Prius Prime – Month 4

The biggest milestone in the past month for my Prius Prime was passing the 1,000 miles mark and still have 7/8 ths of the first tank of gas!

That means that

• Remember to charge the car after I drive it (overnight while the rates for electricity are at their lowest) and
• Most of my trips are relatively short and done almost entirely on the EV battery rather than using any gas at all.

I am still looking forward to a road trip and anticipating it will happen when my daughter moves into her apartment near Penn State. The majority of the trip will utilize the hybrid aspect of the car rather than the EV.

Overall, I am very pleased with the car. I enjoy the quite of the EV….and the adaptive cruise control is something that has thoroughly spoiled me for the old-style cruise control!

Previous Posts about the Prius Prime: My New Car – a Prius Prime, Prius Prime – Week 1, Prius Prime – Month 1, Prius Prime and Samsung Galaxy S7, and Prius Prime – Month 3.

Zentangle® – March 2017

I thought February was a big Zentangle month (with 90 tiles)…but I stopped counting before the end of the month in March at 121 tiles! Yes – there are 3 more days in March than there are in February but the increased production was more because I needed the extra Zen during March to savor the length of time I’ve had with elderly family members rather than going into a grief cycle.

I am still enjoying the Ultra Fine Point Sharpie pens I got last month…and making tiles from Seltzer water boxes and using the backs of old business cards. I picked 31 of the 120+ tiles to feature in this post.

There are three sizes of tiles from March just as there were in February. My favorite of the 3.5 x 3.5 inch squares looks somewhat botanical. The color of the tile and the melon ink….and the startling black of the collection of black circles …appeals to be every time I look at the tile.

And then there are 18 more of that size tile.

My favorite of the reused business cards is quite different but still will black highlights and then color around the black. The purple looks almost chalky.

And there are 7 more of the business card tiles.

The last group are 4 x 3 inch card stock tiles. My favorite of this group…and the month…is below. It reminds me of a transit map or a petroglyph (a dancing figure with a giant headdress.

And there are 3 more of that size tile.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Prius Prime and Samsung Galaxy S7

I thought for sure I’d made a road trip sometime during my second month owning the Prius Prime but we took the new Honda CR-V for the road trip to Pittsburgh (more on that in the posts over the next few days). I’ve included a picture of the car with a backdrop of snow piles at the South Mountain rest top on Interstate 70.

We did tease out about how much the electricity cost to charge the Prius Prime for my “around town” driving: the car got about 300 miles on about $5 of electricity!

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S7 for about a month….have most of the apps I’ll use frequently loaded. I leave it on my desk when I am at the computer – plugged in so when I leave it is always fully charged.

I added the app for my grocery store (Wegmans) so I can see the coupons I clipped electronically, experimented a little with the iNaturalist app for BioBlitz and used several apps while I was traveling recently: FlightView (to get the current info for my air travel), the Accuweather forecast for where I am and where I am going, and texts to people I need to connect arrival and meetings. I also have started using the phone for (Kindle book) reading on the plane.  I bought a lanyard phone holder so the phone is attached to me (without me dedicating a hand to it) in the grocery store and on the plane. I’m still experimenting with the length of the lanyard but the holder part works very well and will attach to just about any lanyard.

I’m very pleased with my 2017 tech purchases and am still learning how to best apply them --- using the technology effectively for the way I want to live.

Previous Posts about the Prius Prime: My New Car – a Prius Prime, Prius Prime – Week 1, Prius Prime – Month 1

Previous Posts about the Samsung Galaxy S7: A New Phone

Zentangle® – February 2017

February is a short month…but a huge one in terms of the number of Zentangle® tiles I made over the course of the month: over 90! I got some new Ultra Fine Point Sharpies and enjoyed having so many colors. I also continued to use recycled materials for tiles as well. My favorite is the boxes from the Seltzer water cans. The light brown seems to go well with many colors of ink.

While most of the tiles were the square 3.5 x 3.5 inches, I did quite a few on the backs of 1970s business cards. They are a good size for bookmarks.

The 4 x 6 inches white cards – cut in half – area a good size for non-square tiles too.

February was a big month for Zentangle production! Hope you enjoyed the 28 our of 90+ that I chose to include in this post.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

A New Phone

My new car prompted me to get a new phone; the old flip phone I had been using could not interface with the car so I finally upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S7 this past weekend. The only thing to be moved from the old phone was the contacts list! There were some apps that I wanted from my tablet: OurGroceries, Kindle, iNaturalist, and eBird. The email and calendar came as well. I discovered that my Fitbit can interface with the phone as well (no more dongle taking up a USB space on my laptop!). I’ve managed to connect the phone to my Prius Prime as well. I’m sure there will be more to learn in the coming weeks.

I got a screen protector and the Geek Squad 2 year protection when I bought the phone from Best Buy. We were in the store just after noon on Saturday so it was busy but the staff was efficient; we only waited a few minutes before the flurry of action to make the purchase started. I was glad my husband had done it before and knew exactly what I wanted.

I ordered the case from Amazon before I even got the phone; I chose one with lotuses and gold fish. As I thought about how I would use the phone as I was grocery shopping I also ordered a holder with a lanyard so that I could have it readily available but have both hands free to gather my groceries; hopefully it will come before my next grocery shopping day.

I’m trying out an old purse that has a pocket that always seemed too flat ---the phone fits in it very easily; the phone is easy to access but still protected by the structure of the purse.

I took a picture with the phone just as I was thinking about this post. The old tablet (in the red case) may be retired by the phone. I won’t be using it for groceries and maybe not for reading material when I travel; the phone is a smaller package but probably more powerful than the tablet! The phone will not replace my camera but I will take pictures with my phone when I don’t have my camera with me…and for when I need a picture inside an app (like iNaturalist or eBird). It will be easier to send a travel picture to family when I am traveling as well

I’m already enjoying having my new phone!

Chicken Soup

Yesterday was blustery and cold. When we first got up there were a few snowflakes but the only place I could find that they were sticking was the skylight on the covered part of our deck (as seen from my office window). The day alternated between a gray winter day with short periods of brilliant sunshine.

It was a good day for making Chicken Soup with the leftover chicken from earlier this week. I started a pan with water, a chicken bouillon cube, and a cup of shredded summer squash from the freezer (left from last summer’s CSA). By the time I had cut up a few mushrooms to add, the squash had thawed and the liquid was bubbling. I added seasonings (not measuring…just added what I thought would be enough): onion flakes, my own grated orange peel, minced garlic, ‘original’ Pinch Perfect no-salt blend. I decided that cilantro would be good in the soup but it has more flavor if it isn’t cooked too much so I put it in the soup bowl and cut it up with scissors – with the plan to pour the soup over the fresh greens. Finally, I cut up the chicken and added it to the simmering soup. It took about 15 minutes…and was just what I wanted for lunch!

Zentangle® – January 2017

I averaged almost 2 tiles a day in January and have come to realize that I do more of them when I need to create a Zen interlude for myself. Creating a Zentangle is the fastest way for me to do that. I’m anticipating that February will be similar because of the political climate…and my daughter’s search for the ‘what next’ after she gets her PhD this spring.

I discovered a box of very old business cards – the very first ones of my career. They are over 40 years old and I’m using the backs as small tiles. Sometimes I am surprised what will fit in that small space!

When I scanned the 60 tiles I created in January, I discovered some odd sizes. I try to use card stock from odd sources. This one might have started out as a note card.

And then there are the bulk of the tiles that are the typical 3.5 x 3.5 inches. They are from different sources too: the blank back of lightweight cardboard packaging (canned drinks, Stevia, spiral notebook covers) and purchased card stock that is probably over 15 years old – all cut to size. I did more fill color than shading in January.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

My New Car – a Prius Prime

Late last year, I had decided to give my 10-year-old car to my daughter/son-in-law and buy a new car for me. This weekend was the scheduled hand off and I decided to start looking at new cars last week. My husband was very leery of going down to one car for very long. At first I wanted to look at a plug-in vehicle and then decided a plug-in hybrid would be better. Most of my driving is close to home and I wanted something that would be electric most of the time but I quickly decided that I would need a hybrid if I wanted the option of taking the car on a road trip. So – when I started looking at cars, the Prius Prime was at the top of my list and the Chevy Volt was a second choice. The Prius Prime has a 25 miles estimated EV range and a 640 miles estimated total range. I was a little concerned that the dealerships in Maryland would not have the Prius Prime since so many of the cars were going to California…but there were several available at the first Toyota dealership we visited (the one closest to where we live). We took one out for a test drive. Wow! I liked the feel of the car. I had to watch that I didn’t go way over the speed limit! The car is very quiet and handles very well.

When we got back from the test drive some additional Prius Primes had been delivered to the dealership – including a red one with a white interior which is what I thought I wanted based on my web-based research. So – to shorten the story – I bought it! It was home in our garage about 4 hours later and charging at the regular outlet in our garage (it takes about 5.5. hours to charge on this type outlet).

There are three versions of the car and I got the middle one (Premium); the ones the dealer had were all this version and it is probably the most popular one they sell. The car has all the must-haves (navigation system is the highest on my list) except for the Homelink mirror (that includes a garage door opener) which I ordered; it will be installed next Wednesday.

I’ve driven it for a few short errands and put my key addresses into the navigation system. It is easy to drive and I’m thinking about what road trip I can take. My husband installed a hook to coil the charging cable when it is not in use.

This is an easy step toward a greener lifestyle!

(I’ll be posting about the next phase of my experience with this new car in about a week. This is the most different car I have ever bought…quite an adventure. Hopefully there will be some sunny days so I can get some better pictures too!)

Rhythm of my Seasons

The Rhythm of my Days and Weeks were posted a few days ago. This post is about seasonal rhythms.

Clothes. I still move things from closet to storage and back twice a year (usually spring and fall…whenever the temperature changes enough). I don’t wear corduroy pants and sweaters when the weather is warm just as I don’t wear shorts, skirts and capri pants when it is very cold. Some things stay in my closet all the time – and they wear out the fastest.

Volunteering. Spring and Fall are when I spend the most time volunteering. Those are the seasons that the schools have most of their field trips and stream assessments.

Travel. My husband likes to do traveling in the spring and fall – and that is probably the time for most our travel…but it happens in the other fall and summer too so there might not be a season for travel.

Classes. There is more time for classes in the winter and summer. I’m always a little surprised that I enjoy them more in winter although I am not sure why.

Outdoor work around the house. There are chores that dominate in every season. Cleaning out and planting in spring. Watering and mowing in summer. Raking leaves in the fall. Shoveling snow in the winter.

Food. Pomegranates in December. Orange squashes and apples and pears and cranberries in the fall. Tomatoes and melons at the height of summer. Garlic scapes and strawberries in late spring/early summer. Yum (even though sometimes I buy them out of season because, these days, many are in season someplace in the world).

I still have not come up with any of my rhythmic habits that I want to change in 2017….but writing these posts has heightened my awareness of the rhythms…and confirming to myself that they are what I want them to be.

My First (and still primary) Cookbook

I still have my first cookbook. My grandmother bought it for me when I was in later elementary school. It has a copyright of 1963

And was ‘The New’ at the time.

It’s never been something I referenced daily but the cumulative use over 50 years has made a mark. The corn breads page is particularly crumpled from splashes over the years.

Some of the recipes are annotated. Sometime along the line I marked off nutmeg and lemon rind from the Apple Brown Betty!

Other pages that are marked with paperclips and spills are popovers and gingerbread. One of the first times I made the gingerbread was the day I had my wisdom teeth extracted; that was in 1973! This cookbook is a part of my life history because I carried it along everywhere I moved from the time I got it until now; it isn’t ‘stuff’ to go into a giveaway pile.

Rhythm of my Weeks

The Rhythm of my Days was posted earlier this week. This post is the rhythm of my weeks.

The first activities I thought about that take place weekly are ones that keep ‘home’ functioning and they’ve been part of my weekly rhythm for my entire adult life:

Groceries. Buying food is something I do once a week. During my career years, I was busy Monday-Friday so I almost always went grocery shopping on Saturday morning. Now I go Thursday morning and savor the uncrowded store! I also have started getting produce from a Community Supported Agriculture which happens on a weekly rhythm too.

Laundry. Both my husband and I prefer to do laundry once a week and Saturday has been our preferred day for the last 40 years! I asked him if he wanted to change days now that we could do it any day of the week – but he wants to stick with Saturday.

It took me a little longer to think of other weekly rhythms. I had to look back at notes and my calendar. It became obvious that I communicate via phone or email or in person with certain family members virtually every week! That is something that has happened in the past 5 years: a post-career addition.

Looking at the daily and weekly rhythms – I realize how much of my time is ad hoc – and I love that about the way my post-career life! Variety is the spice of life!

Zentangle® – December 2016 – part 2

I continued making owls out of toilet paper rolls in December. I lined them up on the window ledge of my office. I always start out with the eyes and try to make them different than the day before. I like the Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker because it overcomes the brown of the cardboard.

I try to vary the patterns as well although minor changes in a pattern make it look different enough. When I am creating them – I don’t think about gender…but afterwards I sometimes get an impression. The one in the middle below looks feminine to me!

The spiral highlight in the eyes was an idea I got from an owl on a ceiling fan pull chain that my sister bought for me as a gift.

I was looking at a book about algae, diatoms, and water plants and used one (upside down) as the starting point for the body of the middle owl.

The owls are in the order that I created them….it was well into the month before I used a color other than black!

 Once I started using colors – I continued…. although the purple looks very close to black.

The last one was ‘Christmas’ inks (on Christmas) but the red looks too orangey to me. That’s the last owl for December! I like them on the window sill!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Rhythm of my Days

Here we are at the beginning of another year. It’s a good time to try to be objective about how my life is going and decide of I want to make any changes. This year – I couldn’t come up with anything substantial that I wanted to change so I decided to look more methodically – what are the rhythms of my days, my weeks, and my seasons within the year. This is the first post of the series.

The rhythm of my days are mostly habits. Some are longstanding:

• Getting up before 6 AM and being in bed by about 10. I feel better and enjoy my days more when the sleep/wake cycle is almost the same every day.
• I eat my meals at about the same time every morning…trying to have the largest meal as midday although that is not always possible. It is easier now that when I was away from home most days during my career.
• Reading ‘books’. I always have a book I am reading and that has been a long standing daily activity. IT was physical books…but somewhere along the line became more and more digital.

Some are additions since I’ve retired:

• A daily blog post. I write it and schedule it to come out the night before. When I travel, I double up before I go and the posts still come out once a day.
• Zentangle and meditation. They are two separate things. They both provide an interlude of centering…of drawing myself completely into the present. The creation of Zentangle tiles is a pleasant byproduct.
• 12,000 steps is my goal for each day (measured via a Fitbit). The way I get them can vary. Many times, it includes ‘bounces’ on my Swopper chair in front of the computer. I ramped up before I retired but the activity level became a lot more consistent once I was not in the thick of career related activities.
• Writing 3,000 words a day just became a goal in 2016. It got easier as the year progressed. The goal includes words written for the blog post, writing about the events of the day, and notes from classes ----really anything I want to write about.

What is not part of my daily rhythm that once was?

• Reading a newspaper. These days I use news feeds from multiple sources and it’s a more technical skew that newspapers had.
• The evening news. I watch some stories while I fix or eat dinner – but very rarely watch a full program. Looking back, there were many periods that I did not watch news…because I was too busy. I remember listening to The News Hour when my daughter was young (20 years ago) because at that time it was not graphic – it was interviews without pictures to back them up – so was something we could watch while she was with us.

The rest of the day is full of other activities that differ from day to day, week to week, etc. As I wrote this post, I surprised myself with how many items are ‘daily’ for me. I still haven’t discovered anything I want to change in 2017!

Zentangle® – December 2016 – part 1

I did so many Zentangle® sessions in December that I’ve divided then into 2 posts; this first one is the ‘tiles’ only.

The first group is normal square tiles. The ones that look light brown are cut from boxes of canned drinks. Sometimes the indentions from the cans make circular shapes that I use as strings. I like the light weight cardboard; it absorbed ink well and is easy to handle. It’s a little harder on the paper cutter than card stock. As usual – some of the designs are patterns from Zentangle sites…others are derived from botanical structures, portions of modern art paintings, or stylizing a landscape. Sometimes everything I look at seems to have potential for a Zentangle tile.

The next group is not square…and not all the same size. I found a package of 4 x 6 inches note cards that I cut into 4x3 tiles but there are some that are other sizes too – not sure how I created them.

I’ll post the rest of the December Zentangle projects in a few day.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.