1. The off-season has begun on Cape Cod. How do I know? On my typical Monday Runday, I forgot to lock my car in the parking lot where my friend Mike and I run the school track. My car was wide open for over an hour. Only when I got back to it and tried to unlock the doors did I realize they had never been locked. Now, yes as a child of the 1980s, I remember growing up in a time when forgetting to lock your doors when you went somewhere wasn’t the invitation for thieves like it is today, but I do not want to live in the past that badly, where I’d leave my valuables there for anyone to take. There was a team of landscapers there mowing and blowing leaves. I am so glad I was polite to them because maybe cussing them out for blowing debris in my face while running could have been the thing to push them over the edge, and they could have filled my car with grass clippings. It pays to be nice to people.
2. Sadly, this week was the first time since early June that I needed to wear a long-sleeved shirt for my morning drive into work. Now it was still 54 degrees, and I didn’t need to wear it when I left, but it is still symbolic. I do love fall. It is my favorite time of year. That being said, I realize that each amazing step through fall gets us closer to winter, which is my least favorite season. The funny part is that I don’t like the cold, but I also don’t like it too hot. I’d love to find a place that was like early fall on Cape Cod year-round, but that place doesn’t exist. It’s also funny how 54 degrees in September feels much cooler than 54 degrees in February.
3. On a more positive note, for the first time since early June, I went and played basketball after work. I had a pretty bad sprain of my left ankle that kept me off the court. (See blog #72 for more details) I told myself that I’d take it easy, but of course, that’s never the case. I might not be able to jump high, or really much at all, anymore, but my brain still thinks I’m 17. I got to running and shooting, and only about 10 minutes into playing, I very nearly did the exact same thing that caused my sprained ankle in June. I was running after the ball and nearly rolled my ankle in the area under the hoop where the dirt is not level with the asphalt, because so many people land there. I’d like to say that I was more careful after that, but I just avoided the areas directly under the hoops, so it was minimally safer. I didn’t get hurt, yet, so that’s a bonus.
4. There’s nothing like the mini heart attack you have when you think your bank account has been hacked. This ends up being a head-shaker and also a bit of a laugh. When I go to Stop & Shop, I get a receipt via email, which I actually enjoy. They typically are in my mailbox before I even get home. This week, I checked my email one evening and was shocked to see an e-receipt from Stop & Shop when I hadn’t gone there. My heart jumped. I figured someone had stolen my bank account info and bought groceries. Then I saw the date of the receipt, which was 2 weeks ago. Then I realized that in order for me to get a receipt, I have to use my rewards card. So that would mean at worst they stole my rewards card info, which is far less threatening. It turned out it was just a glitch on their end. None of my info got stolen, and my heart returned to normal, and I felt a bit foolish, which isn’t that unusual. Also, only a few hours later, I got another old e-receipt from the same Stop & Shop. This one was nearly 3 months old. Now the question is how many of these old receipts come through, and what will be the oldest one?
5. It’s hard to believe that this week marks 24 years since the horrible events of September 11, 2001. It still seems like yesterday. It is amazing to think there are people who are in college today who weren’t alive when it happened. I guess that is how time works. To me, it felt like I was living in some kind of movie. There was no way what was on TV was real. I have only been to New York City once, and that was in 7th grade. When I was there on a school field trip, I got to go inside one of the Twin Towers. It was only the concourse level since we didn’t have time to go up to the observation deck, but I still remember how enormous the building was on the inside. Even that brief moment gave me a connection to those events on 9/11. I wrote a more in-depth blog about my experiences on 9/11 back in 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the events. You can read that here: 9/11: 20 Years Later
6. Squirrels are definitely one of the most annoying animals there are. Not just with how they run into the road with no regard for the vehicles barreling down on them. It’s also how they are nonstop eating machines who don’t care how they get what they want. Don’t get me wrong, it can make for some funny scenes, which is what happened this week. My sister Ashley has spent years trying to grow sunflowers, which are her favorite. This year, she has finally had a few make it. This includes one flower that is nearly 8 feet tall. Apparently, this was too enticing for a squirrel that climbed up to the top and was sitting on the flower, tearing the seeds out and dropping the petals to the ground. Eventually, we were able to scare it off, but it was too late. It’s still standing, and the bees still like it, but the giant sunflower has seen better days.
7. This week marked 5 years of me being alcohol free. My family got me a 5-year sober chip, which is my first one. It seems like yesterday that I was finally able to push that demon aside. When it was still fresh, I remember thinking, ‘I envy those who can just have a few drinks and stop.’ Now, 5 years out, I have less than zero desire to ever have a drink again. Literally nothing good in my life came from, or was made better by, alcohol. So on my 5-year soberversary, I did a lot of celebrating. The day began with me getting to see my youngest niece get on her bus for school, so I knew it was going to be a great day. It also ended with a sunset at my favorite Cape Cod sunset spot, complete with my new selfie stick. Now it’s on to 6 years.
8. While walking the railroad tracks near my favorite sunset spot, I started hearing a noise in the nearby trees. It was a Great Horned Owl. In my infinite wisdom, I decided it would be a good idea to find owl calls on my phone and try to play them to entice a reaction from the Great Horned Owl. It worked, and I started getting callbacks. It is something I have done before. 5 years ago, at Nickerson State Park, I did the same thing but kept going longer as I walked through the woods to get back to my car. By the time I was next to my car, I had at least half a dozen owls in the surrounding trees yelling at me. As for this time, I have no idea how far the owl would have gone. Would it have flown out of the trees to attack me, thinking I was a rival owl? Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I had to keep walking to stake out a good spot to shoot the sunset so I’ll never know what the end game would have been for my owl call and response game.
9. In crafting a blog post about when I briefly lived in Florida in 2005, I found I needed to find a very old email. I found what I needed and then spent a long time going through my old AOL saved emails. These date all the way back to the beginning of 2005 and are a great time capsule of life back then. I found that in 2006, I paid a whopping $20 to have H&R Block do my Federal and State tax returns. Today, I think it costs closer to $200. I found the correspondence between myself and a North Carolina law firm to settle a speeding ticket I got when driving from Florida back to Cape Cod in 2005. There were photos of my nieces and nephews from when they were little. There were emails from my Grampa. It made me so glad that I was basically a hoarder of emails back in the day.
10. When I get done with work, the last thing I want to do is that same job off the clock. I can’t be the only one who feels this way. For years, when I worked as a cook, I hated the idea of cooking for myself at home. I became a master of the microwave. However, working as a personal trainer in my day job makes it kind of essential that I exercise in my off time. That has become a problem as I feel burned out from all things fitness. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in fitness for 10 years now? Don’t get me wrong, I still do some sort of exercise, typically 4-5 times a week. I just prefer walking outside, mostly to avoid gym crowds, and also because my body doesn’t really like running anymore. Combine this with the fact that I am at a low point in life as far as diet goes, and you can see the problem. My food issues really began when I quit alcohol. It was the distraction I needed to keep my mind off booze. Sadly, now 5 years on from giving up alcohol, I find myself somewhere between 20-30 pounds heavier than I’d like to be. I always tell myself that once I get my eating under control, the weight will just fall off, and I do believe that. It’s just a matter of actually finding the discipline I used to have at my peak in fitness, but using that on my diet. My 48th birthday is about 7 weeks away, so we’ll see if I use the time leading up to it as a chance to get back in shape, or if the birthday itself serves as a kick-off for a return to fitness.
11. I live about a mile from the Cape Cod Rail Trail. It’s an easy walk to get there and then to be able to enjoy the scenery. The road I live on is kind of middle of the pack as far as traffic goes. Definitely not a main road, but not a rural road either. During the summer, I can easily see a dozen or so bike riders going by my window if I am sitting at my laptop like I am now. On Sunday this week, I began to notice riders going by more frequently. Within the span of an hour, I had watched what had to be more than 50 people ride by heading away from where the bike path is. The first few I thought were just a group of friends, but by the time several dozen had gone by, I had to investigate. It turns out there was a charity ride going on for Habitat for Humanity. It started at the Coast Guard station at the Cape Cod Canal in Sandwich at 8am, and people could choose routes as long as 50 miles. Case closed, right? Nope. Those routes for the ride were all along the canal and down into Falmouth. So now I have no idea why so many people went riding by my window on Sunday. UPDATE: It was the Yarmouth Second Summer Cycle supporting 20 local nonprofit organizations.
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