Back to it
I’m writing this on Sunday evening, the last night of my 14 day holiday break.
It has been a wonderful, refreshing time away from the normal work schedule. I actually didn’t work except for answering some emails and a bit over 1/2 day on Friday due to a minor emergency … but that was good as I was somewhat forced to hop to and my head is “back in the game”. I haven’t taken this much time off – as in completely off – in many years.
Even though I get outside as much as possible normally, we got out even more the last 2 weeks. The weather was all over the place, but not much snow and as we had a melt down this past week, the drive is a sheet of ice, but the yard and woods are nearly bare – walking and playing has been good!
I had time to get to know my new bit of tech fun: a wearable … series 4 Apple Watch.
All sorts of info at a glance! After trying several watch faces, I settled on what they call Infograph. It has the most “complications” of any current face. Complications are the editable quick app items on the face. I have Sunrise/Sunset, Weather, Digital time, Activity, Date, Heart Rate, Timer and Battery as my selections … all of the apps I use most.
One I use a LOT is the timer.
I use this for cooking and baking instead of the oven timer. The oven timer goes off and chimes until I get to it. If I’m indisposed or outside or in a meeting … kind of obnoxious. The phone timer is easy to reset, add a minute or keep an eye on if I am outside. There are a number of presets as well as you can set a specific time. I often use the timer as a 10 minute warning before a meeting. That allows me to enjoy outside time or inside play and training or whatever without being concerned about watching the clock.
The Activity app. I spent some time over my break learning about not only the Activity app, but how it worked with the Health app and Fall detection. I find all of it amazing technology. There is an internal accelerometer and a gyroscope that are part of the technology for all of the “movement” functionality.
The Health App screen consolidates activity, ECG, Heart monitoring and Fall detection history … PLUS allows you to enter other things: for example blood pressure, oxygen and a whole screen full of pertinent items. And everything can be exported to a PDF to send to clinic and/or physician.
But, back to Activity. Apple calls it “Close the Rings”. You set goals for Moving (outer red), Exercise (middle green) and Standing (inner aqua). Additionally, the app details give calories burned (active and non-active), steps and several graphs showing the times of activity. But the visual of the rings is a quick and easy way to see how I’m doing through the day without getting involved in details. I had a fitness band device several years ago and besides being not that comfortable to wear, I found myself getting a bit too obsessed about the details. The “close the rings” visual works better for me. The watch itself – I hardly know I’m wearing it: light and comfortable. I have the 44m – the largest and no complaints about how it sits on my wrist.
When I had the previous wearable, I DID like that I could see messages and emails easily without digging out my phone: outside and especially in Winter when my phone was in an inside pocket and wearing gloves, etc. And in the dark outside! I was happy to have that functionality back with this watch. The convenience of seeing if a message, notification or email is something that requires immediate action is wonderful. And while I would not try to respond from the watch normally, there are some quick response items selectable from a menu: Yes, No, Sure, Thanks, Ok. As a consultant, it is one more tool that allows me flexibility in what hours I spend at my desk while still being “available”.
Some of the messages when out and about are notifications from Emmett’s “wearable” device! If you’ve followed the blog for years, you will know that I used a GPS device with Bear and now the latest version with Emmett.
It is called Whistle and in addition to GPS tracking, alerts for “away from home”, low battery … it has an Activity tracker :)!
So. Absolutely no excuse(s) for either Emmett or me not getting our exercise!! Whistle is getting close to adding some other things like temperature. That is important to me, especially when we get back to rving. It has always been a worry if I had to leave Bear and Auggie in the motorhome on a hot day. I leave the generator running and AC on but if there is a failure, the motorhome heats up fast … not as bad as a car, but worse than a house. The temperature functionality will be one more useful thing to give me peace of mind.
But, the GPS and the App and the Watch:
Above shot of the watch is the type of message I get when we are walking. Although you can shut off messaging for walks and outings, I do not. I want the device giving me info in the hopefully, unlikely event, that Emmett and I are separated.
If that did happen, I am able to activate tracking on my phone and see where Emmett is in relation to me:
Darn cool!! This part gets better and better and faster as time goes on – better devices, more high speed cell coverage – progress. I want training and our relationship to be the first defense, but this kind of backup is priceless to me.
Yoga via the internet!! I do have a Yoga DVD that I like. It has some 15-30 minute things like: Yoga break from the computer. But my favorite is via YouTube: Yoga with Adriene
Adriene has a calm and peaceful demeanor, and she always stresses awareness and intention vs perfection in position. Adriene’s dog Benji is always in the background. Starting January 1, a series of 30 days titled: Dedicate. I am doing the 30 days.
With Emmett… (sharing the mat!)
And Auggie!
When I started Day 1, Emmett was pretty sure that it was play time since I was on the floor. I stayed quiet, followed as I was able and he eventually settled … on the mat! So I worked around him.
He is getting the idea and settles faster every day. I am thrilled to have both him and Auggie near.
Sunday.
Back to work tomorrow. A Winter Weather advisory is in effect from 8:00 p.m. this evening (1 hour from now) until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Mostly for the morning commute which thankfully, I do not have to make.
But, the weather did inspire me to take a quick run for a few items.
Beautiful.
Back to it tomorrow!