Tag: Gym

Waking Up Early

June 13, 2024

This school year, because the kid switched to a different school, we had to start our days earlier. Her old school started at 8:20, and we were a five-minute walk from it, while her new school started at 7:20, and it was a 30-minute subway ride with a walk to top it off. It would be easy to say that our whole life shifted back an hour and fifteen minutes. Not an enormous amount of time, but being that we are a family that is made up of a bunch of anti-morning people, it was a heavy lift.

Ten months later, the wife and the kid still hate getting up early. I do, too… But I get up a half hour before them, which affords me the opportunity to exorcise my anti-morning-ness out of my system, so I am chipper enough to get the day started, and also annoy then crap out of them.

But, as the school year draws to a close, and Summer vacation starts, I foresee that our child will not want to get up before 8am. And if my wife had her way, and she does work from home, a 7am wakeup call would be her preference.

As for me… I’m toying with the idea of keeping the 5:30 alarm. Now, hear me out…

I don’t love getting up at 5:30am, but I have to admit that I can do it, and it doesn’t ruin the rest of my day. I could, and I stress “could,” get up early and head to the gym? My best friend does that; out early, gets the day started with a win, feels good, and has a positive attitude toward the day… or at least that’s what he tells me. That would be nice to have. I could also get up early and work. I would have about an hour and a half to myself to get my writing done.

I could list a couple of reasons why I don’t want to do this, and maybe even make a couple of jokes. Yet, I think, and I know, that my life is transitioning to a different phase. I’m a middle-aged dad and husband. I’m not in my twenties or thirties, and I am getting older. That doesn’t mean that I should slow down, or start to act like my parents did at this age. But I have to acknowledge that things change, and approaches to living change, and that’s okay.

It’s just a different way to live.

ODDS and ENDS: I Want to Go to the Gym, The Greatest Upset in Cricket World Cup History, and Mowing the Lawn

June 7, 2024

(If there is a remedy, I will run from it)

Today, honestly, was the first day in my life wherein when I woke up, and I had a desire to go to the gym. Not sure what is happening to me. I hate going to the gym, or at least I did. Yet, running on the treadmill for 30 minutes sounds enjoyable. Crap! I think I might be changing for the better.

Did you know that the Men’s Cricket World Cup is underway? Did you know that the US is the host country? did you know that the USA has a team? Would you believe that the USA is not ranked very high in the world, and is not considered a serious competitive team? Would you believe that low ranked Team USA beat the 6th ranked powerhouse team from Pakistan yesterday? Yeah, neither did I! This is actually a very big deal in the Cricketing world, and I feel that out of National Pride we should be celebrating this! As such, here is your 2024 USA Men’s National Cricket Team:

I never really minded the chore of mowing the yard. My Dad would make me do it, and I think at first it was like a punishment. But I had a walkman and lots of tapes, so it became a time for me to zone out and fall into my music. If I remember correctly, I could mow the front and back yard in thirty minutes, but it was Texas, so in the summer I either had to mow in the morning, or at the very edge of dusk. I don’t know if I will ever own a house, but if I do, I am looking forward to taking care of a yard.

Working Out Together

April 25, 2024

Who does this? I’m not judging; just wondering if I know any friends, couples actually, who go and workout together? I see this couple activity depicted in tv and movies, and there sure does seem to be a great number of people on social media presenting videos of them and their significant other lifting weights, running, or drinking protein shakes together. They seem to be enjoying each other’s company. Now and then, at the gym or in the park, I will see a couple running together, so I know it happens.

The reason I ask is that the wife and I might start working out together. OR to be more accurate, both of us will be in the gym at the same time. See, I run and the wife does yoga. Recently, after a back issue, her doctor suggested that she might want to start lifting some weights. She does have a membership to the gym I go to, a perk of her job, so she thought that we should go together on the same day… you know, to help motivate each other.

I’m not opposed to this idea. I just never saw us as a workout couple on our life BINGO card. When this happens at the gym, she’ll go to her weight machine, and I’ll head to the treadmill. After thirty minutes, we’ll leave together. Maybe we’ll talk about “gains” but I doubt it.

And I would say that this is the unexpected path that middle-aged life is taking us on. I still hate working out, but I at least know that working out 30 minutes a day, five days a week, can have a huge positive impact on your health. So, I’m not stupid. It’s just not my favorite thing to do. Call it an “eating your vegetable” problem – I know it’s good for me.

I never really thought about what being middle aged would be like, because I never really thought that I’d be middle aged. Not that I would die young or anything like that; I just never thought about being bald, with a little tummy pudge, worrying about retirement and the cost of college for the kid. Thinking about my life with the wife, I just assumed we’d get older, but look the same, and drink and smoke, eat food we want to eat, never change, and and stay up late every night.

Didn’t turn out that way. I’m not unhappy about the way things worked out; most of it is pretty great. But now I have things in my life that I want to spend as much time with as possible, and though it’s like fighting the tide, if I can snatch some extra time, I will.

So, we’re going to the gym together.

ODDS and ENDS: Gym, Dallas Cowboys, and Being a Bad Drummer

January 12, 2024

(In case you haven’t heard… Joe Walsh is my Spirit Animal.)

Made it to the gym today. That would be my first gym visit for 2024. I know that I wanted to go, like, on January 1st, but I am rather lazy. So, making it in the joint by the 12th is like a win. I didn’t do anything crazy, just ran on the treadmill for thirty minutes. Also, I went later in the day, and not at the crack of dawn, as I wanted to miss the “Getting Back in Shape for the New Year” crowd. Yeah… most of these people will be gone by March. I’m not perfect either, but I do at least hang in there until June. I’m back in the gym by September, and then when it’s November, I’m done for the year. So, I really only work out seven months, and skip five. Now this year, I plan on being in the gym for eight months, and out for four.

Hey! The Dallas Cowboys play on Sunday, against the Green Bay Packers. It’s the first round of the playoffs, and I am ready with hopes to be dashed! Dallas plays great at home, so it is conceivable that they will win this game and the next. Then for the NFC Championship, odds are that could be in San Francisco, which is just trouble. But it is the Cowboys, so there could be a meltdown, and dreams crashed before that. In the end, I picked the wrong month to quit drinking.

I don’t think about this often, but today was a day when I had the overwhelming feeling of missing being a bad drummer in a not so great band. I don’t think we ever thought that we were going to be a huge rich and famous band, but we did like being loud and obnoxious. I did have trouble keeping in time, and I never mastered a stutter-step on the bass drum, but smashing the hell out of a kit was therapeutic. Lot of aggression got worked out. Another wonderful side effect of being in a not so great band was that we did listen to so much music; different artist, forms, styles, genres, ages, everything… I don’t listen to as much music as I used to. It was worth being in a garage band.

ODDS and ENDS: “Baking Show” is Good Again, Kid’s Cold, and the World Series

October 27, 2023

(I wish I spent more time at the office…)

I am a fan of The Great British Baking Show (or Great British Bake Off, if you will) and I have written about the show several times. I know I am not the first to write this, and I won’t be the last, but Baking Show is good again. At least three episodes in. There is always a chance it could go off the rails, but from what I have seen so far, the changes have been working. Because what I want, and I think most fans want as well, is to not think too hard about Baking Show. It’s there, it’s fun, entertaining, pleasant, and nice. And so far, that’s what has been delivered. I’m enjoying the show and not thinking too hard. Is it because of the new host, Alison? Maybe. Is it because they cast more engaging bakers? Possibly. Is it because the bake challenges are less gimmicky? Could be. What I do know is that after the kid goes to bed, the wife and I will get a drink, watch Baking Show, and not think about the difficulties of our week for about an hour. And for me, that’s when Baking Show is at its best. And I’m pulling for Saku to win.

We are now back to the time of the year when the kid has been around other kids long enough at school that they are now trading colds. She got a cough as of last week, and it made its way to the wife. But I kept up my hand washing and cleaning, so I thought I was outta the woods. But kid colds are the most infections of all colds. I got the bug, but I’m still not 100% sure it is a full blown cold; stuffy nose, sinus drainage, side of the neck is sore… But other than that, I feel fine. But I didn’t go to the gym this week, you know, so not to get other people sick. It was the least I could do.

The World Series starts tonight. Texas vs Arizona, and I won’t be watching. Nothing personal, it’s just that I don’t have anything invested in either team. Now, if it gets to a game 7, I’ll watch that. I do hate to miss a happening.