design observations

Aggravating Design

This Labor Day weekend (2023), Minnesota is experiencing some record-breaking heat. Yesterday, it got up to 97 degrees F. Today, it’s expected to reach 96. In the interest of avoiding the hottest part of the day, Hubby and I headed out in mid-morning to run errands. While on the drive to the storage unit we are renting, we were listening to 1A on Minnesota Public Radio. The conversation was with Mark Ellison, a carpenter who…

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family health history observations

Bathing in the Blood of Virgins – Health Metaphors That Provide Clues to Body Functions

Each morning, I read the 1440 newsletter, which provides snippets of news from around the world, including links back to its sources. It’s called 1440 because that’s when the printing press was invented. [https://join1440.com] In the July 28, 2023, issue, I read an article called “New Blood, Slower Aging,” which discussed how scientists had connected the circulatory systems of young mice to older mice and discovered that the blood of the younger mice extended the…

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music observations travel

Interesting Public Bathrooms

Public bathrooms aren’t the sort of places most of us are tempted to take photos. And, let’s face it, most public bathrooms aren’t that interesting. However, over the past several months, I’ve been in some public bathrooms that were interesting enough that they deserved a photo (or several in once instance). Here is my gallery of public bathroom photos. The bathroom that will not run out of toilet paper anytime soon. I’m not sure who…

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home observations

Waking Up the House

In a new house, I’m forming new habits. One thing I’ve found myself doing every morning is opening curtains and blinds room-by-room. I refer to this as “waking up the house.” While I used to open curtains in the morning in our old house, there weren’t as many to open (just a couple) and I didn’t open them one after the other, like I do in this house. I just have to let the daylight…

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family home observations

Making a Comfortable Bed

Do you ever think about some of the odd habits you’ve developed over the years? Not hobbies, exactly, but things you’ve come ’round to doing that end up being a point of pride when you do them well? For me, it’s making a comfortable bed. I thought about this recently when we had a family member stay overnight. We have an air mattress that I set up. Having slept on this air mattress before, I…

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