I know you’re riffin’, but damn, bro! A Lesson In Getting Carried Away
I went to a panel discussion on sponsorship with my wife yesterday. Normally, on such an occasion, I’d have stayed home and let my wife do her thing. I’m trying to not be that guy anymore, so I asked if I could tag along. Funny thing there; my wife was afraid to ask me to go for the fear I’d say no. I was afraid to ask to go for the fear she’d rather go it alone.
Funny how a little communication can get right to the bottom of what’s really going on, no?
We had a chuckle or six and a really good time heading over. We saw friends there we hadn’t seen in years.
At the beginning of the panel discussion, we learned it would be more about the guy who organized the shindig rather than the panel. The guy who put the discussion on dropped it on everyone that he’d be the main speaker. And oh, how he loved to hear himself speak. He took an hour to say what could have easily been said in twenty minutes – I actually nodded off a couple of times. Sadly, it was an excellent topic, too; about working with a newcomer on the steps in the first couple of days to give them a solid foundation which you’d hope would put them on a path out of the haze of addiction.Brilliant. Unfortunately, I allowed it to put me off right out of the gate when he said it’d take him about 40 to 50 minutes to get through his part. Worse, after 50 minutes he said he’d need another ten to twelve.
I blurted out, “No, you don’t.” I still have work to do after all these years.
Anyway, to give you a sense of my agony, he literally blurted out in the midst of his riff, “The Big Book doesn’t mention the word “surrender” anywhere in the direction part of the book (the first 164 pages). He went on. ”Oh, sure, it mentions concede once, but that has nothing to do with surrender.”
My jaw dropped. And I reached for my phone and Google. [Typing furiously with an incredulous look on my face] Definition of concede… I knew it, but had to make sure I wasn’t ignorant.
The second definition of “concede”, which is the context used in the book, is literally “Surrender“. Sometimes, when a person gets on a roll, it’s lovely to watch. Then there are those other times when the stage hook should have been used a half-hour ago… (Also, ‘concede’ is actually used seven times in the first 164. I have an app that displays search word counts by chapter, so don’t think I somehow knew this tidbit offhand, though I did know it was more than once.)
The panel, thankfully, was a breath of fresh air. The mood in the room livened up considerably. My wife was fantastic and spoke about sponsorship. She was clear and concise and it was obvious she knew what she was talking about. The other two speakers were excellent as well… and the three took less time than the first guy.
My wife and I laughed and talked about the event all the way to the grocery store; our version of date night. More on that another day.
My First Ever 1,200 Weekend Bowling
I got some terrific advice from a couple of guys on our Friday night league, Terrell giving the best advice, and Todd rounding that out. Combine that with one YouTube video with Brad and Kyle, and everything started to click. My average on Friday night has jumped from the low 180s to 190 in a few weeks. The improvement on Sunday nights was a little slower because the lanes are a little dry so I tend to over-hook early and I still struggle to make adjustments out there when the lanes go.
That said, I through a respectable 595 for three games on Friday. I didn’t have any big games, it was just consistent.
I started thinking about the possibility of a 1,200 on the way to the bowling alley with my wife yesterday afternoon.
My first game, I was on fire. Nine frames in I was one 6-spare and eight strikes. The lanes went away shortly thereafter and I hit the struggle bus. I finished with a decent 242. Then the second game and I was over-hooking wildly with my preferred Hammer Scorpion a 15-pounder. I switched to my 14-pound Black Widow 2.0 but couldn’t get that one to hook up enough. The second game was a mess and I only squeaked out a 149… and my hopes of a 1,200 looked bleak.
My third game, I switched back to the Scorpion and changed my hand position a little to come up the back a little more and take some hook off, and that did the trick. I found the pocket in a hurry and knocked out a nice 216 to finish the night with a 607… just enough for a 1,202.
Bowling is getting fun!
Hoping For An Exclusive American Football Playoff Flop – And An Explosion Of Adventurous Lives Lived Well.
I laughed out loud when I heard the commercial bill the first ever exclusive playoff game streamed only from an internet website.
Here’s what they left out; it was also the first pay to view playoff game. The two markets, Kansas City and Miami, were able to view the game free (so I’ve heard – and I’m not mentioning the network in this post on purpose), but everyone else had to sign up for a year to view one game. We passed. My in-laws, who are even more avid football fans than I, passed.
I’m hoping this turns out to be a gigantic flop for the sake of fans everywhere. I’ve got a subscription to the NFL Network this year, but doubt I’ll renew. I can see about six or seven different streaming services picking up the games, so if you want to watch them all, that’ll mean $700 a year to see them on television. I’m out. I simply don’t care enough to pay that kind of cash to watch football.
However, it occurred to me last night while we weren’t watching the evening playoff game on pay-to-view-TV, I do care enough to spend that kind of money on bikes, bowling balls, golf clubs, skis, boots, sleds, gloves, hats… maybe this is just what we need to get off the couch!
And that would be nothing but good.
The Latest Version Of Covid Is A Big, Fat, Juicy Nothing-Burger… Unless It Isn’t.
I read a breathlessly reported story about the newest variant of Covid – you know, the one they’re trying to use to get us back in masks that science showed did virtually nothing to stop the spread or severity of the last however many versions there were.
This isn’t to say that the proper (KN & N-95) masks don’t work, because they did and still do, but everyone marching around in their useless cloth face diaper, signaling their virtue as if they care more about everyone else because they’re wearing a piece of cloth over their pie hole that’s roughly as useful as screen windows on a submarine is simply silly.
Anyway, as with all news stories these last twenty years, what the reporter says in the story is less important that what it doesn’t say.
One important stat in the article is the hospitalization rate; 90 per million people.
My favorite is this, from Wired Magazine, this treat from the byline; “Covid seems to spike twice a year but unlike flu, not in a predictable pattern”.
Not in a predictable pattern?! REALLY?!
The predictor is when people head indoors due to weather. Period. Down south, it spikes in summer. Up here in the north, in the winter. The real question is why haven’t the eggheads picked up on the obvious correlation. In fact, I’m almost a little shocked they haven’t linked this to global warming yet. Oh, wait, I almost forgot [rolls eyes – just do a search on any search engine].
Anyway, here’s the one sure way to be prepared if you do get Covid; don’t treat your body as though it’s an amusement park. Take care of your immune system and it won’t run and hide when you need it.
You know, rocket science.
Back Into The Swing Of Things At Work.
I’m getting into the groove of things at work. It’s a little trickier than I anticipated with a slew of new jobs that were tossed on my plate, but it’s a lot like my old job in a lot of ways. Project management is still project management, after all.
The plus-side, and this is a huge plus-side, is that I’m busy all day long. My days went from dragging, just looking for something to do, to I don’t know how I can get it all done. I do manage to, though.
I didn’t anticipate being quite this busy and running so many meetings, but it’s a nice change of pace.
In other news, we’ve got the first snow storm of the year getting set to blow in tomorrow. We’ve got a little snow on the ground now, maybe a couple of inches, but we’re supposed to get another inch today, then six to eight tomorrow (that’s 15 to 20 cm most everywhere else in the world).
It’ll be time to dig out the new electric/cordless snow shovel to see how that thing does! Welcome to winter. I didn’t miss you. Much. Ooh, I almost forgot Jess and I just bought a new two-seater sled! Now I’m excited!
Am I Open To My Vulnerabilities, Or Is My Style Change Simply “More From The Heart”
A blog friend who has been a big influence on me over the years recently commented that my writing style has changed.
I shot back a pretty quick comment instead of taking some time to actually think about it. In part, I wanted to reply quickly because the comment had me feeling pretty good and I wanted to respond quickly to show that I cared. In hindsight, I wish I’d thought about it a little more before shooting off my reply because my reply wasn’t quite accurate.
Here’s the part of the comment that is pertinent to this post: ”Also, I’ve been enjoying your writing style of late; it seems to have changed and is more open to your own vulnerabilities or coming from your heart.”
My response was short, “Definitely more from the heart.”
My posts are more from the heart, but she picked up on something deeper; I’ve been working with my sponsor for months about feelings and emotions and accepting them, rather than pushing them into a garbage bin in my brain. I’m literally working on and embracing my vulnerabilities and have been for several months. My friend, you picked it out of what I’ve been writing and that’s rather impressive.
The real answer is, it’s a little bit of both. I’m working “the program” a lot harder than I have in years, so that’s why it’s showing here. For the most part, I am anonymous, so I’ve never written with fear of what could come of my openness. I’m not going to help another recovering alcoholic by leaving stuff out. That’s the way I see it, so I just go for it.
Doing What I Wouldn’t Do Last Year To Lose My Dad Body
Now, all things considered, my idea of a dad body isn’t the definition. I’m just not happy with what I see in the mirror… and it’s certainly getting to that mid-50s look and that’s just not going to cut it.
The first phase of this is eating better. Gone is the pepperoni & bacon pizza, much to my dismay. I don’t have to deal with a cardiologist and the plan is to keep it that way. I’m also cutting my portion sizes in half, because I eat way too much.
I’m also going to get back into running a little bit, at some point. One of the guys at work said, just the other day, that “I don’t run anywhere unless it’s for my life”. Well, I’ve noticed that my gate when I do try to run is shit, so I chuckled and added, “if I don’t run, I’m not going to be able to run for my life when the time comes”. It’s about time to get back into running a few miles a week for a while. I think my bones could use the jarring (at least that’s how it works according to science – we need a little impact for the brain to signal bone growth).
Getting to this point of commitment in my head took the better part of a year. I knew I was in trouble last winter but figured I’d ride the weight off in the summer. That didn’t happen, so now it’s time to take this seriously. The exact tipping point in my head, and I’ve given this a lot of thought, is in my desire to stay happy and active outweighing my will to abuse my diet. Eating fun isn’t “fun” when I know I’m slowly killing myself. It’s easy when I’m rocking out 10,000 miles in a summer. Not so much when I’m tipping the scale.
So far, so good, too.
Out of a little frying pan, into a much bigger frying pan.
Well friends, my onboarding took a week and it was exceedingly intensive and busy. I was supposed to have a big job start up and I should have been well into getting the goliath off the ground. There have been delays, unfortunately, so I’ve been left trying to help the other PMs with whatever I can help them with. It’s been on the boring side.
Until it wasn’t.
All of a sudden, five jobs became available and they’ve all been put on my plate. I’ve been charged with getting them caught up and back in shape, and quickly.
I went from slow and bored to I’m slammed in ten minutes. So now the real work starts… and I can’t wait.
Fit Recovery 