Learn Or Do

I’m feeling nostalgic this morning…  Summer is over and my Facebook feed is full of back to school pictures.  Today is one of my nephews’ first day of pre-school this year and he looks so excited in the pictures.  What’s not to be excited about?  I’m sure he’s got new school clothes, new school supplies and he’s going to be back to playing with his friends all day.  Life is good for him.

I’m not generally a fan of fall, but this year might be different.  I start a new job next Monday and it’s feeling a bit like going back to school.  Maybe it’s the time of year?  I’ve already bought a new “first day” outfit and new pens.  And this morning I wrote a blurb about myself for my new boss to send out to the team to introduce me.  It’s been a long time since a started a new job and I’m really excited to get going.

That doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to the leaves falling, needing a coat to leave the house and commuting both ways to the new job in the dark.  But the changing of the seasons feels very real today.

What about you?  Have you felt the changing of the seasons yet?  Tell me about it in the comments!

It’s not a throwback – but my nephew is the one on the right at the door of his pre-school today.  Hope he has a great year!

It is said that lower back pain is the most common health complaint in the U.S.  And right now, I have some of my own which is REALLY a rare thing for me.  I had the carpet in my house steam cleaned last Thursday which meant I moved almost every stick of furniture in my house Thursday morning – and when I woke up on Friday, I knew I had done something bad to my back.  Right side.  Right above my hip.  Some Advil and a hot pack and I was ready to move the furniture back but I’ve had ongoing pain and tightness all week.

According to Google:

Ages affected:

0-2	Very rare
3-5	Rare
6-13	Common
14-18	Common
19-40	Very common
41-60	Very common
60+	Very common

Consult a doctor for medical advice

Sources: Mayo Clinic and others.

• WebMD
• Mayo Clinic
• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons

My to-do this morning was taking my cat Bruiser to the vet for his annual checkup and rabies vaccination.   The good news?  The vet says he’s perfect – like I had any doubt about that.  And he’s such a good boy that the vet didn’t even need a vet tech to help when it was time for the shot.  But speaking of the rabies shot – do you have any idea why our pets are required to get rabies vaccines every year?

Rabies itself is a very contagious and fatal viral infection that is spread via the saliva of mammals.  The rabies virus causes inflammation in the brain with early symptoms including fever and tingling at the site of the exposure or bite.  Symptoms progress to confusion, fear of water, violent movements or convulsions, partial paralysis and loss of consciousness.   Once the symptoms appear, the result is almost always death – and more worrying, the symptoms can take up to a year to start appearing.   So it’s very important to keep the virus in check – and a vaccinations for your pet is the best way to make sure your potential for exposure to the disease is as minimal as possible.

Thanks to the efforts of animal control laws regarding rabies vaccines, rabies deaths in the U.S. have declined dramatically from the 1970’s to the point where there is on average only 1 or 2 human deaths of rabies in the U.S. each year.  And reports of rabies breakouts now are most likely to be in wildlife rather than our domestic animals.

If you experience a bite from a wild animal or unprotected pet, there is a very effective preventive treatments available consisting of a series of 5 shots given over a 14 day period.  If you are bitten by an unfamiliar or wild animal, wash the bite with soap and water for 15 minutes and call your doctor.  You’ll want to start the treatment as soon as possible if you cannot establish that the animal has had a rabies vaccine.

Want to know more about rabies?  Check out these links:

• CDC – Rabies in the U.S.
• Mayo Clinic – Rabies Symptoms and Treatments

And here’s a picture of my buddy Bruiser!

Happy Labor Day everyone!  I hope you’re having a lovely 3-day weekend?  Labor Day always makes me kind of nostalgic – after all, it’s the holiday that marks the end of summer.  And when I was a kid, it meant it was time to go back to school although the kids in my neighborhood have been back in school for a couple of weeks already!  But I digresswhere did the Labor Day holiday come from?

To get the facts on Labor Day, I started with the U.S. Department of Labor.  Seems logical right?  Here’s the explanation of Labor Day I got there:

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Not a very complete picture of the creation of the holiday!  So I kept digging.  Next stop – my favorite on-line resource, Wikipedia.  According to their history of the holiday, Labor Day began out of the labor movement of the late 1800’s.  The first Labor Day celebrations were held in New York City in 1882 uniting several labor unions at parade sponsored by the Central Labor Union of New York.

In 1887, Oregon became the first state to officially recognize a Labor Day holiday with the Federal Government recognizing it in 1894.  So we’ve been celebrating Labor Day as a national holiday for well over 100 years!

One of my fond memories of growing up was watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon for muscular dystrophy on TV.  Unlike today when you can stream performances of your favorite band or actor, in the 1970s one of the best places to see all the top talent of the day was the MDA Telethon.  It was an annual 24 hour marathon of Jerry Lewis hosting everything from music performances to dancing to animal acts that raised over $2 billion dollars during its run from 1966 to 2010.  One of our local TV stations that broadcast the telethon used to offer Muscular Dystrophy carnival kits so kids could get involved. I always wanted to get one  – but my parents were NOT enthusiastic about the idea of it – probably because they knew they’d end up doing all the work!

Now pardon me – there are Labor Day sales to get to and last minute summer relaxing to cram in before the day is over!  Happy Labor Day!

Want to know more about Labor Day or the MDA Telethons?  Check out these links:

• Wikipedia – Labor Day
• Jerry Lewis Telethon

This never gets old…  Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Earlier this week my Facebook feed had a lot of posts about Rainbow Bridge day to commemorate pets that are no longer with us.  Apparently Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day is August 28th.  I didn’t even know what the Rainbow Bridge was until I had my beloved Alley put to sleep 5 years ago on August 13th.  When I got his ashes back, there was a card with poem about a Rainbow Bridge included.

The author of the poem is unknown according to Wikipedia, but the story is that a dying pet goes over a rainbow bridge to a sunny meadow where they are free of injury or ill health and there they are at peace and happy.  The pet enjoys this meadow but misses their owner on earth – so when the owner passes away, they also cross the rainbow bridge and are greeted by their pet.  Then side by side the owner and pet re-cross the bridge into Heaven where they are never separated again.

It’s a lovely story isn’t it? And as pets have gone from companions to being our “fur children” I suppose it’s natural that we find this story so very comforting when we lose a pet.  It’s also evolved into a website where people can post memorials to their pets and receive grief counseling.  Check out the Rainbow Bridge website here.

Want to read the full poem?  Here it is from Guideposts Magazine.

And my throwback for today?  A picture of my Alley – he was my first kitten that I picked out on my own.  Or rather he picked me.  I had him for nearly 16 years before he crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  He was a good boy.

Does our astrological sign impact our health?  I don’t really think so but the internet is full of fun info and today let’s see what it says about astrology and health topics shall we?

I found a bunch of articles – although to be honest, I’m pretty sure improvements in health boil down to eat less/move more no matter what your astrological sign is.  But for the fun of it, here are some links to articles and you can judge for yourself:

• The best ways to destress according to your astrological sign.
• The best workouts for your zodiac sign.
• The best diets by zodiac sign.
• What does your zodiac sign say about your health?

Full disclosure – I’m an Aries so according to these sources, I need to raise my body temperature, doing metric based cycling (whatever THAT means!), follow the Atkins diet and watch out for ailments with my head including headache, toothache and facial blemishes.  Nope.  I think I’ll stick with moderation in my diet, running/walking and kickboxing.  But it sure was fun looking up all this stuff today!

It’s been really hot and humid here the last few days –  and my towels are crunchy and smell a little musty.  I’m sure that’s never happened to any of you has it?  LOL!  But do you know how to get rid of that smell?  For To-Do (Try-It) Tuesday, I’ll give you my secret.

White vinegar.  That’s right.  Just throw your towels in the washer, add 1 cup of white vinegar and NO detergent or fabric softener.  Just the vinegar.  Then start the wash cycle using water as hot as your towels will stand.  When the cycle is done, put the towels in the dryer with either a dryer sheet or dryer balls.  They should come out as fresh as when you bought them!  No?  Run them through the wash cycle again – but this time instead of using white vinegar, put in a cup of baking soda (still no detergent or softener).  That should do the trick!

And if you haven’t tried dryer balls – I highly recommend them.  Here’s the set I have: Wool Dryer Balls.  $10 for six felted wool balls that not only soften your clothes/sheets/towels naturally, but also cut the amount of time you have to run your dryer.  On average since I started using these earlier this summer, I’ve been able to cut 5-10 minutes off the dry time for almost every load of laundry.  Over the long run, that’s going to add up to savings on my electric bill as well as my time!

I just heard the washer beep – my towels are ready to hit the dryer – gotta go!

It’s almost Labor Day so at my house that means it’s almost Christmas.  I knit or crochet a lot of Christmas gifts for my family so if I’m not started by Labor Day, it gets really stressful for me by November!

This year, the teenage types on my Christmas list are going to get slipper socks like these:

I made a test sock this weekend and I was happy with it so I’m in production now.  Shh!!!  Don’t tell the kids what they’re getting!

When do you start thinking about the holidays?  Tell me in the comments!

I want to do this!!!!  Happy Weekend!