WhiteGhost Get His Kips (On Route 66)

[@mu]

Hey welcome back! Shinies are waiting for you

 

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Based on the experience of other relatives who have gone through this, we expect it will be another 6 months maximum, but could be much shorter.  We, including my mom and dad, have made peace with this and just hope that whatever time she has left is relatively painless.

 

I hope so as well. It's great to read about your outlook on this. I feel sort of the same about death and grief. But I don't know how I would manage a parent's death, and the period before if it's a terminal illness. Thinking about it and actually going through it are ...different things.

[deftona]

It must be really difficult for your family right now, especially with you being so far away. You're handling it all so well and I hope your mom really enjoys the time she has left. 

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, @mu said:

Hey welcome back! Shinies are waiting for you

 

 

I hope so as well. It's great to read about your outlook on this. I feel sort of the same about death and grief. But I don't know how I would manage a parent's death, and the period before if it's a terminal illness. Thinking about it and actually going through it are ...different things.

I think in some ways we are lucky because we know it's coming and can prepare for it.  I think it might be harder in some ways if it was something sudden.

 

1 hour ago, deftona said:

It must be really difficult for your family right now, especially with you being so far away. You're handling it all so well and I hope your mom really enjoys the time she has left. 

Thanks.  Surprisingly it has actually been a period of great bonding.  While I was there, I overlapped with one of my brothers and 3 of my sisters and their spouses.  It was really great to spend time with everyone reminiscing about when we were kids, watching family videos from the 80s and just enjoying each other's company.  One of the most enjoyable moments came when we were all around the table planning the songs for the funeral and someone suggested we sing "Oh they Built the Ship Titanic" and we (the 4 of us kids who were there at the time and both of my parents) suddenly burst out singing it at full volume.

 

Our version is very similar to the one in this video (the song starts at 0:40)

 

The 3 spouses there could do nothing but sit around in shock and disbelief at what they were seeing.  What they didn't know was that when we were kids we did a lot of roadtripping as a family, and when we got bored on the road we would sing.  This was probably our favorite and was sung on every road trip I can remember, often multiple times.  

 

The song was rejected for the funeral, but even at times like that we were still able to have some fun and enjoy ourselves.

[WhiteGhost]

Back on the road again

 

Last night sleep was less than ideal.  I got into bed around 11pm but didn't manage to fall asleep until, well, never.  I got up about 3 or so because I was dying from boredom and took a long hot shower hoping that would make me sleepy.  It didn't work.  After dropping Ghostlet off for school I got back in bed and managed to fall asleep for about 30 minutes before I was woken up by a spam telephone call, after which I couldn't get back to sleep again.  

 

Since I still wasn't feeling tired, I decided to hit the road

 

Cadillac Ranch - I did a pull workout at the park but for some reason was really low energy.  It may have been that I haven't done any exercise for a week or maybe the -4C weather, but I suspect there may have been some other factor at play as well (looking at you, jetlag)   I ended up cutting most of my normal reps by about half or more but I still feel like it was a worthwhile workout because my shoulders were completely burned by the time I finished.

 

Whale of Catoosa - I did a bit of gymnastics after my workout, but again it was really low energy.  I did not get my kips.  I tried 3 times but only managed to land 2.  My shoulders were so spent by that time that I decided to just call it a day rather than risk injury trying to reach my artificial target.

 

Winslow Arizona - I did some stretching after I got home, but having not stretched for the last week, I was feeling really, really tight.  Apparently consistency is important, you would think I would have figured this out by now.

 

Muffler Man Statue - Ghostess asked me to make a pumpkin pie last night because she was in the mood for that, and I ended up having a couple of slices of that for breakfast.  While this technically counts for this goal, I think that loophole needs to be closed because that is definitely not in the spirit of what I want to do.  Luckily, I pulled some chili out of the freezer and had that for lunch, so I can still count this.  Having only dessert foods for meals has got to stop, though.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Traveling around the world flipped your days and nights, then flipped them back again. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a traveler's version of Shift Worker Syndrome.

[Mad Hatter]

3 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Apparently consistency is important, you would think I would have figured this out by now.

You and me both.  

[raptron]

On 12/9/2018 at 5:29 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Thanks.  Surprisingly it has actually been a period of great bonding.  While I was there, I overlapped with one of my brothers and 3 of my sisters and their spouses.  It was really great to spend time with everyone reminiscing about when we were kids, watching family videos from the 80s and just enjoying each other's company.  One of the most enjoyable moments came when we were all around the table planning the songs for the funeral and someone suggested we sing "Oh they Built the Ship Titanic" and we (the 4 of us kids who were there at the time and both of my parents) suddenly burst out singing it at full volume.

 

The 3 spouses there could do nothing but sit around in shock and disbelief at what they were seeing.  What they didn't know was that when we were kids we did a lot of roadtripping as a family, and when we got bored on the road we would sing.  This was probably our favorite and was sung on every road trip I can remember, often multiple times.  

 

The song was rejected for the funeral, but even at times like that we were still able to have some fun and enjoy ourselves.

I love this.

 

 

[Elennare]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

 but for some reason was really low energy.

I will posit the complete lack of sleep was a big contributor to this!

 

Glad you had a good trip, and that things are going as well as they can for your mom and family.

[@mu]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

  It may have been that I haven't done any exercise for a week or maybe the -4C weather, but I suspect there may have been some other factor at play as well (looking at you, jetlag) 

 

All of that for sure. Stretching is also very sensitive to all of this, in my experience.

 

[WhiteGhost]

18 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Traveling around the world flipped your days and nights, then flipped them back again. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a traveler's version of Shift Worker Syndrome.

Pretty sure in my case it's called jetlag, but reading the description they seems to be different causes for the same thing

 

18 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

You and me both.  

Consistency is def harder than it looks

 

16 hours ago, raptron said:

I love this.

Thanks  

 

14 hours ago, Elennare said:

I will posit the complete lack of sleep was a big contributor to this!

 

Glad you had a good trip, and that things are going as well as they can for your mom and family.

I suspect you are correct

 

Thanks

 

14 hours ago, @mu said:

 

All of that for sure. Stretching is also very sensitive to all of this, in my experience.

 

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense.  

 

I got more sleep last night, but it still wasn't great.  I caffeinated myself yesterday until 6pm, with the assumption that the caffeine would wear off around midnight.  Just as planned, I pretty much stopped in my tracks around 11:30 and trundled myself off to bed.  I still ended up waking up around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so just got up.  I was planning to go directly for my workout after dropping Ghostlet off at school, but even though the thermometer said -6C, the wind chill dropped it down to about -18 gazzilion (still Celsius, of course).  I noped on that and went straight home and climbed back into bed.  I was able to fall back asleep and didn't wake up until about 11.  By this time the wind had died down a bit so I went decided to go out

 

Cadillac Ranch - LEG DAY!!!    I always enjoy leg day and today was no exception.  I was doing really well until the last few exercises when I completely ran out of gas.  I decided to call it a day at that point and just came home.  

 

Whale of Catoosa - Too Tired; Didn't Happen

 

Winslow Arizona - I had a case of the don't wannas as I was stretching and was going to just phone it in, but then for some reason decided to stick it out and I was glad I did.  It turned out to be one the best stretching sessions I have had in a long time.

 

Muffler Man Statue - I haven't made myself lunch yet.  Because my workout started so late, I had my protein shake when lunch was supposed to be.  I haven't decided what I will do, but I am leaning toward making a meat pie.  Stay tuned next time to see if WhiteGhost actually makes his pie...

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Pretty sure in my case it's called jetlag, but reading the description they seems to be different causes for the same thing

 

I agree. I mainly posted the link for the self-care/recovery part of the article.

[raptron]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Cadillac Ranch - LEG DAY!!!    I always enjoy leg day and today was no exception.  I was doing really well until the last few exercises when I completely ran out of gas.  I decided to call it a day at that point and just came home.  

Totally fair! Yay for leg day.

 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Winslow Arizona - I had a case of the don't wannas as I was stretching and was going to just phone it in, but then for some reason decided to stick it out and I was glad I did.  It turned out to be one the best stretching sessions I have had in a long time.

NICE.

 

[WhiteGhost]

18 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I agree. I mainly posted the link for the self-care/recovery part of the article.

I had never heard of shift worker syndrome, so I appreciated the link

 

17 hours ago, raptron said:

Totally fair! Yay for leg day.

 

Now today I can barely walk

 

After watching @jonfirestar and @Cheetah do vlog updates, I decided to do one too

 

 

I was super nervous and kept forgetting what I was going to say

[@mu]

-10!

So vlog is the new trend? It was funny to get a visual on the pie disappointment, I have to say  

Enjoy your night!

[Cheetah]

Nice vlog post!  :-)  It's so fun to be able to put voices to names now!

[raptron]

Aw, that's super fun! Sorry about your meat pie. XD 

 

The kips'll come.

[jonfirestar]

12 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I was super nervous and kept forgetting what I was going to say

Yeah, that is pretty much how I felt about doing it  but it's really cool I'm really enjoying all the vlogs. 

[WhiteGhost]

17 hours ago, @mu said:

-10!

So vlog is the new trend? It was funny to get a visual on the pie disappointment, I have to say  

Enjoy your night!

Yeah, Vlogs seem to be the thing this week, although I think it is mostly happening over with the Rangers

 

17 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Nice vlog post!  :-)  It's so fun to be able to put voices to names now!

Thanks, your vlog was the first one that I saw, and it was cool enough to make me want to try it  

 

17 hours ago, raptron said:

Aw, that's super fun! Sorry about your meat pie. XD 

Thanks!  

 

17 hours ago, raptron said:

The kips'll come.

No, I don't think they will, which is why I have to go out and actively hunt them down  

 

11 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Yeah, that is pretty much how I felt about doing it  but it's really cool I'm really enjoying all the vlogs. 

I really enjoyed yours as well.  You didn't even seem nervous, but it was really strange because your accent was nothing like how I read you in my head (which is with an American accent, of course  ) 

 

Road trip update:

 

Cadillac Ranch - I almost didn't work out this morning because I was feeling super tired this morning.  I wanted to just stay in bed until lunch, but I figured that is not the best way to get over jetlag so I pulled myself out and went to the park.  It was a nice balmy 2 degrees this morning, so I only had to wear a couple of layers.  I did my push workout, but I had to scale it down because I was really struggling.  Over the week that I was in the US, I managed to put on about 5 kgs, which also doesn't help when doing bodyweight work.

 

Whale of Catoosa - I was really quite wiped out after the workout, but since I was at the park I decided to at least try and get in 3 kips.  Surprisingly, I was able to get up on all 3 of my attempts, and they all felt very smooth and clean.  It almost made me want to stay and do some more, but I really was pooped so I called it a day and came home.

 

Winslow Arizona - Another good stretching session after the workout.  In addition to the usual front fold and side split stretches, I also did a bit of shoulder work because my shoulders really needed it.

 

Muffler Man Statue - I had more of that beef pie that I made on Tuesday for my lunch.  It is pretty much edible, and the crust is buttery and flaky, and that is about all the good I can say about it.  Lessons learned from this are 1) Cook the potatoes before putting them in the pie - just the baking time alone is not enough to soften them; 2) Thicken the gravy before putting it in the pie - it won't reduce inside the pie like it does in a saucepan; 3) maybe try some meat tenderizer or something - just throwing in frozen cubes of beef into the pie produces a less than ideal result.

 

 

[raptron]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Cadillac Ranch - I almost didn't work out this morning because I was feeling super tired this morning.  I wanted to just stay in bed until lunch, but I figured that is not the best way to get over jetlag so I pulled myself out and went to the park.  It was a nice balmy 2 degrees this morning, so I only had to wear a couple of layers.  I did my push workout, but I had to scale it down because I was really struggling.  Over the week that I was in the US, I managed to put on about 5 kgs, which also doesn't help when doing bodyweight work.

I'm sure it's very temporary. I always am super bloated and heavy for at least a week after travel and it usually sloughs off pretty quick. 

 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Whale of Catoosa - I was really quite wiped out after the workout, but since I was at the park I decided to at least try and get in 3 kips.  Surprisingly, I was able to get up on all 3 of my attempts, and they all felt very smooth and clean.  It almost made me want to stay and do some more, but I really was pooped so I called it a day and came home.

Good job going and finding them.

 

[Mad Hatter]

12 minutes ago, raptron said:

I'm sure it's very temporary. I always am super bloated and heavy for at least a week after travel and it usually sloughs off pretty quick. 

Yeah, same, especially after long distance flights.

[jonfirestar]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I really enjoyed yours as well.  You didn't even seem nervous, but it was really strange because your accent was nothing like how I read you in my head (which is with an American accent, of course  ) 

 

 Back when I lived in the States I did develop a bit of an American lilt to my accent. But I've been back in the uk for long enough to have lost that. 

 

I most certainly was feeling very nervous although I did relax into it a bit. 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I had more of that beef pie that I made on Tuesday for my lunch.  It is pretty much edible, and the crust is buttery and flaky, and that is about all the good I can say about it.  Lessons learned from this are 1) Cook the potatoes before putting them in the pie - just the baking time alone is not enough to soften them; 2) Thicken the gravy before putting it in the pie - it won't reduce inside the pie like it does in a saucepan; 3) maybe try some meat tenderizer or something - just throwing in frozen cubes of beef into the pie produces a less than ideal result.

 

Cook your filling before putting it into the crust. Most of the time if you are using tougher cuts of meat they are going to want a lot more cooking than what it'll take to bake the crust so cook the filing separately and then add to the crust for the final bake. This is less needed if you are using more tender cuts of meat but you'll still need something to thicken the gravy or if you are making something like a steamed pudding which has a much longer cooking time. 

[WhiteGhost]

34 minutes ago, raptron said:

I'm sure it's very temporary. I always am super bloated and heavy for at least a week after travel and it usually sloughs off pretty quick. 

21 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Yeah, same, especially after long distance flights.

 

 

That's good to know.  I was worried it might be due to all of the soda, cookies, donuts, ice cream and pie that I consumed while I was there  

 

15 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

Cook your filling before putting it into the crust. Most of the time if you are using tougher cuts of meat they are going to want a lot more cooking than what it'll take to bake the crust so cook the filing separately and then add to the crust for the final bake. This is less needed if you are using more tender cuts of meat but you'll still need something to thicken the gravy or if you are making something like a steamed pudding which has a much longer cooking time. 

Ooh, great advice.  Thanks!

[WhiteGhost]

Well, the last 12 hours have not been great.  We have a bunch of apples that I needed to do something with so I made a pie.  Then, even though I was already full from dinner, decided to have some pie a la mode as a midnight snack.  I was full to the point of being uncomfortable and I didn't even enjoy it all that much.  

 

I was expecting to feel sleepy right around then because that is is my usual bedtime, but I started to get worried when 12:30 rolled around and I was still wide awake.  I thought I was feeling a little sleepy around 1, but I guess it was just the sandman throwing more of that defective sand around because I just rolled around trying to sleep until I gave up around 5. I got up and got everything ready to send Ghostlet to school, and by the time I got back I was ready to crash.  However, Ghostess had hired a couple of ladies come over first thing this morning to deep clean the apartment so I had to stay awake while they did their work.  I have to go get Ghostlet from school shortly so that means still no sleep.  Luckily caffeine is a thing so I can at least function, even though I feel pretty crappy.  The worst part is that I thought I was done with this whole jetlag thing, but I guess not.

 

No progress toward the challenge because I didn't work out or even eat lunch yet.

[deftona]

Urgh insomnia is not fun. You have my sympathies because I had a similar night. I hope you have an epic nap today, Whiteghost. 

[WhiteGhost]

On 12/14/2018 at 2:07 PM, deftona said:

Urgh insomnia is not fun. You have my sympathies because I had a similar night. I hope you have an epic nap today, Whiteghost. 

No naps for me, because the absolute worst way to get over jetlag is to give in to naps.  I decided to caffeinate instead, which worked out pretty well.  Ghostess didn't get back from work until midnight and by the time she got back I could barely keep my eyes open.  Got in a solid nigh't sleep and and feeling pretty good (so far)

 

No workout this morning, but I did get in some activity.  Our church youth group went out for laser tag and I joined them with that.  Between games, bunch of the boys and a few of the leaders were showing off pull up skills on an I-beam.  I thought I was being pretty cool with some tuck front levers until one of the other leaders did some lever crawl things.  Basically like doing a spider crawl along the underside of the beam, but without using his legs.  He definitely won for the coolest trick  

 

This afternoon Ghostlet has his first playoff game of the season with his football team and I will be heading out to that shortly.  I am kind of in the mood for some more exercise so I may do some this evening after we get back from the game.

 

Food has not been great so far (pizza for lunch with the youth group, and then some apple pie for a snack.  Dinner should be pretty good, though, because Ghostess is going to do some cooking while Ghostlet and I are at the football game.  Quite looking forward to that