Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #91: Weird Sneezes, Hot Dog Head, When Henry Met Henry, etc.

1. Have you ever noticed how some people have odd-sounding sneezes? Like most people typically have a sneeze that sounds like what you’re probably thinking of right now. Every now and then, though, you come across a sneeze that stands out as weird. I was in my car in a parking lot when I heard a man start sneezing outside his car. Well, either sneezing or coughing. Anyway, it sounded like a human/bird combination. I was able to get a good read on it since the guy stayed outside of his car, sneezing loudly for several minutes. It got to be pretty disturbing because of how loud it was. I couldn’t tell if he was sneezing or having some sort of fit. Other people were looking, but nobody said anything. The guy ended up driving away without incident, but left us all with a strange story to tell.


2. It’s interesting how life comes full circle sometimes. In 1999, I’d go to the beach and listen to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket on CD. All the while being inspired to write poetry in a notebook. In 2025, I’m listening to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket streaming on Spotify while being inspired to write poetry in a Word document. From Quarter-Life to Mid-Life, some things still remain.


3. This is a bit of the weird and random stuff that I caused myself. In New England, we got a massive Nor’easter for a good 3 days. In all, we ended up with something like 4 inches of rain in total. I was out for a drive surveying the damage when I got an idea. My car is white, therefore it is almost always dirty. With the rain still falling at a good clip, I got an idea. I decided to stop at the store and buy some cleaning wipes and paper towels. You see where this is going. Since there was nobody else on the roads, I stopped at a park. I then proceeded to ‘wash’ my car using the cleaning wipes, rain, and paper towels. I ended up with a pile of wet garbage that I had to throw away. It wasn’t as sparkly clean like a proper car wash would have given, but all in all, my car looked much better after that. Laugh if you want, I know I did as I realized how crazy I looked. I would have died if someone pulled up and saw this idiot using a roll of paper towels to ‘clean’ his car.


4. Some people are an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Some are just idiots. There is a guy at my gym, probably early 50s. He works out in jeans, whatever that says about him. Anyway, he comes into the gym and exclusively uses the elliptical machine. He makes sure to thoroughly clean the machine before using it, which is great. Then he sweats all over it and never cleans it afterward. What is up with that? To top it off, I passed him at the grocery store, and upon entering, he put hand sanitizer on. I was confused. So this guy cares about getting germs from others, but not about sharing his? Okay, buddy, oh, and your head looks like a boiled hot dog in shape and shininess.

Yup, pretty much like that

5. An update from last week. The cute girl came back into my work. I had a client scheduled while she’d be there. As luck would have it, my client rescheduled to an earlier time, meaning I’d be free when she showed up. She ended up arriving 10 minutes late and mentioned being really tired. So even though I was able to speak to her, I knew I needed to keep it shorter since her appointment was behind. It ended up being good, brief but good. I guess I just have to keep practicing patience and persistence. She’ll be back in a few weeks. That’ll give me plenty of time to have some witty lines and try to make sure my schedule is open.


6. In October, as the weather starts to get cooler, we more often see an invasion at my work. Crickets begin to get inside and set up shop in the baseboards and dark corners. Their chirps echo off the cement floors and can drive you crazy. I began stalking one this week and swore that it was a ventriloquist because whenever I got to where I thought it was, the sound started coming from somewhere else. At one point, it slipped out from a baseboard, and I tried to catch it, but it went right back in and chirped like a jerk in my face. The next morning, I came in and there was the cricket sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor. I caught it in a paper cup and put it outside. It didn’t even try to escape. I wonder if it felt bad for humiliating me the day before and gave itself up?


7. I don’t know if this is embarrassing or not, but I only this week discovered that there are two different cookies, macarons and macaroons. I thought there was just the coconut macaroons, and that people sometimes misspell it as macaron. Nope. A macaron is what looks like a fluffy, soft Oreo in different colors. How is this something I’m just realizing? Next, you’re gonna tell me Hellman’s and Best Foods mayo is the same thing. Or that Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are the same restaurant.

8. While at the grocery store, I bumped into my Uncle Steve, whom I haven’t seen in months. He was my running mentor since he became a marathon runner in his 50s. Now he’s retired from running and work in general, so it has become harder to bump into him. I was caught off guard a little by just how much he looks like my Grampa, just with shorter hair. I mentioned it to him, and he said that he looked so much like his father that people were mistaking them. The only problem is my Grampa died 6 years ago. My uncle joked that people must have thought Grampa’s ghost was haunting the nursing home where he died, which is also where my uncle worked. I laughed loud enough that people started staring at us, but who cares? I always leave a conversation with my Uncle Steve feeling better about myself. I never take that for granted.


9. This week marked what would have been my Grampa’s 100th birthday. I was thinking of him a lot, and when visiting my mom, we shared stories of him. My sister Ashley arrived, and we all were chatting. I noticed the sunset as the pink sky continued to grow. It wasn’t until my mom called for us that we saw the incredible sunset rainbow from the backyard. It had been raining, but never did I think I’d see a sunset rainbow. As we all took photos, we realized how symbolic it was that the rainbow was on Grampa’s birthday. Maybe it was a gift to him, or for us from him, but it made the day even more special.

10. A good chunk of this week’s blog will be dedicated to the When Henry Met Henry short film project. I had put together a fundraiser to allow us to hire cast and crew. This weekend was the big filming day. Being that in total it will likely be somewhere between 6-8 minutes in length it took us about 4 hours to film it. There were 5 of us total at the shoot, and things went as well as we could have hoped. So there’s a little overview.


11. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I had promised to arrive at the filming location, a beach in Wellfleet, with a Box O’ Joe from Dunkin’. Yes, I did that part. As the crew trickled in, half of us walked the roughly 1/3 mile to where we’d be shooting. Only when we got there did one of the crew ask where the cups were for the coffee. Yup, I forgot the cups. Well, in all honesty, the people at Dunkin’ didn’t give them to me, as it was so busy, but I still should have waited and asked. That was my first impression. Hey, how about we all just chug scalding hot coffee from a box? Nah, I’ll pass.


12. Speaking of the location. It was perfect. A very secluded sand dune that went off the beach and into nearby woods. But as you just read, it was about 1/3 of a mile from the parking lot. Not too bad if you’re out for a leisurely stroll, but when you’re lugging equipment and making 3 trips each way, it can become a chore. I ended up walking well over 3 miles in the sand. All I can say is that it was a better workout than many I have had recently. After eating something small at 6am, and doing all of that walking, I was able to eat a big McDonald’s dinner and still was 400 calories below my allotment for the day.

13. They say the greatest accomplishments come when leaving your comfort zone. I definitely did that. I had no idea about directing, producing, or anything like that. I was dropped into the deep end on this film. Our sound person couldn’t make it, so I was tasked with that. I had to learn on the fly. I think I did all right, but it’ll be determined during the editing. While the actors and director were very loose and chatty with each other, I spent a lot of my time listening and learning all I could. My hope is that with each experience in film, I learn more and more until maybe one day I can lead my own project. We’ll see.


14. Oh, and by the way, just because it’s mid-October and summer is long gone doesn’t mean you can’t get sunburned. Take it from me and my red face. Well, except for the whiter areas around my eyes since I was wearing sunglasses. The only good thing about a sunburn in the fall is that the temperatures dropping into the 40s at night make sleeping easier than if it were 70 and humid at night.


15. Fun fact: we filmed When Henry Met Henry on the same weekend as the famed Wellfleet Oysterfest. It typically brings 10-20,000 people to the town over the weekend. Luckily, we all got to the beach way ahead of the crowds, so we didn’t worry about parking. Not too long after, several school buses showed up as they would be shuttling people over to the festival. When we headed out to the shooting location, there were maybe a dozen cars in the parking lot. When we returned at the end, not only was the lot full, but cars were lined down the street. On my drive home, going through Wellfleet, the vehicles were lining the streets in a lot of places. It just shows how luck was on our side with the film.

The cast and crew

16. To wrap it up, I plan on making a video where I go over more of the behind-the-scenes of the making of the film. I decided to get a jump on that this weekend. I was about 7 minutes into recording the video when my recording software froze up and I lost it all. Obviously, I was mad, but what made it worse was that this was the 2nd straight time I’d tried to record a video on that software only for it to glitch out mid-record. I was so blinded with rage that I nearly shattered my webcam slam dunking it on the floor. It took several rounds of embarrassing fail videos on YouTube for me to feel better.

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

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


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




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


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



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


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



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


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


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


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

Initial Impressions 2.0 #2: Life Chapters, Snowbows, Being A Morning Person, etc

#2 - Life Chapters

1. When you stop and really think, it’s amazing just how many chapters your life has. They’re based around certain people, relationships, places, and jobs. In the end, all of them end up shaping you into who you were, are, and will be. You never know when an old chapter will end, or when a new one will begin.

2. The internet went out at work and everything came to a stand-still. I find it funny that I grew up in the 80s and I had no internet access until I turned 18, but even I have no idea what to do with myself if it goes down. I’m not saying I want to go back to only a few channels on TV and the Dewey Decimal System for research though.

3. I was going to check on a person doing some treadmill work and was distracted by the amazing sunset outside. Suddenly I couldn’t care less about the person on the treadmill, they could have gone flying off of it. I needed to grab my phone and get a photo through the trees. Priorities.

The sunset photo in question.

4. I am a morning person, but not an early morning person. There is a huge difference between waking up between 7-7:30am slowly and gently and waking up at 5am hoping that any caffeine kicks in ASAP.

5. I hate when I’m wearing long sleeves and I roll up the sleeves to wash my hands and the sleeves slide back down and get soaked under the water. First World Problems.

6. The other day it was snowing while the sun was out. I was hoping to see a "snowbow." I was laughed at by people at work who thought I was making it up. You know, there are other ‘bows’ besides a rainbow. Snowbow. Fogbow. They thought I was talking about new Pokemon unless those aren’t ‘in’ anymore, then I mean that thought I was talking about (insert popular reference here).

7. One of my bucket list photos I want to take is one of deer on the beach at sunrise. On Cape Cod, this is actually a real possibility. I got so close this week as 4 deer were walking down the road toward the beach I was going to for sunrise. Then they decided to go off toward the woods, sabotaging my great moment. I felt like running after them and trying to chase them to the beach. Or at least buying a few stuffed animal deer and faking the photo.

I want a photo like this, just real and not AI.

8. From the ‘I Was Born Blond’ department. Where I live the washing machine is connected by a switch that you flip up or down to open the hose to let water in to wash the clothes. It is usually in the ‘off’ position. So I went to do laundry and flipped it to what I assumed was ‘on.’ Only when I went back down an hour later to put my clothes in the dryer and heard the washer beeping did I realize I had flipped the switch ‘off’ and the washer had basically been yelling at me to turn the water on but I hadn’t heard.

9. I watched the 1964 driver’s ed short film, Red Asphalt, to review for an upcoming podcast episode. It was definitely a bloody and at times gory scare film. However, I think the horror films I watched growing up conditioned me to not be easily startled so I only had a few moments of being caught off guard, but for kids of the 60s I could easily see this being a shocker.

Viewer Discretion Is Advised

10. It still amazes me after so many years of going to the gym how hard it is for some people to simply clean a machine they use. It amazes me more how angry they get when you ask them if they’re going to wipe their nasty sweat off a machine. I shudder to think about these people’s hygiene in other areas of their lives.

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In My Footsteps: Trip 126: Kittery, Maine

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 126:  Kittery, Maine

October 5, 2011

Fort McClary

            Although it is probably known more for its outlet shops Kittery has a strong historical significance as well.  The oldest town in Maine was originally settled in the 1620’s and became a town in 1647.  Ironically when most towns in the Colonies were being named for towns in England Kittery was actually named for a house.  It was named for the Manor of Kittery Court in Devon, England.  That home still stands to this day.  Of course I am not one to tell visitors to pass up the Kittery Outlets.  Still, after paying a visit to the acres of shops spread on both sides of Rt. 1 there are many other interesting things to see.

The view from inside the Block House.

            I started off my time in Kittery with an amazing old fort.  Fort McClary sits on the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbor.  There is a panoramic view of Portsmouth Lighthouse, Fort Constitution, and Whaleback Lighthouse along with many boats in the harbor during the warmer seasons.  The first fortifications on the site dated back to the late 17^th century and were erected by wealthy landowner Sir William Pepperell.  The fort itself was built in 1808.  It fell into severe disrepair in the early 20^th century.  The state of Maine purchased the fort and the land in 1924.  The badly damaged buildings were torn down.  The surviving buildings including the Block House were repaired in the 1980’s.

            Unlike many of the forts I have visited I was actually able to go inside one of the main buildings.  The Block House, a white hexagonal building built in between 1844-46, was wide open.  It now serves as a museum.  The view from up inside the Block House is incredible.  The vantage point must be more than fifty feet above the water level if I had to guess.  I took my time and enjoyed the views before leaving one fort behind, there was another one that I needed to visit later. 

Rice Public Library

            In between forts I took in some of the other sites that Kittery had to offer.  Although I don’t frequent them I am fascinated by how many public libraries are housed in amazing looking buildings.  That is the case with the Rice Library on Wentworth Street.  The library building looks much like ones I have seen in Easton and Fairhaven, Massachusetts.  The Rice Library has some of the same styles as many other Henry Hobson Richardson buildings despite not being created by the famed 19^th century architect.

            I was particularly excited about my visit to Fort Foster.  Located on Gerrish Island in Kittery this historic site has more than just a fort.  During my trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s Fort Constitution I had noticed another lighthouse located across the harbor.  That was Whaleback Lighthouse and I knew I needed to pay it a visit during a future trip. 

Whaleback Lighthouse on the left at Fort Foster.

            On this day the gates to Fort Foster were closed so I had to park outside and walk in.  Also it had been a beautifully sunny day but dark clouds had rolled in and it began to rain heavily.  I had been planning my Kittery trip for months so a little rain, or a lot of rain, was not going to stop me.  Plus the skies were still mostly blue which made me believe that a rainbow would be possible once the rains stopped.

            People were fleeing the rain while I walked out.  The fort was built in the 1870’s making it the last ‘old’ fort built in the area.  As the rain was still falling I made my way out onto a very long pier.  It was here that I got the closest view of Whaleback Lighthouse.  The fifty-foot tall structure was built in 1872.  The Whaleback name refers to a jagged stretch of rocks, a continuation of Gerrish Island completely underwater at high tide.  Though it is often considered a New Hampshire lighthouse it is located about 1,500 feet into Maine’s waters.

The rainbow which came out while at Fort Foster.

            There is also a unique house situated on some rocks near the lighthouse as well but I was unable to find any information about its significance.  It was while I was standing out on the pier that the rain let up and the sun came back out.  Sure enough a rainbow began to form.  I was able to see the entirety of the rainbow from where I stood.  For a short time there was even a second rainbow which formed.  It made my walk out there in the rain worth it.

            I had an awesome time in Kittery.  The pair of old forts were just what I was interested in seeing.  I highly recommend checking them out even if you decide to spend most of your time shopping at the Kittery Outlets.  The oldest town in Maine has so much to offer and I am so glad I got to see it.  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:  Fort McClary:  Take I-95 N through New Hampshire into Maine.  Take Exit 2 to merge onto Rt. 236 S.  At the rotary take the 3^rd exit to stay on Rt. 236.  Follow it 1.1 miles, continue onto Whipple Rd., continue onto Pepperrell Rd.  Follow it .5 miles, the fort is on the right.

            Fort Foster:  Take I-95 N through New Hampshire into Maine.  Take Exit 2 to merge onto Rt. 236 S.  At the rotary take the 3^rd exit to stay on Rt. 236.  Follow it 1.1 miles, continue onto Whipple Rd., continue onto Pepperrell Rd.  Follow it 1.5 miles, continue onto Tenney Hill Road.  Continue onto Brave Boat Harbor Rd., follow it .2 miles, turn right onto Gerrish Island Rd.  Turn right onto Pocahontas Rd., follow it 1.1 miles, keep right at the fork in the road.  The fort and lighthouse are straight ahead.

References:  The Kittery Outlets.com

            Fort McClary.org

            North American Forts - Fort Foster

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