of Christmas with temps in the 70's. Even after all the years we have spent Christmas in South Texas it is still a stretch of the imagination for us.

I remember back to the days where we would  watch the weather reports and wonder if we would be able to travel to a relatives place or if the kids would be able to make it home for Christmas. Weather can still be a factor here but really...not so much.

Marlene and Bernard ( Butch's sister and brother-in-law) have made it down  from northern Iowa. We plan to go to Harlingen to see them tomorrow afternoon.

The Hunger Games-Catching Fire

Butch and I have listened to all three books and seen the first movie. So yesterday we went to the second movie in the series of three. As we are walking out of the theater a couple of women were coming out at the same time. They asked me if I had any idea what the movie was about. I told them that yes, I understood what was going on . Come to find out these women knew nothing about the books and had not seen the first movie. They felt they were dropped into the middle of something but did not have any idea what...and they were! Do not try to see this movie if you have not seen the first one at least or you will feel exactly as they did. It does not stand on its own and you do need a base knowledge to enjoy it. We enjoyed it very much and I felt  sorry for these two ladies who had wasted their money.

I forgot all about playing pool this morning. I so wanted to go but still forgot! It is very hard to keep track of everything and still get the basics done at home. No wonder I feel as though I am on vacation when we leave here the first of April.

Back in weather jail.

Expect to be released on Tuesday.

Ethan the Mechanic

He has it jacked up on his tricycle and even has a chock on the back. The chock is on the wrong side but even so...Ethan is 5. And so much fun to watch.

Old email addresses

Sometimes an email address will get hijacked. It happens too darn often actually. I have had it happen and so I changed my password making it tougher. But then it happened again! And then again! And I am thinking, come on now I have done everything I can. Am I going to have to change my email address? I completely forgot about an old roadramblin yahoo email. A few months ago Yahoo stated that if you had not accessed an email account in a years time it would be deleted. It had been well over a year so I dismissed it as done. So after Leo alerted me to a problem I started thinking about how it could have happened and remembered that old email account. So I checked it out. And sure enough I was able to go to the account using that really old and very easy password and all my info was there plus all my contacts! At first I could not find a way to delete the account but finally googled it and it was quite easy. In so doing they did say the account was deactivated but would not be completely gone until 90 days had passed. They said if I pressed that confirm button I would not be able to get into the account. I just this minute tried it and it would not let me in but it did say to press here to reactivate the account. I do not like this! I do not know how hard it would be for someone with an evil intent to reactivate my account. The only thing that gives me comfort is that I changed that little easy password right before I deactivated the account. They would have to know that password to reactivate it.
So I am telling you if you decide to eliminate an old email account change the password first as an extra precaution.
Do you have an old email you no longer use? Check to see if you can get into it. If you can after an extended length of time so can others.