1. I was wandering through Dick’s Sporting Goods this week. I was looking for a nice backpack. While browsing I came upon a rack of compression items. Compression sleeves for arms, calves, knees, etc. It dawned on me that there is no compression garment for those with stiff or sore necks. I thought for a minute and it became obvious why. Any compression sleeve for the neck would simply choke the person unconscious. I mean, you wouldn’t be thinking about your neck pain anymore, so there’s that. I do think the lawsuits would eliminate any profits the product made though.
2. I was taking a random drive to nowhere as I tested out the camera on my new phone. I ended up passing a sign with my name on it. Someone had taken a ‘Slow’ yellow sign and made it up with black tape. Besides my name, the little black figure had a baseball cap and fingers on one hand. I initially drove by but then turned around and went back as I thought this was more than a coincidence. I grabbed a photo and then proceeded to sit and wait as I felt something might happen. No more than 2 minutes later the daughter-in-law of the Lady of the Dunes called me. She asked if I had any photos from my work on my book that I could share with her. They are for other members of the family to see the area where Ruth Marie Terry was found. I am sure she would have called anyway but the timing of it after the sign made the story even better.
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| It's like I was meant to go that way. |
3. A sunset shoot turned extra foolish. I walked toward a small river at the east end of a local beach. It was on this walk that I spotted a skeleton sitting in a beach chair watching the water. Sensing an opportunity for some humor I took a video and a photo with the skeleton announcing our relationship on social media. Sadly I was actually expecting a few people to not pay attention and think I was announcing a real relationship. No, not with the skeleton, but like they wouldn’t take 2 seconds to look at the photo and they’d just send congratulations or something. I was pleasantly surprised that nobody fell for that, at least not so far.
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| What a beautiful couple. |
4. For the last several weeks I’ve had a soreness/tightness in my left hip flexor. I have been doing a lot more stretching to try to loosen it up but it wasn’t really helping. Sadly I came to the realization that the tightness was from sitting too much at work. Something similar happened during the initial months of COVID-19 when I was at home most of the time. The solution is easy. I had to turn my desk into a stand-up desk. The funny thing was how tired my legs were after an hour or so of standing the first day. All I wanted to do was sit but I figure if my hip flexor gets any tighter my leg is going to permanently look like Daniel Larusso at the end of Karate Kid when he’s doing the crane kick.
5. I don’t have a fear of spiders. Sometimes it’s hard for me to relate to those who do. This week one of my favorite clients was in the gym to train. After our first circuit of exercise, she went over to our water fountain to refill her bottle. A small light brown spider apparently crawled across the top of the bottle. I had my back turned but she screamed and launched her water bottle into the air. It hit the floor and water went everywhere. I thought she had accidentally pressed the hot water button on the fountain. When she said it was a spider I had to keep a poker face and not laugh. Once I knew she was ok it ended up being a hilarious scene.
6. I am now ‘I am super excited to get a coat rack’ years old. I needed one. I have been storing coats and long-sleeves and the like on a chair which looks very ‘teenage boy.’ So I got a rack. Well, it’s more of a pole with hooks all over it. I can finally start living like an adult as I get closer to 50. It’s not a wedding announcement to share with my mom but hey it’s the next best thing, right?
So exciting!
7. What is the appropriate time before turning in your vehicle to put your signal on? I often wonder. This week I got to see the two extremes and didn’t like either. I had one person wait basically until they were turning to put a signal on. This is sometimes complete with the driver barely slowing down so that leaves you to have to slam on your brakes to avoid hitting them. I also had someone who put their signal on probably 1,000 feet before their turn. This meant they passed several other roads and driveways with the blinker on. Either of these choices though is better than not using a blinker at all which sadly I see way more often.
8. Many years ago there was a girl I was nuts about. We worked together and we were really close friends. For those who watched The Office, she was Pam Beasley to my Jim Halpert. Honestly, our storyline was very similar. She even had a d-bag boyfriend like Roy. The difference came when she finally broke up with her boyfriend. In The Office, Jim goes for a job interview in New York but ends up turning it down to come back to finally ask Pam out. My story was akin to Jim going to New York and never coming back. We never ended up getting together. It came down to me thinking if I was a rebound relationship it wouldn’t last. It was dumb then and sounds dumb now. I am glad she ended up in a happy marriage with two kids. I often wish I had at least taken my shot though because who knows. This story is front and center in my mind this week because it was her birthday and I still remember and I still wish her a happy birthday. Happy Birthday to my Pam.
9. I have been good in 2025 by not going to any takeout restaurants (so far). However, despite that I have not been immune to eating poorly. One of my weaknesses is chicken wings. This gets elevated when I visit a local grocery store. The reason is because they have these awesome fried wings that remind me of a sub shop I used to visit near my house in the 1990s. They were called Wing Dings. I think a lot of places have them though. Anyway, the problem arises when I go to this grocery store and they have the wings in their deli section marked as ‘buy one get one.’ I mean how can I resist? Well, I know I can but I don’t want to. So yeah, no McDonald’s but buckets of chicken wings. Is that a good trade?
10. There are plenty of times that I feel like I am in my own head way too much. Overthinking. Expecting the worst. Feeling like perfection is the only way to succeed. Sadly, I know this isn’t the healthiest way to be, yet it still occurs pretty often. It is as if my brain has been trained a certain way and rewiring it seems to be a process I can’t finish no matter how much I want to. I had a quarter-life crisis. This is likely part of a mid-life crisis. I’m hoping there’s no old-age crisis but that’s likely death so at least I won’t have to write a blog about it.
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