1. Hopes were high on Cape Cod that we might get a glimpse of the Northern Lights this week. I even took a rare trip out after dark. My plan was to park at a beach and walk far enough down the sand to get away from as much light pollution as possible. That part was a success. I ended up staking out a spot on a staircase that led from the beach up the dunes and eventually to a summer home that was still empty. Then the waiting game began. During the hour I sat out there the low clouds rolled in along with some of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Eventually, around 10:15 I decided to call it. No Aurora Borealis. It wasn’t a waste though, as I did enjoy the sense of adventure I’ve been craving for a few months.
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| Me, waiting for the Northern Lights. |
2. I’ve been stuck in a frustrating cycle over the last several months. I lose weight and feel better. Then I start to run more. Then I get some sort of injury. I get depressed and eat my feeling and gain the weight I lost. Then I get mad at myself and rebound. I lose weight and feel better again and the cycle repeats. I’m in the eating feelings stage as my body doesn’t want to cooperate with what my brain is asking so eventually my brain stops asking. Sure, I could chalk it up to a rough patch or just getting older, but my hope is that during one of these rollercoaster rides I find the eject button.
3. Whoa boy, nothing tops the mini heart attack you have when you flush your toilet and the water is brown. You think it's a septic issue. Luckily, in a roundabout way, the problem ended up being a water main break a mile away. Once many neighbors on my same street mentioned brown water the heart attack went away. I guessed it wasn’t septic because of course, I had to put my hand in the water in the back of the toilet once I noticed that the brown water didn’t smell. Sorry to anyone eating when they read this.
4. Basketball blues for me is a real thing. As you might recall last week I was doing my usual full-court playing at a local park and ended up needing both of my hips adjusted. This week I was able to top that. When chasing down a loose ball I lost track of where I was on the court. I ended up off the asphalt and onto the dirt. My left foot caught on the dirt, causing me to roll my ankle pretty good. I heard a nice crunch and everything. At first I worried it was broken or at least that something was torn. Luckily it is just a sprain that will be painful for a few days. You’d think I’ve learned my lesson but oh no. I’m sure in a week or so when it feels better I’ll be back on the court trying to find the next way to injure myself.
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| Before the injury |
5. This week, we had the first super-hot day of the season. It got up to 87 on Thursday on Cape Cod. The only good thing is that it’s still spring so it’s not humid yet. I had to laugh because I was thinking about how the first few hot days of the season always feel good. In about 2 months though, those same types of days will have me begging for the fall. That being said the heat was short-lived and it’s expected to be in the upper 60s to low 70s for the foreseeable future, which is alright with me.
6. As a *sigh* middle-aged man one thing I try to do is be ahead of the game when it comes to simple products for the home. Things like hand soap, dish soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. I don’t like running out. I think it’s gotten to be a problem though. Combine my need to be fully stocked with a tendency to forget what I’ve bought and you end up with a situation like I had this week. There was a deal on hand soap so I bought one. The only problem was when I got home and went to put the soap in the cabinet. It was then that I saw that I had 3 other soaps in there. Now, instead of being one ahead I am four. I have enough soap to last me until winter, which means I’ll likely buy a few more in the meantime by accident.
7. I had an interesting revelation as far as my own psyche goes. I can be a procrastinator at times. I also have severe bouts of Imposter Syndrome. Basically, it means you never think your victories in life are due to skill but more luck. That bleeds over into a lot of facets of life. I have been *debating* signing up for a year membership at Backstage.com, which is a big site for finding acting gigs. I want to try my hand at voice-over work. I was commissioned to edit a video for a friend, and the payment for it covers that one-year membership. Yet I still haven’t signed up. I figured out why. My imposter syndrome and procrastination are colliding. I can’t apply for any voice acting gigs until I am a member. I am terrified of failing at another creative venture so the longer I put off actually signing up the longer I can put off applying for jobs and the longer I can put off what I dread as far as failure goes. I will have to bite the bullet and apply since it is lining up well. Plus doing a podcast for over 4 years has given me some voice acting skill, so let’s just do it.
8. I wish that you knew when you were living in a period of time that was going to have a major impact on your life. Sure sometimes you get a feeling but typically you don’t recognize those times, specifically positive ones, until long after the fact. Every year for the last 20, including this year, during this week I remember a person who impacted my life more than just about anybody I’ve ever known. I could write a million words about her and still only scratch the surface. She came into my life when I was a major low point, battling depression. She pulled me out of it and taught me that I was okay being an authentic version of myself. At times it feels like her part in my life was a dream. I find myself chasing the way she made me feel and never finding anyone who matches it. All these years later I am also chasing the answer to the question ‘Why?’ Why was she sent into my life? What was the lesson she taught me? My best answer is she taught me that I could find real love as my authentic self, and that if I could once, I can again.
9. You ever do 20,000 ab crunches in a single session? At my work we got a machine that gives you that many muscle contractions in 30 minutes. It’s not just for abs though. There are 2 different pairs of paddles. The larger pair is for abs and probably lats, maybe glutes. The smaller, slightly contoured paddles are for smaller muscles. I chose to work my abs. The intensity was an 8 out of 10. I tried different positions for comfort. I laid down. I stood up. In the end I definitely felt the contractions but I wasn’t sore, at least not immediately. By the end of the next day it hurt to take a deep breath due to the, you know, 20,000 ab contractions. I had to tell my mother that if she saw me clutching my stomach that I wasn’t sick, just sore from the machine. Can’t wait to try it again.
10. When I write I sit at my desk with a window a few feet away to my right. This time of year it is wide open to let in the fresh air. There was a long round of silence in between passing cars and I could hear the birds chirping near and far. It was late in the evening and the music's seeping through. Wait, sorry that’s a Paul Simon song. It was evening, and through the silence I heard the sound of what I know to be a squirrel eating an acorn. The grinding of its teeth as it chewed was so loud it felt like the squirrel was on my windowsill. After getting up to check a few times I finally spotted it sitting about 40 feet away in a tree with its tail flipping around while it chewed. That was some crazy echo, plus at least it wasn’t one of the many squirrels that destroy the bird feeders in the yard.
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| Very loud eaters |
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