A Time to Give Thanks and a Time for Giving

One a day with turkey and all the fixings and taking time to be with family and friends, I actually had a little down time during the morning of basting and preparing to sit back and watch a few minutes of the Macy's Parade and a quick heartwarming story. I flipped through the channels and stopped at a story on ESPN about a handicapped man who was the 50 year pride of a small college on the eastcoast.

On a cold winter day in 1960 a young college student was driving home when he stopped upon a woman with a young man in a wheelchair stopped along the road. The young college student asked if he might assist her and little did he know that he along with hundreds of other students would have a lifelong bond with this man.

Butch became a fixture not only to the college but also to the young men and women he touched. He became the mascot of the football, basketball teams, attending all of the games for the past 50 years. Each basketball season the football team gets him to every game and each basketball season the football team makes sure he is there to cheer them on also. Over the past years he has made many friends and is a part of each and every one of there families. At a recent football game he tearfully thanked his first friend who picked him and his grandmother up that cold day and said he felt so blessed to know all of them. The excitement they see on his face they said made there time at the college a truly inspiring time in all there lives.

Of course by the end I was tearing up as well. Thanksgiving is a time to remember memories of past and present. It is a time for family and friends and also a time to remember how thankful we all are to have our health, jobs to go to and loved ones to hold close. Enjoy every minute and give to others no matter how small it might be.

Another Reason to be Happy I am Short

For several years I have tried to drag my body out in the somewhat early morning, be it rain, snow, sun or cold (sounds like the mailman) and either I take to the pavement and walk my neighborhood when it's nice out or jump in my car and drive a short distance (this always seems a little wrong that I have to burn another gas to burn calories) and take one hour from my day to attempt to stay in some form of shape. It may not be the shape that the statistics would prefer but hey I am getting out. I usually walk around four miles.

Yesterday an article really caught my eye because the caption read "Take that, Stretch! Short people burn more calories walking". Well I thought to myself this looks like I may be doing something right. According to an article published in the Journal of Experimental Biology scientists have come up with a new equation (oh great) to determine how much energy people actually use while walking. I thought this could be rather interesting. My philosophy has been if I can manage to lap people that are significantly older than I am I must be doing pretty good. Especially according to them I am just "a kid".

In a nutshell they studied 48 people ranging from age 5 to 32 on a treadmill. Ranging in weight from 35 to 195 pounds and height of 3.5 to 6 foot tall. (Ok I fit in the weight but not the age range sadly).

The outcome was everyone used the same energy for each step they took, but because people with shorter legs take more steps to cover the same distance as people with longer legs, short people used more energy over distance.

Hey I have know that for years. I take twice as many steps as both my husband and my kids. So tall people are more economical walkers because they take bigger steps. The sad thing was when it came to calorie burn a person who is 5 foot tall (I am slightly taller) burns roughly 49 calories to walk one mile while a 6 foot tall person burns 71 calories to walk the same distance. Well that doesn't seem fair. But hey I guess somehow it must balance itself out because although tall people can reach the top shelf a short person can get in tiny spots that others can't.

I will continue to walk and wish that I was taller probably until I die. Hey maybe I will be reincarnated a 6.2 model..who is a speed walker..Ahhh I can dream...

Cruising, Spam and Pop Tarts-My Ship is Dry Docked

I have had a very busy two weeks and it's times like this with the weather turning cold that I fantasize about nice warm beaches and Hawaii. One of the big topics on the news this week has been the dead in the water Carnival Cruise ship that was on its way to Mexico. Not far off the coast a sudden engine fire basically created a catastrophe for 4,500 pleasure cruisers. There pleasure quickly became a multi-day nightmare when with no power, which means no cooking, no swimming or any other cruise type activity that you usually get to experience this was not going to be the cruise they had dreamed of.

When I lived in California I was asked multiple times whether I was interested in these cruises. I love to go travel but the thought of being on a ship, headed to Mexico never peaked my fancy. We had several friends who frequently went but I was always the "party pooper".

I can't believe some of the stories on the news these people had to endure. No bathroom facilities, no heat or air, hot dog salads, playing cards sounded more like a bad camping trip. When the said that spam and pop tarts were airlifted in by a naval carrier was is this the best they had? Although I have never tried a pop tart/spam sandwich (I guess a sweet/savory thing was going on here) but uncooked spam wouldn't do it for me. Many who had been on previous cruises said this was the first time that they had probably lost weight on a cruise because of the food.

It was a nice gesture to give a free cruise and give hotel vouchers but this event and others I have heard like it basically has cemented my thought that a cruise won't be on my to do list.