Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #130: Familiar Scents, Wildfire Skies, Too Many Soups, etc.

1. A favorite recent pastime of mine is going to a park in the afternoon and sitting in my car to listen to a podcast. There is something about the sun, the scents of summer, and the people watching when combined with a good podcast that really sets my soul at ease. I spent so many good times riding around on my bike as a kid. There were certain scents that I remember from back then that instantly trigger good feelings. Don’t laugh, but two of them are dead pine needles and dirt. Yeah, that sounds like an idea for a terrible novelty body wash, but it’s true. The brown pine needles in the hot sun give off a scent that brings back the teenage boy in me. That combined with the smell of dirt, like after you’ve dug a hole or moved it around, it’s like it unlocks something inside. Hey, come on, I know that all of you have certain smells that trigger memories. Mine just happen to be part of the playbook of a typical 1980s boy. So when I am sitting at a park and can smell the pine needles, it’s an automatic release of endorphins. I’m not saying I want to buy an air freshener that smells like dead pine needles, but if someone gave me one for free, I wouldn’t throw it away.



2. I am a connoisseur of energy drinks, if that is a thing. Since college in the late 1990s, I’ve tried pretty much everything there is to try when it comes to energy drinks and pre-workout supplements. There have been some that I liked more than others. Many of those I liked ended up being discontinued or even banned due to their ingredients. Even now, in my late 40s, I will try most energy drinks. I was shocked this week when, of all people, my mother had a recommendation for a new energy drink. It’s from The Loaded Tea Shop. These are in powdered form with 200mg of green tea caffeine and a few other vitamins. My mom and sister enjoy the flavors; many have funny names like Frog Spit. I have had a couple of the powdered sticks and do enjoy them, but I will admit they are a bit pricey. If you click the link and go to their website, you will see that each stick, even when on sale, is $4. I guess my favorite energy drink is usually the cheapest one that is on sale. When I get one, they typically cost $2-2.50. If you go by the directions, each stick could be 2 servings of 16 ounces, so it’s possible it’s more affordable than I think. Anyway, I have enjoyed them and am linking to their site so you can try for yourself rather than just taking my word for it.


3. No matter how old I get, I still find and enjoy the beauty in the small things. Arriving for Monday Runday this week, I ended up being distracted. I spotted a greenish dragonfly landing on a branch nearby. Rather than go off to the track to start some exercise, I was fascinated by the insect. It seemed to be relaxing, so I was able to start getting photos and videos. No matter how much I filmed or how close I got to the dragonfly, it just sat there. Eventually, I had to get going, but first, I wanted an action video of the dragonfly flying. I was shooting a slow-motion video, which was beneficial. I slowly started moving my finger closer and closer until finally it flew off. I probably spent a few minutes hanging out with the dragonfly even though it felt much longer. Ironically, for as long as I hung around the dragonfly, I could have stayed longer. That is because once I got to the track, I was still the first one there. Then again, there was only so much room on my phone to video an insect sitting on a branch.




4. I have to start this off by saying cancer sucks. This week, I found out that a former patient at my work passed away from brain cancer a few weeks ago. Her name was Christine, and she would come in routinely with her husband, Doug. When they first came in, she was battling a brain tumor. I think she had already had one surgery to combat it. She used a pair of our therapies that promote healing at the cellular level. They are PEMF(pulsed electromagnetic field) and EWOT(exercise with oxygen therapy). When they would show up, I would drop what I was doing if I could to spend time chatting with them. She was so sweet and friendly even in the face of something so horrible. I don’t know how she did it. Coming in twice a week for several months, she got positive updates. Her brain tumor was shrinking, and we were so excited and hopeful that she would beat the cancer. Sadly, the last few times she came in, October of last year, I noticed something. She was not able to ride as far on the bike or take in as much of the 93% pure oxygen that makes up the therapy. Then all of her appointments were canceled as she prepared to fight the resurgent cancer. We wished her all the best, which was all we could do. This week we found out that she didn’t win the battle. She was only 68 years old. Rest in peace, Christine. My heartfelt condolences to Doug and the rest of her family. Oh, and most of all, fuck cancer.


5. It was eerie during the middle of this week when the sky went from sunny and very soupy, to a yellowy haze. It felt like a horror movie was starting. We had an air quality alert, which I thought was due to how hot and humid it was. It turned out to be at least partially due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. The smoke rolled in so quickly that the temperature dropped five degrees within minutes. Sadly, there were more than 800 wildfires across Canada, with many located just across the border north of Minnesota. I am sure by the time this blog goes up, that number will change, hopefully for the better. It feels as though this sort of thing occurs far too frequently now. There are typically a handful of days a year when smoke from some wildfire drifts down into New England. It makes for an interesting sky, but there’s nothing else good that comes from a wildfire.




6. Over the last 12 years, I have been privileged to do easily many dozens of author events based around various books I have written. It is never lost upon me that people, most of them total strangers, take time out of their days to come out and hear me speak. It is a humbling experience I will never take for granted. I have done multiple events at many libraries all over Cape Cod. It is increasingly rare for me to do an event at a place on Cape Cod that I have never been to before. This week I got to speak at the Snow Library in Orleans for the first time. It was a fun event with a beautiful setup. I am distantly related to Cape Cod’s Snow family, so it was fitting. In addition to the rows of chairs in the conference room, I was fascinated by a sort of balcony level of seats. There were two rows of fixed seats in the upstairs level of the conference room. I wish that it had been a busier event where people had to go and sit up there because I bet the visual would have been cool. Of course, I forgot to go upstairs to see the view from there. I am so grateful to everyone who came to the event at the Snow Library and hope to do it again at some point in the future.




7. In a sort of ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ moment, I was out on the tidal flats this week during the time when the Canadian wildfires were impacting the skies over New England. I walked out to get some surreal photos of the red/orange sun over a boat resting on the sand. I brought my trusty selfie stick. It allowed me to get a few cool angles on the photos. I had to hurry to get to work, so I was walking back to my car across the sand. I guess I was a little too rough trying to get my phone out of the holder on the selfie stick. Not only did my phone come free, but so did the holder itself. Yes, I managed to break my selfie stick after taking some cool photos with it. But wait, longtime readers of this blog will remember that the same thing happened last June. So I have broken two of the same selfie sticks in 13 months. Now, the big question is, do I get the same stick again, which is convenient, affordable, but also apparently pretty fragile? Or do I spend a little more on something that claims to be sturdier? I say ‘claims’ because with my luck I’ll spend more money on a new selfie stick and probably break it when opening the box or something. We’ll see what happens.


8. Some things can’t be blamed on the runner’s high. I went for an afternoon run one day this week. It was a perfect afternoon with sunny skies and the temperature around 80. I had a great run, ending up putting in 5.5 miles in total. When I got back to where my car was parked, it was natural to think about what was for dinner. Luckily, it was a short walk across the parking lot to a supermarket. I was exhausted but walked over to grab a few things. I went to the self-checkout as I always do. While scanning, some pissed-off-looking Karen came up complaining that she couldn’t find containers of Parmesan cheese dust to shake. That idiot distracted me, and I didn’t notice that I had scanned my one can of soup five times. I had to call an employee over to start voiding my mistakes. Once he was done, he had no sooner walked away than I accidentally scanned the dang soup again. That made six times. He had to come back over, and I swore I wasn’t messing with him. He didn’t seem to care either way. I could blame it on the runner’s high or that entitled Karen, but I’ll just laugh and say it’s par for the course for me.


9. I’d like to think that I am not that hard to see when I am out for a walk or run. Yes, I like to dress in black a lot of the time, but I also am out during the day and not at night. So it comes down to a select few drivers who either shouldn’t have their licenses because they can’t see properly, or shouldn’t have them because they are dangerous and don’t care. I’d say it was the former during one incident this week. I was down a quiet road in a quiet neighborhood on a beautiful morning. Even on quiet roads, I run on the side, not in the middle, out of respect for other drivers. This red sedan goes by me, so close that if my left arm had been anywhere but by my side their mirror would have smacked me. They could have easily slowed down or maneuvered slightly to the left; there was plenty of room for both of us. But no, this car just kept right on going like I was invisible. I saw it was some old lady driving. Didn’t matter, I let her have it, yelling and swearing. Seriously, what if I hadn’t been hugging the side of the road? Would this old bag have just plowed into me? She stopped about five houses ahead of me. Rather than keep going so I could get up close and scream at her more, I decided to just let it go and turn around and run back the other way. The run and the scenery were too good to let some blind cotton ball ruin it.


10. This week saw the return of the new Cape Cod tradition, Big Nick’s Ride For the Fallen. It is in honor of Yarmouth resident Nicholas Xiarhos, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009. The ride itself consists of well over 1,000 people on motorcycles traveling from the Massachusetts National Cemetery down into Yarmouth, where it ends. The wild part is that the procession goes right by where I live. It ends up being roughly ten straight minutes of revving engines going by. Every year, I plan on filming it, and every year, something comes up. This year, the plan was to set up my selfie stick tripod and shoot a cool time-lapse video. Of course, you know from a few entries back that my stick broke. I wasn’t going to stand there for at least ten minutes holding my phone, so I just watched from a window. It is a cool new tradition and one that has a lot of meaning and raises money for good causes. Some year, I will film it, but you can see it yourself at the link: Big Nick's Ride For the Fallen


11. I tend to type pretty fast and wild when I get into a groove. Luckily, with spell check and Grammarly, I can cover my tracks and not look too foolish with any mistakes I make. However, the problem comes when the word you misspell is actually another correctly spelled word. The one that keeps coming up for me is the word ‘core.’ Why? It happens when putting together notes for workouts I did with clients. There are a lot of people who I have do core rotations to strengthen their abs. Way more times than I’d like to admit, I rush to get my notes done and have misspelled ‘core’ as ‘crow.’ I have gone back through my notes and wondered what in the world is a crow twist? I know there is a crow pose in yoga, but none of my senior clients could do that. That one isn’t bad since only other office people would see it, and they really never check what I am doing in the gym. The one that is more embarrassing is misspelling my own name. I will text clients and preface it by saying who it is. ‘Hi X, it’s Chris from Mind Body Spine.’ Pretty simple, right? Except it’s not when I get caught between names way too often. I have typed Christ and sent it. Not Chris, not Christopher, but Christ. ‘Hi, this is Christ…’ Those I can’t get back. I haven’t had anyone say anything yet. One of these times, I should give some profound advice after. ‘Hi, this is Christ, the answer you seek will come after giving $500 to your trainer.’ That would never work, but if it did, yay, cash windfall!

Yay, windfall!

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #118: Gurnet Trip, City Goose, Watch Your Ears, etc.

1. It’s probably been a year since I went on a true photo trip. Ironically, it started in the exact same way. My buddy Steve’s family has a summer cottage out on The Gurnet in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It has been in their family for over 130 years. The Gurnet is a private community and also a four-mile drive down Duxbury Beach. In the spring, Steve likes to bring some belongings up to the cottage as they prepare to open it up. I tend to tag along, as it is a perfect excuse for a photo trip. It also allows me access to Gurnet Lighthouse, which is at the point. I have been out there probably close to 10 times now, and every time I go, I get the same photo of the lighthouse looking back toward Duxbury Beach from atop an earthen fort. As much as I like trying to find different angles of photos, this one, for some reason, speaks to me.



2. The trip didn’t begin too early. I got up at 6am like I would on any workday. I made sure everything I needed was packed the night before, since it’s my thousandth photo trip or something like that. Of course, it wouldn’t be a normal trip without me forgetting something on my end. This time is was forgetting to charge my camera battery. You can’t blame me, though, as I hadn’t touched my camera since November when I shot my nephew’s Senior photos. Since then, it’s been in its bag collecting dust. It didn’t end up affecting the trip much though, since I was fully prepared to use my phone and selfie stick.


3. Speaking of that selfie stick, I put it to good use while driving the four miles out to The Gurnet. I rolled down the window and filmed much of the ride out. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary except for the other vehicle that came flying up behind us. I am sure they were either curious or irritated by me, who must have looked like some vlogger or influencer recording the drive out. Hey, I’m not famous, but I’m not above trying to get some good footage to try to go viral. I half expected them to follow us up to Steve’s cottage to yell at us for not going faster on the winding, holey, dirt road.


4. A usual spot we hit on the annual Gurnet trip is Gunther Tooties. It is a small bagel and coffee shop with five locations, typically located inside gas station markets. They have a bunch of different bagel types and cream cheese flavors. Each time I go in, I have no idea what I want. It’s like I need to learn what a bagel is or something. The toughest choice was the flavor of cream cheese. The girl at the register told me where the flavors were listed on the board. I saw chocolate chip and said I wanted that. Unfortunately, that was a bagel flavor as I was not reading the right list. Feeling a bit dumb, I think the girl could tell, and so she recommended honey walnut cream cheese to go with my French toast bagel. I agreed. As we drove off, it dawned on me that I believe that I get the same order every time, yet I go in the next time like it’s my first time. It’s like the mind eraser from Men in Black is located in the door as I exit.

The Plymouth location

5. I have wanted to go to Gooseberry Island in Westport, Massachusetts, for years. The main reason is a concrete observation tower from World War II. The island itself is 73 acres and has more than just the tower and the other smaller tower near it. However, I had tunnel vision and could not have cared less about the ocean scenery on either side of the walk out. The towers didn’t disappoint, despite being coated in graffiti. There were no secret entrances to either tower, although I might have been able to squeeze sideways into a narrow opening in the smaller tower. The piles of trash inside though, stopped any foolish ideas. It was while we were out at the towers that we noticed dark clouds increasing. As the sprinkles began to fall, I hesitated, hurrying back to the truck since there was an outside chance of a rainbow appearing. That became a running theme of the rest of the photo trip: hoping for a rainbow as it rained. There never was one.



6. Much like not being able to read the flavored cream cheeses at Gunther Tooties earlier, I had another ‘eyes playing tricks on me’ moment while leaving Gooseberry Island. I walked past a gray SUV that was covered in bumper stickers. I spotted one with a weird message in cursive on it. Now, after the fact, I realized that the sticker said ‘Kinda Sweet. Kinda Savage.’ What did I think it said? Kinda Sweet. Kindness Sausage.’ Is this the same as mishearing lyrics in a song? Someone needs to make that bumper sticker now. I had to laugh and then had a whale of a time explaining to Steve why I was laughing. Hey, they have ‘kindness rocks,’ why not kindness sausage?


7. One thing that you notice right away when driving around certain parts of the south coast of Massachusetts is that there is a lot of farmland. Like you wouldn’t expect that much. There are urban areas like New Bedford and Fall River, sure, but then there are stretches where it's wide open areas with cattle and rock walls. Towns like Westport, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Middleboro have a mix of both. You drive and see barns, silos, animals, and then a few minutes later, you’re on a main road littered with fast food and strip malls. Even on Cape Cod, we don’t have that much wide open space. Any farm down here is like pocket-sized. Don’t even get me started about how much different Western Mass is compared to the east. That’s mostly due to the Berkshire Mountains. The south coast of Massachusetts makes for a scenic, if not unexpectedly so, photography trip.


8. I love road trips. That being said, I also unfortunately get terrible car sickness. The same goes for boats. So, as much as I loved the idea of Steve driving the 200+ miles we ended up doing on the photo trip, there was also lingering dread in the back of my head. Would I get carsick? I always take Dramamine about an hour before being the passenger in someone else’s car. Sometimes it works great, other times not so much. The irony is that I feel fine when I drive. I have learned it’s because my brain is in control of anything from movement to acceleration, etc. That’s not the case when a passenger. We were out from just before 8am until close to 5pm on that trip, and I did well. Granted, I had my Dramamine, a few ibuprofen during the trip, and an extra hit of caffeine to stave off any nausea. I wasn’t taking any chances. I’d much rather just sit and be the passenger on any road trip, but due to motion sickness, I tend to be the driver the majority of the time. At least my car is great on gas.


9. Visiting Gooseberry Island was out of order for our itinerary. We had anticipated stopping first at Parsons Reserve in Dartmouth. It is a walking trail known for its incredible field of daffodils in the middle. I had ideas for photos and videos that were dancing in my head. Unfortunately, with it being school vacation week, loads of families had the same idea. We drove past the main parking lot. It was full, and they had security directing people. So we drove a few hundred feet to the backup lot. It was also full. That’s why we ended up at Gooseberry Island. Once we finished there, we headed back toward Parsons Reserve as the rain began to steadily fall. It was touch and go as far as bringing our cameras out there, but I said, since we were there, why not just give it a try? It wasn’t like we could just go back the next day since it’s about an hour drive for us. We wandered about ¼ mile to get to the daffodil field. Signs were telling you no professional photo shoots and no equipment. Little did they know my selfie stick was also a tripod, so joke’s on them. Even in the rain, there were probably 15-20 people wandering the rows of 27 different varieties of daffodils. Signs were telling you which direction to go, including one-way signs. Dogs and screaming kids were there as well, but I can always use editing techniques to get rid of those sounds when making videos. The rain fell throughout the time there, but it made for some cool ASMR videos. It is recommended to visit Parsons Reserve and the daffodils during the spring. If you’re going in the off-season, it’s not going to be anything special since the daffodils are the main attraction.



10. Fort Rodman and Fort Taber in New Bedford make up a historic site that I have been to many times. Rodman is a granite structure, while Taber is an earthen fort that is pretty creepy and also grimy when you step inside. Years ago, when I went there were holes smashed out of some of the lower-floor granite of Fort Rodman, which allowed you to see inside to an overgrown, creepy courtyard. Now those have all been sealed over. Still, there is a hole in the front wooden doors, so you still get a little bit of a view. I wanted a video walking through Fort Taber. Even though it’s a public area and the fort itself isn’t as big as it seems, I still made sure to wait to make sure a couple of people I saw weren’t going to follow me inside. I like the historic site, but some places in New Bedford are sketchy to say the least. This part of the photo trip ended with me walking a long concrete walkway to get a close-up photo of Butler Flats Lighthouse, located a half-mile or so offshore. Unfortunately, while standing all the way out there, I realized I needed to pee. It was doubly unfortunate because no bathrooms were open on the grounds. I briefly debated the pros and cons of peeing over the side into the ocean, but remembered the entire property was under video surveillance. That’s not the type of thing you want to be known for. I wisely held it in.

Looking toward Fort Rodman from atop Fort Taber

11. My saving grace was a Wendy’s in New Bedford. Steve wanted a quick bite. I needed a bathroom badly, and we both won. The standout moment from this part of the trip was not the fact that I resisted a spicy chicken sandwich and fries. No, it was a lone goose just relaxing in a small grassy area right off a busy street at the edge of the parking lot. Mind you, this is a highly developed section of New Bedford. There were no ponds nearby, hardly any trees. It was all busy streets and shopping plazas. This one goose was lying down, seemingly undisturbed by the number of cars, people, and overall noise. I thought about going over to try to get an up close photo of the city goose, but I figured it might end one of two ways. Either the goose gets mad and comes at me and I have to run away. Or the goose gets scared and flies into traffic and gets turned into a piñata for cars. That second one would, of course, lead to people looking at me for scaring an innocent goose. I decided to just let it be.


12. I created a retrospective video about the 6 weeks or so that the north side of Cape Cod was choked with ice back in winter. The irony is that I was holding off to make sure we had no chance of getting any more snow. I didn’t want to release it on YouTube and then have a freak snowstorm happen. I figured it would look like I jinxed us. Well, we didn’t get a snowstorm, but we did get a brief but intense hailstorm one day this week. The hail was smaller than peas, but it fell so intensely for 10-15 minutes that it made the ground white. So it might not have been a snowstorm, but it was close. Now I think we should be safe from freak spring snow (knocks wood).



13. Sometimes I have to stop and really appreciate how lucky I am. This is a two-part story. First, I was lucky that this week I got to spend some time hanging out and having fun with my 7-year-old niece, Sylvie. She is a bundle of energy and is already very sporty. So she wanted to be out in the yard kicking a soccer ball around. That’s easy enough for me. While running around and kicking, I stopped paying attention to my surroundings. That came back to bite me as I went running for the ball too close to a bush. In a one-in-a-million shot, one of the branches literally went right into my ear canal, slamming into my eardrum. It was a shocking pain, and I immediately grabbed for my ear. I was terrified that I had done permanent damage. The first thing I did was start snapping my fingers next to my ear to make sure I hadn’t lost my hearing. That was the other lucky part. I have no clue how close I came to bursting my eardrum and suddenly being partially deaf. All the while, I had to not let my niece see how much pain I was in. I just kept playing with her all the while checking my ear for any damage.


14. Humbled and grateful are the words I would use to describe my feelings after my first author event of the year. It was held at the West Dennis Library, not too far a drive for me. I was speaking about Cape Cod history and specifically my 10th book, In Their Footsteps: The Interesting People, Places, and Events of Cape Cod History. There has been loads of construction going on in West Dennis, and once I pulled into the library parking lot and saw that there was half of the parking lot was surrounded by a chain link fence, I didn’t have a good feeling about turnout. I was wrong. People filed in, and kept filing in. The staff had to grab several more chairs to fit the 30 or so people who came to hear me speak. The event went great, even if my voice started getting raspy. The fact that so many people came out to see me is something I will never take for granted. It still surprises me that I have people willing to take time out of their day to come to an event of mine. I do my best to make it fun, engaging, and interesting. I also sold a whole bunch of books, nearly my whole stock. It was a wonderful time, and I hope I can do many more of them this year and next.


15. Having worked as a trainer for 10 years and watched my overall health for a lot longer, I have tried everything. Any exercise, any class, any type of cardio, any diet, any supplement. You name it, I have tried it. I wish I could sit back and tell people, whether clients or just friends and family, that I had a cheat code for them to get in better shape (whatever that might be). The bottom line is that there is no cheat code. It comes down to consistency. It comes down to discipline. It comes down to diet. That doesn’t mean you need to eat 1,000 calories a day, do an hour of cardio, and lift for another hour 6 days a week. No, consistency means making a plan and sticking to it until it becomes a habit. One healthy meal doesn’t make you healthy. One lifting session doesn’t make you strong. One walk doesn’t give you S-tier cardio levels. I get it that getting into shape is hard, especially if you’ve been on the other side of that equation for a long time. I tell people to break it down into small, manageable goals. Eat well for a day, then another day, etc. Find 30 minutes to do some sort of exercise one day, then another day, etc. My only frustration comes when people ask me for advice, and I give it, and they ignore it because it’s not ‘oh snap your fingers and you’ll be where you want to be.’ Once you get people asking you for advice constantly for months, and you find yourself repeating the exact same stuff, it gets to the point where I just want to tell them, ‘you obviously don’t really want to get healthy, so go do whatever you think is right and stop wasting my time.’

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 #113: Wicked Insurance, Construction Woes, Avert Your Eyes, etc.

1. In an interesting turn of events, I briefly had two different auto insurance policies out for my car. I had my original one, which was through AAA. But AAA was switching to a different carrier. They sent me an email, probably a month ago, explaining the change on their end and what I had to do to keep current with the new policy. Around the same time, my original insurance company, the one AAA was leaving behind, emailed me separately to tell me how to keep up with their policy. I was busy at work that day and mistakenly thought they had been sent by AAA and that it was all one and the same. Nope. I got a call saying my AAA policy was going to be canceled because I was reupping with the original company. Now I was more confused. Luckily, I contacted AAA and was told that if I made a payment on their insurance policy, it would stay current. To further solve things, they called the other insurance company and got my first payment through them refunded. That means there was a period where my car was double-insured. I mean, I love my car, but it doesn’t need two insurance policies. All of this was more confusing than some football plays you see scribbled out on a chalkboard, if they still do that.


2. I can only speak for myself, but I feel like once the blizzard hit southern New England on February 22nd, it basically turned my winter blues up to 1,000. It only got worse when we had temperatures hit 60 and then dive back down to around freezing. I had enjoyed the weeks of cool ice content I got on Cape Cod, but once that had run its course, I was all in on winter ending. Instead, it was a piledriver of snow and then just enough warmth to remember how spring felt, and then wham right back to cold. Once I got the taste of spring weather, I put my heavy winter coat away for good. Even if it’s below freezing in the morning, I’m heading outside in my spring hoodie. Looking ahead, the first week of spring includes highs in the mid 30s a few times and at least one possible chance of snow. My energy level has been in the trash for the last several weeks. Hopefully, once spring really begins, I can shake off the winter blues that are beating the hell out of me currently.


3. I’ve wanted to be a writer, or do something in a creative field, since I was 8. If I told my younger self that someday he’d have published 10 books, done speaking events, radio interviews, been on television, hosted a podcast, acted in a film, co-produced a short film, and was getting set to produce a feature-length film based on something he’d written, he’d probably ask me how big my mansion was. This isn’t humble bragging because then reality sets in. Despite having on paper a pretty impressive portfolio, I still have to work a full-time day job just to pay my bills. Success can sometimes be subjective. I am lucky and blessed to have a roof over my head, a job that pays my bills, and the freedom and physical health to be able to still chase my dreams at this stage in my life. I’m sure that along the road of life, I missed exit signs that could have gotten me to what I would consider success sooner. You can’t live life looking backward, though. You have to keep moving forward. You have to keep sharing your gifts, sharing your creativity, and put together such a massive portfolio of content that your success becomes inevitable and undeniable. So yes, I have accomplished a lot in terms of creative endeavors, but I also have quite a ways to go to become successful. It keeps me focused.


4. A recent viral craze on social media is ‘X, what were you like in the 90s?’ People my age and older share photos and videos of themselves from back then. Loads of celebrities from the 90s are doing it as well as ordinary, everyday people. Of course, having a creative mind, I couldn’t just post a few photos. It needed to be unique. What I did was dress in an old flannel and a fedora and act like an old man while a narrator off-screen (also played by me) asked me what I was like in the 90s. It segues into a montage of photos with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit playing. When the video comes back to me, the narrator makes sure to remind me that the 90s ended 27 years ago. This causes old man me to cry that he’s wrinkled like an old piece of fruit (a nod to Grampa Simpson) before collapsing on the ground. The best part was that I did this in an empty parking lot across from a museum. I had to wait to begin filming because a large group was getting ready to go into the museum, and I didn’t want to act all foolish for their amusement. Also, I lost the remote shutter for my tripod briefly, which was what I used to capture myself driving my car into the scene. I actually accidentally filmed myself frantically searching my car for it for a minute. It had fallen behind the front seat. Nice.




5. My first acting gig, Cape Cod Cthulhu, is now available to stream for free. It’s actually a pretty good turnaround. I shot my scenes basically one year ago to the day. It’s a feature-length film, roughly 75 minutes. The fact that it was shot, edited, released for sale on Blu-ray, and then put up for streaming, all within a calendar year, is impressive. Considering that I’ll be working with a lot of the same crew, it gives me hope that my feature-length film, The Cabin, which we’ll be shooting this August, will be released in plenty of time before my 50th birthday in November 2027. Of course, that project will be a lot more work for me since I’ll be producing and acting in it. In Cape Cod Cthulhu, a campy low-budget horror movie, I only had 3 scenes, so it was pretty simple. Obviously, I wouldn’t mention that you could stream the film and not put a link to it. Check it out, it’s a breezy, fun watch.

6. Where I live on Cape Cod, I am pretty much surrounded on all sides by seemingly never-ending construction projects. I have to choose my driving routes very carefully to avoid stops and detours. While those are annoying, the real issue comes from the terrible conditions of all of those same roads, plus many more. It’s nonstop pot holes, some a few feet wide and probably up to a foot deep. I bet the roads in most major cities are better than ours are currently. I have to bob and weave while driving just to avoid the parade of hazards on the roadways. I am actually begging for the day that a cop sees me weaving to avoid these holes and pulls me over. Then, when I ace their breathalyzer, I can inform them that I’m not going to ruin my car thanks to these crappy roads. Because if I blow tires or destroy my suspension, I guarantee that the town won’t be helping me pay the bill. So why the hell shouldn’t I try to avoid doing that at all costs? By the time the construction that’s going on is done, there will be fifty other projects starting in other areas nearby.


7. I didn’t start my Saturday thinking I’d end up with over 21,000 steps. I played basketball for the first time since the fall and then had a pair of long walks. Those things made up most of it. The steps didn’t take into account walking on sand, over rocks, and up and down hills. It was a marathon day that left me exhausted. Not too exhausted to go walk the flats and get some great sunset photos. A neat thing I found out is that my Fitbit buzzes not just at 10K steps, but every 10K steps. So when I hit 20K, it went off again. The last time I hit more than 20K steps was January 2024, so it’s been a while. I’d like to say it’s a sign of things to come, but we have to wait to see how my knees feel.


8. I tried to get away with something, and craziness ensued. At the supermarket, there were these great Oikos Flip yogurts, the ones with mix-ins, that had $1 off two of them coupons taped to each container. I grabbed two. When self-checking out, I used the coupon, and when trying to shove it in the coupon slot, I saw that the tape on it had gotten it stuck to the side. Figuring why not, I tried to use a 2nd coupon for the other yogurt. The register ended up alerting an employee. I quickly folded the coupon and tried putting it in the slot like I was destroying evidence. The employee came over, and I showed him the stuck coupon. He then said, ‘avert your eyes.’ I turned my head but noticed him whip out a box cutter to slice the coupon free. Just foolishness all around. Oh, but the register did accept the coupon in the end, so I ended up paying about $1 for both of the yogurts.


9. There truly are very few places on Cape Cod that I have not been to. When I find a place I haven’t been, or a different way to see a spot I am familiar with, I jump on them. One such place came up this week. There is a tiny dirt parking area in Orleans called Priscilla Beach. According to Google Maps, I should be able to walk along the shore from there and come out far north of the Nauset Beach parking lot. It was about ½ mile walk, sometimes over rocky and unstable ground. Once I walked out onto the beach, I was close to a mile north of the main parking lot. I had never been to the part of Nauset Beach, and then it got better. I crossed back over the dunes after walking about another ½ mile north. It was calm and quiet as I faced the Nauset Inlet. I had never been there either. I took a very slow walk back to my car, savoring every moment in a new place. What was meant to be a quick stop took 1 ½ hours, and I had to skip a few other places I was meaning to see, but it was all worth it.


10. One sight on my walk out to Nauset Beach was a hawk hovering above. It was in an updraft, floating and looking for something to eat in the shallow waters. Armed with my phone and selfie stick, I was able to get a high-quality video of the hawk using 4K 60fps quality. As I spun around, trying to keep the hawk in frame, I ended up staring right into the sun briefly. Luckily, I didn't fall over or anything. I did, however, spin around and come face to face with some guy wandering toward me from the beach. Maybe I had seen him but hadn’t paid any attention, but it was definitely creepy how he just appeared. He was interested in the hawk as well, although he thought it was a vulture. I wished him a good day and kept moving, making sure to put distance between us pretty quickly. Even though there were houses up on the bluff, they were 40-50 feet up and likely were unoccupied at this time of year. So if the guy decided he wanted to turn me into a skin suit, I’d have been in trouble.



11. The Red Maple Swamp trail in Eastham is worth checking out. The White Cedar Swamp trail in neighboring Wellfleet is much more well-known, but the Red Maple deserves some love. It’s a little under a mile and is a boardwalk over the swamp. At this time, though, a month out from the major blizzard we had on Cape Cod, there are still a good number of fallen trees. I had been walking for several minutes and remarked how there weren't any downed trees. Then it was like a switch flipped. There were a bunch of trees down, a few right across the path. I bumped into a younger couple at an intersection. There was a gigantic tree down. They offered to let me go first, but looking at the tree and not knowing how much effort it would take me to climb over it, I let them go first. I figured if I went first and flipped over onto my head, I’d go viral for the wrong reason. I did end up getting over the fallen tree; it did take a bit of effort, though, so I was glad I let the couple go ahead.

Webcam Weekly Wrap-Up Podcast: Episode 1

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #35: Drivers Ed, Running With Bats, Credit Score, etc.

1. On Monday nights I usually run at a local track with a friend of 30+ years. It’s a lot of fun but unfortunately will be ending for the season at some point when sunset gets too early. This week I was last to leave the track and walked another lap when I noticed a red car circling the area of the track. I got bad vibes after a 3^rd lap and started thinking about getting out of there. On the 4^th lap, I finally noticed it was a father teaching his son how to drive. Thankfully I didn’t make a scene or something before figuring out what the deal was.

2. I pulled into the parking lot at work on an early morning, around 6:40am. It was to my horror that I saw in between where I’d park and the door to my job somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen turkeys. Rather than be calm and walk through them hoping they wouldn’t sense fear and gang up on me I took the other approach. I yelled and charged them like a madman and they all scattered gobbling with anger at me. My victory was almost ruined when I momentarily couldn’t find the key to open the front door. 24 on 1 is not good odds unless you’re fighting ants.

3. I stopped at a beach for sunrise on the way to work this week. When it’s low tide the tidal flats stretch out for a long distance. My eyes were on some great photo opportunities when I was walking down the beach when I spotted something to my right. I thought it was a really detailed sand castle in the shape of a large sea turtle. Then when I got closer I noticed it was a very real, very dead sea turtle. It was 5-feet long for sure. The nature folks had already been there as it had a tag around a back flipper and a bit of red spray paint on it since otherwise the carcass blended in a little too well to the sand. People at work asked if I got photos of it. I said they didn’t want to see photos of it, especially on an empty stomach, but I will say the seabirds were having a feast as I was leaving.

A much sweeter depiction of how it looked.

4. Every so often when going to the grocery store there are people/groups standing/sitting in front of the entrance asking for money/donations for various causes. Shockingly this is not something I enjoy. I am typically able to skate on by them by politely making it clear I don’t have cash. Adults I have no problem with giving a smile and walking by. However, if you put cute little kids out there asking for money I will produce cash for them even if I have to get cash back on my purchases. The best way out of parting with extra money might be to turn around and go back to my car and head to a different grocery store if I see little kids out in front asking for money.

5. At my job we have a lot of cutting-edge wellness products. One such thing is Pulsed Electromagnetic Field(PEMF). In short, it helps with healing, pain, and tons more that would take a whole blog in itself to fully explain. It’s my favorite thing at work, just know that. Anyway, a regular client uses the PEMF usually once a week. It’s a pad that can be folded a few times to increase intensity. It’s very safe unless you have a pacemaker. You can even be on your phone while using it. What we learned this week though is you can’t put your phone on the PEMF pad while it’s on. Otherwise, your phone looks like it’s been put in the microwave as it flashes uncontrollably. Not sure if it caused any lasting damage to the phone, but we all had a good, albeit shocked, laugh at the situation.

6. In 2024 I have enjoyed the payment plan options that come with some purchases online, specifically Amazon. Klarna, Affirm, I think there are others but you can split payments into 4 to make it easier on your budget. The things I’ve bought I could have just paid in full but I thought it was fun to do it this way. Little did I know it would have major benefits. This week I got my credit score updated and it’s gone up 40 points in 5 months all because of my payment plan purchases. Sweet!

7. On the Threads app which is still relatively new I have noticed what I enjoy interacting with people about due to what the algorithm shows me. My main interests are people who have lost a lot of weight, people who have beaten cancer, people who celebrate their sobriety, oh and Cape Cod photography. It was actually rather heartwarming to figure this out.

8. I was so sad to hear of the death of the icon James Earl Jones this week at the age of 93. He had one of, if not the best, voices in all of film. Besides that, he was in so many movies that mean so much to me. All of the original Star Wars trilogy, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, Sandlot, Lion King. He truly was a one-of-a-kind legend and will be sorely missed.

Legend

9. In my continuing content creation caper I bought myself 2 new toys. 1 is a high quality webcam for video podcasts, and the other is a selfie stick that is also a tripod. I began using the stick which could be 6 feet long as a way to get higher vantage points for photos. I was at a beach looking to get a cool sunset photo. I began lengthening the stick until it was fully extended (man that doesn’t sound right). When I gave that stick a final yank (good lord) the tripod legs sprung out. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to close the tripod. So I was out on this dock struggling with the tripod legs and a young couple was walking by no doubt wondering what the middle-aged and crazy guy was doing. I came close to losing patience and just breaking the legs. I battle with it in my car at the beach, in the parking lot of the grocery store, and even in my own driveway. Finally, when all hope was lost I figured it out and now it’s all good.

10. Sunset running is really fun. Being outside in the nice weather as the scenery gets the golden hour orange glow is great. You don’t have to run to enjoy it, you can just walk. I do more walking than running these days anyway. We’ll bookend this blog with sunset running. I mentioned earlier my friend and I run a local track. This week was the last sunset run of the season because beginning next Monday the sun sets too early for me to make it worthwhile. I’d basically have 10 minutes of sunlight upon my arrival at the track. This past week cut it close. I like to hit 4 miles at the track. It was so close to dark by the time I got done that bats were swooping down around me around the track. I don’t know what was weirder, those bats, or the girl walking her little yip-yip dog on the track but picking it up and running with it a few times rather than just walking with it on a leash.

Sunset running leads to moonrise walking.

11. I’ll end with a funny one. My last name is Swedish and hard to spell I have come to accept that. I was invited to a local event on Cape Cod for next month. I was considering it but they misspelled my last name on the invitation and all I could think was they must not want me there that badly if they couldn’t take a minute to Google search me and spell my last name right. I have a big online presence so it’s not hard to find. Besides that, I already had plans to do an overnight road trip so even a correctly spelled last name likely wouldn’t have made a difference.