1. It’s Halloween week. It’s the final week before stupid Daylight Saving Time ends, and we lose an hour of light in the afternoon. That also meant that it was the season finale, if you will, of Monday Runday. As you know, most Mondays, as long as it’s light out and not raining, I go to a local track at a now-closed school and run, or mostly walk, with my old friend Mike. This year his wife Beth and their dog were there on most weeks as well. It’s a chance to catch up and exercise. I tend to log somewhere between 3-5 miles depending on how much running I do. For this 3rd season finale of Monday Runday, the weather couldn’t have been any better. It was sunny with temperatures in the mid-60s. I was lucky that I was able to leave my day job early since it was slow on my end. We were able to walk for over an hour and just chat and soak in the weather. At this time of year in New England, you never know when a perfect weather day will end up being the last until spring, so you need to take advantage. Based on future sunset times, the 4th season of Monday Runday could be as early as the second week of March. That also depends on the weather, as you never know when a late-winter snowstorm will ruin plans. Overall, it was a good end to one of my favorite regular events of the warmer months.
2. If you don’t value yourself, don’t be surprised when others don’t as well. Also, people learn how to treat you by what you allow. These two phrases are sticking with me a lot recently. It all comes down to my day job and a collision between how I value myself, my work, and my time, versus how I am seen by the boss. The boss is great at his job, but as a business owner, he is average at best. I haven’t received a raise in four years. I blame myself a lot for not noticing how the time flew by. Besides being a personal trainer, I became a chiropractic assistant. This meant assisting in administering therapies and occasionally running the front desk if needed. I was naive enough to think that as more responsibilities were added to my plate, the boss would see it, appreciate it, and compensate me accordingly. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. In reality, the boss was content to let me do more and more for the same pay. I mean, why would he pay me more if he didn’t have to? I have been so focused on my outside creative projects that I let this boat sail way too far down the river uncontested. Now things have reached a breaking point. Several times in the last few months, I have brought up wanting a raise. What I get in return is crying poor about overhead. That might be true, but it is also my responsibility to myself to realize that a situation has become stagnant and act accordingly. After the ‘overhead’ line was dropped on me yet again this week, I hit the last straw. I was asked to start teaching small group training classes to bring in more clients. That’s fine, of course, as long as I am compensated for training more people at the same time. I ended up being told that I’d get a bump in hourly pay while teaching the class, but only if there are at least four people in the class. What that means is that if the class has three, I get paid the same as if it was one, with the boss pocketing the rest. Absolutely ridiculous. I mentioned the extra stress of training multiple people, but he didn’t care. In my mind, that was it. If he doesn’t value me, then it’s time to start planning the exit strategy. It will begin with cutting my shifts there and gradually moving back toward in-home training. By doing that, I can make 3x or more per hour than I get currently. Of course, I need to get all of my ducks in a row with insurance, bookkeeping, and learning about self-employment taxes, but I don’t plan to make any moves until this year ends. Again, if you don’t value yourself, don’t be surprised if others don’t either.
3. Have you heard of Albert Cheng? He was the Chief Operating Officer of Amazon Studios. Also, he emailed me this week out of the blue, asking about possibly securing the film rights to my Lady of the Dunes book. What, you don’t believe me? You’re saying that the head of a major film studio wouldn’t email a small author out of thin air? Well, you’re right. It was a brief moment of exhilaration when I got this email asking about the rights to my book. I read it over a few times before doing a Google search and asking Gemini if such a scenario could be real. Nope. Not even sugarcoated. It was obvious it was a scam, but man, I was excited for those few seconds before reality set in. Looking back at it, the scammer quoted parts of the book description in italics. They also suggested that if I didn’t have an agent, they could put me in touch with an agent they trusted. If I had said yes, I am sure that ‘agent’ would have said they’d help me, but I’d have to give them some money up front. You know, just like any reputable agent would. Oh well. I do think my Lady of the Dunes true crime book would make a great movie or short television series, but I have no idea where to even pitch it. Maybe I should email the real Albert Cheng? Yeah, sure, he’s as likely to respond as he was likely to randomly email me in the first place.
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| The book in question. Yes, it would make a good movie. |
4. October 28th has become a low-key epic day on my calendar. In 2012, I ran my first marathon. In 2013, it was the release of my first book, In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide. In 2020, it was recording the first episode of the In My Footsteps Podcast. I don’t know how it ended up becoming a date when amazing things seem to happen in my life, but it did. I wish I had social media back when I was a kid, maybe. I would love to know if any other really cool events occurred in my life on October 28th in the past. At this point, when the date comes around again, I keep my eyes and ears open more to see if anything drifts into my orbit. Since the day kind of organically became special over the last many years, I try not to set things up for it. What I mean is that I try not to force the moments on October 28th. I want it to be in the hands of the universe. It gives me another day to look forward to each year. Everyone has birthdays and holidays. I also have a Soberversary and the random goodness that October 28th brings. I guess any day can be a day to celebrate, and with the fleeting shortness of life, maybe it should be. But it doesn’t hurt when special days are randomly created.
5. I might be sliding down the hill to 50, but I will always be a kid at heart. That means that when Halloween comes around, I do as much as I can to celebrate the season. This includes buying a small pumpkin, giving it some sort of wacky face, and bringing it to various places for photos and videos. It can also include dressing up in some way for work. I’ll admit I had bigger plans for this year’s Halloween. I was going to go to Spirit Halloween in Hyannis and find a few things to create a fun costume. I also thought it might be fun to look for potential props for a second feature film that will likely be happening later in 2027. Well, first of all, due to new construction in Hyannis over the last few years, Spirit Halloween was not located where it had been over the last decade or more. It had taken over the old Sports Authority (remember them?) building in the old Kmart (also remember them?) plaza. I went up there one evening this week, and it was going to be the final stop on my errands. The trouble was I couldn’t find it. The store was in a different location. Granted, once I looked it up, it wasn’t that far, but by this point I had bought dinner, and the thought of going a half-mile out of my way wasn’t appealing anymore. Yes, my hunger won out over possibly spending more money than I should on things I’d wear maybe once for an hour. Okay, when I put it that way, it worked out for the best. Although it’s not quite over yet. After Halloween, they’re still open, trying to rid themselves of their stock. That means I still could get wicked deals on potential props, fingers crossed!
6. I did dress up for the last work day of the week to celebrate Halloween. I turned out to be the only one who really dressed up. It was all stuff I already owned: an executioner’s hood, a large crystal ball for photography, black rubber gloves, my all-black hoodie. It looked great, pretty creepy, plus I brought my pumpkin to sit on my desk. I couldn't see much with the hood on, so I’d have to take it off to train people, which was fine. Before totally getting rid of my outfit, I had one final moment planned. It involved scaring one of my coworkers. They went off to set a patient up for a therapy session in another room. I figured I had a few minutes to hide in the little closet near their desk. Another coworker was an accomplice. They would tell this person to grab something from the closet, and when they opened the door, boom, I’d be there to scare them. It was a foolproof plan, or so I thought. Once inside the closet I was figuring it would be two to three minutes I’d wait before they’d return. It passed five minutes with nobody. I started to get cold feet, but my other coworker said I’d come this far and couldn’t get out of the closet yet. Then another patient came into the office, so I didn’t want to pop out and scare them. Finally, after probably ten minutes, they came back. As they approached and the plan got ready for action, I thought to myself, ‘what if they get so scared they take a swing at me?’ I put my hand up by my face as protection. They opened the door. I definitely scared them. They didn’t scream, but they did cock their fist back like they were going to swing. Luckily for me, they didn’t. Also lucky for me, my boss had gone out to run an errand. It was all laughs. This coworker threatened revenge, but it never came.
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| Not a bad look |
7. Birthday celebrations started early. I visited my mom, and the celebrations began. I am still a person who enjoys the overall feeling of a birthday. I can’t understand people who either don’t want to celebrate their birthday, or don’t see it as a big deal. I feel like they have lost the plot in terms of living. It’s like you made it to the next level up in years; that is something worth celebrating. If your birthday does not feel like something worth celebrating to you, I feel bad for you. I like having multiple celebratory events surrounding my birthday. They don’t have to be major, just things that make the days surrounding it feel special. Celebrating a few days early with some of my family is one such way. The older I get, the more I cherish the family moments. My mom, stepfather, one of my sisters, and one of my nieces all sang Happy Birthday. I blew out the candles on a mini-sized cake, and then came the gifts. My family knows me. Every year I mention my joy at the monster cereals being released in September and October. Well, my family made sure I wouldn’t have to go out and find the cereals all sold out. They got me several boxes of each of the three: Boo Berry, Frankenberry, and my favorite Count Chocula. Hey, I am not hard to please. I don’t need expensive things, just favorite cereals, oh, and quality family time.
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| A mountain of cereal, I wasn't joking. |
8. All eyes were on Willow Street in Hyannis this week as the new bridge for the Cape Cod Rail Trail was set to be put in place. A new extension of the beloved bike path had been laid out over the last year or two. It added something close to three miles of new riding trail to the bike path, which now goes from the town of Wellfleet into Hyannis. Since being paved, I have walked all of the new trail. It was necessary so that I could keep up my achievement of walking or running every bit of every bike trail on Cape Cod. There was a catch, though. A bridge was needed for the two parts of the new trail extension to meet at Willow Street. This is a busy stretch of road located near the Mid-Cape Highway. Anticipation built as the bridge had been constructed and was on the ground next to the bike trail on the eastern side. It was due to be put in overnight one night this week. The area around it was closed to traffic so the massive bridge that was close to 200 feet long could be installed. My plan was to go for a walk the following day and cross the new bridge. It was a beautiful day with temperatures around 70 in late October. I began my walk at the Bayberry Hills Golf Course; it was going to be about 3.5 miles in each direction. I planned to shoot a video from on the bridge to share and show everyone how it looked. Then I got to the bridge. Yes, it was up and stretched over Willow Street, but something was missing. The pavement didn’t go over the bridge, and even though it was in place, it wasn’t fully connected. So I guess the first half of the bridge installation was done. Boo. I was one of several people who went out there to cross the bridge only to be disappointed. I’m not sure how long it will be until it’s really done, but I’ll be going back next weekend to check.
9. It is all systems go as far as submitting my feature film The Cabin to the Provincetown Film Festival for 2027. The movie is already fully edited by Mark Polonia, who also directed it. I was amazed at how quick the turnaround was, and how much I enjoyed the movie. It is a suspenseful, psychological, low-budget, indie horror movie. Before it gets a distribution deal and possibly shown in some Cape Cod theaters, there is an important achievement I want. Last year I co-produced a short film, When Henry Met Henry, about a fictional meeting between iconic authors Henry Beston and Henry David Thoreau. I wanted desperately to enter that into the Provincetown Film Festival, but unfortunately the editor took somewhere in the neighborhood of seven months to edit a ten-minute film, so we missed the deadline. That won’t happen this time. As of this writing, there are over three months until the final deadline for the festival. There is, however, one hiccup. As I was submitting the film, a question popped up asking me if I had something called a digital cinema package. I had no idea what that meant, but that’s what Google is for. A DCP is a much larger and higher-quality file of the film. This is what is used to show a movie on the big screen. There are two ways to go about getting a DCP. One is to pay someone to do it, which I have seen go as high as $200 to $300. Or I can try to do it myself, which leaves a higher risk of screwing it up. Luckily, there is a lot of time, and I am sending feelers out to those who might have some knowledge on which path I should take. Either way, having a DCP means I can not only submit the film to festivals but also easily pass it off to theaters to show it. More updates when needed.
10. The fun uncle came through in the clutch on Halloween. I was sitting at my desk working on my next book, a follow-up to my first Cape Cod history anthology book, when my phone went off. It was my 7-year-old niece Sylvie, and she needed help with her costume. It was supposed to come with some sort of plastic knife or sword, but either it didn’t, or she couldn’t find it. I was her only hope to find something useful to replace that sword. So we were on FaceTime while I searched my closet. I had bought a plastic knife that had fake blood in it many years ago as a part of a costume. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen it in a few years and couldn’t find it. Just when I was about to give up, I remembered I had something in the trunk of my car. Don’t ask me why it’s still there, but years ago I also bought a Star Wars lightsaber. It is made of plastic and has a button on it that, if it’s held down, you can quickly move the handle and the lightsaber will pop out, much like they do in Star Wars. Sylvie had seen it before and liked it, so we were saved. Since she lives fairly close to me, I was able to go out to my car, grab the lightsaber out of my trunk, and walk it over to her. All of this was done while she was still on FaceTime, which was funny. There was still one issue. The rest of Sylvie’s costume was blue and black. The lightsaber was red. She had an idea, though, and that was to use blue-colored tape to wrap around the entirety of the lightsaber so it matched her costume. A lot of tape was used, but it got the job done. So in the end I came through to help my youngest niece have a fun Halloween. I didn’t get off scot-free, though. She made me wear a jester’s hat with jingling bells on my walk home. I did it, of course, because someday she will grow up and not think her crazy uncle is as cool and fun anymore. I’m taking full advantage of the time I’ve got.
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| I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! |
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