Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #138: The Cabin Movie Shoot - Day 1

1. This was my third day in rural North-Central Pennsylvania for the shooting of my feature film debut, The Cabin. It was also the first official day of filming. I had arrived during the late afternoon on Tuesday after driving 450 miles from Cape Cod. The next day was mostly spent laying low and exploring a little. By the time Thursday arrived, it was all systems go. Unlike a typical ‘vacation,’ I had to be awake and out the door as if I was going to work. Mark, the director, wanted all of the necessary cast to be at his house by 8:15am. For me, driving from Mansfield to Wellsboro, the next town over, took roughly 15 minutes. Luckily, it was pretty much a straight shot on Route 6. The drive ended up being a regular occurrence, so I got used to the amazing hills. You really could fly down some of the hills. I know I got up to over 60mph at times. I have no idea how people drive up them during the winter months. The hardest part for me, besides just waking up at 6:30am on my vacation, was fighting the urge to pull over and get photos of the beautiful countryside scenery. It was literally all around me. It was especially hard when I passed a beautiful fountain on the green near Mark’s house. It took me until my last day in Pennsylvania before I finally got my photos and videos of that location.


2. I arrived thinking I’d be late, but I was actually earlier than most. Those of us who were there exchanged some small talk. I might do a lot of public speaking for my books and record weekly podcasts, but still deep down I am an introvert. Initiating conversations is not my strong suit. This is exacerbated when I am surrounded by people I don’t know. Mark, I had met a few times, so I was at least comfortable around him, but most of the other cast was new to me. As the shoot went on, I got more comfortable with everyone, but that first day I spent a lot of time being quiet, listening, and speaking when spoken to.


3. This shoot was a full-circle life moment for me. When I was in high school, I spent my savings on a Sears camcorder. I wanted to be a filmmaker. In those days, though, it was a lot of very loosely developed skits that I performed with my friends. There were no scripts. It was ideas like I thought I was a dog, and my friends took advantage of that with hilarious results. As a writer, I am all about symbolism. My plan for the first day, and more specifically the first shot, of The Cabin was to have something that tied it back to those camcorder days of the 1990s. A few years ago I found the red flannel shirt I used to wear all of the time in high school. It still fit, and didn’t disintegrate when I washed it, so I brought it along. I did get a smirk or two when I put it on, as it was humid and in the 80s when we were filming, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even take a photo of myself in the shirt on the set. The moment was only for me to symbolize that I had not given up on that high school dream, and in a small way, I had done right by my teenage self. I sat on the stairs in my red flannel as Mark yelled ‘action’ to begin filming The Cabin. It was a simple scene of the lead character coming home. Cody, the actor who played Will (the lead character), walked through the front door and past the camera. Nothing explosive, but I made sure I was rolling with my own camera as this scene played out. It was a seminal moment in my life. I did, however, take the flannel off not too long after since it was still a hot and humid summer day.


4. Nature was everywhere in Pennsylvania, even in the backyards of a typical neighborhood. I mentioned in the last blog about the deer that enjoyed sleeping in Mark’s backyard. On this day it was time for the groundhogs to shine. I mean, it is the home state of Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog, so of course they’d be everywhere. There was one that was hanging around a shed that we would end up using as another cabin for the film. I wanted a photo of it, and doing so through a window wasn’t going to do. I gently turned the back doorknob. It clicked ever so faintly. That was enough for the groundhog to scurry under the shed. Damn survival instincts kicking in. I eventually did get a photo of it, through a closed window.

It didn't want to stick around for a close-up.

5. The first morning of shooting was exclusively at Mark’s house. It was easy to have it double as the main character’s house. We took care of a lot of miscellaneous scenes that required me to do a lot of reading lines. Before leaving Cape Cod, I had recorded a series of scenes for the film with friends acting in the film. They’d all have been interacting with the main character, Will. Little did I realize while recording those scenes, where I did the lines Will would say, that I’d in turn have to do the same thing on the opposite side once I was in Pennsylvania. I had to read dozens of lines for Cody to keep time as Will. My voice started getting hoarse, which was pretty funny. I said to Mark after that there was a reality where we could layer my voice as Will speaking to my voice as each of the four characters that I recorded while on Cape Cod. I guess if our budget had been that small, it probably would have been close to that situation. Me as every character, just with different clothes and wigs. I found myself apologizing to Cody many times during the shoot for the long strands of dialogue he had to read. The joke I made was that The Cabin was just a remake of Cast Away, except instead of Wilson the volleyball, the sidekick was a pocket recorder. Cody really was 75% of the film, and he killed it in every scene he did.


6. The highlight of the first shooting day was our journey out to the Grand Canyon Regional Airport. It was a 10-minute drive from Mark’s house. We were lucky enough that a man who worked there was allowing us access to his Cessna plane for some scenes. It was a hot midday when we arrived. The scenery was amazing with the elevation. I was smart and put on some sunscreen, figuring that with my luck I’d get burned and then be miserable for the rest of the time there. We waited probably 15 minutes, wondering where our man was. We had knocked on doors and looked in windows, but it felt like we had been forgotten. Then, from a distance, we heard a motor. It got closer, and we spotted a red motorcycle. It pulled right up to us, and slowly the driver pulled his helmet off. It was a man in probably his mid-70s, definitely a surprise. His name was Skip, and he was the one who was gracious enough to allow us access to his plane. Not knowing how long we had, I was a madman, shooting as much video and photos as possible. I made sure to chat with Skip so that he could be included in the behind-the-scenes extras on the eventual DVD. It was another surreal moment as he pulled the Cessna out onto the airstrip and allowed us to begin shooting our scenes. I hung back and let Mark direct and Cody and Jeff act. It was weird at times because we were all there because of something I’d written, yet I’d often stay in the background and let the people with experience do their thing. Not everyone at the airport knew what was going on. Some guy in a pickup truck came barreling over to where Skip was standing and asked what was going on. They seemed to be fine with it, and we were allowed to keep filming, but momentarily there was a bit of panic as we thought we might have our time cut short. In all, everything went off without a hitch. We got all of the shots we needed. I got to get photographed inside the Cessna. There was even a plane that landed while we were there. I got that video and have sent it to Mark for possible inclusion in the film. We left the airport feeling enthused about the project, and it had only been a few hours of shooting. There was a lot of daylight left, though, and we had another location we needed to get to.

In between takes at the airport.

7. The Cabin is not Mark’s first rodeo. He has directed more than 100 films in his life, many of them shot around the Wellsboro and Mansfield areas of Pennsylvania. He knows where to go and what to look for as far as locations go. It was my first rodeo, but I was lucky to have Mark. I put my total trust in him as far as bringing much of my original vision for The Cabin to life. So when we left his house in the mid-afternoon to go shoot at Hills Creek State Park, I knew nothing of where we were going except that Mark said it was perfect. The spot he chose was the Beaverhut Boat Ramp, about a ten-minute drive from his house. Naturally, being a rural area of Pennsylvania anyway, this location was deserted. It was meant to be a stand-in for a secluded lake in Northern Canada, as was in the script. This was one of a few areas where the echoes when the actors would yell were mesmerizing. The sun was dancing in and out of thickening clouds, and I hoped that my sunscreen would hold on. It ended up being an eventful shooting location.

A perfect setting.

8. Cody, being the main character, was in nearly all of the scenes. With the film taking place over nearly two weeks, there were a bunch of wardrobe changes. We also tried to shoot all scenes in the same area at once, even if they took place on different days in the film. This meant that Cody had to change clothes repeatedly. At Mark’s house, or even later at the cabin, he had a clean and sanitary place to change. At Hills Creek, it was either change out in the open or hide out in a pretty putrid outhouse. I know how nasty it was because I had to use it at one point. I am sure it was checked on every now and then, but it felt like if I dropped anything on the ground in there, I’d have just left it behind rather than pick it up. It wasn’t as bad as some porta-potties I’ve seen in my life, but it was not a place I’d wanted to have needed to sit down in.


9. Just a friendly reminder, if you’re going to turn over something in the woods, be it a rock, log, or a canoe, be prepared that there might be something living underneath. For one scene in the movie, we needed Cody to act like he had just canoed across the lake. Luckily, there were a few overturned canoes on the shore. Unfortunately, the one that we chose had occupants. When Cody flipped it right side up, he immediately recoiled. Slithering around under the canoe was a pair of garter snakes. Now, honestly, these are small. The pair were probably only between 2 and 3 feet long. Cody doesn’t like snakes, so he was not happy. I, on the other hand, was practically falling over myself to get photos and videos. I knew they were harmless, and I didn’t intend to hurt them, so it was a win-win. In an interesting twist, one of the snakes had milky blue eyes. I thought maybe it was blind. After researching, I found out that it was because it was getting ready to shed its skin, and fluid builds up around the eyes to allow easier shedding. I didn’t try to pick the snakes up or anything. I have done that in the past to freak out other hikers. This time it was just filming them and being surprised that they stayed around the canoe despite there being a bunch of people around. Maybe they had eggs buried under there?

Ol' Blue Eyes

10. Our time at Hills Creek was almost finished when we got an unexpected guest. A few vehicles had passed by on the nearby road, but none had ventured into the parking lot. That was until a park ranger came rolling down in his white SUV. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut and let Mark do the talking. The guy was friendly and curious. He even said we didn’t have to tell him what we were doing. Mark was open about us shooting a movie. The ranger said he was new to the job but thought it would be wise to reach out to someone in charge to make sure it was okay. Mark said he would, but that was just to make the ranger feel like he’d done his job. When he mentioned that the film was a script I had written, the ranger started asking me questions about my work. I was surprised that I still had a few old business cards in my wallet. I gave him one, but as of this writing haven’t heard anything from him. The other funny part of this interaction was Mark explaining that we were going to be shooting much of the movie up at a remote cabin. He even gave the ranger the road it was on, inviting him to come on out and see. For the entire time we were at the cabin, a running joke we had was whether the ranger would end up showing up. He never did, unless it was long after we left. I mean, we didn’t say how long we’d be there. Sorry to him if he showed up later and the place was deserted.


11. It was getting close to 5pm on the first day of filming, but we still had another location to go to. This time it was the university in Mansfield where Mark worked. He was able to set up an abandoned laboratory to look like a hospital room. This was necessary for a few scenes near the end of the movie. The irony of this location was how close it was to the motel where I was staying. It was literally a 3-minute drive away. This would have been amazing for me when we wrapped shooting for the day, if not for the fact that we carpooled. After we got done, I had to be driven all the way back to Mark’s house to get my rental car and drive back basically to where I had just been. The scenes in the abandoned lab were fun. It was a battle finding outlets for the lighting, but everything seemed to work out for us during the shoot. As producer, I spent a lot of time managing the script. This meant that as the actors were going along, if they needed a line, I’d provide it. A lot of the shoot consisted of me asking Mark what I could do to help. This was all new to me, so I needed to be coached. For one scene, an actor, Michael, was playing an investigator. He had a lot of dialogue explaining some in-depth plot points. He had some trouble remembering all of the lines, which was understandable with how long the speech was. In order to put him at ease, we set me up in his line of sight with the script so he could just read the lines without it looking awkward on camera. This university location was another where I didn’t really have time to stop and soak it in. Luckily, I got a few shot videos of the laboratory, but those were interviews for the DVD extras.

A creepy vibe

12. When I am on road trips, one thing I enjoy is visiting stores that we don’t have near me on Cape Cod. I find them as exciting as attractions you’d find on TripAdvisor. I’ve already mentioned Sheetz. Another such place was Weis supermarket. There was one right on Route 6 on my drive back to Mansfield from Wellsboro. Needing something for breakfast the next morning, I stopped in. No, it wasn’t anything game-changing as far as a grocery store. I actually ended up stopping in a few times. Their flavored seltzers were good. I looked through their à la carte section, energy drinks, and barbecue sauces. Why the last one? Because many years ago my all-time favorite barbecue sauce, Cattlemen’s, was discontinued at every local store near me. I hold out hope that maybe some obscure market still carries it. Thus far, I haven’t found it anywhere. Now, to be honest, I can order it off Amazon, and I have several times. But I like the potential excitement of finding it in the wild. Much like with Sheetz, I got myself a few plastic bags with the store logo on them. Yes, I don’t spend loads of money on souvenirs; I just get plastic bags.

Yes it was an exciting visit

13. The first day of shooting ended with me returning to my home base motel well after 9pm. I had my Weis seltzer and stopped by McDonald’s, which was only a few minutes from where I was staying. No, it wasn’t the healthiest eating habits while on this movie shoot. Then again, it wasn’t the point. My entire reason for being in rural Pennsylvania was to film The Cabin. It wasn’t to hike, or run, or sightsee; it was for the movie. It kind of took the pressure off me as far as extracurriculars went. I didn’t have to feel bad about eating terrible, or needing energy drinks to get me in gear early in the morning. None of that mattered. If I ended the day feeling good about the work we all got done, then the day was a success. I could always amp up my diet and exercise heading into the fall. I wasn’t always going to have an opportunity to produce a feature film based on a story I wrote.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #137: The Cabin Prologue

1. For weeks leading up to my departure from Cape Cod to go produce my feature film, The Cabin, everything was smooth. The fundraiser went off without a hitch; I got my hotel, rented a car, and we hired the whole crew. In my mind, this was the next natural progression in my creative journey. The last five years have been one long road of continued growth. It’s funny how, despite all of the things I just mentioned, the old insecurities came creeping up the day before I was to head out. It was like the Imposter Syndrome and the little negative voice in my head decided to make themselves known. When I woke up on Monday, I felt this tension and these nerves that hadn’t been there even the night before. It was as if the reality of the situation finally stepped to the front. The voice was asking me if I knew what I was getting myself into. It asked who I thought I was, trying to do something new and challenging. It tried telling me that I would be found out and this project would fail. I have had to battle these demons of self-worth and self-confidence for way too long, and this is no different. I have been told every step of the way that the script I wrote is good. We have everything set up to make the best film we can. I have the funds, the place to stay, the car, the time, and yet despite all of that, the voice still came calling. I had to take a step back and reassure myself that I deserve this opportunity based on all of the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made throughout the years. It’s almost as if the closer I get to this new, exciting opportunity, the harder those old thoughts push back. Only when I open that door and step through will those voices shut up. They won’t do it on their own. I have to make them by believing in myself.


2. To time things right, I had to put off doing my laundry until the day before I left for Pennsylvania. I wanted to make sure I had all of the clean clothing possible for the movie shoot. No need to stop at some dollar store and buy shirts made of recycled paper. This meant that those extra days without doing laundry saw me wearing clothes I haven’t taken out of the closet in a long time. Thankfully, I do have enough that I didn’t run out. I suppose there are some guys who have enough outfits to last a handful of days, and if anything goes wrong, they’re stuck wearing an old T-shirt they’ve been using as an oil rag for years. The only downside to waiting to do laundry was the sheer size of the load. The laundromat I go to doesn’t have a good spin cycle to rinse the excess water out of the clothing. This means when I take them out of the washer, they weigh a ton, sopping wet. You do get a workout having to carry the basket. In total, to get that load of laundry done and fully dried, it took about 2 ½ hours. Lucky for me, all I had to do on that day was wash clothes and pack. If I had made any plans, they would have needed to be postponed. Telling someone you can’t meet them because you’re doing laundry sounds like a lame excuse because you don’t really want to see them. Next time I do a huge load like that, I’ll have to weigh it to see just how much of a workout I get when carrying it.


3. Once everything was packed and ready for the long drive out to Pennsylvania, the last thing on my list of things to do on Cape Cod was checking for a few things for the trip and the shoot itself. This meant going to Dollar Tree and Ocean State Job Lot. Hey, I’m not looking to gash the movie budget by getting expensive items. Mark, the film director, asked me to look for cheap clothes we could ruin for the film as well as some LED lights for a few scenes. As is typically the case when I go to these stores, I wandered around looking for any deals I didn’t know I needed. I got a cheap T-shirt for shredding but found myself interested in some of the other clothes. I literally just mentioned above that I didn’t want to get such clothing for my regular wardrobe, and yet here I was on the edge. I will say that teenage me would have scoffed at shopping at Job Lot, or as my Nana used to call it, ‘Odd Lot.’ Now, I find the savings more appealing than caring what some rando might think of whatever I get. I got a cool travel bag for toothpaste and things of the like. The piece de résistance, though, was buying unknown-brand energy shots at both Job Lot and Dollar Tree. They would no doubt come in handy on the long drive out. Eventually I had to remind myself that I could always come back again once the movie was done being filmed.


4. The anxiety was in full-court press Tuesday morning as I got ready to leave for Pennsylvania. Despite checking repeatedly, I still believed that I was missing something when packing. I finally had to accept that everything was good and leave. I was a little early when I got to my mom’s. It was there that I was leaving my car for the week. Leaving it at the airport wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, something like $80 for the week, but $0 is way better. It’s a good thing I was early too because it took a few minutes at the airport to figure out where to go to get my rental car. My sister Ashley, who drove me to the airport, had to circle the parking lot a few times while we figured out the protocol. Eventually she parked in front of the main terminal of the Hyannis Airport while I ran in to check. I was renting through Budget but got rerouted to Avis. The terminal was empty, as I guess not too many people are arriving or departing from Cape Cod on a Tuesday morning in September. The actual process of getting the car was easy and took a few minutes. I had wondered how many people went to the airport to rent a car but didn’t come in via plane. Surely I can’t be the only one. Oh well, they didn’t ask any questions, so I wasn’t sharing any info. Shortly after, Ashley was helping me toss my luggage into the backseat of a pretty sweet Honda Accord. Of course, it began to rain once I was ready to drive, but we’ll get to that in a moment. I was very grateful that my sister took time from her day to drop me at the airport. The money I saved alone on parking and an Uber probably covered the gas and tolls on the trips out and back.

This was what it looked like, except mine was gray.

5. Speaking of tolls. Because this was a new adventure, I wanted to try a few new things. I’d never rented a car for a trip, so driving a pretty new one with a touchscreen display was an immediate luxury. I also wanted to try a different navigation app, so I went old school with MapQuest. It all seemed fine at first. You get to pick out an avatar to move across the map while you drive. I picked someone who looked like he was from Lord of the Rings. I just kept calling him Gandalf. It was my choice to keep the toll option turned on while driving. It was already 450 miles, and I figured that was the fastest, so I could spend a little money on tolls to speed things up. What I didn’t expect was MapQuest not only bringing me to the toll road, the Mass Pike, which was expected, but also taking me off and back onto it. It was like they saw the toll option on the app and wanted to see how much they could rack up for me. I yelled that Gandalf was screwing me over, which wouldn’t have made any sense out of context. I had no clue what my toll bill would be. They do everything by license plate now, and you get a bill sent. That leads to another issue you may have guessed. It’s not my car, so it will be the rental company getting the toll bill. I am sure they will just use my card to pay for it, as I would expect. I do wonder if I can get a receipt so I can see just how much I paid. Oh, and I got rid of MapQuest and went to an old reliable in Waze. That whole getting me on and off the Pike twice was weird. I plan on keeping the toll option off for the drive home as well.


6. I have driven in all of the bad weather. Rain, snow, storms, wind, so when the weather report said some rain along my driving route, I was prepared. What I wasn’t prepared for was a near-death experience. For a while, going through Western Massachusetts, the rain was basic showers, nothing to be too concerned about. Then as I crossed into New York, it changed. Showers became sheets of rain. It was like a whiteout to the point where my windshield wipers were almost useless. The final straw for me came when I came up on a ramp after stopping at a rest area. I was merging, but the rain was so dense I could hardly see the semi truck barreling down. I was in the middle and didn’t know whether to slam on the brakes or gun it. I gunned it, and that truck was coming up fast. All I thought was, ‘man I should have gotten the insurance on the rental.’ I was sure the truck was going to knock me into the guardrail. Luckily, I sped up enough, and the truck driver was able to get into the other lane, so a tragedy was averted. That incident convinced me to pull over and wait out the heaviest rain. My thoughts of arriving in Pennsylvania early went out the window. But hey, I arrived alive, which I think is more important than arriving early. The rain ended up staying moderate much of the way, only really stopping when I was within an hour of my destination. Naturally, as soon as I parked at the motel, the first sound I heard when stepping out was a loud boom of thunder.


7. To answer a question I asked after a 450-mile drive in one day, yes, you can get symptoms similar to jet lag when driving. It’s known as travel fatigue, but oh boy did I have a bad case of it upon arriving. Driving that far, stopping only 3 times, and having to white-knuckle miles of road due to serious rain left my brain resembling a fried egg when I got to my motel room. I texted my mom at first so she wouldn’t worry. Then I texted Mark, the director of The Cabin, so he knew I arrived. He wanted to meet up and start going over logistics of the shoot. My brain was trying to escape through my ears by this point, but I mean, I was in PA for the movie, not a vacation. I was hungry and a bit dehydrated, so trying to listen and formulate thoughts was tough, but I did my best. It was mostly catching up, going over the shoot dates, and planning some of the smaller minutiae that might fall through the cracks. Lucky for me, the following day was basically the one ‘vacation’ day I’d have. We didn’t have plans to do anything related to the movie until later in the afternoon. This gave me plenty of time to hydrate and relax. I don’t know for sure, but I think that it was the most I had driven in one day since I drove to Florida in 2005. On that trip, I got into Southern Virginia in one day from Cape Cod, which I think is over 600 miles. I was so hell-bent on beating the time that MapQuest had said for my arrival and was way ahead until the rain hit. Now I am gleefully anticipating the drive back home, part of which will be at night, and I am sure full of jet lag the next day. Oh wait, sorry, travel fatigue.


8. Travel fatigue made the choice of what to do for dinner much harder. My brain didn’t want to form coherent thoughts, so I did a lot of staring at local maps and various restaurant websites. In order to get the blood flowing again, I needed to just get moving. A half-mile away was a Sheetz, which is a convenience store chain in the Northeast. I decided to walk down there, which allowed me a cool view of Lamb’s Creek. There are more than 800 Sheetz locations, but none in New England, so when I am out in their neck of the woods, I stop in. It’s the same thing with Wawa. Not sure why, but visiting stores I can’t regularly see on Cape Cod is thrilling to me. Their claim to fame is having an actual cooking line there to make food. This isn’t like reheating pizza slices or microwaving egg sandwiches. No, this is an actual line with people working. I say all of that and didn’t order anything. I grabbed typical things, drinks and snacks. I did make sure to get enough stuff that they had to give me a plastic bag with their logo. Yes, they had branded merch in the store, but that costs money. It’s far easier to have them give me a bag that I can keep and eventually forget where I got it from. I am sure before I leave, I will be back to Sheetz. I saw a few brands of things I want to try. Yay, visiting a convenience store is exciting to me now. Man, I’m old.

9. My mind was set on having Chinese food the night I arrived in Mansfield. There were two places close by; it was just a matter of deciding which one. Mark made sure to let me know that the one located a block away, Lucky Star, was the better one. By this point it was dark out, but I had only had a protein shake during my 450-mile drive, so I needed to eat before I crashed out. Rather than drive literally 500 feet, I again just walked. No, I didn’t have PTSD from driving in the rain; these places are literally within walking distance. Mansfield is a college town. A very small college town with a population of under 3,000, but it is a college town nonetheless. So it has a walkable Main Street with lots of stores clustered together. When I went down to order my food, the streets had a charm to them. There were string lights on either side, and even though it was now September, there were still families and groups of friends out walking. I felt right at home. Two things about Lucky Star: their food was great, and the price was lower than similar places on Cape Cod. It was a win-win. I got sesame chicken and also a take-out menu as a souvenir. The portion size was also amazing. Lifting the bag was like a mini workout. I will say that the travel fatigue was a killer. I was eating and expecting to immediately feel 100%, but I was just a puddle. I was able to eat and stayed up until maybe 10:30pm, but my body was desperate for sleep. I was so tired that the bed, which was a little too firm for me, didn’t hold me back. I crashed and enjoyed the one day of being able to ‘sleep in.’ The rest of the week would be earlier wake-ups and longer days than a typical workday on Cape Cod.




10. The rain continued into the next morning. In fact, it was more heavy thunderstorms. My plan of walking a nearby bike trail went up in smoke. I used that extra time to go to the closest Walmart and gather supplies for the crew that Mark had laid out. This Walmart was a big one. It was made more impressive by the rolling hills surrounding it. As I walked toward the entrance, a huge bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a crackling roar of thunder. A guy walking out asked loudly, ‘Who angered Zeus?’ That was pretty funny. Inside, it was a typical Walmart, although larger and cleaner than most I’ve seen. The people, though, fit right in with what you think of as Walmart folk. Not all, mind you; most of them were just ordinary people, but you had a good group of stereotypical odd folks wandering the aisles. I think it was the most I’ve ever bought at Walmart with food and drinks for the next shooting day or two. I went to self-checkout because, of course. A woman was working there, or more like watching me check out. I don’t know if she ever even looked at me while I was there. When I rolled the cart away, there wasn’t even a sound. I guess she’d have noticed if I stole anything, so why bother to interact with customers?


11. An interesting, and probably fitting, thing I’ve noticed since I started my journey off Cape Cod. The sights and music remind me of people from my life. It’s like I have been driving through previous chapters of my life as I am on this road to a new chapter. There were tons of moments like that on my drive up to Pennsylvania. Passing places that somehow sparked memories of old friends or family. Sure, I was playing my music on the drive, but it still seemed to capture the right emotions of this journey. It culminated while I was in Walmart. My favorite Grateful Dead song, Eyes of the World, came on. It’s an 18-minute jam, and a fairly odd choice to play at a Walmart. But it reminded me of an old friend, Dan, who I worked with for years cooking. He was a writer, and he pushed me to be a better writer, mostly to stop his trash talk. That never would work. That really put the icing on the cake for the symbolism part of this trip. I am fulfilling a dream, shedding parts of my old self, and also trying not to lose the essence of who I am. It’s having one foot in the future while keeping one eye on the past. I wanted to make sure I noted this phenomenon before I forgot about it in a sea of filming days.




12. As soon as the rain stopped, I was itching to get outside. I went to a nearby ‘bike and hike’ trail. One thing I noticed was how it immediately got insanely humid as soon as it wasn’t raining. It was still cloudy and maybe 75, but I was sweating pretty good after only about fifteen minutes. In total, on the trail, I walked a mile. There were more spiders than people. I did manage to spot a cute brown cat but only got a fleeting glimpse of it. I think it lived in a house right off the trail. The big thing I wanted to explore was an abandoned old bridge that crosses the Tioga River, which the trail runs along. I wasn’t desperate enough to walk the 2.5 miles in each direction, though. Nope, I drove out to where it was to hike down. Seriously, it was in the middle of nowhere. I passed vultures and crows eating a dead deer. There is an overgrown road leading down to the bridge. It’s now referred to as the Graffiti Bridge and has been closed since the mid-1970s. It is obviously covered in graffiti, which is where the name came from. I was hoping to see a live deer along the riverbanks, but sadly only that poor dead one along the road. The walk was totally worth it, and I got tons of photos and videos of it. I briefly thought of not walking onto it but figured if I didn’t I’d regret it the instant I got back to Cape Cod. It was very peaceful and way less creepy than expected based on the photos.




13. We unofficially got down to business around 4pm on Wednesday. Mark came and picked me up from the motel, and we went to his house located in the next town over. The plan was to start formulating a plan for the movie shoot while awaiting the arrival of the rest of the cast. I quickly made friends with Mark’s dog named Django. He was very old and had limited mobility. Mark even said that this past spring his family thought they were going to have to put him down. But he was there, still kicking. For me, filming a movie was all brand new, so I made sure to sit under Mark’s learning tree and ask loads of questions. One thing that hammered home that I wasn’t on Cape Cod anymore was the wildlife. To save money on the budget, we planned on using a beautiful larger shed in Mark’s backyard to stand in for a location in the film. So I am looking out of the back door and thinking about whether deer ever come through the yard. As if he were psychic, Mark mentioned that he gets a lot of deer in the yard. I laughed and then jumped back when I spotted a lone deer walking out from behind that shed. I don’t think the deer is psychic, but stranger things have happened.


14. Dinner was an event. I went with Mark. We picked up his son Anthony, who lives a few minutes away. The plan was to go meet a few others from the cast who had arrived and were staying in another hotel in Wellsboro. As we all got acquainted, or reacquainted, in the parking lot, we decided to go eat at Pizza Hut. It was convenient because it was literally a block away. For a moment, I thought Mark had said ‘Frog Hut,’ which got me intrigued because it was a place that, when looking for food on this trip, looked interesting. It was right across the street from Pizza Hut, so from our table I could see it. I hadn’t eaten at Pizza Hut since I was in high school, so it was very full-circle on this trip. There were six of us at a big table; the rest of the restaurant was empty when we got there around 5pm. The server was really friendly, and we all ordered. Then the positive coincidences continued. Someone ordered a pepperoni pizza. That’s not the coincidence. No, the server came out with a large pepperoni pizza that someone had made by mistake, and she asked if we wanted it for free. Well, you can guess what we said. There we are with all of our meals plus a free large pizza. It ended up becoming part of the food for the film crew the next day. As we laughed and told stories, the server came back and said they had made a mistake with someone’s food. She brought the mistake out, and the person who ordered took it, but then she also said they were remaking it. In the end, we got two free items. It was as if they knew we were making a movie and they wanted a positive write-up in my blog. In reality, it was one cook who made mistakes. He actually came out and apologized. We were all fine with it since it resulted in free food.

The Frog Hut

15. The Cabin wasn’t just the title of the film. It was also the largest shooting location. In order to have the film appear as isolated as it needed to be, Mark found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I don’t use that phrase lightly. To get to it, we had to drive 25 miles north, near the New York border, to a very small and very rural town called Osceola. When I say ‘rural’ I mean like sparse houses, and of the ones you’d see, half of them looked like the people would shoot you and turn you into a skin suit if you put a toe on their property. It was one-part terrifying and one-part exhilarating. The cabin itself is owned by hunters, and oh boy could you tell. There had to have been more than 20 stuffed deer heads and deer skulls, all over the walls and on various tables. There were also stuffed squirrels, a turkey, a black bear, and probably other animals scattered about. Our job on that first trip out was to clean it enough to make it camera-ready. This meant some sweeping, covering up objects that didn’t fit with the movie’s theme, and blocking areas to fit upcoming scenes. Blocking just means getting the scenery set, like moving a bed back so we could get a clear shot of the bed where the main character in the film is supposed to be sleeping. It probably took us longer to drive out to the cabin than we were there cleaning. It was a mix of rustic, modern, confusing, and horrifying. It would prove to be home for us all for the entirety of two days of the movie shoot.

What the buck is going on?

16. We ended up making that long and lonely drive out to this cabin three times. The first time was the most memorable. It was around 6:30pm as we got deeper into the drive. I kept hoping I’d see a deer, or even a bear. What I got was lightning, and lots of it. When the rain had stopped that morning, the humidity began building. By the time dusk rolled around, it was in the mid-80s. As Mark explained it, heat lightning was a common occurrence in that area due to a similar weather pattern. On the drive out, as the sun sank behind the surrounding hills, I became fascinated with the lightning. I shot video and photos trying to get bolts of lightning. This lightning never let up. It was literally like 15-20 flashes per minute for probably three hours. That is not a stretch. It was amazing. As we got near the end of cleaning the cabin, I again wanted some lightning photos. Behind the cabin is a pathway that leads to a big clearing up a hill. There was a birdhouse on a high pole, and I thought a photo of the lightning behind the birdhouse would be money. None of the photos captured the lightning bolts. It was around this time that all of our phones got the emergency alert: tornado warning. Here we were in the middle of nowhere as it got dark, and now there was the potential for tornadoes. I turned my back to the lightning and shot a video of me explaining what we were doing and the tornado warning. All the while, the pink sky behind me was exploding with lightning flashes. It ended up being one of the best, and most surreal, experiences of my life. Once we had cleaned the cabin to Mark’s satisfaction, it was time to leave. We drove the dirt road out as the lightning made the sky look like a movie special effect. If I didn’t have the videos, I wouldn’t have believed it. There didn’t end up being any tornadoes. We also didn’t see any weird people out there, at least on that first day. The first day of the movie shoot came next, and we all had to make sure to be at Mark’s house by 8:15am. Luckily, the first scenes to be shot were inside his house, so it was shaping up to be a good way to ease us into filming The Cabin.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #132: What’s Old Is New, Fire Lanes, Slow Demolition, etc.

1. Sometimes everything clicks and what’s old feels new again. This is about running. The week began with the latest installment of Monday Runday. The weather was perfect, but my legs were feeling like lead after two 5-mile runs in the preceding three days. But sometimes you just need a little motivation, and running with my old friend Mike did it this week. He has become the runner while I have regressed into a walker over the last few years. Granted, it’s due to injury, but still I look at him and wish I could magically morph back into my running peak. I pushed through the initial fatigue and ended up doing 5 miles in 52 minutes, my best overall run in probably three years. It gave me three 5-mile runs in four days. I know I haven’t done that since probably before Covid. I have no idea what my ceiling might be in the latest return to running. My knees were aching the day after Monday Runday, so rest was in the cards. That being said, I do feel pretty good about my chances of running a race again, maybe even before year’s end. I likely just jinxed myself and will fall down the stairs next week for daring to have hope.


2. At my age, when I start to feel momentum in life, I tend to keep calm and just let things play out. Sure, I get excited when my fitness ticks up, or I have great author events, or I have days with lots of podcast downloads, or even the growing anticipation surrounding my upcoming film The Cabin. I shudder to say I am ‘older and wiser,’ but even 10 years ago I’d have felt this positive trend and gone right on social media to post all about it. It was like I needed to let people know something good might be happening soon. Now, even though there might be some good things happening soon, I’d rather keep it to myself. It just means it’s more of a surprise when it happens. Plus, life can be a rollercoaster. If you post about every single good and bad thing that happens, it makes it look like your life is either very exciting, or very chaotic, or both at the same time. Rest assured, when good things happen, they will be in this blog above all else. The bad stuff will too since it will make you feel better if you’re having a bad day.


3. If you enjoy the wacky comedy of Will Ferrell, you will like his new Netflix series The Hawk. I am a big fan and thought it was hilarious. It is about a washed-up former great golfer who is attempting a comeback to the PGA tour. I will admit that I initially thought it was a movie. I was excited to see it was a 10-episode series. You also get SNL alums Molly Shannon as Hawk’s wife, and Chris Parnell as his rival. There are tons of classic Will Ferrell scenes. I won’t spoil them, but I will say watch for the storyline with his hand, as it’s pretty damn funny. I wasn’t surprised that it’s gotten subpar ratings. Like I said, if you like Will Ferrell, you will like The Hawk, but if you don’t, this series won’t do anything to change your mind. This won’t be at the top of my list of shows I’ve watched since returning to Netflix in December. That honor probably goes to Dark, or 11.22.63 because of my little crush on Sarah Gadon. Think of The Hawk as a 10-part SNL sketch, and I mean that in a good way.

4. I take every opportunity that I can to promote my podcast on social media. It is the main way to try to bring in new listeners. That being said, I also understand that in addition to bringing in new listeners me promoting my podcast also can entice scumbag scammers to show up. Nearly every time I share my podcast to a few Facebook podcast groups, I end up getting followed by one of these jackass people. It never fails. They follow me on Instagram, or try to friend me on Facebook. At least on Facebook, I take one look at their profile and see that it says they will promote my podcast for whatever low sum of money they say. I know to immediately block them. This week I had some jerk follow me on IG, like 15-20 of my recent posts, you know, to look like they’re not a scammer. Then they commented on one photo to tell me they DM’d me to tell me how they can promote my podcast. The comment was deleted, and they were immediately blocked. These morons make it so easy. The funniest part is they go on about their prowess at social media marketing, but they have a handful of followers. I almost want to say, look dude, I have 100x your followers on IG. How about you give me money to promote your rinky-dink crap profile, or just stop wasting me time? I will never, ever, give one cent to some weak loser begging for money to promote my content.


5. Once and for all, is it illegal to park in a fire lane? I ask because I see all the time vehicles parked in clearly marked fire lanes in front of stores. Looking it up, yes, it is 100% illegal. It makes me wonder if anything is ever done about it. This week I saw some young guy in an SUV parked in a fire lane in the rain. The vehicle was blocking the rampway where you can easily roll your cart onto the parking lot. People had to go around and push the cart off of the curb. In the grand scheme of things, parking in a fire lane is not a huge offense. Still, why even bother having it as a law if 99.9% of people who do it have nothing happen to them? The fine is supposed to be up to $100 in Massachusetts. It might not sound like much, but I bet if someone got caught and fined, they’d think twice. They need to put some low-ranking cop on fire lane duty, either driving around to check, or watching security footage. Or just get rid of the fire lane altogether if the law is never enforced.

6. Having a mechanic that you trust and who does a great job is worth a lot. The trouble with that is once word gets out that you’re good and fair, everybody wants to get their vehicles worked on by you. I bring my car to Ormon Automotive in Harwich. They always do a great job, and their prices are better than fair. I’ve needed exhaust work on my car for a few months. There was no doubt I was going to Ormon. But like I said, they’re always busy. I dropped my car off early one morning and went to walk the bike trail, which is nearby their shop. I ended up walking 3.5 miles, which was great. However, they were only able to give me an estimate on my car. This was because of how busy and backed up they were. Sure, I could have left my car all day and gotten it the next day, but I had things that needed to get done. We set up a time for next Friday to get the work done. I don’t mind waiting because they are worth it, plus the things I need done aren’t going to destroy my car in the next week, so there was little risk. I highly recommend Ormon Automotive if you live in the Mid-Cape area. You will hear about them again in next week’s blog, I’m sure.


7. We all were kids once. I think as we age, a lot of us forget that. We see kids doing things that we used to do and chastise them for it. Obviously, if it’s something super heinous, then they should be stopped. I am talking about little mischievous things that in the grand scheme of it all don’t matter. I say this because I put that into practice this week. I finished a beautiful afternoon run and arrived at my car parked at a recreation area. There were loads of kids passing by on the bike trail or playing on the playground and fields. I sat at a picnic table stretching some and recovering. A few hundred feet away, I spotted a teenage boy. I could tell he was planning something. I watched as he sneaked over to a small power shed, which I think is used to turn on the large floodlights for the sports fields. Once hidden from view, except by me, he scaled the side and climbed up onto the roof. I lost sight of him but figured he was just sitting up there. Did I rat him out? No. Like I said, I was a kid once and scaled my share of things I shouldn’t have. Of course I was usually smarter and didn’t do it during the day at a crowded park, but hey, if he gets caught by someone else it’ll be his own fault.


8. It amazes me when someone else is clearly a bad driver but gets mad at you for pointing it out. At a busy intersection, there was a line of cars trying to turn left on Cape Cod during the summer. The thing about intersections and traffic lights is that they have intervals where they change to let people go in the other directions. I know you know this, but apparently some people don’t. There was an idiot lady who was three cars deep to turn when I got a green arrow to turn at the intersection. Rather than just wait for the next signal change, this jerk pulled right in front of me a good five seconds after she would have had a red light. Naturally, I beeped and yelled because she was an entitled idiot. Her dumbass reaction was to be shocked that I dared to call her out for her poor driving and lack of intelligence. She easily could have hit me, and it would have been her fault since she ran a red light. It doesn’t matter if she was next up to turn; this isn’t Human Centipede; you’re not connected to the car in front of you. These types of stupid people are a big reason that I don’t like summer. Before you say ‘it happens everywhere,’ I’ll counter by saying 99% of the bad driving I see on Cape Cod is during the summer.


9. This week saw the birthdays of my youngest and twin sisters Lindsay and Ashley. At my mom’s, we were able to have a little celebration for one of them, Ashley. It was a classic family memory. I sat with Ashley and my oldest niece, Kaleigh, and enjoyed a huge batch of garlic bread pizzas. It was both English muffin and Italian bread. Those were amazing. The festivities became legendary, though after. I got a small cake for Ashley. It was Cookie Monster, complete with googly frosted eyes and a cookie in his mouth. My mom put in several candles, probably ten or so. She wasn’t sure if they were old, but they ended up being the icing on the cake. My youngest niece Sylvie called in to be on FaceTime to help sing Happy Birthday. Once the candles were lit, we began to sing. A problem came when the candles decided they didn’t want to cooperate. Ashley blew them out, only they kept coming back. So the candles kept relighting themselves. Next, they started heavily smoking. We were all cracking up. The entire moment ended with the candles being pulled out of the cake and dumped into the sink where they finally stayed out. The cake was good; the birthday festivities were better, though.


10. It is okay to step back and relax every now and then. In fact, it is recommended. Days can blend together in a wash of productivity, rushing, hoping that you’ve done enough to justify a few moments of peace and quiet. Get up early, go to work, work hard, go home, or go to the gym; maximize every moment you have. It is good to have drive and determination, but doing it day in and day out without stopping to recharge leads to burnout. Over the summer, I have been getting better at forcing myself to take time to do absolutely nothing of consequence. I have content work I could be doing. Nope, it can wait. I really want to go for a run. Nope, let your body relax. At first it feels like you are wasting precious time. In reality, you are reclaiming it. It indeed feels like time goes faster the older you get. So why not stop speed running through life and stop to enjoy it a little more? Even writing this right now is doing too much, but since I felt this way, I thought I’d get it out. There are plenty of days to grind from sunrise to sunset. Just make sure that you make time to watch that sunrise or sunset rather than using it to light your candle that is slowly fading out.

Sometimes you just need to stop and go with the flow...

11. A fascinating story to watch over the coming few years is the slow demolition and replacement of the Bass River Bridge. It is located just down the road from me and allows traffic to pass over Bass River between the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. The current bridge is not the original and is nearly a century old. It has needed replacement for years. The decay is so bad you could see exposed rebar. For the last few months, one side of the bridge has been closed, with traffic being squished into barely more than a lane of traffic. The actual demolition of the bridge has begun. They are starting from the east end of the bridge and very slowly tearing it down. The entire side will be replaced, widened, and have a multi-purpose path. Then the same job will begin on the other side. Before any Cape Codders get excited, this process isn’t expected to be finished until 2031. Until then, it’ll be interesting to watch the bits and pieces get removed and replaced. Here is a quick video I got while out on a run.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #130: Familiar Scents, Wildfire Skies, Too Many Soups, etc.

1. A favorite recent pastime of mine is going to a park in the afternoon and sitting in my car to listen to a podcast. There is something about the sun, the scents of summer, and the people watching when combined with a good podcast that really sets my soul at ease. I spent so many good times riding around on my bike as a kid. There were certain scents that I remember from back then that instantly trigger good feelings. Don’t laugh, but two of them are dead pine needles and dirt. Yeah, that sounds like an idea for a terrible novelty body wash, but it’s true. The brown pine needles in the hot sun give off a scent that brings back the teenage boy in me. That combined with the smell of dirt, like after you’ve dug a hole or moved it around, it’s like it unlocks something inside. Hey, come on, I know that all of you have certain smells that trigger memories. Mine just happen to be part of the playbook of a typical 1980s boy. So when I am sitting at a park and can smell the pine needles, it’s an automatic release of endorphins. I’m not saying I want to buy an air freshener that smells like dead pine needles, but if someone gave me one for free, I wouldn’t throw it away.



2. I am a connoisseur of energy drinks, if that is a thing. Since college in the late 1990s, I’ve tried pretty much everything there is to try when it comes to energy drinks and pre-workout supplements. There have been some that I liked more than others. Many of those I liked ended up being discontinued or even banned due to their ingredients. Even now, in my late 40s, I will try most energy drinks. I was shocked this week when, of all people, my mother had a recommendation for a new energy drink. It’s from The Loaded Tea Shop. These are in powdered form with 200mg of green tea caffeine and a few other vitamins. My mom and sister enjoy the flavors; many have funny names like Frog Spit. I have had a couple of the powdered sticks and do enjoy them, but I will admit they are a bit pricey. If you click the link and go to their website, you will see that each stick, even when on sale, is $4. I guess my favorite energy drink is usually the cheapest one that is on sale. When I get one, they typically cost $2-2.50. If you go by the directions, each stick could be 2 servings of 16 ounces, so it’s possible it’s more affordable than I think. Anyway, I have enjoyed them and am linking to their site so you can try for yourself rather than just taking my word for it.


3. No matter how old I get, I still find and enjoy the beauty in the small things. Arriving for Monday Runday this week, I ended up being distracted. I spotted a greenish dragonfly landing on a branch nearby. Rather than go off to the track to start some exercise, I was fascinated by the insect. It seemed to be relaxing, so I was able to start getting photos and videos. No matter how much I filmed or how close I got to the dragonfly, it just sat there. Eventually, I had to get going, but first, I wanted an action video of the dragonfly flying. I was shooting a slow-motion video, which was beneficial. I slowly started moving my finger closer and closer until finally it flew off. I probably spent a few minutes hanging out with the dragonfly even though it felt much longer. Ironically, for as long as I hung around the dragonfly, I could have stayed longer. That is because once I got to the track, I was still the first one there. Then again, there was only so much room on my phone to video an insect sitting on a branch.




4. I have to start this off by saying cancer sucks. This week, I found out that a former patient at my work passed away from brain cancer a few weeks ago. Her name was Christine, and she would come in routinely with her husband, Doug. When they first came in, she was battling a brain tumor. I think she had already had one surgery to combat it. She used a pair of our therapies that promote healing at the cellular level. They are PEMF(pulsed electromagnetic field) and EWOT(exercise with oxygen therapy). When they would show up, I would drop what I was doing if I could to spend time chatting with them. She was so sweet and friendly even in the face of something so horrible. I don’t know how she did it. Coming in twice a week for several months, she got positive updates. Her brain tumor was shrinking, and we were so excited and hopeful that she would beat the cancer. Sadly, the last few times she came in, October of last year, I noticed something. She was not able to ride as far on the bike or take in as much of the 93% pure oxygen that makes up the therapy. Then all of her appointments were canceled as she prepared to fight the resurgent cancer. We wished her all the best, which was all we could do. This week we found out that she didn’t win the battle. She was only 68 years old. Rest in peace, Christine. My heartfelt condolences to Doug and the rest of her family. Oh, and most of all, fuck cancer.


5. It was eerie during the middle of this week when the sky went from sunny and very soupy, to a yellowy haze. It felt like a horror movie was starting. We had an air quality alert, which I thought was due to how hot and humid it was. It turned out to be at least partially due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. The smoke rolled in so quickly that the temperature dropped five degrees within minutes. Sadly, there were more than 800 wildfires across Canada, with many located just across the border north of Minnesota. I am sure by the time this blog goes up, that number will change, hopefully for the better. It feels as though this sort of thing occurs far too frequently now. There are typically a handful of days a year when smoke from some wildfire drifts down into New England. It makes for an interesting sky, but there’s nothing else good that comes from a wildfire.




6. Over the last 12 years, I have been privileged to do easily many dozens of author events based around various books I have written. It is never lost upon me that people, most of them total strangers, take time out of their days to come out and hear me speak. It is a humbling experience I will never take for granted. I have done multiple events at many libraries all over Cape Cod. It is increasingly rare for me to do an event at a place on Cape Cod that I have never been to before. This week I got to speak at the Snow Library in Orleans for the first time. It was a fun event with a beautiful setup. I am distantly related to Cape Cod’s Snow family, so it was fitting. In addition to the rows of chairs in the conference room, I was fascinated by a sort of balcony level of seats. There were two rows of fixed seats in the upstairs level of the conference room. I wish that it had been a busier event where people had to go and sit up there because I bet the visual would have been cool. Of course, I forgot to go upstairs to see the view from there. I am so grateful to everyone who came to the event at the Snow Library and hope to do it again at some point in the future.




7. In a sort of ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ moment, I was out on the tidal flats this week during the time when the Canadian wildfires were impacting the skies over New England. I walked out to get some surreal photos of the red/orange sun over a boat resting on the sand. I brought my trusty selfie stick. It allowed me to get a few cool angles on the photos. I had to hurry to get to work, so I was walking back to my car across the sand. I guess I was a little too rough trying to get my phone out of the holder on the selfie stick. Not only did my phone come free, but so did the holder itself. Yes, I managed to break my selfie stick after taking some cool photos with it. But wait, longtime readers of this blog will remember that the same thing happened last June. So I have broken two of the same selfie sticks in 13 months. Now, the big question is, do I get the same stick again, which is convenient, affordable, but also apparently pretty fragile? Or do I spend a little more on something that claims to be sturdier? I say ‘claims’ because with my luck I’ll spend more money on a new selfie stick and probably break it when opening the box or something. We’ll see what happens.


8. Some things can’t be blamed on the runner’s high. I went for an afternoon run one day this week. It was a perfect afternoon with sunny skies and the temperature around 80. I had a great run, ending up putting in 5.5 miles in total. When I got back to where my car was parked, it was natural to think about what was for dinner. Luckily, it was a short walk across the parking lot to a supermarket. I was exhausted but walked over to grab a few things. I went to the self-checkout as I always do. While scanning, some pissed-off-looking Karen came up complaining that she couldn’t find containers of Parmesan cheese dust to shake. That idiot distracted me, and I didn’t notice that I had scanned my one can of soup five times. I had to call an employee over to start voiding my mistakes. Once he was done, he had no sooner walked away than I accidentally scanned the dang soup again. That made six times. He had to come back over, and I swore I wasn’t messing with him. He didn’t seem to care either way. I could blame it on the runner’s high or that entitled Karen, but I’ll just laugh and say it’s par for the course for me.


9. I’d like to think that I am not that hard to see when I am out for a walk or run. Yes, I like to dress in black a lot of the time, but I also am out during the day and not at night. So it comes down to a select few drivers who either shouldn’t have their licenses because they can’t see properly, or shouldn’t have them because they are dangerous and don’t care. I’d say it was the former during one incident this week. I was down a quiet road in a quiet neighborhood on a beautiful morning. Even on quiet roads, I run on the side, not in the middle, out of respect for other drivers. This red sedan goes by me, so close that if my left arm had been anywhere but by my side their mirror would have smacked me. They could have easily slowed down or maneuvered slightly to the left; there was plenty of room for both of us. But no, this car just kept right on going like I was invisible. I saw it was some old lady driving. Didn’t matter, I let her have it, yelling and swearing. Seriously, what if I hadn’t been hugging the side of the road? Would this old bag have just plowed into me? She stopped about five houses ahead of me. Rather than keep going so I could get up close and scream at her more, I decided to just let it go and turn around and run back the other way. The run and the scenery were too good to let some blind cotton ball ruin it.


10. This week saw the return of the new Cape Cod tradition, Big Nick’s Ride For the Fallen. It is in honor of Yarmouth resident Nicholas Xiarhos, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009. The ride itself consists of well over 1,000 people on motorcycles traveling from the Massachusetts National Cemetery down into Yarmouth, where it ends. The wild part is that the procession goes right by where I live. It ends up being roughly ten straight minutes of revving engines going by. Every year, I plan on filming it, and every year, something comes up. This year, the plan was to set up my selfie stick tripod and shoot a cool time-lapse video. Of course, you know from a few entries back that my stick broke. I wasn’t going to stand there for at least ten minutes holding my phone, so I just watched from a window. It is a cool new tradition and one that has a lot of meaning and raises money for good causes. Some year, I will film it, but you can see it yourself at the link: Big Nick's Ride For the Fallen


11. I tend to type pretty fast and wild when I get into a groove. Luckily, with spell check and Grammarly, I can cover my tracks and not look too foolish with any mistakes I make. However, the problem comes when the word you misspell is actually another correctly spelled word. The one that keeps coming up for me is the word ‘core.’ Why? It happens when putting together notes for workouts I did with clients. There are a lot of people who I have do core rotations to strengthen their abs. Way more times than I’d like to admit, I rush to get my notes done and have misspelled ‘core’ as ‘crow.’ I have gone back through my notes and wondered what in the world is a crow twist? I know there is a crow pose in yoga, but none of my senior clients could do that. That one isn’t bad since only other office people would see it, and they really never check what I am doing in the gym. The one that is more embarrassing is misspelling my own name. I will text clients and preface it by saying who it is. ‘Hi X, it’s Chris from Mind Body Spine.’ Pretty simple, right? Except it’s not when I get caught between names way too often. I have typed Christ and sent it. Not Chris, not Christopher, but Christ. ‘Hi, this is Christ…’ Those I can’t get back. I haven’t had anyone say anything yet. One of these times, I should give some profound advice after. ‘Hi, this is Christ, the answer you seek will come after giving $500 to your trainer.’ That would never work, but if it did, yay, cash windfall!

Yay, windfall!

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #129: New England Weather, Bike Trail Radar, Suddenly Salad, etc.

1. The famous saying around here is ‘if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes.’ Last week, we had three straight days of temperatures well into the 90s with a heat index in the high 100s. It was no fun and left me looking forward to fall already. It was as if the weather gods said, ‘ok if you don’t like sweltering heat, we’ve got something different.’ To start the new week, it was the total opposite side of the weather. It was raining, and buckets of it. We went from a heat advisory to a flood watch in a matter of days. I’m not sure if I have to choose which of those types of weather I’d rather have, extreme heat or oceans of rain. My ideal weather is partly cloudy, mid-70s, and low humidity. Why some clouds? Easy, to make for a perfect sunset.


2. I finished and enjoyed all three seasons of Travelers on Netflix. It was on from 2016 to 2018. The show is about time travelers who come back to their past to try to change events to make the future a better place. After liking Dark, it was fitting that the next show I watched was another time travel show. With 34 total episodes, the show does a good job of expanding and solving all of its storylines. Even though it’s been finished for eight years, it still felt like there was room for a 4th season, but it is probably way too late for that. The travelers come back to the past by their consciousness entering the body of a living person in the present who historically dies at a certain time. That means the original person was going to die, and sort of still does, but their body remains and becomes inhabited by a totally new person. That’s a big part of the plot: the traveler trying to keep up the charade of being the person who they replaced. As usual, I am trying not to spoil much but give you enough info to entice you to check it out. Who knows what my next show choice will be? So far, I’ve liked every show I’ve chosen, so I have to keep my streak alive.

3. Perfect summer days need to be appreciated. Your definition of ‘perfect’ might vary. Mine is temperatures in the low to mid 70s, sunny to partly sunny, and low humidity. We had one such day this week, and oh boy, did I enjoy it. I finished work and headed to the local bike trail. I did some walking and a lot more running over the span of close to 3 ½ miles. It felt great to put more running miles on my legs than I have in a long time this week. I’m not saying that a return to racing is in my future, but if I can slowly increase my stamina, I won’t rule it out. Overall, my route on this perfect day was filled with sweet breezes, river views, quiet neighborhoods, and loads of other people enjoying the day. Yes, fall is my favorite season. However, when you get a perfect summer day, at least weather-wise, there are few things better.


4. Some investments are just stupid. One such investment is a radar speed detector on a bike trail. Yes, you read that right. I have seen two pairs of speed detectors so far, like you’d see on any road, located on a bike trail. I don’t know how much each one costs, but whatever it costs, it is a waste of money. Seriously, what the hell are you going to do if someone speeds? Are there cops somewhere to pull them over? It is mind-numbingly stupid. A better idea from these towns would be to put cameras up on the trails to catch the large number of motorized vehicles on the trail. I always see dirt bikes on the trail when signs are everywhere saying ‘no motorized vehicles.’ I say that, but even if someone got caught riding a dirt bike on the trail, nothing would happen. But seriously, speed detectors on a bike trail? Good lord, how dumb.

An incredible waste of money on the bike trail.

5. This week I wrote an article about a fascinating psychological phenomenon known as the ‘music reminiscence bump.’ It is how music from our adolescence registers with us more deeply than anything that comes after. It’s why we all say music was better when we were younger, no matter what our ages are now. For me, music from 1991 to 1994 falls into this category. I was aged 14 to 17. As a capper on my article, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and create a Spotify playlist featuring my favorite music from that era. It is still not finished, and already it is nearly 200 songs and over 13 hours of music. I was not shocked at just how many songs I loved and that needed to be on the playlist. I recommend everyone try it on their own. Find the year or years you feel music was best in your life, and then go craft a playlist. I am betting it will be much longer than you anticipate.


6. I’m sorry, but based on my age, I find the product Suddenly Salad to be one of the funniest names out there. Why? Little Shop of Horrors. In the 1986 version with Rick Moranis, there is a song that he sings with Ellen Greene called Suddenly Seymour. I have needed to write this down to get it out of my head because every time I see the box in the supermarket, I just want to sing the name Suddenly Salad. I can’t be the only one in their 40s who grew up watching Little Shop of Horrors to make that connection. Or maybe I am a special kind of crazy who will sing a random song because a pasta salad shortcut product by Betty Crocker has a similar name?

Cue the music

7. In an event that should surprise no one, this week I saw my first ‘back to school’ ads. Mind you, on Cape Cod, school got out less than 3 weeks ago. These greedy corporations are so geared up on squeezing every last cent out of their customers that they start promoting going back to school right after the last school year ends. I remember hating that so much as a kid. It’s like, just give us some time to enjoy summer before reminding us that it has to end and we have to go back to school. There must be a mandate with a lot of these companies, certain dates that mark when to begin promoting the next holiday or event. Before kids get back to school, you will see Halloween candy laid out. Time moves fast enough as it is without greedy bloodsucking corporations speeding it up by promoting things that are months away like they’re happening now. Oh, and by the way, it was Old Navy promoting back-to-school clothes for kids.


8. Every summer, we have throngs of tourists on Cape Cod. Most of them are fine. They come down, enjoy themselves safely and responsibly, contribute to our economy, and leave. Of course, when so many people come down, there are bound to be a small percentage of stupid people among them. That’s just life. What I don’t get is how some of these tourists seem to have no idea of how to navigate through life once they get over one of the canal bridges. For example, one-way streets. Are there no street signs where you come from? Unless you live in the most rural of small towns in the middle of nowhere, I’m figuring people have seen one-way street signs. Still there it was during a run this week, some idiot with their New York plate driving down a one-way street. Thankfully, nobody was going the other way. Like, I get the people who can’t seem to understand that dogs aren’t allowed on the beaches during the summer. There are signs, but they are smaller, and you could lie and say you didn’t see them and didn’t know. One-way streets have big signs at each end telling you to not go a certain way. So these people from New York were either totally illiterate or just smug, entitled jerks. I’ll let you decide which they were.

Yeah man that's really hard to understand

9. Something that means well but is pretty dumb is the sign that is seen in a lot of places on Cape Cod, and I’m sure everywhere. It says ‘walk left, ride right.’ Simple enough. If you’re walking or running, you stay on the left to face oncoming traffic. You ride on the opposite side. It makes sense, except for one major issue. If I am headed north on a road and running on the left side of the road, then when I am headed back south down that road, I would now be running on the right side. Left or right is all relative depending on which way you’re going. So, in reality, the well-meaning sign makes literally no sense. It should just say ‘walk wherever, ride wherever, just stay the hell out of the middle of the road.’ When I’m running on a road or bike trail, people just go wherever they want, so obviously the sign is pretty pointless.


10. There is something so soothing and refreshing about getting up early in the morning and sitting next to an open window as the summer air floods your senses. I’m not a fan of 90 degrees and humidity, but when you are sitting on a day off in a comfy chair, and it’s mid 60s with a sweet breeze trickling in all around you, it is magical. I am trying harder to take one day to fully relax and recharge. That means little to no content work. That means sitting outside and enjoying the weather (if it’s not boiling hot). After going all-out with my content work for over 5 years, it can be easy to feel burned out if not given a chance to actually recover. It was hard at first as I’d feel like there was work I could be doing and I was falling behind. Sitting in the early morning summer breeze, though, gives such a sense of peace that any sort of worry about work just falls away.



11. I am my own harshest critic. Most of the time, I feel as though I am not good enough. I believe that it goes back to my childhood when I had a neglectful biological father and an abusive stepfather. My mother did the best she could, but one ray of sunshine through the storm cannot keep you dry. Today I am chasing validation. I pursue success in creative fields on one hand because I enjoy creating things, but on the other hand, to show those who tried to snuff out my passion for life that they failed. Dreams of becoming an undeniable success in some sort of creative field kept me going through my darkest times growing up. I owe it to that younger version of myself who struggled with self-esteem and self-worth to not give up on the dreams he chased. That being said, there has never been any guarantee that success comes from chasing dreams. It’s where my criticism of myself comes in. I wonder if I should not have been stubbornly bushwhacking my way through the forest when there was a highway beside me. I chose the more difficult road long ago. It is a road where the successes could be great, but the failures could be more likely. So I keep working hard. Books, podcasts, videos, filmmaking, any sort of creative venture, I push myself to do more and more in the hope that the next thing is the thing that changes everything. I might be my own harshest critic, but I also know that I am at this point in my life for a reason. Dreams only expire when you stop pursuing them.