Tomorrow's Blog Post Today

Normally, we get up in the early morning and write a blog post about what we did the previous day.   Today, we're jumping the gun so we can get jump start tomorrow.  We have been faithful to our once-a-day session on Ye Ol' Tread Mill.  Sometimes we even go twice a day.  That's what we want to do tomorrow--go once early and then another time in the late afternoon.

We're progressing right along with the treadmill.  At the risk of producing protracted Garfield ZZZZZ's, we will tell you a little bit about it.  We start out at 2.5 miles per hour with a zero percent grade.  Each minute we increase the gradient by one percent until at the 15-minute mark we are at a 15% grade moving 2.5 miles per hour.  Then we increase the speed by increments up to 4.0 miles per hour.   When the speed gets close to 4 mph, I have to cut the grade back a little.  I can barely handle 4 mph--it feels like running to me. I try to keep my heartrate in the 130 range but it gradually works its way about 140 and I always cut back when it touches 150.  After the 25 minute mark, I cut back and kick down the gradient and the speed and try to have my heartrate under 100 at the 30 minute mark.  I'm usually strolling along at zero percent grade and 1.5 miles an hour as the workout ends in the cool down phase.  Trust me, that tread mill gets me sweating like...well, we will spare the analogies.

Anyway, I've joined that SNAP outfit and am paid up until November 1st so I want to max it out.  The goal is to be in tip top hiking shape when we leave here.  In past years, we've always used actual hikes to get into hiking shape.  That takes awhile--generally a week or two to get our hiking legs back.  Hopefully, the treadmill will be a great surrogate for actual hikes.  Susun went off to the Apple Athletic Club this afternoon.  It's a real athletic club and quite the Hoi Polloi place, actually.  It's a place to see and be seen.  SNAP, by comparison, is a Ghost fitness club.  I'm usually the only one there and the most people I've ever seen there was a grand total of 3.  APPLE probably has over a hundred people on the premises at any given time.

We took off early this morning to Pokey.  That's everyone's Eastern Idaho slang for Pocatello, a city named for a prominent Native American Leader (AKA: Chief).  We often wonder if Pocatello's peers called him Pokey, especially when he got old and slow.  We'll never know.

Susun has been in need of new eye glasses for quite some time.  We've been customers of America's Best since the mid-1990's.  You can get an eye exam and two pair of lined bi-focals out the door for a little over a hundred bucks.  Today she paid extra for prescription sunglasses and custom frames and the whole package cost $150 for two pair. That's far less than the same glasses would cost anywhere else.  Over the past more than 15 years, we've saved hundreds of dollars by using America's Best.  It always baffles me why people pay huge amounts for eyeglasses when they can be had for so much less money.

We stayed on a short leash while Susun was in the eye place.  We were delighted to see Harbor Freight moved to new digs in a fancy building on "our side" of Pokey.  Previously, they were as far south as you possibly be.  There's also a new Dick's Sporting Goods store in Pokey.  If you've never been to a Dick's, it's a real high end kind of place and it's definitely NOT a discount place.

After arriving back home from Pokey, we set about doing various stuff to get ready for our Arizona trip.  We renewed out vehicle registrations.  They wouldn't have expired until December 31st but  now is the time to get them freshened.  It's SOOOO much easier than trying to do it from afar.  We quizzed the County Treasurers in both Idaho and Arizona about our property taxes and learned something new.  Here in Bonneville County, you can pay your "estimated" taxes way ahead of time and not be delinquent on any remaining balance until June 20 of the following year!  Not only that but they will sign you up for email reminders just in case you forget.  We are very pleased by that.  Our property taxes here are estimated to be $775.  As far as we're concerned, that's a colossal bargain.  We really get a lot for that paltry payment.  It would take a tome to tell you all we get for that small amount of money.

This is the first place we've ever lived where we actually enjoy paying property taxes.  We always pay them in person so we can tell the County Staff how much we appreciate them.  NO ONE does that and they are always taken aback.  Well, it's true.  We pay much more money in Arizona and receive basically nothing in return for our taxes there.  That's not a political statement--that's just a flat fact.  Paying taxes here is a joy, pure and simple.  Anyway, we're going to be all feng shui with our Idaho property taxes as of tomorrow morning, even though the local statements won't even be mailed until November.

Being the Type A sorts, we've prepared a four page spreadsheet (in 8 point type) detailing all the little nit picky steps we need to take to prep to go south.  We've learned over the years that it pays HUGE dividends to tackle these tasks as early as possible.  You simply can't get in the mentality of leaving stuff to the last minute.  Do as much as you can as early as you can because no matter how much you do far in advance, you are still going to be backed up to the wall a few days before your departure.  It's just the law of migratory travel.

Anyway, there's so many things on that four page list, we calculated we'd have to cross off at least two items a day just to be theoretically even by early November.  While it may seem illogical to be starting this early, we've learned the hard way that it's NEVER too early to begin crossing stuff off the inevitable checklist.

Golf weather beckons this week.  Possibly as soon as tomorrow, we are prognosticated for pristine fall weather conditions and such weather will certainly be here by Wednesday.  Fall in this neck of the woods is brief but it is SOOO Sweet!

Goatherder wrote a blog post today.  It includes a slide show of 97 photos taken by Kate in her trip down to Phantom Ranch in the bottom of Grand Canyon last week.  Very nice pictures.  Congrats, Kate and THANKS, GH!  Click here to read his latest blog post and see Kate's photos.

Spudboater is lost in space someplace down in the wilds of Nevada MOAN Country supposedly in or near the Great Basin National Park.  Wednesday's her birthday.  She's probably humming the intro theme song to Gilligan's Island and wondering how her three hour tour is going to turn out.

Well, we had it all wrong this year on the actual Autumnal Equinox.  It is NOT September 21.  No, folks, here in Idaho it is 3 am Friday, September 23rd.  We figgered you would want to know.

Well, that's all folks, as this spirited session of The Daily News draws to a close.  Have a great evening and Many Cheers!  jp