Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #136: Expensive Soup, Goodbye Dolly, Finally Caught, etc.

1. I have heard of things being marked down in a store, but this one takes the cake. While in a supermarket, I was looking for soup to have with dinner. Of course there are loads of ‘New Low Price’ stickers everywhere. They don’t mention that first they had to jack the costs up a ton, so the low prices are still probably above where they should be. Anyway, I noticed one particular markdown that caught my eye. It was a Campbell’s soup, now marked at $3.99. The old price? $21.99. For soup? Unless it’s made with fresh lobster mixed with real gold, I couldn’t imagine any soup being that expensive. Honestly, I think it was a mistake, but still I had to grab a photo of it so nobody would think I was telling tall tales. You know, like seeing a three-foot garter snake but telling everyone it was a fifteen-foot boa constrictor? Not that I’ve ever told anyone that.

That's some markdown

2. Sometimes workouts wipe you out, and you know it immediately. Sometimes they are sneaky and leave you a puddle after you’re done. This week I had a shorter day at work. Since there literally is a gym attached to the office where I train people, I figured why not just use that instead of driving somewhere else. When I exercise at my work gym, it typically ends up being option overload. I have unobstructed access to almost anything I could want for training. This time it was lots of kettlebells, BOSU, cable machine, and such. I worked every major muscle and even threw in some HIIT cardio while I was at it. Good job for thirty minutes. I got done and had barely broken a sweat, so I figured I hadn’t gone as hard as I did. The joke was on me; before I had even gotten into my car, my body felt like it was turning to dust. All I wanted to do was go home and collapse in a heap on the floor, but I had to stop at the store. If I could have lain on the floor and slept, I would have. The best workouts are when you feel you didn’t do enough but in reality did more than enough. I’m sure some of you are saying the best workouts are none at all. That is a perfectly fine choice as well.


3. One of the banes of my existence during the warmer months is woodpeckers. I am kidding; it’s not that bad, but they do become annoying. Obviously, if you just look at their name, you know this bird loves to peck at wood. Every year they return and choose the areas on the other side of my walls to hammer away at. What do you do to stop them? I’ll bang on the other side of the wall to scare them off, but what if they don’t get scared? I was hitting the wall, and the dang woodpecker just kept going. There was only so hard I was going to pound on the wall. I could just imagine me putting a hole in the wall trying to scare a bird. I mean, how do you explain that to someone? If you say you were trying to scare away woodpeckers, they might just call the nuthouse to come and get you. You’d almost be better off saying it was roid rage or something like that. In the end, the woodpecker got tired of annoying me, I guess, and went away. The only thing worse than a woodpecker attacking the walls is when they do the same thing to the gutters. Then it goes from a dull thud to a jackhammer that never ceases to give me a mini heart attack when it happens.

It was one of these that was the culprit.

4. Live your life in a way that, when you pass, hundreds of millions of people feel like they have lost a loved one. That is the sentiment I get when looking around social media after the death of music icon and humanitarian icon Dolly Parton at the age of 80 this week. She is someone whose music touched generations, but whose contributions to society in general touched so many more. She made life better for countless people whom she never met. I have been reading dozens of stories from celebrities and ordinary people about their interactions and connections to Dolly. I am preparing a blog post to go more in depth, but I will quickly summarize mine. When dealing with a crisis of confidence or uncertainty about where I am going in my life, I look for inspiration and direction. I tend to look toward not just people who have been successful, but people who have been successful and, on top of that, a good person. Numerous Dolly Parton quotes have made the rounds in my life during the last several years. The biggest one in particular is her quote: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” I felt that, as I have always felt like there was something beyond just a (no pun intended) 9-to-5 job. I have been trying to create my own path for years, and that quote reassures me each time I read it. I think there are very few people who were as universally loved and admired as Dolly Parton. Her death, even though she was 80, has stunned the world. But I circle back to the top. I feel like I am part of the largest group of mourners ever. Hundreds of millions of us feel like we lost someone special even though the vast majority of us never met her or even saw her in real life. There will never be another like Dolly Parton. Rest in peace to the Queen of Country. We will always love you.



5. I want to piggyback on that last entry. There are many celebrities, in particular musicians, who have inspired me with their work. Sadly, when you’re working on creating your own path, you sometimes forget to give thanks to those who inspire you to carry on. Such as it was with Dolly Parton. It was like after hearing of her death, I remembered all of the times that I read quotes of hers that seemed to bring clarity to my mind. I should have put it out in the universe, even if it was a social media post that she’d never see. Yes, celebrities don’t need the validation; after all, they have already made it. However, I would know that they lent a hand in my journey even if they never did. This is going to be a kind of catch-all, thank-you purge while it is fresh in my mind, as I don’t want to have a posthumous thank you as I just did for Dolly Parton. Whether working on a creative project or simply looking for answers in a sometimes overwhelming life, these are the artists whose music I have leaned on the most in those times. Thank you so much to: Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Norah Jones, Dave Grohl, Elton John, Phil Collins, Thom Yorke, Glen Phillips, Bono, Michael Stipe, Sade, and probably more, but those are the people whose words and music have spoken to me above all others. There are certainly more who have since passed on, but I wanted to thank these people while I still have the chance.


6. My life at times feels like two totally different films smashed together. No matter if they make sense, they are jammed into one hybrid. I feel like I am, on one hand, a health-conscious, wise, confident, and driven person. Then on the other hand, I am a self-loathing, terrified person bound to bits of self-destructive behavior. One day this week, it crystallized in a series of events that saw me ping-pong back and forth from fitness to fatness. I began at my day job as a personal trainer. As the day drew to a close, I was hungry and decided that going for a run was not going to happen. I wanted to eat, preferably something bad. That came in the form of a large pepperoni pizza. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it tasted great, but it left me feeling angry, knowing the amount of exercise I’d have to do to burn off what I’d just eaten. A few hours later, I was doing some writing work and felt the urge to go for a walk. So after eating a large pizza I proceeded to go and walk nearly 5 ½ miles on a perfect summer afternoon. I burned over 700 calories. Finally, the day swung totally in the opposite direction again. I got hungry after the walk and couldn’t decide what to have for dinner. My mind was set on cereal. So I went and got a box of cereal to have for dinner. Not a bowl, the whole box. It is wild when I write it down to think about how I swung in such opposing ways in the same day. I was a personal trainer and went for a long walk, burning lots of calories. Yet on the same day I ate a large pizza and a box of cereal. So yes, my life feels like it can be a pair of diametrically opposed films that are crashing into each other. It’s sort of like when you mix two perfect colors of Play-Doh, and it makes some weird color. The weirdest thing is that I kind of enjoy almost having the best of both worlds. I do heavy bouts of exercise when I want to and don’t deprive myself of the foods I like, even if they are way less than healthy.


7. The latest episode of being the fun uncle. I went to my mom’s to visit, and my 7-year-old niece Sylvie was there. We had fun with stuffed animals playing around. Sylvie had this spray-on, leave-in conditioner, and she started spraying the animals and combing their fur. Naturally, she wanted to style my hair by spraying the conditioner in it. The only issue is that I have less than an inch of hair on my head. I don’t need much conditioner. She also grabbed a pen and said she might be able to color in my gray hairs, but that didn’t work. To say I ended up with a lot of that conditioner in my hair would be a huge understatement. I’d say conservatively Sylvie sprayed the bottle 20 times on my head. It was plastered down with it. I left it in the whole time she was there, but once she had gone home, I went straight to the bathroom to try to wash it out. Despite soaking my head with water, I could still feel it hanging on. I guess that makes it a good conditioner. It took a full, hot shower to finally remove all of the conditioner. I did make the mistake of telling Sylvie that in the winter I will have a lot more hair. That means the odds of a follow-up featuring the conditioner are likely, but with even more to slick my hair down.

This is the stuff she used, I'm impressed I found it.

8. I know we were all kids once. I know most of us did dangerous and reckless things when we were kids. I’m assuming that those who are Gen-X like have way more stories and battle scars than a lot of the younger people do. I preface this next story by saying all of this so that I can then say that kids have to be smarter. I was leaving the supermarket one evening this week. I took a back road behind the plaza and through a neighborhood because in the summer it’s way easier than trying to navigate Route 28 (our busiest street on Cape Cod). On this occasion, I was going slow to a stop sign and preparing to turn right down another road. I would say 99 out of 100 times when I hit that intersection, there is nobody anywhere. No cars, no people, just a wide open road. However, I also never assume, so I stopped and waited a moment. Good thing I did. Without warning, and from an area completely shielded by bushes, a kid on a motorized scooter came flying around the corner. He doesn’t stop, doesn’t look, just flies right in front of my car. I had no idea that he was there until he flew in front of my car. It was a total blind spot. I am so grateful that I was taking my time because if I had started driving a second or two earlier, I could have hit that kid. I can only assume he goes down that route and never sees a car. I also remember, as a teenager, you feel you’re invincible until something comes along to slap you in the face. I shouted a few words at his stunned face and then went on my way. I am glad I didn’t end up being his wake-up call to be more careful, or something worse.


9. This week I finished the series Glitch on Netflix. It was another in my run of sci-fi, supernatural, suspenseful shows. Yes, I guess I have a type. The series is from Australia and has 18 episodes, which are divided into 3 seasons. The gist of it is a group of people returns from the dead, literally crawling out of their graves. The show is then trying to figure out why they came back looking normal and healthy, and also the ramifications of their return. I won’t spoil anything but will say it actually has a happy ending despite it being totally different than what I expected. One thing totally unrelated to the plot of the show has to do with the recent trend on streaming platforms of original shows having incredibly small numbers of episodes counting as a ‘season.’ 6 episodes is a season? Even 8-10 is weak. I guess growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when TV shows had 20 or so episodes in a season, I have been spoiled. Attention spans and commitment levels are a lot shorter in the 2020s. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t matter much when you’re binging a show that has already run its course, but I have a few shows that are still currently going, and having to wait a year or more for another handful of episodes is pretty lame. I’ll still do it, but yes, I will complain about it along the way.

10. Well, it only took 9 months, but Netflix finally realized I was getting all of their shows ad-free when my subscription was the low tier with ads. I had wondered if they would ever catch on. I mean, I certainly wasn’t going to write to a multi-billion dollar corporation and tell them I was getting a higher tier than what I was paying for. In December, when I got Netflix back, I noticed after a few days I hadn’t seen one ad during my time on the platform. Weeks turned to months, and I almost started taking it for granted, expecting that they might have forgotten about me. This week I was watching something when all of a sudden an ad popped up. Then, maybe ten minutes into the show, a full-on ad break came on. I was sad for a moment, but hey, I had a good run with ad-free Netflix. Besides, I grew up in the times when you couldn’t skip commercials; they were just part of the experience. I guess if I was a kid who had only known streaming, I might be upset. I’m old, though; I can deal with a few ads with my shows. It’s just like the 90s all over again. Well, except my knee doesn’t get sore because of playing sports; it gets sore because it’s Tuesday.


11. As things ramp up for going on location to film The Cabin next week, I have gotten to enjoy recording some scenes with friends that I cast in the movie. First, it cuts down on the search for people to play the roles. Second, it allows me to thank them by giving them roles in the film. Two scenes were audio-only, as they will be telephone calls in the film. A third was a fake Zoom call. The audio scenes went pretty seamlessly. In the end, I decided that it might be better to do the fake Zoom call in person, just in case anything went wrong. Boy, I was lucky I did. There were a few minor mishaps when it came to lighting and sound that would have been harder to try to solve from the other end of a computer. Plus, if you’re on Zoom, you only get something like 45 minutes of video time before it shuts down. I could have just imagined needing to spend most of that time fixing technical issues only to have Zoom kick us off as we finally got going. In the end, we got it all to work and got the scenes shot. It was the final thing I could do on Cape Cod for the film before heading off on location in a few days.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #126: YouTube Stupid, Cat Food Breakfast, Kmart Music, etc.

1. Do real people work for YouTube? I ask this because I had a video get pulled from my channel this week. The reason? Underage kids drinking. Were there kids drinking? Yes. Was it alcohol? Of course not. This video is from Christmas 1995, and in a few scenes, we kids are sharing a bottle of sparkling cider. I know scandalous. I would hope that if it’s a human reviewing this private video, oh yeah, it’s private, so nobody can see it without the link. Anyway, I would hope that if it were a human, they would see or hear us mentioning sparkling cider. I am guessing it’s some sort of AI bot programmed to find things it thinks violate the site. Oh, but even better when the video, or any video, gets removed, there is no option to chat or email anyone to plead your case. Absolutely ridiculous. I chose the option of appealing the decision. Knowing this site, it won’t matter. I’ll end up having to cut out the scene they highlighted. Whatever. It was a family celebrating a holiday in the 90s and jokingly drinking sparkling cider. With some of the stuff I see on YouTube, shockingly, this video got pulled, but we’ll see what happens.


2. Luckily, when dealing with stress like the garbage I just mentioned with YouTube, I have something I can do. At work, we have something called Truvaga. It is a vagus nerve stimulator. For those who don’t know, the vagus nerve controls the ‘fight or flight’ part of your body. Truvaga is a two-minute session, is totally safe, and has me feeling like sunshine and rainbows inside of 40 minutes. The only problem with that time frame comes when I do a session and then stop to run an errand. If my stress level drops into ‘everything is wonderful’ territory while out somewhere, it changes things. For example, a few months ago, I stopped at the supermarket on my way home from work after using Truvaga. While I was inside, the overwhelming peace and calm took over. Do you want to know how I realized that? My Fitbit buzzed and asked if I was out for a walk, and if I wanted it to start tracking it as exercise. That means I was wandering the store in such a euphoric state for so long that my Fitbit thought I was on a walk. Foolishness like that aside, I love the Truvaga, but it also costs nearly $500. That means I will use it when I can at work, but when it comes to buying my own, I’d probably need a separate Truvaga to help me after I saw the bill for it.


3. Most days, I don’t feel my age. There are some though where it becomes painfully clear that I was a teenager 30 years ago. This week, I was driving home from work and stopped at the supermarket for something quick. I pulled into the parking lot with Prodigy’s Firestarter blasting. A nice pounding techno gem from the 1990s. I parked next to a 70-something guy who was loading his bags into his trunk. He looked at me with annoyance. In an instant, I was 18 again and felt that sense of GenX rebellion I used to feel all the time. I wanted to sit there and let the song blast until he drove away, but I had my fun. I almost wanted to thank him for looking so upset with my music and then tell him the 60s called and were looking for his unnecessary moral outrage toward the youth.




4. If you haven’t seen the show Dark on Netflix, I cannot recommend it enough. It is 3 seasons and a total of 26 episodes. The show was on originally from 2017 to 2020, and in the simplest terms is about time-travel. It is so much more, though. It has such a layered and interesting plotline with loads of detailed characters. The show rewards you for paying attention. It’s not a show to watch in the background while scrolling your phone. You will probably become lost if you do that. I’m trying not to spoil anything. You get great acting, great characters, and great music. With the time-travel, there are a lot of classic 1980s songs. The highest compliment I can give this show is that I actually binged a lot of it over a weekend. Usually, I try to watch one episode of a show per night to fully digest it. Dark was so good that I needed to keep going to follow the story. If you can, definitely add Dark to your future watch list on Netflix.

5. Speaking of Netflix, I have had my subscription back for just over 6 months. I got it to watch the final season of Stranger Things. In that time, I have watched so many excellent shows. Having just finished Dark, it’s time for a new show, and Netflix seems to know my tastes now. I feel like I’ll find another winner. In the last 6 months, these are the shows I’ve watched: Stranger Things, Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, Cobra Kai, 11.22.63, Yellowjackets, His & Hers, Untamed, The Burroughs, The Beast In Me, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Castle Rock, and Dark. Every one of them I found engaging and entertaining. I am sure that at some point I’ll start a show that I’ll not like as much and probably give up on, but as of right now, I’m on a hot streak, at least when it comes to my own entertainment.


6. Every now and then, the old me comes back out. I was spending a day recording podcasts and doing other content when I had a sudden urge to go to the gym. In the time before COVID, that was not unusual. I’d be at the gym 5 or more days a week. COVID got me used to sitting around, and it has been tough snapping out of it. It also doesn’t help that I am now in my late 40s. People’s energy levels naturally begin dropping with age. You have to work harder to do the same things. The fact that I had a desire to hit the gym was a great sign. I went and had maybe the best workout of the year. Nearly an hour, and my body was like pudding when I got home. I am not sure how often I can pull that off, but I think if I just get back to being consistent, those killer workouts won’t seem so out of the ordinary anymore.


7. One day this week, a coworker and I entered the office. We began smelling something off. We both looked at each other, confused, trying to figure out what it was. I said it smelled a bit like cat food. It turned out to be my boss’s breakfast burrito. No, it didn’t have cat food in it. I now forget what he said was in it, but I was a mix of feeling bad and wanting to laugh hysterically. I didn’t bring it up again. I mean, who wants to hear that their breakfast smells like cat food? Unless it actually is cat food, then you’ve got bigger issues.

A new flavor of burrito?

8. This week, I recorded the 250th episode of my podcast. One of the GenX nostalgia topics that I covered was a hilariously poorly acted Kmart employee training video from 1992. I linked to it. An unexpected find when researching Kmart in general, though, was a series of their old muzak tapes that you’d hear when walking through the stores. I found an entire playlist at Archive.org with dozens of such tapes. It’s a lot of the soft rock music you’d expect, along with the voice-over person explaining current Kmart deals and thanking you for coming into the store. Each tape is between one and two hours long. I don’t suggest spending an entire night listening to them, but click the playlist and spend a few minutes listening. Maybe you will be transported back to the blue light special days of yore when Kmart ruled retail.


9. I am lucky enough to live fairly close to the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Unless the weather is terrible, I try to find a way to be on that trail for a walk at least once a week. You get to be close to nature. You get to see loads of people enjoying themselves and the scenery. Typically, you see solo people, maybe a few in a group. This week, while on the trail, I got to see two different huge groups in two different areas. One was a group of runners doing what I believe was a fun-run 5K on the trail. They were coming at me early in my walk. It was quite a crowd, probably around 50 runners. There were a lot of waves as I went by. Then on the way back, now probably more than 4 miles into my walk, I spotted one of the largest gatherings of bicycles I’ve seen. There had to be between 30 and 40 coming down a street. One by one, they entered the bike trail. I think some of the vehicles were losing their minds over the wait, but oh well, it is summer. I got ahead of the crowd as they all gathered, probably to go over the riding plans. I think they were from a nearby summer camp because there were a few adults and a lot of kids. When the line of bikes started passing me on the bike trail, I felt like it took a full 2 minutes for them to all go by.


10. The Summer Solstice happened this weekend. It is the longest day of the year in terms of actual light. On Cape Cod, we had 15 hours and 12 minutes of daylight. I tend to have delusions of grandeur on the longest day of the year. It’s as if I am going to spend an inordinate amount of time outside doing something simply because it’s the longest day of the year. That never ends up happening. The best was the year that I wanted to run one mile in each of the 15 towns on mainland Cape Cod. I figured I had plenty of time since the sunrise was a little after 5am and the sunset would be close to 8:30pm. I did run, but not in every town. I did a nice long run that, by coincidence, took me from one town to another. Once reality set in, I was toast. I would have run at least 15 miles, plus driving everywhere from Falmouth to Provincetown. On a good day, it takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes to go from Falmouth to Provincetown, so at the beginning of summer, it would be longer. In the end, it was an ‘eyes bigger than your stomach’ type of thing. This year, I sat around and didn’t do much, and loved every second of it.


11. Summer arrived, and all was calm to start. The weather was perfect, and because many schools don’t get out until early next week, the traffic wasn’t bad either. On Cape Cod, it is a condensed mad dash of a summer annually. From Memorial Day through Independence Day, the weekends grow gradually busier while the weekdays are pretty normal. Then Fourth of July hits, and it’s 6 weeks of insanity. Don’t even think about making a left turn until Labor Day. Sometime in July, the weather flips. The lower humidity of late spring vanishes and is replaced by sweltering temperatures routinely in the mid and upper 80s, and humidity that makes you feel like you took a shower in your clothes. Stock up on bug spray, too, as mosquitoes, ticks, and later greenhead flies dominate the landscape. It must sound like I don’t enjoy summer, and that’s not totally untrue. Summer is my 3rd favorite season, behind fall and spring. So yeah, the heat, humidity, and crowds don’t paint my ideal picture. I do enjoy everything being open. Winter on Cape Cod can be pretty solitary, so seeing everything busy is good. As I do every year, though, I will be counting down the days until the end of August when the crowds begin to disperse, and then we locals get our season to enjoy Cape Cod .

A sunset during last summer in Dennis, MA

12. Father’s Day was this weekend. It is always a bittersweet day. I have trouble celebrating because my father was and still is a bad person. He is lazy, selfish, a professional victim, someone who only cares about his kids when they can give him money. I learned so much about what not to be as a man from my biological father. I come back to the good men that I have had in my life who picked up the slack of a bum. It makes the bitterness a little easier to swallow when I think of so many second fathers who helped me grow into a functioning adult. I feel bad because I see some good fathers, yes, but I also see way more terrible ones. Not being a father myself, I cannot say for sure if I’d be a good one. I’d like to think that common sense and common decency would make me an average father at least. The anger and resentment toward my biological father, I think, would inspire me to simply be better than him. I envy family and friends who have good fathers. I’d love to have had a dad who took me fishing, taught me how to fix cars, and gave me general life tips. I’d be grateful for the older I get. I didn’t get that. I got a guy who stood me up when making plans, constantly begged for money, quit jobs to avoid paying child support, and treated alcohol better than his children. So Happy Father’s Day to the good dads out there. To my biological father, you are the sum total of the terrible choices you made in life, and karma is showing you that now.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #117: Used To Be Young, Price Update, Double Entendre, etc.

1. I try to remember that I was a kid once, and so was everyone else. I don’t want to become the old guy who is always suspicious of younger people. I say all this because this week, when it was time for Monday Runday, I had to put that to the test. I run with a longtime friend at a school track. The school has been closed for a few years and is likely to be torn down in the next few years, but the track is still in one piece. I pulled into the parking lot, and standing near the front door of the school were two teenage boys. They were just hanging out with their bikes. I did my best to remember I was a kid once, but I had my eye on them the entire time I was there. They stayed huddled by the front of the school for a good 45 minutes while I was on the track. They only left a few minutes before I got done. Of course, as far as I know, they didn’t do anything except hang out, but my old man eyes were fixed on them anytime they got in my line of sight.


2. There is an old 1990s song by a band named Everclear called ‘Everything to Everyone.’ The title has always stuck with me because I feel that is my lot in life. I’ve always hated to let people down. For too many years, I’d say yes to things that I wasn’t 100% into because I wanted to be liked. In some ways, it’s noble to want to have the ability to do whatever you can for others to help them. However, when you constantly try to please everyone, the one person who ends up being not pleased is you. In my 40s, I’ve done a lot more of saying no and setting boundaries. Not being a jerk, but when whatever it is doesn’t 100% jive with what’s in my heart and mind, I have to decline. There are obviously levels to people pleasing. Small things, I am still apt to say yes to, but my level of extension out of my safety and stability grows smaller with each passing year. I feel bad when I have to say no to people, especially loved ones, but I also feel like the things I’ve declined haven’t been unreasonable. I’m sure those who’ve asked feel differently, but you can’t please everyone, and you shouldn’t try.


3. I love Netflix. Ever since I signed up for it again last year, I have posted about the shows I have been enjoying all over this blog. That being said, they are, at the end of the day, a greedy corporation looking to squeeze every cent they can out of their subscribers. They know that they have loads of great shows and movies and that the more than 320 million worldwide subscribers will pay for their service, even as they continue to raise their rates. I had to laugh this week when I got an email from Netflix. In it, they mentioned their rates being raised. I have the lowest tier with ads, and it’s up to $8.99 per month, up from $7.99. The laughing part came from how they phrased it. They called it a ‘price update.’ Update? It’s not like a new Windows download or iPhone software. It’s a straight money grab. I’d have had more respect if they just said, ‘Here’s info about the latest price increase.’ It’s not like I’m going to cancel, but I had to laugh at how they frame their making more money off of us. Please don’t piss down our backs and tell us it’s raining, Netflix.


4. This week saw the first 70-degree days of the year on Cape Cod. After the terrible winter we had, it was an amazing feeling to step outside in short sleeves and feel the warmth of the sun. It was 70 degrees at 9am, which was perfect. Of course, the first 70-degree day was also a work day, so there was a tinge of sadness. I was driving to work and had to stop off at the beach. This is the time of year when it gets warm, but the humidity is still a way away. This is also the time of year when it gets warm, you can be outside, and the flocks of tourists aren’t here yet. I joked to myself as I walked along the sand that I must really like my job because I was choosing to go to work inside when the wide open beach was staring me in the face. The most ‘New England’ thing about the warm weather goes back to last week, and saying that we have 12 seasons here. Well, next week our highs drop back into the upper 40s for a few days because, of course, they do. I’ll just keep a heavy coat and maybe an ice scraper on hand for another few weeks just in case.


5. A couple of eye-opening things happened at work this week. Our new CA (chiropractic assistant) tech is learning a few therapies that she didn’t know of at her previous job. One that she’s learning is Myovision. It is a quick way to measure muscle tension in the spine. This, in turn, shows where muscles might be compensating. Things that typical X-rays don’t show. It is done at 3 areas along the spine. When my hip area was measured, it showed a major compensation on my left side, which made sense since a right hip injury several years ago ruined my running career. We tested again, and it was a little better. Then I was asked to take my shoes off and do a third test. To my amazement, the left hip compensation was gone. I was then curious about how much my shoes, and more specifically, my extra insoles in them, contributed to hip and knee issues that have been plaguing me. We moved on to the bilateral scales. I’ve mentioned them before, but in short, they are two scales side by side. You step on each with one foot, staring straight ahead. It then shows you which side bears more of your weight. Without shoes, I was nearly 10 pounds heavier on my right. My left knee has been an issue for the last week or so; it made sense. Then I stood with only the extra insoles under my feet, no shoes. It flipped, and I was nearly 10 pounds heavier on my left. With shoes, I was basically even. My mind was blown by how much those insoles negatively affected my legs. They were immediately thrown in the trash. I guess it was kind of lucky that we did the Myovision test, or else I might have kept doing damage to my legs with those insoles. Oh, and I also found out I am down 14 pounds in 2026, so it was even better news.

An example of the Myovision test results

6. This is the 4th year that I have helped my buddy Steve install and remove a dock in a lake at a couple’s summer house. It’s good money for relatively short work. Granted, it’s me on one end of each of the three dock pieces with two people on the other end, but that’s fine. I am the only one who doesn’t need to get into the water to put in or remove the dock. We install it in April and usually remove it in November. This year, the weather was great, low 60s and sunny when we arrived around 5:30pm. We installed the dock in 15-20 minutes, which included carrying each piece down two sets of stairs. I mention this because the next day at work, I trained a 13-year-old. I have found that if I do the workout with him, he stays engaged. This means I end up burning a fair amount of calories while being paid. What am I getting at? Well, at least for this time, I burned more calories training my 13-year-old than I did installing the dock. Not sure what that says about either situation, but I found it funny because you’d think the dock install would be harder work. Nope. Training a 13-year-old is.


7. A Not Safe For Work but hilarious story. When training any of my teenage clients, I never assume that they have absolutely no knowledge of fitness. Before showing them an exercise, I will ask them: ‘Do you know what...is?’ It could be bird dog, Bulgarian split-squat, pallof press, etc. Typically, they don’t know, so then I go on to explain while I demonstrate. This week I had a 19-year-old in the gym. As I said, I asked him if he was familiar with Exercises A, B, C, etc. Then we came to a bit of interval training to help him with his cardio. I asked him ‘Do you know what a snatch is?’ He did not. It is a legit exercise using a dumbbell or a kettlebell. But in my mind, I immediately thought of the 90s slang for, well, you know. Or maybe not? A female body part. Being 19, he wasn’t well-versed in my GenX slang, so it flew right by without a cross look. I thought that it sounded like the way some 1980s Afterschool Specials would start. Some kid coming home and telling his parents, ‘The teacher asked me what a snatch was today.’ The funniest part was that I told the story to a pair of coworkers. The one who is in her 40s, like me, immediately started cracking up. The other, who is in her early 20s, had no idea what was so funny. Then we had to explain it, which was another hilariously awkward conversation. Stupid exercise. I guess it could be worse; instead of it being called a snatch, it could have been named a cooch or some other slang term from my childhood.




8. I’ve had credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, supermarket rewards cards, Sub Club cards, and so many other random cards. Now I can add a laundromat card to the list. I’ve been doing my laundry at a laundromat for the last few months. No big deal. You go in, pay, wash, and leave. Sure, it’s more expensive than I remember, but what isn’t? This week, I went to do my laundry when I noticed two things. First, the cost of a load of laundry went up $1, which immediately sucks. Next, there was no slot to insert money into the washer. Suddenly, the man who owns the place came up and explained to me the card system. There is a touch screen where you enter cash, and it, in turn, puts that amount on your card. Then you place your card on a reader on the washing machine and hit start, and the washer starts up. You got all that? If not don’t worry, it is needlessly complicated, and I have no idea why a laundromat that looks like it still exists in 1985 needs a touch screen card system for their machines. That flippin’ card system is likely why we’re all getting charged more per load. It just makes me laugh because as this guy was explaining the new system, all I could hear in my head was ‘Why?’ The dude will probably be driving a Porsche in a few months thanks to the ‘new system.’

All that sweet laundromat card money...

9. Flattery will get you everywhere. This week at work, a patient was there who hadn’t been in over a year. She was sitting in the therapy room while I was standing at my desk. I said hello to her and asked how she had been. Then she won the day in my book by asking if I had lost a ton of weight. I haven’t lost ‘a ton,’ but as I mentioned earlier, I have dropped 14 pounds in 2026. But since she hasn’t seen me in over a year, it makes me wonder if I was even heavier the last time she saw me, and if I have dropped more weight? Not sure on that, but another day this week, my mother remarked that she could tell I’ve lost weight, so that means it is noticeable. Despite that good news, I feel like I’m about halfway to what I want to lose, so I’d say another 16 to get me to 30. First though, I’ll make the push for 20.


10. I mentioned in a blog months ago that I am so old now that visiting supermarkets, which I don’t go to often, is considered exciting. This was not the excitement I had in mind. I stopped at a supermarket, which I visit maybe once a year at most. I won’t name them because it is not a good story. I was looking to grab something quick for dinner on the way home from a video shoot. While walking the back wall, near the freezer section, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was something small and brown, and it was scurrying its way along the floor. Yes, it was a mouse, out in plain view in this store. Now, I’m not saying this is a reflection on their cleanliness because it could have just been a one-in-a-million moment. But I will say in my life, I have visited probably dozens of different supermarkets in a bunch of states. I have never, not once, seen a mouse ever, anywhere else. This was the first. So maybe it is a coincidence, maybe I have been around mice in other supermarkets and not seen them. Or maybe this place needs to hire an exterminator and be glad I didn’t whip out my phone and film it and then tag it online, because the mouse was visible long enough that I could have.


11. Although the weather has been the typical bipolar spring we get on Cape Cod, things are starting to bloom. I ventured to a church garden I like to go to for flower photos and videos. It’s not as great as it will be in a month or so, but the daffodils were starting to spring up. I had an idea to use my selfie stick to create a unique perspective. I would hold it low to the ground and navigate it through the field of daffodils from underneath. My experiment caught the attention of a woman and her two granddaughters. They were really nice and actually asked if they needed to be quiet. I laughed and said I had started taking photos at the other end of the garden so I wouldn’t bother them. I showed them my raw video and explained what I was doing. The two girls, who were probably 6 and 8, didn’t care much. After they left, I became obsessed with trying to get a video of an elusive chipmunk that kept coming close but then running away when it saw me. My solution? Set the camera on a tripod and stand as far away as I could, where the Bluetooth shutter would still work. I ended up with about 5 seconds of footage of it running to and from my camera, but now I want to try to get nature spy shots like that of more creatures. Knowing my luck though, a hawk will think my phone looks like food and swoop down and grab it.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #116: Something Very Bad, 12 Seasons, A Cool Bike Rack, etc.

1. My latest binge-worthy show on Netflix is a recent addition to the platform. Something Very Bad Is About To Happen is a horror series created by Hayley Boston and produced by the Duffer Brothers. It is about a woman who is going to get married, but things start happening that kind of tell her maybe she shouldn’t marry into her future husband’s family. It just came out on Netflix in the last week or so. I already enjoy it. The show is pretty dark, moody, creepy, and atmospheric. I will do my best not to spoil anything. There are eight episodes, and it’s unclear if there will be a second season since it’s being promoted as a ‘limited series.’ Highly recommended if you enjoy psychological horror.

2. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had a man in the gym at work running on a treadmill in an active metabolic test. During that test, for some reason, the power in half of the gym suddenly went out. It was pretty dangerous since it immediately turned off the treadmill when it was going close to 8mph. Nothing had happened like that since, so I thought maybe it was a one-time anomaly. Nope. This week, it was a woman on the treadmill doing oxygen therapy. This is where you perform some sort of moderate cardio while breathing in 93% pure oxygen through a mask. I was in the middle of performing shockwave therapy on a patient's shoulder when I noticed all of the lights went out in the gym. This wasn’t part of the power; it was all of it. I had to ask someone else to go and check if the woman was alright. She was, but it was again very dangerous that the power just decided to go out. There was nothing different on our end, so it might be something that the owners of the building need to get taken care of.


3. It’s the time of year when the herring start making their journey from ponds to the ocean on Cape Cod. We have a few herring runs on the Cape. Perhaps the most well-known is the Stony Brook one in Brewster. It had been getting a major facelift over the past year, so it was unknown if it would be done and reopened in time for the annual explosion of herring through the waters. If you’ve never seen the herring run, think of it as thousands of 6-8” long fish trying to swim from a pond, down a series of fish ladders, and out to the ocean. Then imagine split rail fences on either side of the rushing water, lined with hungry gulls. It becomes a fight for survival with loads of fish being swallowed long before they reach their destination. This year, there is an added level of difficulty as osprey have joined the chat as far as grabbing a herring lunch. As of this writing, I have seen the herring, but seeing as how I drive by there daily on my way to and from work, I’ll be stopping in to try to get some footage of the impending massacre.

A wide view of the herring run.

4. In New England, we have a long-running joke that instead of 4 seasons, we have 12. This is based on the wacky ways our weather evolves over the year. As of this blog, we are about halfway through April. Several weeks into spring. Wherever you are reading this from, what is the weather like? Spring? Summer? Probably somewhere in there. We are currently in Third Winter, aka our 5th season of 12. Just this past week, we’ve had lows dip into the mid 20s and even had a few flakes in the air one day when the high didn’t even reach 40. I’m not saying I need it to be 70 instantly, but at least have it be in the low 50s consistently. Up next in our year in New England is The Pollening. I’m super excited for my allergies to leap out from behind a bush and whack me on the head like a mob hit. Anyway, you know I’d have the full 12 seasons of New England sheet for you.

5. Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple when it comes to exercise. I have a client at my job who is pretty hardcore. I enjoy being able to craft some elaborate, fun, and challenging exercises for her. Sometimes, though, I might take it a step too far in terms of complication. An idea I had this week was a sort of kettlebell drag. I took three yoga straps and tied them together before taking the end of the last one and tying it to a 26-pound kettlebell. The object is to use the straps to pull the bell to your feet. Then you’d walk across the gym and pull the bell toward you again, and so on. The apparatus was all set to go. I had been bragging excitedly about the setup to her. She grabbed one end of the straps, gave it a pull, and instantly, one of the knots I’d tied came undone. Fail #1. So I tied it back up as tightly as I could. She grabbed one end, gave it a pull, bam, another one came untied with a metal clasp, going flying. Fail #2. This time, she tied it back together. One drag of the kettlebell, and she said it wasn’t challenging enough. So I grabbed a thick band and proceeded to tie a heavier kettlebell to the 26-pound one. Again, overcomplicated. One last time, she grabbed the strap and gave it a pull. This time, the third and final yoga strap popped off with another metal clasp flying. We both laughed pretty hard...then she had to do sets on the battle ropes. So the joke ended up being on her.


6. Having a good edible means editing photos on your phone while simultaneously scanning the room, looking for where you put your phone. Not much else can be said about this. I indulge in an edible every now and then. Usually, I just veg out watching Netflix. I started editing photos from a little shoot I did, which is coming up next. I got so zoned out editing the photos that my mind began wandering to someone I wanted to text. I looked around for my phone so I could text, and it actually took me a minute to realize my phone was in my hands. Hey, at least I just stay home rather than subject the rest of society to my foolishness in that state.


7. I took a quick hop over the bridge to get some video at the nearby but remote Scusset Beach in Sagamore Beach. I began with my new favorite thing, using my selfie stick to shoot video out of my car’s roof while driving. That was fun, as was the walk out to the end of the jetty. Naturally, with my location at the Cape Cod Canal, I was able to watch a few boats go in and out, including a much bigger ship. One funny thing about Scusset Beach is that there is a very specific bike rack there that I am obsessed with. Every time I go, I stare at it and inevitably take a photo of it. I don’t know if it’s just the design of it, but it has been a thing of mine for probably 25 years. If I go to Scusset, I will end up gawking at that bike rack.

Almost hypnotic

8. I graduated from middle school (8th grade) in 1992. That was the last time I had been inside the halls of Mattacheese Middle School on Cape Cod. Until this week, that is. I was out for a long walk and ended up deciding to head over to Mattacheese, which was close to 3 ½ miles in each direction. The school itself is closed, although the gym and outdoor fields are still used for youth sports. I was there, and the gym was being used, so naturally I walked in. I was not able to go very far since the rest of the school was still locked. I did get to see the gym, the chorus room where I had music class, and use a bathroom, which was thrilling. Don’t worry though, I let the staff there know what I was doing, so I didn’t look too suspicious wandering down the halls.

Definitely don't look 14 anymore

9. This past week has felt like I am trying to get the train rolling down the tracks again after basically spending the last few months just trying to survive winter. There are so many projects I am working on, will be working on, or want to work on. It feels now like I need to take a step back and try to organize things and make a plan for the rest of the year. My mind is like a front yard after a storm, covered in branches and other debris. I just have to find a place to start cleaning up. I guess I didn’t realize how tough this winter was mentally until I sat down and tried to pick up where I left off with projects, and it was like chasing dandelion spores in the wind. Luckily, there’s no pressing deadline on any projects, at least for this month.


10. It’s amazing how you can fall out of the habit of something that was second nature for so many years. I was a regular at the gym from my college days. I remember working out in the highly retro gym at Cape Cod Community College. There was equipment that was 20 years old when I was going in the late 1990s. No matter what, though, I was at the gym working out 4-5x per week. Unless I was hurt or sick, I was a regular. Now, I have been working as a personal trainer for 10 years, and I find it harder than ever to keep up appearances at the gym. When exercise became work, it changed things. When I worked as a cook, I hated cooking at home. It became an extension of my job. Now with training, it’s becoming the same thing. I do it all day and rarely have the desire to do it again after work. I don’t think it’s all because I train people for a job. I am closing in on 50. My body has seen its fair share of injuries. I have lingering right hip and left knee issues from running, and no doubt am starting to feel the creep of arthritis in my left shoulder and right elbow. Plus, as you age, your energy levels naturally drop. It’s all stacked against me. That being said, I also know, because training is my job, that exercise is a positive solution to a lot of issues. I think this spring into summer will be a lot of me recalibrating what I am looking to do with myself at the gym. I can’t really run. I can’t really lift heavy. What I can do, though, is show up and keep moving.

The end of the jetty at Scusset Beach

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #103: Snow Picnic, Exciting Laundromat, Job Applicant, etc.

1. We’ve had a snowier winter this year than in the last few so far. Granted, we haven’t had any huge storms, just a bunch of smaller ones. Going back to work after the holiday break, I had thought that the parking lot would have been plowed, boy was I wrong. According to the owners of our building, they had plow guys scheduled, but they never showed. Nice. So the employee and customer lots were a mess. It was fine for us in the back, but not for the customer lot. We have lots of people who come in who are in their 70s and 80s. Many of them are also getting their backs and hips adjusted, so the last thing they need is to be walking to or from their cars across a skating rink. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. The irony is that once the plow people finally showed the temperatures had risen and everything was melting, so they weren’t even needed.


2. Even though the warmer temperatures helped with the treacherous conditions in the customer parking lot, it didn’t make the employee one much better. Because it wasn’t plowed, the snow turned to a slushy mess. I was lucky enough to have to take out our trash. Not only was there a few inches of slush around the dumpster, which instantly soaked my shoes, but it was only the beginning. Apparently, the snow had been heavy and wet enough that it knocked a tree down onto the back of the dumpster. This meant that I could actually get the top opened, but only so far, since a damn tree was lying on the back. I had to slosh my way to the dumpster, put the gross trash can on my shoulder, pray nothing spilled out onto me, and then, with my other arm, lift the top about two feet and pour the garbage in. There were a few F bombs on my way back inside for sure.


3. It’s not every day that you get a copy of the film that was your first acting role. I ordered a Blu-Ray DVD copy of Cape Cod Cthulhu, my first acting role, this week. In high school back in the 90s, I spent all of my savings on a camcorder in the hopes of becoming an actor or director. Maybe I’ll never be a breakout Hollywood star, but I got to act in a film that got distributed & will soon be available to stream. Later this year, I will try my hand at producing a feature-length film. It shows you can’t ever stop chasing dreams; they don’t have expiration dates. You can order a copy of the film here: Cape Cod Cthulhu


4. In 2018, I had to take a detour from personal training and head back into cooking. It was necessary due to the financial situation. I worked at a retirement home called Mayflower Place. There, I met many people who made my return to cooking not only bearable but fun. One such person was named Alan. He was around my age, so we chatted about sports, music, and trash-talked about a few people we didn’t enjoy working with. He battled his demons in the form of alcohol. At one point, he was so bad that his skin was yellowing from advanced liver damage. He got clean and made a full recovery. It was an inspiring journey. Alan passed away suddenly and way too young this week. I have no idea what the cause was, and it really doesn’t matter at this point. He left behind a son still in high school. It definitely reminds you that your number can be called at any time. There is a GoFundMe set up to help his family with expenses. I am linking to it here if you wish to donate or share. RIP Alan. 




5. The washing machine is out of commission where I live currently, so I had to take a trip out to the laundromat. Major first-world problems that I had to driving to wash my clothes. It gave me the opportunity for one of my favorite spectator sports, people watching. It was a slow time at the laundromat, so there were slim pickings for people. There was nobody weird, which was sad. The highlight for me was a little girl who had to be 4 years old. She was so happy to be there that she was singing and squeaking in these high tones. It wasn’t an isolated incident either. I was in there probably a total of 20 minutes, and she squeaked and squealed and sang the entire time. It was pretty funny and very cute. Considering she was in a laundromat, I wonder how excited she gets going to McDonald’s or a toy store, or something like that?


6. I finished the first season of The Paper, the spin-off of The Office, and I enjoyed it. I say ‘first season’ because the show was renewed before even debuting in September 2025, and there should be new episodes probably by the end of this year. If you watch the show, try not to compare it to The Office. It’s not that, and it’s such tough expectations to live up to. I found it to be a fun watch, with some likable characters. It’s about the documentary crew from The Office working on their next project, which is a struggling Ohio newspaper. There are some connections to The Office, but it mostly stands on its own. I’m trying not to give spoilers if you want to binge all 10 episodes on your own. It’s weird how in this streaming world, a ‘season’ of television is usually 10 episodes or fewer. My hope is that The Paper gets several seasons to really flesh out characters and stories. I mean, The Office had 201 episodes, hopefully The Paper can get close to half of that.

7. At my job, we are passively looking for a new person to come aboard. They would be a part-time trainer and chiropractic assistant. This would allow us to open up some more time in the schedule for patients and clients. I say passively because there’s no push for it currently, but if someone comes along, we definitely give them a look. Several months ago, a stereotypical trainer applied. He was incredibly rude and condescending not only to our office manager but to my boss as well, referring to him by his name and not ‘doctor.’ I mean, if you’re applying for a job and you call the boss Joe and not Dr. Joe when he’s a doctor, it’s a sign that you’re a jackass and we don’t want you working with us. Flash forward to this week, and we get an application. This guy is looking for some part-time PT work and even name-drops me, saying I went to his gym. I had no idea who he was. Our office manager started feeling like it was deja vu, so she searched his email address in our archives. Sure enough, it was the same guy from before. He basically acted as though he had never applied before. Sorry pal, we’re way smarter than you think. I had to laugh at his nerve and also his complete stupidity. Hard pass.


8. Like many people, I have begun the new year with an eye on getting in better physical shape. It is a lot of eating better, tracking calories, and obviously hitting the gym. It is a struggle between a slow and steady pace and trying to reach the goal as fast as possible. I am straddling that line. I figure the more I do at the gym, the more it loosens the reins as far as the amount of calories I can have. I use a Fitbit to track my activity. I’m actually wearing it as I type this, not burning many calories now, though. Anyway, it will adjust my settings according to how hard I am training. I realized this week that I must be working hard. That is because my Fitbit said that I had exercised 6 out of the last 5 days. Yes, that’s not a typo. I guess I have been going so hard since 2026 began that my workload was the equivalent of working out an extra day’s worth. Needless to say, to avoid falling off hard, I’ve had to scale down my training. I’d rather need an extra month to hit my goal weight than fall off totally and have to start over, or worse, start from a worse position somewhere later this year.


9. This year has begun with me working on the first draft of the script I am writing for my hopeful first feature-length film project set to happen later this summer. As of this writing, I am on Page 32 of what I think will be 70. It’s a step out of my comfort zone, but I feel like I am improving with each day I work on it. This script work is having an unintended benefit. If I can get good at drafting scripts, who's to say I can’t start creating them for other projects? One such idea is a potential television show based on my experiences working in the restaurant business. It would be set in the 1990s and would be a wacky comedy with heart. Sort of like The Office, where you’d have crazy things happen, but it’s also character and relationship-driven. In maybe half an hour, I came up with more than 60 potential story beats for the show. Some of them could be expanded upon, some are crazy enough as is. I feel like these stories, the characters and relationships, along with the nostalgic setting of the 90s, would make it a fun show to watch. I am messing around with the idea now, but I am a little more serious about seeing if I could do this. Of course, the first question is: How do you pitch a television show pilot? One step at a time.

The setting of a future TV show?

10. I have worked as a personal trainer in my daily life for 10 years. I have several other certifications to my credit and have trained hundreds of people toward living better lives. Despite thinking I might have some knowledge in the area of fitness, I have to laugh at the fact that those closest to me either never ask me for health and fitness advice, or they do, but don’t actually do anything I recommend. I don’t make these huge sweeping life-changing suggestions. I advise on small, incremental changes that are sustainable. Still, no follow-through from family and friends. I wonder if it is like this for people in other fields. Do doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others have their closest friends and family ask them advice and then just not follow it? I feel that with me, it’s like if I can’t guarantee the maximum impact for the least amount of effort, nobody is interested. Taking creatine is great. Oh wait, what? I have to actually exercise with it to get the most benefits? It’s like taking a diet pill and gorging on fast food. You only get out what you put in.

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 whole body vibration plate. 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 10# slam ball 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 Fitbit, 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 New England Patriots 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 QB Drake Maye 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 LED headlights 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 CAPTCHA system, 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.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #94: Fine Tuning, Hack Attempt, Soaked Walk, etc.

1. After celebrating my birthday last week, and frankly doing a little bit too much celebrating over the last few months, a change is needed. I can tell that I need a serious detox. I need to eat better and go to the gym more, and probably lay off the edibles for a while. Sadly, as my age creeps up, I start to realize that these changes are necessary. I can either keep doing whatever I want and enjoy a steady decline until I am useless. Or I can make a few changes and prolong my vital years for a while. I’m not saying I’m going to suddenly be the guy who’s at the gym 6 days a week and eating a nearly perfect diet again like I was doing in the pre-COVID years. Still, when you wake up the day after your birthday feeling your age, a little fine-tuning won’t hurt.


2. A major difference between me today and me 20 years ago is consistency. What I mean is that in my 20s, I could skip the gym, or miss a day of vitamins, or skip a healthy meal, and it would have no consequence. I would still feel energetic, vital, and ready to conquer the world. Now, in my late 40s, I can still have those feelings, but there’s a big caveat. I have to be consistent. I have to be consistent with healthy eating, consistent with the gym, and consistent with vitamins and supplements. It’s almost like if I skip any of those for a few days, my body just assumes it’s time to shut down and get old. If I keep up on these things, it’s a way to trick my brain into thinking we’re still in our 20s, or at least 30s. I say this because, as I mentioned in the first entry, I skipped on all of these things for a few weeks, so no wonder I woke up the day after my birthday feeling a thousand years old.


3. It’s kind of ironic that even though I work as a trainer, I rarely use our gym facilities to train myself. I think I see it as still being at work. That means that if I got done before we were closed and I was in the gym working out, and people came in, I could easily be coerced into doing some sort of work off the clock. In those times when I do workout there, like I did this week, I am presented with option overload. Every possible piece of equipment for me and me alone. It leads to a great workout, but also a workout where by the time I leave, I am no longer a solid mass, I am some sort of liquid that flows out the back door and to my car. I was totally gassed and then had to run errands before finally getting home to eat dinner and collapse into my chair like a puddle of melted ice cream. All good stuff.


4. One night this week, I was comfy in my chair, relaxing as the melatonin started to prep me for a good night’s sleep. Then suddenly, my phone alerted. No, it wasn’t a friend or family member; it was a fraud alert from my bank. Some idiot had tried to use my debit card for a purchase, but luckily, it was flagged. Well, there went my drifting off to sleep. I had to immediately wake up to report the fraud and cancel my debit card. It all went well, the fraud was caught, and I wasn’t charged. If you’re wondering just how much the attempted fraud added up to, it was a whopping $10. Yup, that’s right. It’s like if you’re going to try to steal my money, at least go for broke. Ten bucks? Needless to say, I did not get a good night’s sleep after having to deal with that, but I am grateful that this idiot got caught and didn’t get one cent of my money.


5. For those who have been reading my blog for a while, the cute girl I have mentioned a few times in the last few months came back into my work this week. It’s funny how I look forward to seeing her, but in reality, it’s such a short window of opportunity for face time with her. Honestly, it’s like 2-3 minutes, maybe once every 3 weeks. I do try my best to have something interesting to say, or to try to say something that might make her laugh. There’s not much else I can do. I can’t linger too long and pry too deeply into her life since I am at work and she hardly knows me. If this were 15 years ago, back in my prime of cryptic posts, I might have said too much, or used my Internet detective skills to find her online and tried to find a way to ‘bump into her.’ Now, as I am rocketing toward 50, I just try to not look or sound like an idiot while she’s in the office. That has to be enough at this point in my life. I’ll see her again right before Thanksgiving.


6. If anyone is looking for a great station to craft on Pandora, I’ve got a new one for you. If you like smooth R&B from the 1970s through early 90s, create a station with the 3 following seed songs: Knocks Me Off My Feet by Stevie Wonder, All This Love by Debarge, and Oh Honey by Delegation. I created it this week, and it has played nearly nonstop anytime I have music going. If you enjoy that type of music, you won’t be disappointed. It’s amazing how I’ve had my Pandora account since 2009 and still have a few of those original stations. My Grunge station, Torn Jeans and Flannel, was the first one I ever made. Anyone else have Pandora that long, or have you mostly gone to another music app?


7. Not sure if it’s just my site, but this week there has been an annoying glitch on Facebook. I love looking at the memories page to see what was going on in the past, especially since I’ve been on Facebook since 2007. This week, I haven’t been able to see all of my memories. It’s mainly because I get one or two memories that go on repeat. For example, I had one day where there was a sunrise photo from last year that was repeated 18 times before moving on to the next memory, and that memory was repeated 16 times. Then it was just the end. You would think that with the billions of dollars the guy who owns the site has, he might spend a little to fix glitches. I mean, I enjoyed those memories, but not a never-ending loop. Who knows, maybe Facebook is becoming like a dying mall, where yes, it still is operational, but the owners are just letting the tenants move out and the rats and spiders move in.

The future of Facebook?

8. I was lucky this year and got basically a full week of birthday celebration. It finished off this Thursday with my mom, stepdad, one of my sisters, and one of my nieces. Besides just getting to see them, we had a good laugh at the fun array of gifts they got me. Food was a big one as I got two meals of my mom’s amazing chicken stir fry. Then there was a family-sized box of Count Chocula cereal, my favorite. My cake was three slices of cheesecake. This was topped by a flashing keychain alarm and a small pocket knife, since I do enjoy wandering in the woods on random adventures. Oh, and a little straight cash homey, as Randy Moss would say. It was an awesome haul and capped off what was a really fun birthday week.

My birthday haul, pretty legit

9. One of my new pleasures on YouTube is a channel called Ros – Adventure Cat. It is a super cute, very chatty, orange and white cat who has a small camera on his collar. It’s a vlog from a cat’s point of view. It has subtitles for what Ros says as he roams around looking for birds and mice. There are hundreds of videos, and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes cats or just cute, fun content. My only problem is that I am going to end up getting attached to Ros, and someday something bad will happen, and then my life will be shattered. Until then though, I’ll be binging cat vlog videos.


10. I had two choices. I could do some content work in the morning and go for a walk in the afternoon, or vice versa. I chose the latter. I figured if I didn’t get up and out in the morning, I might not go at all. Well, I chose wrong. At first, my walk was fine. It was cloudy but mild. Great. So I decided to do a little longer loop around a new extension of the bike trail near where I live. As I went down that way it began to drizzle. Still, no big deal. Then, there I was, nearly 3 miles from my car when the skies opened up. It started pouring rain. I had to take my headphones and shove them in my shirt so they wouldn’t get ruined. I was walking the bike trail in the rain for over 45 minutes, totally soaked. It ended up becoming a fun adventure, mostly because I had no other choice. By the time I got back to where I parked, it was like I had gone swimming in my clothes. Oh, and of course, when I got back to my car, the rain stopped. The afternoon was sunny and 60 degrees, by the way. Wicked boo.

11. Similar to my game of chicken with my air conditioning in the summer, we have reached the same game with the heat in winter. Yes, it’s not winter for another 6 weeks but in the next week on Cape Cod, we will have several nights where the lows are in the 30s. Luckily, I have a small electric wall heating unit in the bathroom. I can turn this on and it does a fairly decent job of warming up the general area. Saying that, I haven’t used it to try to heat the entire apartment with the temperature hovering above freezing. I try to hold out on the heat until Thanksgiving, since it will stay on until sometime later in March. The irony is that my preferred temperature when the heat is turned on is actually lower than where I set my A/C in summer. It’s kind of a weird anomaly. Anyway, I am sure next week will be a test. How long can I hold out? We’ll see.