What Time Is It?

I know you know what this is: 

It's a watch. Obviously. But it's also a heart rate monitor, step counter, sleep tracker, and activity tracker, and it does silent, smart alarms, too (smart: if you set the option, it will trigger its alarm based on your sleep pattern and state to attempt to wake you at the optimal point in your sleep cycle within your smart alarm window). It also has notifications from your phone (text message, caller, date, watch info like steps and alarms and heart rate, etc.) in the small upper window (which is a tiny, monochrome LCD), as well as noting the percent toward your defined step goal in the lower small circle (yeah, I'm a bit deficient in my steps today; I could say I'm over, but I don't want to lie to you, my faithful reader). 

Big deal, you say. My Fitbit does all that, or my Apple watch or Galaxy watch does that and more, with a larger screen. But, I ask you, how often do you have to charge your watch? Every five days (Fitbit), every day (Apple or Android watch)? Not me... I only have to charge my watch once every three weeks or so (and it doesn't require any particularly long recharge time). Granted, the heart rate tracking isn't continuous (it can be, if you're working out, but throughout the day it's intermittently doing heart rate tracking). And, it looks like "just another nice looking watch" rather than either a fitness device or a high-tech wearable. Which I kind of like, and it doesn't really tie me to my device like some of those others might. Withings Steel HR (I have the 40mm version). 

But, oh, that battery life. Oh, and they fit standard 18mm or 20mm watch bands (depending on the watch face size), not some custom band connector.

And it's about to get better: Withings (the company that makes this watch) will soon release the Scanwatch, which will include ECG and blood oxygen saturation monitors, and will do respiratory monitoring as well. Still with an "up to 30-day battery life" (I get 3+ weeks on mine; I don't think I get quite 30 days out of it, although the current Steel HR information only shows to have a 25-day battery life, so I think I'm on track with that). Withings also offers an ECG watch/activity tracker called the Move ECG which uses a standard, replaceable watch battery to provide a year of operation without having to charge, ever.

I think I'm get the Scanwatch when it's released. 

I also have to say, customer support from Withings has been really good. I bought one of the first release Steel HR, which had a problem with the watch face fogging up. I had contacted Withings customer support, and they reassured me that the watch was still waterproof, and it should clear on  its own. It never really did, and I'd contacted them a few other times, both before and after Nokia bought the company (the second release of the watch changed the branding from Withings to Nokia). Then the founder of Withings bought the company back from Nokia, and I contacted them once more. They said that without a receipt, they would have to go from the device production date, which unfortunately made it out of warranty, but they did offer a 25% discount on a new one. But when I mentioned that I'd contacted them within the first year of ownership, the rep said that made it a claim under warranty (I'd already sent them a picture of the cloudiness in the face), and if I'd send back the current one they'd send me a new one. Which they did. About two years after I'd originally purchased it, and after the company had been sold and bought back. What great customer support!

I like Withings, and I like my watch, and thought maybe you'd want to know.

Tomorrow starts week two of my cardiac rehab, week two of getting up much earlier than I'm used to. Week two of the evil machine. I may not write much tomorrow. See you in a few days!

Aesthetics vs. Function, plus the evil machine

I have a 2015 Chevy Volt. Well, my wife does, anyway. Regardless, we love it; it's a great car, and great for us. It's a plug in hybrid, which we charge overnight in our garage (just 110v). Usually we can go weeks without using any gas, but when we have a long trip, we can just gas it up and go like a "regular" car (and it gets good gas mileage when running that way, too). It's relatively comfortable, reasonably sporty and fun to drive, and both economically and practically (it's a hatchback) nice to boot. There aren't a lot of things I dislike about the car, but here is one of them:

Yep, the steering wheel. It looks really nice, but those looks have a drawback: the bottom "spoke." You see, Chevrolet didn't make a true three spoke wheel here; the bottom spoke is too wide to split one hand's fingers around. They also didn't do a four spoke wheel; there isn't enough room between the two pieces of the bottom spoke to fit your hand (you can sort of cram your two middle fingers in there). And, yes, I get that 10 and 2 (my preference) or 9 and 3, two hands on the wheel, is the best driving dynamic, and this wheel feels great when doing that, but come on: we all drive one handed from time to time. Usually I go for the top center, which is fine, but on longer trips, especially on the interstate, I often like to go for bottom center.

Not possible with this steering wheel design. Aesthetics beat out functionality here; why, oh Chevy, couldn't you have given us a proper three- or four-spoke steering wheel, one that would be functionally better than the one you gave us? Yeah, it looks nice, but I'd have preferred one that I can use the way I want to use my steering wheel. There are places where form over function is fine, even preferred, but the steering wheel of a vehicle is one place where I think function should trump form, as it's an essential control device for the one thing a car is really designed to do.

So, as I sit here eating my low sodium chili (my wife is an AWESOME cook, by the way- perhaps too good in times past, contributing to my larger than ideal size owing to my own lack of self control regarding the food she makes), I must share with you the evil machine. This machine, the SciFit Pro1000 Seated Upper Body workout machine:

If ever a workout machine was going to take over the world, this would be the one. This thing is just EVIL. Oh, it starts out innocently enough, as you go forward on the arm cycling, adding resistance to get your expenditure up. But then you switch to reverse mode. You've already been working out those arms (you know, the things that normally just hang limply at your side or hold a phone while you scroll through Facebook, play Pokemon, or  type out a blog post), but then there's a revolution (and I'm not talking about the circular cycling you're doing with those arms that are  begging to go back to hanging limply at your side), and you find that your arms are not made for this. Typing at a desk is more your style. (Or maybe it's just more my style.) This thing really puts the work in workout! Treadmill? Piece of cake. Seated stepper? Please, it's more work to slice an apple. This guy? Can I just go back to the hospital bed instead?

So goes my cardiac rehab. There's also some warm-up using hand weights (I'm starting easy this week with the 5 pound weights... Did I mention that I never really  exercised my arms much?), then a sequence of treadmill, evil arm killing machine, and seated stepper (although today I swapped that for an exercise bike as one of the two good steppers was down for maintenance and the other was occupied), followed by two or more walking laps around the cardiac rehab facility for cool down.

Short version: if you like your arms, don't have a heart attack. They'll make you work them afterward!

Two Days

Two days. That's the number of days I've participated in a cardiac rehab program. Or, really, any type of directed exercise program. Something I've learned in those two days: my arms don't particularly like exercise, especially with any type of resistance. Oh, it's alright for, say, a few minutes, but by the time I get to "reverse" mode on the circular arm exercise machine (sort of like an exercise bike for your arms), my arms, and the rest of me, are asking, "Why are you doing this? We're not accomplishing anything; nothing's getting closer, like a fish, and nothing's being created, and there's no obvious external benefit to what you're doing, so can we please stop, and maybe do something that accomplishes a tangible, observable, immediate result?"

No, arms, no. Just keep doing what you're doing. You'll be alright, eventually. 

Don't tell my arms, but we'll be back in another two days (cardiac rehab is Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) to do it all over again, at a slightly higher resistance level.

And, with that, I tire of writing this. I'll see you, probably, in another couple of days, loyal reader, as I try to be more consistent with my blogging. My wife may soon return to blogging, too, with lots of new material to share.

My two cents. Three and a half adjusted for inflation. AKA the budgets, bargains, and toilet paper post.

Budgets. Wonderful things if you can stick to them. 

Bargains. Wonderful things if you can live with them.

What do these have in common? Besides the letters b, g, and s, one helps you with the other, and one helps you not always have to have the other. That said, while a bargain is a good thing, there are a few things you should probably consider going ahead and paying for what you want. One example: toilet paper. Is it really worth that sacrifice to save a few pennies? Personally, I feel you should go ahead and pay for the toilet paper you like. For us, it used to be Charmin or the Sam's Club "Member's Mark" brand (which is a really good, bargain substitute for Charmin), but recently (within the last few years) we've become Cottonelle users, and have also noted that Quilted Northern is a close second to Cottonelle. For our purposes, I'd MUCH rather be using one of those than one of the single ply sandpaper substitute "bargain" varieties. It's just one of those things. Now, if you don't mind (or even, shiver, like) the newsprint grade toilet paper, then by all means go for it and save those pennies (which you can spend elsewhere). But if you don't like that, is it really worth saving a buck or two every other week or however often you replenish your supply? And, you can still get bargains on your preferred brand: build your supply, and buy whenever you find it on sale.

Similarly, say you have a favorite soda. Buy when it's on sale, but is it worth the savings to buy something you don't like? How is that a bargain? Again, if you like, or if you "like enough" the store brand, save the money. Coffee: why save half a dollar to buy coffee you don't like? How is that a good start to your morning?

Bargains: find them when you can, but be reasonable about your likes and dislikes. Some store brands are perfectly acceptable lower-cost substitutes (e.g., for me, the Member's Mark toilet paper and paper towels for Charmin and Brawny, or Publix gummy bears or ice cream for brand names), while some are more compromise than bargain, leaving you with something you don't really like.

Budgets: highly recommended to use them, in conjunction with bargains, to help you afford the handful of items where you want very specific brands or items.