I'm taking a little rest break post-lunch before I venture outside for yard work and after stopping at the dump and then the gym for a workout.

I surprised myself at the gym by being able to lift 179 lbs doing the weighted glute bridge. In fact, 179 lbs was a goal I had originally calculated I would hit in January 2027 but I've been overly cautious when it comes to adding weight. It is one of 5 key exercises I've been doing for bone health. If, like me, you are over 60 and have a slender build, then you are likely at risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis, you should really have a baseline DEXA scan of your hips and spine. When I had my last DEXA this past May, I was excited to see my spine was now stronger than it was 6 years ago, but my hips had gotten a bit worse, so that's when I did a major revamp of my exercise routine. Hence my dedication to exercise.

I'll be participating in the Walk Across the Hudson this weekend. A friend and I are driving up to Poughkeepsie, NY, where we will form a human chain across this pedestrian-only bridge on the Hudson River. It's a very scenic area with great views so I'll be achieving two things in this trip: another anti-Rump protest and to walk across this bridge.

Dido and I will be getting together soon for our annual Celebration of the Birthdays since they both fall in the same month. We usually get together in a certain northeastern small PA town that is about halfway for both of us, but this time we'll meet at Bushkill Falls State Park, PA. Just something a little different to entertain ourselves. This certainly has been the year of the waterfalls for Patient Saver.

I was awoken early this am around 12:45 am by chirping. There are a lot of alarms in this house so I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I think even my new refrigerator has an alarm that sounds if it gets too warm. This time, it was a carbon monoxide detector. Five consecutive chirps means it has reached the end of its useful life span.

I recently got new curtains for the kitchen. Previous to this, I had bamboo blinds here and throughout the house as I like the modern, clean look, but they do have certain drawbacks. They are not particularly efficient in blocking heat or cold air, and unfortunately, there is maybe a little roller mechanism, most likely plastic, that does wear out over time, so I have a number of blinds now (maybe 15 years after buying them) that no long roll up or down properly. In the case of the small window over the kitchen sink, I accidentally cut the cord when I was cutting a plant stem on the window sill because my mind was somewhere else.

I tried to go back to the company where I got these, but they appear to be out of business, and I didn't relish having to get samples elsewhere to try to match the color of the shade on the other kitchen window by the table. Plus I needed to do something about blocking heat and light coming through the new fiberglass kitchen door without drilling holes in it.

So each window required a different approach. I wound up getting the same 36" length curtain for both the small window above the sink and the window by the table. I initially thought I would use just one panel for the sink window because it's a smaller window and I didn't want it to look too scrunched up, but I think 2 panels looks fine. I like these very feminine-looking and maybe a bit old-fashioned curtains. It reminds of an old Seals & Croft song....Our House, or even Summer Breeze. 

See the curtains hangin' in the window
In the evening on a Friday night
A little light a-shinin' through the window
Lets me know everything's allright....

Because the company had a limited number of sizes, I had to use the same 36" length curtain on the larger window by the table and hang it about three-quarters of the way up the window, like a cafe curtain. It will provide privacy without blocking light.

So I'm using a small tension rod over the kitchen sink and a regular rod over the bigger window. For the door, I think I'll just stick with the UV film I put over the 4 glass panels. It doesn't look perfect but it does a pretty good job of cutting glare without making it dark. I'm thinking about applying the UV film  to the small window over the sink, too. The vintage tablecloth you see here was something my grandmother made. She was a dressmaker, so she had lots of fabrics and other sewing supplies.

The only thing is I can't remove a single screw from the metal bracket from the old bamboo shade, which is just out of the picture frame at top left. The screw may be stripped, or maybe I just don't have the muscle (despite my workouts) to unscrew it. And I would have liked to paint the window trim as it has a bunch of nail holes and other imperfections, but I feel like I have too much to do to do that right now.