The Cure for Anything

Yeah, that says maximum heart rate of 218.  I thought it was an error, so I took my pulse manually.  Nope, it’s correct.  Somehow, I don’t think that is within my HR limit for my age.  When I workout, I usually max out in the upper 170 range.  But on this day I had taken 4 puffs off of my rescue inhaler in 90 minutes and I still couldn’t breathe very well.  Agenda for the new year: visit an allergist/pulmonologist, and maybe a cardiologist for good measure.  I rarely use cardio equipment (boring!) but I got on some today and in the process, I freaked out the woman using the machine next to me.  You see, my heart rate monitor automatically syncs with the machine I’m on, but it also synced with her machine.  She couldn’t figure out how her heart rate was suddenly 180.  I’m used to it, but I guess it might startle you if you’re not.

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I awoke this morning to sunshine.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen it, I’ve almost forgotten what it looks like.  Ironic that today of all days, the shortest day of the year, that the sun would shine.  But I’ll take it when I can get it.  I got up, put on some pajamas, made a cup of coffee and just stared out the window at the blue sky for a while.  It was a perfect start to the day.

I like buying pajamas, and I like lounging in pajamas, but I can’t stand sleeping in pajamas.  It’s so uncomfortable! I never sleep well if I’m away from home and have to sleep in pjs.  Ugh.  You’d think that as I’m always freezing cold in the winter that I’d love them.  Just give me some nice, warm blankets and a big, fluffy duvet and I’m in heaven.

Fascinating tidbit about today’s winter solstice: Tonight will also be the longest night ever. At any location in the Northern Hemisphere, in other words, tonight’s period of darkness will be slightly longer than any other, ever — at least, since the planet started spinning right around the time it was first formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The reason is that the rotation of the Earth is slowing over time. Every year, scientists estimate, the length of a day increases by about 15 to 25 millionths of a second.It may be a truly tiny amount (and it means that even in your entire lifetime, the length of a day will only expand by about two milliseconds), but it forces official timekeepers to add a leap second every few years. The main reason Earth’s rotation slowing down is the moon. Shortly after the formation of Earth, it was impacted by a planet-sized object. This enormous collision threw off the material that would eventually coalesce into the moon, and also sent Earth spinning quite rapidly.

I love this kind of stuff!  (It’s okay, you can call me a nerd, I can take it. 😉 )

The solstice always makes me think of this poem by Robert Frost: