“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Record rain, lightning and thunder closed all of the South Bay beaches yesterday. Haven’t seen the beach this empty all summer.
Shine On
After the Rain
Monthly Archives: July 2015
Rollin With My Homie
“If there are no dogs in heaven, well then
I want to go where they went.”
Will Rogers
Redondo beach has a population of approximately 66.7K people. That population consists of people from a wide diversity of social classes. From young to old, from the very rich to the very destitute. Within this diversity there’s one common bond that ties all of us Redondoites together. That common bond is our love of canines.
When you walk or ride along the Esplanade, you’ll encounter all kinds of dogs and dog owners. From the pampered pooch to the homely hound. All the dog owners appear to be happy and their happiness is reflected in their dogs.
This weekend I saw a man riding his bike pulling a toddler trailer. I’ve seen this guy cruising the Esplanade before, but I hadn’t paid much notice to what he was trailering. As I approached the man from behind, I noticed there were not toddlers in the trailer but three pug dogs. Just had to share this particular pooch sighting with my fellow bloggers.
This man and his three pugs in tow give the true meaning of rollin with my homie.
Shine On
Get The Point ?
“Everyone should be respected as
an individual, but no one idolized.”
Albert Einstein
Whether you’ve stopped drinking or using drugs or in my case stopped eating sweets, there is always an event or holiday that challenges your willpower.
Special occasions such as birthdays are especially difficult because there is always a cake involved in the celebration. Everyone loves cake. Even if you don’t drink or use drugs, cake is harmless for most healthy people, unless you can’t have sweets.
I always get the same comments from friends and relatives. “It’s only one piece of cake, it won’t kill you.” I wish people would be more understanding and supportive. If I had a drinking or drug problem I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t offer just one drink or one puff of a cigarette.
So what do I do when I’m confronted with this situation? First off, I say thank you but no thank you. If they then offer to pack up a piece of cake for me to take home, I again tell them no thank you and tell them I can’t have sweets. This usually works with most people and then they get the point.
Shine On
An Apple A Day
“An apple a day will keep anyone away,
if thrown hard enough.”
Author Unknown
The old proverb an apple a day helps keep the doctor away, just got a boost from science. A large Dutch study has found that eating apples and pears is associated with a lower risk of stroke.
The findings counter the widespread belief that the most healthful fruits and vegetables are those that come in deep, rich colors inside and out.
The dark green of spinach and deep red of raspberries are produced by phytochemicals that are associated with better heart health and lower rates of cancer, prompting the common advice to “eat your colors”. Apples and pears, although red, light green or yellow on the outside, are typically considered “white” fruits because the inside of the fruit, which represents the largest edible portion, is white.
Researchers in the Netherlands decided to track fruit and vegetable intake based on the color of the largest edible portion of the food. The categories were green (broccoli, kale, spinach and lettuce), orange/yellow (oranges, carrots and peaches), red/purple (cherries, grapes, beets and tomatoes) and white (apples, pears, bananas and cauliflower).
The investigators analyzed data collected from 20,069 men and women who took part in the Dutch Morgen study, which stands for Monitoring Project on Risk Factors and Chronic Diseases. All the participants, ages 20 to 65, were healthy and free of cardiovascular disease at the start. The study subjects filled out food questionnaires detailing their eating habits.
During the next 10 years, the investigators documented 233 strokes among the study participants. There was no relationship between stroke risk and consumption of any of the brightly colored fruits and vegetables. However, people who consumed at least 171 grams of white produce daily — equal to about one medium to large apple — had a 52 percent lower risk of stroke than those who ate less than 78 grams of white fruit a day. On average, every 25 grams of white fruit eaten daily was associated with a 9 percent lower risk for stroke.
Why apples and pears might reduce stroke risk isn’t known, though both fruits are rich sources of dietary fiber, which is associated with lowering blood pressure. Both fruits also contain a number of nutrients and phytochemicals, including the flavonol quercetin, which may have anti-inflammatory properties.
Whatever the reasons, it can’t hurt to have just one apple a day.
Shine On
Legacy of Harper Lee
“I never expected any sort of success with
‘Mockingbird’ . . . I sort of hoped someone
would like it enough to give me encouragement.”
Harper Lee
‘Mockingbird’ . . . I sort of hoped someone
would like it enough to give me encouragement.”
Harper Lee
At the beginning of January I read a book that was on my 100 books to read list. I also read this book because I had watched the movie when I was a young girl and it left an everlasting impression on me. That book and movie was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Mockingbird, a precocious child’s-eye view of race, justice and the mysterious ways of Southern life, was a mammoth critical and commercial hit when published in the summer of 1960. It sold 500,000 copies in its first year of publication, won the Pulitzer Prize and became an indelible part of American culture.
Shortly after reading Mockingbird, I wrote a post on January 13th Read Around the World. At the time of my post, the world had no idea that Harper Lee had written a second novel. After the world heard the news about her new second novel, Go Set A Watchman which was released yesterday, all of us avid readers cannot wait to get our hands on this book. The book that was written in 1957 and is the parent book to, To Kill A Mockingbird.
If Lee’s new book doesn’t live up to the old one, then we can choose which one we prefer. All of us bloggers, as writers, can only dream of having the same impact with our readers that Harper Lee has had on the world. The impact of her novel which moved so many of us is the enduring legacy of Harper Lee.
Shine On
Chronicles of a Blogaholic 