Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #108: Super Bowl, Still Frozen Cape Cod, Valentine’s Day, etc.

1. Super Bowl LX has passed. My New England Patriots didn’t finish their story and go from the outhouse to the penthouse in one season. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Patriots 29-13 and deserved to win. Their defense lived up to the hype. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye looked rattled at many points during the game. His right shoulder was still somewhat injured, but he didn’t make excuses. He’s only 23, the 2nd youngest quarterback to ever start a Super Bowl. Despite the team losing, I have no doubt that they will be back in the Super Bowl within the next 3-4 years. The Patriots are a young team, with most players signed, and tons of money to spend. There might be a step back next year with a harder schedule and other teams getting a bit of a playbook on the Patriots, but rest assured, this is only the beginning of this chapter. So Patriots fans like me have no fear, and Patriots haters, sorry, but get used to them being contenders for the foreseeable future. Until then, though, hats off to the Seahawks; they are the champions and deserve all of the accolades.


2. The ice floes have been clogging the north side of Cape Cod for three weeks now. It has almost become just another part of life. I have been at some beach nearly every day getting photos and videos, as you who have been reading the blog know. When something feels common, it can also feel less dangerous. I have been climbing out on the ice chunks to get better vantage points. Of course, I’ve been doing it safely, but when you’re maneuvering on pieces of ice, how safe are you really? I have had a few slips and gone down during the last few weeks, but that didn’t stop me from taking it one step further this week. I went for a sunset shoot at Sea Street Beach in East Dennis. I carefully made my way out onto some of the ice and shot a video. Then I wanted to get some more footage since you never know when the temperatures will rise, and the ice will become only a memory. So I started walking further out until I was probably 75 feet offshore on the ice. Then I heard what I thought at first was a wounded bird. It was a high-pitched squeak. Then I heard it again, but it was no bird. It turned out to be the sound of ice splitting. Think about what an ice cube does when you drop it into room-temperature liquid. It kind of squeaks and cracks. Once I realized what it was and where I was, I got back to the beach as quickly as I safely could. That squeaking noise definitely was a reminder that I needed to respect those ice floes, no matter how cool the photos and videos could be.



3. As we are in mid-February, thankfully, we’re closer to the end of winter than the beginning. I am craving warmer temperatures and things blooming. It feels as though this has been a classic New England winter when we haven’t had one in several years. For as much as I want spring to get here, I am torn. The ice floe videos have been a boon for my social media, so I am not too keen on giving them up. That being said, I believe that Cape Cod in general is a great place, and videos of it will keep bringing in new viewers. Also, no matter how much I want the ice floes to stay, I can’t do anything about it. Or can I? No, I can’t. But I can shoot so much content that I can repost and repurpose it until I get sick of it. Of course, the biggest issue with spring on Cape Cod is that we don’t get one until May. Before then, we get a mass of mid-40s and fog, which makes us all feel like we’re in some horror movie waiting for the killer to pop out from the fog to end us. Yay.


4. The older I get I try not to look past today to get to tomorrow. What I mean is I see so many people on social media ‘dreaming of summer’ currently. Summer is 4 months away. These people are wishing away so much time that you don’t get back. Sure, I might be taking it too literally, but I am trying to make the best of each day rather than sitting back wishing it was spring, or summer, or sunny, or warmer, or that I was doing something more exciting. I think that’s a big reason why I have enjoyed Cape Cod’s icy winter. It’s like it gives each cold winter day purpose rather than these days being looked at with scorn and wishing it were summer already. Don’t forget, the sooner it’s summer, the sooner it’s winter again. Just make the best of each day you have; summer will come right on time as it does every year.


5. Dedication to the Craft is something I’ve mentioned a lot in this blog. It is something my buddy Steve and I coined about getting a photograph, no matter what might be in our way. This typically means putting ourselves into some sort of less-than-ideal situation for the good of the shot. One such way I can do this is by running on a treadmill and then deciding to go chase a sunset at an icy beach. My adventure to Chapin Beach in Dennis included me in shorts, trudging through a foot of crackling snow to get amazing photos. A pair of women, all bundled up, saw me out there and fled. There was also a nice older man shooting photos who didn’t seem too surprised when he saw me up on a hill, standing on a picnic table looking for the best vantage point. All in all, it was a fun trip, and the photos were worth it.

6. Dedication to the Craft can also take the shape of standing underneath a tree full of fighting turkeys, trying to capture some sort of National Geographic video. It was a ‘jerk the wheel and pull over’ type of moment as I spotted what was probably close to 20 turkeys in a tree. A few were fighting over the best branch and gobbling at each other. When trying to leave, I was boxed in by the rest of the turkey family, probably another dozen or so. These ones casually swaggered across the street and hopped onto a snow bank, all while I tried to reason with them. Luckily, I knew the password *gobble*, and they let me by without hassle. That was a close one.


7. I had a cute interaction with a little girl at the supermarket this week. As I was walking, she was facing me in a shopping cart. She looked like she had just finished a frosted donut, as it was all over her face. She smiled, waved, and even said hi. I made sure to say hi back, and she seemed happy with that. She also said hi to everyone else who passed by, but I didn’t hear anyone else actually say it back. I’m sure they all waved or something because who could resist engaging with a cute little kid? Psychos maybe. I would interact with every kid I saw if I could, but I think it would start to look like I was a creep, and we can’t have that.


8. Valentine’s Day is interesting in that I’d love to have someone to celebrate it with, but I also love the fact that I can just do for myself and not have to stress about whether I did a good job. It’s not really a holiday. It’s more of a spend more money on a relationship day. You can put in almost no effort, like getting flowers at a gas station on your way home from work, and be rewarded like a king. Or you could go all out, spending handfuls of money you don’t have on a celebration, and still be looked at as less-than. You sometimes never know what you’re going to get. I have always thought that if you’re a big Valentine’s Day person, that’s great, but not overly impressive. Everyone who cares about their partner does something on that day. More impressive is being the hero of the day on a random Tuesday in August when nobody else is watching. That’s when you know you’ve found the right one. Would I do something like that? I’d like to think so, but there’s only one way to find out.


9. Speaking of Valentine’s Day, mine was spent on a treadmill in the morning. While I was there, trying to run like it was 2019 again, I spotted this cute girl I had seen several times there. She’s a combination of mousy and serious, if that makes sense. Like, she’s not there to hang out and chat. She’s there to get her work done and go. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get her attention. We wear the same brand of shoes, Brooks, but I don’t know if that’s much of an in. On this day, we each finished our respective cardio at the same time and ended up next to each other in the stretching room. Sadly, for as much as I’d like to think I would be coming off as genuine, I stayed silent and stretched rather than try to talk to her. I know most women don’t want to be approached by a stranger at the gym, and I had to respect that. There’s not much else I can do but try to be in her line of sight next time we’re both at the gym and smile like an idiot. Yeah, I’m sure that will suddenly break the ice.


10. Sadly, the wonder of the Cape Cod ice was shattered this week when a husband and wife fell through the ice. It happened at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. Unfortunately, the ice can look thick and stable and actually be ounces of pressure away from cracking. The couple had been out with their dog and walked out on the ice. This week saw temperatures getting into the high 30s on most days, which seriously compromised the ice. It was apparently also high tide at the time that they were walking, which was a perfect storm for a tragedy. Incredibly, the day before the event, I had been not far away at Skaket Beach in Orleans. There it was, low tide, and I hiked nearly ¼ mile out onto the ice for one final adventure. There were several other people out wandering on the ice at Skaket. The big difference between my walk and the tragedy in Eastham comes down to knowing your surroundings. Skaket Beach is the epicenter of the tidal flats on Cape Cod. Essentially, any erosion of the beach itself just gets dumped right offshore onto the flats. This makes it possible to hike great distances offshore, especially at low tide. To the untrained eye on social media, it might appear as though I throw caution to the wind with some of my photo adventures, but in reality, it is a lot of low-risk or highly calculated risks. My condolences to the family and friends of the people lost in Eastham this week.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #105: Best Workout, Northern Lights 3, Snowpocalypse, etc.

1. I ended up being right. Where I am on Cape Cod got between 3-4” of heavy wet snow that was like cement. I didn’t feel like going to the gym, so I took this as an opportunity to burn some calories by shoveling the driveway. I made sure to turn on my Fitbit for a workout before starting. It turns out shoveling the snow was my best workout all week. I burned 440 calories in 40 minutes while shoveling. I was totally wiped out after. In all honesty, I probably didn’t need to shovel. It got up to 36 degrees, and the sun poked out, so we got a bit of melting. Still, I loved being able to get a great cardio and strength workout without having to go to the gym.


2. For the third time in 15 months, I was able to see and photograph the Aurora Borealis on Cape Cod. It started off cloudy. I wasn’t feeling good about seeing anything, so I decided to go out early, about an hour after sunset. Checking the radar, I saw clouds moving east, so I drove west. I got to Barnstable and found a great location called Scudder’s Landing. What made it great, besides the fact that nobody else was there, was the fact that there was no lighting to ruin the photos. I immediately got several amazing photos and was able to get creative with the shots since there was nobody around.

I will never get tired of this.

3. Since I was already out and about for the Northern Lights, I mapped out a few locations I wanted to shoot. One was the popular Sandwich Boardwalk. I hadn’t been there in several years, since a disastrous first date that we will move on from. I got there, and it was dark and cold, but the wind had picked up. I was using my selfie stick as a tripod, which works great when there is little to no wind. In the breeze, though, it made it almost impossible to get any good photos that weren’t blurry. I did my best. The highlight, or lowlight, was a group of several people who sounded like they were around 60. As I was staging photos, I could hear one of the men whining about the temperature and asking why they ‘don’t have Northern Lights in the summer.’ I would have mentioned that the Aurora happens all the time regardless of the season, but this guy sounded like he has enough trouble with 2+2 being 4, so I packed up my gear and moved to another location.

More muted colors at the boardwalk.

4. When is the right time to take down your Christmas decorations? I know some people have everything down by sunset on Christmas Day. Then others keep everything up until their tree begins to decompose. We are currently a month out from Christmas, and my decorations are still up. I don’t plan on having people over to judge me if my decorations stay up well into February, but there has to be a cutoff date, right? I mean, I don’t want to be tripping over Christmas stuff when putting my A/C unit in. Then again, my Halloween pumpkin is still going strong 3 months after I got it, so I might not have the best judgment when it comes to moving on. By the way, the pumpkin will likely survive well into spring and then be destroyed in spectacular fashion. Stay tuned for that.


5. In classic fashion, it is time for another New England winter storm in time for the weekend. I say ‘classic fashion’ because, as of several days out, it was reported that we on Cape Cod could get anywhere from a few inches to well over a foot. Not only that, but depending on where you went for your forecast, the amounts shifted drastically. The Accuweather app said 3-6”, which is no big deal. Weather Underground said 12”, which is a much different story. The snow won’t hit us until this blog has been posted, so I guess this is an unintentional teaser for next week’s blog. How much snow will we get, and how many calories will I burn shoveling? Stay tuned.


6. I’ve been through tons of major snowstorms in my life growing up in New England. One thing I’ve never understood is the ‘essentials’ that people are supposed to get at the store in anticipation. Bread I get, but eggs and milk? If power goes out, what the hell is the point of having eggs? You gonna eat them raw like Rocky did? Anytime I anticipate being stuck inside for an extended period, I look at getting water, bread, peanut butter, and jelly, maybe single-serve protein shakes. Things that don’t need power to be consumed. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. How many of you out there rush to the store for eggs before a snowstorm? I have never done it and am pretty sure I never will.


7. Maybe I’m now officially the old man, but I feel like a big reason why people seem disconnected these days is the fact that everyone wears headphones everywhere they go. I see way too many people inside stores with earbuds in. It’s your life, do what you want, but the fact that people go out into public and just have others tuned out is kind of stupid. What if some sweet old lady needed help getting something off a shelf, but you don’t hear because you can’t disconnect from your headphones for two friggin’ seconds? This week, I saw a scummy-looking kid walking down the aisles at a supermarket, earbuds in, singing a foul-mouthed song. There could be little kids around, and they have to hear that crap from some dirtbag? Like I said, maybe I’m the old man now, but it’s just a bad sign of society. Oh, and it’s not all young people, I see people older than me doing the same thing, so it’s everybody.


8. It’s amazing the things you remember from your childhood. There are certain phrases, lyrics, or orders of words that are embedded in your brain. Sometimes you have no idea what they are, what they mean, or even how they got there. Quick story time. I have a vague memory from the bygone days of the mid-1980s. It revolves around two children’s songs back to back, Bingo and Little Dutch Girl. One I know, the other song I have no idea how I know. For some reason, when I think of Bingo, Little Dutch Girl follows close behind. I figured it had to be from a commercial I had seen when I was a kid. While stuck inside during the winter storm, I decided to do a little internet detective work. I quite literally typed in ‘Bingo, Little Dutch Girl, children’s songs, commercial.’ Lo and behold, I found the answer to my 40-year-old earworm. It is an album called Children’s Favorites, released in 1978 and recorded by some group called The Jingleheimers. I found the commercial, and when I watched it felt like an old door was being unlocked in my memory. No, I’m not going to order that album for my collection, although it says there’s an 8-track which might be cool. I do enjoy the fact that even all of these years later, I can solve mysteries that my memory has been hiding for 40 years.




9. When I am not at my day job, on the clock getting paid, I do not think about it. I have many other projects that take up much of my free time. I am also not a paramedic, or some other job where I am on call sometimes 24/7. That means if I am not inside the walls of my job, therefore not getting paid by it, I don’t want to be sent work-related messages. It’s a boundary I need to set and enforce in 2026. Seriously, my free time is mine, not an opportunity to have some unimportant work stuff sent to me.


10. We had the coldest day in a few years this week. The wind chill was down around -15 on Cape Cod, and even lower off-Cape. I stayed inside as long as possible. Eventually, I got the courage to venture out. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The wind died out, and so the 16 degrees felt downright balmy compared to what I was expecting. I went on the hunt for slush waves, which happen at the ocean when it’s been particularly cold. Sadly, I guess it hadn’t been cold long enough because the ocean was just as it always was. I was actually a bit disappointed. Then I saw that the temperatures are going to be at or below freezing for the next few weeks. I feel like I’ll have slush wave overload by the time February is over.


11. The flakes started flying by 10am on Sunday as the biggest snowstorm in 4 years hit New England. It was too cold to go for a morning walk before the snow started, so I hit the gym. Unfortunately for me, so did everyone else within a 10-mile radius. The gym was set to close at 11am, so everyone got in their workouts. It was so cold, about 20 degrees, that I wore track pants to the gym instead of shorts. That’s a rarer occurrence than seeing a four-leaf clover. 


12. The New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2018. They beat the Denver Broncos in a wild AFC Championship Game 10-7. Drake Maye actually did something Tom Brady never did, and that was win a playoff game in Denver. The weather was crazy. Sunny to start and then a blizzard by the end. The snow was so bad that the announcers weren’t even sure where the ball was on the field. The Patriots’ white uniforms might have actually helped them since Jarrett Stidham, Denver’s quarterback (their backup), threw an interception late, and who knows if he could even see the defense. Now we wait to see if it’s the Los Angeles Rams or the Seattle Seahawks. Ironically, the Patriots have beaten both teams in the Super Bowl, so either team would be looking for some revenge. Either way, this feels like the beginning of another long run of high-level play from the Patriots after a few years of retooling.




13. I’m finishing this blog at 7pm on Sunday night so I can get it up for my usual Monday morning. As we speak, there is likely about 8-9” of snow on the ground. I was out helping do a little preventative maintenance shoveling at 5pm, and we had close to 6” then. Luckily, it was light and fluffy, but I still burned 100 calories in 15 minutes of shoveling. Cape Cod is supposed to get a mix with rain overnight, meaning the snow will get heavy and wet. Shoveling will be a load of fun on my back. I have already been given a snow day at work since I have a sedan with front-wheel drive. I love my car, but it doesn’t do well in more than 3” of snow. 53 more days until spring.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #104: Take A Hint, Epic Sunsets, Return to Prominence, etc.

1. In a continuation from last week. There was a guy who applied to work at my job. To sum it up, he had previously applied and was rude and condescending to our office manager and pretty disrespectful to my boss. Anyway, he applies again and basically acts like he never applied. Of course, we started to put two and two together and figured out who he was. We did our best to be diplomatic and told him that he was overqualified for the job. He blew up our text line begging for a job, complete with ‘prayer hands’ emojis. He also mentioned my boss and office manager by name, looking for work. Desperation is not attractive. It made me feel like someone on a dating app where the other person is a giant walking red flag. To top it off, once he was turned down, his final message was to ask us what the name of our business was. What?! You apply twice for a job at a place, and you don’t know the name of it? This guy is either an idiot or a psychopath. I half expect him to show up and cause a scene. We didn’t tell him our business name because, seriously, use Google, dude.


2. I have a pretty good memory. That being said, I do have times when I can’t remember certain people or things. This leads to an encounter at the supermarket this week. I was in an aisle looking at yogurt, es very exciting. I had my back turned and heard a guy say ‘Do you still go to the gym?’ Thinking nothing of it, I kept looking and grabbed what I wanted. I turned around, and this guy with a beard and long hair was staring at me and again asked if I still went to the gym. My first instinct was to just say yes. I had no clue who he was, but he began talking about how he used to see me there, but stopped going because of COVID. He even introduced me to his wife. I was polite, but I was itching to get out of there. He didn’t know my name, so I felt better, like I hadn’t been his friend and totally forgotten him. Still, asking questions to someone’s back while they’re shopping isn’t too normal.


3. Every time I write at the Cape Cod Community College library it feels more important. It is one of the very few places where my potential still feels limitless. I spent so many hours in the past sitting at the desks in the library working on various projects. Maybe it’s because my brain associates the campus with having to focus and work hard? I am spending more time there to work on my script for The Cabin, the feature film I plan to shoot later this summer. The irony isn’t lost on me that back in 2008, I sat at the same desks and wrote the original book version of The Cabin. I’m hoping for a little good luck and maybe some magic as the script gets closer to being done, hopefully by the end of January.


4. Hey, hackers and spammers, you’re getting pretty sloppy. If you’re going to try to phish me with a text saying fraud was attempted using my debit card, at least make sure that you use the bank where I have an account. Idiots. I don’t have an account through Santander. It took a millisecond for me to recognize it was a scam attempt, and the number was immediately blocked.


5. Sometimes I think that old people, aka 60+, try to be too cute on social media with their reactions to posts. I have had several people in the last few weeks give reactions to posts that don’t fit what the content is. For example, I had a story where I talked about the benefits of my long walks as they double for meditation, plus I get lots of good ideas from them. Someone gives me a laughing emoji. Why is that funny? Either you need better glasses because you can’t find the right button to press, or you’re a jerk. I had another where it was a sunset photo, and some lady gave me a laughing emoji. I literally went on and commented saying, ‘not sure why this sunset photo is funny, but ok…’ Again, are you blind or an idiot? It goes for anyone, but double-check what you’re posting before you do.


6. Speaking of sunsets, and not funny ones, there was one this week that was the best in a long time. It was 360 degrees of colors that I easily got lost in. I had been working and needed a break, so I decided to go sunset hunting. I found the spot at Seagull Beach in Yarmouth. It was better than I could have anticipated. I barely noticed how cold my hands were getting because I was too busy running around the beach like a madman, trying to get as many photos and videos as I could before it was too late. Those types of sunsets are rare, so you need to take advantage of them. Here is a video that will sum it up pretty well.

7. I wish I could maintain my weight the way that I maintain my follower count on Instagram. Or on the other side, I wish I could gain followers without thinking, like the way I gain weight. Let me explain. For the last 3 years or so, I’ve been stuck at the exact same number of followers on IG, it’s almost always 2,993. I gain one, lose one, but it stays roughly the same. I believe that I take some pretty good photos that, in and of themselves, should lead to more followers, but what do I know? I won’t complain about it because I’ve seen people start going in hard about wanting more followers, only to have people unfollow them. It’s like clockwork. I wish I could bottle whatever is in the IG algorithm and put it into MyFitnessPal to help me drop and then maintain my weight. That used to be so much easier, even 6 years ago. I have to think that dealing with COVID forever changed my body. Anyway, it was a random thought I had when checking my IG account. It was like, yup, just like always 2,993.


8. The anticipation is building for a snow event to end the weekend. It won’t have happened by the time this blog goes up, though. The issue has to do with how much snow we get, being on Cape Cod. We are always at the mercy of our location. Sticking out into the ocean, we tend to get rain a lot more often than other places in New England. So we’ve seen forecasts for anywhere from one inch to six inches. Having lived through nearly 50 New England winters, I know to expect the unexpected. We could wake up Monday morning with bare ground or a foot of snow. Who knows? As a kid, I always wanted more than the forecast said. Now, as an adult, I always want less since I will have to shovel it. My guess? We get 3 inches of heavy wet snow that I end up shoveling on Monday. Stay tuned next week.


9. Every so often, I will dig through my closet and see what sorts of treasures I might have forgotten about. This time, it was lots of cards from birthdays and Christmases past. I am not a hoarder, but I am glad that I am sentimental and usually don’t throw out things from my family. Seeing the handwriting of my grandparents will always make me feel like they are still with me. On a lighter note, I also found my membership cards to both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Back in the 1990s, I never would have believed you if you had told me that video rental stores would someday be history. Now these cards are just relics of a bygone era. Again, not a hoarder, but I seem to be good at knowing what I should hang on to. Also, it’s not lost on me that I have had to say twice that I’m not a hoarder.




10. 35 years ago this week, I was 13 years old, prepping to take my SAT’s and being courted for Genius Camp by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University. As proud as I am of those academic achievements, it is a bit of a bittersweet feeling. I naturally look back and look to the present-day and wonder if I have done the best I could with the gifts I was blessed with. The quick answer is no, since I am constantly writing in this blog about still pursuing my dreams. Despite that, I truly believe that there is more than one road that leads you to where you are meant to be. Until you have reached the end of the road, your journey is still ongoing. I might not have immediately capitalized on the gifts I had over three decades ago, but there is still a lot of story left to be written. We’ll see where I’m at in 5 years.




11. In my closet, I have way too many half-filled notebooks. They are from all sorts of previous chapters of my life. I have one about my Vegas life, one about the most important relationship of my life, one about becoming a personal trainer, one about my travel blog trips, and so on. The one I had been searching for was a bit of a ‘holy grail.’ It is the notebook that has in-depth plots for several unfinished, or not even started, books. I found it this week and have already taken to digitizing what I have for a few of these unfinished works. I’m not saying that I’m going to dive headlong into writing a few new books, but just transcribing what I have from paper to my laptop has definitely gotten the creative juices flowing. Who knows, maybe one of those stories will end up as a film someday?


12. In one of those serendipitous, or destiny-type moments, one of the unfinished stories I found has an odd connection. I plotted out a horror story way back in 2008, and have more than half of it pretty detailed. I decided to set this story in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In the notebook, I am pretty detailed as far as the location of the beginning of the story. This is where the serendipity comes in. Upon further research, it turns out that the vicinity of the location I chose for the beginning of the book, I actually visited during my big 2019 road trip. I even have photos of the area because I went for a walk there. I had no memory of picking that particular place, so it is crazy to me that I ended up there totally as a fluke.

The place on the Outer Banks where I set my book.

13. What a brutal rock fight game it was between the Patriots and Houston Texans. The Patriots won 28-16. I am still so pleasantly surprised with where the Patriots are. I honestly thought they’d be this good next year. Now they are in their first AFC Championship game since 2018, when they last won the Super Bowl. I’m not saying it feels like 2001 again, but they could definitely win the title this year. Drake Maye is only 23 and already an MVP candidate. Mike Vrabel is an excellent young coach. The team has loads of money they can spend this offseason. All that adds up to the fact that it could be the dawning of another dynasty in New England. I think they beat Denver next week, who will have their backup quarterback playing. It’s all house money currently, but after a few lean years, I am loving the return to prominence of the Patriots.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #98: Med Ball Tossing, Xmas Light Car, Stupid Bots, etc.

1. I have a 12-year-old client whom I train. Anyone who has kids, or is around kids, knows that trying to get a 12-year-old to do anything they don’t want to do is next to impossible. I have had sessions with this kid where it’s like pulling teeth to get him to do anything besides walk the treadmill or sit on our whole body vibration plate. That being said, when I do find something he enjoys, I run it into the ground. This week, I put my old bones to the test. Little did I know that he would enjoy throwing a 10# slam ball back and forth. It’s a softer, slightly larger medicine ball. Rather than try to get him to do other things I had on my list, we just kept tossing the ball, and tossing, and tossing. In total, we must have spent nearly 25 minutes of our 30-minute session throwing that medicine ball. My heart rate peaked around 130 according to my Fitbit, and I burned 164 calories. I only stopped him when his heart rate climbed up around 170. I only know that because even though he said he wasn’t tired, I could see it. I think I ended that session more tired than him. Oh, and if you’re curious, he came in a second time this week to train. We tossed the same ball this time for the entire 30 minutes. I burned 212 calories this time.

My Fitbit stats from the Weds. workout

2. December has begun, but I still managed to have a second Thanksgiving this week. It consisted of the leftovers my mom gave me. Rather than draw it out over two meals, I crammed all of the turkey, ham, stuffing, and mashed into one giant meal. I even bought myself a little jar of turkey gravy. I was on carb overload. Somehow it made more sense to have all of the food in one shot and eat sensibly for a while, rather than eat two meals on different days. Also my self-control when it comes to food is the lowest it’s likely ever been, so there’s that as well. Generally, I am really healthy, especially as I swan dive toward 50, but I need to work on my self-control. Otherwise, 2026 will be filled with blog entries where I whine about my lack of self-control until people think I’m just replaying the hits. The leftovers were amazing though.


3. It took until December 1st, but I finally broke down and put on my heat. Now in full transparency, I have this neat wall heater that I can turn on and off if I need to heat up my place for a while. So I wasn’t freezing when it got down in the low 30s recently, but I also didn’t trust that heater enough to sleep with it on. The recurring joke I tell is the fact that I set my heat lower in the winter than I set my A/C in the summer. True story. I set my heat at 65 which is perfect for me since I run hot with my Northern European blood. I set my A/C at 68 during the summer. Most people I think would have those flipped but for me they work just fine. Now, much like in summer with A/C, it’s a countdown until I can shut the heat off and open the windows back up. Likely it’ll be around the first of spring.


4. Tis the season officially. I haven’t yet gone to all of my favorite holiday light spots but that is coming soon. By the time this blog goes up, my Charlie Brown-like faux Christmas tree will be up and decorated. There might have already been someone who won the Holidays though. While driving home in the dark I spotted some Christmas lights up ahead. It took me a second to realize they weren’t in someone’s yard. No these were moving. Someone was driving a white sedan, not too unlike my own, but the entire vehicle was wrapped in string lights. It was wild to see. They definitely wouldn’t distract the driver, but I did wonder how they had them lit. Most likely plugged into a USB port, right? I have also found out it is illegal to do that in some states so be careful.

It looked like this.(WNEP.com)

5. I can be both happy and shocked with the New England Patriots being 11-2 on the season. After wrecking the New York Giants this week, the Patriots officially passed my prediction for wins, which was 10. They also lead the league in salary cap room for next season, meaning they will likely be one of the best teams in football for the foreseeable future. The shock is more of the fact that I thought they’d be this good, but not until next year. They’re a season ahead of where I thought they’d be, but I am not expert. The experts have them as one of the Super Bowl favorites, and QB Drake Maye as the favorite for MVP. The NFL had its chance but the kings are ascending back to the throne they had for 20 years.


6. I could post this every single week but I try to space them out. I hate LED headlights and curse whoever thought it was a good idea to help a driver out by blinding every other driver on the road. They should either be illegal or every car should have window tinting put in for free at the expense of the car companies who use LED headlights on their vehicles. I am shocked that there aren’t more accidents caused by these people blinding other vehicles. If you have so much trouble seeing at night that you need a pair of suns on your car then maybe you should stay home, or get an Uber. This will inevitably come up again in the future but I’ll let it rest for a while.



7. Welcome to the Frozen Tundra of Cape Cod. This week winter arrived a little early. There was a day this week when the low dropped to 15 degrees. With a howling wind, the real feel was in the single digits. Yes I know we’re in December and live in the Northeast but still that first day that the temperatures crater like that are just brutal. Luckily that morning I didn’t have to leave the house until close to noon. By that time it was nearly 30 degrees, downright balmy. The best part? We still haven’t gotten any snow on the Cape. So yeah, there’s still that to look forward to. Can you hear my sarcasm?


8. The CAPTCHA system, or ‘proving’ you’re human on some of these websites has gotten ridiculous. I’m all for hitting that stupid check mark to show I’m human. Once I’ve done that shouldn't that be it? In doing some research on an online newspaper archive I had to check that stupid box. Then I started scrolling through the pages of this newspaper when after 5 or 6 clicks that frickin’ box pops up again saying ‘our internal servers think you might be a robot.’ It’s like hey you moron bot, I literally just clicked the box 10 seconds ago. What do you think? That I am an AI that became sentient literally within the last few seconds? There are not enough synonyms for ‘stupid’ to make this make sense.


9. One thing I’ve noticed during my recent times of watching tons of funny cat videos is how many people would rather sit and film their cat breaking something rather than get off their lazy butts and stop them. I have seen tons of people filming while a cat is slowly nudging something fragile toward the edge of a table. They just sit and film and say ‘no’ or ‘don’t’ until the object falls, and breaks, and they get all pissy at their cat. It’s like, hey, it’s a cat. What did you expect? Get up, walk five feet, and grab the glass, or whatever it is before the cat breaks it. You’re not going to get enough views to earn enough to even replace that broken object so use your brain. I guess that’s asking too much.


10. It pays to double-check. I had plans over the weekend to take a drive to the local community college library. I find that when I am there my creative juices really get flowing. I had checked to make sure that the library was open. It said Sundays they were open from 1-5p, great. I got everything packed and ready to go but something told me to just look again. This time instead of a generic internet search I went right to the college website and it said they were closed on weekends. I was naturally disappointed. Then I triple checked. The ‘closed on weekends’ hours start on December 20th. So not only can I apparently not read correctly, I also seem to not know what day it is. I’m one step away from having warm milk and a nap as my height of excitement.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #95: Two Idiots, Northern Lights Part Deux, More Back Woes, etc.

1. How many Amazon drivers does it take to deliver a 3-ounce package? Apparently, two of them. They both walked up to the front door at my work, in the rain, left a padded envelope on the ground, and walked away. They were the first delivery guys I’ve seen in my time there that didn’t just open the door and walk in to leave a package, especially since we were open. Oh, and it ended up being for the business next door. Oh, and they didn’t pull into the parking lot; rather, they chose to block the road. Several people were beeping their horns. Not a pair of Einsteins there.


2. I was at the supermarket and watched while some old lady was scooping chicken nuggets from the hot bar into a container. She decided to just grab another nugget and eat it in full view of me and anyone else. You know, I get it, you’re old and you want to do what you want since you’re at the 1-yard line of life, but I’m also tired of people doing whatever the hell they want while I do my best to actually follow rules. I gave her a dirty stare, but of course, the old bag didn’t care. I guess the ‘no sampling’ sign doesn’t matter to Gummy McGee, or she’s too blind to be able to read it. In that case, she should just have someone else do her shopping for her.


3. I have been grinding heavy with my content work for the past 5 years. It was once I began my podcast that I truly took a turn into being a creator. Before then, I had 5 books published and stuck to that lane as far as chasing a dream of being self-employed. After the podcast, though, I went hard at that, crafting YouTube videos, writing more in this blog, having 5 more books published, and any other form of creativity I could find. It can get tough as all of the work takes time and effort, and the rewards can be slow to come, or not at all. I look for inspiration to keep going sometimes. One person I look to is the host of my favorite podcast, Solomonster Sounds-Off. I’ve been listening to this pro wrestling show since 2012. He just celebrated his 18th year doing his show. The reason he inspires me is that he busted his ass for years, much like I am doing. He worked full-time and spent all of his other free time creating content. Then, a few years ago, he was finally able to quit his day job and become fully self-employed. I’ve reached out to him several times, asking for advice, and he always says it’s about putting in the work and being consistent until you build your audience. This week, I sent him a long email about how he inspires me to keep going. His response was so appreciated. He told me that the fact that I was still going after 5 years told him I had the drive that most others don’t. He told me to keep going, thanked me for my support, and that I had a fan in him. Even if he was just being nice, it means so much when someone who inspires you gives you positive affirmation. I might not be self-employed yet, but I feel like someday I will if I just keep putting in the work.


4. We’ve gotten to the time of year where the weather has flipped from unseasonably warm to unseasonably cold. It went from near 60 with rain one day to 35 with wind chills of 25 the next. Cue the ‘well, it is November’ crowd. Yes, I am nearing a half-century old I have been through the seasons a few times. That doesn’t mean the first cold and windy day doesn’t take some getting used to. I had debated going out to shoot the sunset. Luckily, the clouds rolled in enough to make staying inside easier. That being said, the same exact type of weather day, say in February, will feel much warmer than it did this week. Oh, and the sunset was at 4:25, sweet.


5. So I got this different, stronger melatonin mix with chamomile and lavender and other things. I have been using it to make sure I get to sleep on time. Believe me, this stuff works. 2 gummies and within 30 minutes, I am swan diving into bed. How well do they work? This week, we had a rare and spectacular Aurora Borealis show on Cape Cod. I had popped the gummies before I knew it was going on. Once I saw the first amazing photos come across my social media, it was already too late. I tried to get up to get dressed and maybe go out to try my luck. Nope, my body was like nah, Northern Lights are no big deal, get to bed. I missed the Northern Lights because my new melatonin is so strong.

6. Why is it that anytime I wreck my back, I never have a good story? It’s never ‘I saved someone from drowning,’ or ‘I was hit by a car pushing a baby carriage out of the way.’ Nope, it’s something dumb like ‘oh I turned and bent the wrong way pressing a button and my lower back exploded. That was this week. One of the worst pains. Basically, I didn’t brace properly, and my QL muscle (look it up) seized up trying to stabilize me. This seizure caused my pelvis to be thrust out of alignment. Thankfully, my boss is a chiropractic wizard, among other things, and he realigned my hip, but the pain was still excruciating. I couldn’t bend, which didn’t help since I had a client to train right after being adjusted. Nothing better for a sore back than lifting weights and moving equipment around. I would have gone home early or called out the next day, but the Aurora Borealis were possibly back that night, and I needed to try to make good for missing them the previous night.


7. As far as the actual Aurora Borealis, it was a waiting game that ultimately paid off. With my ruined back, I wasn’t sure how I’d manage to go and look for them. Lucky for me, my buddy Steve’s wife, Amanda, was kind enough to let him borrow her car, which has heated seats. They weren’t a magic cure or anything, but they definitely helped. Our first stop at Bass Hole in Yarmouth Port was a bit of a bust as the clouds dominated. There were probably 20 or so people there, a far cry from the 200+ there last year when I went to watch the Northern Lights. The next stop was just down the road on Wharf Lane. It faces Sandy Neck Beach. Here, Steve and I waited for 45 minutes, not seeing much of anything. It seemed like it was going to be a disappointment. I decided to go and grab a few long exposure shots of this abandoned piece of wharf. I mean, I had dragged my injured self out, so I needed some sort of memento, right? Steve took a photo and was the one to notice the pinks and greens in the sky. Remember, you typically can’t see the Aurora Borealis with the naked eye, but your camera or phone can. Once I saw those colors, it was off to the races. We spent the next 20 or so minutes getting as many photos as we could. It ended up being 2 ½ hours chasing the lights for 20 minutes of action, but the photos and adventure were definitely worth it.

One of several good photos of the Northern Lights.

8. There are very few things in my life that make me as happy as spending a few minutes with my little niece Sylvie before she gets on the school bus. I can only do it on Fridays since I work from home that day, but she always remembers and looks forward to it. This week, I was a little late as I had to hobble myself over there with my ruined back. We took a selfie to send to my mom for her birthday. Then it got better as I was invited to take a drive to Sylvie’s school to drop her off. We had a lot of laughs as we usually do, mostly about how old I am. She gave me a little Wendy’s Frosty toy. I had to remember to take it when I got back since she’d notice I left it and be upset. I cherish these times as I did with my other 5 nieces and nephews, because at some point, she will get to the age that her crazy uncle isn’t fun anymore, and she’ll want to go spend time with her own friends. Luckily, I think I have several more years until that happens, and I will always make sure I have time for her, no matter what is going on in my life.


9. It’s amazing as I sit here to see that the New England Patriots are back. They currently are 9-2, leading the AFC East, headed for the playoffs, and it’s only just beginning. Now I know their schedule is very easy due to only winning 4 games each of the last 2 seasons, but you can only play who is on the opposite sideline. The hype train is crazy. I do get flashbacks to 2001 when Tom Brady was a nobody ‘managing’ the game. Drake Maye is 23, Mike Vrabel is a great coach, they are one of the best teams in the NFL currently, and the crazy part is they have tons of salary cap room. This means as good as they are now, they technically could be only getting better in the next few years. I have to stay cautiously optimistic but it’s hard not to get excited about the team for the first time since Brady left. Oh, wait, I mean, since Brady was pushed out, back in 2019.


10. Dedication to the craft means that, despite having a back injury that had me lying with a heating pad on for days, I still felt the need to scale a 6-foot kayak rack to get a better vantage point for a sunset photo. My back hurt before and after, but in those few moments, it was like my common sense brain shut off, and I climbed up the rack and then used my trusty selfie stick to get a pretty nice photo. Luckily, I didn’t make anything worse, but it is still pretty funny how the part of my brain that senses danger checks out when I am faced with a potentially amazing photograph. Oh, and here it is.



11. I like some good loud music as much as anyone. Maybe I am becoming the old man, but if it’s close to 10pm and I can hear the bass of your music in your car over my TV, then it’s too loud. People are trying to sleep, and these scumbags drive by slowly blasting their music. It’s not a one-time thing either; it’s nearly every night. Maybe it’s not the same people, but it sure feels like it is. They are so much like clockwork that sometimes I feel like hiding in the bushes outside and whipping a rock through their window as they drive by. Oh well, I can at least daydream about doing it, that comes with 100% jail time.


12. On a totally unrelated note, I was surfing around YouTube and I found this insanely funny video. Jurassic Park, but with Pee-Wee Herman as the dinosaurs. Trust me, you’ll laugh.




13. I like dogs, but I love cats. When I am out for a walk, if you are with your giant dog who is aggressively jumping toward me, don’t get offended if I look at you and shake my head in anger. The only thing that stopped that dog from trying to mount me was a car that passed. It sure wasn’t going to be the scuzzy-looking stick figure guy walking it. It’s only on rare occasions that I see these types of people. In fact, on the same walk, I saw several super cute dogs that I wanted to pet, but you know my back is still held together with tape and zip ties.

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 39: Running A Marathon, Being A 1980's New England Patriots Fan, Harpers Ferry WV, 1980's Saturday Morning Cartoons

 

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 14: Introduction to Photography, Why You Should Be Running, Fisher-Price Phonograph, This Week In History

 

In My Footsteps: Trip 110: Foxborough, Massachusetts

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 110:  Foxborough, Massachusetts

February 17, 2011

            When I say the name Foxborough, or Foxboro, most people get an image of the NFL’s New England Patriots.  Why not?  They have been one of the most successful franchises in all of sports over the past decade.  Still, despite that being what most outsiders know of when they hear the name Foxborough there is a lot more to see in this small town.  That does not mean I am not going to gush over my awesome time at Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place, it just means that I am going to tell you about more than just that.

Memorial Hall

            One place that is really cool is the Memorial Hall on South Street.  It is a Civil War memorial but unlike the normal ones that I have seen on the grounds of many town halls.  This one actually looks like a mausoleum and there is the small Centre Burial Ground next to it as well.  The building was erected in 1868 and there is another building based on it situated in Aurora, Illinois.  I was here near sunset so the brown and rust colors of the stones of the building were really accentuated by the orange glow of the sun.  There was a good amount of snow on the ground which made checking out the collection of gravestones a little tough but the overall experience was really neat.

            The Memorial Hall sits directly across the street from the Foxborough town green so of course I took my time to walk around there.  I love the town greens that are a bit circular in design where the cars go round and the buildings create a sort of outline encasing the green.  Foxborough’s green was like that, coupled with the slowly setting sun it was a nice walk.  There are a few memorials along the way and there is also a sign showing the ‘proper’ way to spell Foxborough, even though it is seen both ways.

Paine School(right), Reservoir at Powder House Hill(left).

            An intriguing spot I caught out of the corner of my eye ended up being a good sidetrack.  There were two buildings in the back of a parking lot off of South Street behind the town hall.  The first building is the recently restored Paine School which is all white with two red doors.  It was originally built 1790 and has been carefully brought back to its former glory thanks to tireless work of local businesses and volunteers.

A view from Foxborough's town green.

            Right behind the Paine School is a different looking stone structure on a hill.  It is in need of some repair but was neat to check out.  The snowpack made walking up the stairs a bit of a chore but I made it.  The building in question is called the Reservoir at Powder House Hill.  The stubby granite building is one of the most unique structures I have seen thus far.  It was built in 1858 by the Union Straw Works but the hill originally did house a powder house.  This was when the town decided to stop storing their gun powder in the garret at the Meeting House on Foxborough Common.  At one time there was a windmill which drew power to the odd-shaped granite building that was subsequently sent via gravity to a plant on Wall Street.  There were plans in the early 20^th century to try to use the Reservoir as a museum but those were not possible and now the building sits stoically behind the Paine School.  I am very glad that I happened to spot it out of the corner of my eye as I passed the Town Hall.

             I did my part to showcase the other places Foxborough has to offer but I would not end the article without mentioning my amazing time at Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place.  I had not been to Patriot Place since its opening in 2007 but found its 1.3 million square feet to be quite a sight.  It is an outdoor shopping center complete with streets to walk between stores which is something I had never experienced before. 

            Having been a Patriots fan since I was a kid, including going to many games during their terrible period of the late-1980’s to early-1990’s, just being around the stadium was awesome.  I had a memorable experience getting to have lunch in the shadow of the stadium since football season was over.  I got to enjoy Five Guys burgers and fries for the first time and it blew me away.  I highly recommend choosing to eat there if you haven’t.  It was an hour drive for me to get to Foxborough and that was not too far for me to consider going back up there just to eat at Five Guys again.

The field at Gillette Stadium.

            After eating I got out and took a walk around the stadium area getting to see the immense CBS Scene and the Hall at Patriot Place.  What the Kraft family, the team’s owner, has done is make an area usually only populated from late-August to January a destination year-round.  I even got some amazing shots of the field from a nearby iron gate.  I did my due diligence and asked a guard if I could go out onto the field for a few shots.  He actually thought about it for a moment but the thought of getting in trouble stopped him.  I don’t blame him.

            All in all it was a great time in Foxborough, I will not lie that Gillette was the highlight for me but it was not the only bright spot.  The walk on the town green and finding the Reservoir at Powder House Hill were both amazing in their own right.  I know most visitors will spend the vast majority of their time at Gillette but I do recommend finding a few of the other great places to make your time in Foxborough complete.  Have fun and happy traveling!

For more In My Footsteps items follow my Twitter Feed, view more photos at the In My Footsteps fan page on Facebook, or visit my homepage at ChristopherSetterlund.com.   Thanks for reading! 

Directions:  Gillette Stadium/Patriot Place:  From I-495 take exit 14A for Rt. 1 N.  Follow 4.5 miles, take exit for Rt. 1 S.  The stadium and Patriot Place cannot be missed. 

            Paine School/Reservoir at Powder House Hill:  From I-495 take exit 13A merging onto I-95 N.  Take exit 7B merging onto Rt. 140 N., continue onto Central St.  Follow .6 mi. turn left at Liberty St., take 1^st right to stay on Liberty, take 1^st left onto South St.  Take 1^st left just after the town hall to find both places.   

            Memorial Hall: From I-495 take exit 13A merging onto I-95 N.  Take exit 7B merging onto Rt. 140 N., continue onto Central St.  Follow .6 mi. turn left at Liberty St., take 1^st right to stay on Liberty, take 1^st right onto South St.  Memorial Hall is on right just before town green.

References:  Patriot Place.com       

            Five Guys.com

            Foxborough Official Town Page