Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #84: King of the Hill, Fluffy Mushroom, Tattooed Snowman, etc.

1. I managed to binge the entire 10-episode 14th season of King of the Hill on Hulu this past weekend. All I can say is that I wish there were more episodes. I loved every second of the reboot. If you were a fan of the original run of the show, you will enjoy the new season. What’s interesting is watching King of the Hill in 2025, and knowing that it was in part created by Greg Daniels, who crafted the U.S. version of The Office, gave me a different perspective. What I mean is that I was able to spot similarities between the two shows in terms of mixing comedy and heart with character development. Watching the grown-up Bobby and Connie and their relationship gave me serious Jim and Pam vibes in the best possible way. I finished the season feeling so happy that I watched. The rumor is that a 15th season has been greenlit. Based on the ratings and reviews the show has garnered thus far, it seems a certainty we’ll get another season. I just hope that my free trial will be refreshed by then.


2. It had been a while since I had walked the expansive tidal flats at low tide on Cape Cod. It had been even longer since I did it at sunset. Luckily, a pair of friends were down on the Cape and wanted to walk the beach before heading home. The tide was low enough but there were still some treacherous spots. This came into play as I foolishly decided to keep my shoes on rather than leave them in the car. I did a good job for a little while keeping them dry. That all changed when I decided to perform a long jump to cross a small river where the tide was still going out. I managed to clear the river, which was a win, but a few minutes later, I felt my lower back locking up, so I knew I didn’t escape unscathed. After that, it was inevitable that my shoes would get soaked since I was having trouble with my back. So yeah, injured back, soaked shoes, getting older sucks, but hey, the sunset was worth it.




3. I believe I am officially at the longest my hair has ever been. It’s still strange to have gone from shaving my head every week for nearly 14 years to now having what looks like a big, fluffy mushroom on top of my head. This week will be haircut time. I will say though, that this winter I might let it go a little longer and see how far I can take it. That being said it is a distraction when my hair is now in my field of vision. It’s also a distraction when a breeze blows my hair and it brushes against my forehead, making me think I have a bug on me. The constant swatting at my face can’t be a good look. Maybe I’ll think twice about letting my hair get back to the mushroom head look.


4. In this day and age, it is a rare occurrence to see a cat outside. It is at a point that I think I see more deer than cats out on walks. So it was a shock for me to see a cat on two different walks this week. One was a black and white tuxedo cat, which scampered into some bushes before I could get a photo. The other was an orange tabby while I was on my way to a private beach. Yes, I do take walks into private neighborhoods. I don’t do any damage, plus by the time the police came I’d be long gone, so yeah. Anyway, this cat did stop and meow at me as I went by. It was as if it were warning me to get away from its beach. I don’t speak cat, but the look on its face said it all.



5. It’s amazing how when I am hungry, all common sense goes out the window. I crave terrible foods that I know are bad for me, but my mind gets overridden by my stomach. Of course, then after I eat like crap, my brain takes over again and feels regret. It is only after I’ve had the bad foods that I suddenly have the willpower and common sense. There has to be a way to reverse that. In some ways, it reminds me of when I had a drinking problem. Before and while I was drinking, my brain was seemingly offline. As soon as I finished, I’d have a deep regret and shame, and hate myself. It feels like in the last few years, I have replaced alcohol with food as my vice. It’s also kind of fresh in my mind because, as I’m writing this entry, I just had a meal filled with bad food. At some point I’ll figure out how to stop such bad eating, hopefully, but until then I can try to mitigate it with long walks to burn some extra calories.


6. Was it pure luck, or something more symbolic? I happened to be in the right place at the right time to get my first photo of a double rainbow in probably 10 years. I also got some amazing video. The pure luck side is because I happened to have been out getting a haircut and just had to drive down the street and set up shop and wait for the show. The symbolic side is the rarity of a double rainbow, plus being able to see the literal ‘end’ of the rainbow. I’m a writer so I’d like to think that it’s symbolic of upcoming career success. Maybe it’ll manifest that. Either way, I was more than happy with the time I spent watching and shooting the rainbows, even if I did get a little wet.



7. My sister Ashley bought something called an infinity cube for my little niece Sylvie to play with. It’s a fidget toy, something someone can mess around with for various reasons like nervous energy, managing stress, or improving concentration. The irony is that anytime I go over to my mother’s house, I end up using it constantly. I will just be rolling this cube around in my hands nonstop. Even when I put it down, I inevitably pick it back up. At my mom’s, I use that fidget toy maybe more than my phone. It’s something I never knew I’d enjoy. I might end up getting one for myself.


8. Right on time, the second bout of allergies has come to town. Typically, I get allergies sometime in late April or early May and then again in late August or early September. I started getting watery eyes and didn’t pay much attention but it was the congestion that caught my attention. Luckily, I had been taking allergy meds in the spring that I hadn’t finished so I am on the mend. It is funny that I have been on vacation and really enjoying relaxing and I didn’t notice the allergies until probably a few days in because I had been just relaxing. Better to have the allergies when you can just sit around than get them when you’re busy at work.


9. There are some things you can’t unsee. When stopping at the grocery store, I was ‘lucky’ enough to get to see a man who was a good 150 pounds overweight sitting at an outdoor picnic table. You know the ones that are supposed to be for sale, not for hanging out at? Anyway, the reason this was so disturbing was the fact that he had no shirt on. Yup, sitting outside of a busy supermarket with families going inside just showing off his pasty white fat body. He looked like a snowman covered in dollar-store tattoos. I think the grossed-out looks got to him, as within a minute, he was putting his shirt back on. Too late, Frosty, like I said there are some things you can’t unsee.


10. I can’t run like I used to. Part of it is injury-related, part of it is stubborn extra weight that I am constantly trying to shed. The constant reminders of my ‘glory days’ in my social media memories can be painful. That being said, I find it interesting that despite not really running much anymore, I managed to have the highest mileage total in August 2025 since July 2022. That’s more than 3 years, and nearly all from walking. I did 84.5 miles this month and 88.7 miles in July 2022. It blew my mind once I looked into it. It might not be super fast sprints, or super long distances anymore, but somehow I packed the miles on my old bones and didn’t end up with any injuries (knock on wood).

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #80: Dream-Life Hangover, Phantom Oil Change, Supermarket Happiness, etc.

1. Anytime I get a taste of my dream job as a content creator, or filmmaker, or author, it’s a good thing. This past weekend, getting to see my old classmate’s one-man show inspired me. Speaking to him after I made sure to tell him that I use him as an inspiration for continuing my journey. It leaves me motivated to work on whatever my next project is. However, as soon as I walk into my day job after experiencing that motivation, I feel empty. I feel like I have failed. When I have my ‘days off’ to work on my other passions, I think, ‘this is the time I’ll get that big break.’ When it doesn’t happen and I have to go back to my typical work day, I feel like someone let the air out of my balloon. It’s almost like a dream-life hangover. Maybe one day it won’t be a dream anymore.

From after the show.

2. Several years ago, I bought software to convert VHS tapes to digital. I have more than 65 hours of old tapes I recorded during high school, and I am trying to get them all digitized before the VHS tapes eventually break. I have Elgato Video Capture. It has always worked fine. I hadn’t used it in a year or so when I plugged the cables in. For some reason, the software wasn’t on my laptop anymore. No worries, I downloaded the necessary software and drivers to do the job. Or so I thought. It turned out there were certain functions I needed to turn off on my laptop to get the software to work. However, once those were turned off, my laptop said it was dangerous and I needed to turn those functions back on. It was like an ice cream headache. In the end, I needed to delete the drivers for Elgato. Easier said than done. I spent a few hours researching just how in the hell to get them off my laptop. I was reading that if all else failed, I’d need to contact Elgato and get a new CD-ROM of the software. Not bad right? Well unfortunately, my laptop doesn’t have a CD drive, so yay. It was like a comedy skit where I just wanted to vacuum my car, but somehow managed to set it on fire instead.

3. Okay, I have reached the ‘I’m ready for fall’ portion of the summer. When it’s nearly 100 degrees and humid, that’s enough for me. Several years ago, when I was young(er) and crazy, I looked forward to running in all sorts of bad weather. Too hot? Let’s go. Too cold? I have layers. Hurricane or Tropical Storm? Sunglasses block the blowing sand. Blizzard? I can hide in a house under construction. That last one is 100% real. Anyway, this week’s heat and humidity took me out of my desire to do any run or walk. I chose to hide inside in the air conditioning. Hey, at least I am doing some sort of work, like this blog entry. Wake me when Labor Day is here. Sorry, not sorry.

4. There is an age-old line about New England that goes something like this: If you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes. That is how it went this week. I just mentioned it being close to 100 degrees early in the week. Only a few days later, we had rain with highs in the mid-60s. Honestly, if I had to choose between the two, I’m taking the rainy 65-degree day over the sunny, humid 97-degree day. I will say that my idea of perfect weather is partly cloudy, low humidity, and temperatures in the low 70s, but that’s just me.

The weather is always changing in New England.

5. After 2 months and 4 pretty bad injuries, I was finally able to start going back to the gym. I managed to injure my lower back twice, sprain my ankle, and nearly break both hands. The only thing I was able to really do over the past 2 months was go for walks and eat my feelings of being depressed. My first workout was good but man, did I feel my regression. I was so tired and sore almost immediately. Now my joke is how long is it going to be before I injure something else? I’ll take sore muscles. That’s way better than some sort of foolish calamity that leaves me unable to work out for another 2 months.

6. I am now at the age where waking up at 8am is considered sleeping too late. If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be used to waking up by 7am on most days, including days off, I’d have said something must have gone wrong. I’m not going to start setting an alarm on days off, though. Years ago, the idea of waking up at 5am to hit the gym before work was a definite no-go. Now I am starting to think that within a few years I’ll be naturally getting up at that time. I still won’t want to go to the gym, though, I’ll just surf the net before sunrise.

7. My car is up over 150K miles, so keeping up on the basic maintenance is very important. My goal is for it to get to at least 250K. This week, it was time for an oil change. I usually go to Jiffy Lube since it’s quick and convenient. I mean, they do try to upsell you on a lot of stuff, but that’s kind of par for the course. This time was interesting. Everything seemed to be going well until one of the crew told me they couldn’t get my oil filter off. They said they tried a few ways, but it was rounded and nothing could get it off. What? Is that a thing? They told me I’d need to go to the dealership and they could change it. The irony is that the last few times I’ve gotten my oil changed, it’s been at the same Jiffy Lube. Getting the oil filter off has never been a problem. So what changed this time? I have no idea, but they ended up changing the oil and doing a few other things and not charging me. That was nice. Unfortunately, this means I have to do another trip for routine maintenance, and a dealership at that. You can smell the attempted upselling from a mile away.

8. I don’t know why, but one of my favorite things is shopping in supermarkets that I don’t typically go to. I mean locations that are out of my normal routine. It’s like I go to a Shaw’s or Stop & Shop, and all of them are varying shades of the same color. Still, somehow it’s new and exciting. It’s even more so when I go on road trips. You get me off of Cape Cod and have me stop at a Big Y, Hannaford, Publix, Giant Food, Aldi, or Wegmans? Oh man, it’s like I’ve won the lottery. I have gone to those places on vacations and maybe (definitely) have kept plastic bags with the logos. I even have an insulated Big Y bag that I bought. It is currently holding extra copies of my books.

9. After having a shaved head for about 14 years, it is still weird to me that I have a full head of hair. In fact, my hair is currently probably as long as it’s been, maybe ever. I can spike it up pretty high when it’s wet. The funniest thing is that if it’s not spiked perfectly, I get the hair at the front of my head, right where my hairline and forehead meet, falling forward. It literally looks like I have bangs like my sisters did in high school. I do plan on getting it trimmed down at my next haircut though. Not because of the bangs but the hair will tickle my forehead, which makes me think I have a bug on me, especially at night. Oh well, I know loads of guys around my age that would kill for the ‘problem’ of having too much hair so I should be grateful.

10. We’re now about 3 weeks out from my vacation, and I’ve got to tell you I’m not feeling any sort of road trip. I haven’t booked any hotels yet, and I’m kind of glad. I am looking forward to the time off, but I can’t tell if I am burned out or not. I work full-time and then work almost full-time on my content, such as this blog. It can feel like I am on a treadmill with working. Maybe as I get closer to the actual vacation, I will get excited and make plans to go, at least do one overnight stay, but who knows? Originally, I had plans for three overnights up in Maine and New Hampshire but honestly, as we get closer to the dates, just the thought of driving over four hours has made me lose interest. It is definitely a fake problem to have. Oh no, I have a paid vacation but don’t know what I want to do with the time. I don’t expect any tears shed for my predicament.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #76: Party Boat, 4th of July, Hairy Observations, etc.

1. While out for a walk on a sunny morning, I stopped at a favorite spot. It is a small dock on Bass River, approximately 1.5 miles from where I live. As luck would have it, a boat was coming down the river, so I waited to get a photo of it at the end of the dock, sort of a perspective shot. This was one of those pontoon party boats, which you can see in the photo. Within seconds of me snapping the photo, the boat got wedged on a sandbar in the river. They must not have been from Cape Cod because those familiar with Bass River know that there is some shoaling in that area. They were going full throttle in reverse, trying to break free of the sand. They got free and went on their way. I didn’t stick around. There was nothing I could do since they all had phones and it didn’t seem so dire that I needed to run for help like Lassie.

The moment before they got stuck

2. Updating my hand injury. It ended up with the back of my hand being a massive bruise for days. For those who don’t know, I got my right hand smashed between 2 steel bars that are a part of a piece of exercise equipment at my day job. Anyway, we’re almost 2 weeks out from the injury, and I can finally attempt to use my right hand to lift things heavier than 3 ounces. The interesting thing is that the better my hand felt, the more the enormous bruise on my hand started looking more like I had done a bad fake tan on it.

3. From the My Life Is A Movie Department. As many of you know, I developed a very close connection to Cape Cod’s infamous Lady of the Dunes murder mystery. I met producer Frank Durant, who created the Lady of the Dunes documentary that helped spur on the case’s resolution after nearly 50 years. I then wrote the book based on the documentary. I still consider it to be my proudest moment of my professional career. Through the resolution of the case, we found out that the titular ‘Lady’ was a real woman named Ruth Marie Terry. Not only that but she had a son. This is where the story becomes even more like a movie. This week I got a letter in the mail addressed to myself ‘and Guest.’ Inside was an invitation to Ruth’s son’s wedding. It is a surreal moment and an unbelievable honor. If you had told me even 5 years ago that not only would I play a very small part in the solution of the Lady of the Dunes case, but that I’d also be going to her son’s wedding, I’d have said you were crazy. But here we are. I might not be exactly where I want to be in my life but one thing is for sure: my life will be a pretty good movie someday.

4. Fourth of July can be fun with gatherings of family and friends, cookouts, and of course, fireworks. They are illegal in Massachusetts but of course, loads of people shoot them off every year. You’d think the drunken yahoos shooting off their boom sticks would be the ones to get injured, and sometimes that’s the case. This year in Mashpee, which is about 20 minutes from me, the town was setting up for a fireworks show later in the evening. So these are ‘professionals’ handling the fireworks. I don’t know what the cause was, but in the late afternoon, nearly the entirety of the cache of fireworks exploded in a massive plume of smoke and color. I know that several people were hurt, but luckily, I think none were life-threatening. The photos of the immediate aftermath are wild. It looked like a bomb had exploded on a golf course. It just goes to show you that accidents can happen whether you’re a supposed pro hired by the town, or some drunk stumbling around their backyard after their 10th Bud Light.

5. It was madness on July 4th. The weather was perfect so I went out for a run. On a favorite route, which is mainly back roads, I must have seen 100-150 people walking, running, or cycling. It felt like I was a part of a road race where I was passing people but also smiling and waving. It always amazes me how overcrowded Cape Cod gets in the summer. It’s like pouring 50 gallons of water into a bucket that holds about 5. In the end, the water gets everywhere and you have to run away to keep dry. Or something like that.

along my favorite running route on july 4th

6. During that same run, I ended up down at the local beaches. The craziness there was off the charts. There is a strip of beach with, I believe, 5 different parking lots down the entirety of the street. The line of cars to get into the first beach was at least 20 cars deep. It was like trying to park at a concert. The big difference was that unbeknownst to the drivers, there was a sign at the entrance saying the lot was full. It was a cluster to end all clusters. Me though, being a runner, was free and easy to go wherever. I thought of it like an episode of Seinfeld. I saw the sign, looked at the growing line of cars, and thought to myself, ‘well, that’s a shame.’

7. A funny observation. For about 14 years, almost straight through, I shaved my head probably weekly. I did it because I didn’t like my hair, plus it helped me stay cool when running. I know I got looks from people when I was super thin and walking around with a bald head. Now I have spent several months growing my hair out. It’s the longest it has been in I don’t know how long. I am getting comfortable with wearing it spiked up. This look gets me looks also. I’m not sure if it is people thinking of how good my hair looks, or if maybe it is people who remembered when I had no hair and are wondering what in the world is going on. Yes, I have a full head of hair. I didn’t shave it because I am going bald.

8. While out for a run on a different day, I had to stop at a porta-potty. It might have been the worst one I had seen yet. It was as if the people who had used it went out of their way to not use the actual toilet. I won’t get too graphic for those who might be eating, but you can imagine the horrors I saw. I felt so bad for anyone else who had to use it, especially women. When I walked out, I was only a few feet away when a woman walked up and went in. She’d have had better luck just going to the bathroom on the sidewalk. It was so awful. Yay tourists!

It really was this bad, sorry

9. I love fire pits. That being said I do feel like I am a magnet for smoke. It seems like no matter where I sit in the circle around the pit, the smoke from the fire finds me. I can change seats, and it doesn’t matter. I end up with a cloud choking the life out of me. So I am a smoke magnet. I’ve heard of guys being called ‘chick magnets,’ I guess I’m the first ‘smoke magnet.’ It does not evoke the same level of cool, however.

10. For as overcrowded as tourists make Cape Cod in the summer, they do pay the price when it comes time to leave. Fourth of July weekend is one of the worst for exit traffic, right up there with Memorial Day and Labor Day. There are two bridges leaving Cape Cod. Unless you’re flying out of the airport in Hyannis, you’re stuck going over one of those bridges. Before 9am on Sunday, traffic was either stopped or slowed down on the Mid-Cape Highway for nearly 35 miles. My goal on those types of days is to go the opposite direction and try to find an empty spot to enjoy a quiet moment, until they all come back the next weekend, that is.

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 #44: Hydraulic Press, Bird’s Nest Hair, Bot Fights, etc.

 

1. Social media learns your interests and crafts your algorithm to show you more of that stuff. I don’t know how it happened but my Facebook Reels suggestions for several weeks have been nothing but a hydraulic press crushing various objects. I’ve seen bowling balls, candles, wood, action figures, and more get flattened. I find it fun and satisfying, and obviously, as I keep watching them the algorithm will keep showing me more but I still don’t know how it started.

2. It was the tale of 2 cute kids at the supermarket one night this week. One little girl, probably 3, was running up and down all of the aisles with her mother trying to keep up with her. I found myself playing traffic cop once, alerting the mother of where her child had gone. The other little girl, probably also 3, was so excited to help her grandmother scan items at the self-checkout that she caused the machine to shut down several times. The attendant had to repeatedly come over to reset the machine. I thought both were cute, the adults watching these kids were not as amused as me though.

3. So often over the last several years I feel in my life that I have totally lost the road. It is as if I am crossing a rickety bridge in the fog and I am not even sure what’s on the other side. I’m just hoping that whatever it is it’s worth moving toward. There are plenty of times I feel I need to stop moving and take a serious look at my surroundings, but then the fear of wasting more time overtakes me and I start sprinting in the darkness. I don’t know if this is how my mid-life crisis is manifesting itself. What I do know is that I’ll keep moving forward until I find whatever I’m chasing or until I collapse.

How life feels at times.

4. A really fun thing to have happen is to pull into a parking space after dark. Then you open your car door to step out and on the ground is a mass of god knows what. Some was liquid, some was mushy, and all of it was gross. To top it off I had to do a kind of ballet dance to get around it. Not sure if I totally missed stepping in it. That was not a good time.

5. On the roads to some beaches on Cape Cod, and I’m sure other places, some signs show you how to proceed if you’re not in a vehicle. They say: Walk Right, Ride Left. That makes sense if you’re going in one direction. What about if you’re going the other way? When you walk right and ride left isn’t it on the opposite side? Doesn’t that make it basically anarchy on these roads? The sign should just say: Walk wherever, ride wherever, as long as you’re not in the middle of the road. These types of thoughts and observations are Exhibit A of why I say my life is like a Seinfeld episode some days.

6. My introversion paid off a bit. I stopped for a few quick things at a convenience store. I grabbed them and immediately went for the self-checkout register located in between a pair of regular registers. This was so I could get in and out without a lot of small talk that I’m not particularly a big fan of. The employee that was working had stepped away momentarily to straighten up one of the aisles. They were so grateful that I could check myself out rather than make them stop their work and come back. I decided to take that win and not say it was because I didn’t want to interact with anyone.

7. At my work there was a fun message I came into one morning. We have an automated away message that is sent to people who text after hours. It just thanks them for the message and states our hours. I walked in with 48 unread messages from one specific number which was alarming at first. I mean who would text us 48 times overnight, right? It turns out that the message that came in was automated, and then we responded with our automated message, which then triggered the same message again from the source. You can see where this is going. It was two bots responding to each other repeatedly. I couldn’t stop laughing once I realized the absurdity of it.

This is how I imagined the bots interacting.

8. Those who used to read the original Initial Impressions blog back in 2010-2012 will remember my attempts to get 5-Hour Energy to sponsor my road trips. I mentioned it numerous times in the old blogs. Now there’s a new version of this energy shot called 5-Hour Energy Sport which I guess is different than the regular because it’s supposed to be a pre-workout. Anyway, I enjoy it but again it has me wondering how to get them to sponsor my road trips. Maybe I’ll keep mentioning them in the video version of this blog. Or maybe I should actually start doing more road trips before I look for a sponsor?

9. In keeping with the feeling lost, Mid-Life Crisis theme I am trying to shake things up with small changes in my life. Switching from Pandora to Spotify for my music app. Quitting Twitter/X and going to Bluesky. Growing my hair out a bit. It’s only been a few days of all of this but it does feel a little new and rejuvenating. I believe a series of smaller tweaks in life can be just as impactful as packing up and moving cross country. I mean I already did that, twice.

10. Speaking of growing hair out my plan is for it to be only slightly longer. When my hair is long it is not straight or curly, it is like a bird’s nest which I hate. I have been routinely shaving my head since 2010. With few exceptions, this has been a weekly occurrence. On the odd occasion when I have grown my hair out people are shocked that I actually have a full head of hair and don’t shave it because I am going bald. Unfortunately now in my late 40s, I can already see after a few weeks of growing it that my hair is far more gray and white than I remembered. I’m not going to dye it though, I might as well age with dignity. Plus I can always just shave it off again in a few months.  

My hair will not be as long as it was here in 2019.