Christopher Setterlund, In My Footsteps : thanksgiving

Showing posts with label thanksgiving. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2025

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

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

My Fitbit stats from the Weds. workout

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

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

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

It looked like this.(WNEP.com)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 222: Remembering Ozzy Osbourne, A Hilarious 90s Subway Employee Training Video, Thanksgiving Day Parade Mishaps(12-3-2025)

Remembering Ozzy Osbourne on his birthday. A hilariously dated Subway employee training video. Some of the wildest mishaps during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Episode 222 kicks off December and the Holiday Season with a package of GenX nostalgia tucked neatly under the tree.

It all begins with a celebration of the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, on what would have been his 77th birthday. A creator of heavy metal, a celebrated icon of music, a reality TV star, and more. Ozzy transcended music and became a pop culture legend. We dive deep into his life and the accomplishments of the man himself.

Awkward interactions, questionable hygiene, and seriously weak attempts at humor. You'll find all of this and more in a hilariously dated employee training video from Subway in 1993. All you need to know is there is a pie chart of customer complaints, with one of them being not wearing gloves, and the very next scene is an employee making a sub without gloves. A classic video for sure.

Thanksgiving might be over but there is more turkey day fun to be had. In a new Top 5 we look at some of the biggest Macy's Day Parade mishaps. Hint: They all involve rogue balloons.

There is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule, where we look at the crazy but true story of the woman who was struck by a meteorite.

You can support my work by becoming a member on Patreon. Or you can Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Mixtape #2 here

Monday, December 1, 2025

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #97: Air Supply, Cat Distribution System, Turkey Day, etc.

1. It costs $2.50 for 5 minutes of air at . On one hand, it’s outrageous that you have to pay for air, I mean, it’s everywhere. On the other hand, I shouldn’t be surprised that greedy corporations try to squeeze every cent out of their customers. I’m surprised more stores don’t have pay toilets. Anyway, I stopped to fill my tires up since it’s been cold, so the tire pressure naturally goes down. Since I paid with my debit card, I thought it would be nice, since I paid for 5 minutes of air, that if I don’t use all 5 minutes of air, I should get the remainder of the money reimbursed back onto my card. Or I should at least get a doggy bag to put the leftover air into.

2. Thanksgiving week, and it was mayhem in the supermarkets. I was given a list of some things to bring to my mom’s for our holiday meal. Luckily, I got most of it out of the way early. As the day got closer, it was madness. There weren’t any fights or anything, just loads of people wanting the same things. We have a about a half hour from where I live, and I enjoy going there as often as I can because their prices are lower. Plus, I consider it like a field trip. That being said, I saw people’s posts on social media saying that our Market Basket was like due to Thanksgiving shopping, and to stay away. No worries, I’ll be sure to hit up Market Basket after Thanksgiving, you know, when people are hitting the gym out of guilt.

3. Update on last week. I said I had ordered a few things from Amazon, including a travel-sized deodorant, because I needed to spend ten cents more to get free shipping. Well, nothing beats expecting a tracking update and instead being told your package has been damaged and returned to sender. Yes, they will be sending everything out new, but I would like to know exactly what happened. I didn’t order anything fragile, so what did a truck back over my box? Did a driver have a bad day and boot it into the ocean? Did someone pack a glitter bomb to fool porch pirates, and it went off accidentally? I’ll never know, but I’m sure my imagined scenarios are better than reality.

4. I saw something this week that really spoke to me. It’s known as the . When you’re driving, and you miss a turn or go the wrong way, your GPS recalculates. It doesn’t say ‘Oh well you missed your destination’ and make you go home. It still gets you where you want to go. The same should apply to one’s life. When you fail, or choose your own metaphorical wrong turn, life isn’t over. You recalculate and find a new way there. I love this idea and can use it in my own life. I have been lucky and blessed on my journey overall, but I am still not where I want to be. I have a vision of what ‘success’ in my life means. I feel as though I have done my fair share of recalculating over the years. The one thing I haven’t done, though, is turn back and go home. No, I am going to keep recalculating and get by all of the road construction, one-way streets, vehicle accidents, police cars, and closed businesses until I get to where I am meant to be. Jokes aside, I do love the positivity and perseverance of the GPS Theory and wanted to share it.

5. As 2025 draws closer to the end, it’s time for me to get ready to renew my personal training certification. I have to do continuing education just like many other fields, like teachers and other healthcare providers. There is a certain number of CECs I need to renew, which is standard. The only issue is that since I last renewed 2 years ago, my training school has made renewing ‘easier’ by actually making it harder. Instead of a list of courses with their CECs and cost right there, I am instead having to email the school to ask questions that probably make them wonder if I have been hit on the head too much. My biggest question has to do with one course that should fulfill my renewal qualifications, but suspiciously has a name similar to another certification I already have. I am also a . There is a pair of courses for a medical fitness programmer. Very similar, right? The main point of this is I don’t want to spend the money on a course only to find out it’s the same thing I already have. Doubles are fine when collecting baseball cards, but not when it’s a non-refundable fitness course.

6. I do believe in the power of positive affirmation and manifestation. You might not always get what you want, but believing you can and thinking positively can only help your mental health. For those who don’t believe in manifestation, I give you Exhibit A from this week. I enjoy watching funny cat videos because I love cats and am rocketing headlong toward 50. So I was watching a video, and I thought to myself, ‘When was the last time I got to pet a cat?’ It had been a really long time, like possibly a couple of years. I have seen a few, but shockingly, if you go running at a strange cat to pet them, they tend to run away. Well, fast forward to the next day, and I was out for a walk, and what did I see? A cute gray and white striped cat. I stopped and crouched down, and the cat came over, and I got to spend a few minutes petting this cat. Once that was done, we both went our separate ways. I was not a part of the mythical ‘cat distribution system,’ where cats seem to find you and then just become yours. Besides that, this cat had a collar, so I wasn’t going to catnap it, although I did get a photo and video. So yeah I can manifest a cat to pet but not the ability to work full-time as a content creator? Okay.

Cat Distribution System

7. I spent Thanksgiving Eve night researching scriptwriting software. This is to start preparing for a big 2026, which will include filming my first feature-length film. I have written ten published books, hundreds of blogs and articles, and more than a dozen ebooks. Also, in college, I took a course in broadcast writing. All of that experience is a good start, but writing a script is so different than anything else I’ve written. It’s like you have to put on paper everything that will make up the project. It’s not just the story. It’s the setting, the stage directions, the emotion of scenes and actors, in addition to the actual story. I believe that I will start the writing process next month when I have an extended break from my day job. Unless something changes, I’m looking at a program called for getting my script started. This is going to be likely the major event of my professional life in 2026, so there’s nothing wrong with getting the ship ready to set sail when the time is right.

8. Thanksgiving was filled with food, fun, and family. Last year, I ate so much so fast that I ended up basically needing to go home and lie on the floor for a few hours to try to digest. This year, I was smarter. I ate just as much but took my time. It allowed me to enjoy the day more while also enjoying just as much food. I did find it funny that I was being watched like a hawk by family as I began to eat. I felt like a mischievous child trying to get away with something. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, pies, cookies, it was all a part of a really fun Thanksgiving.

9. A fun side story on Thanksgiving was our deep dive into our results and traits. I had mine done several years back. Since then, my mother, 2 nieces, and a nephew have all done it. It’s fascinating to see how, despite us all being family, our specific DNA is different. Probably the funniest thing was when we began looking at our traits. My niece Kaleigh somehow had access to all 40+ of her traits despite not paying for a membership, while the rest of us only had access to 5 super generic traits. I have things like: Prone to taking naps, more adaptable, morning person, etc. The laughs came when my niece Emma and I found that our traits were exactly the same. That and the fact that she has inherited much of my wacky sense of humor made Thanksgiving a boatload of laughs. Next up, we wait for 2 of my sisters and a cousin to do their DNA tests so we can compare the regions where we’re from, but also laugh at the traits we have that don’t seem to be as accurate as we’d like.

10. It’s been so long since I’ve sat down with my big over-ear headphones on and listened to a full album of music I haven’t heard before. I did just that when I listened to ’s 2016 album . Ever since came out in 1997, Radiohead has been one of the bands whose music seems to unlock something in my brain. I find myself able to write more easily with their music playing. It was a fun experience spending nearly an hour working on one single poem. It definitely has a Radiohead vibe to it. If you like Radiohead’s music, you will enjoy this album. I now feel the need to find more albums I haven’t heard before from bands I like to see what sorts of ideas they kick up.

The album cover

11. Every few weeks, I take a field trip, a little over 20 miles west to the nearest Market Basket. Their prices are way lower than either or Stop & Shop. For example, a regular-sized bag of Doritos is $6.29 at Stop & Shop. At Market Basket, it’s $3.99. You can see why it’s worth the drive to go. I have wanted for years for Market Basket to find a way to get a store closer to me, but I think there’s something with Stop & Shop having too much control over who can open supermarkets on . I know this because a few years ago, I sent the corporate email of Market Basket a link to a piece of property in that used to be occupied by . I said it wasn’t huge, but it would make for a nice mid-sized supermarket. There was no reply. Now that the property is available again since came and failed there. I’m debating sending another email to Market Basket about it, but I don’t think it would make a difference.

12. I got to wear a new shirt that I bought at a few weeks back. Just a t-shirt, nothing special. The funny part was that I put it on and forgot to take the tags off. Rather than removing the shirt, I grabbed a small pair of scissors to cut them off. One was easy to take down by the waist. The other was up at the collar. All I kept thinking as I slowly brought this sharp object toward my jugular was hopefully my phone doesn’t suddenly ring, or the smoke detector goes off. Then I’d be down with scissors jammed in my neck. There’d be no way to spin that into anything but another foolish injury right up there with throwing my back out bending to look at sliced meats at the supermarket. That happened earlier in the spring.

13. Cape Cod Cthulhu, the film that is my first acting role, is now available on . Here is the link: Cape Cod Cthulhu. It was so much fun to shoot back in March. You can go back into the blog archives and find more details about the experience then. There’s a sale, and that makes it an even better way to support indie filmmakers. It’s a campy horror film, and I play myself as a podcaster. Also, here is the trailer for the movie for those curious. There will be much more news on the film front of my career in 2026. It’s going to be a big year!

14. I was lucky enough to be asked to take the senior year photos for my nephew Landon. He’s the third of my six nieces and nephews that I’ve taken the photos for. He’s the first nephew, and being a guy, he wasn’t too particular about how or where the photos were taken. He just didn’t want to go to the beach, so instead we went to the woods. It was a fun time playing Grunge music on during the drive. We went to a local conservation area and took about 40 photos. Even if he’s not super particular about the photos, I at least wanted to do my best so that in future years he will have a lot of senior photos to look at. For my senior photos way back in the 1990s, I got a bunch taken by the school photographer, but I only have the one that I chose.

15. The lowlight for me of Landon's photo trip though was putting in the address of my sister's new house to go pick up my nephew. The problem was that rather than putting the right town, I put the wrong one and obviously went to the wrong address. I sat in front of a stranger's house for several minutes before thinking I might be at the wrong place. I put the same street address in my GPS, and sure enough, there was the right place the next town over. At least it gave my sister another in a long line of foolish stories I've been a part of in my life.

16. The only thing that could match the joy I had of taking Landon’s senior photos was getting to see several family members I hadn’t seen in years later that same day. My Aunt Emma was on Cape Cod for one more night before leaving to go back home to . She had stopped over on the Cape after spending two months traveling Europe with friends and family. In the years since my Nana passed, and the years since my Uncle Eric passed, I don’t see family members on that side as much as I’d like. It’s nobody’s fault; time just passes quicker, it seems the older you get. We met at my cousins' Dale and Richard’s house and spent a few hours catching up. I made sure I fully appreciated what was going on, because at this point, I don’t take for granted the time I get with loved ones. I’m hoping to see Emma and my cousin Patrick again soon if I can ever find the time to get out to Las Vegas. If that doesn’t happen soon enough, at least I took full advantage of the time I had this week.

Monday, November 24, 2025

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #96: Injury Soap Opera, Mystery Box, Hungry Birds, etc.

1. As the Back Injury Turns: My low back injury is slowly, very slowly, getting better. It’s taken ample use of the PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) machine at my work, loads of ibuprofen, , and a portable TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit. Despite all of these weapons in the battle to feel normal again, it’s still been the worst back injury I’ve had yet. Getting out of bed, out of my car, or bending to pick something up, or putting on my socks and shoes, is no picnic. One good thing to come from the injury is that I feel even more empathy for those who deal with debilitating back pain for long periods of time. Hopefully, before this blog has even been posted, I’ll be back to the gym so that I can get started on the next injury in the long line of them that has summed up my 2025.

2. I had a few things I wanted to get from Amazon this week. One issue was the fact that I didn’t qualify for free shipping. I was literally only ten cents away from qualifying. So what did I do? I went to their dollar bin to find something inexpensive to add to it. Sure, it was something I didn’t need, but, ironically, I’d end up saving money by getting that something extra. So what did I end up getting? A little travel-sized deodorant. Hey, it was a dollar. The best part is that I guarantee when the package arrives, I’ll have forgotten I ordered it and wonder what it’s doing in there.

3. This week in 2019, I went on an amazing 6-day, 2100-mile road trip across much of the Eastern United States. To celebrate, I created videos of each day using the photos and videos I took from that time. The videos are such a fun reminder of what is still my greatest adventure to date in my life. However, there isn’t a happy ending. Fun fact: a few months after I finished that road trip, I had a hard drive crash and lost about 80% of the photos and videos I took on that trip. I was only left with what I had already uploaded onto social media. Those are what I used for the videos. So as happy as the videos make me, they barely scratch the surface of what could have been. But it’s not over. I kept that ruined laptop. My plan is to try one last-ditch effort to remove the hard drive and try to find those ‘lost’ files. Maybe I’ll find them, likely I won’t, but either way, come next week, that old laptop will probably be smashed and thrown in a dumpster somewhere.

4. This is at the same time the best and worst time of year. I love all of the holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but they also make it nearly impossible to keep your diet in check. It’s even worse when you’re looking to drop weight. I feel like I’m punting on the last 6 weeks of the year when it comes to health. I’ll get on a streak of a few days of good eating, but then I’ll be like, ‘hey it’s the holiday season and you should just enjoy yourself.’ Then wham New Year’s comes and I’m staring at 10 extra pounds to lose, on top of what I already wanted to lose. Oh well, it’s not my fault I love food. I just seem to love the bad ones more and more as I age.

How I will likely look come spring.

5. For those looking for a new show to binge, I highly recommend . This is the prequel show to the . raves about the show, which is a good sign. As of this blog, I have watched the first four episodes. There are eight in total. It is beautifully shot. You will feel like you are in the early 1960s when the show is set. I don’t want to spoil much for those who might be interested in watching. Yes, there are familiar characters, or at least their relatives. Yes, does appear. Yes, there have been some gory moments and good jump scares. If you like any of the IT movies, I recommend watching Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.

6. A fun little moment on a walk this week. was released on November 21st. It included remixed versions of the two new songs they put out in the mid-1990s, and . These used the advanced audio technology that used in his documentary, which he released in 2021. The big thing it does is it can isolate vocals in a song. This worked wonders for the poor quality John Lennon demos that were used in the *new* Anthology songs. It was first used on the 2023 , which was promoted as the final new Beatles song. I had already heard and loved the remixed Free As A Bird, where Lennon’s voice sounded like he was in the studio with the other Beatles. I intentionally waited until I was out on my walk to listen to the remixed Real Love. I went and sat by the river and played it and just soaked in the scenery and the new sound. I highly recommend listening to both of the 1990s versions of those songs and then the new ones so you can fully appreciate the improvements in technology.

7. My YouTube channel suggestion this week is Vampire Robot. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s actually a great slice of nostalgia. The channel is filled with hundreds of videos inside different classic stores over the decades, mostly the 1970s through 1990s. It seems to be all old news b-roll footage. There is no narration; instead, it's just uncut video of people shopping in old mall stores and the like. I find it easy to click on any video and feel like I’m transported back to that time. There are other slices of life videos as well. I recommend the channel to anyone who likes nostalgia or who wants to relive their childhood.

8. Where I have my desk is right beside a window. I’m sitting there now, looking slightly to my right. On this day, it has been raining. No big deal. That is, except for some reason, the rain has made the area around the window a hotbed for bird action. No, not birds in the nearby trees singing. For some reason, the rain has apparently made the shingles and roof extra tasty. I have had to repeatedly go and bang on the window or the wall, as I keep hearing the sounds of little feet and beaks trying to tear into the shingles. It’s your standard , , nuthatches, and chickadees trying to make a meal out of the soaked wood. If it were summer, I’d have the window open and I might try to grab a few photos of these foolish birds, but it’s winter, so I can only bang on the glass and shout like an angry old man.

Stop eating my shingles!

9. This week is the birthday of my sister Kate. As I like to do with a lot of family and friends, I put together a little video featuring photos of us as kids way back in the far-off land of the 1980s. This year, more than any other, while looking at these old photos, I could see the resemblance between my sister and me and other family members. I could see nieces and nephews of the same ages, I could even see one of my uncles in my face. Obviously, we’re all related, but it sometimes comes as a surprise just how much we can look like each other. It became a game to see who I might look like in the photos. Although nothing beats the photo I found of my family back around 1910. In that photo, I could see several living family members who resembled people from 3 or 4 generations ago. Pretty wild stuff.

10. I don’t think I am alone when I say that what I do for work, I don’t usually want to do after work. Like when I worked in cooking, I didn’t want to cook at home. This meant loads of microwaved stuff, which I still enjoy. The thing is, working as a personal trainer for 10 years has left me less than enthused to go to the gym during my downtime. I find it a chore to go now. So much so that I’d rather layer up and go for a walk outside with temperatures in the high 30s instead of spending an hour in a warm, but crowded gym. It has become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy where I go to the gym less, feel bad about myself, and that makes me not want to go and be seen at the gym by people who remembered me when I was in great shape. Things could be worse, though. Despite not wanting to go to the gym much anymore, I am still relatively healthy when compared to others my age. I still hold on to the belief that if I truly wanted to, I could snap myself out of it and be back to being in pretty good shape in short order. Sadly, I might be one of those ‘new year, new you’ fitness people in 2026.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #45: Early Sunsets, Metal Pile Mayhem, Food Coma, etc.

1. It always makes me feel like I’m up to no good when sitting in my car in a beach parking lot after dark. Maybe because plenty of times I used to be up to no good. At this time of year though with the sunset at about 4:20(nice), it is possible to sit in a dark secluded beach parking lot at 5pm. That’s still a good chunk of daylight when in the summer. Yet there I am sitting in the parking lot wondering if I should move on before the cops come and yell. Part of me still feels like I’m 18.

2. There was a momentarily fun flashback this week in an unexpected way. I needed to finally throw away an old mini-fridge that had been sitting in a storage area where I live for years. Ripping the door off of it to be allowed to throw it away at the local dump was fun. When I got there to toss it I had flashbacks as I had to put the fridge body in one area. The door and any insides needed to be thrown into the neighboring metal pile. Way back in the 90s several friends and I used to frequent the metal pile. We lived nearby plus it was in a different area of the dump. We used to sneak through the woods and then perform acts of mayhem like whipping rocks into the televisions. You know, teenage boy crap. No, I didn’t try to smash any TVs this time but the memories did flood back.

Memories of mayhem.

3. It’s a bit disheartening when I share thoughts and problems in my life. Rather than friends and family being understanding and supportive it ends up being a pissing match. It seems to always be one of those ‘Oh you think that’s bad, well here’s what’s going on in my life.’ I typically end up as everyone’s sounding board but when it’s time for me to vent there’s no one to listen. I hate being so closed off as I feel now but it’s like why reach out when it seems like nobody is willing to give, only take. I am learning not to expect what you give in return.

4. A random question I needed to find an answer to was: Where do seagulls sleep? The reason why? I was at the beach shooting the sunset and the parking lot was packed with dozens of gulls hanging out. Even right after the sun went down they were like little white dots all over the pavement. Then seemingly out of nowhere, they all were gone. I figured after dark they all go to a more secluded spot and sleep while a few stand guard. That’s kind of true as I found in my research. I just found it interesting that the beach went from seagull party to empty in a snap. As my Uncle Steve would say, they all did their ‘Irish goodbyes.’ That just means leaving quietly before anyone notices.

5. It’s amazing and a bit overwhelming to stop and think about how different your life would be had you made different choices. For me, I can think off the top of my head of at least a dozen pivotal moments in my life where if I’d gone left instead of right my life would look so different. These choices could be certain people, jobs, or things that were said. Also, not all of these choices necessarily would have made my life better. Some of them I think would have led to other multiple choice questions. It’s kind of like standing on a road and the road splinters off, and again, and again, until it’s like a huge spiderweb.

So many different roads.

6. A change of scenery can really lead to a change of mind. I always find that going to the college library to write and work on content is a far more rewarding experience than doing it at home. I don’t know if it’s because I associate the library with my time there as a student so I know when I’m in the library it’s work time? Maybe I feel I need to step my game up when surrounded by people there trying to better themselves? Whatever it is I do enjoy it and need to make it more of a part of my habit like it was years ago.

7. For 15 years since my Nana died I had owned several of her belongings because I wanted things to remember her. I have her old crossword puzzle pen, her old gigantic television, and the stand it came on that my Uncle Eric had to saw parts of the sides off of so the TV would fit. I also had her microwave. Finally this week I decided to upgrade and get a new microwave. There were loads of Black Friday deals so I got a good price. I went to Best Buy in the Cape Cod Mall. The funny thing was that the microwave was too small to need help bringing it out to my car but too big for it to be a simple task. I ended up heaving it up onto my shoulder and walking out like that, keeping one hand free to show the employee at the front my receipt so they didn’t think I was just stealing microwaves.

8. I don’t know what is more crowded. Is it the local stores on Black Friday? Or is it the local gym on Black Friday filled with people feeling guilty about how much food they ate on Thanksgiving? I’d think you’d be safer being at the crowded gym where you can only get a dumbbell dropped on your foot. In a crowded store, you might get stabbed by some crazy parent who wants the last doll on a shelf. I’ll stick to online shopping thank you.

9. Fun fact, it takes roughly 20-30 minutes of eating before your brain recognizes it’s full. Another fun fact, on Thanksgiving I did not heed this warning from my mother. When I say it was the most painful type of being full I’d ever experienced I am not lying. It felt like I had a cinder block lodged in my ribs and stomach. It was almost comical how terrible I felt, more so after I started feeling better a few hours later. I had to stand outside on my mom’s deck for a while trying to stay upright until my body could start digesting. Believe me, all of the food my mom made was amazing. That’s the main reason I was stuffed like a beached whale.

How I felt on Thanksgiving.

10. The places might change, and the guest list might change, but the feelings of thankfulness and gratefulness don’t change for me. The older I get I appreciate even more having those times to get together with family and friends. Thanksgiving is of course a day of food as you could tell from the entry above. However, I’d take just hanging with family and friends with no food over eating until I can’t move by myself. Of course, a mix of both is always good as well.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 171: A Crystal Pepsi Employee Training Video, Tupperware, More Weird Old Thanksgiving Recipes, Moby Dick(11-20-2024)

A training video on how to sell Crystal Pepsi. The rise and fall of Tupperware. Some more weird old Thanksgiving recipes.
Episode 171 will stuff you full of nostalgia and even provide some leftovers.
It begins with the story of the rise and fall of the iconic brand Tupperware. For decades it has been synonymous with food storage. However today Tupperware is at a crossroads. Whether they survive or fade into the past we'll look at the impact of the brand this week.
One product that came in with an explosion and quickly faded away was Crystal Pepsi. Once hailed as the soda of the future it ended up becoming a punchline for failure. We go back to the beginning though as we review an employee training video about selling and marketing Crystal Pepsi. This video will make you think of what might have been in between loud laughter.
Hopefully, you will not see these foods on your table this year. A new Top 5 will showcase more weird old Thanksgiving recipes. These range from odd to unique to just plain gross. The first weird recipe countdown is in Episode 94.
There will also be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the wreck of the Essex which inspired the classic novel Moby Dick.
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Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 170 here

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