Say Yes, And Figure It Out Later: An Unexpectedly Wonderful Event

Say yes, and figure it out later. That is a phrase I have heard a lot over the years when it comes to opportunities in life. Typically it refers to a job, but for me it refers to a speaking event.

This week I was part of an event that could have easily gone sideways, and in the back of my mind I figured it would. The Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis reached out to me last week on Tuesday. They had an event scheduled for Thursday, August 13th. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, their speakers dropped out. One even said something like, ‘I’m old, I just can’t.’ That’s a great way to honor your commitments.

I received an email asking if I could step in on short notice. I wouldn’t be giving the same presentation as the people who bailed, though. I was asked to create something.

I hesitated, but when they said that Don Wilding, who I consider the gold standard of Cape Cod history, recommended me, I was in. I didn’t want to disappoint him, the maritime museum, or the people who had already spent money to buy tickets for the event that night.

So I said yes, but that left me with an issue: I had one week to craft a totally new presentation. They gave me a bit of leeway. The only parameters were that it needed to fit into the Roaring Twenties motif of their lectures during the summer of 2026.

Luckily, a few years ago I had crafted a video about what it was like to have a summer vacation on Cape Cod a century ago. That was for 1923, but it was not that much of a leap to change things up for 1926.

Although I had the subject, I still needed to do a lot of research and spend hours putting together a suitable presentation and copious notes. I needed to make sure the talk included details about specific Cape Cod places from back then, like restaurants, hotels, and events of the time. By the time I was done, I had forty slides in the presentation and 3,000 words worth of notes.

Despite being really happy with my work, I knew that there could still be issues. I felt good about what I would be speaking about, but would it matter? People had ordered tickets for a certain event. Now that it had been changed to something totally different, what if they didn’t want to keep their tickets to see me? What if sales of tickets for my presentation were terrible?

I have written ten books. I have spoken at many dozens of events over the years. Even at my highest of highs, I still get imposter syndrome. It’s that voice in the back of my head that tells me that I don’t deserve good things, or success, or love, or happiness, or whatever. It’s a fear of being found out or exposed even though it's usually totally unfounded.

It was too late by the time August 13th rolled around. I had committed to the event and done the work of creating the presentation. I would not bail like the other people had. I remained cautiously optimistic but still kept hearing in the back of my mind that it might not be as good as I’d hoped.

The drive to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum was a wash of summer traffic and a passing severe thunderstorm. Would the weather play a factor in turnout?

I arrive at my events forty-five minutes early. There was an event at the Cotuit Library years ago where I got stuck in traffic on the way and arrived five minutes before my start time. I walked in, and the people were waiting. It already looked bush league.

Then, on top of being nearly late, the cables to connect my laptop to the projector were malfunctioning. It was a nightmare. In the end, I believe I started speaking fifteen minutes late. I vowed to never let that happen again, and it hasn’t.

The staff at the museum were so grateful to me for stepping up. I had never been inside, so I loved getting a behind the scenes tour. Anybody who enjoys boats, sailing, maritime history, anything like that, I highly recommend visiting.

Naturally, because I was so early, everything was set up in record time with no hiccups. My cautious optimism turned to overjoyed excitement when I got the news. Not only were the pre-sale ticket people coming, but the entire lot of seats was sold out. On top of that, there was a standby list of people waiting just in case seats opened up. That’s right, my event had a waiting list. It was a first-ever for me.

I set up my books on a table and gathered my notes on a clear hard-plastic podium. One by one, staff members came up and thanked me for being there. I admit I felt a little pressure, wanting to be worthy of all of the praise.

Once the setup was done and all of the pleasantries exchanged, all I had to do was wait. The Maritime Museum holds events in a really neat, rustic downstairs library overlooking the harbor. It was so packed with chairs that I was wedged in a corner behind the podium.

While awaiting the people, I looked around. In an interesting twist, the very first book I spotted was one about Gurnet Point in Plymouth. It’s meaningful because my buddy Steve’s family has had a cottage out there for a century. I snapped a photo to send to him later.

That was another interesting shift. I tend to take a few photos or videos before the event to share on social media. On this day I didn’t have time. People began coming down the stairs, and it was showtime.

This was a History on Tap event, so Cape Cod Beer donated some drinks for people to enjoy. I had a nice lemon seltzer. August 13th was my 2,162nd day alcohol-free, with my 6th ‘Soberversary’ coming September 12th.

People filed in with their plastic cups of beer or wine and stared at the title slide for the event. Not wanting to just stand there, I engaged with people sitting nearby. Slowly the seats filled, and voices echoed off the old wooden floors and walls.

I was mic’d up, but only for the recording of the event for the museum and not to be heard over the crowd. Having come up in the restaurant industry, I had learned how to project my voice, so being heard has never been an issue.

As we began, there might have been an empty seat or two, but it was a nearly full house of somewhere between fifty and sixty people. So they had shown up. Now it was up to me to be worthy of their time and money.

Yes, I might have needed to basically read my notes like a script, but I spoke of Olde Cape Cod for forty-five minutes. I loved hearing the sounds people made at each new slide. Some featured old photos and postcards of places they either remembered or had heard about.

When I finished my talk and asked for questions, the applause echoed off the walls. It had gone better than I could have hoped for. The Imposter Syndrome retreated, at least temporarily. I also realized that saying yes to something a bit out of your comfort zone is good. While it is good to keep the worst-case scenario in mind, it also rarely ends up happening.

I answered questions for another twenty minutes, never wanting it to end. After the event unofficially ended, people came up to buy books, thank me for stepping in, and overall wish me well. I felt validated.

I have always been an introvert. Writing books forced my hand into becoming a public speaker. People are usually shocked when I tell them that after an event. Now I have confidence while speaking; it tends to be everything else surrounding the event that gets into my head.

The guests made their way upstairs, or into the next room to see some genuine boat building going on. Soon it was just the three remaining staff members and me. The event had not only drawn in regulars, but it had brought in people they said they’d never seen come to a lecture. I will stay grounded and say it was the interesting topic rather than the interesting speaker.

As things began getting put away, the staff at the museum asked if I’d want to come back and do another presentation. Of course I said yes.

The plan now is to do an event in January. It is likely going to be a return to the Lady of the Dunes murder case that was such a huge part of my life a few years ago. For that one, I will not need to create a whole new presentation.

In the end, the event turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. I left the museum feeling grateful, validated, and a bit overwhelmed at the support I got.

Driving along the busy Route 28 as the sun began going down on a warm summer night, I felt the urge to stop somewhere. I chose Englewood Beach in West Yarmouth. It was, and in many ways still is, the spot I most associate with my Nana.

I felt like being in that setting, reveling in such a successful event, and in a small way sharing the good vibes with my Nana. Sure, the stress and worry felt a bit pointless after the fact, but you never assume anything until it’s over.

That’s a little look at what ended up being one of my favorite events of my writing career. It shows that sometimes you just need to say yes and figure it all out after. It also gives me growing confidence that if I do say yes, things will turn out as good as or better than you might expect.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #110: Blizzard of 2026, Power Outages, Odd Captions, etc.

1. The Blizzard of 2026 came roaring in late Sunday night. By sunrise on Monday morning, we had power flash off several times, but luckily, it always came right back on. The funny thing was that I sleep with a white noise machine on, as I am a very light sleeper. Each time the power went off, the machine stopped, and I immediately woke up. The machine has several different sounds to sleep to. The default is running water. So when the power came back on, I was greeted with running water sounds. I would switch it back to the white noise only for the power to go back out a few minutes later. After doing this two or three times, I gave up and left the running water noise on. The white noise machine became my canary in the coal mine during the day. Since I didn’t need any lights on, I knew if that machine stopped, we had lost power.


2. Fittingly, during the day of the blizzard, I got nostalgic and watched a video I had shot with my camcorder of a blizzard we had on Cape Cod in 1996. That one was in the first week of January during my senior year of high school. We had 21” of snow from that. It was wild to see my siblings and me out shoveling during the peak of the storm near 11pm. We also scaled our roof with a ladder. Mind you, I was the oldest at 18, the rest were younger. It was a different time 30 years ago. While watching my brother and me driving around town during the storm in my mother’s blue station wagon, I noticed a few things. First, I was way more reckless with driving, doing fish tails, donuts, and getting stuck in snow banks. Second and perhaps more shocking was how much of an accent I had back then. Not sure if it was a conscious effort to speak without the Cape Cod accent once I started doing author events, or if it’s just something you can lose over time. It’s amazing how fast 30 years can go and not really feel like all that long.


3. One of the silver linings about the blizzard was that I could use shoveling the snow as a workout. I set my Fitbit up and got to shoveling during the height of the storm, around 12:30pm on Monday. It was hard-packed, cement snow, probably over a foot by that time. Despite it being heavy, it was not terrible to shovel since each scoop stayed on the shovel. I shoveled for about 70 minutes and clocked in roughly 715 calories burned. I felt really good about that and was looking forward to a hot shower and a bit of rest while the storm raged on. That was not to be though, as once finished shoveling, I found out that the power had gone out while I was outside. No shower, no hot food, just sitting in silence, slowly draining my phone’s battery. I guess I was foolish to think that power would stay on during one of the biggest storms in recent memory.



4. In total, it was close to 75% of Cape Cod that lost power during the blizzard. I believe at one point, the entire Outer Cape (Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown) was without power. I always say that at my age, I am old enough to remember growing up without the technology of the internet and smartphones. It was not some sort of a challenge, but we ended up there anyway. Unsure of how long power would be out, I tried to prolong the life of my devices as long as possible. I had a portable battery called PoweRocks that my mother had given me years ago. Smartly, I charged it before the storm. I used that to prop up my phone’s battery. Once it died, I plugged it into my laptop and drained that battery to slowly recharge the PoweRocks and my phone. When all else failed, I’d go sit in my running car with my phone plugged in. Surprisingly, that didn’t give me as much of a charge as I’d hoped. It was a game of musical chairs with my car, phone, laptop, and portable charger as I tried to keep some sort of connection to the outside world while the blizzard raged and then crews worked to restore power.


5. While out getting the lay of the land the morning after the blizzard, I had a fun adventure with my youngest niece, Sylvie, who lives nearby. I was out filming a video where I stood in a fresh snow drift to show people how deep the snow was when she spotted me. She was able to convince me to go for a walk with her mother and their dog through their neighborhood. It doesn’t take much convincing, though. My mother typically says Sylvie is my boss and can get me to do pretty much anything. The neighborhood we walked in wasn’t plowed at all, which made walking a chore. It was a fun time though, as Sylvie enjoyed diving into the snow and asking me to come and rescue her from it. Eventually, I offered to give her a piggyback ride back to her house. By this point, I had helped do a 2nd shoveling of the driveway on an empty stomach, plus done the walk, so I was tired. If I could have gone back to bed at 8:30am, I would have. Sylvie wanted me to hang out at her house, but I wanted to go home and collapse into a chair. She’s very convincing, but I had to say no. It’s hard because she’s smart and remembers everything. If I said I’d be back later, she’d hold me to it. I had to actually go home and relax, otherwise she’d call me out on it.



6. In total, we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 18-20” of snow on the Mid-Cape. The jackpot was a stretch from Plymouth, MA, down into southwestern Rhode Island. There, they got something like 3 feet of snow. The Blizzard of 2026 was breaking records set by the legendary Blizzard of ‘78. We had wind gusts of 80mph on Nantucket. I think Cape Cod got spared in terms of major beach erosion since the storm’s peak was during low tides. That being said, the videos of the Scituate shore were awful as they typically are during big storms. I have seen countless such videos of huge waves crashing into the sea walls and spraying into the air as high as the roofs of 3-story houses. I love Scituate, but it has to be a blessing and a curse for those who live there. You get beautiful scenery and shorelines, but also the threat of major beach erosion and storm surge damage. As of writing this entry, I believe that more than half of Cape Cod is still without power. It came back on where I live in the middle of the night after about 40 hours of darkness and cold. As I mentioned above, my white noise machine was my canary in the coal mine. I heard it turn on and checked the time. I hope that everyone else gets their power back soon. It’s no fun sleeping in a 55-degree room.


7. Once fully shoveled out, and once I felt the roads were passable enough, I took a little ride. I needed to try to charge my phone, so I figured rather than sitting in the driveway in my car, I’d go see how the area looked. It was an adventure for sure. The roads ranged from passable to totally unplowed. I drive a sedan, so my adventurous side is determined by whether my car can make it. I was more than willing to walk through deep snow to get cool photos and videos. The problem was finding a place where I could park. There was also the issue of downed trees and power lines. There were a few detours caused by trees across the road. I didn’t dare try to get any footage while driving, otherwise I’d end up in one of those ‘idiot driver’ fail videos. In the end, I went and grabbed some food at a supermarket that was open and called it a day. With no power for several days at my work, it left a lot of room for further adventures later in the week.


8. The difference in when certain areas of Cape Cod got their power back meant that, despite getting power back at 4am Wednesday morning, a lot of other places did not have it back. One such place was my work. I ended up with an entire week off from work. It wasn’t planned, and I couldn’t really enjoy it since half of it was under storm conditions. With half of the Cape not having power, all I could really do was sit around and relax, which is not my favorite activity. It’s amazing the luck of the draw where a select few never lost power during the blizzard, others (like me) got it back in a day and a half, while more had to wait 4 or 5 days. There was really no rhyme or reason, but it made me feel like I needed to apologize to those who had longer durations without power, like I had somehow paid off the power gods to give ours back sooner. You’d see a handful of people on social media saying it ‘must be nice’ to have power when, in reality, it was totally random.


9. After a long and cold winter, it’s amazing how good 45 degrees feels. I immediately grabbed my fall jacket to head out into the sun. As bad as the blizzard was early in the week, having several days of temperatures in the 40s did wonders for melting the snow. It also did wonders for the psyche of a lot of us in New England. It honestly has felt at times like winter was never going to end, but now hopefully (knocks wood) the worst is behind us. Those who live in warmer climates wouldn’t understand when we get a 40+ degree day and drive with our windows down and start drinking iced coffee. Yes, we’re kind of crazy, but in a charming way.


10. With my content being more visible on Instagram and TikTok in the last month or so, I am starting to try to put a little more effort into my videos. This means taking a few b-roll shots, doing camera cuts, and trying to turn a 90-second to 2-minute video into a short film. Sure, it might not make much of a difference in the long run, but it actually is fun and gets me some practice in a director’s sense and a layout sense. This video of the damage at Town Neck Beach in Sandwich is an example of what I’m talking about.



11. As I have said many times, when it comes to photography, I practice something called dedication to the craft. That is the idea of getting the photo you want, even if it means disregarding your own safety. Obviously, my risks are calculated, but they are still risks for a good shot. The older I get, the more my practical side starts to take over. I have always seen a few moves ahead in life, and now I have found that seeing those moves can stop me from doing something stupid. For example, and obviously you knew there was an example, this week I went shooting down in Chatham. While at one location, I noticed in the distance on a deserted stretch of beach, there was a grounded boat. I immediately knew I needed to get closer to it. I went to a place called the Monomoy Wildlife Refuge. It’s way out in the boonies of Chatham. From there, I could see the boat and knew a route I could take to get pretty close to it. Sadly, the last few years have seen this location decimated by erosion to the point where there is no beach access from it anymore. Well, technically. Here is the seeing moves ahead part. There is an overlook where you can see the ocean, but the stairs that used to lead you to the beach have been removed. If you walk to the edge of the bluffs, it’s probably a 10-15-foot drop down to the beach below. A few years ago, I’d have jumped off the bluffs, walked the beach, and gotten some sick photos and videos of the boat. Today though, the idea of jumping in the snow and sand and then trying to figure out my way back to the parking lot, all while hoping nobody who lived on the bluffs saw me and decided to make a scene, was all too much. If it hadn’t been winter, I’d have walked to an access trail a half-mile away, but the temperature and time of day wouldn’t allow it. I had to settle for a video from a distance, lame.


12. I like putting captions with all of my videos on social media. It helps people who might not be in a place where they can play a video with sound. As you’d expect with AI deciphering my words, there are lots of inaccuracies, specifically with proper names and locations. This week, I shot a video at the Cape Cod Canal. While I was there, a helicopter flew overhead, and I got a fun shot of it. When I went to add captions to the video, I noticed odd words appearing. While uploading it to TikTok, I noticed a few Arabic words in my captions. Then, when I put the same video up on Instagram, I noticed the phrase ‘oh my god’ was randomly thrown in. It took me a moment to realize that the AI was trying to make words out of the helicopter sounds. So apparently TikTok thinks helicopter noises sound like Arabic, and IG thinks they sound like someone crying out, ‘oh my god.’ Both random and funny at the same time. I did momentarily debate leaving those captions in, but ultimately took them out.


13. I got lucky and experienced a classic Cape Cod sunset on the tidal flats this weekend. All of the ice had melted away, and it looked like it does in the summer. I had a great idea. I would shoot a killer time-lapse video of both the tide rolling in and the sun setting. I used my selfie stick, which is also a tripod, and set my phone up probably 6-7 feet away from the water’s edge and let it roll. I had hoped that the water wouldn’t come in too far before the sun had dipped below the horizon. I watched the video recording, and the water rolled in. It started lapping at the tripod, but I held firm. It began trickling past the tripod, but I wouldn’t relent. I held out as long as I could, but once the water was 5 feet past the tripod holding my phone, I had to rescue it. If I had waited a few moments later, I don’t know if the water eventually would have knocked my phone over. The video was amazing, though. Probably 5 minutes of filming for less than 30 seconds of time-lapse.

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 #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 #102: Winter Storm Names, Stranger Things, New Year Intentions, etc.

1. I still don’t understand the point of naming winter storms. As of this writing, there is a Winter Storm Ezra coming toward New England. Like, who cares if it has a name? Did meteorologists feel sad that only hurricanes were getting names? Also, does anyone remember any winter storm in the last few years by its name? I sure don’t. What’s next, naming every day after someone? Oh man, look out, Partly Cloudy Pete is coming today. In 20 years, I’ll tell the younger generation ‘You should have been there for Foggy Drizzle Dan, it was so mildly inconvenient. Then again, every day is International (something pointless) Day, so I guess naming winter storms tracks.


2. Currently, I am on a holiday break from my day job. We do it each year from Christmas to New Year's, basically because the one year we didn’t, our schedule was maybe half-full, and my boss rightfully didn’t want to pay us full-time to be standing around half of the day. I’ve been using the free time to work a lot on content and also hit the gym more in advance of any New Year’s resolutions. That being said, I could tell my body was starting to wear down with how hard I was working out at the gym. It got to a point where my Fitbit had to basically order me to take it easy. Yes, Fitbit, whatever you say. I will gladly take a day to sit and relax. It didn’t hurt that the day it told me to chill, it was 25 degrees and windy out. Much easier to relax when the thought of going outside is too much.


3. This was a sure way to kill the mood of a day. I wanted to do some work on my script for my film that will shoot late this summer. Rather than sit at my desk as I always do, I decided to head to a local library. Typically, I get good creative vibes from writing at a spot different from home. Well, I should have just stayed home. I drove all the way to this library, and it was packed because it’s school vacation week. That was no big surprise. I went in and found a desk in the back corner and unpacked my laptop. I noticed they had new chairs. These were brightly colored and padded but also very low to the ground. As soon as I sat in the chair, I knew I’d never be able to work there. The desk was basically chest height. It was ridiculous. No more than 30 seconds after sitting, a big fat guy with headphones sits at the desk next to me. His being there was no big deal until I heard the music. This jerk had his music so loud in his headphones that I could clearly hear it, and it was distracting and obnoxious. I sat for maybe 2 minutes before being so aggravated that I packed up my stuff and left. It took me longer to drive to the library than the time I actually was inside. What an absolute waste of time. All it did was piss me off to the point that I no longer wanted to write.


4. One thing I have been doing for my Patreon subscribers is remastering and sharing these livestreams I used to do for my podcast. About 4 years ago, I was going live on Instagram weekly and doing something called Without A Map. I’d review the most recent podcast episode and invariably go wildly off-topic into fun and wacky stories. I fix the audio, edit any dragging parts, and enhance the video to make it a better experience for my subscribers. I had been downloading the original videos from YouTube to edit. This week I went to grab the next in line and noticed it went from #10 to #12, no #11. I also noticed my Without A Map playlist only went up to #28 when I knew I did way more. I wasn’t sure what to do since, after the streams would end, I’d have to save them to my phone and then upload them to YouTube. What happened to the other streams? Luckily, a little research showed me that all of those ‘lost’ streams had been bundled in with my reels on IG. I was able to go into my archives and find #11 and download it. Oh, and I ended up doing 49 streams in total, so there’s plenty more content to come for my Patreon subscribers.


5. I headed out after dark one night this week to grab a few quick things at the store. I had barely taken a few steps and was reaching for my keys when I noticed something a few feet beyond my car. Then I noticed another, and another. 3 big shadows sneaking across the neighbor’s yard. It took me a moment to figure out that they were deer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough getting my phone out for a photo. Even if I did, it was dark, and it would have either been blurry or the flash would have lit up my car. It was shocking for sure to suddenly see 3 fully grown deer emerging from the shadows. They went across the street into a small conservation area. That conservation area is a haven for deer, coyotes, foxes, turkeys, and owls. I haven’t gone down in there to find out; it’s just that there are way too many of those animals lurking around the yard, especially in the warmer months. Now I’m going to have to be at the ready with my phone anytime I go out after dark in case the deer are hanging out again.


6. The finale of Stranger Things was an amazing and fitting ending. The show was 5 seasons of a trip back to my childhood. Granted, I would have been younger than the main cast when the events were happening in the 80s. In fact, for those who know the show, I was the same age as Holly and Derek and their crew. I won’t spoil things for those who will be watching, especially since it was literally New Year’s Eve when the finale premiered. It must have been watched by a lot of people since Netflix was glitched out for several minutes when the show went up at 8pm. Stranger Things had so many wonderful characters and actors playing them. We got to watch them literally grow up before our eyes. The thing is, for as beautiful as the ending of the show was, it was ever so slightly traumatic for my GenX mind. It was like reliving my childhood, yes, but then it was also like watching my childhood slip away all over again. I don’t think I was ready for that, and judging by social media, a lot of my GenX brethren weren’t ready for it either. So at least I am not alone. I will miss new episodes with the killer 80s music, product placement, and references that people of my generation understand. Rumor has it that there are at least a pair of spin-offs coming. One is an animated series based in 1985. That one’s confirmed. The other is top secret, but I have heard rumblings that it might be based around Nancy’s character. We’ll see. I posted it all over social media after the show aired, but once again, thank you to Stranger Things and the creators, The Duffer Brothers, for letting me, and so many other GenXers, relive our childhoods even for a little while. I even wrote a blog about how the show affected me. You can read it here: Stranger Things Have Happened: A GenX Fairytale

7. I have always had a wacky sense of humor. It comes out quite a bit in these blogs. When I was in high school, I spent my savings on a camcorder with dreams of being a film director. I loved using my creativity to make up the most random stuff to make skits. These were mainly to make my friends laugh. One thing I want to do more of in 2026 is crafting skits again, but this time for social media. They will probably be tougher to do now with all of my friends having jobs and families, or living far away. Still, I am looking for any and all creative outlets to explore since that’s the stuff that really makes me feel alive. Here is a little something I cooked up for New Year’s Day. I hope you like it.




8. In a strange but necessary twist, I actually turned down a couple of creative projects to kick off 2026. I’m not giving up my dreams of being a totally self-employed content creator. I am just being more selective with what I choose to spend my time on. This goes far beyond just content projects and goes into life in general. I have spent the last 5 years working nonstop on content. That means books, podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, editing, producing, acting, and anything else that floated into my orbit. I don’t regret any of it. That being said, I have a goal in 2026 that involves having more free time for family, friends, and maybe even finding a relationship. In order to achieve that, I had to start finding places that I could cut back. The pair of projects I turned down would have been fun and would have added to my resume, but they also would have required who knows how many hours out of my life. I can’t say ‘I want more time with those I care about’ and then not do my part to make it happen. I think of it as going to a buffet. In the last few years, I would fill my plate with anything and everything, overflow it. In 2026, I am still going to have a full plate, just with fewer options. All steak and mac and cheese, no rolls or cole slaw.


9. It has already been a snowier and colder winter this year than last, and it’s only been 2 weeks. We got the storm this week that left us with 3-4” of heavy snow. That’s not a big deal except for the fact that the temperatures stayed below freezing for the next several days, meaning that the snow and slush stuck around and refroze. I only realized there was an issue when I was leaving the gym one morning this week. I saw the frozen slush/dirt combo stuck in my wheel wells and under my front doors. It was so bad that if I had gotten any more up in there, my tires wouldn’t have had any room to spin. I kicked a little away, but most of it was frozen solid. Not wanting any problems with my car, I looked for something to chisel the sludge away. I found the perfect utensil in the form of a tire iron from my trunk. So there I was, in my gym shorts, on a 30-degree morning in the gym parking lot, chipping frozen slush out of my wheel wells with a tire iron. Two thoughts were going through my mind. 1. How crazy do I look? 2. This is going in the blog (obviously).


10. It was 10 years ago this week that my buddy Steve and I went on one of our best photo adventures. We were up early and drove out to Provincetown. Next up was a 2-mile hike through the darkness and the woods, over the dunes to get to Race Point Lighthouse. It was in the low 20s with the wind chill at, or below, zero. We sat with our backs against a brick building known as the Whistle House. You can rent it in the summer. It was freezing, and we would get up to take photos of the ever-increasing sunrise, and then quickly huddle back down. It was one of my favorite photo adventures ever. How did we celebrate the 10th anniversary of it? By going on another cold photo shoot. Only this one was sunset, and Nauset Lighthouse is only a few hundred feet from the parking lot. I guess we are getting older.



11. Earlier, I mentioned my hope/desire to actually start a relationship. Intentions without actions are useless, so I signed up on a dating app. A problem that I have living on Cape Cod is that the dating pool can be small, especially as you get into your 40s. In previous years, when I was on dating sites, it was nearly impossible to find someone because I kept my search radius low, like 25 miles. That works fine if you live in a city, but not in a relatively rural area like the Cape. An old friend of mine used to have her search radius so wide that she’d end up finding and dating people in Boston. I wasn’t willing to go that far until now. Well, not Boston far, but expanding my radius to 50 miles. That gives me places within an hour of me. It’s like I’m showing the universe I’m serious. How serious will I be when I find someone 50 miles away, and we have to plan a date that might involve an hour of driving? We’ll see. But maybe showing I’m willing to get out of my comfort zone will bring someone amazing into my orbit.


12. While at the gym one day this week, I finished with the actual workout and went to sign up for a session on one of the hydromassage beds. They are definitely worth the little bit extra I pay per month, for now at least. While signing up, there was an employee explaining the gym to two potential new members. Ironically, he began raving about the hydro bed. I mentioned that was why I was standing there. Before going into the room, I looked at the two potential members and told them that it was my favorite part of the workout. I also said I wasn’t a paid spokesman for the gym. I will say that if they did sign up for the more expensive package, I should get at least a little thank you, like a free drink or something.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #93: Season Finale, Grammar Woes, Birthday Fun, etc.

1. This week marked the Season Finale on Monday Runday. Starting next week, it will get dark too early for me to meet my friend Mike at a local track to do some running, or, in my case, mostly walking. It rained on my way to the track which had me anticipating a rainbow. Instead, it was just loads of clouds but no rain. Plus, the temperature hovered around 50, so a far cry from summer a few months ago. The earliest I could get back out there would be late February. Of course, in the dead of winter, just because the sun sets at 5:30 again doesn’t mean it’s not also 30 degrees and snowing.

Goodbye Monday Runday until March

2. During this final Monday Runday of the year, we were joined by a few different people. No one we knew, just other people who showed up at the track. As I was explaining to Mike about the news of my story being turned into a feature-length film next year (see last week’s blog), a random guy who was also on the track passed by. He stopped as he exited the track and wished me luck on the film project. That was nice of him. It did make us wonder if he would have said anything if we were talking about any other topics. Like starting a murderous clown-for-hire business. “Good luck with the killer clown thing, I’ll be sure to keep my doors locked!” Or it could have been a much sweeter subject, but I just couldn’t think of one.


3. I have mentioned before in this blog that each spring and fall for the past several years, I have helped my buddy Steve install and remove a dock at a couple’s lakefront property. The husband helps us as well, so 3 of us take care of this 3-part aluminum dock. Putting it in is easier than removing it. It’s dry, and we’re looking forward to warmer weather. Plus, since I am on one end while the other 2 are on the other end, I have an easier time walking down the 2-levels and roughly 30 steps. In the fall, it’s usually cooler. This year it was 50 degrees and sprinkling. Also, retrieving the dock is harder since it’s mucky and water-logged. I had to carry my ends solo backward up the steps. On the 3rd trip carrying the last piece of the dock, I paid the price. One of the bars of the dock had a crack in it. From there, the water sprayed out like a sprinkler. It went down my legs into my shoes, and best of all was spurting into my face and mouth. Despite all of that, it was easier than expected. Plus, Steve and I each get paid handsomely for a short amount of time working. This is why even if we are beat up and sore, we’ll keep going to help with the dock, at least until something on one of us breaks.


4. As you know from last week’s blog, I have an old story of mine, The Cabin, that is going to be made into a feature-length film next summer. Even though that is a long way off I still need to start doing some work toward it. The first thing I had to do was revise the original book, which I wrote in 2008. The book is about 43,000 words, about 70 pages. I ran it through Grammarly and was stunned by the results. It was perfect. Kidding, it was way worse. There were somewhere around 1,000 grammatical errors in the book. Now, mind you, this book has been up for purchase in the Amazon Kindle store since early 2009. It must have looked like a 4th grader wrote it, well, except for the blood and gore in it. My ultimate plan is to give the book a full revision and then re-release it in ebook and paperback form when the movie is released. Obviously, there is a lot of time in between now and then, but it never hurts to have a plan in mind.

The revised cover of the original book.

5. With this being my birthday week, I have been seeing a lot of memories popping up on social media about planning get-togethers for friends and family. Since I gave up alcohol 5 years ago, I really haven’t gone out to any sort of bar because, you know, there’s no reason to go and sit there and watch other people get drunk. Part of me misses planning events for my birthday, mainly because it was a way to see a bunch of people on the same night. I had thought about trying to plan a dinner or something, but going to a restaurant is so expensive now that I would feel bad asking people to come and celebrate me, and also drop probably $30-40 at least on a meal. It’s too late this year, but maybe next year I’ll try to figure out a way to meet up with people that doesn’t involve alcohol or spending loads of money.


6. It’s amazing to me how oblivious some people can be. I was driving down the road to my job and slowed down to pull into our parking lot. Thankfully, I both slowed down and paid attention because the guy with his back to the road, standing in the middle of the entrance on his phone, sure as hell didn’t. I pulled in and spotted this guy with his head down on his phone, walking very very slowly across the parking lot. My car is fairly quiet, but there’s no way he didn’t hear me. I crept into the lot thinking he’d see me and move. Wrong. He kept walking and was in such a location that I could not get by him without hitting another car. Finally, I had had enough and gave my horn a quick tap. He jumped like I had tased him. He moved a few feet to one side, and I was able to park. I wanted to tell him I had to get his attention, which is why I beeped, but by the time I got out of my car, he was too far away for me to care. Still on his phone with his head down in the parking lot.


7. For longtime readers, you’ll remember several months ago I mentioned that at my work, there was a gigantic wasp nest hanging above the entrance to the parking lot. It was high enough off the ground that the wasps didn’t bother you if you walked underneath it. My goal had been to get as close a photo as possible using my selfie stick. It never ended up happening. In a sort of anti-climactic season finale, I came into work this week and the nest was just gone. Now I wasn’t expecting the owners of our building to send us a message so we could go and watch the nest be taken down. That being said, I do wonder what exactly happened. It hasn’t gotten cold enough for the wasps to die or abandon the nest, so did a team have to come all in hazmat gear and cut the nest down? It was about as big as a large overstuffed backpack, so there had to be at least hundreds of wasps in there. Oh well, maybe next year they will return with an even bigger nest that’ll look like a small car hanging from a tree. I can dream.


8. After so many years online, I’d like to think I have a pretty good read on what is legit and what is a scam when it comes to email. This week, my skills got put to the test. I got an email from a thing called Book Maven HQ. It went into detail about why they loved my Cape Cod Nights book, including a few specifics. They gave me an offer to help promote the book. That immediately raised my antenna as I get the same sort of messages from rando scammers when I share my podcast. It was only when they sent a second email a few minutes later with the same structure, but this time about my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book, that I knew it was a scam. It’s like this bot or whatever scanned the book cover and grabbed words from the description and then put them in the email, thinking I’d believe they were real because they quoted something from the book cover. These idiots sealed the deal when they sent a third email, but this time about a very old ebook. How did it seal it? It had the same structure as the other emails, but where the title was located in the other emails, there was a blank space. This blank space was because the bot or AI couldn’t read the title on the cover. After all, the font is kind of wonky. Sorry, Book Maven or whatever you really are, I’ll keep my money and you can f off.


9. It was a fairly uneventful but still really fun Halloween. There were no wild parties, no staying out super late, no booze, but I don’t miss any of that. I was way happier having Chinese food for dinner and then watching the original Halloween from 1978. It’s a tradition I’ve been doing for years. Oh, and my fortune cookie said ‘your greatest dreams are meant to be pursued.’ That was maybe a good omen for the year to come.


10. Sadly, the day before my birthday also happens to be the last night before we turn the clocks back. Not only was I out enjoying the last night of my 47th year, but I also had the desperation of knowing that the following night the sunset would be at 4:30. Luckily, the weather was perfect for November 1st, 55 and sunny with the wind dying down. I sneaked into a little cottage compound for photos of the sunset from the top of the stairs at a private beach. Even as I am sprinting toward 50 I still find the time to go places I shouldn’t go. Hey, it’s the off-season, and plus I didn’t touch anybody’s property and was in and out quick. The photo was worth it. Goodbye, 5pm sunsets, see you in late February.

Final 5pm sunset until late February

11. Nothing says ‘old man’ like being awake at 6:30 on your birthday. Granted, it was stupid Daylight Saving that caused it, but still. It wasn’t all bad, though. I was fully alert enough to get some work done before 7am. My buddy Steve messaged me, but he misspelled ‘cereal.’ His phone made the mistake of autocorrecting it to ‘clerical.’ I ran with this and made this fancy box of Honey Nut Cheerios that is sure to be a hit someday. The best part? He was actually eating Honey Nut Cheerios. No, I'm not psychic, maybe a bit psychotic, but that's beside the point. 

12. I was craving a 5-Hour Energy. Not the little shots but the big 16-ounce drinks. On Cape Cod, I know of two places that have had them. I’m sure there’s more, but I’m not going to go hunting for them. Anyway, the one guaranteed to have this drink, several of my friends affectionately refer to as the ‘cheap store.’ It definitely has the look of a place that, if the health department wanted to, they could close it down at any time. I knew exactly what I was looking for, though so it was less time with the handsome group of regulars in there playing the lottery and spending all of their money on scratch tickets. I found what I wanted, but the irony is that I must be the only one who ever buys those big 5-Hours. I know this because on the shelf where they were located, the cans were dusty. Don’t worry, I looked to make sure they hadn’t expired. Thanks, Cheap Store, I’ll probably be back to buy most of the rest of those drinks before they expire.

13. It was a bit surreal having breakfast on my birthday. My friends Steve and Amanda invited me to a place, Grumpy’s, in Dennis. Why I say it was surreal is that way back in the day, I used to work at a restaurant right down the street called The Marshside. We used to be a more rustic-looking spot serving all three meals. The interior of the old Marsh looked a lot like how Grumpy’s looks. So much so that when the Marshside was rebuilt into a more sterile location, a lot of our regulars moved on to Grumpy’s. Sitting in there, seeing the specials written in chalk on the wall, and just the overall vibe of the restaurant brought back pleasant memories. Plus, it was a nice gift and a fun time getting to dine out and chat. It made me miss the old Marsh, well, mostly the people I used to see and work with.


14. My birthday ended up being a great one. Good food, seeing good friends, getting loads of love from family and friends all day. I even got to somehow fit in a sunset shoot even though I briefly forgot it was at 4:30. Eating, buying some new clothes, and running shoes, and the sunset were all amazing, but nothing tops family and friends. Everything I do. All of the hustling, trying to ‘make it’ and chase my dreams, it’s all done to make my family and friends proud that they know me and/or are related to me. I will do all I can to make my 48th year, the 48th chapter of my life, the best it can be. Thank you all.

Birthday sunset.

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.