Last Post - 2009

As old man winter tops the hill, I start spending a lot more time in my apartment, y'know, learning new stuff. No snowboarding this winter because of a niggling right knee injury that has recently become a bit too active for my liking. I will consider snow sports next year...or maybe I will just go ahead and do a bit of low impact snow shoeing. I do like the feel of crisp, cold air and that moment when snowfall makes your tracks disappear almost as fast as you make them. Squatting and overhead pressing as always will help keep the knee and all my other joints running smoothly. It is when I don't train that I start feeling a bit rusty all over: that right knee throbs with a dull, warm ache, the left shoulder starts stinging and I end up leaning for an indefinite period against a wall thinking of nothing.


Spicy chicken and beans will do a body a world of good. Try washing it down with a bit of Jamaican rum.

Last month I finally left a comfortable job of 10 years for an unknown length Contract position in the Back Bay. The previous job allowed me to make a steady living and will without doubt stay fondly in my memories. With solid and genial colleagues, I had a swell time there and was able to pursue my hobbies and outdoor activities fully.

But no more driving or getting stuck in traffic!

So far the new position, on the 30th floor of a well-known landmark, has been interesting enough as I am finally getting to work on technologies that I had wanted to be involved with for a good while. Plus I can't quite get enough of that late evening light which, like the perfect suit, splendidly drapes itself over Boston all the way toward the bluish-gray waters of the Atlantic off the city's waterfront. I do not yet know how this new position will turn out in the next few months but not knowing was part of what I was taking on when I decided to make a change for, I hope, the better. These days I go to bed early like 9. I am up by 5 AM, at the office by 7.30 and out by 4.

Last winter, I started working on hand balancing during the long winter evenings and could by early summer do a free handstand that lasted a few seconds. I hope to conquer the handstand fully this winter. My rock climbing experience in the past few years has proved that while my grip has steadily improved, it is nowhere near as good as it could be. So specialized grip work in anticipation of next season's climbing is in the near future. I am also on week 3 of a 10 week deadlifting program to get my 1 RM on that lift upto 400 Lbs. The program was conceived by the incomparable Ed Coan. I am already twitching thinking of the brute force I will need to conscientiously apply tomorrow evening, the 4th week of the program, in an effort to pull 355 Lbs off the floor of my folks' basement. I stopped deadlifting in gyms a long time ago. After the 10th week, I will move on to something else...probably a standard bodybuilding program.


Stuff I will be using to strengthen my grip at home. For resistance, I just tie an adjustable dumbbell to the hooks. Next spring, my brother and I plan to start using a Farmer's Walk implement to develop our grip.

I recently completed a book called The Atlantic Shore by John Hay. This book was written around 1966 and describes the beauty of the ecology of the coast from Long Island to Nova Scotia. The book is science that reads like poetry. An elderly neighbor of a friend of mine down in Weymouth lent it to me. I just ordered another John Hay book that I found on Amazon called The Way to the Salt Marsh. I am anticipating that one will be caressed with care just before I fall asleep for the next month. I am also on Misha Glenny's Balkans. That one will take a while longer to finish. I've been reading it a bit in the train on the way to the office.



Following my pleasant experience with Chamomile tea starting early this Fall, I ordered, at the recommendation of my brother, Green Tea Kombucha a couple of weeks ago and have found it immensely enjoyable, drinking up to 3 cups a day. In comparison, this past week I have had about 3 cups of coffee in total.

And for those evenings when I particularly don't feel like doing anything, I will just put my feet up and lose myself in blue swirls of fragrance...

A great man once wrote,

"It's time to stop micro waving your testicles or whatever it is you do to sterilize them. Look above you. There are stars in the heavens above. Look around you. There are trees, mountains, and rivers to explore, women to f..."

With that thought, I will sign off now.