Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #119: Exploding Brace, Temu Google Maps, Boardwalk Memorial, etc.

1. Sometimes I can anticipate something happening before it does. Despite knowing the possibilities, I still do it. No, this isn’t very serious. I bought a gel knee wrap from Job Lot that can be heated or frozen to help with knee pain. I thought it was a great idea, and it was only $5. I used it the same night. I only microwaved it for 45 seconds. It came out warm but not hot. I wrapped it around my left knee and sat to watch some TV. The gel didn’t really stay warm, so I decided to give it a refresh. In my mind, I was laughing, thinking that the gel might explode. Obviously, I didn’t think it would really happen. So I put the wrap back in the microwave. This time I set it for a minute to try to get the gel properly hot. I walked away and heard a pop. Yup, the gel exploded in the microwave with 2 seconds left on the timer. There were hundreds of little blue gel beads strewn all over the microwave. I had to grab the turntable and scoop the beads into a Ziploc bag. They were hot and kind of slimy, so I had to go scrub the turntable and wash my hands. It was a few minutes of me finding rogue beads on the floor. Needless to say, that gel wrap was returned with the receipt. I also bought a knee compression sleeve, but I don’t think that it will explode if I wear it.


2. Being someone who once prided himself on being a borderline elite runner for a little while less than a decade ago, the fact that someone just finished a full marathon (26.2 miles) in under two hours is mind-boggling. Kenyan Sabastian Sawe finished the London Marathon in a staggering 1 hour 59 minutes and 30 seconds. It broke the men’s world record by 65 seconds. To put it into perspective, here are some stats. Sawe ran the equivalent of a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in an hour. At my absolute physical peak as a runner, I could finish a half-marathon in 94 minutes. That’s a 7-minute 10-second pace. Sawe’s pace for a full 26.2 miles was an other-worldly 4 minutes 34 seconds per mile. Again, at my peak, I could pull off a 5-minute 30-second mile. One mile. Then I’d either start wearing down or just be totally gassed and fall over. He was nearly a minute per mile faster than my best for a full marathon. Incredible. Lost in that accomplishment is the fact that the second-place finisher, Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, also finished in under two hours. He clocked in at 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 41 seconds. Oh, and it was his first-ever marathon.


3. I was eagerly anticipating Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 when it dropped on Netflix last week. It’s an animated spin-off that takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the show in canon. I am already enjoying it because the voice actors all sound almost identical to the original characters. It is 10 episodes, each clocking in around 30 minutes. That means most of you could probably binge the season in an afternoon. Me, I am taking my time. I have a tendency to only watch one episode of any show I am watching per night. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I think this is a great little side quest for anyone who enjoys Stranger Things. Also, based on the timeline of these 10 episodes, I could easily see there being a second season if the Duffer Brothers chose to do so. I will always be longing for a spin-off in the future where Mike travels and finds Eleven by the waterfalls, but this is also good. Plus, it is low-risk since I know none of the characters are going to die, since they all obviously make it to season 3. All in all, a fun, easy, engaging watch. UPDATE: Season 2 of Tales From ‘85 has been announced for this fall.

4. It’s confusing the way that things are monetized online. My blog, the same one this post is a part of, routinely gets 100,000 or more views per month. In full transparency, I believe that the vast majority are bots that have infiltrated my blog since I don’t do any of the CAPTCHA junk. Still, it’s a lot of views regardless. I researched that if you use Google Adsense, as I do, a blog that has 100,000 views in a month should earn at least $500 or more in that same month. As of this writing, my blog has 140,000 views in April. How much have I earned? 40 cents. I have no clue what the deal is. If bots aren’t counted toward monetization, then why are they counted toward my overall view count? Fix it one way or the other. I’m fine with 40 cents if that accurately reflects the number of views on my blog. I see the total, though, and unless there’s some glitch on Google’s end, I feel like I should be earning way way more than I am. I sent them feedback about it. We’ll see if anything changes.


5. I have mentioned before that I have a 12, now 13, year old client I train. I have to basically do the same workout in order to get him to stay engaged. In the end, I’ll typically burn anywhere from 250-350 calories in 30 minutes as I kill myself to make sure he exercises. We chat as we throw medicine balls, and one thing I have learned is that he is very big on computer repairs. He finds and repurposes computers from the dump or ones that are given to him by others. I believe he has something like 6-8 working computers and nearly a dozen that don’t currently work. I made the mistake of mentioning that I had a pair of old laptops at home. He asked for both, and I compromised with one. I didn’t mind giving it to him since it’s been collecting dust in the closet for probably 5 years. My only mistake was giving it to him before the training session started. It was impossible to get him focused as he tried starting the laptop and checking to see what its specs were. He was happy with it and said thank you, but our workout was not great since he was pretty distracted the entire time. Oh, and he did ask again about the other old laptop, but I said I was holding onto it.


6. The brace and wrap for my knee that I mentioned earlier were bought because I’ve had an issue with my left knee that’s gotten a little worse lately. The area where the patellar tendon attaches to the lower leg has been inflamed and is pretty annoying when my knee is fully flexed. The issue is stability in the lower leg. Another product I bought to try to help with that is a strap that is attached right below the knee at the top of the calf. When the strap is on, it almost immediately stabilizes my left ankle. I went for a long walk after putting it on and was amazed by how stable it felt and how confident I felt in it. Maybe it was just a mental thing, and the effects weren’t that great, but who knows? I even tried to do a little running. It was a positive first try. Only time will tell if this strap can put an end to the knee issue, or at least lessen it. It’s just another thing I need to take, or wear, to keep my body running as best it can. Soon, it’ll be a 12-step process just to step out of bed in the morning.


7. I have mentioned before that my new favorite thing is to shoot videos while driving. I extend my selfie stick up through my moon roof and hold it while I steer with the other hand. I only do it on less crowded roads and also only drive slowly. I know it sounds like I’m defending something dangerous. Typically, I film while driving to beaches since people like those videos. One thing I’ve started noticing is the stares I get from people, especially those walking, as I drive by. In fact, a little girl was walking with her dad on one day, and since I was driving slowly, I could see her point and ask What is that?’ It made me wonder what people think is going on with my car when I go by. Do people think I am a Temu version of the Google Maps car? Like, they didn’t want to send the official vehicle to Cape Cod, so they stuck a camera on an old Toyota and asked me to just drive around? As stupid as that sounds, I could see someone thinking that’s what it was. I should get a Google Maps wrap for my car. Then maybe I’d be allowed to drive into private places like Great Island and Oyster Harbors. This is an example of my driving videos.




8. After what seems like a few years of planning, the new Parker’s River Landing recreation area opened this week in West Yarmouth. It is where there was a drive-in when I was growing up in the 1980s. Amazing that I am of that age where I can tell younger people, ‘back in my day this used to be (whatever)…’ The opening day was cloudy and cool, but even with less-than-stellar weather, the place looks great. There is a huge green field for play and probably for festivals, concerts, and things like that in the summer. There is a playground, a kayak launch ramp, and the biggest attraction, which is an elevated boardwalk that extends over the marsh. There are beautiful views of Seagull Beach to the north and Parker’s River to the east. I have a feeling that I will be visiting there a lot in the future.



9. The real main reason I went to Parker’s River Landing had to do with that boardwalk I mentioned. Located out on the boardwalk, there are probably at least a few dozen engraved planks that people bought. One of those planks is in honor of my Uncle Eric. He passed away a little over 3 years ago from pancreatic cancer. My aunt and cousin got the plank with his name on it. I waited until there wasn’t anyone else out on the boardwalk so that I could take my time and search for it. I was torn. On one hand, it is a beautiful spot, and it will be nice to use that area as a place to reconnect with him every now and then in a roundabout way. On the other hand, I’d much rather be chatting and laughing with him at a cookout than sitting next to a plank with his name on it. I made the best of it. I sat and played a song that always reminds me of him for a bit. Other people eventually came out, so I had to cut it a little short. There will be another time.



10. I have been going to my local Planet Fitness gym for many years. In fact, when I first started there, it was called World Gym. Last year, they did a major upgrade on all of the equipment. Before that, you’d have a handful of machines out of order at any time. They added common equipment that any reputable gym has, like kettlebells, bands, BOSU balls, medicine balls, and foam rollers. Yes, for years, they had none of that stuff. I still wish they had more specialized equipment to make my workout more complete. That being said, I was shaking to my core with excitement over the latest addition to Planet Fitness. No, it wasn’t battle ropes, or barbells for deadlifts, or red light therapy. No, it was even better. Little digital advertisements over the faucet at every sink in the bathroom. They are called ‘sinkside billboards.’ Are you kidding me? No money for equipment upgrades, but they waste it on little TV screens that make it so I can’t see where the faucet is at the sink. I guarantee you if one of those stupid things shorted out, they’d have maintenance in there in five seconds. If a machine breaks down, it’s down for weeks. Absolutely one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen.


11. In honor of the opening of the Parker’s River Landing on the former grounds of the Yarmouth Drive-In, I took it upon myself to go for another trip down memory lane. This involved another former drive-in site. The Dennis Drive-In was open from 1949 to roughly 1986 on Hokum Rock Road. Since closing, it has been allowed to become overgrown. Despite forty years, you can still see the asphalt of the parking lot. You can also see the roads where the cars would drive and park with their front end elevated slightly on a hill for the best view of the screen. The peak of treasure hunting comes from looking for the old speaker poles that have been left strewn about the grounds. When I was there, I counted four that I found, but I am sure that in an area that used to be able to fit 600 cars, there are probably more. It’s only when you see one of these poles that you realize what used to be there. Otherwise, it just looks like an abandoned lot where some jerks dump trash. Who knows, maybe someday they will turn that property into something useful. Right now it’s just a scavenger hunt.




12. The first week of May meant it was finally time to get rid of my Halloween pumpkin. You heard right. I still had the mini pumpkin I bought in early October. It was honestly still in good condition, which is why I think I forgot to get rid of it. I can’t just throw it in the trash. Where’s the fun in that? I made a whole short film about me seeking revenge on the pumpkin because it wouldn’t help me shovel snow in the winter. This all culminated in my driving to Scargo Tower in Dennis, climbing to the top of the 30+-foot tower, and heaving the pumpkin over the side. Amazingly, it didn’t explode when it hit the parking lot. I had to come back down and slam dunk it onto the pavement for the full effect. Then it was tossed into the nearby woods to be food for animals. All of this was filmed for some laughs.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #90: Fall Flavors, So Close But So Far, Birthdays and Books, etc.

1. Things I get way too excited for at this time of year: Monster cereals(Count Chocula, etc.), Dannon’s new seasonal Greek yogurt(it’s toasted marshmallow), Polar Seltzer’s new seasonal flavors(blackberry snowflake is amazing), and yes pumpkin-flavored everything. You can bet that each time I go into a grocery store in October I will be leaving with one or more of those things. Seltzer and Greek yogurt is good, boxes of sugary cereal not so much.


2. One thing I have yet to buy is my annual small pumpkin. I get a pie sized pumpkin, roughly softball-sized, and give it some sort of face. Next up is weeks worth of social media posts featuring photos of said pumpkin in various Halloween-themed areas. But of course there is a shelf life for a Halloween pumpkin. The end comes for my little pumpkin is a horror movie way, typically getting smashed or run over. However don’t be said because this ending doesn’t come until the following June. Yes, the last 3 years I’ve had pumpkins they have lasted well into Spring before yes ultimately becoming smashing pumpkins(thank you).

Last year's pumpkin

3. My birthday is in less than a month. I used to create big social media events where friends and family were invited to gather in celebration. Since I stopped drinking 5 years ago I haven’t done any such thing. The meetups used to be at bars. I don’t want to go hang out in a bar as a sober person but I miss those days of getting to see many people around my birthday. It’s like the older you get the fewer and further between such meetups become. I think that’s one of the biggest things I miss as I get older: the accessibility of loved ones. Social media allows you to be able to contact virtually anybody at anytime, but it’s not the same as in person hangouts. If my birthday was in the middle of summer maybe I’d try to set up a beach party. Sadly it’s in November when temperatures are usually in the 50s and the sun sets before 6. It’s hardly beach weather. So I’ll likely just lament not being able to meet up with people for my birthday but it’s kind of par for the course when you give up the waste of time and money that alcohol is.


4. This entry is a bit of a throwback to the original Initial Impressions. Back then in 2010-2013 I had a lot of posts where I spoke about girls I was interested in. They ranged from ones dating d-bag idiots, to ones that I chased for so long I needed to buy new shoes. It was a lot of cryptic posting, no naming names. This is similar in that there is a girl that is a customer at my work that I have always thought was really cute. After a few years of wondering I finally got the word that yes she is single. She stopped in unannounced one day this week and I made it a point to chat her up more than ever before. I felt great. She then came in again the next day. It was a slow day but of course the only time my boss needed me to do something was the time that she was there. So I missed out on the chance to gain some momentum. I was so disappointed. It was like someone had deflated me as I watched her leave without getting to say a single word. On one hand it was embarrassing that not getting to speak to someone I barely know affected me so much. On the other hand it actually felt good to feel deeply again. It has been years of being career-focused and not even thinking of dating. So we’re 1 and 1 since finding out she’s single. She is set to come in next week. That will be the decider. If we get to talk a lot again maybe I’ll pursue her more. If something comes up again and I don’t speak with her I’ll take it as a sign that it’s not meant to be. Stay tuned.


5. When training people at my day job I connect my phone to the speakers in the gym via Bluetooth. I can have my phone in the next room and still be connected. When I get finished training people I naturally disconnect from the Bluetooth. The funny thing is that those speakers can be temperamental. Several times a week the speakers won’t connect to the phone. It’s become a common thing. However I wasn’t ready for the speakers to refuse to disconnect. This week I got done with my training and disconnected the Bluetooth. I know it disconnected because I clearly heard the speakers make a loud beeping noise to signify it was. I got up to do something when I heard another beep. Out of curiosity I checked my phone and sure enough the speakers had reconnected themselves for some reason. I disconnected them a second time but stood around waiting for the speakers to reconnect again. It didn’t happen, which I was actually disappointed by. I kind of wanted that Three Stooges moment with me as Curly going into the gym and screaming at the speakers to stay disconnected.


6. I have said so many times that from Labor Day through the end of the year is my favorite time. There are so many holidays, birthdays, and such. That being said it is still a shock to the system when the first truly cold weather shows up. Waking up one morning this week with temperatures in the upper 30s was no fun. Mid-October is way too early to turn the heat on so you kind of just deal with it. As luck would have it the temperatures rebounded to be in the 60s with lows around 50. Of course it was accompanied by a major Nor’easter, but hey at least it wasn’t snow...yet.


7. There was nearly a cuteness overload during a walk on the bike path. A father was riding his bike with a baby riding in front of him. It wasn’t just on the handlebars or anything, it was safely harnessed in. This little one had to be no more than 18 months at most. They were screaming with laughter, chatting with people passing by, and waving. I know all of this because they passed me three times within a half hour. I was walking a section of trail that cuts through a golf course and I think the father had parked in the golf course lot and was riding just that length of trail. It was so cute and a perfect addition to what was a great early fall walk.


8. This week was the 24th birthday of my niece Emma. She is my middle of three nieces. I feel like I have different connections with each of my 6 nieces and nephews. With Emma my connections start with smarts and humor. She is super intelligent which I appreciate since when I was a kid I was seen as borderline genius level smart. That being said I didn’t go as all out when it came to college as Emma did. I only got a 2-year degree so I have so much respect for her finishing that chapter in the way I wish I had. Also I feel that our sense of humor are on the same wavelength. We are obviously generations apart but I feel she has the same dry, sarcastic wit that my father’s side of the family has. My Nana called it being ‘sharp.’ So if I make birthday cards for her I know I can make them pretty crazy and she’ll appreciate them. Or if I say buy a roll of toilet paper and sign it like a birthday card she will also appreciate that. I am very proud of who Emma is and all that she has done and will do. Of course I wouldn’t mention crazy birthday cards and not share one.

9. I am glad that I have a vivid and strong imagination. That means that I can see a situation clearly so I don’t need to act it out in reality. What am I talking about? While out for a walk I was going through one of my favorite neighborhoods. A few hundred feet ahead coming toward me was a single man walking four good sized dogs. I could see it was a battle for him to control them. All I could think of was what if something startled or excited the dogs? I could envision them dragging this poor guy all over the street, or tripping him as he goes flying into the air. It would have been a great comedy sketch. I was smiling widely as I passed without incident and waved. Lucky for him I have that imagination, and a little self-control.


10. Fun fact: Three people from my high school class are published authors. Yes, one of them is me. Patrick Hinds had a best-seller that told stories of his life called Failure is Not NOT An Option. He is a very well known podcast host of both True Crime Obsessed and The Golden Girls Deep Dive. Nicole Lesperance has had several successful young adult books published including her newest one A Spell To Wake the Dead. She has a series of book signings on Cape Cod in the fall and I was thrilled to go out to one at the Brewster Bookstore to show my support. It was fun to catch up as I haven’t seen her since we graduated. It was also fun being on the opposite side and just getting to relax while she had to chat and sign books for fans. Obviously I linked to those books so you can order copies. I know they’re not the only ones from my graduating class, but I will say that I am very proud to be in this little club of Class of ‘96 authors with a pair of genuine good and nice people like Patrick and Nicole.

11. A major Nor’easter came barreling through New England this weekend. It was set to bring heavy rain and winds gusting over 40mph. Of course I wanted to get in a little run before the bad weather came so that’s what I did. As is tradition I saw some oddities on my walk. Not sure if it was the weather but I came upon an intersection in a quiet neighborhood. There I saw an older man walking his golden retriever. By walking I mean going in a wide circle but never leaving the intersection. I personally saw him make three laps and he was still going as I got out of his sight. I don’t know if he was worried about going too far and getting caught in a sudden monsoon. The rain didn’t end up starting for another hour or so he would have been fine either way.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #62: Blank Pages, Elder Squirrels, Pumpkin Smashing, etc.

 

1. We’re talking genius levels of stupid for this entry. I downloaded this writing software I’m currently using writing this, LibreOffice, for my work computer. It’s free and it’s very much like Microsoft Word. It’s a great program; that’s not the stupid part. No, that comes next. I needed to print something out. I sent the file off to the printer, and when I went to grab it, the pages were blank. I figured there was a glitch with the printer. Nope. It turns out I had the LibreOffice program set to dark mode. This meant that to see what I was typing, I had to change the font color to white. Do you see where this is going? I printed my file out that had white letters, on white paper. Yes, once I figured it out and admitted my foolish mistake, things were fine. But seriously? How did I not figure it out before printing what I thought were blank pages?

2. After the amount of fun and new experiences I had last week on a movie set, it was a bit of a hangover this week. Part of me feels like you do after having gone on an amazing vacation and then having to go back to your same old daily routine. You have this drop in energy and interest, at least for a little while, and you get used to being back at the grind. Another part of me feels like last week shined a light on what I really want to do, my passions. I felt so alive and excited being on a movie set and shooting content for my YouTube channel. It just makes my day job seem so uninspiring and boring. It is not my passion. So now the next step is how I get more of that passion in my life and let go of that which doesn’t fan the flames of those passions.

3. Not sure who was at fault here. I came to a 4-way intersection. I was turning right. In the other lane of the road I was taking, I see an SUV flicking their lights from normal to high repeatedly at the truck ahead of them at the intersection. In response, the truck slams it into reverse and goes back a few feet. They weren’t that close to hitting but it was obviously a stupid and aggressive move. I made my turn but slowed and rolled my window down to ask the driver of the truck what his problem was. He blamed the people in the SUV. Me? It was late, and I didn’t feel like eventually being interviewed by the cops, so I moved on. Before I got far, the truck peeled out and turned left. The SUV quickly followed. I will keep checking police reports as the days go by.

4. I find that no matter how old I get, anytime I see a plain all-white van, I immediately think the driver is some crazed lunatic on the prowl for unsuspecting victims. I am pretty sure that the companies that create these types of vans didn’t anticipate them being the preferred mode of transportation for serial killers and kidnappers, but here we are. Also, I don’t think they should lean into it and create some kind of ad campaign saying 8 out of 10 serial killers prefer X brand white vans for all of their murderous needs. That might not cause sales to increase, but what do I know?

Sure! I'll be right over, and never return.

5. I have signed up on a voice acting website. I figure, why not look for some potential voice-over work in addition to potential on-screen acting roles? The funny thing is when you do your on-boarding you have to list any accents you can feasibly do. I can put together a few words in Irish, English, Italian, Portuguese, and maybe French accents. I didn’t think I was skilled enough to do real voice acting in any of those accents. I panicked, though because you had to choose at least one. Then I scrolled down and saw North American(general), meaning my normal voice. I never thought to look for my own accent, oh well. I can do a sarcastic accent if that helps?

6. It’s spring again. Cue the rampant number of squirrels being flattened by passing vehicles. I have to wonder, if squirrels can figure out how to get into relatively sophisticated feeders, why have they not figured out that the giant things 100x their size should be avoided? Seriously, are there no elder statesman squirrels to share stories of the giant machines on the asphalt? “Back in my day, sonny I nearly was squished by the metal giant, but luckily I survived to share my story with you!”

Things you'd never see.

7. I have finally broken down and bought a mini-blender. This will be used to make breakfast smoothies. I am hoping it saves some money and also works to keep me on my diet. I am trying to be very regimented when it comes to counting calories. This means I have to measure everything I eat. Nothing wakes you up faster than pouring almond milk into a measuring cup and nearly spilling it all over the floor. The first smoothie I made was good but took way longer than I’d hoped to make. I’d say over time I’ll become a smoothie king, but there are already several smoothie chains, so I’ll just stick to making them for myself.

8. I went to the beach as I often do, to enjoy the scenery and listen to a podcast. The lot was mostly empty, and the day was gray and foggy. It made it easier to notice a car with its hazard lights on doing laps around the parking lot. I noticed it do probably 4-5 laps before finally leaving. That was weird. Then, a few minutes later, it happened again. No, not the same car. This was a totally different car driving laps around the parking lot with its hazard lights on. This car did close to 10 laps and was still doing them when I finally decided to leave. It was just an odd occurrence to happen twice back to back.

9. A tradition I have now is doing a video showing me destroying my Halloween pumpkin. I am always surprised at how long a pumpkin I bought in October survives. This year I had a vision in mind of the current pumpkin being tricked into believing it was going to visit its brothers at college. The idea concludes with me backing my car over the pumpkin. The only issue is how wacky it looks setting up the camera and doing dialogue talking to my pumpkin. I had to find a secluded area to pull it off and then hope nobody, especially the police, came by while filming. Not that pumpkin smashing is illegal, it’s just how do I explain what I am doing, especially as a man in his late 40s.

10. If you had told me when I was in my 20s, hell, even 6 years ago, that I’d be waking up voluntarily at 7am on my days off, I’d have wondered what happened to me. Part of it is that when I stopped drinking, I had no real reasons to be out super late so it became easier to wake up at 7, or sometimes earlier. I do wonder though if it is just something that happens as you age. Sure, I could fight it and stay up on nights off until midnight, but my mind goes to tasks I have to do in the morning and I end up in bed by 10:30. At this rate I’ll be waking up at 4am in a few years, and then comes dinner time at 4:30pm. Yikes.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #41 - Cemetery Music, Foxy Meeting, Expired Foods, etc

1. I finally got around to taking my mini pumpkin out to get some cool, creepy photos and videos for Halloween. I went to an area just off the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Harwich. There is a cemetery that is good for running around as it’s a circular road. I was out at sunset walking through this cemetery looking for photos that spoke to me. I was way over at the far end of the cemetery after the sun went down. As it struck the top of the hour a nearby church started playing music for several minutes. It was a perfectly creepy and surreal moment as I had to walk through the cemetery as the light faded and this music played. I loved it.

2. I have seen foxes a lot living on Cape Cod. They are usually scampering through people's yards or wooded areas typically near dusk. Until this week I’d never seen a full-grown and healthy fox just standing in a beach parking lot. At first, I thought it was sick but it was a perfect specimen, like how you think a fox would look. I debated trying to approach it since it stood maybe 20 feet from my car for a good minute. Once I got done shooting a video though it ran off under a fence.

3. If you walk your dog, and it takes a dump, and you put this in a bag, but then leave the bag on the ground, you are a jerk. If I put my trash in a bag but leave the bag on the side of the road it counts as littering right? Why do these lazy selfish entitled dog owners think that putting their dog crap bags on the ground somehow counts as ‘cleaning up?’ Nobody forced you to get a dog, but you got one, learn how to be a functioning member of the human race.

4. Your reminder to always check expiration dates on the things you buy. I mentioned this in a blog post several months back well it rears its ugly head again. This time it was a 4-pack of ready-to-drink protein shakes. They were on sale (now I know why) and I figured why not save money and have breakfast ready for the next 4 days. If I had checked I’d have seen they were expired by a month. Unfortunately, I didn’t until getting ready to have one for breakfast. Needless to say, I had to skip breakfast that day or else risk whatever illness severely expired food could give me. These supermarkets really need to step it up when it comes to removing expired foods so that idiots like me don’t buy them because it’s on sale.

Do these look expired?

5. A surefire way to become my friend is by begging me several times on social media to take you on a photo trip with me. Not only did I have a strange woman essentially demand that I take her with me on a future trip, but this was the 2^nd time it’s happened. I could understand if you are my friend or even someone I’ve interacted with on social media a few times. For a total stranger to introduce herself by saying ‘you need to take me on a photo trip,’ there has to be a screw loose. No thanks, you can keep stalking my social accounts for now, unless a blocking is needed at some point.

6. My speaking events about my books are always fun. No matter the crowd size I do my best to make the event worth the while of those who come out to see me. Sometimes I end up with unique stories from these events. One I had this week was what I could only call an attempted entrapment. Speaking about my Searching For the Lady of the Dunes true crime novel I mentioned that my opinion about who was involved in the murder of the woman later found to be Ruth Marie Terry differed somewhat from what police say. Police say 1 man, her then-husband Guy Muldavin, killed her. I agree he was a part of it but that he probably had 1 or 2 accomplices. In my book, I mention a few potential accomplices but only 1^st names. A man at my event was hell-bent on getting me to give a definitive statement on who I thought was involved. Seeing as how a few potential accomplices are still alive I’d be a fool to point fingers. I might as well just beg to be sued at that point. Nice try guy, and he didn’t even buy a book so the hell with him.

7. Daylight Savings starts November 3^rd when we ‘fall back.’ On November 2^nd the sun rises at 7:15am. One day this week it was cloudy and rainy in the morning. Even though the sun had technically risen it still looked dark at 7:45am. It reminded me of the time when I took a bus from Las Vegas to Hyannis in 2001. We stopped in the small town of Ogallala, Nebraska. Inside the bus station looked like it was straight out of the 1950s. The fact that it was still dark at 8:15am made me start to think that maybe the bus had crashed and that we were all dead and Ogallala’s bus station was purgatory. My lasting memory of that small town was my Nana’s laughter every time she said the name. That was worth the Twilight Zone episode it felt like.

8. This year Halloween was a fun throwback. No, I didn’t go Trick or Treating, although if I wore a mask and pretended I had a sore throat and couldn’t talk I bet I could still pull it off. I always watch the original Halloween from 1978 with dinner. It’s been a tradition for probably close to 20 years This year I watched it at my mom’s house with my sister, nieces, and nephew which was a lot of fun. The actual Halloween scene was also a fun throwback. At first, there didn’t seem to be too many kids coming to get candy. My sister and my oldest niece were outside handing it out since it was 65 degrees at 6pm. As I was getting ready to leave and go home it was like every kid within a 2-mile radius flooded my mother’s street. It was such a great scene of kids everywhere yelling ‘trick or treat.’ I almost didn’t want to leave but I needed to get home to eat and find a different horror movie to watch.

Halloween was fun.

9. On Halloween morning, well before sunrise, I got my annual creepy photo/video shoot. I had to work early regardless so it wasn’t too out of my way to end up deep in a cemetery at 6:30am. With the sunrise close to 7:15 it was pitch black. I rolled about halfway deep into the cemetery and shot a creepy video of me with my mini pumpkin. It was odd yet perfectly normal for me around Halloween. I had to get to work otherwise I might have shot some more video out there. Don’t get me wrong it was definitely creepy but when it comes to interesting content like photos and videos my dedication to the craft sometimes takes over the normal part of my brain.

10. Birthdays in your 40’s are far different than when you’re a kid. Family and friends aren’t all readily available and without meticulous planning, you likely won’t get to see all of the people you want. That said, you have to try to make each birthday feel special, after all, it is a milestone of making it another year. For me, I filled my birthday this week with everything I liked. Foods I liked, visiting my mother, going for a secluded hike. These things are what I enjoy. No more super late nights of drinking. Low-key and fun is what I seek out in life in general. Here's to good things ahead in my 47th trip around the sun!

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #39 - Night Stalker, Greedy Supermarkets, Comet Fun, etc.

1. A bit of a follow-up to a post in the last blog. After the incredible Northern Lights experience my friend Steve and I took a chance that the next night might have some lingering Aurora Borealis effects. We drove along the Outer Cape(Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro) as we figured it’s further north and darker there giving us the best chance to see any colors. We ended up as far north as Highland Lighthouse in Truro. No luck with the lights but I decided to hike out to the lighthouse in the dark to get a few long exposure photos. Steve decided to stay in his truck. I’m walking out several hundred yards and I can hear a couple coyotes which immediately put me on edge. Nothing could prepare me for what came next. I got to the lighthouse and was sizing up a great photo of the lighthouse and the moon when I saw a shadowy man standing a few feet behind me. He says ‘Hey what’s up,’ in this hushed extra creepy voice. I immediately realized it wasn’t Steve and my blood ran cold. He asks about the Northern Lights and goes to look over the ocean. As I am taking long exposure photos I could hear him coming back and I was expecting to get jumped but he said ‘have a nice night,’ and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is until I heard too much rustling to my left and decided I had enough fun and hurried back to the truck.

"Do you think we'll see the Northern Lights?"

2. I think my brain is close to the point of being full. Like I need to upload some memories to the cloud. I went to Cape Cod Community College to do some writing in the library. It’s a great place to get my creative juices flowing. The thing is I was a student there 25 years ago and got an AA degree from there. I have very few vivid memories of my time there. It’s weird how you could spend so much time somewhere but only have a general overview in terms of memories of it. Maybe my brain is filled with so much random nostalgia for my podcast that it’s pushing out other memories.

3. As I get older there are things about becoming elderly that I think about. One is the large number of seniors that I see walking around with their mouths wide open like they’re in a constant state of surprise. Is this due to needing more oxygen? Or losing control of facial muscles? Because everyone gets old so if there’s something I can do to prevent this maybe I should get on it. I already hate flies I don’t want to give them a large opening to fly into.

4. I can see both sides of this argument. Supermarkets charging money for paper bags. On one hand, these multi-billion dollar grocery chains overcharge on the vast majority of their products as it is. Do they really need to gouge people more by charging them for paper bags? Then again on the other hand it’s 10 cents each. You can usually find it on the floor near the self-checkout registers. Also, I have seen people refusing to pay the dime and walking out of a grocery store with armloads of items, dropping something along the way, and getting more and more angry. Me? I have more than a dozen recyclable bags I’ve been using for close to 5 years so it’s not an issue for me either way.

5. Even as the fall weather begins to take hold I enjoy spending time at the beach. I will sit in the parking lot in my car listening to music or a podcast and watching the people and the ocean in general. This time of year it is much less crowded at Cape Cod beaches. Or so I thought. This weekend I was at the beach in the late afternoon awaiting the sunset. The parking lot was maybe ¼ full. Then it was ½. Then it was ¾. What was going on? It was like summer jumped out of the bushes like Jason Voorhees. The parking lot was overflowing full. Finally, I checked online to see if there was some sort of event at the beach. Yup. They were having a bonfire and hundreds of people were showing up for it. No worries though, I drove to another beach and it was all quiet on the Western Front again for me.

Summer in October be like...

6. Another thing that I find myself saying or thinking every year is this. It’s funny how different 50 degrees feels in October compared to February. 50 in October is like oh boy fall has taken hold, soon it will be winter. 50 in February is wow it’s so nice, early spring this year. Every single year.

7. With my last name being Setterlund which is Swedish I am used to people mispronouncing it and misspelling it. I guess I am a bit hyper-sensitive when it comes to places and names I know are being mispronounced. The latest example is an ad I get repeatedly on my Pandora app. On Cape Cod our one Whole Foods in Hyannis is moving down the street into a new shopping plaza called The Landing at Hyannis. On Pandora, they advertise this. However when the woman reading the copy says the name of the street, oh boy is she off. The street is Iyannough Road, named after a Wampanoag chief. It is pronounced Eye-yan-oh. She pronounces is Eee-yin-awe. It was so bad that I stopped what I was doing the first time I heard it in shock. Although she did pronounce Hyannis right which I have heard people call Hay-nis before so I guess there’s that.

8. Fitting that a week after photographing the Aurora Borealis at Bass Hole (Gray’s Beach) in Yarmouth Port I went back there to get photos of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime viewing event so I had to see it before it got too high in the sky and eventually fades away as it gets further from Earth. It is possible to see it once it gets fully dark. I stood on a dock with my phone on a tripod waiting. It got cold, down into the upper 40s while I stood there. There weren’t as many people as with the Northern Lights but still probably 50-60. What was the most fun, besides getting some cool photos of the comet of course, was people watching, or in this case people listening. Someone complained about it being too cold naturally. Several people complained that they couldn’t see the comet and had to be reminded it had to be fully dark. This meant a little over an hour after sunset. A man complained that the comet wouldn’t be where they thought it was to which their wife/girlfriend yelled at him to be quiet and just enjoy the moment. It was a fun time all around but I was glad to get back into my warm car.

9. A bonus story from the night of the comet was the story of a dog. It was low tide at Bass Hole and near the boardwalk is the dock I stood on. The dock stretches out into the water 100 feet or so and has a few small boats tied to it. On this day I noticed something in the shallow water next to the dock. It was an older golden retriever with a white face. It was in the water standing there and every now and then splashing like it was trying to catch something. Everyone out there thought the dog belonged to someone else. We all agreed we’d like to call the dog but didn’t want to get wet and/or muddy. Eventually, we did see the dog’s owner as he toweled the dog off thoroughly before it could get into his car.

10. This week I got my annual pumpkin. What I get is a smaller pie pumpkin a little bigger than a softball. I scribble some kind of spooky face on it and drag it around with me for photo shoots. The biggest surprise to me is how long these pumpkins last. The one I bought in 2023 lasted from mid-October all the way through early June. By then it still wasn’t rotting I just figured it was about time it went to pumpkin heaven.

Initial Impressions 2.0 #17: Never Ending Pumpkin, Nut Job Idiot Day, Coyote Conga Line, etc.

1. Mother’s Day was this past week. It was a great time as I got my mother a nice comfy office chair to help her with her many hours she spends making quilts for friends and family. It was made even better by the fact that I put the chair together on my own. Staples offered to put it together for me for the tidy sum of $60. Ha. Jokes on them, it took me 10 minutes to do. I do think they tried to sabotage me though as I was one screw short in the box.

2. Perhaps the wildest thing that has gone virtually unnoticed by me is the fact that my Halloween pumpkin is still alive and kicking. Yes, you heard right. The mini pumpkin I bought a few weeks before Halloween is still thriving now as we’ve passed Mother’s Day. Part of me wants to take it outside and smash it for a fun video. Another part of me wants to wait and see just how long this thing will last before it gets all rotten.

Still alive and well for now.

3. I guess I was feeling like connecting back to my childhood. Getting ready for the gym I put my shorts on backward. Then after fixing those I promptly put my shirt on backward. All I needed was to play ‘Jump’ and my Kriss Kross cosplay would have been complete.

4. It’s kind of funny how if you’re an adult and you turn on a kids’ show you are kind of like blah it’s baby stuff. However, if you turn on a kids’ show from when you were growing up you’re immediately engrossed in the highly important content it is sharing. I can watch 3-2-1 Contact from the 80s and feel like I’m learning but if I see Blues Clues & You and am like ‘man this is dumb.’

5. I watched a video on how to operate a new piece of technology we have at my work. At one point the man on the video said to sanitize some of the equipment you needed to submerge it in a diluted Hibiclens solution. I’d never heard of it. I actually thought he said ‘Hippie Cleanse.’ And yes I Googled it to see what it was. I thought I heard Google laughing at me once I hit ‘search.’

Not As Seen On TV

6. During the Halloween season I was always excited to see this one house on my way to work that had a 10-foot-tall skeleton in the front yard as part of the decorations. How did this person follow up that great scene? How about by writing some conspiracy theory garbage on his garage doors in black tape. I guess he’s celebrating a new holiday Nut Job Idiot Day.

7. Where I live there is a chunk of conservation land across the street. I tend to see a fair amount of wildlife like deer, turkeys, foxes, and owls. There are also a few coyotes. The other night while brushing my teeth I was looking out the window at dusk. I was sure I saw something walking up the driveway. Sure enough under the window passed a coyote. It was quickly followed by 3 more. They didn’t just pass through though, they were making tons of noise scurrying around in the leaves and bushes. Hopefully, no neighbors had pets outside. It’s like ringing the dinner bell.

Dramatization, the coyotes did not conga line through the yard.

8. A pet peeve I’ve had for a long time is when people grab some sort of food, whether a bag of chips in a sub shop, or like I saw today a bag of mini muffins, and begin to eat them before paying. Are you really lacking self-control so badly that you can’t even wait to pay for what you grabbed? You know there are people like that who eat some of what they grabbed and then don’t pay for it.

9. What would be worse? Talking to someone like they don’t understand what you’re saying? Or talking to someone like they should understand what you’re saying? I go back and forth when it comes to either speaking how I normally would or dumbing things down. I don’t want to over-explain something and make someone feel like I think they’re stupid, but I also don’t want to under-explain something and then make them feel bad if they don’t understand. It’s actually something I think about a lot when explaining technical health and fitness things to people.

10. I’ve had my car for 10 years. It’s been paid off for 3 ½ years. I’m hoping to have it for at least another 5 years to get to over 250K miles. I think it’s finally time to step up my bumper sticker game with it. I’m not saying I want 100 covering every inch of the back, but a couple dozen might be on the way. Nothing says class like tons of bumper stickers!

11. A beach near where I work has a bit of pavement that runs from the parking lot to the start of the beach. It makes the walk to the sand a little easier. On a fence post is a sign that tells you no vehicles are allowed on this 40-ish foot-long paved area. Because of course, some people are so stupid that they would see that and think it’s just another road. These are the same people who would do the stunts you see in commercials so advertisers have to put ‘do not attempt’ on the screen to avoid being sued by morons.

Because yes, people are that stupid.

Initial Impressions 2.0 #8: Younger Self, Bike Trail Police, A Fistful of Supplements, etc.

#8: Younger Self

1. I have been recently wondering if it was possible to go back in time 30 years and talk to my 16-year-old self how that would go. If I told myself what I had done, what I had been through, and what I had accomplished thus far in life would my younger self tell me he was proud of me? Or would he ask me what the hell happened to me? I wish time travel was real because I honestly don’t know what the answer would be.

2. I bought a small pumpkin for Halloween in the second week of October. Here we are nearing the end of March and it is still going strong. I’m torn between getting rid of it soon, or waiting it out and seeing just how long this pumpkin will last. At least it’ll pass Easter no problem.

The pumpkin in its younger days in October 2023.

3. It wouldn’t be Cape Cod if the weather didn’t immediately get colder and more rainy as soon as the calendar said it was spring. Sure we could have blooming flowers but here, have cold drizzle and fog, that’s way better.

4. It will always be funny to me the amount of people who go through self-checkout in any store and get super irritated at the machine when they do something wrong. I want to suggest they go to a register with an actual human since self-checkout is obviously too much for them, but then I’d miss them swearing and slamming items down.

The anger is real.

5. If a dog owner picks up their dog’s crap and puts it in a bag but then leaves the bag on the ground have they really cleaned it up? By that logic, I should be able to leave bags of trash everywhere as long as the trash is in the bag.

6. Parts of the bike trails on Cape Cod now have 15mph speed limit signs. Yes, speed limit signs on a bike trail. Yes, I get it, kids and families use the trails and shouldn’t have to worry about people whizzing by super fast. But, if someone is ‘speeding’ on the bike trail what exactly happens to them? Are there bike trail police that will pull you over? I haven’t seen any yet if there are.

The chase is on.

7. A common phrase I find myself saying over the last few years is ‘I can’t believe (blank) was (how ever many) years ago.’ It must be the mid-life crisis talking. I wonder if someday I’ll say I can’t believe how long ago I wrote this blog.

8. I saw one of the absolute worst people ever at Market Basket. This old angry jerk yelled at a woman for going down the ‘wrong side’ of the aisle, then proceeded to call her a ‘woman driver.’ Then in the next aisle over he yelled at a man for ‘blocking the aisle’ as he was in the process of shopping. This scumbag was with a woman too who just let him harass everyone he encountered. I hope someone punches his lights out.

9. In my teens I’d pour a pile of M&M’s into my hand to get a sugar rush. In my mid-40s I pour a pile of vitamins & supplements into my hand just so that I can feel halfway decent. It’s more funny than anything because even though I think I am in much better shape than the vast majority of people my age I still need my multi, glucosamine, fish oil, probiotics, vitamin C, etc.

Sad but true

10. Getting old really sneaks up on you. One day you’re going off crazy jumps on your BMX bike, the next day you’re buying socks and a new broom and being very happy at that fact. Boy, life comes at you fast.

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