Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #69: Allergy Attack, Cereal-Flavored Ice Cream, Crab Party, etc.

1. This week was the week of the revenge of allergies. I typically get hit with allergies twice a year, early to mid-May and late August. This round was likely exacerbated by visiting Hart Farm to buy my mom’s butterfly bush and being in the swirling winds of pollen. Early in the week was the worst. I had very little energy and felt like I was moving through molasses. This is not good when your job is training people. I was practically begging for rain to knock the pollen down.

2. Monday Runday was ruined by my allergies. Sure, I still went but it was all walking while my friend Mike ran around the track. I know it’s more about the camaraderie of friends but I will admit I was disappointed that I couldn’t even run one step. By the end of my 2.5 miles of walking I was gagging on pollen and my throat was coated like I had just done that stupid cinnamon eating contest.

3. I feel so bad for Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. He went down in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the New York Knicks with a ruptured Achilles tendon. He’s already had surgery but will likely be sidelined for close to a year. Granted he’s only 27 and will likely make a full recovery but Achilles injuries suck. In 2012, when I was marathon training I strained my left Achilles, which took 5 months to heal. A strain took 5 months. Plus I had numbness going up into my calf. It was no fun. I was really hoping for a Celtics repeat as NBA champs but as long as Tatum recovers, they will have a good shot at another title when he’s back.

4. There are 2 types of people in this world, those who yell at the self-checkout robot voice in a supermarket, and normal people. These are the same types of people who shuck their corn at the stand in the supermarket in front of the sign that asks them not to. Obviously, you can figure out this is the same person. All I could do was shake my head and feel bad for the people who have to call him family. The guy looked like someone who is a boatload of laughs to be around.

5. So now Kellogg’s have cereal-flavored ice creams? My pants are crying knowing that at some point I will have to try all of them. If you’re curious, there are Corn Pops, Rice Krispies Treats, Frosted Flakes, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops, Fruity Pebbles, Apple Jacks, and Eggo Waffles. If you care about how healthy they are each pint appears to be 600-650 calories so use that info as you wish.

6. When out on a photo excursion to Chatham, I ended up at Cockle Cove, which has a creek that eventually meets the ocean. I stumbled upon a tiny crab colony. The little crabs that are about the size of a quarter and live near the rivers and creeks on the Cape. I ended up shooting way too much video of these crabs, much of it being me trying to get them to stand still. Amazingly, these tiny crabs didn’t like a giant pointing a phone at them. Well, this video tells the story better.

7. A few weeks ago I got my first tick on me, which I only found because it eventually crawled onto my neck. For the second tick interaction this year, naturally, I got 2 ticks on me. I am terrified of this increasing number, especially since summer won’t start for a month. In September, I’ll be mentioning getting 100 on me and that they stole my car afterward.

8. The Outdoor Boys YouTube channel is a fascinating story. It has been around for years but in the last 18 months or so has exploded. Currently, they are right at 15 million subscribers. This week, Luke, the father/main creator of the videos, made a short goodbye video. He has made over 1,100 videos. He said it’s so time-consuming and now with it blowing up he’s got way too many people wanting to meet him, contact him, or just be around him. I’m sure most subscribers will be sad and not understand but as a content creator, I totally got it. I have over 600 videos on my YouTube channel and couldn’t imagine what I’d do if suddenly I had 100x more followers. Sure, it sounds like a good problem but the more eyes that end up on you the more of a chance you take of some weirdo crossing a line. I won’t stop my content creator journey but it does make me think sometimes.

9. I had my first 1,000-calorie burn run in almost a year. 7 total miles in perfect weather. I chose a route where I could end up at Mattacheese Middle School. This is my old school, now closed, that I graduated 8^th grade from in 1992. Next door is M.E. Small School. Feeling good, I happened to go by the playground and there was a giant plastic crate filled with balls and frisbees, etc. On my way back off the school grounds, I was feeling great and decided to stop and shoot some hoops on the basketball court. I also noticed some of the balls were close to the parking area. I figured I’d kick them back toward the plastic crate. One was a kickball, which went flying and made a good sound. The other I think was a soccer ball but it felt like it was a bowling ball. My big and second toes on my right foot immediately hurt. Once I got home I had the pleasure of seeing the black and blue toenails. Mmm, tasty, those will be feeling good for the next week or so.

The facade of my old middle school.

10. Back in March, when I shot my first movie role in Provincetown, I got a lot of content for my YouTube channel. One piece of content was an interview with the cast and crew of the documentary The Old Men Of the Mountain. My friend Frank Durant of the Lady of the Dunes documentary produced it. The documentary was recently finished and is up to watch. I did and loved it. So I figured why not finish off this week by sharing that documentary?

 

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #49 - Night Light, Oatmeal Magic, Gift Wrapping Woes, etc.

1. I was doing a bit of cleaning. More like collecting junk to throw away. I came upon a night light I probably hadn’t used in 10 years. I can’t remember why I got it unless I was afraid monsters would get me when I went to the bathroom at night. It had been sitting with a pile of stuff bound for the trash for days. I had second thoughts and figured there must be somewhere I could plug it in in case it was needed. So I plugged it in. I flipped the switch and the bulb immediately blew out. I don’t know what I was expecting after 10 years, but the night light is now officially in the trash.

2. From the ‘good problems’ department. I got a Christmas bonus this week from my job. My boss wrote out a check. Naturally, I wanted to go and cash it. If you don’t have an account at the bank the check is from you just present your driver’s license and sign the back and you’re good to go. The ‘good problem’ came from the fact that the check was for a pretty nice chunk of change. The woman who was helping me actually had me wait while she left and got on the phone. It turned out she was calling my boss to make sure he had written the check and that I wasn’t some thief trying to fleece him with a forgery. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.

3. A fun little game I like to play includes having my chat window open on Facebook. What I do is look at my friends online, typically 12 names fit without having to scroll down. I then imagine what a get-together including all of them would look like. I wonder what types of friend groups I’d have, whether family would get along, or having to introduce strangers to each other. Hey, it could be worse. I could do that same sort of game but have little dolls representing everyone and reenact scenes.

Getting ready to play Facebook Chat.

4. I waited until Christmas morning to wrap the gifts I had. There was one large gift and the rest were all smaller in size. I decided to wrap the smaller ones first since it would be quicker. Big mistake. While wrapping the big gift, one for my mother, I ran out of wrapping paper. I needed a solution rather than bringing the gift over half-wrapped. My brilliant idea was to use a few promotional posters I was given with one of my books. I put them blank side up and finished the wrapping job with them. Foolish, yes, but also resourceful.

5. Hilarity ensued on Christmas. It began with my sister Ashley’s dog Buddha barking nonstop at our aunt who he rarely sees. This went on for probably two hours. The true hilarity came when it was dinner time. Buddha who had been barking at her nonstop decided to be good and go beg for food from our aunt once he ran out of options with the rest of us. As you can see his hunger tops any stranger danger he might have. Hopefully, no white vans offer him candy on the streets.

6. As many of you know I have been sober for going on 4 ½ years. That fact became a superpower on Christmas Eve. As everyone at the party was getting various degrees of inebriated I was standing back and taking notes on some of the fun and foolish things being said and done. Obviously, they’re all my friends so there (likely) won’t be any blackmailing. Plus I’m staring down 50 in a few years I can’t go acting like a rowdy teen anymore, no matter how young I might appear.

7. I hadn’t been into Vitamin Shoppe in quite a while. In the days before COVID, I was in there a lot for supplements, etc for my own fitness. In the time since COVID, it’s been more of finding things in the supermarket or ordering online. That meant that when I went in and the young girl working asked if she could help me I had to actually ask for help rather than knowing what I was looking for. This could have been dangerous if she wanted to try to upsell me on the most expensive products. Luckily I got out of there with only a few things.

8. I have become a big fan of the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel. It’s a father in Alaska who does lots of cool survival camping sometimes with his three sons. They have nearly 12 million subscribers so a lot of others like them too. Perhaps the greatest thing I have learned from the Outdoor Boys is how good putting butter on oatmeal is. That has changed my world. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it. If you don’t like oatmeal just try it with loads of butter and cinnamon and sugar, maybe chocolate, or peanut butter. It’ll be just like candy, very healthy.

9. I’ve been on a kick of watching Larry Bird highlights. It makes me feel lucky that I grew up where I did and when I did as I got to watch him in his prime. An unintended side effect is my realization of how much I love the old 1980s sports uniforms, not just basketball. Maybe it’s just the old logos but I love the Mavericks and Cavaliers in basketball. The Padres, Expos, Astros, and Pirates in baseball. The Oilers, Buccaneers, and even the old Patriots uniforms in football. They all remind me of my childhood.

10. I’m a big fan of the hydromassage beds at Planet Fitness. It makes my Black Card membership worth it. Anyway, I was next in line for one of the 2 beds. They said a 5-minute wait. I sat down and waited and noticed a man leaving the hydro room. So I went in. For some reason, he had left before the 10-minute massage time was done. Rather than let that go to waste I jumped on and got 3 extra minutes. Then when that was finished the other bed, the one I was signed up for, was ready. So I got 10 minutes there. Before my time was done I saw the other bed was ready to go again. I figured this was for another member but when my 10 minutes was up nobody had come in or was in sight. I debated getting another round of hydro but figured that I’d jump on that bed and someone would show up and yell. So I just left.