As 2021 is in the rearview mirror and 2022 just beginning, once again I think about what new stuff I learned in 2021 and what new things I would like to learn in 2022. For me, it is about trying and/or learning new things as well as seeing opportunity by observing things that might contribute to more joy in my life!

There are many articles in my news feed about battling various brain aging symptoms: memory loss, dementia, etc. I think that the brain is like muscles: use it or lose it :) I choose to use it and am fortunate that my daily work as a programmer/I.T. person FORCES me to use it! And thankfully, I love the work.

I acknowledge a bit of short term memory loss and combat that with various techniques … get to a room and forget why I went there ??? I retrace my steps and 99% of the time I come up with the initial reason. I have read that that is an important cognitive skill so I keep at it, even though often it seems to take time that I do not have.

I repeatedly tell myself … one thing at a time and stay focused on NOW … that helps me! AND, my phone’s voice memo function: I use it a LOT. I usually do not have to listen to the recordings – speaking the recordings works nearly as well as making a written list and it helps me stay focused.

The other thing that many articles stress, is the importance of continuing to learn new things as we age. I love learning new things, even if sometimes it makes my head hurt as I try to understand whatever it is. And my work requires learning new things ALL.OF.THE.TIME ! The holiday “break” has been partly spent researching and experimenting and discussing a new programming platform and how to proceed with that … many videos watched.

And regarding videos. I have also watched videos regarding making videos. I want to become proficient at processing video clips into fun and interesting stories. It has been years’ of wishes. This holiday break, I found a great teacher … a young woman who started making YouTube videos as a kind of side hustle and then, when her job went away … making videos became a fulltime job. Her initial thought for her channel actually morphed into a teaching channel and I am one of her students.

Love, love, love Meredith! She has an abundance of interesting and informative videos that have helped me immensely!

A year ago, I was immersed in VendeeGlobe2020. It was an incredible experience into the adventure, science, technology, geography and physical/mental requirements of solo around the world ocean sailing. I continue to follow many of the 2020 skippers as they progress through the IMOCA60 races and ultimately to VendeeGlobe2024.

Following ocean racing and particularly the IMOCA60 class motivated me to learn French … not necessarily to speak it well, but to understand spoken French. I subscribed to Babbel:French and on the advice of two friends who learned new languages, adopted the immersion approach. I have been watching and rewatching the sailing videos. To date, I have progressed to being able to hear words vs a string of sounds. With the sailing videos, there are a number of words in common so gradually, I am also understanding more. My reading of captions has improved. I have enjoyed several of this year’s IMOCO60 races and find I am grasping more from the French speakers. I have slightly less than three years to achieve a goal of understanding spoken French … ONWARD!!

New shoes. Yes, new shoes. I found that I was doing the “old person shuffle” around the house in my slippers. Somewhat accidentally, with some new outdoor shoes that I wore a bit indoors, I discovered that I did NOT shuffle and walked normally in those shoes. I think that is important. There is evidence of correlation of brain function related to walking. At any rate, I now have an indoor and an outdoor version of these shoes which are a kind of slipper/athletic shoe hybrid (Merrell Encore Ice 4).

I also bought a posture brace to combat “Dowager’s hump” … And I continue to follow Bob and Brad and their “exercises for Seniors” :)

Bob and Brad have new content daily and as people of some years or as a blog reader friend observed: “some mileage on them”, I find their suggestions do good for me!

Berries!!! So, berries have kudos from nutritional experts for cognitive, anti-cancer and eye/vision health. And who doesn’t like berries?? My favorites: raspberry and blueberry are high on nutritionist’s lists. I add them to a smoothie, or to granola (homemade … less sugar and fat than packaged) and yogurt.

I am a huge fan of Vital Choice: seafood, Vitamin D in salmon oil, the berries … actually anything that they have. All is sustainably caught, organic, etc., etc. https:/www.vitalchoice.com !! If you sign up for their emails and join their rewards program … sales and rewards make a big difference in cost. But all is of such great quality, I am very willing to pay the price!

New cooking and baking techniques …

Omelettes … I have struggled with making omelettes. I like them cooked through, but not brown or dried out. I think it was a Jacques Pepin video that showed how to sort of lightly scramble the eggs before filling and flipping, i.e. a French omelette. Holy Cow!! – perfect omelette just the way I like it. I love adding refrigerator leftovers: veg, cheese … sometimes some bacon or sausage.

Mashed/smashed potatoes. I read a wonderful book series: author is Essie Summers and the books’ locale is New Zealand. My favorites take place on sheep stations. There is a reference(s) to characters taking “billy’s of mashed potatoes which they fry up crisp and brown”. Huh. A “billy, i.e. billy-can” is a metal container that can be used to cook over a fire. I don’t think they were taking “creamy” cold mashed potatoes, but rather cooked and smashed potatoes. So I started making a large batch of smashed potatoes.

I boil a mix of skin on reds and peeled russet until just soft enough to smash…

After they are a bit cool, I store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

I can take a large spoonful to fry crisp with some veg and onion, or saute some leek or onion, add potatoes, herbs and broth and puree into potato soup.

Or, I can run through my potato ricer, add cream and butter to make “regular” mashed potatoes for a side or a shepherd’s pie topping.

Such a simple thing, but it has made me so happy!

I think it is a lesson in the value of being observant … of looking at information and thinking how that information might be useful to me.

I hope – hope – hope that I always keep my mind open to observing and learning and using even the simplest things to make my own life more enjoyable or just easier.

And so … another blurb about the importance of using (hopefully being able to use ) current technology …

On December 31, at approximately 5:45 a.m. … I had already been out with Emmett and thankfully brewed my first cup of coffee!!! … the power went out. There was no storm.

But per our local electric co-op’s service map … an outage!

Motor vehicle accident.

Subsequent info from the co-op, via texts, relayed the information that the ETA for restoration of power was 9:30 a.m. A later update text said 1:00 p.m.

Casa Summers has battery lights, battery candles and battery devices … PLUS, battery banks to keep all of that charged up. And also … the house gets internet via hotspot devices … also charged up and laptop charged up so we enjoyed the quiet of no electrical humming and continued on.

A slight blip in our household (MY!!) comfort was the inability to add to the hot coffee supply. I fired up the woodstove and put the kettle on top, but as I was starting the woodstove from cold it took awhile :(

But … hardly worth too much complaining…. HOWEVER, when the power was restored at 9:45 ish, the first thing I did was make a pot of coffee which went into a thermal carafe. AND, then I took a shower while the well pump could function and everything chargeable got plugged in … just in case, which as it turned out not an issue.

The power stayed on. There were about 2k home/businesses, who did not get power until closer to the 1:00 p.m. estimate.

The lesson, though … there is much technology that can be so very useful if we understand how to use it, i.e. invest in our own education of what is available. What is available varies wildly in the world … I know that. But, here in the U.S. and here in semi-rural Northwest Montana, it is pretty incredible what is available.

So, adding to 2022 goals … as I approach retirement and think about how I want to continue working in some form, I think about how I might use my current skills, the skills I plan to add … to assist people with a desire to learn.

There is so much that can be done … let’s go 2022!!