Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #83: Deep Discounts, Feeling Froggy, Two-A-Days, etc.

1. Sometimes you just get lucky. No, I didn’t win the lottery, but it did feel like I got away with something. When at the supermarket, I was in the a la carte section looking for something quick and easy for dinner. I am a fan of scalloped potatoes. I saw a couple of containers of them and went to grab one. The first was about $4.75 and had probably 12 ounces of food in the container. Then I looked at the other and had to do a double-take. It had about the same amount of potatoes but was priced at 12 cents. No, that’s not a misprint. Someone labeled the potatoes as 12 cents. Even though it was their mistake, I still hit the self-checkout like I had a box of cookies jammed up into my shirt. Once I was out the door, I was thrilled. Dinner was extremely cheap, lucky me. Of course I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical of the discount. I did wait a few hours, half-expecting to get some sort of food poisoning. Nope, just some rogue employee or complete fool giving me the best deal in a while.

2. One thing I enjoy about Facebook is the daily memories collection. Having been on the site since 2007, I have 18 years worth of posts, photos, etc. Sometimes they can be embarrassing or annoying, like when I’d share cryptic posts about someone I was interested in. I am noticing recently just how much my life revolved around the game FarmVille in 2009. Nearly every day in my memories, there is a blank status update from 2009 that says FarmVille. I don’t feel too bad, though, because at its peak in 2010 it had over 34 million active daily users. If you don’t know or don’t remember FarmVille, you’re in luck. FarmVille is still around online and you can go play now. However, as much as I’d be interested in dropping by to plant a few new crops, I worry that it would become an obsession again. I don’t know if I have time currently for another part-time job of being an online farmer again.

3. I have a client I train at my day job who is notorious for late cancellations or switching their appointment times quite often. They got so bad at late cancellations that they finally had to start being charged a fee for the inconvenience. The late cancellations stopped, and the incessant switching of their appointment times began. This week was perhaps the worst of them all. This client was supposed to be in to train on Thursday afternoon. They called and asked to switch to Wednesday afternoon. I figured that was fine; it worked out with my schedule as it would allow me to start my vacation a little early. Within an hour of the change that they asked for, they then canceled the changed appointment. I was dumbstruck. I made it a point to have our office manager not offer the old time slot to this client. No way I was giving up a few extra hours of vacation for someone who might end up canceling again anyway.

4. The last day at work before my vacation started was like the last day of school before summer. It was only fitting that the day began with something wacky. I enter through a side door that goes through the gym. I tend to go in and set my first workout up before even getting to my desk. On this day, I was walking and thought I saw a leaf on the floor, as they can get tracked in from outside. Only when the ‘leaf’ moved did I realize it wasn’t a leaf. Upon further inspection, I found it was a tiny ‘peeper’ frog. It was about the size of a quarter. How did it get in the gym? No idea but I had a helluva time wrangling it to get it out. I had to chase it around with a paper cup in one hand and a paper towel in the other. Eventually, I caught it. Luckily, out behind our parking lot is a swampy area. This is where I chose to let it go. I even got a video of it.

5. Only when I started my vacation this week did I realize just how much of a creature of habit I am. I have a routine on Fridays which consists of doing laundry and recording the next episode of my podcast. With 11 straight days and 15 out of 17 days off, I have almost unlimited time to do things. Still, my intention was to do my typical Friday routine. That was until I realized I was on vacation and then I basically wiped the slate clean. I still did end up doing my laundry on Friday though. Oh well, I still need a little structure.

6. The biggest news of the week, and maybe the year, is my first attempt at filmmaking. I am partnering with my friend, producer Frank Durant, on a short Cape Cod film, When Henry Met Henry. It will be a fictional meeting between iconic authors Henry David Thoreau and Henry Beston set on the beach on Cape Cod. I am going to be either a director or producer; we’ll see. We are crowdfunding much of the film. In one afternoon, I created a landing page for the film, a short video detailing what we are doing, and got the GoFundMe up and running. The crowdfunding will run through October 11th, with the film being shot later that month. We hope for it to be done in early 2026. Obviously, much more to come on this front.

7. I learned the hard way that there is a limit to how many electrical items can be running at once in my apartment. I was using my convection oven and got impatient. I decided to use my microwave to heat something up at the same time. This, coupled with a light and a fan going proceeded to blow the fuse. It was funny, not anything serious. The reason was that it took several minutes for everything running to blow the fuse so I thought I was in the clear. Nope, bam out goes everything. Needless to say, I will practice more patience when cooking.

8. Since the weather turned a bit cooler and less humid, to where I could take my A/C out, I briefly forgot that it was still the tourist summer season. I found this out when I took a leisurely drive on Route 6A, which is typically less busy than many other roads during the summer. If what I saw was still ‘less busy,’ I shudder to think of how slammed Route 28 was. Sorry for the specific road names for anyone not from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Either way, the drive was worth it to snag the buy one, get one for $1 deal on weed seltzers at my favorite dispensary. For that deal, I took the pain of crazy traffic.

9. I am closing in on 50. I am trying my best to age with dignity. This means not going overboard with anti-aging creams or hair dyes. The same cannot be said for one guy at my gym. He has to be mid-60s and he is fighting Father Time with all he has. For many months, this guy had a fully gray buzz cut. He’s one of those ‘alpha’ hardos. It’s pretty funny to see this guy now dating a woman 25 years younger than him and also with a pretty bad dye job. I mean honestly, his hair looks like cream soda now. I guess to him it’s better to cling to straws of your distant past than it is to have some pride. Well, he’s a hardo, so he probably thinks he looks amazing.

10. As I just said, I am closing in on 50. Well, in a little over 2 years, but still it gets closer every day. So I was surprised when I somehow managed to tackle a double workout day, aka 'two-a-days' in sports. Every now and then, when I was younger, I’d work out in the morning and again in the evening. It was rare and usually just so I could brag that I did it. This week, the timing was perfect. One of my oldest friends was down on the Cape with his family and to my pleasant surprise, he wanted to get together for a long walk. Not that I didn’t believe him, but I decided to hedge my bets and go to the gym in the morning. I only did strength training. Then, around 4pm I met up with him and his wife, and we did a 4-mile walk. Now granted, I’ve burned more calories on one long walk this year than I did in both workouts on this day, but that’s beside the point. I turned back the clock briefly, but as I write this, I am waiting to see how my body feels the next day.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #74: Injury Woes, Dirty Adventures, Bologna Drama, etc.

1. You’ll recall last week that I had a close encounter with a train. I had to scurry down a rocky embankment as it approached while I was on the tracks uploading a video I had just shot. It ended up being a fun video with the train passing almost right overhead but there was a price to pay. I aggravated my sprained left ankle, which is no good. I sprained it a week and a half ago playing basketball. It was pretty stiff and swollen. Now it is almost back at square one thanks to diving down the rocks. I had to pull out of a race I had signed up for. Luckily, they were understanding and refunded my money. Honestly, though, I have no clue when I will even try to run again. Walking is fine unless I do several miles and then it gets uncomfortable. Not sure if this ends my race comeback but I feel like I am going to be spending most of the summer working on strengthening my lower body and not running.

2. I will tell you something. I was out for a walk on the bike trail and stopped to use a porta-potty. I had to wait for someone to get finished inside. The guy who stepped out looked like a backpacking hippie from the 1960s. It was confirmed when I walked into the porta potty and the smell of B.O. was stronger than the literal crap inside. It was like the Seinfeld episode when the valet driver had such bad B.O. that it stayed in the car after he left. Not sure if the guy heard my gagging but I did try to make it loud enough to be heard.

3. In the grocery store, I passed a very short woman. I am by no means tall, so my calling her short should tell you that she was sub-5-foot. Anyway, she calls to me and asks me to get her a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke off of the shelf. I grabbed one of the dozens there and handed it to her. The first thing she did was ask me to show her where it said that it was Diet Coke. Rather than ask her if she knew how to read I simply pointed to the large letters on the bottle. Satisfied that I had chosen the right product for her she turned and walked away. No thank you, no nothing. Fine. The next aisle over, we passed each other. I smiled at her. She, in return, scowled at me. Wait, what? I help you out, and you look at me like I kicked you in the back of the knee? Idiot.

4. This is the point in the year, late June, where it is a game of chicken between me and my air conditioner. This is where the weather jumps into the hot and humid stage. Granted it’s not every day, but once you feel 85 and high humidity, you don’t want to feel it again. I try to wait as long as I can to put the A/C in. Mainly, it’s because my apartment has two windows, and blocking one cuts off airflow. Also, there are plenty of days where it’s cooler and the A/C isn’t needed but I’m not going to take it out and put it back in repeatedly. That’s a recipe for a back injury. So here we are. Last year I held out until after the Fourth of July. How long will I go this year?

5. Going into my 3rd week of nursing a sprained ankle. I can walk pretty well but no running. Naturally, I saw a super cute yellow lab on the bike trail being walked the opposite way from me. This meant I needed to catch up so I could pet the dog. I ran a few hundred feet but the dog and owner turned off down a pathway. I didn’t want to chase them into the woods so I stopped. Of course a few hours later my ankle was sore and I didn’t even get to pet the dog. Double boo.

6. While out for a long 7-mile walk, I went down a section of the Cape Cod Rail Trail that goes through a golf course. I saw 4 early 20s preppy-looking guys driving by in a pair of carts. They look exactly how you’d expect them to look. I had to laugh to myself though, because I am pretty sure I burned more calories during my walk than all 4 of those guys combined during their golf game. Sorry for the hot take but I think golf is only a sport if you walk with your bag. If you drive a cart around, step out, swing a club, and drive again you’re not an athlete.

7. There is a new extension being constructed for the bike trail I mentioned, taking it from Yarmouth into neighboring Hyannis. It is only a few miles from where I live so I took it upon myself to check the extension out. It has been cleared of trees so I was able to start walking the dirt path. It was hot and dry so the dirt was kicking up. I ended up taking a shortcut that led me to mounds of dirt 30 feet tall. Too bad with my ankle I didn’t dare climb. Instead I went around the bottom of the dirt pile. There was no path, only thorns, loose sticks, and rocks. I shredded my left calf up pretty good. I made it to the point in the extension where a bridge will have to be built to carry riders over a particularly busy street. It was a fun summer adventure that brought back memories of my teenage years. Those feelings don’t come around too often anymore. Here is a short video of my adventure: https://youtube.com/shorts/h6gNbM4UWIc?feature=share

8. Late in the evening, I was listening to the birds outside. I always hear cardinals and blue jays. On this evening, I heard a bird making a squeaking call every few seconds. I thought it was weird. Blue jays make some sounds that are like a rusty swing set, so I figured it was just a blue jay. It took me way too long to figure out the squeak call was not a blue jay, or any bird at all. No, it was from my oscillating fan. Each time it got to a certain point, it squeaked. Wicked smart.

They sound the same, right?

9. Something I don’t think I’ve mentioned in this blog since its return in February 2024. As you know, I am dealing with a sprained ankle, which is really hindering what I can do physically. Back in 2011, I got back into running after not doing anything of the sort since middle school. In those early days of my running return I got injured frequently, probably as much as I did over the last several years as well. The difference is that now I work as a personal trainer, which means that any sort of ache or pain I take very seriously. If I injure a body part and I cannot demonstrate exercises then what good am I as a trainer? Back in 2011 I worked as a cook and didn’t care about pushing through injuries because as long as my arms worked, I could cook. The ultimate irony is the unequivocal fact that I was in better shape when I was cooking than I am as a trainer. It’s like if you work a certain job the last thing you want to do in your free time is that same job. I hated cooking at home when I was a cook. I’m not saying I hate going to the gym, but it just takes way more effort to get me out the door than it did 10 years ago.

10. I was sitting at the beach just enjoying a nice summer afternoon. A tow truck pulled up behind an SUV, probably 6 spots away. The driver began hooking the SUV up to be removed. I have no idea what the deal was with the vehicle. Anyway, some random fool drove by and yelled something at the tow truck driver who was just doing his job. The driver stopped what he was doing and climbed up onto the flatbed of the truck and lifted his arms like he was calling the other person back. Of course, the other person was a coward and just drove away. It’s like what are you mad that the guy was doing his job? Or did you have to turn slightly more to one side to avoid the tow truck? Phony outrage and phony tough guys are the worst. It was like social media was happening in real life in front of me.

11. Speaking of phony outrage. While in the deli section of a grocery store, an old man with a big white beard and a straw hat on was asking about getting some bologna sliced. The employee was explaining the differences between types of bologna and for some reason, this triggered this old man. He started yelling about how not all bologna is the same. To his credit, the employee stayed calm. When the old man said he didn’t know anything, the employee calmly shot back and said he must know something since he’d been working at the same place for 19 years. The angry old man walked away. Another customer made it a point to sympathize with the deli employee and said some things loud enough that the angry old man could hear. I stayed nearby for a few moments just in case there was a second act to the bologna drama.