My Helpful Daily Reminder

We have had Alexa for almost two years now, it first being a Christmas present. If memory serves, we later purchased a second unit for downstairs. I was then gifted a third Alexa last Christmas: one that has a screen and connects with the doorbell that I was also gifted. 

The doorbell has a camera which, in theory, should come in handy when we are upstairs and the bell rings. The problem is that once we hear the ring, Alexa takes a little too much time to connect, so I don't use it for that function often. Still, it does warn when someone approaches the door, and I can also hear the ring up in my den, so it is still very helpful.

Other than that, I haven't used Alexa to her potential. About the only regular thing that we have her do is to ask the trivia question of the day. I don't always manage that because the reminder comes on the downstairs machine, and we are both usually upstairs in the morning, I in my den and Sue in her computer corner in the bedroom.

I have more recently, however, asked Alexa to remind me to do morning exercises. Since I can easily spend a day forgetting, this helps, and I have been much more consistent. Assuming that I don't have another morning chore, I exercise around mid-morning. But if I have something else scheduled, it will also tend to be mid morning, so I will eschew exercising on that day. If it is like today, however, I will at least get out to the grocery store and get some exercise trudging the aisles.

I do a few stretches followed by an in-place one mile walk (as in the video, below). On alternate days, I do a few lifts with 5lb hand weights. With a bad foot, I find it easier to walk in place that walking outside, seemingly because lifting the leg is easier than pushing off to stride forward.

The routine is on YouTube and is 15 minutes long. I will post it below. There are other routines that can be found, but this is enough. It is something anyway.

I do have another helpful Alexa thing to post about, but I will plan to do that tomorrow as this post is long enough for one day. As we are more secluded in winter, blog topics may be harder to come by, so splitting the topic will give me filler for another day.