You Know What I Mean

It's 34 degrees this morning. My body temperature is the lowest it'll be all day. I'm about to walk outside and do something that most sane people fear. I'm about to take the plunge! Stepping into 35-degree water when your body is already cold is awful. I know there are many proponents out there who advocate for cold water therapy or cold water immersion and will tell you that it's invigorating, or that they can't go a day without it. I do agree that it can become almost addictive, but I bet the fear is there for each and every one of them before they dip a toe into the arctic water. It's a bit masochistic if you think about it. I will say, though, it can be invigorating and stimulating, and it can also give you a sense of pride that you conquered the cold water and lived to tell about it. Cold water therapy dates back to ancient Egyptian and Greek practices, but in recent years it has been popularized by the "Ice Man" Wim Hof, along with many othe...

 It's around 9:00pm, the kids are asleep, the house is getting more and more relaxing by the minute, and after this long day I am lifting up the down comforter on my king sized bed about to lay down for the night. FINALLY, some much needed relaxation. About six months ago I would have reached for the tv remote and either put on the most recent show that I had been watching the night before, or scrolled for about 10 minutes through the vast universe of shows and movies on Hulu, Netflix, Prime TV, etc. I enjoyed my nightly routine. It was comfortable to me. Naturally I am a lazy person so this fit perfectly into my routine. If I'm being honest, I once didn't work for four days and I binged watched all six seasons of The Sopranos. Yeah I know, not really the makings of a successful person. So six months ago I decided to make a change. I've always been a really light sleeper, but my sleep had been awful for a few months. I felt so fatigued for the majority of my day, and th...

     January 23,2025 Wow, I'm 40. I've lived 2080 weeks. I've lived 14,600 days. God willing I'll live to be 80+, but if not, I've lived over half my life already. Writing this down or saying this out loud scares me. I'm sure it scares some of you too. I think it scares me because I haven't accomplished anything that I feel will leave me a legacy. Yes, family may remember me, and say sweet or maybe even sour things about me, but a legacy to span generations just isn't there on the current trajectory I'm on. Well, let me take you back a bit. My life growing up was filled with love and affection, but also filled with food stamps, alcohol, drugs, and some domestic violence. Don't feel bad for me. Everyone's story shapes them into the people they are. Some are perfect circles, triangles, or squares, and some are irregular hexagons. I feel like I teeter between a perfect shape and an irregular one. We were poor, but when you're young you don...