If I Don’t Have My Fitbit….

Anyone else feel this way? Like I may as well just stay in bed if I’m not wearing my Fitbit. It’s probably a dangerous attitude but those steps are important!!!

Chillicothe Antique Emporium

Chillicothe has a few good places to buy antiques and vintage items. My favorite of these is American Vintage Warehouse on Water Street. I nearly always find a bargain there and often find some incredibly cool things. In fact, my vintage dinette set and mid century hutch came from there for a great price. I’ll tell you about them some other day.

But I’m not going to talk about this store today.  Yeah…. see what I did? You never know what I’m going to do here. 

Instead, I want to talk about a store that has the absolute best atmosphere. Gorgeous front doors and hardwood floors, nice lighting and clean, organized booths are found here. There’s no junk in this store like you find at a lot of antique malls and everything is very clean. The only downside is that the prices are all over the place – something you see in antique malls because each booth is run by someone different. In this case, they have about two dozen vendors and each of them carries quality items but a few of them are a smidge overpriced.

But I forgive them for this because they have something you don’t find in most antique stores. They have a real, working soda fountain that is absolutely fabulous. The counter came from Georgia and is beautiful. They serve all sorts of delicious goodies including floats, sundaes, shakes and banana splits!

Want to go? I don’t blame you. It’s pretty awesome. The last time I shopped there I found nothing I couldn’t live without but the time before I left with a bagful of stuff including a vintage necklace, hat and book all for great prices.

Chillicothe Antique Emporium is located at 59 E. Main Street in Chillicothe. If you’re familiar with downtown, it’s next to Globe Furniture. Don’t miss out on the second floor and basement stuff too.

 

Persevering When You Want To Quit

Earlier this month I told you about how I’m revisiting my desire to become a jogger with the C25K app.  I’ve tried a few times but usually bail at about week five when it starts to feel unreasonably hard.

This time around I’m spending a few weeks at each stage of the learning. For the last three weeks I’ve been sticking at the first level where you run 60 seconds and walk 90 seconds for twenty minutes. A five minute warm up and five minute cool down make for a pretty nice half hour workout.

During the third week, I was jogging at 6 mph and walking 4 mph with a four percent incline. I don’t know if this is good or not but it was reasonably challenging yet still attainable. I was even enjoying these workouts.

Last night I moved on to the second stage where you run 90 seconds and walk two minutes. Backing the incline down to 1.5 percent but leaving the speed alone, I managed to stay strong the entire workout.

With that said, I didn’t especially enjoy it. I hate typing those words but it’s true. 

Is it because I have a cold and am just feeling sort of run down? Perhaps it’s because I haven’t eaten especially well since the holiday. It could be that I have a lot on my mind and just wasn’t properly focused on my goals.

Maybe I need to slow down for a couple of days and work my speed back up to six. That sounds a little silly but I absolutely felt those extra thirty seconds.

It could be any number and combination of things but as I sit here my mind is on a negative loop. The loudest thought of them all is a voice that wants to know why I’m doing this anyway.

The answer is because I want to be healthy and strong and incorporating jogging seems like a great way to do that. And I’m at an age that if I’m going to learn how to do this I probably need to be doing it.

But then the demons beneath the surface start to get louder, casting doubt on my own abilities and motivations. It makes me want to quit. After all, why force something I don’t want to do? I’m a grown up and I don’t have to do anything.

The good news is that I’m too stubborn and willful to just stop. Hopefully a few days of clean eating, some rest and a healthier mental position on Wednesday will better prepare me for my workout.

But it makes me wonder – what in your life do you wish you could do but don’t because you listen to the negativity? What aren’t you doing because you think you’re just not good enough or because you’re too tired to keep trying?

And what are you doing because you are too willful to quit but that is never going to work, no matter how badly you want it to?

These are some big questions, especially for a Tuesday morning. But the big questions are there to give us opportunity to know ourselves better and maybe even inspire some much needed change.  Meanwhile, I’m going to persevere and hope you will as well. Happy Day, my friends.

Vinyl And Changing Taste

 

My music tastes have evolved through my lifetime and, at one point or another, I have been a fan of most every style of music. I started out listening to the fifties and sixties rock and roll as well as the eighties country that my folks listened to when I was a kid. As a teenager I learned to love Big Band music and the crooners and then in college tuned into classic rock. Then a taste for classical, the blues and instrumental bluegrass (no vocals please) and a lot of other stuff crept in somewhere along the way.

For the last few years I’ve been listening more to Indie and Americana. The occasional modern country song finds its way into my playlist but I tend to get most excited about the obscure stuff that feels like lost treasure. No Keith Urban or Jason Aldean for me, please.

This year I’ve been listening more to rockabilly and classic country. I can’t put my finger on when the shift occurred but I’m absolutely loving it. The cool thing is that these genres are easy to find cheap as you can pick up vintage records for just a few dollars at any thrift store or antique mall.

To be honest, I don’t know anything about the history of most vinyl. Most collectors are looking for original pressings and know the value of each one. I buy because the music is great. Being cheap makes it easy to explore a lot of different artists and genres for little investment. You literally never know what you might find.

More importantly, there is no better sound than you find on vinyl. I love coming home after a long day to the Temptations or Cat Stevens on the turntable.

You know something else? Music discovery in the digital age really stinks. You just pull out your phone and type in a song name and it pops up at your fingertips. There’s no waiting. No need to listen to the album as the artist intended – you can just listen to the one song you like and forget the rest. But with vinyl, you have to go looking and you get to be surprised by all the odd and amazing things you  find as you flip through a crate of fifty year old records.

I’ve bought vinyl almost compulsively this last week. The lure of discovery pulled me right in. Thankfully it’s not expensive but the bad news is it does take up shelf space!

Vinyl is making a comeback too. Most everyone is releasing vinyl along with their compact disc and MP3 and even the big box stores are carrying it. New vinyl tends to be a little expensive but often comes with a free digital download so that’s kind of handy.

This week I dragged home some classic Conway and Loretta, Jerry Lee Lewis and Eddie Rabbit among other things. So far every purchase this week was a good one and I’ve had fun discovering new tunes!

Carl’s Townhouse

I love a good diner. A fancy meal is great once in a while but if you want to impress me take me to a place with a lunch counter and an honest to goodness rotary phone on the wall. If I whip out my phone and start taking pictures you’ll know you did good.

In honor of Small Business Saturday, I hit two antique malls in downtown Chillicothe and had lunch with my mother at Carl’s Townhouse. Carl’s is a local landmark that began life at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. According to their menu, it was purchased by a local resident and brought to Chillicothe where it operated as NCL, an acronym of Nice Clean Lunch as well as the names of the original owners Nagley, Conrad and Landrum.

A fellow named Carl Reinhard purchased the building in 1951 and operated it as Carl’s Townhouse until his retirement thirty years later. Since then, ownership has changed a couple of times. Most notably, it was moved to its current site in 2000 when the building was slated for demolition at its original Paint Street location.

Moved to Second Street in the dead of night, the building was restored and expanded over the next two years. It has operated here ever since, using the original Carl’s menu of sandwiches, soups, homemade pies and all day breakfast on the weekends.

The black and white tile floors are gorgeous and I love all the chrome but the crown jewel here really is the counter. I love the counter and the stools. 

And I can’t believe I did this but there’s a rotary phone on the wall and I totally forgot to take a picture. I grew up with a rotary wall phone but it’s not something you see much these days.

Saturday was gloomy and cold so my mother had vegetable soup (which she said was really good) and grilled cheese. I had onion rings with my grilled cheese along with a piece of butterscotch cream pie that was to die for.

They have a daily special, good service and fabulous atmosphere. The food isn’t fancy, just your diner fair but we really enjoyed it. If you’re downtown and looking for something a little different but still quick, Carl’s is the way to go.

Carl’s Townhouse is located at 95 W. Second St. in Chillicothe. If you go, Sweet William’s across the street has the best chocolate dipped strawberries and Totem Supply Company just down the block carries some fun gift items and retro tshirts featuring local spots of bygone years like Rinks and Camp Sherman. And, of course, there are a few good places to find antiques in town and some great specialty shops including Apollo Records and Ivy’s Home and Garden. Take some time to explore!

 

Christmas At Dogwood Pass

Let’s talk about Christmas, shall we?

Just down the road, near the village of Beaver, there’s a fun little place called Dogwood Pass. This old west town is complete with a mercantile, saloon, jail and other structures to tour and enjoy. During warm weather they host reenactments as well as events and private parties. During the Christmas season they go all out with lights and decorations.  On the weekends they have music, Santa and other fun as well.

I visited on a Saturday night last December, arriving just in time for Santa’s grand entrance. There was a light snow on the ground and he drove in to the town in a horsedrawn sleigh with jingle bells. A brass band played him in and he held court in the saloon, visiting with boys and girls of all ages. He was exactly what you would hope Santa would be like and his wife was lovely too.

I’m hoping to go back again this year. Maybe it will help me get into the holiday spirit. It’s a fun place for people of all ages but I imagine families would especially love it. I’m a big fan of supporting local businesses and events and hope you’ll support them too.

Dogwood Pass is located just off Route 32 near Beaver. You’ll see signs from the highway. The address is 722 Adams Road, Beaver and Google Maps should get you there from wherever you are in the world.

Get their hours and admission info on their Facebook page and visit them online for more information about the town and their events.