Make you feel like a queen on a throne.

Got to choose the playlist the night before, just got to. And what better way to celebrate the first day of June?

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:38
Pace: 8:54

And speaking of new beginnings, I need a detox. This last week -- no, let's be honest, for weeks, months, even, I have been drinking consistently, every night. At least one drink, but usually two. And since the wife has been out of town, there has been a nightly use of additional toxicants.

It is June, The school year is complete. You can rest now. And you need to prepare for camp. 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 60°
Climate: perfect 
Mood: strong!

Straight back, full chest, tight stomach, head high, feels good.

80s Gay Club Party

Relax (Come Fighting) - Frankie Goes to Hollywood

West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys

Express Yourself - Madonna

Love With Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

Stop! - Erasure

Boy - Book of Love

Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite

Enola Gay - OMD

But seriously, I spent twenty minutes looking absolutely everywhere I went yesterday (inside the house -- I never left the house yesterday) from attic to basement and everywhere in-between, searching for my earbuds.

I gave up, resigned to eventually run without them, and returned to the book I had set on the deck ... and there were my earbuds, next to the book. No reason. Just took them outside this morning. Give them some air.

I really need to lay off the brownies. 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (-0-)

What if no alcohol?

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Wonder why you stopped getting high.

The wife has departed for points west, not to return for almost two weeks. The elder will join me in a day or so, but they have such a busy schedule I will still be largely on my own.

The school year winds to a close, there is so much yet to do. The question is whether I will be able to take advantage of my time alone to be productive, remain focused, and feel satisfied with how I am spending my time.

Distance: 3.2 miles

Duration: 28:35
Pace: 8:55

Prepared my first batch of cannabis brownies last night, yes, a 57 year-old man making the pot brownies. Would I be successful? I was. They hit after about an hour, I wisely took a modest sample because they turned out to be pleasantly potent. For the first time in many days, I slept well and long -- and still woke up before eight am. What a weekend! 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 68°
Climate: partly cloudy & nice
Mood: mellow

"For the inventive spirit of man there is no Utopia: there is only a Not-yet."

- "Metropolis" by Thea von Harbou

"And if you use crack now ... get help now!"
- Jenny Lewis (1986)

Block Rockin' Weekend - The Current

Charles Bradley:

   Changes

   Heart of Gold

   Stay Away

Hank Williams:

   Your Cheatin' Heart

   Jambalaya on the Bayou (165 BPM)

   Honky Tonk Blues

Jenny Lewis:

   Red Bull & Hennessey

   Heads Gonna Roll

My shins, both of them, have been stressed. No doubt the result of a week spent on my feet, teaching three days of classes in schools. I will take additional ibuprofen and wear some bandages.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 164 lbs. (-1.0)

It's easier to manage my intake when I am alone. I set alarms for meals so I'm not thinking about it. But then I don't have to wonder; when does she get home? Six? Seven? Eight-thirty? We had dinner Friday night after 9 PM, of course I was snacking before then.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

This is not a charade.

Forty years ago was a good summer. A very good summer, a special summer. My brother was home from college, he'd just graduated from college and was churning out resumes on a dot matrix printer from his Apple Macintosh. We bonded over Heineken, chips with good French onion dip and weed.

We watched Miami Vice reruns, Night Flight, and Dave Letterman. I learned about new artists, or new to me, anyway. The Cure. The Smiths. New Order. Fishbone. We watched strange videos, and laughed our asses off.

Live Aid, Back to the Future, Thunderdome, we made one DDT-V episode for July, and a second one for August, a clip show based entirely on the advertisements (that one was my idea). We had gone to Maine early in the season for my grandfather's 90th birthday, so the rest of the summer stretched out madly.

I was cited on my seventeenth birthday for trespassing in the Metroparks after dark (we had been playing assassin) and broke up with my girlfriend. I was ready to be a senior. And I was free.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:23
Pace: 9:28

Summer 1985 Mixtape Playlist

Time Bomb Town - Lindsay Buckingham

Cry - Godley & Creme

The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & the News

Party at Ground Zero - Fishbone
If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - Sting

Money for Nothing (Live at Wembley Stadium) - Dire Straits ft. Sting 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 64°
Climate: sunrise & humid
Mood: good

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (+2.0)

We must mind our intake. Yesterday was like a day on vacation. Be careful. Moderation in all things.

Planks: yes
Pushups: yes

My mind begins to spread its wings.

Have a good 4/20, to all who celebrate.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:25
Pace: 9:10

Slight back pain, did a lot of house work yesterday. The weather warms, we must prepare to be outside.  

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 56°
Climate: sunny & cool
Mood: bit angsty
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Weight: 160 lbs.

2006 Playlist

Mr. Tough - Yo La Tengo

Maneater - Nelly Furtado

Stupid Girls - Pink

Sorry (Man with Guitar Edit) - Madonna

Incinerate - Sonic Youth

Double Pump - Girl Talk

Upside Down - Jack Johnson

It's a Set-Up - Plasticman

I'm like a spinning top going round and around.

As many months in February -- a short month -- as in January. Even through illness. Remarkable. It's quite a year already. We are creating, yes. We are engaging with the world, yes. We are finding satisfaction through our work, mostly, yes. We are loving and living and communicating, yes.

But what of March? Moving forward? Or relapse? 

Distance: 4 miles

Duration: 33:32

Taking a puff is fun, but it really means the day is over for me. And I have to make sure I am not compelled to consume. That's where Noom is helpful. If I have hit the "finish the day" button then I have a reason not to eat anything else. Or drink, the other night I thought, sure! A second beer would be fine, right? And then I really thought about it and decided in my state a can of fizzy water would taste the same, and so I had one of those.  

Of course, then there are those nights nights you’re totally straight and think, three beers? Sure, that always works for me. Jesus.

Mood: hoo-boy
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Weight: 160 lbs.

1978 Playlist

One For You, One For Me - La Bionda

My Best Friend's Girl - The Cars

I Know But I Don’t Know - Blondie

Peanuts - The Police

Spinning Top - XTC

What a Fool Believes - Doobie Bros.

Atmosphere - Joy Division

Chase - Giorgio Moroder

Got To Get You Into My Life - Earth Wind & Fire 

Damn! This playlist. Oh! And I watched the Yacht Rock doc. Surprised to discover they played it straight.

Take a step now.

Grateful thanks, Q.

Lying awake, fretting about the world, is I thing I do not like to do. And since the election, I have literally been drugging myself. The sertraline has its own soporific effects. occasionally I take melatonin. During the lockdown I took melatonin a lot, way too much. Even now if I have it more than one night in a row it makes the mornings very challenging.

Then there's the cannabis. There's this hybrid I picked up in Maine that just knocks me out. But that's the thing, it just knocks me out. I can watch a movie or read, I just want to go to sleep. There are other strains for that kind of activity, and I sleep well then, too.

But. Can I just sleep? Like, just have normal uninduced rest? And if so, when?

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:57
Pace: 9:20

I actually wrote that a few days ago, and have experimented with uninduced sleep the past two nights, and they have been successful. I just rest. Long days, active days, followed by rest. Avoiding the socials has been a great help. Breaking bad habits. I don't feel I am missing anything.

Quincy Jones Playlist

Soul Bossa Nova (156 BPM)

Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger) - Donna Summer

Theme from "Sanford & Son"

Come Together - Brothers Johnson

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

I Can't Help It - Michael Jackson

I'll Be Good to You - Ray Charles & Chaka Khan

Give Me the Night - George Benson

Thanks, Mr. Jones! That was a brisk and joy filled run.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 51°
Climate: nice & cool
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

For the record, I am holding fast at 170 lbs. I am not trying to "diet" I am simply being mindful, as they say. Recording the intake in Noom. Learning about the calories, the good, the bad, and the empty.  

Got to get you into my life!

People have opinions about this, but the fact is Revolver is The Beatles best album. Produced right when they stopped touring (and as a result no longer had to worry about reproducing their work live) they were able to get really creative, but hadn't yet gotten used to being so fucking "creative."

From my childhood I knew individual songs, but it wasn't until I got a copy of the album in high school that I first heard it the way a teenager (may) have experienced it when it was first released. Can you imagine? There was a certain "Mod" sound you were expecting, like the first rack, Taxman. But then you are hit with an epic composition like Eleanor Rigby ... and that's only the second freaking track. 

It helped that I had started experimenting with weed. The boy says Eleanor Rigby is his favorite Beatles song of all. Mine is Tomorrow Never Knows.

And Don Draper can suck it.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Duration: 32:49
Pace: 9:22

Revolver - The Beatles (1966)

Taxman

Eleanor Rigby

I'm Only Sleeping
Love You To

Yellow Submarine

She Said She Said

Paperback Writer

Rain

And Your Bird Can Sing

For No One

Doctor Robert

Got To Get You Into My Life

Tomorrow Never Knows

Route: 3.5 miles

Temperature: 55°
Climate: overcast & cool

Mood: all right

 

Was doing very well keeping up in November, but the weather has turned and the holidays have started and I am just so very tired. But hey, it's over fifty today and I have a couple hours to bang together. No excuses.

 
Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: tbd
Planks: tbd 

Upper body: tbd
Water: yes

Album includes the greatest love song ever written to weed. Happy Legalization Day (yesterday) to all who celebrate.

It seems farther than ever before.

My high school crowd.

Fun Fact: Running Up That Hill? Not actually about swapping places with God.

Such an awesome run on Friday, but we went out that evening and I was a little uncomfortable in my theater seat and now my thigh hurts in a really odd way. I'm thinking blood clot.

No, not really. But really? It could be a blood clot (not really.)

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 31:04
Pace: 10:01
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 68°
Climate: sunny & bright
Mood: all right

Stretches: yes
Weight: 189 lbs. (+0.5)

I do love the smell of cannabis in the park

Intake

Breakfast: coffee (2x)

Lunch: big, beautiful salad

Dinner: popcorn, beer (1x)

Nightcap: old fashioned

Also: Fizzy water (2x)

2003 Playlist

Heartbeats - The Knife

Emerge - Fischerspooner

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

Let's Get It Started (Spike Mix) - Black Eyed Peas

All Wrong - Kaada

Such Great Heights - Postal Service

We Will Become Silhouettes - Postal Service 

Not a bad year for music.