Riding bikes ~

My dad was in the Air Force. When he got to the 20 year mark with the
Air Force he was given a choice between two assignments that he didn't
want. So he chose to retire and move back to where he grew up outside
of Ocala, Florida.

I was in the seventh grade when we moved there. I had made it to the
seventh grade living on Air Force bases where I could walk or ride a
bike anywhere and feel safe and be allowed to go out without my
parents. I walked back and forth to school. I went and played with
friends in other parts of the neighborhood on the base. I even went
to the Jiffy store on the backside of the base just outside the gate.

Our house outside of Ocala was 30 minutes away from town. The nearest
Jiffy store was a 5 mile walk away. I never took that walk.

But as I got used to being out in the country I would ride my bike up
and down the driveway and then venture out on the road that was not
very busy but busy enough to make it an adventure.

My brother and I wanted to earn some money somehow but being out in
the middle of nowhere that was kind of hard. My parents had a garbage
can in the garage where they threw their aluminum cans from the drinks
they had and then they would recycle the aluminum. My mother
suggested maybe gathering aluminum cans from the side of the road and
then we could go and recycle them and get a few dollars for a our
efforts.

So one summer my brother and I ventured out onto the road with plastic
garbage bags to gather aluminum cans.

It was hot! Hot and sweaty. Most of the can still had some liquid in
them, usually beer. So we have to dump them out. We learned how to
dump the beer out of the cans without getting it on us, which was
sometimes an adventure. As our range got larger in our search for
things thrown from vehicle windows we found bottles and cans and
garbage and junk. We gathered a lot of cans!

We gathered enough cans to make a little bit of money and buy some
Micronaut toys.

Riding bikes on the side of the road gathering aluminum cans is one of
my good memories of being a kid. All I didn't like not being able to
go to the store on my own it still became an adventure to go out and
gather the things that people through from their vehicles because they
either didn't want them and there are didn't want to be caught with
foam or whatever. And we made a little money.

Good memories!

Natural deodorant ~

One of the positive things that happened during 2020 was I tried a different underarm deodorant. Yeah, I know, silly thing to share, but I've really been surprised and wanted to tell you about it.

I was raised using a roll-on type underarm deodorant. I don't remember the brand but it was the kind that was liquidy, rolled on, and took forever to dry. At some point I switched to the gel that was still liquid and took forever to dry. But they were all filled with chemicals that I don't even know how to say.

Over the years I had read about the negative effects of these chemicals. Although unproven some were supposedly causing cancers, especially breast cancers. Some were causing dementia as people get older. The big villain in the chemical makeup of artificial antiperspirants and deodorants was aluminum and other chemicals that were there to block your pores and prevent them from sweating or something like that.

I had read over the years about all-natural deodorants made from salts. I had laughed and thought it was stupid. But since we were already doing a bunch of stupid stuff in 2020 I figured I'd give them a try.

Lo and behold, the mineral salt crystal underarm deodorant works for me! I was teleworking and so I figured it didn't matter if I smelled better or not except to my family. I bought some and tried it and once I got the hang of getting it wet and then applying it to my underarms discovered that it was instantly dry and prevented odors with no unwanted center or anything like that. A couple of times I didn't do it enough and discovered that if you only can I do it a couple times you will stink by the end of the day, but if you follow the directions and apply it liberally it works. At least for me.

I like it so much that I've now been using some form of crystal mineral salt underarm deodorant for two years. I bought it as gifts for my children. My hope is that they'll switch away from the artificial things that they were when they grew up using two this all-natural potassium based mineral salt thing that hopefully will be healthier and better for them in the long run. But that's up to them since they're all adults.

You can find the mineral salt underarm deodorant things that I've tried it at


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S83JR0/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_WKMTNKJ90T8822844NFA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1