It was a dark and stormy… day?

I wanted to write about one of the most hair raising, nerve wracking experiences that I’ve ever had.  I had long since been interested and otherwise frightened or in awe of the weather.  I was 16 years old when this happened. In typical fashion, this occurred sometime in late spring/early summer.

A good friend of mine wanted to hit the arcade.  I lived 25 miles from the nearest one at the time.  He offered to come pick me up and so I took him up on it.  I want to say it was roughly 4pm when we left my house.  The drive through Zebulon, GA was uneventful.  We were likely talking about video games or girls.  Those two things are inseparable to most young men of that age.  I took notice of something in the sky, to the west.  It didn’t look very abnormal but I kept my eye on it.

As we reached the halfway point between Zebulon and Griffin on Highway 19 the clouds to the west went from peculiar to slightly ominous.  I decided to make the comment that the sky was looking a bit rough.  My friend didn’t seem all that phased about it.  We turned onto a little side road to head towards Hwy 362.  If you’re familiar with the area, then you know the road I’m talking about ( I hope! ).  It was at this point that my weariness went to worry-ness.

What keyed me in to be a bit concerned?  It’s 4:30pm.  It’s a late spring afternoon.  I think I should be able to look at the floorboard of the vehicle and see my feet.  I couldn’t.  It was that dark.  It’s that kind of dark where the sky in one direction is that incredibly dark blue/grey (some would say black sky).  In the other direction it’s almost blindingly light.  Clouds and sky become somewhat indistinguishable and all seem to run together.  Well at any rate.  I can’t see my feet and I’ve been down this road before, in a sense.

Years prior to this I remember riding out a bad storm with my dad in his truck.  Much like what I was currently experience, it’d become so dark outside that the floorboard was shroud in darkness.

So, I made the comment that if we couldn’t see the floorboard, perhaps we should turn around and go back.  My friend brushed it off and kept pressing on, towards the heart of the beast.  Since we did not heed the warning of mother nature, she was going to show us first hand what we were dealing with.  Get ready for it.

The first thing that happened was the wind.  There was construction and house building just off the road (the one that cuts between 19 and 362).  We saw dirt and gravel being lifted straight up into the air.  The site of grey/white dust against a dark sky looked ghastly.  It was as if spirits were being lifted up from the very Earth.  At that point the wind went horizontal and the wispy clouds of dust were blown to pieces.  At this point we encountered the driving rain.   Then came the hail, pelting the vehicle mercilessly.  I think he was now convinced to rethink driving in these conditions.

We were now taking evasion action.  No more arcade for us; we just wanted to make it out alive.  We turned onto another side road that would take us back to 19/41.  We’d head that way then go back south towards Zebulon, where he lived.   About half a mile from the 19/41 intersection (where Ingles is) we encountered something worse than hail: rocks.  Yes, rocks from gravel piles near the road were being hurled at us.  He got a few dings from that but fortunately we moved through it and now we’d just deal with the quarter size ice balls instead.

The whole time were cursing, shrieking, freaking out, etc.  We saw very few people on the road and could only assume those that were out in this were equally as freaked out as we were.  Then again, we were two young teenagers where our world was, well, girls and video games. OMG, this isn’t what we signed up for!  Eeek!

When we reached the intersection the light was out as I recall.  The signs were twisting violently in the winds.  We drove right through the intersection.  I think I remember yelling “GO GO GO”.  Instead of stopping, like we should have, we kept moving.  When we got to the road that would have taken us to his house, a tree was down.  In desperation we turned down a smaller dirt road, where again, a tree was down.  We were trapped.  We backed up and got out of there.  We finally made our way to a small church parking lot and sat the rest out.

For the next half an hour, every time it thundered, we jumped.  Our hearts were pounding.  We were nervously laughing and cursing… in the church parking lot of all places.  We felt like we’d driven through a war zone.  It was no laughing matter getting pelted by driving rain/hail and rocked by 60mph+ winds.  We’d made it though and felt we could relax, though it took some time to truly relax.

We drove back into Griffin, armed with a VHS camcorder to document some damage.  We saw a road sign that had completely twisted 360 degrees.  It was facing the right direction but the sign post was twisted completely around.  Traffic lights were out all over the place.  Debris was all over the roads (i.e. twigs, branches, leaves and anything of that nature).  We headed to Bunjees Books & Comics to talk to the owner.   When we walked in we noticed some of the ceiling tiles had been knocked loose.  I want to say that he told us the door had blown open.

You see, the storm passed fairly quickly for most.  We, on the other hand turned around and rode WITH the storm.  We would later find out we’d driven through a severe thunderstorm  We’d have been far better off hitting it head on and pushing through it.  Lesson learned.  That wouldn’t be the last time I encountered hellish driving conditions in a storm though.

It’s things like that that make me appreciate and respect mother nature.  Now, to look into that Storm Chasing vacation package!

Podcasting!

Well I finally got my podcast studio hooked up and actually working.   I will save myself the time needed to explain the complicated setup and instead actually spend even more time coming up with a flowchart of the process.

The flowchart follows with little mood indicators:

And so there you have it.  What should have been extremely simple turned into a process of it’s own.  Good news that it’s all running peachy now and I can’t wait to take it on a test drive.  I’d love to do some future blogs in audio format.  I want to use this as a means of getting creative with music again which seems like ages ago.  At the very least it’s a fun gadget.  Now to get someone to buy some drum mics…

**please note that my flowchart skills are VERY poor these days.  It’s been like 10 years since I’ve done that stuff.

The day after: The Dentist

Well I survived.  The cleaning was actually worse than the crown prep.  Does this mean I’m about to be a king?  The ordeal left my mouth pretty sore and several bad tastes were introduced as well.  Though one of them I didn’t taste because the hygenist said “if you get this on your tongue you will be PISSED at me”.  The hygenist is great and honestly if not for him I’d have a hard time getting that work done.  He’s been doing it for 30 years, I guess he’s everything BUT an actual dentist.  Told me about his first trip in the army to Somalia.  He said he imagined he pulled about a thousand teeth in the first month he was there.  He gets the job done but he helps make you comfortable and cracks jokes most of the time.  Helps to take the mind off of bits of tooth flying out of your mouth.

I can’t wait to get all of this work done!

Dentist today

So today I go to the dentist.  I get a full mouth debridement because I didn’t followup from last  year.  WTF was I doing last year around this time of year.  Oh right, we were about to have our second son come along!  Anyhow, in addition I get two crown preps and ONE filling.  All in one visit.  This should be fun.

Well major dental work requires me to be on something to calm my nerves.  I already have anxiety problems.  A couple of years ago though I had an endoscopy on my esophogus.  I woke up in the middle of it.  NOT PLEASANT AT ALL.  So that further mortified me of having people stick their hands in my mouth.  I get pretty jittery when sitting in the dentist chair   So they prescribe me valium.  Seriously, without it it’s like trying to give a cat a bath.  Another reason I’m doing several things today.  Hit me while I’m drugged.

Shoulder Update

Well I went to the ortho yesterday.  The prognosis remains good.  X-rays show nothing wrong with me bone structure.  YAR!  He gave me some specific exercises to do for strengthening the rotator cuff.  That’s pretty much the #1 way to avoid injury to that area.

While many heavy lifters focus on how awesome their deltoids look, they often completely forget about the small group of muscles that make up the rotator cuff.  I wasn’t even really aware of how important it is.  Now I know!

Rotator cuff

Well, I did something to my rotator cuff a few days ago and it’s really pissing me off.  Usually things like this mentally derail me.  I’ll be all feeling good and doing good then bam, something goes wrong.  I’m not letting that happen this time.  I can still do plenty of exercise without over doing my shoulder movements.  So F U CUFF!  Well not really, I like the cuff.  I need it to get better.  I’ll take care of it with ice and meds and heat and more meds.

I’m going to avoid the doctor for a few days unless this does not go away.

Here’s hoping that I don’t have to go to the doctor.

Plan for fitness

Fitness is a scary word and if it were a four letter word it’d be more fitting.  Fitness, to me, does not mean sporting track pants chugging water every waking hour of the day.  The truth is that most of us don’t want nor can we actually live like that.  It’s like a movie, fiction, fairytale.  Sure some can, like professional athletes.  We’re not professional athletes.  We’re professionals at living our lives.  The key to succeeding is to plan, plan and plan.  This isn’t stressed enough.  Before you do anything, at all, you plan.  Period.

What are your goals?  Short-term, long-term?  You can’t go into a mindset of “after 12 weeks I’m done for good”.  You should have short term goals but you should think long term as well.  In planning and following carefully that plan, you set up good living habits.   These good habits will establish themselves into your life and follow you.

For years upon years there have been too many schemes and scams to get us into shape.  Sadly, an overwhelming majority of them do not work or even make things work.  I had one of those Ab Roller things a few years back.  All of the people in the commercial were ripped or flat bellies using this thing.  Well I fell for it and bought one.  I used it once.  Ok, I used it twice.  Three times would have been way too much!  The point is, we’re easily bought and sold with this idea that getting something nice requires hardly any effort.

Well how do you plan?  You have to know your limits.  You have to know how much time per day/week you can devote towards exercise.  You must plan your diet out and track it.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  Lets start with exercise.

Exercise

The system I follow is something I picked up from the Body-For-Lifeprogram.  It mixes cardio exercise with strength training.  Now, as I’m typing this, I am currently restarting this program!  I fell off the wagon for a few years and honestly it was my fault.  Now, back on track.  The system I use might not be right for the next person or the next.  I know a couple of people that have added it to their routine.  I suggest researching this program if it sounds up your alley.

The most important thing is to make time for exercise.  I’m serious that you can get a very good workout in a 15-30 minute period depending on what you’re doing.  A key here is to make sure you’re doing your exercise correctly.  I am not a morning person, so I prefer evening workouts.  You might prefer mornings, it’s up to you.  If you want to achieve your goal then you simply must make time.

Between diet and exercise it’s really hard to say which is more important.  They’re both immensely important.  If you eat just right and do zero exercise, you will lose weight probably.  The problem is you might end up losing muscle.  That’s a very bad thing because muscles metabolise fat, they make us strong and in the end make us look and feel better.  If you exercise your face off but eat horridly, you’ll have a fair amount of strength but it’s likely to be hidden under layers of fat.

Diet

Now with my eating, I also fallow the BFL method.  I eat 6 or so small meals a day.  I really try to keep them balanced using the 40/40/20 method.  This means the ratio of calories is 40 protein, 40 carb and 20 fat.  Lets say my calories for the day are 2000.  I’ll have 800 from protein, 800 from carbs and 400 from fat.  You don’t have to be dead on, just in the general area.  This is important to keep you feeling fuller longer and also providing necessary nutrition to power and build your body.

I recommend something like www.fitday.com to help track food intake.

Now, must you track it for the rest of your life?  No!  You do have to teach yourself how to make wise food decisions.  Do not give up if you’ve given in to a bad food decision.  Never resort to the “tomorrow I will start” syndrome.  Start now and start by planning now.  Make sure you are capable of what you plan.  If you want realistic results, then a realistic plan is what you need.  It can take months or even years to reach your fitness goals.  You have to start somewhere and if you’re going to start, then you need to _____!  Correct answer: Plan!

I really hate typing these things up this late.  I feel like I leave things out and jump around a tad.  I am not a doctor or a fitness expert.  I’m an abnormal nerdy guy who wants to take care of himself and family.   This blog is a chronicle of my journeys through fitness and slaying debt.  I like the idea of being able to inspire others through success.

Well, stop reading, start planning!

Begin

Well, as promised, here I am on day 1.  It’s the first day of the rest of my life!  Ok, well day 1 sounds sort of absolute.  It’s more or less the first day that I’m going to actively work to change my bad habits and become a  healthier person – for life.

It has to start with a plan because “failure to plan is planning to fail” or something along those lines.  I’ve been toiling with this plan off and on for months, years even.  It only came to me recently that my wife and I have different immediate personal goals.  Once I realized that, it almost felt freeing.  I can let her work towards hers and me towards mine.  Of course we do have goals that match one of which is paying debt and her new thing which is coupon madness.

Well this thing here is for me but I want it to help the entire family by setting good examples for my kids.  It will give me energy to keep up with them.  It will (hopefully) prolong my life and quality of life.  I hope to build confidence as well.  I might improve my golf game a bit too!

So here is the roughed out plan:

A Phase 84 days long or 12 weeks.  Each phase is has a main goal and the first goal is fat loss primarily.  I will spend all of Phase I and possibly Phase II working towards fat loss.  After the goal phases are achieved then it’s into the long term maintenence phase.  That last phase is VERY important.  It doesn’t do any good at all to drop fat, build muscle only to celebrate by stopping your routine.  You can scale back a little and be more casual but stopping is bad.  I’m proof of that!

I’m still trying to figure out how to give all the details of my progress is a cool interesting way without boring everyone to death.  I can provide a chart over time but starting off it’s going to be a bit dry to so hang with me.  I’ll be posting pics too, man that’s scary!