Gymming again

I was working out in my little room on the terrace of our house in Madurai back in the early 90s when an older family friend named Kumar dropped by for a quick visit. Seeing me puttering around shirtless with a pair of adjustable dumbbells, he remarked,

"So, bud, how's the gymming going?"

"So, bud, how's the gymming going?"

That's as best a translation I can offer but the word "gymming" was definitely used. So why am I mentioning this? Because gyms have re-opened in Massachusetts today. I had a chat with a friend in the Boston area yesterday and he mentioned that he was definitely going to wait a month before going to his gym. I couldn't wait though. Calisthenics at home has been fine over the past few months but I have been hankering to push iron the last two weeks. So.. I gave into temptation and went to my gym mid-morning today.

My temperature was taken upon checking in at the gym and a few questions about any COVID-like symptoms, recent international travel etc. were asked. I was told that each member would go through that mini-screening process every time they came to the gym. Good! Only every sixth locker was available in the shower rooms. No shower, sauna or towel service. I have missed using the sauna the most. It was a great way to relieve soreness and also cleanse my skin inside out. Happy it is summer as, for now, I can soak at the beach on weekends. I was nervous in the locker room. So I just got in quickly and out of there.

There were a half-dozen patrons at that hour. The equipment didn't seem to have been moved around much. I had a few exercises in mind and I had planned to do them in any order. I just wanted to test the waters today and get out if I felt uncomfortable with anyone sneezing or wheezing in my vicinity. Nothing like that happened. Everybody kept their masks -- and distance -- on. There were sanitizer stands with disinfectant wipes everywhere.  All of us diligently used them to wipe down equipment before and after use. Great!

Squatting has helped keep me limber and agile. So I approached the squat rack with bated breath.. and not just because of the mask. After my first high rep sets of squats with 135 lbs, I could feel myself almost sucking the mask into my nostrils. So I switched to doing a higher number of sets with only three reps each set and a slow eccentric. That felt better in terms of both muscle engagement and breathing with the mask on. Then, as lunch time approached, more patrons started coming in and I decided to call it a day even though there were a couple more exercises I had wanted to do. And I am not going to bother with cardio at the gym. I will do that outdoors for now.

Overall, it was a positively buoyant workout. Gym employees moved around with masks replacing the occasional empty sanitizer stand. Happy to see that. For now, I am planning to work my whole body with a handful of different exercises plus squats every time I hit the gym. Fancy splits and longer workouts will have to wait for the new normal. I have a bouldering session reserved at my rock gym later this week. One bouldering session and two regular weight training sessions a week should suffice for July. By end of the month, there should be enough data to review on new COVID infections, etc. across the state. I will re-calibrate my gym visits at that point.. assuming I don't get infected before then!

End of the "Butter Maiden"

Apparently Land O' Lakes has now removed the picture of the kneeling Native American woman from their product packaging. Here is the image:

When I first laid eyes on her upon emigrating to the United States, I fell in love with her and her dark, sultry and lustrous look. I thought it was a very clean, endearing image reflective of a healthy way of life well before the dawn of the industrial revolution and pollution.. a time when life moved at a sedate pace that.. ah.. a butterfly would have appreciated. Having grown up on a steady diet of Louis L'amour in India, I possessed a certain level of knowledge of native American culture that I noticed even Americans lacked. L'amour treated his subjects with the utmost respect at a time when Hollywood was happily undermining them. Still,  I am not an expert on native American relations. And so.. I am completely confused as to why this is considered a racist image. Or.. are people simply starting to find a problem with everything now?

Summer Thunderstorm

Ok, well, it was mostly wind and rain and one or two rolls of thunder really. It was still somewhat ferocious. Anticipation ran high as day turned to night. And the heavens did not disappoint. I like it!

Bye, bye bidet

Regardless of whether you are rooting for Biden, you are very likely wondering whether a bidet in your toilet may make an immediate impact to your quarantined lifestyle. Listen, you do not need additional fittings in your toilet. Ok? It is already complicated in there as it is. Instead simply use a general purpose sprayer like the one pictured below. I have been using one of these since time immemorial to.. ah.. occasionally supplement toilet paper.

Here are the advantages:

1. Cheap.. something like $2.
2. Immediately available.. you just need to get it from a hardware store. No need to schedule and wait for a plumber, etc.
3. Lightweight.. even a child can lift it.
4. Portable.. you can keep it out of sight, if you need to. Moving houses? No problem. You are guaranteed the same quality of service at your new place.
5. Zero-maintenance.. Cleaning it (the sprayer, I mean) is easy. No need to worry about a bidet with all its fittings, etc. going bonkers on you.
6. Creativity-possible.. if you want to add a little bit of soap, fragrant oil, etc. to the water in the sprayer, you can do so.

Most of all.. it is guaranteed to leave you clean and feeling awesome. Its hands-free without being hands-free. Think about that! Heck, if you use it at the right angles and with the right amount/frequency of spray, you may not need to use toilet paper at all. Save the environment! All you need is a dry, cozy hand towel to pat yourself dry. Mmm. But.. just make sure you don't use that towel for anything else, ok? And wash it (the towel, I mean) regularly and by itself in soapy water, wring it well and leave it to air dry. Maintain a couple of towels for this purpose.

Life's good

Alright! Clearwater beach has been re-opened. I am looking into flight tickets on Expedia now.. can't wait to get there one of these weekends! I had been planning to go there this past winter when the virus roared in. Hopefully, we won't see any resurgences of the virus anywhere. Yay!

Scone me now

Now that I think of it, the last time I enjoyed afternoon tea was last December down in Falmouth center with a buddy of mine. The proprietor had a sign either out front or on each table requesting that patrons do not use their smartphones. I don't exactly remember which. So I do not have a picture of the delicacies that we gulped down that Saturday afternoon and washed it all down with some wonderful, aromatic tea.. and a great chat.

The exact location of Molly's Tea Room. I was the only male there.

But fear not. I have the wonderful shot below that I made from a couple of years ago at the Shangri-La in Toronto with another friend. Look at those juicy, mouth-watering gooey goodies!

Yap. Yap

Ok, now I have a hankering for tea things and naught I can do about it. Sad. Sad. Sad.

From gluttony to privilege

I didn't eat much in the way of junk food -- chocolate, ice cream, chips, cakes, etc. -- until my mid-30s whence I started a job that involved heavy travel to client sites. Around the same time, all my friends started marrying and disappearing.. and I started feeling a bit bereft. I was at that job for almost five years. Good money. And my client-facing skills improved and went through the roof. But my diet? My diet, workout regimen, discipline, etc. went out the door. Then, after I turned 40, I started reining things in. It was a bit of a struggle at first. These things always are.. otherwise everybody could develop clean, lean habits at the drop of a hat. But eventually, I stopped eating junk and started cooking pretty much everyday at home. There was still the once or twice a week dining out that was almost always accompanied by a couple of gin and tonics.

Bread out. More eggs back in.

Now with this pandemic roaring on, I finally put an end to that habit as well. I have not touched a drop of alcohol in almost six weeks now. After the early weeks in the pandemic experimenting with a variety of whole foods, I have pretty much settled on a macro diet of fish, vegetables, fruit, rice and oats. I was occasionally cooking chicken thighs at home but stopped once chicken became available in only humongous packs. I have not eaten red meat in almost a month. Not by design, you see.. just sort of fell out of it. Saturday nights, I have started a habit of getting chicken wings from Domino's through contact less delivery. And Domino's delivers in 20 to 30 minutes now.. used to be an hour or so before the pandemic started. So.. for all practical purposes, my diet has become as clean as it can get.

I have had to deal with some irregularities down in the deep, dark depths of my bowels because of both the change and volume in my diet.. as I am eating a 1/3rd less food every day than I was before the pandemic and had also added those little sandwich rolls. So I took the bread out. And "everything" is regulating itself out with elan. The calisthenics are being done with renewed vigor. And I have never slept better than I have in the last two months. The bags under my eyes , never significant before, seem to have shrunk a little bit. I have lost ten pounds of weight and yet.. and yet.. still look muscular, feel energetic and am moving with remarkable lightness and grace.

My one weakness: a bar of white chocolate that I get when I step out of my cave once a week to forage for groceries. When I get home, I sanitize what needs to be sanitized. I change into comfortable clothing. Then I slowly sink into my recliner. No TV, nothing. I slowly unwrap the bar. I take my time with it. I talk naughty to it.. before my mouth starts savoring it.. just like these chaps do in the video below: