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 #110: Blizzard of 2026, Power Outages, Odd Captions, etc.

1. The Blizzard of 2026 came roaring in late Sunday night. By sunrise on Monday morning, we had power flash off several times, but luckily, it always came right back on. The funny thing was that I sleep with a white noise machine on, as I am a very light sleeper. Each time the power went off, the machine stopped, and I immediately woke up. The machine has several different sounds to sleep to. The default is running water. So when the power came back on, I was greeted with running water sounds. I would switch it back to the white noise only for the power to go back out a few minutes later. After doing this two or three times, I gave up and left the running water noise on. The white noise machine became my canary in the coal mine during the day. Since I didn’t need any lights on, I knew if that machine stopped, we had lost power.


2. Fittingly, during the day of the blizzard, I got nostalgic and watched a video I had shot with my camcorder of a blizzard we had on Cape Cod in 1996. That one was in the first week of January during my senior year of high school. We had 21” of snow from that. It was wild to see my siblings and me out shoveling during the peak of the storm near 11pm. We also scaled our roof with a ladder. Mind you, I was the oldest at 18, the rest were younger. It was a different time 30 years ago. While watching my brother and me driving around town during the storm in my mother’s blue station wagon, I noticed a few things. First, I was way more reckless with driving, doing fish tails, donuts, and getting stuck in snow banks. Second and perhaps more shocking was how much of an accent I had back then. Not sure if it was a conscious effort to speak without the Cape Cod accent once I started doing author events, or if it’s just something you can lose over time. It’s amazing how fast 30 years can go and not really feel like all that long.


3. One of the silver linings about the blizzard was that I could use shoveling the snow as a workout. I set my Fitbit up and got to shoveling during the height of the storm, around 12:30pm on Monday. It was hard-packed, cement snow, probably over a foot by that time. Despite it being heavy, it was not terrible to shovel since each scoop stayed on the shovel. I shoveled for about 70 minutes and clocked in roughly 715 calories burned. I felt really good about that and was looking forward to a hot shower and a bit of rest while the storm raged on. That was not to be though, as once finished shoveling, I found out that the power had gone out while I was outside. No shower, no hot food, just sitting in silence, slowly draining my phone’s battery. I guess I was foolish to think that power would stay on during one of the biggest storms in recent memory.



4. In total, it was close to 75% of Cape Cod that lost power during the blizzard. I believe at one point, the entire Outer Cape (Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown) was without power. I always say that at my age, I am old enough to remember growing up without the technology of the internet and smartphones. It was not some sort of a challenge, but we ended up there anyway. Unsure of how long power would be out, I tried to prolong the life of my devices as long as possible. I had a portable battery called PoweRocks that my mother had given me years ago. Smartly, I charged it before the storm. I used that to prop up my phone’s battery. Once it died, I plugged it into my laptop and drained that battery to slowly recharge the PoweRocks and my phone. When all else failed, I’d go sit in my running car with my phone plugged in. Surprisingly, that didn’t give me as much of a charge as I’d hoped. It was a game of musical chairs with my car, phone, laptop, and portable charger as I tried to keep some sort of connection to the outside world while the blizzard raged and then crews worked to restore power.


5. While out getting the lay of the land the morning after the blizzard, I had a fun adventure with my youngest niece, Sylvie, who lives nearby. I was out filming a video where I stood in a fresh snow drift to show people how deep the snow was when she spotted me. She was able to convince me to go for a walk with her mother and their dog through their neighborhood. It doesn’t take much convincing, though. My mother typically says Sylvie is my boss and can get me to do pretty much anything. The neighborhood we walked in wasn’t plowed at all, which made walking a chore. It was a fun time though, as Sylvie enjoyed diving into the snow and asking me to come and rescue her from it. Eventually, I offered to give her a piggyback ride back to her house. By this point, I had helped do a 2nd shoveling of the driveway on an empty stomach, plus done the walk, so I was tired. If I could have gone back to bed at 8:30am, I would have. Sylvie wanted me to hang out at her house, but I wanted to go home and collapse into a chair. She’s very convincing, but I had to say no. It’s hard because she’s smart and remembers everything. If I said I’d be back later, she’d hold me to it. I had to actually go home and relax, otherwise she’d call me out on it.



6. In total, we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 18-20” of snow on the Mid-Cape. The jackpot was a stretch from Plymouth, MA, down into southwestern Rhode Island. There, they got something like 3 feet of snow. The Blizzard of 2026 was breaking records set by the legendary Blizzard of ‘78. We had wind gusts of 80mph on Nantucket. I think Cape Cod got spared in terms of major beach erosion since the storm’s peak was during low tides. That being said, the videos of the Scituate shore were awful as they typically are during big storms. I have seen countless such videos of huge waves crashing into the sea walls and spraying into the air as high as the roofs of 3-story houses. I love Scituate, but it has to be a blessing and a curse for those who live there. You get beautiful scenery and shorelines, but also the threat of major beach erosion and storm surge damage. As of writing this entry, I believe that more than half of Cape Cod is still without power. It came back on where I live in the middle of the night after about 40 hours of darkness and cold. As I mentioned above, my white noise machine was my canary in the coal mine. I heard it turn on and checked the time. I hope that everyone else gets their power back soon. It’s no fun sleeping in a 55-degree room.


7. Once fully shoveled out, and once I felt the roads were passable enough, I took a little ride. I needed to try to charge my phone, so I figured rather than sitting in the driveway in my car, I’d go see how the area looked. It was an adventure for sure. The roads ranged from passable to totally unplowed. I drive a sedan, so my adventurous side is determined by whether my car can make it. I was more than willing to walk through deep snow to get cool photos and videos. The problem was finding a place where I could park. There was also the issue of downed trees and power lines. There were a few detours caused by trees across the road. I didn’t dare try to get any footage while driving, otherwise I’d end up in one of those ‘idiot driver’ fail videos. In the end, I went and grabbed some food at a supermarket that was open and called it a day. With no power for several days at my work, it left a lot of room for further adventures later in the week.


8. The difference in when certain areas of Cape Cod got their power back meant that, despite getting power back at 4am Wednesday morning, a lot of other places did not have it back. One such place was my work. I ended up with an entire week off from work. It wasn’t planned, and I couldn’t really enjoy it since half of it was under storm conditions. With half of the Cape not having power, all I could really do was sit around and relax, which is not my favorite activity. It’s amazing the luck of the draw where a select few never lost power during the blizzard, others (like me) got it back in a day and a half, while more had to wait 4 or 5 days. There was really no rhyme or reason, but it made me feel like I needed to apologize to those who had longer durations without power, like I had somehow paid off the power gods to give ours back sooner. You’d see a handful of people on social media saying it ‘must be nice’ to have power when, in reality, it was totally random.


9. After a long and cold winter, it’s amazing how good 45 degrees feels. I immediately grabbed my fall jacket to head out into the sun. As bad as the blizzard was early in the week, having several days of temperatures in the 40s did wonders for melting the snow. It also did wonders for the psyche of a lot of us in New England. It honestly has felt at times like winter was never going to end, but now hopefully (knocks wood) the worst is behind us. Those who live in warmer climates wouldn’t understand when we get a 40+ degree day and drive with our windows down and start drinking iced coffee. Yes, we’re kind of crazy, but in a charming way.


10. With my content being more visible on Instagram and TikTok in the last month or so, I am starting to try to put a little more effort into my videos. This means taking a few b-roll shots, doing camera cuts, and trying to turn a 90-second to 2-minute video into a short film. Sure, it might not make much of a difference in the long run, but it actually is fun and gets me some practice in a director’s sense and a layout sense. This video of the damage at Town Neck Beach in Sandwich is an example of what I’m talking about.



11. As I have said many times, when it comes to photography, I practice something called dedication to the craft. That is the idea of getting the photo you want, even if it means disregarding your own safety. Obviously, my risks are calculated, but they are still risks for a good shot. The older I get, the more my practical side starts to take over. I have always seen a few moves ahead in life, and now I have found that seeing those moves can stop me from doing something stupid. For example, and obviously you knew there was an example, this week I went shooting down in Chatham. While at one location, I noticed in the distance on a deserted stretch of beach, there was a grounded boat. I immediately knew I needed to get closer to it. I went to a place called the Monomoy Wildlife Refuge. It’s way out in the boonies of Chatham. From there, I could see the boat and knew a route I could take to get pretty close to it. Sadly, the last few years have seen this location decimated by erosion to the point where there is no beach access from it anymore. Well, technically. Here is the seeing moves ahead part. There is an overlook where you can see the ocean, but the stairs that used to lead you to the beach have been removed. If you walk to the edge of the bluffs, it’s probably a 10-15-foot drop down to the beach below. A few years ago, I’d have jumped off the bluffs, walked the beach, and gotten some sick photos and videos of the boat. Today though, the idea of jumping in the snow and sand and then trying to figure out my way back to the parking lot, all while hoping nobody who lived on the bluffs saw me and decided to make a scene, was all too much. If it hadn’t been winter, I’d have walked to an access trail a half-mile away, but the temperature and time of day wouldn’t allow it. I had to settle for a video from a distance, lame.


12. I like putting captions with all of my videos on social media. It helps people who might not be in a place where they can play a video with sound. As you’d expect with AI deciphering my words, there are lots of inaccuracies, specifically with proper names and locations. This week, I shot a video at the Cape Cod Canal. While I was there, a helicopter flew overhead, and I got a fun shot of it. When I went to add captions to the video, I noticed odd words appearing. While uploading it to TikTok, I noticed a few Arabic words in my captions. Then, when I put the same video up on Instagram, I noticed the phrase ‘oh my god’ was randomly thrown in. It took me a moment to realize that the AI was trying to make words out of the helicopter sounds. So apparently TikTok thinks helicopter noises sound like Arabic, and IG thinks they sound like someone crying out, ‘oh my god.’ Both random and funny at the same time. I did momentarily debate leaving those captions in, but ultimately took them out.


13. I got lucky and experienced a classic Cape Cod sunset on the tidal flats this weekend. All of the ice had melted away, and it looked like it does in the summer. I had a great idea. I would shoot a killer time-lapse video of both the tide rolling in and the sun setting. I used my selfie stick, which is also a tripod, and set my phone up probably 6-7 feet away from the water’s edge and let it roll. I had hoped that the water wouldn’t come in too far before the sun had dipped below the horizon. I watched the video recording, and the water rolled in. It started lapping at the tripod, but I held firm. It began trickling past the tripod, but I wouldn’t relent. I held out as long as I could, but once the water was 5 feet past the tripod holding my phone, I had to rescue it. If I had waited a few moments later, I don’t know if the water eventually would have knocked my phone over. The video was amazing, though. Probably 5 minutes of filming for less than 30 seconds of time-lapse.