Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #132: What’s Old Is New, Fire Lanes, Slow Demolition, etc.

1. Sometimes everything clicks and what’s old feels new again. This is about running. The week began with the latest installment of Monday Runday. The weather was perfect, but my legs were feeling like lead after two 5-mile runs in the preceding three days. But sometimes you just need a little motivation, and running with my old friend Mike did it this week. He has become the runner while I have regressed into a walker over the last few years. Granted, it’s due to injury, but still I look at him and wish I could magically morph back into my running peak. I pushed through the initial fatigue and ended up doing 5 miles in 52 minutes, my best overall run in probably three years. It gave me three 5-mile runs in four days. I know I haven’t done that since probably before Covid. I have no idea what my ceiling might be in the latest return to running. My knees were aching the day after Monday Runday, so rest was in the cards. That being said, I do feel pretty good about my chances of running a race again, maybe even before year’s end. I likely just jinxed myself and will fall down the stairs next week for daring to have hope.


2. At my age, when I start to feel momentum in life, I tend to keep calm and just let things play out. Sure, I get excited when my fitness ticks up, or I have great author events, or I have days with lots of podcast downloads, or even the growing anticipation surrounding my upcoming film The Cabin. I shudder to say I am ‘older and wiser,’ but even 10 years ago I’d have felt this positive trend and gone right on social media to post all about it. It was like I needed to let people know something good might be happening soon. Now, even though there might be some good things happening soon, I’d rather keep it to myself. It just means it’s more of a surprise when it happens. Plus, life can be a rollercoaster. If you post about every single good and bad thing that happens, it makes it look like your life is either very exciting, or very chaotic, or both at the same time. Rest assured, when good things happen, they will be in this blog above all else. The bad stuff will too since it will make you feel better if you’re having a bad day.


3. If you enjoy the wacky comedy of Will Ferrell, you will like his new Netflix series The Hawk. I am a big fan and thought it was hilarious. It is about a washed-up former great golfer who is attempting a comeback to the PGA tour. I will admit that I initially thought it was a movie. I was excited to see it was a 10-episode series. You also get SNL alums Molly Shannon as Hawk’s wife, and Chris Parnell as his rival. There are tons of classic Will Ferrell scenes. I won’t spoil them, but I will say watch for the storyline with his hand, as it’s pretty damn funny. I wasn’t surprised that it’s gotten subpar ratings. Like I said, if you like Will Ferrell, you will like The Hawk, but if you don’t, this series won’t do anything to change your mind. This won’t be at the top of my list of shows I’ve watched since returning to Netflix in December. That honor probably goes to Dark, or 11.22.63 because of my little crush on Sarah Gadon. Think of The Hawk as a 10-part SNL sketch, and I mean that in a good way.

4. I take every opportunity that I can to promote my podcast on social media. It is the main way to try to bring in new listeners. That being said, I also understand that in addition to bringing in new listeners me promoting my podcast also can entice scumbag scammers to show up. Nearly every time I share my podcast to a few Facebook podcast groups, I end up getting followed by one of these jackass people. It never fails. They follow me on Instagram, or try to friend me on Facebook. At least on Facebook, I take one look at their profile and see that it says they will promote my podcast for whatever low sum of money they say. I know to immediately block them. This week I had some jerk follow me on IG, like 15-20 of my recent posts, you know, to look like they’re not a scammer. Then they commented on one photo to tell me they DM’d me to tell me how they can promote my podcast. The comment was deleted, and they were immediately blocked. These morons make it so easy. The funniest part is they go on about their prowess at social media marketing, but they have a handful of followers. I almost want to say, look dude, I have 100x your followers on IG. How about you give me money to promote your rinky-dink crap profile, or just stop wasting me time? I will never, ever, give one cent to some weak loser begging for money to promote my content.


5. Once and for all, is it illegal to park in a fire lane? I ask because I see all the time vehicles parked in clearly marked fire lanes in front of stores. Looking it up, yes, it is 100% illegal. It makes me wonder if anything is ever done about it. This week I saw some young guy in an SUV parked in a fire lane in the rain. The vehicle was blocking the rampway where you can easily roll your cart onto the parking lot. People had to go around and push the cart off of the curb. In the grand scheme of things, parking in a fire lane is not a huge offense. Still, why even bother having it as a law if 99.9% of people who do it have nothing happen to them? The fine is supposed to be up to $100 in Massachusetts. It might not sound like much, but I bet if someone got caught and fined, they’d think twice. They need to put some low-ranking cop on fire lane duty, either driving around to check, or watching security footage. Or just get rid of the fire lane altogether if the law is never enforced.

6. Having a mechanic that you trust and who does a great job is worth a lot. The trouble with that is once word gets out that you’re good and fair, everybody wants to get their vehicles worked on by you. I bring my car to Ormon Automotive in Harwich. They always do a great job, and their prices are better than fair. I’ve needed exhaust work on my car for a few months. There was no doubt I was going to Ormon. But like I said, they’re always busy. I dropped my car off early one morning and went to walk the bike trail, which is nearby their shop. I ended up walking 3.5 miles, which was great. However, they were only able to give me an estimate on my car. This was because of how busy and backed up they were. Sure, I could have left my car all day and gotten it the next day, but I had things that needed to get done. We set up a time for next Friday to get the work done. I don’t mind waiting because they are worth it, plus the things I need done aren’t going to destroy my car in the next week, so there was little risk. I highly recommend Ormon Automotive if you live in the Mid-Cape area. You will hear about them again in next week’s blog, I’m sure.


7. We all were kids once. I think as we age, a lot of us forget that. We see kids doing things that we used to do and chastise them for it. Obviously, if it’s something super heinous, then they should be stopped. I am talking about little mischievous things that in the grand scheme of it all don’t matter. I say this because I put that into practice this week. I finished a beautiful afternoon run and arrived at my car parked at a recreation area. There were loads of kids passing by on the bike trail or playing on the playground and fields. I sat at a picnic table stretching some and recovering. A few hundred feet away, I spotted a teenage boy. I could tell he was planning something. I watched as he sneaked over to a small power shed, which I think is used to turn on the large floodlights for the sports fields. Once hidden from view, except by me, he scaled the side and climbed up onto the roof. I lost sight of him but figured he was just sitting up there. Did I rat him out? No. Like I said, I was a kid once and scaled my share of things I shouldn’t have. Of course I was usually smarter and didn’t do it during the day at a crowded park, but hey, if he gets caught by someone else it’ll be his own fault.


8. It amazes me when someone else is clearly a bad driver but gets mad at you for pointing it out. At a busy intersection, there was a line of cars trying to turn left on Cape Cod during the summer. The thing about intersections and traffic lights is that they have intervals where they change to let people go in the other directions. I know you know this, but apparently some people don’t. There was an idiot lady who was three cars deep to turn when I got a green arrow to turn at the intersection. Rather than just wait for the next signal change, this jerk pulled right in front of me a good five seconds after she would have had a red light. Naturally, I beeped and yelled because she was an entitled idiot. Her dumbass reaction was to be shocked that I dared to call her out for her poor driving and lack of intelligence. She easily could have hit me, and it would have been her fault since she ran a red light. It doesn’t matter if she was next up to turn; this isn’t Human Centipede; you’re not connected to the car in front of you. These types of stupid people are a big reason that I don’t like summer. Before you say ‘it happens everywhere,’ I’ll counter by saying 99% of the bad driving I see on Cape Cod is during the summer.


9. This week saw the birthdays of my youngest and twin sisters Lindsay and Ashley. At my mom’s, we were able to have a little celebration for one of them, Ashley. It was a classic family memory. I sat with Ashley and my oldest niece, Kaleigh, and enjoyed a huge batch of garlic bread pizzas. It was both English muffin and Italian bread. Those were amazing. The festivities became legendary, though after. I got a small cake for Ashley. It was Cookie Monster, complete with googly frosted eyes and a cookie in his mouth. My mom put in several candles, probably ten or so. She wasn’t sure if they were old, but they ended up being the icing on the cake. My youngest niece Sylvie called in to be on FaceTime to help sing Happy Birthday. Once the candles were lit, we began to sing. A problem came when the candles decided they didn’t want to cooperate. Ashley blew them out, only they kept coming back. So the candles kept relighting themselves. Next, they started heavily smoking. We were all cracking up. The entire moment ended with the candles being pulled out of the cake and dumped into the sink where they finally stayed out. The cake was good; the birthday festivities were better, though.


10. It is okay to step back and relax every now and then. In fact, it is recommended. Days can blend together in a wash of productivity, rushing, hoping that you’ve done enough to justify a few moments of peace and quiet. Get up early, go to work, work hard, go home, or go to the gym; maximize every moment you have. It is good to have drive and determination, but doing it day in and day out without stopping to recharge leads to burnout. Over the summer, I have been getting better at forcing myself to take time to do absolutely nothing of consequence. I have content work I could be doing. Nope, it can wait. I really want to go for a run. Nope, let your body relax. At first it feels like you are wasting precious time. In reality, you are reclaiming it. It indeed feels like time goes faster the older you get. So why not stop speed running through life and stop to enjoy it a little more? Even writing this right now is doing too much, but since I felt this way, I thought I’d get it out. There are plenty of days to grind from sunrise to sunset. Just make sure that you make time to watch that sunrise or sunset rather than using it to light your candle that is slowly fading out.

Sometimes you just need to stop and go with the flow...

11. A fascinating story to watch over the coming few years is the slow demolition and replacement of the Bass River Bridge. It is located just down the road from me and allows traffic to pass over Bass River between the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. The current bridge is not the original and is nearly a century old. It has needed replacement for years. The decay is so bad you could see exposed rebar. For the last few months, one side of the bridge has been closed, with traffic being squished into barely more than a lane of traffic. The actual demolition of the bridge has begun. They are starting from the east end of the bridge and very slowly tearing it down. The entire side will be replaced, widened, and have a multi-purpose path. Then the same job will begin on the other side. Before any Cape Codders get excited, this process isn’t expected to be finished until 2031. Until then, it’ll be interesting to watch the bits and pieces get removed and replaced. Here is a quick video I got while out on a run.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #131: Finding Balance, Traffic Sandwich, Somewhere New, etc.

1. My life over the last few years has been a constant push and pull. I am always caught in between working as much and as hard as I can on creative projects, trying to build a better life, and stopping, relaxing, and trying to appreciate all that I do currently have. I feel as though if I work too much, the important things in life, like family, friends, and enjoying every moment I get on earth, will slip by. On the other hand, I feel as though if I stop and relax too much, the opportunities that are flowing around me like fish in a stream will also get away. This push-pull keeps me motivated and engaged, but it also can get exhausting. I feel like a few times a week I am stopping and asking myself in which direction I am leaning too much. As of this writing, I feel like I am leaning too far into the working side. As soon as I think that, though, I can picture the projects I want to work on or start to work on, and it pulls me back the other way. There has to be a happy medium. I want to find the balance between work and being present for those who truly matter. That is probably the true secret to happiness in life.


2. I wish burning calories was as easy as my Fitbit made it seem this week. Monday Runday was another fun one. 4 total miles on a perfect afternoon weather-wise. I track my runs using both my Fitbit and Map My Run, the running app I’ve been using since 2011. Most of the time, the numbers on both don’t match. Typically, my distance is less on the Fitbit because it tracks distance based on arm movement. If I run relaxed, I don’t swing my arms as much as I’d do when walking. Then again, my calorie burn is typically higher on the Fitbit because it tracks calories based on my heart rate, while the running app does not have that connection. That being said, the difference in calories burned between the two trackers is usually not that far off. This week it was insanity. Map My Run had me at 508 calories after running 4 miles. That’s a good, pretty accurate number. The Fitbit? It had me somehow burning 3,111 calories over the same distance. Yes, 6x as many calories. Obviously this was a glitch. I hope it’s not a sign of an issue with the Fitbit. If you were wondering, yes, I have burned over 3,000 calories in a single run. It was while running a marathon, a full 26.2 miles. During that, I burned over 3,500 calories. Like I said, I wish burning calories was as easy as running 4 miles, at a relatively easy pace, and instantly getting rid of over 3,000 calories.


3. You never know how something you do will affect others. This week I got a comment on Spotify for my podcast. It was from someone who said they found my GenX nostalgia podcast in the last month or so. They have been suffering through a bout of severe depression and said that my podcast is one of the bright spots in their lives. They said they look forward to it each week. It ended with them saying if I ever wonder if my show makes a difference, they wanted me to know that it matters a lot. Being someone who has battled their share of depression throughout my life, I know how important having something that makes you feel ‘normal’ is. I always joke on the show to lean into the things that make you happy, like favorite people, foods, and of course podcasts. I am humbled and grateful that my show actually does help someone feel like they’re escaping their depression even briefly. Things like that comment only strengthen my determination to keep creating the best content I can, whether it’s podcasts, blogs, videos, or books. Ironically, that comment brightened my mood in the way they said my podcast does for them. Of course, here’s the link if you want to listen to my show: In My Footsteps Podcast


4. Heavy rain and summer combine on Cape Cod to make a traffic sandwich. One day this week, a line of heavy thunderstorms rolled through the Cape in the late afternoon. Now, I could have probably looked at the traffic on Google Maps and decided to take a different route, but come on, then I wouldn’t have as much to write about. So I took a longer route that took me past a supermarket with a good selection in their deli. That right there was all it took to tempt me. The trip to the supermarket was fine. Only when I started home on the main road, Route 28, did I realize my error. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic as the skies opened up. A trip that typically takes me roughly 30 minutes took me closer to 55, with the majority of that being after I left the supermarket. Eventually I just had to throw my hands up and accept it. Luckily, I had a good podcast on, so it kept me from going crazy. At least I didn’t have any left-hand turns to try to make; I might still be stuck in traffic as you read this.



5. This week ended up being a huge boost to my confidence. I mentioned the really nice comment about my podcast. When I shared it on social media, I was blown away by the nice comments and messages. I had total strangers telling me that my content has helped them navigate hard times. I had people remark about my outlook on life in general, which I was thrilled to hear. It continued with my boss putting me over for my work as a trainer. The irony was that the only area he felt I needed work on was my confidence. This week is a great help. It concluded with what I will talk about next, but I will just say thank you to everyone who sent nice comments. Those messages make me feel that what I am doing and how I am living are how they should be.


6. The great week continued with a really fun author event at the Dennis Public Library. As per usual, I got there about 45 minutes early. I get there early to make sure that nothing goes wrong in my setup. It stems from an event many years ago at the Cotuit Library. For that event, I got stuck in summer traffic. This had me arriving at the event about 5 minutes before showtime. I walked in, and the room was full, which was great, but I felt it made me look unprofessional for showing up so close to the start. On top of that, once I got set up, there were issues with the projector and the show began late. For every event since that one, I make it a point to get there super early. The funny part is that I haven’t had any issues, so I just end up standing around waiting for people to show up.


7. As for the event itself, it was a great gathering. I enjoy speaking about Cape Cod history in connection to me being a 12th-generation Cape Codder. The sounds of reacting to each of the 12 different stories I shared never gets old. I could have done without one person who interjected themselves into the presentation a little too much, but it wasn’t malicious, so I let it slide. I did have to interrupt a bit to move the presentation along, though. It’s not lost on me that I was, and to a degree still am, an introvert. Being a public speaker and doing it confidently and comfortably is something I have worked at for years. I have another event coming up in the fall, but this was the last for the summer since I need to keep the rest of summer free for things to do with my upcoming film. Thank you to everyone who came out to my Dennis event; it was a lot of fun.



8. The biggest joy of that event was the family element. Not only did my mom and sister Ashley come out, but my cousins Dale and Richard did as well. This was very special. My mom and Dale hadn’t seen each other in close to 40 years since my mom and biological father got divorced in the early 1980s. Dale specifically asked if my mom would go to the event and to tell her because she would want to go. I am sure she and Richard would have come anyway, but my mom’s appearance made it a must-see event. This is where the final piece of my week of building confidence came to a conclusion. Doing a good show in front of family is one thing, but having Dale tell my mom that a big reason she came to the show was to be able to tell my mom face to face how proud she was to be related to me was almost overwhelming. Dale and Richard are my 2nd cousins on my father’s side. I don’t have relationships with many on that side of the family for various reasons. Having family from my paternal side be so supportive and kind and loving is even more important to me at this point in life when I don’t have, or want, a relationship with my biological father. My hope is that it is not a one-time thing and that my mom and Dale, and more of us in the family, can get together for gatherings going forward. If my author event is the conduit to that, then it truly was one of my best.


9. Going to a place I’ve never been to on Cape Cod is increasingly difficult. Sure, technically I could go to some random side road, but that’s not what I mean. This week I bit the bullet and went to check out the Cape Cod Rail Trail extension into Hyannis. This is the furthest western point of the famed bike path, which extends on the eastern end through Wellfleet. What makes it interesting is that it is part of a larger extension. There is probably 1.5 miles or so of new trail in Yarmouth that winds through woods behind Bayberry Hills golf course. It ends at Willow Street, which is a pretty busy road. Then directly across is another roughly 1.5-mile stretch of newly paved trail ending near Independence Park, the back way to the busy business section of Hyannis. The problem is that in the middle there will eventually be a bridge connecting the two sections, but that likely is quite a way away from being put in. I had to drive around to the other end of the trail on Mary Dunn Road. They are beginning to build a parking lot there, but of course it’s also likely to take ages to be finished. Luckily, there is literally one spot to park next to where the parking lot is being built. Since that section of road is really quiet, I knew it would be open, and it was. Having never left my car in that area, I just hoped that it would be there when I got back.


10. The run itself on the trail was sunny, warm, and very hilly. My friend Mike, of Monday Runday fame, told me it was hilly, but I needed to experience it. The trail hugged the highway on one side and the airport on the other, so there was a hum of activity. It was an interesting contrast with the fact that I saw absolutely no other people on the trail. Obviously nobody in their right mind is going to cross the busy Willow Street from the other side, and since I took the only parking spot at the other end, I shouldn’t have been surprised. One thing I found was that this Hyannis stretch of trail has little, if any, shade. Running up hills with no shade made me feel like I had taken a shower in my clothes. In total, it was 3 miles of new trail I ran. This meant that as of that run, I had been on every bit of every bike path on Cape Cod. Of course, 3 miles wasn’t enough for me. I extended my run by going down Mary Dunn Road, past where I parked, and to the backside of the airport. Despite waiting for a few minutes, no planes landed or took off. On the way back, I took a detour to Mary Dunn Pond, a spot I had never seen before. It was serene and filled with wildflowers. All in all, it was a perfect afternoon of new sights and exercise. Yes, I made sure to create a video to capture it and to share.



11. Where I live, there is a little puffball of a bunny that lives inside a bush that envelops the front light. I see it almost daily, especially near dusk when it sits near the bush eating clover and grass. Cute, right? Yes, but also there is a dark side. You see that little puffball is rightfully skittish around anything it perceives as a predator. That includes people. I have never tried to approach it or domesticate it. What the bunny does, though, is take off running when I get near. Most of the time this occurs while I am coming up the walkway to the front door. The bunny will be somewhere in the front bushes. I can’t see it, but it sees me. Rather than hiding and hoping I pass by, it invariably comes charging out of the bushes to get away. You can imagine my surprise when it’s a quiet evening, and suddenly this puffball comes dashing out and scaring the hell out of me. I have taken to jingling my car keys when I come up the walkway to flush it out before it can give me a heart attack. I can see it now: I drop dead in the yard, and I am found with that little bunny sitting on my chest eating grass like a hitman.


12. The past month, maybe 6 weeks, have seen me running more consistently than I have since I had a bad sprain of the left ankle last summer playing basketball. There was a time, especially over the winter, when I felt like running at all was going to be a thing of the past. About 2 months ago, a few things came up that started making positive changes. First was my boss, Dr. Mike, testing out that left ankle and recommending a strap to wear right below my left knee. This would help keep my lower leg stable. After that, one day I was sitting and thinking about the things I did when I was at my peak as a runner. What did I do then that I could bring back now? I started taking more than the recommended dosage of glucosamine, a supplement for joint health. It took a few weeks of the strap and glucosamine, but I started slowly adding running back into my workouts. In the past 2 weeks, I have consistently run 5 miles in under an hour. It’s nothing like what I did at my peak, but it’s slowly getting better each time. I liken this recent return to running to getting back together with an ex. Things feel familiar, but now you have learned the things you can and can’t do. Okay, maybe it’s not quite like that, but I am happy with how things have gone in the last several weeks.


13. While out for a run this week, I saw a guy ‘walking’ his two dogs. One was on a leash, and another was not. Already this guy can’t figure out if he wants to obey leash laws or be a selfish, entitled dog owner. The dog that was off-leash was barely the size of a football, and the one that was leashed was only slightly larger. My opinion is that if you have a dog you can fit in a shoebox or a purse, or could be plucked from the yard by a large bird, then you don’t have a real dog. A real dog should be able to protect you from intruders, not be stuffed into a microwave with room to spare.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #127: Monday Rainday, Business Cards, Relax or Else, etc.

1. Monday Runday was Monday Rainday this week. I will take a little rain over 85 and humid, though every day of the week. It was fitting, though, that after just over 3 miles of circling an old school track in varying intensities of rain, the water stopped. My legs were tired, so I had no plans to run to reach my desired 3 miles. I just had to walk faster and endure the rain. One thing I have been very happy with is the durability of my headphones. I have had the same pair of big red over-ear headphones for going on 8 years. I know that someday they will break and I will need a new pair, but that wasn’t the case on this day. The rain didn’t short them out, although I didn’t risk it, and when the rain got steadier, I took my headphones off and hid them in my shirt. Years ago, at my peak as a runner, I used to enjoy running in all sorts of inclement weather. I’d run in rain, wind, snow, whatever. I guess since I ran all of those races and ran in all of the different types of weather, I have lost the desire to do so again.


2. One day this week, I was training an 87-year-old client. She was brought by her daughter-in-law and also had her 7-year-old granddaughter in tow. I have known them over the years at my work, as the daughter-in-law is a patient at my work. The 7-year-old I have known since she was a toddler, and I give her free rein to come into the gym if I am training someone and she is there. On this day, she was just hanging out while I trained her grandmother. This was after she and I failed to find a rogue cricket that had been calling the gym home. Anyway, I was training her grandmother, and so she grabbed a dry-erase marker and started scribbling on our green dry-erase board. When she left, I saw what she wrote, and it was so sweet and cute that I decided to leave it up there. I won’t erase it, but there’s no guarantee it won’t be erased. The fun coincidence was that her other grandmother was a client of mine in the afternoon. She practically melted when I told her who wrote that sweet message. I won’t leave you in suspense. I did take a photo of it to share.




3. No matter how many speaking events I do for my books, I will always feel blessed and humbled. I am always happy that people, the vast majority total strangers, take time out of their day to come out and hear me speak. That’s why I do my best to make each and every event the best I can possibly do. This week I had an event at the Eldredge Library in Chatham. Despite it being a sunny, 80-degree day in early summer, there were close to 30 people who chose to come inside, sit, and hear me speak about my latest book. In Their Footsteps: The Interesting People, Places, and Events of Cape Cod History features 40 stories from the Cape, all in chronological order. It was a fun event, and I have a few more this summer. Come and see me on July 15th at 5pm at the Snow Library in Orleans, or on July 23rd at 6pm at the Dennis Public Library. They will both be great shows, I promise!

Coming up next!

4. This week marked the 250th episode of the In My Footsteps Podcast, which I have hosted since November 2020. It’s amazing to think that the idea I had once, my brain had cleared after giving up alcohol, would have such staying power. It began as a way to distract myself from the alcohol demons I was fighting off. It was just me talking about all of the subjects I enjoyed. Slowly, it morphed into my favorite thing I do. I actually love the research, planning, recording, and yikes, even the editing of these podcasts. A podcast is easily the best way to keep in contact with your audience. You can speak about anything you want, and I bet you’d find people interested. A lot of it comes down to time. Doing all of the work surrounding the podcast can be time-consuming. If you’ve ever thought of starting your own podcast, all you need is some sort of computer, recording software, a decent microphone, a topic, and the desire to create it. My show is now strictly GenX nostalgia, but that covers a ton of ground. It ends up being nearly anything that has occurred between 1960 and 2005. You can see why I believe that I can easily do another 250 episodes. If you’ve never listened, now is your chance to start. They are fun and breezy at around an hour each. Thank you to those who have listened, and here’s to the next 250 episodes!



5. What do you do with outdated business cards? In 2009, I created my first business card. It featured Chatham Lighthouse and simply described me as an author. This was despite not having any published books or even a blog. For some reason, probably because it was a better deal, I had something like 500 cards printed. They lasted me until 2017. By that time, I had 4 published books, so a change was needed. I bring cards to my speaking events because they are a way that people can possibly keep connected, even if they don’t buy a book. The most recent cards I had made were when I had 6 published books. I now have 10. I am currently in the process of designing new cards that I should have for my next event. The outdated cards are something else. Around the time I redesigned my author cards in 2017, I also created personal trainer cards. I thought I might be able to drum up business for in-home training if I had my own business cards to hand out. I might have had 100 made, and in the 9 years since, have probably handed out less than 20. That means I have a boatload of cards with a photo of me from 2014 promoting something I have no desire to do again currently, that being in-home training. Oh, but wait, there’s more. I also created cards for my podcast. Again, about 100 made. The problem is, since I printed those, I changed not only my podcast logo, but what the show is about in general. So those are even more useless than the training cards. Yay. I have something like 150 useless business cards. I might keep one of each and then send the rest through the shredder at work.


6. Family get-togethers used to be a regular occurrence when I was younger. Now they have become fewer and further apart. Despite having a pretty busy schedule for the most part, I try my best to make time if a family get-together is on the horizon. This week I was able to do so. I went to have dinner with my cousin Patrick, who was still on Cape Cod from Las Vegas. We were at our cousins Richard and Dale’s house. They are our 2nd cousins. It was a wonderful and worthwhile experience. The weather was perfect, so we all ate outside. I sometimes forget that Dale used to run a restaurant on Cape Cod decades ago and is an accomplished cook. She just casually whipped up a Bearnaise sauce, Greek salad with dressing, and fresh whipped cream like it was no big deal. I was tired from a busy day, but didn’t want the dinner to end. At this point in my life, I do realize that you never know when another family moment like that might happen. Even when the sun was starting to go down after 8pm, I stood out in the driveway with Patrick and just talked about anything we could. It was a battle between fatigue and genuinely wanting to stay and chat as long as my body would hold up. I am grateful for these moments today, when, as a kid, they were so common that I felt almost as if I could miss a handful and not miss a thing. Patrick says he might come back to Cape Cod next year, but you never know what happens, so I am glad we got a lot of chances to spend time together during this visit. If you are lucky, you end up with many family members that you would rearrange your day just to spend some time with. I am that type of lucky.




7. Every time I go into a certain local supermarket, if a specific employee is working there, they always say hi to me. Not ‘hi’ like they’re just going through the motions, but saying it like they know me. I see this guy who has to be maybe a few years older than me, going about his job, but nine times out of ten, if I pass by him, he stops and specifically says hello to me. He even occasionally asks how things are going. I am sure he is probably just friendly, and he does the same thing with other customers, but I don’t have any other employee at any other supermarket do that. Part of me wants to stop and ask if we know each other, but I doubt it. He never says my name or asks anything more specific that might make me think we have a history. Believe me, it’s not a bad thing. I’d much rather have someone go out of their way to say hi to me than the alternative. I could only imagine having someone shoot me a dirty look every time I was in their store.


8. When I was at my peak as a runner, probably 2015-2016, I used to run sometimes as much as 40 to 50 miles per week. I definitely had my share of aches, pains, and injuries, yet somehow I kept going year after year. Once I injured my right hip while training for a Top 10 finish in a 5K in 2018, things changed. The injuries tipped the scales, and slowly but surely, my running career faded. I kept trying, but it was an exercise in futility. A few years ago, I made a concerted effort to return to running races. I at least wanted to do one, even if my time was nowhere near what I used to be able to do. I competed in three races between 2024 and 2025. The last race I did, my time was something like 6 minutes better than I expected. My confidence was sky high. Only a few weeks later, I severely sprained my ankle and everything shut down. I haven’t run a race since and haven’t run much at all. In the last month or so, I started wondering if there was anything that I had done when I was at my peak as a runner that I might be able to add back into my life that might help me start running more. Two things came to mind. One was making BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids) part of my daily life. They help muscles recover from strenuous exercise. The other was adding more glucosamine to my supplement regimen. It helps with the lubrication of joints and overall joint health. When I was running 40+ miles a week, I took more than the recommended dose of glucosamine regularly, and my knees and hips always responded well. I figured it was worth a shot to try that again. It takes two weeks or so to get the full effect of any vitamin or supplement into your body, so I didn’t attempt anything before then. I have noticed in the time since I started taking 1.5x the recommended amount of glucosamine that my joints, specifically my knees, feel better than they have in quite a while. This came to a head this weekend when I went for a long walk. It was like my legs were craving running, so I gave in. It wasn’t like it used to be. There were no stretches of sub-7-minute miles. But I did end up running much more than I have in months. There were even points where I thought I should stop and walk, but my body was on autopilot like the old days. I just kept running and focusing on my stride. Only time will tell if this is a significant development in my running life or if it’s my brain tricking my body until something else breaks. Either way, it felt good to be running on a beautiful summer morning on Cape Cod again.


9. It’s amazing how a little dose of the old runner’s high can make a route I’ve gone down hundreds of times feel fresh and new. A favorite running route leads along a river to the beach. It’s through a historic village and is in total just over three miles from my front door to the ocean’s edge. When I was a competitive runner, I’d enjoy the route but be more focused on my pace. Now I can stop and take it all in at times. Little coves, flowers, loads of walkers and riders, historic homes, and ample beachfront views. I figured, why not create a little video of this route? You never know who might get inspired to check it out themselves. You can drive it if you want, but walking or cycling is better.




10. In recent weeks, I have started to try to make Sundays into a day when I don’t do anything major. I make it a day where I sit around and relax. No exercise, no content work, just mindlessly recharging my battery. It’s not that I’ve lost the desire to work hard on my content or enjoy some sort of exercise, but I have found that if I never relax, I feel like I am in a constant state of fatigue to start my new work week. My brain automatically goes to projects I should be working on. I admit I will do some minor work, like posting links to projects on social media. However, more involved things have to be put on the back burner at least for a day. There have been long stretches over the last 5 or so years where I have felt in a state of perpetual burnout. My energy levels crater, and I get agitated at that. A month or so ago, I decided to force myself to sit and relax all Sunday. I did this by binging several episodes of the Netflix series Dark. I felt for so long that if I wasn’t constantly working on something, I’d fall behind whatever imaginary metric there was to show my progress in creative fields. Now I have come to realize that if I don’t take at least a day to fully relax and recharge, it could lead to longer stretches where I just can’t keep that pace up physically or mentally. Not just for me but for anyone, make sure you take some time, some real time, to relax and recharge. It will do you a world of good.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #125: Class of 96, More Mall Dreams, Too Hot, etc.

1. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since I graduated from high school. At times, it feels like yesterday. That might be helped by the fact that I have the entire ceremony on video. I can see my old friends and classmates when we were all teenagers with our lives ahead of us. I can feel the promise of the years to come and not the weight of mistakes, missed opportunities, and ‘what ifs.’ I remember not realizing just how big a change was coming as I crossed the grassy field and took hold of my diploma. I think I was just itching to get out of the dress clothes on a warm late spring morning. Then again, way more often I feel like that day was a lifetime ago, and in many ways it was. I am now in my late 40s and most of the time feel as though I must have missed my exit on the highway we were all traveling. My mission now is to either find my way back to that missed exit or to keep going until I find something that makes the missed opportunities worth it. Yes, 30 years is a long time. I do know that I have many years left to fulfill the promise I saw lying ahead of me when I first held that high school diploma in my hand. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen a lot and done a lot in the last 30 years, but I feel it’s like comparing the sales of Michael Jackson’s Bad album to his Thriller album. Most musicians would kill to have an album sell like Bad, but only one in a million can sell like Thriller. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me.


2. I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from people. I put together four polls for my upcoming 250th podcast episode. I’m calling it Listener’s Choice because obviously, the people listening will choose what GenX nostalgia topics are on that particular show. I had people ‘liking’ the posts but not voting in the poll. How stupid is that? It takes literally the same time and effort to click one of the poll options as it does to ‘like’ it. I am grateful to the people who understood the assignment, and the podcast will be a good one. The others, though? It’s like they’re children getting mad at being asked (nicely) to do something to help out around the house. Don’t tell me to pick up my room, I’m going to make a bigger mess! Seriously, I was tempted to block everyone who liked the polls but didn’t vote, and I know because the polls show me each vote and by whom. But going back to the top, I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from people. That’s on me.

Coming soon!

3. It’s funny how a major anniversary or milestone can affect your mind. I mentioned the high school graduation anniversary. That same day was Monday Runday, which some of you might remember as the weekly meetup with my longtime friend and old classmate Mike. We run, or in my case, mostly walk, at a local track. I haven’t run much in the last few months as my left knee has decided to retire early. That changed this week. Perhaps I was inspired by the weather? No, it was the fear of being old. I decided to run more than I have in a while at the track. Now, granted, it was not much, but still good enough. Just the thought of it being 30 years since I finished high school was enough for me to need to prove to myself I wasn’t old yet. My body felt relatively good the next morning, so who knows, maybe I can slowly return to more running. Or I’ll end up crashing out the next time, and I’ll soon be walking with those Nordic walking poles.


4. My sister Ashley passed 14 years alcohol-free this week. If it sounds like a big number, that’s because it is. It was a hard road for her leading up to the choice to quit. There were times when it was really bad that some of us in the family thought the alcohol would be the end of her. But she defeated her demons and became stronger. She defeated her demons and became an inspiration to me. When my alcohol problem was out of control, I looked to her and thought if she could do it, so could I. For me, it will be 6 years without alcohol in September. There have been a few times when the alcohol nearly reentered my life, most specifically the death of my Uncle Eric. I remember that not only am I not drinking anymore for myself, but I am also doing it for Ashley because she impacted me greatly with her own battles. While I am speaking on deleting alcohol from lives, I want to mention another sister, Kate, who is rapidly approaching 300 days, and then a year, alcohol-free as well. Everyone’s journey and reason is their own, but I hope that Ashley and I helped to show her that it can be done. I am very proud of my sisters.


5. For the 3rd time in probably 6 weeks, I had a dream featuring me with a friend or family member hanging out at the mall. This time, I was with my oldest friend, Barry, just wandering the corridors and chatting. Why? Not why is Barry there. That makes sense because I haven’t seen him in a few years, and he has been a hugely important part of my life for 40 years. No, the question is why at the mall always? Am I supposed to go to the Cape Cod Mall and find some sort of answer to something? Do I miss being a semi-pro mall rat in the 1990s? Is it more about the people in these dreams and maybe needing to reach out to them more? I have no clue. Have any of you had a sort of recurring dream, or at least a recurring dream location? I have vivid dreams and lucid dreams, but they are rarely ever connected. I tend to have wild swings of plot lines of my dreams. Having hangouts at the mall come around 3 times in less than 2 months is weird. Especially specifically remembering them. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next episode of Dream Mall: The Series to find out what happens.

The mall of my dreams?

6. All it took was a few 85-degree and humid days for me to immediately begin dreaming of the fall. The irony is, it’s not even summer yet. The first day of summer is June 21st. The heat is one thing. I’m not a fan of the temperatures getting above 80, but you can cope when it’s not humid. That’s the thing that is the worst. The humidity just makes everything feel wet and soupy, which is uncomfortable during the day and just plain gross at night when you’re trying to sleep. I try to wait as long as I can to put in my air conditioner. I only have two windows where I live. Plugging one with a bulky a/c unit means that on days when the a/c isn’t needed, I don’t get any fresh air. This is another first-world problem since many people don’t even have the option of air conditioning. It is supposed to become nice and seasonable again in a few days. I’ll likely be able to hold out for a while longer but there’s only so many days when the ‘real feel’ is 100 that I can endure before the a/c goes in.


7. As luck would have it, a window fan I had for many years finally decided enough was enough. It died and left me roasting during the heat wave. I took a trip to the nearest Ocean State Job Lot to get a good, and cheap, replacement. This fan was a powerful window fan, and I was happy that it was relatively affordable at $40. I got home, and it was 85 and humid inside my apartment, so the fan was going to be a welcome addition. I put it in a window and turned it on, nothing. I was confused. I tried different outlets. I messed with the power switch. Still nothing. Now I was mad because even though the prices are pretty low at Job Lot, you still expect something to work when you get it home. I began getting the packaging together since I’d have to go back and get a replacement. I was angry and pouring sweat in the heat. Then I turned the ‘thermostat’ dial in the middle of the fan. Suddenly, both 9” fans sprang to life loudly and powerfully. It turns out the thermostat is really just an intensity dial for the fans. With it being turned all the way down, the fans wouldn’t move. Yes, I did feel pretty stupid. I will say this, though: better to feel stupid at home than to go back to Job Lot and have them find out I was returning a fan because I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on.


8. I have seen birds do some incredible stunt work when it comes to flying. The way they can change directions on a dime is pretty amazing. I see it a lot when they fly in front of vehicles, yet they can change directions to avoid getting hit. This week, I saw the ultimate in terms of bird acrobatics. I was behind an SUV when a bird came flying in from the left. I think it was a robin, or at least a bird of similar size. This bird flew in between the SUV’s driver’s side tires. You’d figure any animal that gets in between the tires of a moving vehicle is likely not going to survive. This bird not only flew between those tires, but it also managed to instantly cut a corner and fly out between the rear tires and off to safety. I have no clue how it survived. If they have a bird lottery, I hope that one went and bought a ticket because it had luck on its side. Who knows, though, maybe it used up all of its luck and immediately flew into a mailbox or something.


9. I canceled my subscription to a television show pitch website. I had written out a full treatment for a season of a show based on my experiences working in restaurants in the 1990s. I mentioned it many weeks ago in this blog. I’m not done pitching the show. I am just looking for alternatives that don’t cost me $39/mo. with no promises of any views on my work. I went and canceled the membership with a few days left on it. For some reason, a notification popped up saying that my membership would end on December 31, 1969. Yes, you read that right. Apparently, my subscription to that site somehow made its way onto Doc Brown’s DeLorean and was deposited in the past. Maybe that will be my next TV show pitch. I stumble upon a tear in the space/time continuum thanks to my subscription to some random pitch website. On a more serious note, what does that say about their website? If you cancel and it gives you a cancellation date over 50 years in the past, what other mistakes have they coded into that site? Maybe I got out just in the nick of time?

Soon to be delivering my cancellation notice.

10. Every now and then, the old me shows up in terms of exercise. I can’t run really much at all anymore. I have nagging joint pains creeping up more and more, so lifting is less fun. I do the best I can, but there are days when I feel like the best is behind me. This weekend I was feeling lazy. Oh, I spent hours writing, so I was productive, but I ate terribly for lunch and had no desire to do anything. Then the heat wave we have been having got to me. It was 85, and I was sweating. This irritated me. I decided if I was going to sweat, I could at least turn it into an exercise session. So out of nowhere, I got into workout gear and went out for a walk. Now, mind you, it was 3pm, 85 degrees, and I had eaten junk and been sitting around all day. My body survived almost 4 miles before it began to shut down. I would not be denied. I pushed through 5.3 miles, burning 715 calories, erasing the bad lunch, and coming in under my calorie limit on MyFitnessPal. It might not have been as dramatic as the Knicks 29 point comeback in Game 4 of the NBA Finals this week, but it was a nice come-from-behind win for the day. I hope that it turns into some momentum so I can start feeling like my younger self. I’d take even feeling like 42 at this point. Oh, and also congratulations to the New York Knicks on winning their first NBA championship in 53 years.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #88: Simpsons Podcast, Dr. Dolittle, Unique Gifts, etc.

1. I am beyond excited for the launch of the new podcast, Simpsons Declassified. It’s cohosted by Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart Simpson. It’s only just begun, and I believe it will be along the same lines as Office Ladies, where they will be reviewing every episode with lots of behind-the-scenes info. I have been a huge Simpsons fan since Season 2. The show incredibly started when I was in 6th grade, and I am very much no longer of school age. Now I won’t lie, the show is still going nearly 40 years later, and I believe it hasn’t been very good in about 10 years, but that’s beside the point. It had nearly 20 seasons of some of the best television ever, so getting to go on deep dives of these classic episodes is going to be the type of Gen-X nostalgia that I’m used to dishing out in my own podcast. I highly recommend it to any Simpsons fan.


2. One new title I can add to my list is that of film location scout. No, I didn’t apply anywhere. I actually got lucky. The director of the film where I made my acting debut in March is down on Cape Cod to shoot another film later in October. To my surprise, he is planning to set up shop in the same town as me. This gives me a major home-field advantage. I offered to help him find locations for his film. So far, I have sent him sets of Google Maps links of possible spots, including wooded areas and beaches. I don’t know if I’d be good at this type of job or if it only works if the film crew comes to Cape Cod. If they asked me for locations in Southern Wyoming, I’d be kind of screwed.


3. I believe the term ‘fake it until you make it’ can be useful. It’s useful if you eventually end up, you know, making it. In looking for funding for the short film that is to be my directorial debut, my crew and I have reached out to a few local chambers of commerce and historical societies. We thought we had a good connection with one local chamber, which I won’t name, and you’ll soon see why. The lady in charge offered to do promotional work, including sending out links to the fundraiser I’d made in their newsletter to what she said was upward of 3,000 people. I should have known it was BS when it took her 10 days to respond to an email. It turns out that the vast, vast majority of emails for the newsletter to go to were fake or dead. In reality, the newsletter probably went to closer to 300 people rather than 3,000. Oh, it gets better. This lady has now been fired for gross incompetence. This included not paying bills. She was ordered to not leave the premises before she gave them all of the passwords and vital info that she had changed as well as filling the people in on any other screw ups she had made. Luckily, the interim head of the chamber is way more competent, and things seem to be progressing well for our film. Still, 4 months is a quick turnaround to go from being hired as the head of a chamber to being fired for gross incompetence. It must be close to a record.


4. Maybe animals just trust me, but I have noticed on a couple of occasions this week, when animals should be running away, they really don’t. First, there was a rabbit in the front yard when I got home from work. It was eating some clover. As I came up the walkway, it definitely froze and watched me. I’m sure if I had lunged at it, the rabbit would have fled. Instead, it flinched a bit but then went back to eating its clover. I did say hello to it. On the bike trail this week it happened twice. One day, a little dark gray mouse was wandering in the grass along the trail as I was walking by. It should have fled deeper into the brush, but it just meandered along like it couldn’t have cared less. That, or it was just depressed and wanted me to stomp it. Lastly, there was a chipmunk that crossed in front of me on the bike trail. Instead of diving down into its hole, it kind of sat in front of it, looking at me. Then once it slid down the hole, it popped its head back out and looked again. I’m not saying I want to be like Dr. Dolittle though. The last thing I need is to go outside and have coyotes and owls gather around me looking for advice. It’s like when Homer Simpson befriended animals, and they were in the shower with him.

5. It was a speechless and grateful moment when a day this week turned out to be the best single day for downloads ever for my podcast in its nearly 5 years. Not only was it the best day, it was more than 3x the previous best day. It was also more than double the best week ever. I have worked so hard on all of my creative work, whether podcasts, books, or YouTube videos, so when something I do catches on with an audience, even if it’s briefly, it’s humbling. I do wish I knew what caused these spikes in viewership so I could better capitalize on them. Still, I know these types of ‘big win’ days can be few and far between, so I do my best to appreciate them and the viewers/listeners who make it possible. Thank you.


6. While in the supermarket this week I went down the soup aisle looking for something for dinner. I came upon the Progresso soups. It was here that I saw something odd: 2 cans of the exact same soup, right next to each other, and yet one soup had fewer calories. This isn’t like the greedy ‘shrinkflation’ that Doritos did. Their small bags of chips suddenly had fewer calories, but only because they were giving you less. Not a lower cost, just fewer chips for the same price. Jerks. No, the soup was exactly the same but somehow one was 10 calories less. Oh, don’t worry, I have the evidence. And yes, I bought the one with fewer calories.



7. I am a very sentimental person. I tend to keep things that most might toss out if they mean something to me. I have loads of cards I’ve been given over the years. These mean a lot more as I have several from my grandparents who are all no longer here. That being said, I do think my youngest niece, Sylvie, takes advantage of my sentimentality. I have little heart stickers she gave me that have been stuck to my car’s dashboard for nearly 2 years. I have on my desk a tiny little jar of what looks like dried neon green paint. Now, to top it off I have a single blade of grass in my car’s center console. Sylvie handed it to me and demanded that I keep it. Obviously, I could just lie and say I kept it, but she’s way too smart and would probably demand to see it. Not sure how long this blade of grass will survive, but it’s sitting in that center console as we speak.


8. What is it about the specific day and time that I record my podcast weekly that seems to attract every single large, loud truck possible? I swear that it’s only when my mic is on that every few seconds, huge delivery trucks, loud construction trucks, and every jerk with a super bass-filled stereo goes passing by. Once I finish recording? It goes back to normal. A loud vehicle goes by every once in a while, but it’s mainly regular cars, and spaced out enough that there are actually nice moments of silence. Then I get to hear the endless parade of blue jays yelling at each other.


9. While in the freezer section of the supermarket, I had a fun encounter with a little old man. Now, when I say ‘little’ I mean it. He made me look like Shaq, and I am all of 5’8”. Anyway, he casually walked up to me and asked what was for dinner. I said I honestly had no idea. Shopping while hungry is a problem I always have. The old man started raving about these black bean burgers. He gave me a rundown of how to cook them right, all while showing me the box of them he was getting. I didn’t have interest in veggie burgers, but I did take a walk over to where they were as he was leaving, just to make him feel good. I did try to avoid him during the rest of my time there, in case he checked my cart and didn’t see any veggie burgers.


10. When it comes to eating healthy, I have been having a rough go of it for the last few years. I tend to use food, specifically bad-for-you foods, as a reward for getting through whatever challenges there are in daily life. I try, keyword ‘try’ to track my food on MyFitnessPal. This means sometimes logging my breakfast but no other meals, just to keep my consecutive days streak going. The irony is that a lot of my need for ‘rewards’ comes from not being able to fully pursue my goals in creative fields. Why this is ironic is that working at a typical day job are the days when it’s easiest to stay way under my calorie goal. When I work at home on my various creative projects, those are the days when my diet goes off the rails. So as much as I want to have a job in some sort of creative field: writing, podcasting, film, etc, I am also terrified of how out of control my weight would get. It’s like the whole monkey’s paw thing.

Me, the day after I become self-employed

11. I have to say, if you think that spray painting someone else’s property with hate-filled garbage, or your stupid loser nickname, makes some kind of statement, you’re right, it does. That statement is: I am scum and was raised by idiots. Here’s a better idea. Take the money you spent on spray paint, assuming you actually bought it and didn’t just steal it, and buy a big, thick, hardcover book and bash yourself over the head with it because there’s no hope for people like that. Yes, I did see way too many spray-painted spots on a walk this week, and yes, it did really piss me off.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #87: Dumpster Transformer, Memory Full, Surreal Validation, etc.

1. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I’m not a fan of people who have Bluetooth headphones hooked up to their phone and then walk around loudly talking. It is one of the most obnoxious things possible. The only thing that makes these types of events worse is when the person talking loudly has a voice that makes your ears bleed. I heard this woman shouting in the aisles of a supermarket, having a conversation. Her voice was one of those nasally, ditsy, Valley Girl voices. Then I saw her and she looked like a Transformer but instead of being some kind of cool machine, she was a dirty old dumpster that also became a human. I couldn’t unsee, or unhear, that.


2. This week, I got an email reminder that my Audible subscription was renewing in a few days. That sounds like a mundane line until I tell you that I totally had no idea I was paying for an Audible subscription. I had likely been getting these payment reminders all along, but the one thing I wasn’t paying was attention. It turns out that what I thought was a free-tier membership, where I got 1 free credit toward an audiobook per month, was actually $14.95 per month. Oh, and it gets better, or worse for me, as this membership has been going on for nearly 2 years. You can do the math. I immediately canceled the membership so I’m in the clear now, but man, that was like a long, drawn-out setup for a joke that wasn’t funny. Oh well, at least I can keep the audiobooks that I got when I thought I was on a free tier. Wicked smart.


3. Getting older means things that were simple when you were younger can now turn into secret injuries. Several weeks ago, I was walking the beach at low tide with some friends. Not wanting to get my shoes wet, I jumped over a little inlet of water still flowing out. I cleared it and felt accomplished, but knew I’d landed a bit awkwardly on my left leg. Flash forward to this week and my hips and lower back were hurting. While getting adjusted by my boss, I mentioned an exercise I did this week that might have caused the pain. He said the issue was likely something from a little while back and we’d just reached the tipping point. That’s when it clicked. Jumping that little stream turned into me needing my left hip to get adjusted. The problem is my mind still thinks I’m 17, or 27, or 37. I feel like I need to forget everything I knew about fitness and diet, while we’re at it, and learn all new stuff. Or just buy clothes made of bubble wrap so I can safely navigate through life.


4. Speaking of getting older. There are times I feel like I have reached the tipping point with the amount of knowledge my brain can hold. I feel at times like a pitcher filling with water, and now any new info is just water flowing out of the pitcher into the sink. Where I notice it the most is at my training job. I have worked with enough different people there that I now can’t remember every detail about each client. This means equipment they might have at home, specific exercises that we have or haven’t done, things like that. On the other hand, I can still remember in great detail a lot of random music and pop culture items from the 1980s and 1990s. So maybe at this point in life, my brain is prioritizing certain knowledge and memories over others. Yes, that random nugget of wisdom about a random song in 1987 gets saved, but whether a client has an injury doesn’t. I’m kidding, by the way, I would remember injuries, just not my own, as seen in the last post.


5. I am used to there being some sort of ambient noise when I record my podcasts. When the weather is nice I have my window open, which is only a few feet from my desk, where I record. Countless vehicles are going by, and way too many large trucks for the road I live on. This week took the cake as far as noises I will need to edit out of the final product. There was a steady barrage of angry blue jays squawking at each other in the trees just outside. It got so bad that I had to mention it on the show in case people hear them, and I can’t edit them all out. The only way I got them to briefly stop was to find hawk calls on YouTube and play them out my window. Sadly, that only got them to go away for a few minutes before it was angry blue jay party time again. Foolish birds.

6. It’s a strange feeling that the Boston Red Sox are likely going to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021 but I really have no interest in it. In fact, this year feels like the least interest I’ve had in sports in general in my lifetime. I’m not sure why that is. It may be because I am always so busy with work that I just don’t have time to become invested in sports. With the Red Sox, I’ve been off the bandwagon with them ever since they traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers after the 2019 season. The Bruins, I have no interest in, as I really don’t watch hockey. The Patriots have struggled since Tom Brady left, but I do keep my eyes on them from afar. I think the local team I’ve been most invested in over the last 5 years is the Celtics. Basketball was a sport I played growing up in school, so that makes sense. Part of it is that for nearly 20 years, New England had a string of champions, and now all of the teams are mediocre so I feel like I was spoiled for all of those years. It’s kind of like the 1990s all over again, except I’m way past high school age.


7. Provincetown is the only place on Cape Cod where, when I go there, I feel like a tourist. Maybe it’s because it’s an hour drive so I don’t get out there more than a few times a year? I was up there for a wedding this past weekend and took more photos of the scenery than of the event itself. I love my time in Ptown. It’s sort of like visiting Nantucket but without having to get on a boat. It’s interesting how I think of distance. Like I said, it’s an hour to drive to Provincetown, but I’m still on Cape Cod. In less than an hour in the other direction, I can drive to Plymouth, Bridgewater, Fall River, and nearly to Scituate and the Rhode Island border. Yet, all of those places feel so much farther away when I think about it.

Commercial Street, Provincetown

8. Speaking of that wedding, it was for the son of the Lady of the Dunes and his longtime girlfriend. It felt like the cherry on top, completing my story arc in a wild true crime story. The ceremony was at a church at one end of the narrow, busy Commercial Street, and the reception was at a resort hotel on the other end. Lucky for me, the hotel was right next to a parking lot. On a Saturday afternoon, even on the last weekend of summer, that lot was packed. I felt like I was going to end up having to park a few extra hundred yards away, which would mean I’d need to rush to walk to the reception, which was nearly a mile away. I still drove all the way to the end of the parking lot, which was next to the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to find one open spot right on the road. It was as if I was meant to be there. Oh, and at the end of my time there, when I went to pay to leave, it turned out I had been parked for 2 hours and 56 minutes. Another 4 minutes would have cost me an extra $3. I guess you could say everything was coming up Milhouse, if you get that Simpsons reference.


9. Beyond the parking victory, the wedding was a validating yet surreal experience. I grew up with the mystery of the Lady of the Dunes. It was a story I knew well. If you had told me when I was young that someday the Lady would be identified, I’d have said that’s great, she and her family deserve the closure. If you had told me that I’d be involved in the case in a small way, I’d have said that sounds like it could be a possibility. If you would have told me that I’d be involved in the resolution of the case, her identity as Ruth Marie Terry, oh and that she had a son, oh and you will meet him, get to know him, he will invite you to his wedding, and tell you that your book about his mother’s case was very meaningful and important to the case’s resolution? (Catches breath) I’d have said it sounds like something I’d have written, but was highly unlikely. Yet there I was, sitting among family and friends, at a small, intimate wedding. It was in the front of my mind the entire time I was there, just how surreal and yet fulfilling and validating the experience was.

The church where the wedding ceremony was held.

10. The only downside to the wedding day in Provincetown was my Fitbit being skimpy on calories burned. I don’t know why but I thought that walking 4 miles throughout the afternoon would have earned me a few hundred extra calories burned for food. Nope, not a single one. I love my Fitbit Charge 6, but at times it feels inconsistent. It will register steps when I am sitting and moving my arm, yet its distance calculator will typically be less than what my running app will say if they are both going at once. It does a lot of calorie calculating based on heart rate. I figured I’d have gotten my heart rate up, especially when hustling a mile to get to the wedding ceremony. Oh well, even if the Fitbit didn’t give them to me, I know I burned enough calories to earn that pumpkin cake square. Yes, that was what I wanted to use the extra calories on.


11. For me, I don’t understand how in this day and age people walk on regular roads with their dogs off leash. I saw two on a walk this week. One got leashed once the owner saw me coming, which I appreciated. The other was actually off-leash while its owner was walking along with another dog that was leashed. I have no idea. When it comes to unleashed dogs, first off, you don’t know if someone is going to be driving poorly, and your dog could wander into the road and get hit. Secondly, there is the fact that your dog could get spooked, or just be a menace, and go running after a person, or someone on a bike. Unleashed dogs are every bit as dangerous as distracted drivers. They’re both unpredictable. I’ve had several experiences on bike trails on a run or ride, and some idiot has their dog unleashed, and it either jumps at me or wanders in front of me. I like dogs, I don’t love dogs. But of course, I’ve said it before in this blog, many dog owners are simply selfish and entitled, and believe your world revolves around their dog.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #82: Summer Sprinting, Rock Band Formation, Retired Mall Rat, etc.

1. I used to be a borderline-elite runner in my heyday. An injury to my right hip when speed training for a 5K in 2017 caused a slow decline in both my speed and distance until I basically retired from running races for 7 years. I have mentioned several times in this blog about Monday Runday with my friend Mike. We discuss how simply being there motivates us to try to run longer or faster. I typically try to go easy on myself as I’m not training for any race. I have noticed over the last few weeks that something is changing. I don’t want to walk, and I can’t run long distances, really, currently. I have found the sweet spot with long sprints. I walk ¼ mile and then sprint the next ¼ mile. Each week, I get one of those sprints faster. This week I had 2 ¼ mile sprints dip under 7-minute pace, topping out at 6:45. For me, it was the fastest I’ve run since probably 2019. It was a big accomplishment. Of course, my body said enough was enough, and I ended up having to walk most of the rest of the time, but next week I’ll be there trying to top it.


2. For way too many years I worked in restaurants. The summertime was a particularly rough time. It would be super hot, always busy, and it felt like as we got into the beginning of August, everybody was in some stage of burnout. I assumed that not being a part of the unforgiving restaurant industry would put an end to the summer burnout feeling, but I was wrong. I have it now. I don’t know if it is the heat, the amount of brain-dead people I encounter, or maybe just a general unhappiness enhanced by both of those other things. Either way, I feel a general fatigue. I have seen that summer burnout is a real thing, but there’s not much I can do to overcome it besides just being patient. My yearly vacation starts on August 22nd and I won’t be back to work until after Labor Day, so I just need to hold out a little longer.


3. Speaking of that vacation. I had grand plans of a several-day road trip through Northern New England, much like last year. However, that summer burnout has made just the thought of driving 4 hours north too much. I’m not saying that I’m not going to do some sort of road trip this year. I just might end up doing a more spontaneous trip, or a series of shorter day trips. It’s funny, I read that the ‘summer burnout’ feeling can come from pressure to enjoy summer while it’s here. I almost feel a little pressure to do lots of stuff on my vacation. In reality, it should be more about relaxing and enjoying a lot of free time, more than where I go to do it. Man, that sounds lame.

How I currently feel.

4. My Grampa was my hero and role model. He is the man I try so hard to emulate. As much as social media can be a drain on people mentally due to the abhorrent behavior of some people, it does give me a gift I will always treasure. When my Grampa died 6 years ago, his Facebook page went into limbo. There is nobody there to remove it so it stands frozen in time. It is a forever memory of him that I can go to visit every now and then. I just went and took a trip through our chats. It was nothing earth-shattering, mostly me asking him questions about his old donut shop or potential people to interview for my restaurant book. That doesn’t matter. For a few moments, it felt like he was still here. I was almost tempted to send him a message.


5. I might have witnessed the beginning of the next big rock band. I was in a grocery store where there is a guy who works nights. He’s got to be around 20, but he stocks shelves and tends to scream/sing songs as he does it. This is complete with a denim jacket with various metal band logos stitched into it, and copious B.O. that seeps through said jacket. On this visit, I saw him meet another man, probably early-30s, in the soda aisle. They began discussing the instruments they played and planned to chat later. The employee was so excited by the prospect of starting a band that when he didn’t have a pen and paper to give his number (he did so because the other guy said his phone was in his car), he basically ran to the service desk to get one. So if these two form a band that becomes the next Iron Maiden, I’ll know I was there to see the beginning of their journey. Maybe I’ll be in the biopic!


6. It’s no secret that fall is my favorite time of year. Basically, from Labor Day to the end of the year is my jam. I mean I already mentioned it in this blog. So when the Halloween products make their debut, I am all about it. One favorite pastime is getting to eat the famed ‘Monster Cereals.’ For those who don’t know, these are Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Frankenberry. I had spotted them a few weeks back in a grocery store but didn’t take the bait. That changed this week. I just had to snag a box of Count Chocula, which is my favorite. Yes, there is still a month of summer left, but what could be better than enjoying Count Chocula while summer is still going strong? How about some sort of pumpkin spice-flavored treat as well? That’s next on the list.

7. August feels like the month where we lose the most daylight. Well, besides November, when we do the stupid Daylight Savings Time. I checked, and at least here on Cape Cod, the sun sets on August 1st at 7:58pm and at 7:15pm on August 31st. So we lose 43 minutes. Not sure if that’s more or less than any other month, and I don’t feel like doing tons of research. Maybe it’s because all of the Halloween and deals are everywhere in August and kids start going back to school. It is a reminder to all those who love summer the most to get out there and enjoy it because before you know it, we’ll have sunsets at 5pm and frost on the ground.


8. I have several ‘favorite’ run/walk routes near where I live. I am very lucky to be able to put on sneakers and just go to some amazing places. One such route leads through a historic district. The back roads eventually bring you to the busy stretch of beaches along the south coast of Cape Cod. The scenery along this route truly is the stuff that people come from hundreds of miles away to vacation here for. Along this route is one of my favorite houses. It just speaks to me for some reason. It is all red but nothing overly luxurious. It had been sold probably 15 years ago and I made the joke that next time it was for sale, maybe I’d be able to buy it. Well, as luck would have it the house it currently for sale again. Unfortunately, the prices of houses everywhere, especially on Cape Cod, have gone up exponentially. This means that nope, I can’t afford to buy it. In fact, according to Zillow, it’s valued at $1.2 million. This is even with a $50K price cut. To showcase how ridiculous house prices are, this exact house is worth more than double what it was in 2016. The bottom line is that if I ever want to own a home, it’s likely not going to be in the place where I grew up, which basically sucks. Nothing else to say.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/181-Pleasant-St-South-Yarmouth-MA-02664/55930971_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare


9. It’s funny how times change. When I was in high school in the 1990s, I loved spending Friday evenings just hanging out, walking the corridors of the Cape Cod Mall. I might not have been the most prolific ‘mall rat’ but I still was one. I can count on one hand with fingers left the number of times I’ve been to that mall this year. I added one this week only because I was jonesing for some Chinese food from a scoop and serve spot in the foot court. I will admit I did stop for a moment and debate taking a little stroll. Maybe when summer is over, I will revisit my youth by wasting time and money there but not right now. The Chinese food was great as always, though.


10. I had a day this week where I ate really poorly for lunch, like fast food poorly. The guilt and shame crept up and I ended up forcing myself to go for a walk. I have a certain route I can take, which is roughly 3 miles each way to get to the doors of my old middle school. It is now closed down. In reality, the first 3 schools I attended are no longer in operation but that’s a different story. I decided to try to remember the old route my friends and I would occasionally take to walk home through the woods. It coincides with the trail the cross-country team would run. I started down this empty wooded pathway, unsure of where I was going. All the while I was listening to an episode of True Crime Obsessed, the podcast co-hosted by my old school friend Patrick Hinds. It was fitting as I kept looking over my shoulders to make sure I wasn’t being stalked. After feeling lost for a bit I did eventually make it to the school grounds. It was a very meta moment to be at the front doors of where I went to school in 6th through 8th grade, while listening to the voice of someone I’d see in those hallways all the time as he talked about Cape Cod and his high school best friend. I enjoyed that until I had to walk the 3+ miles back to my car.

Class is not in session.