EricMN

I understand. My initial prototype was basically a podium. Let me know if you change your mind. You're not wrong. It's a feature of the platform, not a bug.

Hit me up if you need something built and don't want to do it yourself. This is what sucks about tablet technology. Like smart phones, they're just expensive disposables. We're going to be buried in our technology waste.

Welcome to the dark side, my brother.

I know it's not what either of you has planned. But you're both young, you don't have kids, and you don't have crippling debt. Your life choices so far have left you with options. Obviously making major life changes in the middle of a global pandemic isn't the ideal plan, but I've watched my own adult children make more dubious decisions with less sound reasoning under similarly sketchy circumstances and I've noticed that things have a tendency to work out. You're both smart and have a lot going for each of you. This dad trusts you to make the right decisions.

Jedi Masters have a canon-long history of going into hiding when their plans went sideways. Obi-wan Kenobi went to Tatooine. He evidently didn't hate sand, even though it's all coarse, and rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere. Yoda went to Dagobah. Mudhole? Slimy? His home this is. Luke Skywalker went to Ahch-To. And refused to answer the door. That puts me in good company as I practice social-distancing while my world remains on hiatus during the COVID19 shutdown. From the comfort of my home office, in front of the standing desk I knocked out last weekend. "Practice". Seriously, people, as an introvert I've been practicing social distancing almost my whole life. Pandemic social-distancing and potential quarantine is like the Introvert Olympics and I'm going to win all the gold medals and look like Usain Bolt in his prime while doing it. The challenge for me won't be social distancing, it will be to not allow myself to shut down while preparing for a Shelter In Place order. I don't want to let myself lose the healthy habits I've been started to regain over the first part of this year. Goal: Strength Training For all of January and a good part of February, I was staying consistent with a gym regimen. Somewhere at the beginning of March I came down with a case of influenza (tested), which knocked me out for the better part of two weeks. I was just starting to feel like myself again when the State mandated gyms and spas to close, which meant my gym was closed. Fortunately, our gym has an amazing owner who has built up a large Facebook group for gym members support, and the trainers are all broadcasting their classes online. I've got weights at home. I literally have no excuses for not working out. Goal: Three strength, boot camp or crossfit-style workouts per week. Follow the recorded live broadcasts if my work schedule doesn't accommodate doing them live. Goal: Cardio Training This one's not hard. I have good running shoes and good running gear, and most of the snow is gone. I don't like cold weather, but that's an excuse. I should be running multiple times per week while it's still allowed. Goal: Run three times per week. Non-Goal: Nutrition The bad part about being stuck at home is that boredom leads to eating. The good part is that it's harder to go out to eat, even though takeout is still a viable option and being widely suggested as a way to support local businesses through the economic disaster that will accompany the pandemic. The other good part is I already know how to batch prep for meals and there's less of an excuse now as to why I'm not doing it. I'm not going to track my macros because I'm not in that kind of headspace right now, but I generally understand what 1800-2400 calories is when I'm batch-prepping. Non-Goal: Eat sensibly and avoid snack binging while home. Goal: Self Care This is the tricky part. We're only a couple weeks into widespread social distancing and I'm seeing a LOT of people reporting issues with anxiety and depression. I'm worried about my kids as much as I'm worried about myself. Kids were scheduled for spring break this week, but got an additional week off as schools cancelled the previous week to give districts and teachers time to prep for distance learning. Additionally, my three adult kids all work in the hospitality industry - restaurant, barista, hotel - and two of them are temporarily out of work and the third would be, but his hotel is still under construction and he's on the management team trying to open it to... no guests any time soon. Nobody is panicking and it looks like the social safety nets that are supposed to be in place will do what they should to help, but I'm concerned and I'm already a worrier and a habitual caregiver who needs to make sure I am taking care of myself. No green milk.

I'm here for positive thoughts, friend.

Saturday, March 7 Strength Training It was a gorgeous weekend. It was sunny all weekend and the temps reached 60 on Sunday afternoon. I took the opportunity to clean out the garage shop and knock together a simple project that made me feel productive. A new trimester starts for the kids at school this week. Last trimester did not go well for either of them. I hope this trimester is better.

Thursday, March 5 Strength Training Okay, I'm sorta back home. I'm not going to run a Challenge thread anytime soon, even though challenge threads are where I lived for most of the past six years and they're what I still follow and I know that with a Battle Log I'm kinda *waves hands* ~over here~. But this is what I can handle right now. Stress levels are high and anxiety accompanies it. I don't need one more thing that feels like an obligation. I'm trying to figure out what my "fitness goals" are as I near 53 years old. I spent the better part of five years identifying myself as an Obstacle Course Racer and while I still enjoy it, arthritis is taking its toll and I hurt a ~lot~ of the time. Less so when I'm active, which is a clue, but I'm just not getting that charge and excitement out of the process right now. I'm signed up for a handful of races this year but it was just recently because my middle child - who will turn 30 this year - asked me to do a Spartan Sprint with them. It's good to have something on the calendar, because that's something for me to work toward. We'll see how far I want to push it. I was a moderately-successful age-group racer as recently as three years ago. We'll see what happens going forward. I started the year tracking macros and while I'm not eating like a moron, I'm not doing that right now. I've dropped some uncomfortable weight around the middle and it will continue to get better as I get back to working out regularly. I still have yet to start running. The temps are supposed to hit 50 this weekend and I'm looking forward to being outside and trying some miles. My running shoes have been in the back of my truck for months and mentally I'm ready for it. Let's see how my body reacts.

Monday, March 2 Strength Training Bars and Bells class at the gym. With bonus Proof of Life.

Good goals. I hope Tough Mudder gets their situation straightened out ASAP because right now they're working through purchase out of bankruptcy and the most likely scenario is no US races until August. Hopefully it's earlier because we're scheduled for TM in MN in July. If they don't get sorted, what OCR are you thinking? Much like Beetlejuice, if you tag me enough times, I show up. Might be just as annoying, your mileage may vary...

Okay, so things have been... not great. Last week was pretty bad. Ziro the Hutt-level bad. Mid-terms have come and gone for my kids. The Girl was failing five of seven classes. We got her a tutor; last week was better, but the woman - a friend of the family - was not available this week and she's slipped back again. The Boy is in similar trouble. His IEP meeting came and went and we got appropriate accommodations; conferences came and I was concerned that they were not being implemented, but it turned out the real problem was him expecting others to tell him what to do and sometimes not doing it. In other words, he's personally responsible, he needs to understand that, and he needs to act accordingly. The upshot is he's behind but he can recover and pass his classes, but only if he gives effort. I spent 22 hours sitting directly with him last weekend to hammer our way through a major assignment. I literally sat next to him and observed him doing homework and staying engaged, for 22 hours over three days. He's getting caught up but it was emotionally exhausting for both of us and I can't continue to sit and observe him and he needs to develop the personal responsibility to get his stuff done. Let me repeat: I did nothing but sit with him while he did homework for 22 hours over three days. In addition, it came out that he eats lunch alone every day. This made me really sad - he sits by himself while everyone else socializes. By Friday, I thought I was having an anxiety attack. I am getting help. Things are getting better. I got back to the gym starting last Saturday morning in the midst of the homework marathon, before The Boy woke up for the day. I felt like a slug. Some 20-something kid said he noticed me working hard and said - and I took it in the way it was intended, not in the way it might sound - that he hopes he's able to "kill it" the way I was when he's my age. It made me feel like less of a slug. I managed to get to the gym on Tuesday of this week, and while I missed yesterday, I'm going in about 10 minutes to stay on track for the week. We hired a tutoring service for The Boy. His first meeting is next Monday. I hope this does what we need it to do. I got back in the garage this week. The flights are done: I was going to build a sushi set for two and it didn't work out. I said "screw it" and ordered one off Amazon to donate to our silent auction and I like it better than the one I was building. I built a wine gift set instead: Nutrition has still been on point. I missed tracking last weekend and I don't have time to post a week's worth of logs, but I'm still on it. I'm getting help with the things that are causing the most stress and anxiety. Things are going to get better.

Weekend Recap This past Friday was supposed to be some sort of Snowmageddon. Turns out that was actually Newfoundland, where it looks like a hundred-year flood except it's snow. We got between four and ten inches, depending on drifting. My only workout for the weekend was shoveling the driveway - in significantly-sub-zero windchills - from what the snowplow left behind, so that we could run the errands we would need to do. My back will tell you that's an actual strength workout. The kids had a day off from school on Friday and Monday is a holiday, so homework was less of a grind. The Pink Princess is getting caught up and we got her a tutor. The Boy is still working on making sure he can stay caught up. Either way I found time for me. Saturday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Was scheduled to go, but had to dig out the driveway and our cars instead. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. I'm taking a mulligan on the first two weeks here but I need to be held accountable starting now. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1599 Protein: 127g Carbs: 150g Self-Care: Coldest weekend of the year so far and I work in the garage. I also have an 80K-BTU heater. I can work in my shirtsleeves. Sunday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Sundays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. *shrug* Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1448 Protein: 96g Carbs: 142g Self-Care: Week 2 Recap: Goal: Gym 3x/week. Made it twice and didn't throw out my back shoveling. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. No running yet. This needs to start happening. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result - avg per day: KCal: 1,726 Protein: 117g Carbs: 139g Challenge to Date: Goal: Gym 3x/week. Attended 5/6 scheduled sessions. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. No running yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result - avg per day: KCal: 1,717 Protein: 113g Carbs: 142g Self-Care: One project completed and another close to done. I'm making sure I get my time, even when it might be difficult.

Week 2 Before the Weekend Two updates in the same week? Preposterous! Wednesday Sometimes you feel like you're fighting uphill all the time. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Wednesdays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. I haven't started running and I need to make time. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1816 Protein: 139g Carbs: 170g Normally Wednesday is Youth Group. Once a month we serve meals at our local homeless shelter. This week the host facility had a scheduling conflict and we were asked to wait until 7:30 to begin serving the meal. Normally we begin cleanup and we're out the door by 8pm. I needed to be home with my kids to do homework with them. We delivered two large hot dishes (this is Minnesota, it's a Hot Dish, not a "casserole", and you can't successfully argue otherwise) and stayed for the community dinner at our church, after which we helped the crew going to the shelter load up and we went home and did homework while I felt guilty for not being there. Thursday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1992 Protein: 130g Carbs: 130g Just a tad high. If the previous day hadn't been high as well I would have been golden. Mission Trip leader meeting with leaders from a church looking to partner with us. If you're keeping track at home, that's every night so far this week that I've been there, including three administrative meetings. I'm a volunteer. Criminy. Me, searching for five minutes of personal time this week.

Thanks, Tank. I appreciate you. Always. Thanks, brother. I think you'd love it. He told me that at the end of last week, they walked over to the zoo and were doing some observations at Discovery Bay and he got separated from the group. At some point he just walked back to class so he wouldn't be late. This sounds amazing. Always good to see you, Terra. Thanks for being here. Or it would be. Or something. I didn't want to remember Bring Sally Up. Bleh. I've also done Roxanne as up/down pushups. No thank you.

Week 2 So Far Back to it. Let's roll. Monday Sometimes life is a galactic battle. Sometimes it's just a committee meeting. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Mondays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1612 Protein: 76g Carbs: 122g Church Session meeting Monday night. This week is already looking rough for getting in a run and I'm going to have to be kind to myself. Tuesday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1897 Protein: 137g Carbs: 113g Youth Group leader's meeting. We have our major fundraiser coming up in three weeks and we're terribly behind. We're definitely scrambling.

I can vouch for these and A. they're amazing and B. it's a good thing we're not neighbors as I would be begging regularly. *frowny Jedi master face*

Week 1 Catch-up If you've been here in previous challenges, you know I get busy and need to do this. Also, I don't post on weekends. Here we go. Thursday Not much lifting in Boot Camp, but I didn't choke, either. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Result: Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1958 Protein: 120g Carbs: 176g Friday Rest Day. Also Grandpa Day Care. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Fridays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1705 Protein: 149g Carbs: 92g Saturday Me being greeted back to Saturday Boot Camp by the few people who still remember me. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Result: Me trying to keep up in Boot Camp. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1463 Protein: 86g Carbs: 144g Was going to have a protein shake snack in the evening and I forgot. Fail. "Forgot??!!!???" Sunday Rest day. Plus chores and errands. The Boy attends the School of Environmental Sciences. He's mostly a "sit on the couch and chat on his phone or play video games on some device" kind of kid, but he goes to school where they tromp around in the woods in bad weather. We went to pick him up winter gear as part of this. This was NOT inexpensive. My head was reeling when we got home. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Sundays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1639 Protein: 96g Carbs: 195g Recap: Goal: Gym 3x/week. Check. Goal: Run 2x per week. Did not run; let's call it easing back into the schedule and have mercy on my soul. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result - avg per day: KCal: 1708 Protein: 110g Carbs: 145g Hit my target on 2 of 3 goals for the week. Self-Care: This was less successful. As the week went on, I had no time for the stuff I want to do and no time for myself. This week looks rough. I'm going to have to be intentional about taking my own time. With or without pacing Sith Lords.

Glad to be back. Thanks for finding me. He has pillow cases on everything else. I don't always get his quirks, but I don't question a lot of them, either. He's got his sensory issues - for instance, jeans are an absolute no, it's joggers and wind pants only - but this doesn't appear to be one of them. Right now I'm working at a caloric deficit in order to jump-start my fat-burning process. I won't be doing it long-term. There's an immediate "rush" after a workout but my schedule means I'm working out at 5pm during the week. I eat my dinner afterward, and I'm ensuring it's high-protein with complex carbohydrates, but by 9pm I'm wiped. I'll increase my calories as my workouts get more intensive and longer. I didn't feel like this two years ago when between running and the gym I was working out more days and for longer. I regularly had more energy. Thanks! Thanks! My daughter has a platform bed as well. Hers was made by stacking what used to the be side-by-side platform drawers from her mom's bed. I built an additional frame to fill out the back, just like I did for the boy. Her mom had that bed frame for 30 years, and it's what we used when we were married a decade ago. It was really helpful to have and it absolutely opened up the room. Dressers are just so ~big~. We're starting to plan out how to change the layout of our bedroom to maximize our space too.

Week 1 So Far I may have posted late, but I didn't start late. Let's recap. This would have made an awesome Buddy Cop show. Monday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Mondays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target I actually started food and macro tracking on 2 January... Result: KCal: 1492 Protein: 90g Carbs: 92g Too low. Time to start adding in protein shakes. Self Care: Finished a project I've been working on for what feels like forever. When we moved the kids' belongings from their mom's house into ours, it was clear we didn't have room for two households worth of stuff. The Pink Princess downsized the stuff she didn't need. The Boy, however, is on the autism spectrum and has attachment issues. He has five large black lawn leaf bags full of stuffed animals - literally every stuffie he's ever owned his entire life. He said "no" to downsizing and he was emphatic. I built him a platform bed with storage to hold his stuff. Monday night was the finishing touches before the paint goes on the underbed storage. Tuesday My face at the beginning of a workout... Goal: Gym 3x/week. Result: My face at the end of a workout Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food intake. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1985 Protein: 124g Carbs: 160g Just a tad high but that can't hurt for my first heavy weight workout in months. I'll dial this in. Wednesday Goal: Gym 3x/week. Schedule says not on Wednesdays. Goal: Run 2x per week to start. Not yet. Goal: Track all food. 1750kCal/day target Result: KCal: 1717 Protein: 105g Carbs: 154g Self Care: We had a belated Holiday Party for our youth group. It was originally scheduled for the middle of December, but we had to postpone it to this week because of a myriad of scheduling conflicts. It was good to reconnect with my kids, many of whom have jobs and who are not around as much as when they were younger. We did a White Elephant gift exchange, which is amazing and reminds me of movie depictions of a Moroccan flea market, with the kids all lobbying whoever is trying to steal to take whatever they have so they can go grab something else. Leading our Youth Group keeps me young too. Not bad for the first couple days. Consistency is the key. Thanks for being around and helping me stay accountable to me.

Thanks for making me feel remembered, folks. You are all appreciated. I'm not a Dr. Who person so I don't understand this. I hope we can still be friends. Glad to see you, too, and definitely not off-topic. During the first weekend of December, we took my kids to Florida on our first family vacation since August of 2018 and our first since the kids' mom passed. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot and then Galaxy's Edge, all in the same day. I was letting the kids drive our agenda and if we hadn't made it to Galaxy's Edge at all, I would have been fine with the decision. (I wasn't worried that would happen.) But it was opening weekend for Rise of the Resistance and we needed to book our spot online by something like 8 am to have a hope of getting in the queue. We didn't do that since we were flying by the seat of our pants, so we didn't get to do Rise of the Resistance. Next time, maybe. The fam let me pilot the Millenium Falcon when we did Smuggler's Run. I WAS HAN SOLO PEOPLE. I didn't get a cockpit photo before the ride started. Here I am, hoping no Wookiee rips my arms out of the sockets. I absolutely want to go back but boy howdy buying a park-hopper ticket for four people is an ~investment~. Thanks! I love that you "accidentally" did this. So far I have "accidentally" only signed up for Conquer the Gauntlet in Iowa on Aug 1. I'm sure more will follow, but I'm getting my body fixed first. I'm going to be watching you, Athlete. Great to see you, Chaplain. Thanks for continuing to be a supportive light in my life. I know food tracking is a restrictive and often punishing thing for many, but I'm a creature of routine and it fits with my brain. I don't presume to believe it works for everyone. Thanks for the encouragement. Miss your face, desert dweller.

Happy Belated Nameday, my friend. I know this is not fanservice for me but I'm claiming it anyway. Also I'm protesting the move that ended this match on the grounds that it wasn't my new favorite dude that landed it. I'm looking forward to this narrative evolving.

New challenge started on Monday? Especially: 2019 was a bad year. 2020 will be better. Main Goal I was a moderately-successful recreational athlete as recently as 2018. I've been Obstacle Course Racing since September of 2014, mostly Spartan Race. I went from a back-of-the-pack finisher to mid-pack when I completed five Spartan Trifectas in 2016 and improved to top-25% of my age-group in 2017 while qualifying for the OCR World Championships that year. I have been in the starting corral for 70 Obstacle races in the past five years and completed 69. My only DNF was at the Spartan Ultra in Glen Rose, Texas in October of this past year. I was injured and out-of-shape and missed the cutoff to advance past the transition area after my first lap. That stung. I spent over seven hours on the course, completed 17 miles, and left without a finisher buckle or even a tee shirt. I didn't even get a recovery drink and a banana. Right now I'm overweight and out of shape. I feel old, but I'm only 52 and even though I look a lot like this: Shorter hair, better beard. ... and while I'm someone's grandpa and often look and sound like it, I'm not ready to just fade into the woodshop and disappear. Not yet. I'm going back to Texas at the end of October this year and I'm going to get one of these: Glen Rose, Texas, not SLO, California, but you get the idea. I know how to get from here (old, fat, out of shape) to there (athlete). I've done it before. I weighed 260lb in 2012 before I started getting healthy, and I'm nowhere near that right now, even though I feel sloppy and doughy. It's time to fix this mess and go get the buckle. If you've been around in the past five years and seen my challenges, then you are going to feel like you're watching The Force Awakens or Rise of Skywalker, because everything you're about to see is pretty much something you've seen before, just slightly updated. Strength Training I started with a gym in January of 2013 and I was at least 235lb at the time. Six months later I was 193lb and had run my first 5k. I have taken a gym hiatus over the past year while life got in the way - home ownership, Grandpa Daycare, injury, the loss of my ex-wife, my teenage kids moving in full-time, the list goes on - but I'm back and ready to work. I've already booked myself out so that I don't have an excuse. Goal: Gym 3x/week. Running In 2017 and 2018 I actually enjoyed this part and my cardio fitness was actually improving. This is all about consistency. I'm starting from nearly zero, but I know how to get where I need to go. Goal: Run 2x per week to start; 3x per week by end of challenge. Be ready for a 5k by mid-February. Nutrition This is the thing, right? This is where the difference is made. I can't outlift my fork and I can't outrun a bag of chips. I'm overweight because I have been bad with my food choices. Tracking calories and macros doesn't work for a lot of people, but it works for me. I spent four years working with personal trainers with nutritional certifications and have pretty much dialed in what I need as far as protein intake to keep from catabolizing muscle mass while I lose fat. Goal: Track all meals. 1750kCal/day target to jump-start fat loss. Re-calibrate after this challenge based on progress. Self-Care This is probably the biggest thing. I was really spoiled for almost ten years. Divorce sucked in that my family was split apart, but it also meant I had 50% of my evenings free and could schedule pretty much whatever I wanted. I managed to fill it all up and now I've needed to cut back. Now I'm trying to find life balance as a full-time parent of teenagers - one with autism - at the same time that I've got those teenagers in therapy to deal with the loss of their mom and deal with life going forward. We had to consolidate two households into one and we're still trying to find places for a lot of the stuff that came from there. It's a lot to deal with. I take my time here: I have a good 80kBTU heater that keeps me warm in the winter. I've got projects to work on. It keeps me sane. I'll post some pictures of projects I'm working on as I go. If we can stave off the apocalypse, 2020 is going to be a good year.

Sorta related - don't the Ojibwe still have netting rights on Mille Lacs? Fishing bores me but that sounds interesting because there's more to it than "sink line, drink beer". Slothgirl and my boy would probably enjoy watching movies together. He speaks almost exclusively in Star Wars and Avengers memes while we're watching The Mandalorian.

I literally feel this pain. Like, right now. Hate to hear this. I wake up most mornings like this. The only time in the past ten years I haven't woken up like this was when my shoulder strength was adequate. Otherwise, I sleep on my side and everything hurts and I don't even want to lift a toothbrush. (I do anyway.)