We’re trying to walk again. Jen’s been going on a long walk in the morning before work. My back and my legs aren’t ready for that yet. We’ve been taking shorter walks once or twice a day together. Today we went to the fallen branch and back.
Exercise… I hate doing it, but even my fat ass can admit that I really, really need it.
My wife and I just walked around the block. It was the first thing that I did that even remotely resembled exercise since I cut the grass almost two weeks ago.
My back is screaming for vengeance. To say that my back really hates my guts right now is the understatement of all understatements.
Ouch.
I need exercise so badly, and yet when I try my body completely revolts against it.
Catch 22’s suck.
I feel like such a lame ass wuss but I also think it’s funny so you’re going to hear about it.
Yesterday’s push up challenge continues. I only managed three yesterday. On the third try I had a bit of a pain in my abdomen. When I went for attempt #4 it was WAY worse so I stopped for the day.
Today I decided to go every other hour rather than the officially sanctioned every hour.
I’m not actually doing push ups. Yesterday I was doing close to one half of a push up. I started up, lowered myself as far as I could without falling over, then pushed back up. Today I am wishing I could get half way. Today it’s more like 25%… then 20%… then 15%… Come 5:00 I expect to just do a plank for three seconds and then collapse.
Isn’t this (ouch) fun??
Quarantinie goodness!
Stir Crazy for the Win!
The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 26
or
How out of shape can one fat asshole be?
I have been challenged. A friend today challenged me to try to do push ups every hour on the hour during the work day. Actually, the discussion started with him asking if I can do A push up. My answer was a derisive laugh and an emphatic no. So the challenge, to start with at least, is more like try to do one push up every hour on the hour during the work day.
This discussion started a little before noon. Fuck it, I thought, I am going to do it. At noon I got down on the floor, got into the “up” push up position, started to lower myself toward the floor and… splat. Right on my dumb face.
A few minutes ago I tried again for 1:00 and managed sort of like half a push up. I lowered myself a little, but not all the way to the floor. I’ll take that as a win.
I had mentioned that we’ve tried to go for walks around the block. We haven’t been able to do that consistently, so exercise opportunities for me have been few and far between. After two failed attempts at push ups over a little more than 60 minutes has me feeling like I ran a marathon. Ouch.
45 minutes to go until the next try.
Challenge accepted, even though it’s likely going to destroy me.
March kinda sucks.
I go through this every year. I finish my February music projects and then feel this gaping hole in the universe during March. From reading blogs and forum posts on rpmchallenge.com I’m clearly not alone in feeling this way.
So what to do?
A few months ago I was working on a way to add the rest of my old myspace blog to this site. I started up on that again last night. WordPress.com is able to back date posts but it’s a royal pain in the ass to go back to 2007 and 2008. Instead, I created a Blogger account and I’ve been posting back dated entries there. Once I have them all I’ll export them to an .xml file and import them here. That should work fine. The myspace blog covered pretty much all of 2006 through November 2008. I had pulled all of 2006 into my previous wordpress.com site so those are all here already. As of last night the Blogger page has almost all of 2007. I think I have about 75 more posts to go.
I’m still going with my Flickr photo-a-day project. It suddenly feels difficult though. It was easy last month. There was always music happening so I could take pics of that, and Disney made things even easier. Now? What the hell do I take pictures of now? Where’s the cat when I need her?
Back in January Jen and I did a tutorial for a javascript extension (I think that’s the right way to describe it… a scripting language built on top of javascript). It was fun and interesting but my javascript knowledge is ancient and more or less nil at this point. I thought I might have gotten more out of it if I did a javascript tutorial first. I would like to try something like that in the coming weeks. I would like to be a better all around programmer than I am right now. My company’s development tools and programming languages are proprietary, so even if I’m firing on all cylinders at work it doesn’t really extend to the rest of the world.
Years ago I found a set of wordpress.com tutorials called Blogging University. There are various beginner and intermediate level courses to help you get the most out of your wordpress.com experience. There were classes for customization, writing, photography, and interacting with other blogs. I might give some of those a try again, just for schnitzengiggles. If I remember correctly they were mostly prompts. Things like, today you should write a better About page, or today you should take a picture of water. Stuff like that. The photo stuff would be fine to redo, as I just said I’m always looking for ideas for photo-a-day. The basic blogging stuff is probably too simple for this page, but there is always the lizardfishmusic.com page. I could make some changes there. I don’t think I’ve made any changes to the layout there since I first created it. Maybe a face lift would be fun?
Exercising should be an obvious target for new projects. I had a really bad night Weight Watchers wise last night and I’m feeling a little crummy about myself today. I got home from work and just started shoveling food into my face and I really didn’t stop until I fell asleep. I need to be better than that. The gym might help in that regard, or at least minimize the damage of any future bad days. Right now I am having a problem with one of my feet (again). My right foot feels a little swollen and it hurts to walk. It’s not the same thing I had a month or so ago, and it’s not nearly as bad, but it is slowing me down right now. Once that eases up I need to get back to the gym, and I need to get into a regular routine.
There is always more music to record, and more songs to learn for Lizardfish, and more practicing in general to do. Just because February is over doesn’t mean I can stop playing. I was doing pretty well with finding time to practice back in January. I need to keep up with it. I’m tired of feeling like the weak link in the band. I’m also thinking of trying something new gear wise. I want to try to run a two amp rig in the band, but most of the amps I have now are way too powerful and if I paired them up I’d be unable to not drown out the rest of the band during rehearsals. I keep looking at my 15 watt Fender Bassbreaker as the solution. If I could pair that with another lowish watt amp that could work. I am thinking about going to Guitar Center to inquire about trading my Fender Stratocaster in for a Vox AC15. I think that might be the key to making it all work. A Fender Princeton reissue could do it, but it’s only a 10 inch speaker and I’d prefer to stick to 12 inch speakers if I can. I just like them better. We’ll see.
Should I start looking into using in-ear monitors? One of the guys in the band uses them. One of the hosts of the Gig Gab podcast swears by them. So much so that he’s always inspiring the other host to try them, even though he has a hard time with them. I don’t really want to spend money on it, but we’re getting to the point where we’re going to be mic’ing the room during rehearsals and I always wear ear plugs anyway. Is it time? I’m trying to decide. I’m definitely on the fence. We’ll see.
I was hoping that by this point in 2020 I would be able to do something to help out with the Warren for President campaign. I guess that isn’t going to happen. At least it seems highly unlikely now. I can get behind Bernie Sanders, but the idea of a candidate in his late 70’s who has already suffered a heart attack during this campaign is a little depressing. Platform wise I can 100% get on board. Human wise… ugh. As for Joe Biden. He’s a great guy and I love him to pieces, but he’s literally my last choice of all of the candidates we’ve had. Dead last. Yet another guy in his late 70’s but this time one who just feels like a frat boy who got lucky. He just seems a little too dumb ass for the oval office, and we already have a total dumb ass in the office now. If he ends up with the nomination he’ll get 100% of my support… I was just hoping the rest of the country would jump on the Warren bandwagon, that’s all. Yet another reason to feel let down by my fellow Americans.
There are a crap ton of TV shows that I want to watch. February has resulted in me falling way behind on all of the CW super hero shows that I like to watch. I’m like two months behind on The Flash, Supergirl, and Batwoman. I’ve been trying to get caught up on Star Trek Discovery. Season two is really good, I just haven’t had time to power through. The last season of Star Wars The Clone Wars is either about to come out or has just recently come out. I wanted to binge the whole series before I watched the new season but… Jar Jar… he kinda killed my interest in that. I want to finish season two of You even though it’s definitely meh. I want to watch Lock and Key and The Expanse and I still want to get back into Breaking Bad and Preacher. I’ve started both of them, but just haven’t been able to keep going. I’m not sure why, the are both good. I’m caught up on The Walking Dead, and the second spin off is just a month or so away. One show that I did not fall behind on in February is Star Trek Picard. It is so good. Just, so very good. I wish it was going to be a 25 episode season instead of 10 (I think it’s just going to be 10). I don’t want it to end… ever.
I’m sure there are other projects I can come up with that are just there for fun and a sense of creative accomplishment. If we get lucky and Spring actually gets here there are always day trips up to the mountains that I can drag my beloved Mrs to. There are so many waterfalls, and so many scenic views up there. They are all just sitting there, waiting for me and Jen and my camera to come and visit.
There’s also always Disney World. Or Disneyland. Or Euro-Disney, if that’s even still a thing. I’d say Tokyo Disney too but I have a co-worker who was supposed to go there next week and he told me it’s closed due to some global pandemic* thing. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
On an unrelated note, I am trying a new browser again. The same podcast that inspired me to try Brave has inspired me to try Vivaldi. This post is the first thing I’ve done with it. Isn’t that exciting? I’m just glad that the Last Pass plug in for Chrome works in Vivaldi too. That makes life a tiny bit easier.
*Go wash your hands. Seriously.
I slept through my weight watchers check in on Saturday so I don’t know how much weight I gained in Florida. I’m sure it’s some, but I did so much walking over the six days that hopefully it counteracted my junk food splurge a little at least.
I checked the Activity app on my phone to see how much movement my watch registered. Here is the break down:
| Steps/Day | Distance/Day (miles) |
| 15331 | 8.3 |
| 19906 | 10.9 |
| 15035 | 8.3 |
| 11999 | 6.6 |
| 11311 | 6.2 |
| 10862 | 5.9 |
| Total Steps | Total Distance (miles) |
| 84444 | 46.2 |
Now every time I do something like this I have to add the following disclaimer:
I have no idea if these numbers are good or not for a normal human, but for a grossly overweight non-exerciser like me they are stunning.
46.2 miles over six days. 84,444 steps over six days. It did not feel overwhelming the way I was afraid it would. There were a few times when I told Jen and Harry that I needed to stop for a spell. Mostly those times were due to back pain, and I think most of those had something to do with the way I was carrying my backpack.
Did the handful of trips to the gym have any effect? I can’t see how they didn’t, but on most of those gym trips I was only walking between 0.5 and 0.75 miles. I can’t even imagine how much more difficult it would have been without those practice sessions.
Sleep was another matter. As previously stated, in a moment of supreme genius I managed to leave home without one (teeny tiny little) piece of my CPAP machine which rendered the device useless for the duration of the trip. I also didn’t use it the night before we left, as I had already packed it. On that last night at home my sleep numbers were the worst they’ve ever been. That was due in part to me staying up way too late and waking up way too early, which is probably down to excitement.
The first night in Florida, without the CPAP machine, was (according to the data collected by my watch) the best nights sleep I’ve had since I started using the machine. You read that correctly. The best sleep I had was WITHOUT the machine. The highest restful sleep percentage and the highest heart rate dip percentage I’ve had since I started paying attention. I believe that was due to having almost no sleep the night before, but it was still rather surprising.
The second night in Florida followed a day where we left the hotel early and went to a theme park, then just before dinner we went to a second theme park and stayed there until around midnight. If you look at the chart above, that was the day with the 10.9 miles of walking. I was so tired by the time we decided to go home that I was having trouble lifting my feet as I walked. At one point we were strolling down Main Street USA and I had to step up onto the sidewalk and I couldn’t do it. I had to stop walking, gear myself up, and then force my feet to step high enough that I could get over the curb. It was a disturbing experience to say the least. The sleep numbers that night were just a hair less than the first night. Easily the second best nights sleep I’ve had since I started paying attention, and once again it was without the CPAP machine.
After that it was more like I expected it to be. One night I barely slept at all. Most other nights I slept okay but the restful sleep percentage was maybe 25% lower than when I use the machine and I definitely did not feel like I slept much, regardless of how long the watch said I was out. Once I was home and back on the CPAP machine the percentages went back to where they should be, even if the total number of hours was still way too small.
So to sum up the physical health aspects of our trip, I had a near infinite increase in exercise and, despite some weird outliers, the expected shitty CPAP-free sleep. I also had lots of leg pain, foot pain, hip pain, back pain, arm pain, and shoulder pain, all of which were expected and within tolerable levels. All in all, I am pretty happy with how I held together.
Summing up the mental health aspects is easier. I loved every second of it and I wish I could go back onto vacation right now. Maybe this week we could go to Disneyland instead of Disney World? What about Euro-Disney, is that even still a thing? Let’s go and find out.
Last night’s band practice was… different. In a few ways.
It was the first rehearsal I’ve been to that was short a member. Greg the singer couldn’t make it. Kevin the drummer, Mike the bass player, and I decided to get together anyway.
Gear wise, I brought my Strat and… well… it’s wimpy. I ended up playing through my lead channel all night because the guitar just lacks balls. I may need to come up with some sort of alternate signal path specific to the Strat. Maybe a distortion pedal or something to beef thing up. The instant I had that thought I realized that I’ve been whining about my Les Paul being wimpy since I put in the Classic ’57 pick ups. Might a crunchy stomp box at the front of the chain solve that problem too? Probably not, but it’s cheaper and easier than buying and installing a new pick up.
Anyway, that’s not what felt different last night. Neither is the missing singer, really. What was different was that we played very hard. There was a level of intensity that hadn’t been there before and frankly it wore all of us out quickly. It took less than an hour for us to start feeling out of gas. I think there was less discussion between songs, and therefore less time to recover before moving to the next thing. Last night it was a case of someone throwing out a title, we crank through it, then as soon as we finish someone throws out another title. During the second hour we actually took a break. It was a five minute break that, thanks to talking about Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, turned into 20 minutes. It was necessary. It let us finish off the night with a bang.
For me personally, I have to make some big changes to the way I do things, and I’m not talking about gear (for once). It goes without saying that I need to practice more. The other guys have been playing these songs for years now and have them down cold. If they only practice as a warm up for rehearsal then that’s fine for them. Not for me. I take notes on the songs as I learn them and I am completely dependent on those notes. I can’t make it through without checking the cheat sheets and that has to stop right now. Practice will solve that issue.
More concerning, I am not physically capable of just setting up and playing my tail off for two hours. My hands cramp, my fingers get too stiff to play, my wrists hurt, my shoulders hurt, my arms hurt, my back hurts, my legs hurt. A solid two hour rehearsal is almost too much for me. I know I need to exercise more. That goes along with dieting and should result in improvement with my legs and my back. For my arms and my shoulders, I think the fix is to practice standing up. I am into the habit these days of sitting when I practice. I am not Robert Fripp so I should be standing.
My hands though… that is what scares me. I think I’ve mentioned it here before. I don’t want to get to the point where the pain in my hands exceeds the enjoyment I get from playing. I started doing a little research on things I can do to strengthen my hands and my fingers. Two things come up repeatedly. One is squeezing a tennis ball, or something similar. I should be doing that every day. When I’m sitting in front of the tube I should have one of those squeeze grip things in my hand. They actually make one geared for guitar players that lets you squeeze with each individual finger. I might have to get one of those. The other thing I need to do is stretch before I play. I was starting to get into the habit of doing just that when I joined Break Even for exactly the same reasons. A few songs into practice and my hands would be killing me. I need to get back to doing that. My research has shown me a few things to try. I need to never not do those exercises before playing again. I need to make it as much a part of my routine as tuning up. I very much want this band to start working in public again. That means I have to be ready to play hard for four hours a night. As it stands right now I don’t think I can do that. I will get there though. Definitely. Count on it.
So I mentioned we went back to Weight Watchers. We also bought a treadmill. We could have re-joined a gym, but with our schedules during the week being so crazy (I spent almost three hours in the car, not counting the actual work day today) it’s really difficult to make ourselves go.
So we bought a treadmill. A big one. A big industrial strength monster treadmill. If we ever need to barricade ourselves inside the house to keep a zombie horde outside (or something) we can just put this thing in front of the door and live happily ever after. Assuming of course we can actually move it to the door. Hadn’t thought of that. Crap. Zombie lunch, I guess.
I turned it on and started walking. I made it a quarter of a mile before… I… dropped… dead.
Urgh, I am the King of Outofshape.
I just watched five deer run through the woods. Where were the other two, or three? Deer sociology is a mystery to me.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah.
We are giving the house a full on post-Christmas cleaning this weekend. We got to two rooms yesterday and the improvement is gigantic. We can walk from one end of the living room to the other without having to jump over anything (except maybe the cat). Today’s goal is the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. Unfortunately after two straight days of shoveling, and a full day of cleaning, my back hurts more then it has ever hurt before. It might be a tough day.
Tomorrow we try getting back on the New Year’s Resolution/weight loss bandwagon. I know I’m yo-yoing like mad here, but you have to start somewhere, right?
Inside the Red Head's Head 