Bitter Brained

 Another late sleep-in day because I'm off.   Not that I'm planning on lazing away the day, there's too many chores to get done.  Thunderstorms are forecast, which might alter the outside chores, but that's okay.  I don't have to go to work, which is great.

Yesterday, sales were slow.  My supervisor gave me my monthly report as well as my bi-annual review, which pretty much ended up being a half an hour chat with him telling me several times to "keep doing what you're doing."  He did ask about my future plans.  I had no problem telling him I was planning on going part-time, I just didn't give him a date.  They don't need to know that quite yet.

Here in Central PA, movies will be open fully on June 11.  I am so glad.  For the longest time, they have only been open on weekends and an extra day or two over holidays.  You know?  The days I always work.  We usually never go on weekends because of the crowds.  I suspect  AMC is going to make a killing at the Box Office.  People were wondering if the pandemic was going to completely alter attendance.  Nah.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's up.  People are ready to get out.  Those who like movies are desperate to be sitting in front of a movie screen.  

And I've been riding the bike more.  Practically every day for 10 - 12 miles before going to work.  It is good.  

One of the funny things Liar #45 said during his speech to the North Carolina Republicans on Saturday referred to his previous speech at the West Point Graduation, the one where he walked feebly down the ramp.  On Saturday he said the ramp was 'like an ice skating rink,' and that he was worried it might be 'booby trapped.'  This shows how insipidly simply minded he really is, how badly the comments on social media really burned his ass.  He is bitter brained from here to Hell and back.  As if this is something we didn't already know.

Inside or Outside

I'm off today, which means this is my Sunday.  Yesterday, however, turned into my day of rest, at least after the cake and ice cream of Lily's party.

Add to that a nice bottle of Catawba recommended by Anne Marie. and my day transitioned into relaxed and casual... no bike ride.

I do believe this is how life is supposed to be.

Last evening I spent some time talking to my friend Betsy.  She found the Idiot Jerk's repeating some inane claim to being The Chosen One totally abhorrent.  This got me to wondering if, perhaps, he'd demonstrated his chosen status by walking on water at the G7.  Checking the news headlines this morning I saw that didn't happen.  He did, however, lie about China calling him to ask if trade talks could be restarted.  I suspect that with the 2020 election beginning to loom, the Idiot Jerk's lies will begin gyrating to what ever tune he hopes will satiate his base and their thirst for power.

As for today, my plans are simple:  clean the bathroom (it's actually fairly clean already, I tend to be rather neat), take the dogs for a walk, and go for a bike ride.  Now, whether the last one will be outside on the X6 or inside on the red Cannondale is up in the air.  Outside there's traffic and no music, inside there's safety and music.  I'll let you know tomorrow what my choice was.

Leverage

Today is the 2nd day of my new schedule: 0800 - 1630.  When I got home from work yesterday I was a bit tired and lounged on the recliner for about a half an hour.  Adaptation is the key.  For years, and years, and years I worked this shift so I don't think the change back will be too difficult.  A friend of mine said it should take about 2 - 3 weeks.  I don't think I'll need nearly that much time.
The new torque wrench arrives today.  I'm stoked.  Since this is the first time I've every removed a crank, I've watched a number of videos.  Most of them fail, not in their basic instruction, but rather in their omission of how much torque has been used to tighten that crank.  Except for one guy, every video started out with the instructor saying "this crank has already been loosened."  Getting the crank loose is the most difficult part of the procedure.  None of them want to show how much they had to struggle... except for one guy who said "getting that loose is a real bitch."  They don't talk about leverage.  Nope. Leverage is very important.  A friend of mine at work told me he puts a pipe over the wrench to get even more leverage.  Using leverage is a good piece of advice.
Levers are every where.  We use them daily, mostly without thinking about it.  They can be simple, or complex.  Levers are how we get things done.

Not using a lever is how we fail to accomplish out goals.  That's what happened in November of 2016.  A majority stayed home while a minority went to the polls and used their levers.  Woah!  Now we have an Idiot Jerk in the White House.  He is not about change, he is about disruption.  He creates chaos so a few might gain financially.  Who wants to be a dictator?  He wants to be a dictator.  He understands nothing. 
This coming November we need to use the lever our Constitution has given us to move this pile of shit out of the White House.  And those who support him?  They also need to go.

The NRC defined

I get my cardio in one of two ways, either on my bike or on my eliptical.  That's right, I own one, and it's big.  Call it a size thing.  While I always wear an HRM while doing cardio, I almost never turn on the GPS when I'm on the eliptical since I'm not really going anywhere.  Yesterday... I turned it on.  Tracking was, shall we say, sporadic as far as location.  Even though I had never left my dining room, according to the map I was all over the place.  I'm posting it below so you can see what I mean.  If you look at the red elevation line you can see I'm also going up and down, and not by just a couple of feet. How's that for accuracy?  Don't they use GPS when they're dropping bombs?

As I said the eliptical, a Sole E95, is large.  It's in the dining room because it was too big to get up the stairs, like I said, it's a size thing.  Perhaps if it hadn't been delivered almost completely assembled things would have been different.  I'd have more space in my dining room and the eliptical would be upstairs, in the weight room, where it was intended to go.

The bike I ride is a Cannondale X6 Cyclocross.  Back when I  bought it, Cannondale was still building their bikes by hand out near Johnstown.  This is no longer the case.  The gears are different then a road bike and it has wider tires.  A friend of mine has a nice Cervelo road bike.  Where as I can take mine off the road he can't, at least not without worrying he'll hit a teeny, weeny stone and bend one of his expensive rims.

Finally, I thought I'd throw in a pic of one of the NRC's (naked rubber chickens).  This one has a hole in it's belly and has lost it's squeaker, and is the only one the girls can take outside.  The other still squeaks.  That's right, they have two.

It's the little things, you know.

Hitting 50 means it's time to start working your ass off!

It's that time of year again where some people are actually making a concerted effort to lose a few pounds and maybe get in shape.  By this time all of those New Year's Eve resolutions doomed to be crushed underfoot have been long been forgotten and all of those 6 month gym memberships that were purchased have been classified as a poor investment.  Yet there are those who are making the effort.  Some of them go to the gym and others do their workouts at home.    If you are one of the latter chances are you might have bought a work out video, there are a shit load of them out there.  One of the most popular is the P90 program.  I also do an abbreviated version since I don't have an hour and half every day just to run through the routines.  Also, I never play the music since it's not something I enjoy listening to and I don't find it at all rousing nor do I find it inducing enthusiasm.  Another thing I rarely complete are the push ups.  I have always hated them, for as far back as I can remember, which is nearly prehistoric.  Quite a lot of the routines, however, are beneficial, if you tweak them to be age appropriate.    I'm not thirty, so jumping around like I am might result in injury.

In addition I include weight training in the form of dumbbells and a medicine ball. As we age, both men and women, our muscles tend to atrophy - they get smaller.  How often have  you seen an elderly person and realized their musculature almost matches that of a baby?  I see in all of the time.  That's one thing I don't want to grow into, which is why I advocate weight training.  I think it might even be more important the jumping around I do with the P90 programs.

If you do this often enough you can start wearing the cute, little black shorts.

I use a 12 pound medicine ball and love it.  The routine is simple and takes about 7 minutes to run through.  It's great for stretching!

My cardio usually consists of a hour three times a week done on either my Sole elliptical or my bike which is mounted on a Cycleops trainer.  

Why do I do cardio, free weights, and stretching?  Because as we get older we need to do all three.  I do four if you throw in the Yoga which is something I definitely need to work on since it is the one thing I tend to forget (something about bending over to do a double dare dog or what ever it's called seems odd to me).  Staying active is important as hell. Once you've decided you deserve to sit on your ass ad relax you start losing the battle.  The weight will pound on, your energy will dissipate.  I know because I see people like this every day as they trudge through life.