2021 Gratitude Notes

(Little pieces of folded paper that I threw into a jar.)

I have 16 notes from this past year. In 2020 I had 11 notes. In 2022 I will have more than 16 notes.

20210101 Comedy. I’m grateful for comedy and for how it heals me
20210104 I’m grateful that the office was open to let me in my apartment after I lost my key during my run.
20210107 I’m grateful that my employer believes in my ability
20210111 Silver Rock approved the cosmetic repairs on Audrey with $0 deductible
20210120 The inauguration went smoothly and without incident
20210206 The weather was fairly nice the day of my 22 mile run
20210211 They reset and adjusted my water heater and now I can take hot baths!
20210213 On Spotify, exploring darkwave, goth, post punk genres and finding unheard songs is very therapeutic for me in this moment. I’m making a Goth Night playlist.
20210307 Won 1st Place Female Masters at A Step In Time 5k
20210313 Won 3rd Place Female Overall at Lucky 10k
20210314 Won 2nd Place Female Overall at Pi Day 5k
20210321 I had a wonderful time cave diving
20210504 I did some really awesome cave dives last weekend and had a joyous experience overall
20210517 I had a great weekend. My long run went very well. I had fun dancing at Xmts @ The Star Bar. I hiked up Stone Mountain.
20210819 I had a good spinning workout this morning and a couple good sets of strength training afterwards
20210920 I completed 6 Pure Barre classes in the past 10 days and have decided to get an unlimited monthly membership.

the end of 2021

Hard to believe this is the last day of the year. This year has been a ride. I started off strong with the gratitude notes in my jar. I don’t think I put any notes in it at all during the second half of the year. Still, I made more notes than I had the year prior. I will read them tonight and renew my promise to continue the practice.

It’s easy to get caught up in the energy when things don’t go right, especially when it seems to be snowballing. That makes it perpetuate because now that energy has focus. A shift is required. Find a different focus. Easier said than done, but it can be done. It has to be deliberate.

I hope we all can find a moment for gratitude today and that we can find our ability to shift focus when required and to find a purpose that will propel us through 2022 with renewed strength, equanimity, and appreciation. We are in this world and in this life to have experiences. May the experiences we have fulfill us and bring us joy as we evolve into our highest forms of ourselves.

Love and light. Happy New Year, everybody.

Garmin Fenix 6x Pro Solar vs. Forerunner 230

Running friends… if you are thinking about getting the Garmin Fenix 6x Pro Solar watch, I’m gonna advise you against it.

I had been wanting this watch for the past couple years. I love all the available features and I especially wanted it because of the metal band as an option. I’m tired of wearing plastic watches.

Anyway, as a running watch, sadly, it SUCKS.

The instant pace is woefully inaccurate (like at least 2 minutes per mile slow). The average pace usually will be ok, provided that there were not any stops and starts. I keep my running watches on auto-pause so I don’t have to remember to start and stop it at stoplights. I turn that off on race days, although I am not usually stopping then anyway.

I have a Garmin Forerunner 230 that is several years old and, as a running watch, it is DRAMATICALLY more accurate. The instant pace is pretty much dead-on always and the auto-pause is quick and responsive.

Today I wore both watches on my long run, during which I did a lot of walking, especially in the first half. The Fenix 6x is EXTREMELY inaccurate for instant pace when walking. As in, it is NEVER correct. Furthermore, the auto-pause is slow and unresponsive, so if you do a lot of stopping and starting, or even if you walk at times and it is too slow, the auto-pause will not pick it up.

To compare: 
Today's distance on the Forerunner 230 was 17.53. 
The distance on the Fenix 6x Pro Solar was 16.48.

This is completely unacceptable. An entire mile was lost because the auto-pause is too unresponsive. Mind you, I have it set for every second sampling and all of the options to use for “optimal accuracy” were dictated to me by Garmin support.

I’m so disappointed in this watch. I can’t return it, either, because I had to order it custom to get the metal band option. This is one of their higher end products and is getting outperformed by a several year old lower end model.

I like the performance features, respiration sensor, vo2 max, pulse ox, heart rate monitoring, body battery, the phone connectivity, the music, the multisports and activities available, the solar charging, etc. of the Fenix 6x and I love the aesthetic with the metal band and the large display, but the primary utility for me is that it is supposed to be a RUNNING WATCH. Unfortunately for running, specifically, this watch is not any good. I guess I will have to wear both watches when I care to get an accurate pace and distance.

I have already spoken with support about this and I will be calling them again next week, but I already know that this watch is not eligible for returns and, based, on what I’ve found from searching online, this inadequacy is a known issue.

I know some of my friends have this watch. I know at least one of them has this issue as well with it. I don’t know if the others just got lucky or maybe didn’t notice because they didn’t have one to compare it against. In any case, I’d advise against getting it, especially if you intend to go for a custom one that you can not return.

You didn’t used to have to get a custom one to have the metal band. They only recently started that. Too bad I didn’t get it before the started doing it that way. But honestly, I still want the watch because it looks so cool. I just wish it worked properly.

Breakthrough Covid

Covid Log

20211127 evening very congested and very tired, bad headache

20211128 fever – went to have a PCR test, 100.00 developed into 101.7, I was freezing with chills, slight nausea but not to the point of really believing that I would vomit, still congested (took Sudafed, which helped), tired, headache, so cold, eyes hurt, sedated myself with NyQuil and ambien, took benzonatate for slight cough, bunch of vitamins, extra vitamin D, took another dose of nyquil in the middle of the night, couldn’t even watch movies I was too miserable. Pulse Ox dipped to 89 during the night.

20211129 test results came back positive. slight chest pain, occasional (rarely) cough, slight congestion, slight diarrhea, headache with pressure in eyes – more on the left, 100.5 fever, so cold, brain fog – what was I doing, more vitamins and water, took a hot Epsom Salts bath before bed

20211130 99.7 fever upon waking (still medicated from NyQuil dose in the middle of the night), cough, congestion, headache, eyes hurt, vision blurry. throughout the day cough got worse. dayquil is not helping with congestion. should have taken sudafed instead.

20211201 98.5 fever upon waking, theoretically normal but my normal is 97.6 so I’m still not quite there, still medicated from Sudafed and Benzonatate but feeling noticeably better today, noticing dry mouth as a symptom that has been going on (not sure since when, at least the past couple days for sure) and I didn’t place it before. As yesterday, cough got worse over the course of the day. Still sneezing a lot and congested even with the Sudafed. My thirst is unquenchable; I can’t seem to get enough liquid in me to make it go away. occasional chest pain persists

20211202 last night took Sudafed and Benadryl and that really helped. I slept very well. Woke up completely drenched in sweat. Feeling much better today. Not congested nearly as much, sneezing way less, no fever. Pulse Ox dipped to 93 during the night., still have that weird occasional chest pain, the dry mouth persists, temp at bedtime was 97.3, which is low for even me (normal 97.6)

20211203 woke up feeling pretty good. Went for a walk jog and felt ok, other than my upper molars hurting when I started to run (a sinus toothache). My heart rate response was higher than normal, especially at the beginning, but I took it very, very easy and walk-jogged. Did 4.5 miles. In the late afternoon, I became congested (but not really mucous as much as inflamed on the inside of my nose). I didn’t take anything for it and just decided to wait until bedtime to take meds.

20211204 again woke up feeling pretty good. Went for a walk-jog. I split it in 2 parts. I did 4 miles then came back and cooked and ate lunch then went back out. Teeth still hurt from sinuses and the cardiac response was greater than normal. I did a lot of walking, but I did get in 10.6 miles.

20211205 again woke up feeling pretty good. The sinus issue that was causing tooth pain is still there, as I could tell by shaking my head “no” quickly. I didn’t try to do any exercise. I had no real symptoms today other than the sense that there was a minor sinus presence. I was somewhat anxious for most of the day but that was likely unrelated and the anxiety went away by evening.

What I did to get better as quickly as possible: I’m sure I can thank the vaccines primarily for the quick recovery and for not having had a worse experience. Probably my strong lungs and cardio base also played a role. However, I also did every trick in the book that I knew of from the moment I began to not feel well onward to try to hurry this along: vitamin d 25mcg three times a day, 2000 mg vitamin c three times a day, 2400 mg Turmeric w/ Curvumin twice a day, 2000 mg Omega 3 twice a day, 600 mg N-Acetyl L-Cysteine daily, 600mg Kyolic aged garlic extract daily, 2000 mg magnesium L-Theonate daily, 200 mg selenium daily, 90 mcg MK- 7 daily, 100 mg B-1 daily, 100 mg niacin daily, 500 mg ginger root daily, MegaFood “Blood Builder” Iron supplement daily, zero dietary sugar except for fresh oranges, zero processed carbs until 2 days ago and that was gluten free pasta only, high protein daily, fresh vegetables with olive oil daily, almost a gallon of water daily. Without the vaccines, I’m sure none of that would have mattered, but in conjunction with them, I’m sure it all helped.

Also, and I’m not sure if this helped or not but it is what I always do if I get a fever (which is very rare), when I had a fever the first 3 days, I didn’t take anything to reduce the fever except for when I went to bed. I kept myself very warm (even though I was freezing with chills). That may or may not be helpful, and it’s probably not advised, but it was at the highest 101.7, so not dangerously high, and I wanted my body to work through it and get whatever benefit it was designed to offer.