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Running From Village to Village
Normally I walk from village to village. My walks can take me through four to six villages per walk. I walk from village to village in part because I live in the middle of a landscape where walking from village to village is easy.
I had doubts about today’s run because I can feel various parts of my legs. I can feel that they are under a different strain than usual, due to the running. I felt fine when I was running, but after sitting I could feel ligaments and tendons. I find myself considering taking proper rest days where I don’t walk at least ten thousand steps as I think that running and walking puts a lot of strain on my body. It could simply be that I need to perfect my running technique.
I seriously considered delaying the run. I started walking and when I felt fine I decided to run, and when I ran I felt fine for the entire run. I was ready to stop running when I met the required distance for today. Somehow the running distance, and what I feel comfortable running are well matched.
The next run will be on Sunday. 2.4 kilometres should be easier than this three kilometre run. After that it will be a four kilometre run. I think that for that one I will either run by the lake or around the Lac De Divonne.
I am getting close to running the distance I set out to run. From then on it will be about having the discipline not to push to cover a bigger distance, and to work on style and speed. I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did a few years ago. The aim is comfort, and time, over distance. The run and walk combination is working well for me.
Watching a Roomba
In theory the entire reason for getting a Roomba is to let it do the vacuuming and forget about it. In reality I always feel the desire to watch roombas as they do their work. It doesn’t make any sense, because the entire goal of a roomba is that it automates what many people find to be a chore. Vacuuming can be quite boring and quite frustrating, especially during the muddy seasons.
During the season I often need to vacuum every day, sometimes even several times a day. Mud likes to get on shoes but brushing doesn’t get it off. Walking does. The g-forces that we generate when our feet hit the ground loosen the mud, especially the next day, as we’re running down the stairs to exit the building.
Wet mud is well behaved. It sticks in place, and it’s hard to remove. Dry mud tends to fall off in clumps. With the roomba that dried mud is easy to clean up. The robot will take care of picking up every last bit of mud.
The paradox of watching a Roomba is that you see bits of dirt and you think “go and get that bit of mud, stop ignoring it. Stop going back over the same spot six times. Of course, by going over the same spot six times a roomba picks up all the dander and fluff from our clothing, as well as human dust, hair and more. It really is methodical.
What looks clean to us, as humans who vacuum is still dirty, and a roomba will pass over and over until everything is gone. What may seem clean, when you look at it by eye is still dirty. It’s just that it is so sparse that we don’t detect it by eye. It’s when we check the roomba filter that we see how dirty the floor was. It’s when we see a big quantity of fluff in the bin.
Yesterday as I watched a brand new roomba clean the floor I expected that I would see dried mud but I saw as much dander as if I had run a clothes drier through three or four loads without cleaning the filters. Don’t forget to clean filters after every run. That dander is a fire risk.
I think that Roomba are expensive but when you compare their price to normal vacuum cleaners they are reasonably priced. You could pay the same for a human guided vacuum cleaner but by doing this you would not be as methodical about vacuuming. As a human we are guided by what we see. If it looks dusty we will clean. If it looks clean we won’t devote much time.
Do you have a room where the light shines in at a low angle, in the morning, or in the evening? I have noticed that if I hoovered at sunrise I can see the dirt because of its shadow. I saw this and thought at least two or three times that I should grab the opportunity to vacuum when the dust is contrasted with the surroundings. The roomba is so fastidious that time of day doesn’t matter. You can clearly see that a Roomba has been at work because the floor looks clean.
Roomba als have another advantage. they’re low to the ground so they can go under furniture that is high enough. They can go under couches and sittees but they can also go under over furniture. They can vacuum and mop places that may never be mopped or vacuumed due to these places being otherwise inaccessible.
Sometimes with a Roomba it really cleans the floor well but in vacuuming well it also highlights where you need to pass with a mop and bucket to get the floor to be perfect.With some roomba they are equipped with a small reservoir of water in which you put water and optionally soap. The roomba will then hoover with the front, and mop with the back. It isn’t over-exuberant like a human. It leaves just enough to clean, but not so much that your socks are soaked if you walk around as it mops.
And Finally
If we watch Roomba work it can be frustrating to watch as they throw dirt away from their path, or kick it to a place they cannot reach. It can also be amusing to get a roomba to vacuum in a room where tiles that were being cut generated an enormous amount of dust. In such situations Roomba become artists. Roomba are expensive and slow but they’re good at making a place look clean. With newer roombas they are quieter so you can run them while you’re around without the noise being as disruptive.
Playing with WP Rig
Today I started following the “Building Progressive Themes with WP Rig.” course on Linkedin Learning.
Before you start playing with WP Rig make sure that you have installed Composer. Composer is required to use WP Rig during the build process. Composer itself requires that you have PHP on your machine. After that it should be easier to use. I also ran npm-install-peers because I kept getting error messages.
During the daily walk today I saw that the grass along the side of the road is dry and dead. It crunshes as you walk on it. As you look at other fields they are dry and probably crunchy too. We had some rain a few days ago, but within minutes of the rain stopping the landscape was dry again. We never get rain. I am impatient for a day of rain. I am impatient to look forward to good weather, rather than bad. It seems to be absurd to want rain in Switzerland. In winter skiers and snowboarders want snow.
I managed a 179 day reading streak with the kindle before I broke it. It wasn’t that I didn’t read, but that I didn’t read using the kindle. It’s frustrating to lose such a streak because it will take 179 days to get back to the same point. It makes no sense to reach for such a goal in the first place. These apps that get you to do things for an unlimited days in a row detract from the pleasure of doing certain things habitually. I have read a book every day for many months, probably years, but I use Audible, Kobo, physical books and the Kindle. I need to find an app to track reading streaks without it being locked in to one book store.