Internal bubble wrap

Sometimes I feel stiff, so I stretch out a bit. That's not the important part. The important part is that sometimes when I do this, I don't move as much as I think I should. Every so often I get a massage (I'm a very active person, you have no idea how bad it can get), and I got one today. 

Once I got home, I attempted the same stretch, and not only did my range of motion increase, but I popped like a kid with bubble wrap. My bodily movements went from slow and smooth straight into jackhammer and slipped gears.

But only the first time. I kept moving myself around to see if I had any left and was actually disappointed when I finally got the last of it out. It was kinda fun.

Not as kneedful

I stayed home this weekend. Since then, I spent the winter studying what happened to my knee, and how to avoid it. Different exercises that are supposed to help the joint, which muscles needed to be worked on, foods and supplements that can help. Though 90% of the help came with a knee brace. 

Looks like I failed to mention this on my birthday hike. Nor did I mention the following hike that happened in July.

(For as often as I try to stretch the topics here, you think I would yak about what I'm actually doing) 

I was a teenager when my right knee first gave me issues, and my doctor at the time (still my doctor, btw) pointed out that my kneecap moved a lot more than it should. He suggested I build up the muscle around it to keep it from doing that. I don't skip leg day, so maybe it's not that. I got the kind of brace that keeps my kneecap in place. Doing nothing else differently, my knee had absolutely zero problems. In fact, my left knee started to ache a little right at the end of the hike.

First thing I did when I got home was get another brace for my left knee. I only went on two hikes this summer (three if you count the one I had to stop - wait, I didn't blog about that, either?), but I have one planned in two weeks. It gets cold up there in this time of year, but I sweat every time on the way up, Maybe this will even it out. I'll let you know.

Big walk

I skipped work and did a ten mile hike through Highland Forest. Only took five hours, it had rained earlier so it was all wet, but the rain mostly tapered off to a fine mist. I left home at the same time I always do, and I got home right when I normally do. Nobody would have known if I hadn't said anything. 

I share my location with my wife, so if I hadn't said anything she could have found out anyway. I don't keep anything from her, so she knew (only the day before), but sometimes I wonder if she's even looking.

Or reading my blog. She knows it's here, so... I don't know. 

Words with Fiends

I have been playing 'Words With Friends' for a very long time, but mostly with only one person. I normally win those games.

My wife started to play. She beats me as easily as I once won against my Tiny opponent, and I think they both take joy in this.

No seriously, I won fairly easily against my Tiny One. My wife, however, is a monster in this game. 

Wild swing

Two weeks ago today I was at the NYS Fair. It was warm, sunny, and always fun. In those two weeks, I'm now wearing my jackets in the morning (but I might not need it by noon). It's not a gentle decline, no slow drop in average temperature. No, it's more like swinging open the freezer door and getting a cold blast in the face.

I'm not complaining. I actually like autumn. It's the dry shoulder season. Sure I like spring, but it's also wet and muddy, and who likes that?

Reuniversarryy

Today would have been my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary. I guess it still is, but it's also the first one they've spent together in 24 years.

I'm sad but I'm also not sad, does that make any sense?

Late Labor

Since Labor Day is the first Monday in September, and school in New York always starts after Labor Day, everything is late this year. Last year the first of school was the 4th. The schools out here have this silly rule where they have a mandatory minimum number of days they're supposed to be in (you can thank the teachers union - they get paid in full for every day, even half days), so I'm wondering how they rigged it up this year.

I'll find out once I actually look at the academic calendar. 

The big ride

 So I did something crazy today.

When I first learned about the Adirondack Rail Trail, I thought it was another hiking trail, but one that crossed roads and towns. I dismissed it until I learned you could bike it. So I biked it.

 

The only thing that surprised me was seeing people I knew.  

 

Lonely dentist

Storytime:

Many years ago, when my company was very small, so many employees would take off the week of the New York State Fair that we didn't have anyone left to open the doors for. This happened until we just decided to shut down that week. Now the fair starts half a week earlier, and we have more than twice as many employees, but we still close down for the week before Labor Day. There's no fancy title for this, we just call it 'shutdown'. 

Honestly, it's the only way the boss can take a vacation. Even when he's on vacation, he's worried about what's happening here. When nothing is happening here, he has nothing to worry about.

Six months ago, my wife scheduled our next dentist appointment on her way out. Not that I can't do it, but I'm always the last one in the chair so she's doing it before I get the chance. On *my* way out, I find that she scheduled it for the last week in August. No way was I going to the dentist during free time, oh no sir, so I rescheduled my own appointment for a week sooner.

The week before Labor Day is typically the last week in August, except when it's not. August 31 is a Monday this year, meaning Labor Day is a full week into September on the 7th. I did not realize this at the time. So I had my dentist appointment a few days ago, the wife is taking the kids in a few days, and I have work this week. Mandatory Fun is next week.

In my defense, it's happening pretty late in the year.

Twenty years

I am a very... different kind of person. I can't find any other way of putting it without sounding either degrading or self-serving. Either way, I'm certain my wife didn't know what she was getting into when she agreed to marry me.

Four kids later, she's stuck with me.

Quiet weekish

This week my boys are at camp, all three of them. My twentieth wedding anniversary is next week, but we figured this was the week for it. My sister agreed to host our daughter for the duration while the boys are at camp, so this was the week the wife and I decided to skip town.

She wanted to go to the Adirondacks. I found us a nice hotel on Lake Flower that has kayaks and canoes the guests can use whenever they like. She found three easy hikes, and we filled the rest of the time with, well, whatever we wanted. 

I joked that I would wake up to find her already out on the lake. She didn't believe me, but one morning I woke up to find her missing. The lake had this thick fog over it, and I saw her kayak slipping into the mist, disappearing for a good long while. Later, she quietly admitted I knew her better than she thought.

Well, it has been twenty years.

The hikes were, like I said, easy. Easy for me, anyway. I've been working my way through the 46 high peaks, and those bottom out at 4 hours or 5 miles. These took around an hour and were maybe a mile. Of course, going out onto the water isn't my thing either. We have a lot of separate interests, more than we have together. But you learn to work with it over the years. 

Maybe that's how we've managed this long. 

The busiest month

As I've ranted about more than once, schools in New York run through the end of June, while the rest of the country is finished somewhere around Memorial Day. The flipside to this is our schools don't start until after Labor Day, while the rest of the country picks up sometime in August.

Which makes July the busiest month of the year for vacation spots. This is precisely why I don't go on any big vacation in July, at least any that involve going out of state. If you recall I planned THE BIG TRIP during August with this in mind. 

The vacation in 2018 to Arizona over Christmas included a trip to the Grand Canyon, and apparently that's one of their busiest times. I love outdoorsy stuff, but outdoorsy stuff with TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE had better be a concert.

It was not a concert. It was just crowded.

So now that July is over, there's more stuff going on and it's all creeping up on me I have so much planning to do.

Twisted neck

I've been slowly discovering that my neck, which should turn my head in various directions with equal effort, does not do that. I can easily turn my head to the right and hold it there. But I cannot turn my head facing left and hold it there without it becoming uncomfortable. I learned this while lying face down and trying to hold it different ways.

This is not evidence of my political views, but I can see why you might make that mistake.

My wife poked around my back for a bit and can find a clear difference between my left and right shoulders. I'm not sure if I need an orthopedist, a massage, or physical therapy.

I suppose at my age I should get this looked at before it becomes a permanent feature.

Senior portraits

When I was in my senior year of high school, they didn't do a standard 'picture day', where a studio showed up and acted like they were the only ones in town that owned a camera.

Seriously, why do they charge so much for this?

But my senior year, we had to submit our own photos. Everyone else still got the standard lineup, but we had to do it on our own. This was back in the 90's, so it was all still film cameras. There was no way of knowing how good a shot ended up until you got it back.

I don't miss those days.

So being the broke, chronically unempowered teenager of limited means, I struggled to figure out what to do. I had long since abandoned the idea of asking my parents for anything, so I was running out of ideas. Then during a free period at school, my brother found me and led me to the art wing. I had no idea what was happening until I found myself sitting in a makeshift photo studio getting a picture taken. Then the girl behind the camera said she'd submit it for me.

I was ambushed. I wished I had some warning. I was wearing an ill-fitting flannel shirt (again, it was the 90's), and I badly needed a haircut. I suppose I should be grateful, otherwise I wouldn't have been in the yearbook at all. But my super serious senior portrait was just as bad as a candid shot. 

My oldest is entering his senior year, and my wife made an appointment at an actual portrait studio. Why she didn't ask any of our actual photographer friends, I don't know, I suppose she doesn't really know how long it takes me to earn that money.

But I digress.

I begged him to just do a solid job of washing his hair. The once-over he gives it in the morning is... fine. But for this, honestly, he needed to visit a salon. Or at the very least someone help him with it, because it's long and needs more maintenance than he gives it.

It was during the day, long after I departed the house while everyone else was still asleep, and before I would ever leave work. Nothing happened. The proofs came in my email, and what was an ambush to me was not with him. I suppose instead of disappointment I should just resign myself to it.

Summer absence

This begins a week of my two oldest boys being gone and out of town. It's gonna be weird, it always is. It's not camp, that's next month. It's FSY out in Amherst Massachusetts, and my wife's friend (who lives in nearby CT) has kids attending the same week. It's unfortunate that neither of them considered meeting up and hanging out in the duration.

I still have my two younger children, and the boy in that part can be a noisy one regardless. Still, half as quiet is still oddly quiet.

One day I'll be an empty nester and have no idea what to do with myself.

Concert

At the age of forty-six years old, I finally attended my first concert. Not for lack of trying, but for lack of desire. I enjoy a lot of music, but never felt the need to go see them live. Any concert I would have really wanted to attend was so far away it was barely worth it, and no local shows had any interest.

And then my wife got me tickets for Christmas. She bought them back in November when they opened sales, and since then I've been wondering what I've been missing. The show was a few days ago, on Friday, and it was Weird Al Yankovich. Without going into any detail whatsoever, I'm attending every one of his shows I can manage.

I'm too old and have too many obligations to follow the tour, but I'm ok with that. Now someone tell me why the t-shirts are so expensive?

Fourth timing

I like celebrating the 4th of July and anyone that doesn't is a soulless killjoy and / or communist.

Now that I got that out of my system...

It was on a Saturday this year. This works because it's a 'stay up late' holiday and you never have the next day off, and I have an early start in the mornings. But it also rained late morning through early afternoon. At least the weather had the decency to let up for the end of the day.

Heat wavey

A full week where the average temperatures are well above "ABSOLUTELY NOT" make me both grateful to live in a nation where air conditioning is a way of life, and miserable that I'm not in the Adirondaks where the average temperature is twenty degrees cooler.

I'm in the wrong part of the state.

Fathers Birth Day

My birthday is on June 14th - dangerously close to Father's Day. But being the 14th, it will never fall on Father's Day. Closest it will get is last year when it was one weekend (Saturday-Sunday), and the furthest it gets is this year, a full week apart.

What it means is that all the cool stuff I like suddenly gets propped up for Father's Day sales.

Birthday hike

For my birthday this year I went to the Adirondacks again. This time I hiked Street and Nye. There is a river crossing, and I wasn't fully aware of what to expect. I brought a camp towel with the expectation that I would put my boots and socks in my bag, walk through, dry off, and continue on.

It was raining the entire day before, and some parts of the river were much, much deeper than it looked. And it was moving pretty fast.

The picture doesn't really show it, but they seldom do.

One of my companions learned the hard way how deep it was, and promptly took a bath. I found a few boulders I could jump to (trepidatiously, seeing that I refused to jump that distance barefoot, and failure meant landing in the water, boots and all). I successfully hopped across most of the river, while using trekking poles to gauge how deep it was the rest of the way.

Then I went up and back down. It was nice.

Getting back across the river, I figured I'd just go back across where I did before. Problem with that was, nobody could quite figure out where that was. My sopping wet companion just walked across while those of us that remained dry attempted to stay that way. I can say that I did just that.

Now as for the time it took... all the trail guides and apps said it took anywhere from 5 to 6 hours. It took us a fair bit longer than that. I'm positive these were written up by 18 year old freshman going for their degree in conservation or some other hippy diploma that can't fathom anyone not running full tilt up and down. Or maybe there was cocaine involved, either way these are not real people.

I had a good birthday.