Author: Diane Harper

Diane Harper is a retired former public servant who lives and swims (and bikes) in Ottawa. In her hobby life, she is Siglinde Harfnerstochter, a 6th C Merovingian housewife from the city of Metz. Her primary interests are cooking, textile arts and bonecarving. Siglinde lives in the canton of Caldrithig, Barony of Skraeling Althing, Kingdom of Ealdormere.
fitness

Relying on AI is Like Skipping Leg Day for Your Brain

Diane Harper1 Comment

Jamil Zaki is professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, so he has some solid credentials (assuming he actually said this, and it isn’t an AI-generated meme).

I choose to believe it is legitimate since it came to me via Dr Laurie Santos (professor of psychology at Yale). She posted it recently with the note that “the struggle to put messy thoughts into clear sentences is often where the thinking actually happens. People who write about difficult emotional experiences even show fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression afterward.”

Think of writing as being a gym for human thought (not that I ever go to the gym, but I do write).

But maybe AI is actually an exercise machine for your brain? After all, it can be used to turbocharge your curiosity or your experimentation. Maybe the time you don’t spend writing a utilitarian email can be spent using your brain on something that’s more valuable. Or maybe you’ll just use that time scrolling social media or creating silly memes…

I think it’s pretty obvious which side of this debate I fall on. I have too many friends who are potentially losing out on jobs – everyone from writers to voice actors to computer engineers. The engineer, in particular, notes that her knowledge of system design and the software development lifecycle and software engineering best practices do not matter, which results in error-prone products and even more AI slop.

My engineer friend says that “AI in its current form is a technology which is specifically designed to hook into ultra-capitalistic tendencies. The drawcard is MAKE MORE STUFF, DO MORE STUFF, DELIVER MORE VALUE, GET MORE RICH, DREAM MORE, BE MORE, MORE MORE MORE.”

That leads me to my final thought, and that’s the environmental consequences. The data centres require vast amounts of land, electricity and water.

So thanks, but no thanks AI. I prefer to keep my brain active, write for myself, and then get outside for some exercise in the fresh air.

An old photo of me in a yellow swim cap and red goggles, with my orange tow float. I’m enjoying a swim at one of the lakes near Ottawa.
feminism · fitness

Trying to Let Go of Self-Imposed Patriarchal Norms

Diane Harper4 Comments

Retirement feels busier than when I worked full time. I have been putting in a lot of long hours at my part-time lifeguarding/swim instructor job and I have also been focusing on getting my fitness activities in. Plus there is elder care across town. Despite the huge portion of the burden my sister takes on, it somehow feels more demanding than single parenting ever did.

These are all responsibilities I mostly took on joyfully, just as I did full time work after university. I had been raised in the 1960s and 70s with the idea that women can do everything. But in the 1980s, that morphed into superwoman syndrome, where women worked outside the home and still took on the burden of all the unpaid work inside the home.

I think back to those early days in the 1980s and I am struck by how much I still feel bound to externally-imposed housekeeping norms, and therefore a failure.

This image of an Octopus Woman managing housekeeping, parenting, cooking, scheduling, and working outside the home. Source: The Wandering Writer.

My mother and my ex mother in-law were mostly stay-at-home parents. In Mom’s case, at least, it was largely because we moved often. By the time she found a job as a nurse, my dad got posted to a new location.

Both of them maintained perfectly tidy houses. Mom used to say she came to visit me, not my house, when things weren’t perfect. My mother-in-law was less kind. She obsessed about sweeping floors three times a day, and washed her kitchen floor daily. She was not shy about doing the same at my house when she came to visit, even though my house was clean.

In retirement, I am finally trying to let go of those expectations.

I live alone, shower at work and after swim practice, so my shower and tub rarely get used. Do I need to scrub them weekly when they may not have been used for weeks? No, I do not.

Could I hire a cleaning service? Probably, once I get over my obsession with cleaning before they get here.

Realistically, I don’t need to dust everywhere in my house at least weekly. I’m pretty observant and have a good sense of when there is actual dust to remove (and then I usually get it done fairly quickly).

Some rules are good: I do change the sheets and do my laundry weekly. I make a serious effort to clear kitchen counters before bedtime because I like to wake up to a clean kitchen. But I am letting go of Mom’s maxim that a clean sink is a sign of a clean house (desiring a gleaming sink does not make me any more inclined to reorganize the bicycle storage room).

I use an app to help me track the jobs I truly loathe, like cleaning bathrooms and washing floors regularly, and remind me to do certain seasonal things.

The biggest thing I need to let go of is the belief that I can be superwoman, decades after the concept was debunked.


“Superwomen only exist in comic books”. A woman in Wonder Woman costume is clearly racing to solve a crisis somewhere. Source: The Wandering Writer,
health

We Did It! (It being the cold plunge for women’s health research)

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I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Sinai Health’s fundraiser to help women facing health issues before, during and after menopause.

On Sunday, World Menopause Day, my swim coach and friend Marianne joined me for a swim. She was also raising funds for the cause.

We had a great time!

A group of cold water dippers was also there for the same cause, so we had a nice chat before heading into the 11C water for a 12 minute, 400 metre swim.

Diane in a blue cap, and Marianne in a pink one, are all smiles after their swim at Britannia Beach in Ottawa. Ignore the time and pace info. The gps works well when the phone is a tow float, but it gets very confused about speed and swim times.

Coincidentally, it was also Person’s Day in Canada. That’s the day we remember the women who fought and won the right to be considered persons and therefore eligible to be elected to Parliament.

I joked with a friend that there is nothing like the rage of menopausal women to make change. She replied that was a detail her history teacher had left out when teaching about The Famous Five. That’s when I remembered I had never learned about them at all in history class.

It’s not just women’s health issues that need more attention and study…

fitness

Sitting with Uncomfortable Biases

Diane Harper1 Comment

This blog supports all kinds of bodies finding joy doing fitness activities. I like to think I do too. But recently I have realized that being truly welcoming to everyone is harder than I thought.

I take a jazz class every week. It’s a small group, and none of us are particularly good. This year there only four of us. Two have some sort of intellectual disability (they both compete in the Special Olympics and I recognize one from the Dragonfly program that the dance school runs for people with Down Syndrome).

This slows down the class as it takes longer for our teacher to explain the steps. I can feel myself getting impatient. The fact that I’m only doing the class for fun makes no difference to my competitive perfectionist self.

I’m working to shift my perspective. I love this class and my teacher. I’ll never feel the pure unadulterated joy of my two classmates because I’m just too self-conscious and worried about getting everything right.

But I can try. And I can practice being a little more patient while I’m at it.

Two women jump for joy. They are silhouetted against a yellow and orange sunset.
fitness

Do Your Best

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My ballet teacher said something this week that really resonated. “Your job in class is to do your very best. It won’t be perfect, and what “best” is will change from day to day. That’s fine.”

She was talking to a class full of adult students. Most of us are in our 60s and 70s. At least one is 80. Some of us have been practicing for years. Some are new. One has a learning disability, I think. Another has Parkinson’s or a similar neurological disorder.

Our best will never be anything like the “best” that most people consider to be the standard for ballet dancers. So ignore the standard, and keep on doing your best, no matter what fitness activity you enjoy. You are no less of a valuable person just because you are different.

An adult dancer wearing a black leotard and skirt, and wearing pointe shoes, in a sparse-looking ballet studio.

menopause

Taking the Plunge for Menopause Health

Diane Harper1 Comment

October 18 is World Menopause Day, and I’ll be taking the plunge to raise funds for Sinai Health, for research to help women facing health issues before, during and after menopause.

If you like, you can support me here.

Why am I doing this? I’m just old enough that menopause was barely talked about when I went through it. I had massive fibroids, and very heavy and long periods that came about every three weeks. At 48, I had a complete hysterectomy, including ovary removal. My menopause was more of a meno-screeching-halt.

It was the time when doctors believed the hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of things like breast cancer, so it wasn’t even an option.

I wore sleeveless tops, often carried a fan, and was never without a handkerchief for my sweaty face. I put down the sleepless nights to work stress and my teenagers.

It’s probably not a coincidence that it’s about then that I began winter cycling: rage at the local transit system and an opportunity to be properly cool and look kind of badass were powerful motivators.

Younger women are much more open about perimenopause and menopause, which is great. And I’m thrilled that Sinai Health is studying menopause.

It has been a while since I went for a cold water swim. I’m looking for doing it again for a good cause.

Diane in a shark hat and Star Trek bathing suit, and Nadine in her Star Wars hat and a purple bathing suit decorated with yellow fish lounge against an ice shelf in Gatineau Park lake in 2019.

fitness

Checking in on my 26 Things in 2026

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Mostly because of the school year, fall always feels like an opportunity for new beginnings. It’s also a great time to check in on progress and do some course correction on earlier goals, if you want.

Back in January my 26 in 2026 looked like this. How’s it going and what do I want to change?

I didn’t camp much more at the cottage: between work and driving restrictions following surgery there just wasn’t time. However, I did get proper furniture installed and have actual cupboards and shelves to store the essentials, so it’s getting really easy to stay overnight when I want to. The electricity project is moving forward nicely so I should have power soon.

The canoe is still sitting up onto its blocks, but I have permanent stairs, a new lifejacket and a boating emergency kit so it will happen next year for sure. In the meantime, I have purchased an inflatable kayak so I can go out even if my friend isn’t around to canoe with me.

I’m way behind on my 1,000 km cycling goal but my e-bike finally has a new battery after two years of trying to figure out what was wrong, so I’m starting to get back into the cycling habit. I’ll be happy if I hit 500 km and I’m pretty sure I can do that. I didn’t get my bike set up for winter cycling, but winter is coming so I’ll try to sneak that in before the end of the year.

I have already hit my goal on books read, but only at half my goal on magazines. I’m determined to get there!

Cooking goals have been a mix. I’m cooking more vintage recipes, but making very little use of my medieval cookbooks.

I am debating giving up one of my gardens. It felt like too much this year, though my garlic harvest was the best ever.

I was at 61,173 M as of Tuesday, so I’m pretty happy with that. I still have three months to go and I’m getting into the habit of having a short swim at work in addition to longer weekly swim practices, so I might just hit 100 km. Not bad considering I wasn’t allowed to swim for over a month.

Crafting, sewing, decluttering Mom’s without adding to my own clutter, something artistic, meeting up with friends, vacation, relax: fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, mostly fail, fail. Some things got done, but not nearly enough.

I am being more conscientious about monitoring my health, eating more fruit, trying to spend more time with Mom, volunteering less, and doing more stretch and strength exercises. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but I’m going to count all of these as successes.

Summary: between now and the end of December, do more biking, reading , swimming, relaxing, and a bit more cooking.

Oh, and keep saying hello to all the good dogs I meet, even if I don’t actually pat most of them.

This happy dog may not be real, but at least she stood still for a photo (unlike a half dozen others I saw that day). I like how she’s ready for the changing of the seasons, dressed as a ghost, holding a pumpkin bucket in her mouth.
fitness

Strength and Mobility for Grandparenting

Diane Harper2 Comments

If you do an internet search on strength and mobility for aging, you will get many recommendations for exercises, and explanations about the importance of maintaining muscle mass or preventing falls, get up off the floor or reach objects that are stored up high.

Then there are all the social media “influencers” pushing “seniors” (often defined as people in their 40s and 50s) to lift heavy. They rarely define what they mean by heavy.

Personally, I just want to be fit enough to keep up with my grandson. I have had the pleasure of babysitting him for extended periods twice in the last month.

He weighs about 35 lb (14 kg). It’s not super heavy, but it is a wiggly, unstable weight to lift, carry upstairs or in and out of the tub, onto the change table, or just up onto my lap for a big hug and a story.

Then there are the aerobics: chasing after him in the playground, pushing him on the swings, climbing play structures.

Plus I have to work on mobility to get down on the floor to play cars and clean up all the messes- and be able to stand up quickly when he dashes away.

And walking! So much walking and pushing the stroller! I don’t even know what kind of fitness goes into wrestling a child-filled stroller on and off the bus without stumbling, but I felt like I used almost every muscle in my body (kneeling buses are great).

A happy grandson slides down a large curving red plastic slide.

I can’t wait to go back to Toronto and be that tired again.

fitness

Bike to Work Day

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Or is it? I was sure I had seen a post about saying it was, but can’t find it now. No matter: I rode to work anyway, for the first time in over a year.

It’s the beginning of fall, and a perfect time to ride. No heat, no bugs, and the leaves are just starting to turn where I live.

A woman cycles along a path with golden leaves on the nearby grass. She is wearing a backpack. Does it contain her lunch, computer, or maybe a change of clothes for the office?

Now that one little “day” has me back on my bike, I am planning to “ride the thermometer down” so that I can be sure to do International Winter Bike to Work Day on February 12, 2027.

fitness

Heart Health Five Months After Surgery

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Sam’s post about her new knee’s fourth anniversary reminded me I have a small anniversary of my own. In a few days, I’ll be celebrating five months since my heart valve repair.

Sam’s posts about the importance of pre-hab and rehab helped me be as fit as possible before surgery, though they didn’t fully prepare me for the frustration of not healing as quickly as I wanted.

My cardiologist tells me I’m doing just fine and need to be patient with myself. Yeah right. Like that’s going to happen…

I still get out of breath when walking, but it may be because I’m going faster because now I’m passing people on the sidewalk. I am back to work, having passed all my fitness tests (I even knocked a second off my sprint time).

Diane, wet from the pool and suffering from goggle eyes, but with a happy grin on her face.

As promised, I have started doing exercise snacks at work. Those little swims between times of active lifeguarding are turning out to be rather addictive. I’m also back to weekly swim practice with my club, as well as ballet, Pilates and jazz classes.

Sleep remains a challenge. It is finally starting to be restful but now that I’m back to all my activities, I need to work on getting to bed early so I can sleep longer. I no longer have the luxury of sleeping late or having an afternoon nap.

An alarm clock showing it’s almost 7:00 in the foreground, with an out-of-focus woman sleeping in the background. If this were actually me, I would be late for work.

Hopefully this will be my last health update for a while. The cardiac rehab folks told me I don’t need to do rehab with them because I’m already doing plenty. My cardiologist wants to see me in about six months, but anticipates releasing me back to my family doctor for regular care after that.

Maybe I can knock a few more seconds off my sprint time by then. That’s the goal, anyway.