Pain and Punishment

After walking over 70 miles during our trip to Florida (WOW!) I decided to do something insane.  I thought to myself, self you have exercised more in the last week and a half than in the entire previous 10 years combined.  You’re kind of on a roll, self.  You have a bit of exercising momentum.  You should probably keep it up, self.  Do you know what you mean?

Wow… I took that joke way too far.  Oh well, moving on.

So last night after work I went to the gym.  I was a little put off as soon as I walked in the door because our little out of the way Planet Fitness was packed.  I felt seriously self conscious standing there in my shorts trying to remember how to get the treadmill started.  I went for a 22 minute walk.  That’s all.  Nothing to write home about, but more than I normally do on a work day.  Not gonna lie, my legs felt pretty rubbery as I stepped off the machine.  That’s good, right?

I was ticked off at my Apple Watch.  I think I knew about this issue from ages ago, but it was still annoying.  I walked for 22 minutes but the exercise tracker in the Activity app only registered two minutes.  Isn’t it something about how you swing your arm while you walk?  I don’t remember.  It’s not important, but I was kinda looking forward to watching the numbers go up.  I’ll get through this, somehow.

I haven’t weighed myself since I got back.  In fact, I haven’t weighed myself since about a week before we left.  I didn’t behave too badly, weight watchers wise, on the trip, but I wasn’t being as good as I could have been.  I didn’t gorge myself on junk food, but I sure wasn’t saying no either.  I’m hoping that all the walking we did was enough to balance out the bad food.  Probably not completely, but maybe partially?  We’ll find out Saturday when I weigh in.  I cannot let myself skip again this week.  I have to get back on track, mentally speaking.

My sleep numbers were good during the trip.  There was actually a night where I slept eight hours and only took off the mask twice.  It can be done.  Granted I might have walked 10 miles that day and was probably so tired by the time we got to the room that a low yield nuclear explosion might not have been enough to wake me up.  Who knows.  Since coming home though, everything has returned to the less than wonderful normal.  Under six hours of sleep, and taking off the mask 4-6 times a night.  Still not seeing any tangible improvement in energy levels, but also still not snoring.

I’m planning on going back to the gym tonight.  I brought a change of clothes and sneakers and everything.  Scheduling time to go is a little difficult.  I don’t want to go on Wednesdays or Thursdays because we have the kids those nights.  Fridays are either kids or nana sitting.  Weekends are doable whether or not we have the kids.  Mondays and Tuesdays are doable but it means I get home later and Jen has to wait longer if I am making dinner.  I don’t like making her wait for anything.  I could go after dinner, but there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to go home and then motivate myself to go out again.  It’s going to have to be a stop on the way home from work, or it’s never going to happen.

I haven’t done any music (outside of band practice) in the last few days.  I need to get motivated on that front.  Also, I have a little bit of the photography bug again.  Partly from carrying my camera all around Disney World for a week and a half, but also after seeing Harry take a serious shine to photography during the couple of times I let him use my camera.  The White Mountains are calling, as they always do.  I love me some water falls and some mountain views.  Jen has something in mind for the four of us the weekend after next.  I’m not sure what it is, but I think it involves New Hampshire and picturesque scenery.  Here’s hoping.  There’s always the ocean sunrises to look forward to as well, but damn if the sun doesn’t rise early during the summer.  Stupid lucky West coasters and their ocean sunsets.  You don’t have to get up at a ridiculous hour for those.

I’m going to a concert next week.  The New Wave of British Heavy Metal comes to town on 8/1 as we go to see Iron Maiden again.  I’ve seen them twice.  The first time was 1990 and they were okay, but sort of falling apart.  I saw them again after they’d put the pieces back together in 2000 and they were great.  That was a long time ago though.  I’m hoping they still have it.  The last record was a good listen, but even that was a few years ago.  Worried?  Not really.

In October we’re going to see Deep Purple.  I’ve seen them three times, but never with the classic lineup.  The first time was during the utterly forgettable Joe Lynn Turner phase.  At least I got to see Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord playing together.  The second time was a double bill with Emerson Lake and Palmer.  Ian Gillian was back, and Jon Lord was still there, but Ritchie was gone.  Steve Morse is a freakin’ genius and I will never say a bad word about him… but he’s not Ritchie.  The last time I saw them was maybe 15 years ago?  I’ll see the same lineup this year.  No Jon Lord, may he rest in peace.  Don Airey is amazing, but he’s no Jon Lord.  It’s going to be a fun show, but it’s not going to be authentic.  It’s definitely worth seeing, but it’s not the same.

I was on ticketmaster last night looking for people on my must-see-before-they-retire-or-die list.  Jeff Beck is touring but he’s not coming to New England.  Steve Hackett and King Crimson are both coming to Boston within a few nights of each other in September.  No one is going to want to go with me so I’m not really planning on going, but I haven’t 100% ruled it out either.  I priced seats in the last row for both shows and neither is expensive.  I don’t know.  We’ll see.

I have spent my entire lunch break typing this post.  It was just supposed to be a little blurb on going to the gym but it turned into a document on the musings of an old fart.  I think I’m gonna hit the Publish button now.  Thanks for coming to my ted talk.