Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #117: Used To Be Young, Price Update, Double Entendre, etc.

1. I try to remember that I was a kid once, and so was everyone else. I don’t want to become the old guy who is always suspicious of younger people. I say all this because this week, when it was time for Monday Runday, I had to put that to the test. I run with a longtime friend at a school track. The school has been closed for a few years and is likely to be torn down in the next few years, but the track is still in one piece. I pulled into the parking lot, and standing near the front door of the school were two teenage boys. They were just hanging out with their bikes. I did my best to remember I was a kid once, but I had my eye on them the entire time I was there. They stayed huddled by the front of the school for a good 45 minutes while I was on the track. They only left a few minutes before I got done. Of course, as far as I know, they didn’t do anything except hang out, but my old man eyes were fixed on them anytime they got in my line of sight.


2. There is an old 1990s song by a band named Everclear called ‘Everything to Everyone.’ The title has always stuck with me because I feel that is my lot in life. I’ve always hated to let people down. For too many years, I’d say yes to things that I wasn’t 100% into because I wanted to be liked. In some ways, it’s noble to want to have the ability to do whatever you can for others to help them. However, when you constantly try to please everyone, the one person who ends up being not pleased is you. In my 40s, I’ve done a lot more of saying no and setting boundaries. Not being a jerk, but when whatever it is doesn’t 100% jive with what’s in my heart and mind, I have to decline. There are obviously levels to people pleasing. Small things, I am still apt to say yes to, but my level of extension out of my safety and stability grows smaller with each passing year. I feel bad when I have to say no to people, especially loved ones, but I also feel like the things I’ve declined haven’t been unreasonable. I’m sure those who’ve asked feel differently, but you can’t please everyone, and you shouldn’t try.


3. I love Netflix. Ever since I signed up for it again last year, I have posted about the shows I have been enjoying all over this blog. That being said, they are, at the end of the day, a greedy corporation looking to squeeze every cent they can out of their subscribers. They know that they have loads of great shows and movies and that the more than 320 million worldwide subscribers will pay for their service, even as they continue to raise their rates. I had to laugh this week when I got an email from Netflix. In it, they mentioned their rates being raised. I have the lowest tier with ads, and it’s up to $8.99 per month, up from $7.99. The laughing part came from how they phrased it. They called it a ‘price update.’ Update? It’s not like a new Windows download or iPhone software. It’s a straight money grab. I’d have had more respect if they just said, ‘Here’s info about the latest price increase.’ It’s not like I’m going to cancel, but I had to laugh at how they frame their making more money off of us. Please don’t piss down our backs and tell us it’s raining, Netflix.


4. This week saw the first 70-degree days of the year on Cape Cod. After the terrible winter we had, it was an amazing feeling to step outside in short sleeves and feel the warmth of the sun. It was 70 degrees at 9am, which was perfect. Of course, the first 70-degree day was also a work day, so there was a tinge of sadness. I was driving to work and had to stop off at the beach. This is the time of year when it gets warm, but the humidity is still a way away. This is also the time of year when it gets warm, you can be outside, and the flocks of tourists aren’t here yet. I joked to myself as I walked along the sand that I must really like my job because I was choosing to go to work inside when the wide open beach was staring me in the face. The most ‘New England’ thing about the warm weather goes back to last week, and saying that we have 12 seasons here. Well, next week our highs drop back into the upper 40s for a few days because, of course, they do. I’ll just keep a heavy coat and maybe an ice scraper on hand for another few weeks just in case.


5. A couple of eye-opening things happened at work this week. Our new CA (chiropractic assistant) tech is learning a few therapies that she didn’t know of at her previous job. One that she’s learning is Myovision. It is a quick way to measure muscle tension in the spine. This, in turn, shows where muscles might be compensating. Things that typical X-rays don’t show. It is done at 3 areas along the spine. When my hip area was measured, it showed a major compensation on my left side, which made sense since a right hip injury several years ago ruined my running career. We tested again, and it was a little better. Then I was asked to take my shoes off and do a third test. To my amazement, the left hip compensation was gone. I was then curious about how much my shoes, and more specifically, my extra insoles in them, contributed to hip and knee issues that have been plaguing me. We moved on to the bilateral scales. I’ve mentioned them before, but in short, they are two scales side by side. You step on each with one foot, staring straight ahead. It then shows you which side bears more of your weight. Without shoes, I was nearly 10 pounds heavier on my right. My left knee has been an issue for the last week or so; it made sense. Then I stood with only the extra insoles under my feet, no shoes. It flipped, and I was nearly 10 pounds heavier on my left. With shoes, I was basically even. My mind was blown by how much those insoles negatively affected my legs. They were immediately thrown in the trash. I guess it was kind of lucky that we did the Myovision test, or else I might have kept doing damage to my legs with those insoles. Oh, and I also found out I am down 14 pounds in 2026, so it was even better news.

An example of the Myovision test results

6. This is the 4th year that I have helped my buddy Steve install and remove a dock in a lake at a couple’s summer house. It’s good money for relatively short work. Granted, it’s me on one end of each of the three dock pieces with two people on the other end, but that’s fine. I am the only one who doesn’t need to get into the water to put in or remove the dock. We install it in April and usually remove it in November. This year, the weather was great, low 60s and sunny when we arrived around 5:30pm. We installed the dock in 15-20 minutes, which included carrying each piece down two sets of stairs. I mention this because the next day at work, I trained a 13-year-old. I have found that if I do the workout with him, he stays engaged. This means I end up burning a fair amount of calories while being paid. What am I getting at? Well, at least for this time, I burned more calories training my 13-year-old than I did installing the dock. Not sure what that says about either situation, but I found it funny because you’d think the dock install would be harder work. Nope. Training a 13-year-old is.


7. A Not Safe For Work but hilarious story. When training any of my teenage clients, I never assume that they have absolutely no knowledge of fitness. Before showing them an exercise, I will ask them: ‘Do you know what...is?’ It could be bird dog, Bulgarian split-squat, pallof press, etc. Typically, they don’t know, so then I go on to explain while I demonstrate. This week I had a 19-year-old in the gym. As I said, I asked him if he was familiar with Exercises A, B, C, etc. Then we came to a bit of interval training to help him with his cardio. I asked him ‘Do you know what a snatch is?’ He did not. It is a legit exercise using a dumbbell or a kettlebell. But in my mind, I immediately thought of the 90s slang for, well, you know. Or maybe not? A female body part. Being 19, he wasn’t well-versed in my GenX slang, so it flew right by without a cross look. I thought that it sounded like the way some 1980s Afterschool Specials would start. Some kid coming home and telling his parents, ‘The teacher asked me what a snatch was today.’ The funniest part was that I told the story to a pair of coworkers. The one who is in her 40s, like me, immediately started cracking up. The other, who is in her early 20s, had no idea what was so funny. Then we had to explain it, which was another hilariously awkward conversation. Stupid exercise. I guess it could be worse; instead of it being called a snatch, it could have been named a cooch or some other slang term from my childhood.




8. I’ve had credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, supermarket rewards cards, Sub Club cards, and so many other random cards. Now I can add a laundromat card to the list. I’ve been doing my laundry at a laundromat for the last few months. No big deal. You go in, pay, wash, and leave. Sure, it’s more expensive than I remember, but what isn’t? This week, I went to do my laundry when I noticed two things. First, the cost of a load of laundry went up $1, which immediately sucks. Next, there was no slot to insert money into the washer. Suddenly, the man who owns the place came up and explained to me the card system. There is a touch screen where you enter cash, and it, in turn, puts that amount on your card. Then you place your card on a reader on the washing machine and hit start, and the washer starts up. You got all that? If not don’t worry, it is needlessly complicated, and I have no idea why a laundromat that looks like it still exists in 1985 needs a touch screen card system for their machines. That flippin’ card system is likely why we’re all getting charged more per load. It just makes me laugh because as this guy was explaining the new system, all I could hear in my head was ‘Why?’ The dude will probably be driving a Porsche in a few months thanks to the ‘new system.’

All that sweet laundromat card money...

9. Flattery will get you everywhere. This week at work, a patient was there who hadn’t been in over a year. She was sitting in the therapy room while I was standing at my desk. I said hello to her and asked how she had been. Then she won the day in my book by asking if I had lost a ton of weight. I haven’t lost ‘a ton,’ but as I mentioned earlier, I have dropped 14 pounds in 2026. But since she hasn’t seen me in over a year, it makes me wonder if I was even heavier the last time she saw me, and if I have dropped more weight? Not sure on that, but another day this week, my mother remarked that she could tell I’ve lost weight, so that means it is noticeable. Despite that good news, I feel like I’m about halfway to what I want to lose, so I’d say another 16 to get me to 30. First though, I’ll make the push for 20.


10. I mentioned in a blog months ago that I am so old now that visiting supermarkets, which I don’t go to often, is considered exciting. This was not the excitement I had in mind. I stopped at a supermarket, which I visit maybe once a year at most. I won’t name them because it is not a good story. I was looking to grab something quick for dinner on the way home from a video shoot. While walking the back wall, near the freezer section, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was something small and brown, and it was scurrying its way along the floor. Yes, it was a mouse, out in plain view in this store. Now, I’m not saying this is a reflection on their cleanliness because it could have just been a one-in-a-million moment. But I will say in my life, I have visited probably dozens of different supermarkets in a bunch of states. I have never, not once, seen a mouse ever, anywhere else. This was the first. So maybe it is a coincidence, maybe I have been around mice in other supermarkets and not seen them. Or maybe this place needs to hire an exterminator and be glad I didn’t whip out my phone and film it and then tag it online, because the mouse was visible long enough that I could have.


11. Although the weather has been the typical bipolar spring we get on Cape Cod, things are starting to bloom. I ventured to a church garden I like to go to for flower photos and videos. It’s not as great as it will be in a month or so, but the daffodils were starting to spring up. I had an idea to use my selfie stick to create a unique perspective. I would hold it low to the ground and navigate it through the field of daffodils from underneath. My experiment caught the attention of a woman and her two granddaughters. They were really nice and actually asked if they needed to be quiet. I laughed and said I had started taking photos at the other end of the garden so I wouldn’t bother them. I showed them my raw video and explained what I was doing. The two girls, who were probably 6 and 8, didn’t care much. After they left, I became obsessed with trying to get a video of an elusive chipmunk that kept coming close but then running away when it saw me. My solution? Set the camera on a tripod and stand as far away as I could, where the Bluetooth shutter would still work. I ended up with about 5 seconds of footage of it running to and from my camera, but now I want to try to get nature spy shots like that of more creatures. Knowing my luck though, a hawk will think my phone looks like food and swoop down and grab it.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #93: Season Finale, Grammar Woes, Birthday Fun, etc.

1. This week marked the Season Finale on Monday Runday. Starting next week, it will get dark too early for me to meet my friend Mike at a local track to do some running, or, in my case, mostly walking. It rained on my way to the track which had me anticipating a rainbow. Instead, it was just loads of clouds but no rain. Plus, the temperature hovered around 50, so a far cry from summer a few months ago. The earliest I could get back out there would be late February. Of course, in the dead of winter, just because the sun sets at 5:30 again doesn’t mean it’s not also 30 degrees and snowing.

Goodbye Monday Runday until March

2. During this final Monday Runday of the year, we were joined by a few different people. No one we knew, just other people who showed up at the track. As I was explaining to Mike about the news of my story being turned into a feature-length film next year (see last week’s blog), a random guy who was also on the track passed by. He stopped as he exited the track and wished me luck on the film project. That was nice of him. It did make us wonder if he would have said anything if we were talking about any other topics. Like starting a murderous clown-for-hire business. “Good luck with the killer clown thing, I’ll be sure to keep my doors locked!” Or it could have been a much sweeter subject, but I just couldn’t think of one.


3. I have mentioned before in this blog that each spring and fall for the past several years, I have helped my buddy Steve install and remove a dock at a couple’s lakefront property. The husband helps us as well, so 3 of us take care of this 3-part aluminum dock. Putting it in is easier than removing it. It’s dry, and we’re looking forward to warmer weather. Plus, since I am on one end while the other 2 are on the other end, I have an easier time walking down the 2-levels and roughly 30 steps. In the fall, it’s usually cooler. This year it was 50 degrees and sprinkling. Also, retrieving the dock is harder since it’s mucky and water-logged. I had to carry my ends solo backward up the steps. On the 3rd trip carrying the last piece of the dock, I paid the price. One of the bars of the dock had a crack in it. From there, the water sprayed out like a sprinkler. It went down my legs into my shoes, and best of all was spurting into my face and mouth. Despite all of that, it was easier than expected. Plus, Steve and I each get paid handsomely for a short amount of time working. This is why even if we are beat up and sore, we’ll keep going to help with the dock, at least until something on one of us breaks.


4. As you know from last week’s blog, I have an old story of mine, The Cabin, that is going to be made into a feature-length film next summer. Even though that is a long way off I still need to start doing some work toward it. The first thing I had to do was revise the original book, which I wrote in 2008. The book is about 43,000 words, about 70 pages. I ran it through Grammarly and was stunned by the results. It was perfect. Kidding, it was way worse. There were somewhere around 1,000 grammatical errors in the book. Now, mind you, this book has been up for purchase in the Amazon Kindle store since early 2009. It must have looked like a 4th grader wrote it, well, except for the blood and gore in it. My ultimate plan is to give the book a full revision and then re-release it in ebook and paperback form when the movie is released. Obviously, there is a lot of time in between now and then, but it never hurts to have a plan in mind.

The revised cover of the original book.

5. With this being my birthday week, I have been seeing a lot of memories popping up on social media about planning get-togethers for friends and family. Since I gave up alcohol 5 years ago, I really haven’t gone out to any sort of bar because, you know, there’s no reason to go and sit there and watch other people get drunk. Part of me misses planning events for my birthday, mainly because it was a way to see a bunch of people on the same night. I had thought about trying to plan a dinner or something, but going to a restaurant is so expensive now that I would feel bad asking people to come and celebrate me, and also drop probably $30-40 at least on a meal. It’s too late this year, but maybe next year I’ll try to figure out a way to meet up with people that doesn’t involve alcohol or spending loads of money.


6. It’s amazing to me how oblivious some people can be. I was driving down the road to my job and slowed down to pull into our parking lot. Thankfully, I both slowed down and paid attention because the guy with his back to the road, standing in the middle of the entrance on his phone, sure as hell didn’t. I pulled in and spotted this guy with his head down on his phone, walking very very slowly across the parking lot. My car is fairly quiet, but there’s no way he didn’t hear me. I crept into the lot thinking he’d see me and move. Wrong. He kept walking and was in such a location that I could not get by him without hitting another car. Finally, I had had enough and gave my horn a quick tap. He jumped like I had tased him. He moved a few feet to one side, and I was able to park. I wanted to tell him I had to get his attention, which is why I beeped, but by the time I got out of my car, he was too far away for me to care. Still on his phone with his head down in the parking lot.


7. For longtime readers, you’ll remember several months ago I mentioned that at my work, there was a gigantic wasp nest hanging above the entrance to the parking lot. It was high enough off the ground that the wasps didn’t bother you if you walked underneath it. My goal had been to get as close a photo as possible using my selfie stick. It never ended up happening. In a sort of anti-climactic season finale, I came into work this week and the nest was just gone. Now I wasn’t expecting the owners of our building to send us a message so we could go and watch the nest be taken down. That being said, I do wonder what exactly happened. It hasn’t gotten cold enough for the wasps to die or abandon the nest, so did a team have to come all in hazmat gear and cut the nest down? It was about as big as a large overstuffed backpack, so there had to be at least hundreds of wasps in there. Oh well, maybe next year they will return with an even bigger nest that’ll look like a small car hanging from a tree. I can dream.


8. After so many years online, I’d like to think I have a pretty good read on what is legit and what is a scam when it comes to email. This week, my skills got put to the test. I got an email from a thing called Book Maven HQ. It went into detail about why they loved my Cape Cod Nights book, including a few specifics. They gave me an offer to help promote the book. That immediately raised my antenna as I get the same sort of messages from rando scammers when I share my podcast. It was only when they sent a second email a few minutes later with the same structure, but this time about my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book, that I knew it was a scam. It’s like this bot or whatever scanned the book cover and grabbed words from the description and then put them in the email, thinking I’d believe they were real because they quoted something from the book cover. These idiots sealed the deal when they sent a third email, but this time about a very old ebook. How did it seal it? It had the same structure as the other emails, but where the title was located in the other emails, there was a blank space. This blank space was because the bot or AI couldn’t read the title on the cover. After all, the font is kind of wonky. Sorry, Book Maven or whatever you really are, I’ll keep my money and you can f off.


9. It was a fairly uneventful but still really fun Halloween. There were no wild parties, no staying out super late, no booze, but I don’t miss any of that. I was way happier having Chinese food for dinner and then watching the original Halloween from 1978. It’s a tradition I’ve been doing for years. Oh, and my fortune cookie said ‘your greatest dreams are meant to be pursued.’ That was maybe a good omen for the year to come.


10. Sadly, the day before my birthday also happens to be the last night before we turn the clocks back. Not only was I out enjoying the last night of my 47th year, but I also had the desperation of knowing that the following night the sunset would be at 4:30. Luckily, the weather was perfect for November 1st, 55 and sunny with the wind dying down. I sneaked into a little cottage compound for photos of the sunset from the top of the stairs at a private beach. Even as I am sprinting toward 50 I still find the time to go places I shouldn’t go. Hey, it’s the off-season, and plus I didn’t touch anybody’s property and was in and out quick. The photo was worth it. Goodbye, 5pm sunsets, see you in late February.

Final 5pm sunset until late February

11. Nothing says ‘old man’ like being awake at 6:30 on your birthday. Granted, it was stupid Daylight Saving that caused it, but still. It wasn’t all bad, though. I was fully alert enough to get some work done before 7am. My buddy Steve messaged me, but he misspelled ‘cereal.’ His phone made the mistake of autocorrecting it to ‘clerical.’ I ran with this and made this fancy box of Honey Nut Cheerios that is sure to be a hit someday. The best part? He was actually eating Honey Nut Cheerios. No, I'm not psychic, maybe a bit psychotic, but that's beside the point. 

12. I was craving a 5-Hour Energy. Not the little shots but the big 16-ounce drinks. On Cape Cod, I know of two places that have had them. I’m sure there’s more, but I’m not going to go hunting for them. Anyway, the one guaranteed to have this drink, several of my friends affectionately refer to as the ‘cheap store.’ It definitely has the look of a place that, if the health department wanted to, they could close it down at any time. I knew exactly what I was looking for, though so it was less time with the handsome group of regulars in there playing the lottery and spending all of their money on scratch tickets. I found what I wanted, but the irony is that I must be the only one who ever buys those big 5-Hours. I know this because on the shelf where they were located, the cans were dusty. Don’t worry, I looked to make sure they hadn’t expired. Thanks, Cheap Store, I’ll probably be back to buy most of the rest of those drinks before they expire.

13. It was a bit surreal having breakfast on my birthday. My friends Steve and Amanda invited me to a place, Grumpy’s, in Dennis. Why I say it was surreal is that way back in the day, I used to work at a restaurant right down the street called The Marshside. We used to be a more rustic-looking spot serving all three meals. The interior of the old Marsh looked a lot like how Grumpy’s looks. So much so that when the Marshside was rebuilt into a more sterile location, a lot of our regulars moved on to Grumpy’s. Sitting in there, seeing the specials written in chalk on the wall, and just the overall vibe of the restaurant brought back pleasant memories. Plus, it was a nice gift and a fun time getting to dine out and chat. It made me miss the old Marsh, well, mostly the people I used to see and work with.


14. My birthday ended up being a great one. Good food, seeing good friends, getting loads of love from family and friends all day. I even got to somehow fit in a sunset shoot even though I briefly forgot it was at 4:30. Eating, buying some new clothes, and running shoes, and the sunset were all amazing, but nothing tops family and friends. Everything I do. All of the hustling, trying to ‘make it’ and chase my dreams, it’s all done to make my family and friends proud that they know me and/or are related to me. I will do all I can to make my 48th year, the 48th chapter of my life, the best it can be. Thank you all.

Birthday sunset.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #65: Dock Installing, ChatCBD, Tick Stowaway, etc.

 

1. Twice a year my buddy Steve and I help a couple install and remove their lakeside dock at their property. It is good money for a short amount of time. Typically it takes us 20 minutes to get the 3 pieces of aluminum dock either down into the lake or up the stairs from the lake. It is a relatively fun time as the couple from New York are super nice and very appreciative. I will say though that it gets harder carrying the dock up and down the steps each time I do it. My elbows, shoulders, and low back are tight but getting a fistful of cash always makes the pain go away. That and ibuprofen, lots of ibuprofen.

2. I saw that Alice In Chains is on tour and is coming to Mohegan Sun in a few weeks. Man, 17-year-old me would have killed to see them, even without Layne Staley. Sadly being an adult makes spontaneous concert trips less likely. Oh I could swing the tickets and a hotel room but my mind goes to taking the day off of work and canceling clients, etc. 17-year-old me would probably slap the hell out of me if he heard that but it is what it is. Maybe if the show was a few months away I’d go. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last concert I went to period. Boy, that’s sad. I’ll have to change that in the near future.

3. It can get frustrating when your brain and your body don’t match up. I remember all of my running feats, personal bests, etc. However since my hip injury in 2017-18 I can only match those efforts in short bursts. I get down on myself but then it dawns on me. Who am I trying to impress? Honestly, who cares if I can run a 5:30-minute mile ever again? Maybe in time I can get closer to who I used to be but for now I need to be happy with being able to just be out on the road or bike trail or wherever I go.

4. Leaving things left unsaid is the worst pain. Finding a letter you meant to send to someone very special for their birthday 20 years ago stings bad. On one hand it reinforces the feelings I had for a girl that changed my life forever. Now, 20 years on, it makes me feel a bit empty. For one I have no way to get in touch with her today which means words left unsaid will remain unsaid. Also I know she has a totally full life that I’d never want to disrupt. I’m not saying that if I sent that birthday letter back in 2005 that she and I would be together now but leaving the words unsaid means I’ll likely never know what difference those words might have meant.

5. I am a big fan of ChatGPT. I use it to help me organize my podcast notes, to brainstorm ideas for future YouTube videos. I also enjoy Bing AI to craft realistic images of things I can’t capture with my camera. Perhaps the best new offshoot of these sites is the Sora image tech that’s a part of ChatGPT. You can upload your own photos and remix them into something else. For example, a goal of mine is to take a photo of me in high school and a photo of me present day and mix them together where we’re shaking hands with a caption, “Become the person your younger self would be proud to meet.” Or something similar to that. I had to laugh, though at this idea. I took an old photo of when I discovered a secret solitary grave deep in the woods of Truro, MA. I took a photo of myself hugging it in celebration. The remixed photo shows the spirit of the man buried there embarrassed by my emotional outburst. It’s pretty funny if I do say so myself.

6. This is the longest my hair has been in a lot of years. I used to buzz it to the skin almost weekly for close to 14 years. I am having to get used to having hair but it’s not so bad. That being said I did go on a photography adventure in the woods and ended up with a tick in my hair. I didn’t notice it for a few hours because it was bushwhacking through my hair. Luckily, I found it and dispatched of it. Just to be safe I did take a shower and scald myself in search of any others.

7. That photo adventure was a trip through the overgrown brush to the remains of the West Barnstable Brick Factory. A century ago it was a thriving business on Cape Cod making tens of millions of bricks annually. They dug a hole to measure how much clay they had left to make bricks. In doing so they struck water, flooded the clay pits, and went out of business shortly thereafter. It’s wild to stand before the crumbling facade and other remnants of a once mighty business. It’s also a difficult place to get to, especially during the warmer months. There’s water everywhere, greenhead flies everywhere, and no real trail to the factory. Anyone who attempts to visit should be prepared to get muddy, wet, chewed up, sliced by thorns, jabbed by branches, and of course attacked by ticks.

8. Easter Sunday was so much fun. Food, family, loads of laughs. I had to make sure that I held back a little when it came to eating. On Thanksgiving, I ate so much that I ended up having to go home early because I was filled to the max. I was smart but I still had a good amount of ham, pot roast, mashed potatoes, and a wealth of desserts. It made me very glad that I went for a run in the morning.

My running route on Easter Sunday.

9. A highlight of Easter was the moneymaking idea my niece Emma and I came up with. In the spirit of ChatGPT, we decided to invent ChatCBD. It would be an AI product that reads your stress level and releases the appropriate amount of CBD needed for you to feel better. I have no clue how the product would get made, I’m just the idea man.

10. Easter was also April 20^th, 4/20. Naturally, I celebrated with a little edible fun in the evening. I had to look it up and find out why 4/20 is the code for weed. Credit goes to five high school students in San Rafael, California, who in 1971 used "4:20" as a code to designate their meeting time to search for an abandoned cannabis crop, referring to it as "4:20 Louis.” So there you go, the more you know.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #42 - Daylight Savings, Hornet Ambush, Who Are You?, etc.

1. Why do we still have Daylight Savings Time? The first day of ‘falling back’ left us with a sunset time at 4:34pm. Combine that with the temperature in the low 40s and it’s like a highway to depression. I was doing some content work when I looked at the time. It was after 3:30pm and I realized I had an hour of sunlight left. I had to rush outside to enjoy some cold and windy sun just so I didn’t feel like I was missing out. I wish it was just 75 degrees all the time with a sunset of around 7pm. That would be my ideal setup. By the way, the next time the sun sets at 5pm is February 4, 2025. Only 4 months away.

2. Whatever happened to Quiznos? 15 years ago they were everywhere. I remember making it a point to visit the Hyannis location near me probably weekly. The Baja Chicken and the prime rib steak subs were legendary. Then again I was far less healthy when I visited them frequently. It was like in a flash both Cape Cod locations were gone. I went on a major road trip 5 years ago all around the eastern U.S. and one of my most important stops was at the nearest Quiznos to me located in Orange, CT. Out of curiosity I just checked and that location is now gone. In fact, the closest Quiznos to me currently is over 6 ½ hours away in Montreal. I’d love a Baja Chicken but not if I need a passport to get it.

My last visit to Quiznos in Orange, CT in 2019

3. Driving home from work one night this week, naturally it was after dark. This was a main road so I have rarely if ever seen animals crossing due to the higher volume of traffic. What I saw that night was scarier than coming upon a deer. At a pretty windy, blind curve there in the middle of the road was a woman standing there. She was barely visible, luckily I wasn’t going fast and had time to slow and swerve. It was crazy. She didn’t even flinch as I approached. I didn’t see anything about an accident in that area on the night so I’m hopeful that she wasn’t hit by someone else.

4. A strange phenomenon I found recently was in my Facebook Messenger app. I found that people I wasn’t friends with, that I might have had 1 conversation with many years ago, were popping up as ‘online’ and ahead of many actual friends. I had a few times looking at names and wondering who the hell they were. Only when I finally clicked on one did I see our chat history. There were a few from 2016/2017. Like why do they get priority over actual friends & family? I ended up restricting these accounts so I wouldn't see them anymore. Sorry to any of them but not really.

5. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I end up with tons of yellow jackets on my car on some warm days at work. I think it’s the trees dumping pollen on it and the bees use my car as a buffet. Luckily they are no bother. Fast forward to this week and I was finishing a walk on a warm afternoon. When I got back to my car I did not see loads of yellow jackets, not even one. What I did see though was a massive Bald-Face Hornet. It is probably the size of 3 yellow jackets. But it was wandering around on the hood of my car and up along the driver’s side door. Again it was pretty chill so I didn’t worry about being stung. That was until a minute later. You see, I uploaded a video of the hornet to social media while standing on the other side of my car. By the time I got back to the driver’s side, the hornet was gone. Being a nice day I had my windows cracked open. My first thought was that it had crawled into my car. I didn’t see it despite looking for a few minutes. That being said I’d be lying if I wasn’t expecting it to ambush me while driving and I’d end up flipped over in a ditch.

Bald-Faced Hornet on my car

6. One morning driving to work I decided to stop off to shoot the sunrise at the beach. It was peaceful and beautiful and also came at about 6:20am. I took my time to enjoy it but this also left me behind when it came to getting to work. So I was flying down the road and making up time. When I got to a back road I was still going pretty fast. Up ahead a majestic scene was unfolding as a deer gracefully stepped out onto the road from some reeds. That is until it saw me coming and it basically dove back through the reeds like something out of a cartoon. I then finally slowed down wondering if I might see another deer but no such luck. I did get to work on time though so it was a half-win.

7. There’s nothing better than being in a nice deep sleep and your left calf deciding it’s time to explode. Yeah, getting a random calf cramp at 5am will end your dreams really fast. Does anyone else get those? I don’t get calf cramps at night often but any cramp I get is that same spot. Oh well, it beats when I was working in restaurants and I had bad Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Back then my right hand would ball into a fist and go numb while I slept. Then if I rolled over and opened my hand I’d get those terrible ‘pins & needles’ that would wake me up. It got so bad that I either had to sleep with my right arm hanging off of the side of the bed, or worse, I had to wear a winter glove to stop my hand from balling up. Good times.

Not the way to awaken from a dream.

8. Change what you can change. Control what you can control. That doesn’t mean don’t worry about those things you can’t change, or are out of your control. It just means to focus on the good things you have because those things you can’t control are going to happen regardless. Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you react to it.

9. I went to help take an aluminum dock out of a lake this week. It’s something my buddy Steve and I do in the spring and fall for a nice couple from New York. I’ve been helping for 3 years now. It’s relatively short work and good money. Sometimes the dock feels like it weighs 1,000 lbs. Other times it’s cold, or wet. This time the weather was decent and we did it toward sunset. It was a pretty smooth removal of the dock and we had a good time chatting with the couple before we left. Of course, as I age I realize that just because something was pain-free at the time doesn’t mean it truly was. I got up the next morning and both of my elbows were tight and sore. Steve and I joked that we might eventually need to recruit people to help us as our bodies are falling apart.

10. When I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom I typically try to leave the lights off. I know my surroundings so I can navigate my way without incident. Plus if the lights are turned on my brain immediately thinks it’s time to wake up. Just remember if you’re making your way to the bathroom at night with the lights off to check if the toilet seat is down. It’s way safer (and cleaner) to pee that way in the dark rather than hoping you find the bowl and instead make a mess on the floor. Anyway, the seat wasn’t down and well you know the rest. Luckily the rest of my overnight jaunt to and from the bathroom was without incident.