Author brilliantviewpoint

Fitness at HOME – Getting creative with a concrete block, mucking out stables…

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Concrete BlockI admire people who are driven to exercise — NO MATTER WHAT! They find creative ways to reach their goals. My daughter was out walking with her friend and came across this concrete block. Any normal person (like me) would have walked past it. However, my daughter saw exercise potential in this block, so lugged it home.

Good deal – concrete block is $2.00 versus a purchased weight ranging $20-80.

Spring is here… gotta step up our exercise routines even in quarantine.

This made me think of walking. Years ago, when I lived in California, I called a horse stable and asked if they needed volunteers. I was getting BORED with walking. Sure enough, they needed help. I was excited. I would be outside, be around people/horses and exercise all at the same time!

Every weekend, I went to the barn and they gave me different chores to do. This gave me a full body work, while getting fresh air. Well, hold on, mucking out stinky horse stalls does not give fresh air, but it is an excellent work out.

For those of you, who have never mucked out a stable before. Here is a YouTube video from “This Esme” on how it is done. She’s super funny, she loses her GoPro camera in the truck where she is throwing out all the “poop.” THEN has to go into the poopy truck to retrieve the GoPro camera. This made me miss being at the barn for a couple of hours.

Being quarantined, has me thinking about outdoor activities.

Can you tell I have cabin fever!

Missing Outdoors -> Bring camping to the backyard

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Kids idea of camping.
My idea of camping.

What a great idea! Being in quarantine is bringing back memories from my childhood. As kids we would “beg” our parents to let us set up a tent and sleep in the backyard. Of course, they would say, “No!”

Well, they saw a bunch of kids in the backyard making noise, coming in and out of house all night – it got them NUTTY just thinking about it. However, we would beg and beg and FINALLY they would relent.

I’ve gotta tell you, I have NEVER liked camping in a tent, but I don’t mind a cabin. WHY, well, my first camping experience was with Girl Scouts. We camped in someone’s backyard, two girls to a tent. We put up our tent and it kept collapsing, which got me claustrophobic, because the zipper was closed to keep the mosquitos out. Needless to say, I could not wait until morning to go back home!

I like the “idea” of camping and being in the outdoors, I’ve upgraded my sites though. Look at this British camper. NOW, I smiled. I can definitely see myself camped out on one of those beds, cozy with a blanket and a good book. The windows are charming, I would just need someone to bring me some hot tea in a “tea cup.”

Ah… the beauty of dreaming….

COVID-19 –> Praying, donating… What can you do to help?

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PrayingWe are in uncertain times. If you believe in God, prayers are needed.

For Easter, I spoke with friends who are in need of prayers for different reasons.

Let’s spread a message of HOPE and DETERMINATION to BEAT THIS!

I wish the media would understand that sharing POSITIVE messages instead of NEGATIVE ones constantly would bring us together, rather than divide us.

A SAD SITUATION TURNED POSITIVE  –> There is a company that makes caps/gowns for University students. So, sad, because students will not be wearing caps/gowns for graduation this year. On positive side, this company is making face masks for hospitals.

If we have a little more right now, we can donate or offer to help others in some way.

I challenge ALL of us to think about this today. What can WE DO to help?

AN EXAMPLE: Our small bookstores, trying to stay in business. I will order a book and donate this book to children in the hospital.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE: The other day, I received a message from my hairdresser. She said their team was doing fine, they understood that some of us might be sad, alone, fearful. They left their phone number, saying we were not alone, if we needed to talk… CALL.

There is ALWAYS something we can do!

Good Friday during COVID-19 —> The Easter Bunny is “essential…”

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For those of you who celebrate Easter, I wish you a safe and prayerful Good Friday.

If you believe in God, it’s an important time to pray for our World.

I apologize to this news source, as I do not have the proper writer/publication information to give credit to this article. Hopefully, the writer forgives me for sharing, so that parents with children know they can celebrate Easter, even in quarantine. I believe in America the message is the same.

HAPPY EASTER!

Quarantined? Try a good movie…

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As most of us are quarantined, we’re trying to find things to do. The news this morning was dismal for the next two weeks. Stay home or be prepared to get sick and maybe die.

So… if that is the case, and we MUST stay home, WHY NOT watch a good movie. Change our mood, lift our spirits up, start singing – ANYTHING but doom and gloom.

Sharing with you a few favorites, older movies, but still GREAT!

I’m sure you have some of your own — comedy, drama, horror (sorry, don’t watch those), adventure, documentaries, etc.

If you’ve watched something recently — SHARE IT!

Oh — Amazon Prime: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan!  Edge of your seat!

You’ll FORGET the virus for a few hours – GUARANTEED!

Travel to distance places… PLAY the Memory Game.

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Memory GameThis weekend was a real test of emotions. Being quarantined for three weeks does that. One day happy, one day melancholy, one day energetic – EVERY day is different.

I needed to change this around, so I started looking through my closet. That put me in a grumpy mood. Going through a closet is B-O-R-I-N-G unless we find some “old gems,” we had forgotten about.

SURPRISE – Way on the back shelf was the Travel Memory Game!

What a great find. It brought back memories from when my daughters were young. We loved to play this game. So, then, I thought of Canasta. A few years ago, I went on a Nile Cruise with my family. Every day we played Canasta. As we didn’t have playing cards, we bought some Egyptian ones.

HEY — Where are those Egyptian playing cards??? Checkers… they’ve got to be here.

Oh and the mini series, “Horatio Hornblower.” LOVE that show! Gotta find that!

Suddenly, I was on a roll!

What have you found in YOUR closet?

Photography – Beautiful SUNRISE

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86130B87-3145-449C-9224-4BAFFFAE0332I went walking this morning, looked up, RUSHED to get a photo.

Beautiful sunrise!

The sun is shinning.

It makes all the difference in our mood, UNTIL we listen to the news reports, which are grim.

Still the warmth of the sun gives us HOPE.

Wishing you all a special day!

So, sorry — MR. OWL, MR. PIGEON, it wasn’t you…

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Every morning, I heard this sound.

An Owl… a Pigeon… I didn’t know.

Turns out it was a Dove outside my window.

In Italy, my grandmother fed birds on her balcony every morning.

Don’t they say,

THINK of a LOVED ONE who has PASSED;

They VISIT YOU in the FORM OF AN ANIMAL?

While we are house bound, loving memories fill us with HOPE!

Unfortunately, by accident, I scared away the dove, by opening my window too fast. So, no more dove sounds every morning.

Remote work -> New way of business

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Past, Present & Future – Reminds me of the movie “A Christmas Carol.” Here we are quarantined, looking at the past, reviewing the present, in order to create a new future.

For years, companies have resisted remote workers. Absolutely NOT, they would say. No matter the reason, the answer was, “NO.”

Suddenly a virus strikes, and the Government says employees MUST work from home.

So… we rush to work from home; however, our desk area is not set up properly. For example, last week, I needed a large monitor. Guess what — ALL stores were sold out of big monitors. YES, every other NEW remote worker needed a large monitor.

One week later, now in official quarantine, we were told retail stores were CLOSED.

Welcome to the NEW way of doing business. Not all retail stores are closed, they are still running, but now you can pick up.

The handshake coming through the computer is the NEW way of business.

Yesterday, I went online to buy a monitor from Best Buy. Finally, monitors were back in stock. Checking out, I was given the option to PICK UP in ONE HOUR!

WHAT…

Can you believe that? No shipping charge, no waiting for a week for delivery. Just PICK UP myself in ONE HOUR. I was told to sit in my car, park in a designated PICK UP spot, the sales person would come to my car, open trunk and put monitor in!

WOW — This was SO EASY!

Why would I want to go back to “normal – in store” shopping? I hate shopping!

While our world is in a sad situation, a crisis like this shows we are resilient. To stay in business — bosses, employees & customers work together to make a purchase happen! AND BOY, am I happy to have my large monitor!