Not Just For Students

Did you know that today is National Online Learning Day? The term online learning is most associated with students, but now that so much information can be found on the internet it's easy to learn things online.

I headed to the AARP Staying Sharp site, logged in, and chose the learning activity called Building Resilience. 

The introduction said:

"Resilience means having the ability to rebound from hardship and approach each day with determination that you’ll do more than survive, you’ll thrive. Some resilience comes from within, but you can learn ways to build resilience through practice. This challenge will allow you to explore tools you learn about boosting your resilience."

The activity started with a pretest. After the pretest there were ten sections, each organized the same way. There was a video, then written information to back the video up. The third step had some practical suggestions for applying the information. After all the modules there was an opportunity to take the quiz again. 

I actually learned a lot about how to become more resilient, and I'm glad I did it.

Sudsy Swag

Several months ago Hubby Tony and I ate dinner at a pizza restaurant across town. I really liked the food, so I filled out a card to get on their customer list. At this place my marketing list birthday was in September.

The other day I received an email from the restaurant. Every other restaurant birthday offer I've received in my inbox has been for a menu item. This one was for a pitcher of beer.

I'm not inclined to drive across town to take advantage of a coupon for a pitcher of beer, but the more I thought about the promotion the more clever it seemed.

The people that don't drink, or would prefer another alcoholic beverage, won't show up to redeem it but the restaurant can still claim they offered something. The beer drinkers will show up, claim their pitcher, and probably order food to go with it. The restaurant will recoup more than the cost of the beer. Either way the restaurant wins.

Five years ago: Flies Be Gone!

For The Better

Even though it's months away, Hubby Tony and I have already started planning for our next trip to see the California kids and grand kids.

When we started making regular trips out that way in 2016 we were almost always able to find a non-stop flight. However, in the past few years Southwest (our preferred airline) has fewer of them, meaning that we have to change planes somewhere. This latest flight is no exception. On the way home, in order to get a departure time that got us to St. Louis at a reasonable hour we chose to go through Dallas.

This morning Tony got a message that the airline had made a change in the trip due to flight schedule shifts. That's usually bad news, but this time we struck gold! The departure time is an hour later and we actually arrive earlier. Why? THEY CHANGED US TO A NON-STOP FLIGHT!

Flaticon

The change email messages always end with a boilerplate statement that if the change works for us we don't need to do anything. However, I am going to do something....which is cross my fingers and pray that the change doesn't get re-modified between now and then.

Five years ago: An Assortment Of Apples (Redux)

Playing Garden Hooky

Sometimes, it turns out that making the best use of my time means running away.

Right now I have so many commitments I don't know if I'm coming or going. Logically, the last thing I needed was to add another thing to the busy schedule, but today a morning trip the Botanical Garden with Hubby Tony ended up being just what I needed. After walking through the grounds I came away relaxed and ready to jump into everything that was waiting for me.

Twenty minutes after the Garden's doors opened I was parking the car in a almost-full lot. There was a large group milling around the entrance area, and when I got closer I noticed it was related to some type of event, but Tony and I walked past the mess and went straight to the ticket-scanning booth in the lobby.

Once we were in the garden, I was surprised to see that as full as the parking lot was there were very few people walking along the paths. The temperature was still cool, and perfect for a morning stroll.

We stopped to see this statue of a young girl. The sign next to it said it was entitled Cora. It indicated that the model was three years old, and the sculptor got her to hold the pose by mounting a television to the studio ceiling. The huge Japanese garden area was practically empty, with only two groups of people visible. One was three women who told us that they walked in the garden every Tuesday. The other was a mother and her children feeding the ducks and koi fish from the bridge. The rest of the large area was calm and serene.

Calming

The other morning I stopped by Walmart to pick up some mailing tape. As I walked through the store something seemed different, but it wasn't until I made my way to the back and saw the sign on all of the television screens in the electronics department that I figured out what it was. The piped in music was missing!

I looked at my watch and noticed there were only ten minutes until the time frame was over, so I decided to be there when the changeover happened. It took an extra two minutes; at 10:02 the music came on, and when I passed the electrical department every television was turned on.

I didn't see anyone who looked like they might be benefiting from the extra calm, but when I left I saw a sign that said the hours were intended to be calmer for those with sensory sensitivities, autism, and PTSD. I know many of those conditions are hidden, and I could have been the only non-affected one in the store.

Five years ago: There's A Guy For That

Purple Pepper Picking

The last time I was at the farmer's market they had large bins of green and colored bell peppers. In addition to the everyday red, orange, and yellow varieties I saw some unusual ones. Some of them came home with me.

In my experience, the flavor and texture of most colored peppers is interchangeable, and depends on if they were allowed to completely ripen on the plant or picked early. I have no experience with white or purple varieties. However, I found that the purple ones had thick, crisp flesh and a sweet taste. The white one was crisp, but there wasn't much sweetness to it.

If I ever see another white one I would buy it again and see if it's any different.

Five years ago: Many Hands Make It Fun

In Honor Of Labor Day

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that recognizes the American labor movement. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September.

In the early 2000s, Son Tony went to college at a university three hours northeast of St. Louis. There were two routes that would get us there. One went north and then east; the second took us east and then north.

Whenever I took the north/east route (or came home via that way) I would see a brown tourist sign advertising the presence of the Mother Jones monument at the Mt. Olive exit. I knew that was a left-leaning magazine. The internet was much less robust back then, but I was able to learn that Mother Jones the person had some type of connection to union activity. I always thought about detouring to see the monument, but it was never convenient, and after Son Tony graduated there was little reason to go that direction. 

However, when Hubby Tony made our recent trip to Chicago one of the Route 66 attractions we stopped at was only a couple of miles from that Mother Jones monument. I was able to cross it off of my list of things to visit.

Mary Harris Jones (AKA Mother Jones) was a labor organizer and activist who co-founded the Labor unionist trade union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, collqually named the Wobblies). She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery alongside eight miners who died in the 1898 Battle of Virden mining riot.

We followed the signs that led to the Union Miners Cemetery, parked the car, and walked towards the monument at the back of the cemetery. The monument had an oval bas-relief portrait of Mother Jones flanked by two miners dressed in their work clothes. (One of the miners had a cloth bandana tied around his neck, which was a nice added touch by someone.)

In front of the monument was the grave and tombstone of Mother Jones.

There was no one else in the cemetery, and it was very peaceful. Tony and I read the placards, but we didn't linger. The day was hot and the sun intense.