Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #91: Weird Sneezes, Hot Dog Head, When Henry Met Henry, etc.

1. Have you ever noticed how some people have odd-sounding sneezes? Like most people typically have a sneeze that sounds like what you’re probably thinking of right now. Every now and then, though, you come across a sneeze that stands out as weird. I was in my car in a parking lot when I heard a man start sneezing outside his car. Well, either sneezing or coughing. Anyway, it sounded like a human/bird combination. I was able to get a good read on it since the guy stayed outside of his car, sneezing loudly for several minutes. It got to be pretty disturbing because of how loud it was. I couldn’t tell if he was sneezing or having some sort of fit. Other people were looking, but nobody said anything. The guy ended up driving away without incident, but left us all with a strange story to tell.


2. It’s interesting how life comes full circle sometimes. In 1999, I’d go to the beach and listen to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket on CD. All the while being inspired to write poetry in a notebook. In 2025, I’m listening to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket streaming on Spotify while being inspired to write poetry in a Word document. From Quarter-Life to Mid-Life, some things still remain.


3. This is a bit of the weird and random stuff that I caused myself. In New England, we got a massive Nor’easter for a good 3 days. In all, we ended up with something like 4 inches of rain in total. I was out for a drive surveying the damage when I got an idea. My car is white, therefore it is almost always dirty. With the rain still falling at a good clip, I got an idea. I decided to stop at the store and buy some cleaning wipes and paper towels. You see where this is going. Since there was nobody else on the roads, I stopped at a park. I then proceeded to ‘wash’ my car using the cleaning wipes, rain, and paper towels. I ended up with a pile of wet garbage that I had to throw away. It wasn’t as sparkly clean like a proper car wash would have given, but all in all, my car looked much better after that. Laugh if you want, I know I did as I realized how crazy I looked. I would have died if someone pulled up and saw this idiot using a roll of paper towels to ‘clean’ his car.


4. Some people are an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Some are just idiots. There is a guy at my gym, probably early 50s. He works out in jeans, whatever that says about him. Anyway, he comes into the gym and exclusively uses the elliptical machine. He makes sure to thoroughly clean the machine before using it, which is great. Then he sweats all over it and never cleans it afterward. What is up with that? To top it off, I passed him at the grocery store, and upon entering, he put hand sanitizer on. I was confused. So this guy cares about getting germs from others, but not about sharing his? Okay, buddy, oh, and your head looks like a boiled hot dog in shape and shininess.

Yup, pretty much like that

5. An update from last week. The cute girl came back into my work. I had a client scheduled while she’d be there. As luck would have it, my client rescheduled to an earlier time, meaning I’d be free when she showed up. She ended up arriving 10 minutes late and mentioned being really tired. So even though I was able to speak to her, I knew I needed to keep it shorter since her appointment was behind. It ended up being good, brief but good. I guess I just have to keep practicing patience and persistence. She’ll be back in a few weeks. That’ll give me plenty of time to have some witty lines and try to make sure my schedule is open.


6. In October, as the weather starts to get cooler, we more often see an invasion at my work. Crickets begin to get inside and set up shop in the baseboards and dark corners. Their chirps echo off the cement floors and can drive you crazy. I began stalking one this week and swore that it was a ventriloquist because whenever I got to where I thought it was, the sound started coming from somewhere else. At one point, it slipped out from a baseboard, and I tried to catch it, but it went right back in and chirped like a jerk in my face. The next morning, I came in and there was the cricket sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor. I caught it in a paper cup and put it outside. It didn’t even try to escape. I wonder if it felt bad for humiliating me the day before and gave itself up?


7. I don’t know if this is embarrassing or not, but I only this week discovered that there are two different cookies, macarons and macaroons. I thought there was just the coconut macaroons, and that people sometimes misspell it as macaron. Nope. A macaron is what looks like a fluffy, soft Oreo in different colors. How is this something I’m just realizing? Next, you’re gonna tell me Hellman’s and Best Foods mayo is the same thing. Or that Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are the same restaurant.

8. While at the grocery store, I bumped into my Uncle Steve, whom I haven’t seen in months. He was my running mentor since he became a marathon runner in his 50s. Now he’s retired from running and work in general, so it has become harder to bump into him. I was caught off guard a little by just how much he looks like my Grampa, just with shorter hair. I mentioned it to him, and he said that he looked so much like his father that people were mistaking them. The only problem is my Grampa died 6 years ago. My uncle joked that people must have thought Grampa’s ghost was haunting the nursing home where he died, which is also where my uncle worked. I laughed loud enough that people started staring at us, but who cares? I always leave a conversation with my Uncle Steve feeling better about myself. I never take that for granted.


9. This week marked what would have been my Grampa’s 100th birthday. I was thinking of him a lot, and when visiting my mom, we shared stories of him. My sister Ashley arrived, and we all were chatting. I noticed the sunset as the pink sky continued to grow. It wasn’t until my mom called for us that we saw the incredible sunset rainbow from the backyard. It had been raining, but never did I think I’d see a sunset rainbow. As we all took photos, we realized how symbolic it was that the rainbow was on Grampa’s birthday. Maybe it was a gift to him, or for us from him, but it made the day even more special.

10. A good chunk of this week’s blog will be dedicated to the When Henry Met Henry short film project. I had put together a fundraiser to allow us to hire cast and crew. This weekend was the big filming day. Being that in total it will likely be somewhere between 6-8 minutes in length it took us about 4 hours to film it. There were 5 of us total at the shoot, and things went as well as we could have hoped. So there’s a little overview.


11. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I had promised to arrive at the filming location, a beach in Wellfleet, with a Box O’ Joe from Dunkin’. Yes, I did that part. As the crew trickled in, half of us walked the roughly 1/3 mile to where we’d be shooting. Only when we got there did one of the crew ask where the cups were for the coffee. Yup, I forgot the cups. Well, in all honesty, the people at Dunkin’ didn’t give them to me, as it was so busy, but I still should have waited and asked. That was my first impression. Hey, how about we all just chug scalding hot coffee from a box? Nah, I’ll pass.


12. Speaking of the location. It was perfect. A very secluded sand dune that went off the beach and into nearby woods. But as you just read, it was about 1/3 of a mile from the parking lot. Not too bad if you’re out for a leisurely stroll, but when you’re lugging equipment and making 3 trips each way, it can become a chore. I ended up walking well over 3 miles in the sand. All I can say is that it was a better workout than many I have had recently. After eating something small at 6am, and doing all of that walking, I was able to eat a big McDonald’s dinner and still was 400 calories below my allotment for the day.

13. They say the greatest accomplishments come when leaving your comfort zone. I definitely did that. I had no idea about directing, producing, or anything like that. I was dropped into the deep end on this film. Our sound person couldn’t make it, so I was tasked with that. I had to learn on the fly. I think I did all right, but it’ll be determined during the editing. While the actors and director were very loose and chatty with each other, I spent a lot of my time listening and learning all I could. My hope is that with each experience in film, I learn more and more until maybe one day I can lead my own project. We’ll see.


14. Oh, and by the way, just because it’s mid-October and summer is long gone doesn’t mean you can’t get sunburned. Take it from me and my red face. Well, except for the whiter areas around my eyes since I was wearing sunglasses. The only good thing about a sunburn in the fall is that the temperatures dropping into the 40s at night make sleeping easier than if it were 70 and humid at night.


15. Fun fact: we filmed When Henry Met Henry on the same weekend as the famed Wellfleet Oysterfest. It typically brings 10-20,000 people to the town over the weekend. Luckily, we all got to the beach way ahead of the crowds, so we didn’t worry about parking. Not too long after, several school buses showed up as they would be shuttling people over to the festival. When we headed out to the shooting location, there were maybe a dozen cars in the parking lot. When we returned at the end, not only was the lot full, but cars were lined down the street. On my drive home, going through Wellfleet, the vehicles were lining the streets in a lot of places. It just shows how luck was on our side with the film.

The cast and crew

16. To wrap it up, I plan on making a video where I go over more of the behind-the-scenes of the making of the film. I decided to get a jump on that this weekend. I was about 7 minutes into recording the video when my recording software froze up and I lost it all. Obviously, I was mad, but what made it worse was that this was the 2nd straight time I’d tried to record a video on that software only for it to glitch out mid-record. I was so blinded with rage that I nearly shattered my webcam slam dunking it on the floor. It took several rounds of embarrassing fail videos on YouTube for me to feel better.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #77: Foolish Furniture Store, Reading Labels, Mousy People, etc.

1. There is a furniture/home décor store that recently opened in my town. It took over the building from another furniture store. I’m guessing the new business wanted to make a big splash upon opening. Their solution to get eyes and ears on their store has been to blast music super loud from speakers in their parking lot. It is a little bit smart and a lot more ridiculous. I mean, let’s be real, you’re a furniture store. I’d expect that kind of obnoxious music blasting on loudspeakers outside from an amusement center, a restaurant, or, you know, a music store. It’s like the excitement of the loud music would be followed immediately by disappointment when you go inside and it’s desks and lamps, and tables. Wooo exciting.

2. This is the time of the year when I begin to plan my vacation. It occurs pretty much the same time every year, the last week of August. I have some good stuff planned already. It’s basically going to be a 3-4 day road trip through Northern New England. The irony is that even though a vacation is meant to be relaxing and a way to recharge I feel pressure. I feel pressure to pack my days with as much stuff to see to make it a trip worth remembering. I’m pretty sure I could go sit in a tent in Maine for 3 days and it would be awesome, but I’ll still be worrying for the next 6 weeks if I have enough to do on my itinerary.

Last time I was in Maine in 2019, those are my first 5 books.

3. It doesn’t take too long into summer for me to begin dreaming of my favorite season, that is fall. Warm weather and long days are all well and good, but with them comes loads of bugs and loads of low-intelligence people. I’m not sure which is worse. There are sprays to protect you from bugs. There are no sprays to protect you from idiots who drive while looking down at their phones repeatedly. It only gets worse when they begin swerving all over the road. Even after nearly hitting the sidewalk and a few oncoming vehicles, they went right back to checking their phone. I beeped to try to get them to smarten up and pay attention, but all they did was wave like a jackass. When I was finally able to pass them safely, I looked over and this guy looked like someone swept around a dumpster, poured it into a grungy tank top, and threw a few tattoos on it. Stay classy, white trashy.

4. In the building where I work, there are 3 other businesses besides my job. If a package is accidentally delivered next door, the people there will put a piece of paper in the window that says ‘UPS.’ Very nice of them. The only problem is when I go over there to get the package. I walk inside and down a short hallway, and I will knock politely on a door with a window. The woman who works at the front desk treats me like I am an ax murderer. She will crack the door open and speak with a trembling voice like she’s expecting me to whip out a machete and start carving her up. Maybe that’s just how she is. Maybe next time I should bang on the window and yell. She’d probably end up acting normally.

5. It might be time for me to get a new set of headphones. I have had a set of Mpow over-ear Bluetooth headphones that have lasted me close to 8 years. I had been used to having wired headphones last a few weeks or even less, so a pair that has made it years has been a privilege. That being said, I have noticed they are starting to wear out. The padding on the headband that connects the 2 ears has been gone for a few years. No big deal. But in the last several months I have noticed how difficult it is for me to get the headphones to charge. What I mean is that when I plug them into the charger, I have to wiggle and turn the USB in the headphones very specifically to get the charger light to turn on. It can be a 5-minute process to get the little red light to turn on, only for it to immediately turn back off. So yeah, maybe I have to get a new pair of headphones before I just take the old ones and bash them with a hammer.

6. There are days when I think I should buy a bucket, sponge, cloths, and soap, and do a full detailing of my car. Then I think about all of the time and effort it would take to make it look good. Plus there’s the fact that the trees and birds around my car like to use it as a toilet. Those are pretty strong deterrents. Why spend money and time to make my car look like new when it will likely be ruined by nature by the end of the same day? No thanks, I’ll just spray it with the hose each week, same thing.

I'd be better off washing my car with beer.

7. It will never not make me laugh and shake my head at the people who go to self-checkout in the grocery store and have no idea how to do it. There was a woman this week who was scanning items but decided to put her purse next to her shopping bag on the checkout counter. Naturally, the machine registered this and thought it was an unpaid item. The woman got mad at the machine because, of course, she can’t just admit she messed up. I felt bad for the employee who had to come reset the machine because they had to listen to this woman try to explain how it was the machine. I wanted to tell her next time, just go to a regular checkout line, but there’s no point in trying to help people like that.

8. I went to a baseball card shop for the first time in so many years. It was so that I could get a gift for my stepfather’s birthday. I forgot how much I loved looking at and collecting sports cards. The owners were great, and I intend on going back soon. They had a good mix of old packs of cards, new cards, and specialty stuff like autographed cards. I had a budget, and it was hard to keep to it. After seeing a Ken Griffey Jr. Donruss rookie card priced at $300, which I have, I am back to searching through my card collection to see if anything is valuable. Who knows, maybe this hobby will pay off. It has to be better than my Beanie Baby fail.

9. There is a great deal at a local dispensary called Haven in Brewster. You buy a 4-pack of THC seltzers and you get a 2nd 4-pack for $1. Awesome. This deal is on Saturdays during the summer for anyone who lives near Cape Cod. Anyway, I took advantage of it this week. For some reason, I figured that all of the seltzers had the same ingredients, even if the flavors were different. Boy, was I wrong. I thought Grape Soda flavor would be good, and it is. The problem is that it’s made like a regular soda. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it’s also 180 calories and loaded with sugar and carbs. My debate now is whether to drink all of them, or try to give the $1 4-pack away to others. Next time, I need to read labels.

Tastes great, loaded with sugar.

10. This summer has been a funny mix. So I always have some sort of work to do in writing, content, podcasting, etc. That’s in addition to my full-time day job. On my days off from the day job, I find myself spending 5-6 hours a day on content. I’ll get to a point where I need to pause my work and get outside and enjoy the summer weather. That is, until I actually get out on the road. Then I remember how incredibly overcrowded Cape Cod is in the summer. The roads are packed, beaches are packed, and stores are packed. After a few minutes I am ready to retreat back inside and wait until Labor Day. Sunny days are bad, rainy ones are worse. Then it’s like rushing outside to sit in traffic, even in my driveway.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #68: Bonfire, Odd Cemeteries, Serial Killer Training, etc.

1. Every time I think I’ve seen everything something else wacky happens. I was sitting at the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon. It was just a perfect day and I was listening to a podcast and enjoying the spring air. I thought at one point I noticed some smoke from an area straight ahead on the sand but there were people around and I was not paying that close of attention. That was until the fire department showed up. It was then that I noticed an old lady is a red sweater and plaid pajama pants waving them over and pointing to where I had seen the smoke. According to another bystander who was explaining it to a car parked near me the lady had called the fire department on a group of people with a small fire going. Not sure if it was for cooking or just relaxing next to but the firefighters chatted calmly with them and the fire was put out. I stayed a half hour longer and the old lady and the group of people were all still there so I don’t think there was a problem after but who know for sure.

2. I am a slacker when it comes to transcribing my podcasts. I know they help people find your show in searches and such but it can be tedious and you typically need to pay for sites to do it. Occasionally I find free trials to allow me to get an episode or two transcribed but that’s it. So when I found a site that has so far allowed me to transcribe nearly 30 shows for free you bet your ass I’m just shoving the files into that site assembly line style. I’m going to go until they either shut me down or I transcribe them all. If you’re interested the link is here: https://restream.io/tools/transcribe-audio-to-text

3. There is a cemetery located near where my friend Mike and I do our Monday Runday exercise. If we get tired of running around the school track we will sometimes go for a run through that cemetery. What makes this run unique is not the cemetery itself but how the cemetery is laid out. If you run all of the paved routes in and around the cemetery you get a surprise if you are recording your run on a fitness app. It turns out that the cemetery’s lay out is shaped like a hand extending its middle finger. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Now it is a fun part of some runs because I can share the satellite image afterward and get some laughs.

The cemetery layout I couldn't make up.

4. The vast vast majority of people who come into my day job are great people, like 99%. It is an easy task to work with so many good people who are looking for help getting healthy. That fact makes the bad ones stand out far more. There is one guy I hope is just a memory soon. He’s vaguely racist, vaguely homophobic, and definitely creepy. He looks like a lobotomized Art Carney, with big bulging eyes and a voice that gets really quiet when he wants to say something disturbing. The best part of seeing him is the sight of the door closing behind him as he leaves.

5. A few months ago I wrote about how my recommended videos on Facebook were all hydraulic presses crushing stuff and super hot metal balls being placed on or in different things. It was an odd combo but one that was a self-fulfilling prophecy since I’d keep clicking these videos when they popped up. Well I have an update now. I don’t know how these topics first got suggested to me but currently my Facebook Reels feed is filled with people removing beehives and videos of old super dirty and gross cars getting power-washed. I also have just found out there is apparently a game called PowerWash Simulator where you play as someone who runs a power washing business. I cannot promise you I won’t go watch videos of people playing it.

Yes this is a real game

6. This week we had to move some unused gym equipment into storage at my day job. It had to be hauled outside and put into the back of my boss’ van. I am one that I have always had a sarcastic sense of humor. My Nana used to say we were ‘sharp’ on that side of the family. I try to be quick with witty and funny quips. I might have crossed a line this week though. As I walked through the lobby at work carrying a 100 pound punching bag over my shoulder I remarked to the people who were watching that I was practicing to be a serial killer, I’d already gotten the carrying of the body down. I think(hope) they knew I was joking but if I get a cop knocking on my door asking about unsolved murders I’ll know someone in that lobby took me seriously.

7. I was excited this week to see that Buzzsprout, the site that hosts my podcast, was allowing you to have a transcript of your episodes for free, at least temporarily. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a slacker when it comes to transcripts so I’m taking full advantage. The funny part of this entry is that when you get the transcript, you can go in and edit it naturally. It can divide the transcript up by different speakers which is a cool feature. That being said I host my show by myself so theoretically the AI shouldn’t be detecting any other speakers. All of my transcripts have at least 2 speakers detected with one show having 11. Eleven speakers?! I mean I can do some different voices but really. I had to go into each episode and discard the different speakers feature, but otherwise, it’s been a huge help for me.

8. This is the time of year where I am torn. Not about anything important but about getting my car washed. I have a white car and where I park it gets caked in pollen and other various debris during the spring. I always need to wash it but the issue is spending money at the car wash only to have it covered in filth again by the next morning. I don’t know what a good ratio is. Do I wash it once a week, every other week? Or do I never wash it and let the rain do the job? That’s bad news when we have a dry spell, my car looks like it’s been abandoned in a field for years.

9. I was hanging at the beach one afternoon this week. It was cloudy but you could tell the weather was shifting and the sun was on its way. Once it came out I took a nice walk by the water, soaking in the scenery. Rather than going back to my car I sat at a table near the snack bar area. It’s not open yet and neither are the bathrooms. A few minutes later, a man drove into the parking lot in a Mustang. Not a new one but an early 2000s one that looked beat to hell, including a torn-up and taped sunroof. He parked way far away and walked all the way over just to find out the bathrooms were closed. I was surfing my phone so I hadn’t paid attention until I heard him pull on the door. He then started talking to me about nearby construction and I tried to be polite but really didn’t care. I just wonder why he parked 200 feet away when there were open spots next to the bathrooms, quicker road to disappointment.

10. According to my mother, I have been on a hot streak with my gifts for special occasions over the last few years. For Mother’s Day I had to keep my streak. Months ago my mom mentioned how much she missed her butterfly bush that had been outside of the living room window for years. I filed that away specifically for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, I have little knowledge of plants. Luckily I went to a local place, Hart Farm in Dennis, where my mom took us kids for years especially to get corn. They directed me to the exact butterfly bush I needed. My gift streak is alive and well.

The butterfly bush I got my mom for mother's day

11. Speaking of Mother’s Day I have been fortunate to have many strong female presences in my life who are mothers. My Nina and Nana, my sisters Kate and Lindsay, my Aunts Kelly, Susan, and Emma. There are also loads of friends. However, nobody can hold a candle to my mother. She has always been my biggest supporter. I feel a lot of the time that I am working hard on chasing my dreams to validate her support. She dealt with a few less-than-stellar men in her life, unfortunately, one is my father. She also went to school full-time at night to become a nurse while also working full-time and raising 5 kids between 8-15 years old. There are many times that I sit and wish I could do more for her but until that time I figure that being a decent responsible person is a fair enough tribute.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #23: Don't Drink That, Marathon Car Wash, Serious Rain, etc.

1. Last week I mentioned putting both sunscreen and bug spray on before going for a run. Eventually, I went to wipe sweat from my face with my bug spray-covered arm and practically blinded myself. Well, this week I decided to one-up myself. Rather than take the long way of getting bug spray in my eyes I decided why not just spray it into my eyes and mouth from the start. There were tons of bugs around as I was getting ready for my run and I was in a rush to get that protection on my skin. So much so that I ended up getting in in my left eye and a bit in my mouth. There’s a pre-run tradition I won’t be starting.

2. As a content creator I typically spend most if not all of my free time working on various projects. Podcasts, videos, articles, blogs, etc, all in the hopes of growing my brand. There are times I wish I could do more but then I remember that pretty much all of the successful creators have a team behind them to help with the work, whereas I am just myself. So I think I’m doing alright, except for the whole having no life due to this content work, but oh well.

3. I understand as a writer when pitching a book to literary agents they get loads of submissions. This means that it might take weeks to get a reply, often a rejection, but such is the life of a writer. But when you finally respond after OVER A YEAR that takes the cake. I’d rather you don’t reply at all than give me the lame brush-off after a year. It’s like asking someone out and them waiting over a year to text you ‘No.’

4. While out for a run on the bike path on a hot humid afternoon I saw a really cute girl running toward me. We both smiled and waved and continued in opposite directions. A few minutes later as I slowed down I looked behind me and she was now running toward me. Was this to be a serendipitous moment? No of course not, she waved and smiled as she passed and left me in the dust. I thought about trying to run after her but that was a recipe for falling on my face.

5. While driving I was behind someone going relatively slow. They also seemed skittish, pumping the brakes anytime a vehicle stopped at a crossroad like they thought the other vehicle would t-bone them. I had no idea of the depths of their skittishness though. They needed to turn left down a side street. A car was coming the other way but was several hundred feet away. Rather than turning down the side street like 99% of people would this vehicle waited. They waited what felt like hours but were likely 6-7 seconds. To me, it was the scene in Austin Powers where the man is in front of the approaching steamroller but it is far away. The man just yells for like 15 seconds before getting squished. That was funny this was foolish.

6. When I started the original version of this blog in 2010 my goal was to do some sort of travel writing as my main source of income. Years have passed but my wish is still similar. I would love to drive around the country recording podcasts at various locations. Maybe I can get 5-Hour Energy to finally sponsor me, that was a recurring joke in the original Initial Impressions blog.

7. I went for a long run/walk. I did a loop as far as my route. On the way out I passed a man washing his car in his driveway. Cool, it was a beautiful morning. On the way back I passed the same man still in his driveway, still washing his car. The only problem? My loop was 8 miles and it was a good hour and a half in between seeing the man washing his car. Even at its dirtiest, I might need 45 minutes to thoroughly wash my car. Oh well, maybe he really wanted to savor the feeling?

Are you done yet?

8. I’m torn. I found out that the father of one of my formerly closest friends died. Part of me wants to reach out and check on them. Another part remembers that phones, emails, etc, work both ways. In the nearly 4 years since we last spoke I have lost several family members and friends and didn’t hear Word One. So I remain on the fence as far as being the one yet again who bites the bullet and bridges the gap of reaching out.

9. There was a cloudy humid day this week. It eventually led to some rain in mid-afternoon. I was at a beach and it started coming down. I checked the radar and it was full of reds. I decided to get moving before the worst of it. Little did I know the ‘worst’ was so close and the sky opened up in a downpour the likes of which I’ve rarely seen on Cape Cod. It was like driving through rivers within minutes. Luckily I made it to the supermarket safely and the rain let up a bit to let me head inside...and then the power was out inside the supermarket because of course.

10. We’re headed into the 4th of July week and it has definitely been crazy as far as traffic and the number of less-than-intelligent people behind the wheels of that traffic. That being said I don’t (yet) have that crushing desire for it to be Labor Day Weekend. Maybe I’m mentally and soon to be physically in a better place so it’s not killing me to deal with tourists. Or maybe I’m getting older and don’t feel as good about wanting to skip months of time to get to my favorite time of the year.

Song of the Week: Hole Hearted - Extreme

Initial Impressions 2.0 #19: Unknown Savings, Jury Duty, Parking Lot Musician, etc.

1. I frequent 2 supermarkets, Stop & Shop and Shaw’s. Both have rewards programs you can enter that include savings on gas. Ironically, I only routinely use the points I get through Stop & Shop. The other day I finally thought I should check Shaw’s points and see what I could do with them. It turns out that I had enough to get 70 cents a gallon off of gas. I filled my tank for a shade over $20. I guess it pays to never check your rewards points.

2. Within an hour of driving on Cape Cod on Memorial Day Weekend I was already begging for Labor Day. From the lady screaming at me to pull out of a parking lot, despite there being a car directly in my way. Oh sure lady I’ll just broadside this car so you can get to the dollar store 2 seconds faster. A man driving ahead of me also decided it would be nice to randomly slam on his brakes to let someone make a left turn. Never mind the fact that there were no cars behind me so that same car would have been turning 2 seconds later. I know it’s not all tourists, but the number of idiots naturally goes up with the number of overall people who come to the Cape to visit.

3. Does anyone know if it’s illegal to drive your car down along the power lines? I’m talking about those dirt areas directly underneath the rows of poles that extend at least a few hundred yards. I cut through this one power lines pathway on my runs and saw a random SUV parked in the middle of this area with some guy sitting in a chair outside of it. Not sure if it’s against the law or anything but it was definitely weird and suspicious to me.

4. In the warmer months I could wash my car daily and it would still never be clean. First, because it’s a white car so it shows all the dirt. Second because the parking spot I have where I live is under some trees. This leaves the car susceptible to sap, pollen, bird poop, and even bug poop. I’d invest in one of those car covers but I feel like it would take less time to wash my car daily than to take that on and off.

5. I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people who mean the most to me. I fully admit that. It’s something I am trying to work on, including picking one person to text and check in with each day. However I also realize that telephones and email work both ways, so when I see, or don’t see, those same people reaching out to me I don’t feel quite as bad.

6. Walking through the supermarket freezer section I happened upon new Totino’s Breakfast Bites. They are basically pizza rolls just with eggs/sausage, etc inside. I’ve loved pizza rolls since I was a kid so it was only natural that I let out an audible grunt/moan of excitement when I saw them. The only problem? They come in boxes of 40. Meaning I’d eat all of them in one sitting for sure. Had to pass, for now.

7. I had my latest jury duty adventure this week. It started when I got my summons in the mail last week. Immediately I went on the website to try to postpone it only to be stopped since the current date WAS my postponed date from last year, so booo #1. The next thing I had to do was cancel my training clients for that day. I couldn’t take the chance of being called in for the jury and having clients show up to my work, but I was not there, so booo #2. Then I just said the hell with it and took the entire day off from my job. Of course at 5pm the day before I was supposed to have jury duty I got the email that I didn’t have to go in, so booo #3, but also I had an extra day off to do work on the podcast, videos, and this blog, so it’s a small yay.

8. I don’t know what it says about where I live on Cape Cod but there has been a bicycle leaning up against a tree outside of the gym I go to for about a year. No exaggeration, this blue bike has sat there for that long. Nobody has claimed it, nobody has taken it. It’s almost like it’s an experiment to see how long it will stay there before someone claims it as their own. I finally got around to snapping a photo of it, so now watch it’ll be gone before the next blog goes up.

Been there for a year

9. Sitting in the middle of a Stop & Shop parking lot I saw a man who appeared to be playing a saxophone. He had a sign asking for donations. The only problem was that the music he was playing also had drums, bass, etc in it but nobody playing those instruments. Also his ‘saxophone’ looked more like a Casio keyboard. Now I’m not saying he wasn’t actually playing a sax along with a pre-recorded beat, I don’t know since I didn’t care enough to go over and scrutinize his music. That would have cost me at least a $5 in his jar.

10. Irrelevant thing that I think about too much. Is Louisville pronounced Loo-eee-ville, or Loo-uh-ville? The person’s name Louis is pronounced Loo-ee, not Loo-uh. But I’m not from there so I don’t know the proper pronunciation. Much like people who come to Massachusetts and can’t pronounce Worcester, Leominster, Peabody, or Quincy. The most egregious one I ever heard was someone who pronounced Hyannis as Hay-nis. Like, really? The only thing heinous was their stupidity.

11. Product Review: I tried the Levia Dream Seltzer, it’s cannabis-infused. It was Jam Berry in flavor and for mellowing out. It tasted like a good raspberry/blackberry mix. I enjoyed it, the dispensary I went to said it’s smooth and mellow because it’s not super potent with THC. Although they did say if you chug it you might get hit a little harder. I spent an hour drinking it and felt great. I need controlled doses of any cannabis. If I smoke I go from ‘this is fun’ to ‘oh no this is an ordeal now’ in a flash. So drinks and edibles are the way to go for me. So yeah, if you like weed drinks grab one. Here is their website: Levia Cannabis-Infused Seltzer

Initial Impressions 2.0 #18: Is This Thing On?, Remote Controlled Moron, ATM Etiquette, etc.

1. I’ve been messing around with the idea of turning this blog into a second podcast for weeks now. I decided to make an attempt at recording a video version of last week’s blog. I set up my microphone and my Ring light and it looked halfway decent. I decided to use my Clipchamp video editing software to record the video since it has a green screen option in post-editing. So I recorded the entire podcast, probably something like 15 minutes. Once I was finished I was trying to figure out how to stop the recording. The only problem was I hadn’t even started recording. It’s not just ‘hit record’ and go, no there are more steps for Clipchamp which I wasn’t aware of. I basically talked to nobody for 15 minutes, yay. After that my eyes were hurting from the Ring light so I shelved the video for another time.

2. It’s not every day that you see someone wash their car at a gas station. There was a woman who after pumping gas used the squeegee and cleaner that is next to most gas pumps to quite literally wash her entire SUV. She even had her own rags to dry it off. I don’t think the attendants can do anything really since it probably happens almost never. Still, it was weird to watch. Needless to say, it motivated me to wash my car, but at an actual car wash.

3. I’m lucky to live only a few minutes drive from the beach. I take advantage of that nearly every day. I’ll go and sit and listen to music, or a podcast, or just listen to the ocean. I’m setting a peaceful scene here. It’s rare to see something I’ve never seen before at the beach. The other day though I was relaxing and got to bear witness to a seagull throwing up next to my car and another seagull leaning over and eating that throw-up like it was no big deal. It was like something out of a gross-out movie.

Yeah, it was kinda like that...

4. I don’t get how someone can be standing in their driveway driving their remote-controlled car into the actual road repeatedly and then get mad at me for having the audacity to drive to work. Either selfish, entitled, or stupid, or a fine mix of all three.

5. It’s not every day that you see a squirrel inside, let alone inside the gym where I work. Granted it was a cute little fluffy one but it’s not good for training people if you have a wild animal crawling along pipes on the ceiling. It was in there when nobody was around so it wasn’t too bad, but I was surprised nobody heard me in the next room yell when I spotted the squirrel. It scurried away through a hole around a heating pipe in case you were wondering.

It didn't even wipe down the equipment after!

6. It’s at the point now that anytime I see a beautiful girl anywhere I just assume she’s either too young or is in a relationship. I might be right or wrong but I can’t really find out because a stranger walking up to a beautiful girl and asking her age and status typically won’t fly unless you’re in a bar and can blame alcohol. Sadly I don’t drink anymore so I can’t use that excuse. Maybe they should all wear IDs that share the info?

7. From the ‘You Can’t Un-see That’ Department: I went into the locker room at the gym to quickly use the urinal. There are also a pair of stalls. As I turned the corner to where these were located an older man came out of one stall with his pants and underwear around his knees. He proceeded to open the next stall to go in there with his bare ass hanging out. It was not a pleasant sight early in the morning. I rushed out of there just in case he did something in that other stall. Sadly even though I didn’t see his face in there I found out who he was because he was the only person in the entire gym wearing jeans to work out.

8. Having a Facebook fan page for my podcast I have had to get used to being spammed by bots claiming my account will be shut down. I tend to get 3-4 a week at least. I’m not sure if it was a bot but the other day I had the same account leave the same comment on my last 8 posts. No sir, if you are real, I don’t want your help in getting more YouTube views. I’d basically be paying a bot to give me a virus.

9. A common sales trick in advertisements is to put the word ‘only’ or ‘just’ in front of a high price to make you think it’s actually a good deal. When I hear I could lease some rando SUV for ‘only’ $649/mo (plus a huge initial down payment of course) I picture the marketing people laughing at potential buyers as they put that into the ad copy.

10. An update from a few weeks ago. I shared a photo of a beach near my work that had a sign telling people they couldn’t drive their vehicles down a paved section and onto the beach. Apparently, the sign wasn’t a good enough explanation. Now as you can see there is a large rock at the beginning of that paved section. I guess it was figured that if people can’t read, or understand what the image of a vehicle with the red circle with a line through it meant, they’d understand a giant rock blocking the entrance. Where’s the ‘shaking my head’ emoji?

How it started. How it's going.

11. In your opinion what is proper etiquette when in your vehicle at an ATM? Do you keep back from the vehicle in front of you a bit like you would if you were standing at an ATM? Or do you get right up on their bumper? I keep back because it just seems more polite. If I was standing at an ATM and the person behind me was on me like a backpack I’d be pretty pissed. So why not the same for in your car? I don’t know that was just something that popped into my head.