Today was Friday the 13th.

There is a lot of apprehension about Friday the 13th among superstitious people but I have always believed that where there is smoke there is fire so I do not discount some of the beliefs that other people have about this strange cultural abnormality.

I got out of bed early this morning because the weather was really nice and I got on my jogging outfit and climbed a rather steep hill that goes upward for at least the length of a city block. I think hill climbing is fully as good for exercise as stair climbing, and I feel good about being able to still do it without collapsing from lack of breath.

Sometime during the day, after all the exercise and very little breakfast, I happened to take a reading of my heart rate on an oximeter and discovered that my heart rate is slow … about 57 beats per minute when it is supposed to be 60 beats per minute or better.

In some more athletic people a low rate (also known as bradycardia) is normal but it is a little different from what I have been used to, so being a hypochondriac, I naturally spent most of the day worrying about it.

But this has happened before and I seem to have survived, so I guess I will not continue to fret about it or at least I will try to stop fretting about it because there is enough stress in the world as it is and I do not need to add any more stress to my burdens.

If those sound like brave words, then I admit, they are but I have to speak them because they give me a sense of assurance and, when it comes to myself and my health, I have always been a pussy of sorts … constantly worrying about things that I can never change on my own.

But I am getting a little dreary now so I will have to change course in the conversation and go on to bigger and better things … so I am shifting gears right now.

Breakfast today was nil … a quarter of a cup of Lima beans and one ounce of French bread with some hot coffee.

Lunch consisted of a hot dog sandwich, some baked beans and some coleslaw with a large glass of tea.

Dinner was at 6 O’clock in the evening and consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich on toasted French bread with tomato and onion and some salad dressing.

I have been working on changing my eating habits to tackle a personal weight problem and a good friend of mine from England was kind enough to share his meal regimen with me and I am sort of following it for awhile.

I have discovered lately — within the past decade — that there was a time in history when all a blogger had to do to get a lot of visits (Hits) was to have a decent story to tell and the courage to write it and there would come a swarm of people wanting to read it. Today I find that it is virtually impossible to get a lot of hits on a blog because there are so damned many of them to compete with. I believe that if an average blogger gets 10 hits in a day these days, then that blogger is blessed and should be very proud of what he or she is doing. That’s just how much things have changed as technology has run away with itself. I can only imagine what the future holds.

While I was at the hardware store the other day, looking for wild bird seed to feed our backyard birds, I purchased an enormous bar of men’s’ bath soap … a bar of soap three or more times larger than anything you are ever going to find in a super market or a drug store …a bar of soap designed exclusively for rugged manly men … a bar of soap that cost me more than Nine U.S. dollars but I have to tell you that after using it once or twice, I am so happy I found it! It has activated charcoal in it and it cleans amazingly … unlike anything I have ever used before.

The name of the soap I am talking about is “Duke Cannon” and I am obliged to tell you right now that I am not being compensated in any way for mentioning the brand name of the soap. I am not affiliated with the company that manufactures the soap. I just bought it, tried it and love it. Here is the link where you can see for yourself if you are interested …https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Cannon-Brick-Ounce-Victory/dp/B00NIA5I4M

I guess that is enough for this time around.

See you later, folks. Tell your friends about me, won’t you?

Thanks.