Rooks - Tracking the Daily Grind...

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

31 minutes ago, Rooks said:

For real... WTF? You work for an company that focuses on smart devices, and you can't figure out a smart plug? Ugh... and don't even get me started on the atrocious behavior around office dishes. People, in general, either severely lack common sense, were raised by people with zero cleanliness, or they just think they are too important to be bothered to clean up after themselves. 

That is extremely frustrating. As my mom says when she's feeling grammaticly incorrect, "Some folks ain't got no brung-upness."

[Elastigirl]

I love the 100 days of SImple Plan. 

 

I am praying for wisdom for both you guys and the doctors.

[Rooks]

So... I still haven't started the Simple 100 yet. I'm debating about starting tomorrow. We shall see.

 

Friday, we finally went in to discuss options with the doctor. She had talked with a whole slew of doctors to come up with all options and then try and sift through all the opinions to figure out which was the best option. I was pretty impressed with how thorough she was. The option she came to (and convinced us on) was to try another chemo drug, which is a mTOR inhibitor. Oddly enough, I had just saw Peter Attia talking about mTOR on Twitter. A quick search found that he's got at least 2 podcasts on the subject so that'll be helpful in getting me up to speed on what we doing to kiddo in an attempt to turn off the tumor. So yeah... overall, it seems like a good approach, now we just have to hope it works.

 

Saturday, I got to go to one of MobilityWOD's Performance Workshops with Dr. Travis Jewett. It was a really good time. Just being a room with 11 other people who actually seemed to care about moving better, helping others move better, and slinging the iron was awesome. There were 11 people at the class, 12 if you include Dr. Jewett. His approach to lifting is very simplistic. Tries to keep things very simple and not force too many cues on people. Just let them move how they want to move, UNLESS it's not safe. We started with some good warm-up movements to find areas of tightness as well find stances that might work best for you. Then we covered all 4 of the primary power movements, squat, press, deadlift, bench. Over an 8 hour period, I worked up to a 275 squat, then a 155 press (tied my all time PR I think), a 420 deadlift, and a 250 bench. Overall, the class was great for me as it was just fun to sling some weights and get coached by someone who seems to know quite a bit. Honestly, I didn't glean a ton of information about how to move better, but it seemed like I had better movement patterns than 90% of the class anyway. But the few tips I did get were good, plus it was good to hear from someone in the know that I was moving just fine. He did give me a few cues on a narrow sumo pull (think Ed Coan) that seemed to be make it feel very powerful. My 420 pull was still my conventional stance, but soon I'll probably try working up to a 1RM on narrow sumo and see how that feels. You can see my shaggy head right behind Dr. Jewett in the class photo.

 

Beyond that, despite the lack of fitness in my life, I have been managing to finish a lot of projects around the house. I'm almost done with a big LED project on our deck (hoping to finally get them turned on today), I just need to get some paint on a KB rack I welded up (converted an old free DB stand to a KB rack by welding flat sheet metal onto the top), built some shelving system from plywood and 2x4s I had in the garage to get that a bit more organized, and I made some paracord bracelets for my daughter and some friend's kids. Still a never-ending list of crap to get done, but progress is progress. And building crap is super fun. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

That seminar sounds really cool.

[Tobbe]

Impressive list of things you got done there! I bet it felt good to finish off all of those things!

[WhiteGhost]

Sounds like things have been going pretty well.  I hope the new treatment works out for Kiddo

[Arkania]

Just read the last two pages and I wish you, your daughter and your whole family all the best!

I am crying a little because I know (sort of, not my daughter) how this feels!

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Elastigirl]

Do you want to come to my house and do those projects? Or you could post pictures, so I can show my husband his next projects. I never thought of a kb rack, but I really think that would help. And what is the LED project for the deck? I want more lights on our deck.

[Rooks]

On 9/16/2018 at 9:59 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

That seminar sounds really cool.

 

Indeed. Upon reflection, I'm more and more glad I went.

 

On 9/16/2018 at 11:12 AM, Tobbe said:

Impressive list of things you got done there! I bet it felt good to finish off all of those things!

 

Thanks. Indeed. It's always pleasant to cross some stuff off the to-do list.

 

On 9/17/2018 at 4:13 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Sounds like things have been going pretty well.  I hope the new treatment works out for Kiddo

 

Thank you. 

 

On 9/19/2018 at 12:04 PM, Arkania said:

Just read the last two pages and I wish you, your daughter and your whole family all the best!

I am crying a little because I know (sort of, not my daughter) how this feels!

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

Yeah. It's not a fun journey, but it's at the very least enlightening. It's made me a better person.

 

On 9/20/2018 at 8:00 PM, Elastigirl said:

Do you want to come to my house and do those projects? Or you could post pictures, so I can show my husband his next projects. I never thought of a kb rack, but I really think that would help. And what is the LED project for the deck? I want more lights on our deck.

 

Ha! Maybe if I can cross a few more things off my own list. And since you asked... 

 

The KB Rack was pretty simple. Basically, my Mother in Law had this (not exactly that but close enough):

 

I basically cut out the shelves, flipped them over so the angle iron was down, and then welded a big flat piece of metal onto the top. Then I mounted them back to the sides flat instead of angled down like they were originally. I just put the 2nd coat of paint on yesterday, and will put a clear coat on Thursday, but hopefully it'll be setup in the gym by Sunday night.

 

The lights were a fun idea my wife had, but in practice, it was a crazy project. I probably spent close to 30-40 hours on it all said and done. Did a bit of math, and electrical calculation to figure out what sort of power supplies we needed, making sure everything was outdoor rated, etc. But... it's done now. We'll see if holds up to the Minnesota winters or if I'll need to improve it next spring. Below is a photo from Saturday night. The perimeter lights, the bench lights, and the stairs are all on separate controllers (meaning each can be different colors) and they are all controlled through an app on our phones. It's a pretty cool setup now that it's done. Like I said though... if I had known how much work it was going in, I probably would have tried to persuade my wife off the idea much more. Oh well... it's cool.

 

 

I'll ramble a bit more about projects in the update post coming shortly after this one. 

[Tobbe]

Love the lights! Looking forward to future projects  

[Rooks]

Ok... so update time. 

 

Nothing stands out as relevant looking back for the week of 17th. I think it was just a normal week. Friday, I loaded up the kiddo and drove out to my folks house. I spent Friday night out there, then spent 4 hours using my dad's tools to accomplish some projects that would have taken much longer back at my place. I cut up some metal stands I had made in welding class a few years back. They never got used, and they were big so I wanted that space back. Plus more scrap metal is always good for coming up with other project ideas. Then, I used the table saw, band saw, and miter saw for cutting up some hickory, walnut, and cherry wood into the sizes I needed. I'm planning on making some gifts this year for some woodworking friends as a means to further my capabilities as a woodworker, and cause I like doing stuff for other folks. Then I cruised home without the kiddo, spent a few hours cleaning up the garage, then the wife and I went out to eat at a local joint called Pig At My Pizza. Fantastic pizza and atmosphere. It's just a fun place. Followed that up with a trip to Broken Clock Brewery (which we are part of owners of, it's a Cooperative, I think I've said this before). 

 

Sunday, we decided we were going to skip church and crush some house projects. I installed some new smoke / CO detectors as we found most of our were past their expiration date (they apparently last between 7 and 10 years). Then, I went to the local O'Reilly to buy spark plugs for my wife's car as well drop off all sorts of car fluids I'd been "saving" for awhile. Followed that up with a trip to Home Depot to buy new peel and stick flooring for a project my wife was tackling, a new floor for our porch. Got home, I dove right into putting the plugs into her car, and she dove right into putting down the new floor. I finished up the plugs about the same time she was finishing the flooring. I installed baseboard for her as I feel a bit more comfortable with a hammer. Then, it was back out to the garage to finish the shelving I was building previously. Basically, I just wanted to extend one of the shelves like 3 feet. So did that, then threw a coat of paint onto the KB rack. Right around then, my folks arrived with kiddo, so we had dinner with them. 

 

Monday morning, kiddo had another MRI, this one was only really because our next chemo drug will be part of a study done, and so for medical studies, they have very strict guidelines. One was that we had to have an MRI of the tumor within 21 days of starting the medication. So yeah... did that and we were home by 11am. Hospital visits in general are normally blah for me, so I wasn't feeling super upbeat, and then kiddo and my wife took a nap since we got up so early. I did some work, although I more just watched Youtube, being honest. Then, they got up, and my wife asked "So you going to workout today?" Honestly, I didn't want to, but I went down to the basement and did 100 Swings and 10 Get-ups and I decided that was the start. Day 1 had commenced of the Simple 100.

 

Tuesday at 10am we had an appointment with Genetics that was basically pointless. Most appointments with them are pointless for us anyway. It's more information for them to hopefully be able to further the understanding of what's going on with kiddo and potentially others. But they are short so it's not that big of a deal. Once we got back from that, my day was much the same where I tried to work from home, and didn't do much worthwhile. Kiddo and wife again took a nap. I called into a few meetings and that was about it. When they got up, I wanted to get my last coat of paint on my KB rack, as well as put the battery back in my truck (had it tested to make sure it was ok for winter), and finally mash out my 2nd workout. Did all of it in probably 90 minutes, and then it was time for Tutu Taco Tuesday, a 20+ week old tradition in our house where we make Tacos on Tuesday and kiddo wears a Tutu. Last night was venison steak tacos. They were on-point. My wife makes a superb taco. 

 

Finally, this morning, I got up at 5:45 with kiddo (which honestly is pretty late for her recently), and mashed out my workout while she watched some Wild Kratts. Now I'm here at work, and I should be trying to figure out what I need to accomplish here. Instead, I'm writing this because it seems more valuable to me. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, typing that out actually makes me feel pretty good about where my head is at now. I make no guarantees it'll stay that way, but at least I started something.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

41 minutes ago, Rooks said:

Finally, this morning, I got up at 5:45 with kiddo (which honestly is pretty late for her recently), and mashed out my workout while she watched some Wild Kratts. Now I'm here at work, and I should be trying to figure out what I need to accomplish here. Instead, I'm writing this because it seems more valuable to me. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, typing that out actually makes me feel pretty good about where my head is at now. I make no guarantees it'll stay that way, but at least I started something.  

Then I think the absolute best thing you could have done was to type this out. 

[Elastigirl]

That rack is super cool. And the lights so pretty. And different colors! Great job at getting some KB work in.

[Rooks]

10 days down. No workouts missed so far. I'm able to function so much better when I stop drinking so much. Everything becomes easier. Getting up in the morning. Finding the motivation to swing a kettlebell around. It's one of those basic concepts that seems so "DUH!" and yet it's not until you lay off the sauce a bit that you fully realize it. So yeah... this morning's workout was as follows:

 

100 Swings in sets of 10 EMOM. 20kg x 6 / 24kg x 2 / 20kg x 2

10 Turkish Get-ups. 20kg x 10. 

 

Just those 2 sets of 24kg swings definitely fried my grip a lot more than normal. But I'll keep throwing in a few sets here and there to keep working my way up.

 

Since I last posted, life has been pretty consistent. Workouts, work, and family time. That's pretty much it. Once thing that did come up and I'm still working through. My wife told me that she feels like I haven't been happy in a long time. I wasn't sure how to take that. Stopping to think about it, I feel like she might have been somewhat right. But at the same time, I don't know what to do about it. Honestly, I struggle to understand what "happy" is. I can say that I enjoy things and I enjoy a lot of things in my life. Also, I don't feel like my life has much stress besides the stress of dealing with kiddo's tumor (yes, I realize this is no small thing, but at the same token, with 2+ years of processing it, I feel like it has lowered my stress in other aspects of my life). So yeah... I don't know what to do about that. One thing that I'm probably going to try soon is to take the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator quiz. Enneagram is big in our church, and I've got a lot of friends who say it's very helpful. Then sure enough the Living Experiment did a podcast about it (here if you care to listen). Listening to the descriptions, I felt like I'm a 5 more than likely, but for $12 and 45 minutes, might as well just take the official quiz. Maybe knowing more about myself will help me figure out what will provide life satisfaction, hence, happiness... maybe. It's at least a working theory.

 

Otherwise,  the KB rack got finished (picture just cause @Elastigirl seemed interested). The paint didn't hold up anywhere near as well as I'd hoped, but whatever. It organizes things more instead of a mess of KBs on the floor. I've also started a batch of sanding blocks and wooden mallets. 2 projects I've always wanted to do for myself, so I'm making up my own, then going to make 3 extra for some buddies who I'll say are my "maker" friends. Hoping to have all of them done by Christmas. 

 

 

Finally, kiddo's next appointment is Friday morning, where we'll be given our next set of drugs. This time we are trying an mTOR inhibitor. Oddly, enough I noticed that Peter Attia is done a few podcasts on mTOR so I'm trying to get through those, but good lord, that shit is hard to dig into. Podcasts where doctors are throwing around doctoral lingo like it's everyday conversation is tough. But if there's anything that can get my mind focuses it's probably this subject matter. 

 

That's good enough for now. Later folks! 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I've been there with malaise, though obviously not for the same reasons.

[Rooks]

Heyo NF. I have no idea if people still are subbed to my thread, but I'm back and trying to do some fundraising for St. Baldrick's again. If you want to donate to a good cause, and see my head get shaved (I'll post the video afterwards), here's a link to my fundraiser. Realize I haven't been active at all lately, and I'm not sure if that'll change, but I have been getting in some workouts (usually 2 per week) for awhile. It's at least keeping me relatively stable. Anyway, I appreciate any donation. Thanks.

 

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mattypshaveshishead

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Rooks!!! I hope all is well. I think of you every time this wrestler’s ad is on my FB feed.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Still here.

[Rooks]

Came across this snippet in a book I recently read, and really made me think about Nerd Fitness. It's a conversation between Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, from their book All That Remains. I know I'm not part of NF much these days, but NF has brought me relationships much the same way this conversation discusses. I post it because their is so much negative stigma around meeting people on the internet. Don't be ashamed. It's better than propinquity.

 

 

Quote

 

“I know, but for the purposes of my little analogy, let’s imagine that you are in a relationship with a hypothetical someone.”

“OK.”

“Think about how you might’ve met this hypothetical person: where, under what circumstances, et cetera.”

“Alright.”

“How did you meet?”

“We probably met at a bar,” he says, “or at work.”

“Right. A relationship based on conveniences and proximity.”

“But that’s how people meet. We meet at places. We say ‘Hi, can I buy you a drink?’ or ‘Hello, my name is Ryan; it’s nice to meet you.’ It’s what we do.”

“True, but that way of meeting people is fairly antiquated.”

“What’s the alternative then?”

“For many yeas we, along with most of the world, have associated with people based on propinquity.”

“Pro-pen-what?”

“Propinquity. Being close to someone or something.”

“Oh. Proximity, closeness.”

“Correct. Anyway, we’ve associated with folks based almost entirely on propinquity. In my case, and likely yours too, the people who are closest to me are the people who are, well closest to me. That is, for most of my life I’ve spent most of my time with people whose largest commonality is proximity: schoolmates, coworkers, acquaintances, networking buddies, and the like.”

“And what exactly is wrong with that?”

“It’s not about right or wrong. And most of these people haven’t been bad people, but other than location, we’ve had very little in common. We typically don’t share similar values or beliefs, and let’s face it: values and beliefs are the bedrocks of any meaningful relationship. And in many cases we didn’t even share any common interests.”

“Interests?”

“We’re not even interested in the same things. Think about that hypothetical woman you met in the bar or at work. What do y’all have in common?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Well the only commonalities you can be sure of is that you both like to go to bars, or you both have careers.”

“But I don’t even really like going to bars.”

“Precisely. Plus I know you don’t love the work you do. So your commonalities aren’t even things you enjoy, which is how many relationships begin, with little in common, and then we wonder why they don’t work out.”

“But if we don’t meet people at the standard places, then where?”
“I think meeting people should be more deliberate.”

“Whadda you mean?”

“This whole minimalism thing has helped me live more deliberately. Accordingly, my relationship are more deliberate too. Besides two of my closest relationships--you and Keri--and a handful of friendships spawned from the corporate world, I’ve met all my most meaningful relationships online.”

“Like, on the Internet?”

“That’s right. I’ve met most of my closest friends on the Internet.”

“Living in the future.”

“It's a weird thing to say, for sure. But it’s the magnificent truth. And for good reasons.”

“But don't you find that the women you date have a problem with your minimalistic lifestyle?”

“Not really. I mean, why the hell would I want to spend significant chunks of my time with someone who doesn’t share similar values or interests? My lifestyle is predicated on certain principles, and thus my relationships--intimate or otherwise--must align with my own personal standards.”

“What if you really like the other person, but they’re different from you?”

“Different is great. Sometimes. You see, differences fuel chemistry, and that chemistry makes a relationship exciting; ti adds variety. But long term, it’s hard to grow with someone if you’re both growing in opposite directions, which you will inevitably do if you don’t have similar values or beliefs. So you need both: the right balance of differences to keep the relationship from becoming boring, and enough in common that you have a firm foundation.”

Ryan nods his head and brushes an invisible piece of lint from his shirt. 

“But you see,” I continue, “because of the Internet, you and I are no longer relegated by propinquity. We’re no longer forced to engage in pointless small talk in an effort to uncover a morsel of commonality. We no longer have to hang out with the guy or gal in the nearby cubicle outside work hours. Instead we can seek out people with similar values or beliefs.”

 

 

[Rooks]

 

Time to clean off the Battle Log and started posting here.

 

Oof, been a few days. Final bit of the challenge just didn't happen. I didn't get any workouts in. Birthday came and went. My MIL gifted me her treadmill which is nice. Now I just need to get it into over to my house once I get the truck up and running again (it basically hibernates in the winter). 

 

On Monday the 14th, we had a contractor over to replace a broken window pane. I asked if he could investigate potential air leakage around the window and he did, but then he cracked the trim putting it back in and didn't tell me. My wife noticed it later that night so that was annoying. Minor in the grande scheme of things, and I'm fairly confident I can fix it in like 30 minutes, but I just don't want another project on my to-do list. Especially since later that morning I heard running water, to find standing water in our master bathroom. Hose burst or something between the faucet and the shutoff valves. So I spent probably 3 hours getting stuff dried out. It appears for the most part, we didn't suffer any lasting damage besides some pretty minor cosmetic damage to our vanity. But I did have to basically take apart all of the drop ceiling in the basement to make sure the insulation wasn't wet and air could flow to dry things out. Oh... and then my lawnmower / snowblower wouldn't start. So yeah... Monday added a lot of things to my "fix" list. I wasn't super thrilled especially because I was already feeling busy at work.

 

Things turned out fine, and on Wednesday, we loaded up for a spring break trip down to Mammoth Cave and the St. Louis Arch. My daughter (and realistically my wife) has a goal of hitting all the National Parks before she turns 18. I'm along for the ride because I'm terrible at planning any sort of vacation. I have fun when we do them, but I'm also content just spending free time in the shop or sitting on the couch. So yeah... I'm glad she likes to take the reins and plan fun things. Our flights were both super early flights so that was rough (up at 4am for both of them), and we flew back yesterday morning. We got home around 9am, and I started working right away as I hadn't taken a vacation day. Wife and daughter took a 3 hour nap. 

 

Any who... that's basically the summary of the last week. Hopefully I'll get some more time today and figure out what I want to do going forward around goals, etc. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Yikes, that's a lot of hone maintenance stuff. Hope you get a break from that for a while.

[Rooks]

So overall, the last week has been solid. Funny how a lot of the weeks where I don't drink are the good ones. That said, it could also just be that I'm excited about spring and the lack of snow. Overall, I've simplified my goals down to just try and do things every day. I've begun tracking 5 things using an app called "Way of Life". 

• Did you consume alcohol?
• Did you take a cold shower (at least 1 minute)?
• Did you spend at least 10 minutes working on some sort of home project?
• Did you spend at least 10 minutes aimed at fitness?
• Did you spend at least 10 minutes reading? 

The cold shower bit I'm still a little up in the air on the overall benefits, but most mornings it wakes me up real fast, and I can answer the question of "Did you do something that sucks?" with a yes answer. So how have I done the last 8 days (Tuesday 22nd through Tuesday the 29th)....

• 6/8 without alcohol. I'm on-call for work until Friday this week, and I always feel like I shouldn't drink during that time, so this is an easy win.
• 8/8 cold showers. 
• 4/8 on home projects. 2 of the days were larger work days getting the basement back in order after we confirmed nothing was damaged (with the exception of 2 ceiling tiles that fell and broke, but I just have to buy replacements) with flooding and we couldn't find any mold anywhere. Also, found the lawnmower not starting was just that I was WAY too stressed to be diagnosing problems. It was that I still had the PTO engaged (most lawnmowers made after the 80s won't let you start them if the PTO is on, and the PTO is the thing that turns the blades for folks who have no idea). Pushed that red switch down and it fired right up. Other 2 days were pretty minor. I took measurements and planned out how I was going to build some trim for some garage windows, and the other day I spent probably 30 minutes sort drilling bits. Super exciting, but I've acquired like 16 partial sets of drill bits over the years, and never had a good way to store them, so I'm tasking myself with getting that orgranized soon. Will probably steal and idea similar to Steve Ramsey's organizer (runs a woodworking channel called Woodworking for Mere Mortals). 
• 4/8 on the fitness. Did 30 minutes on the bike Tuesday after I wrote the previous post, 45 minutes on the bike Saturday night, and did two sessions with the weights Monday and Tuesday this week (deadlifts and push presses).
• 7/8 reading. Slowly working my way through the Anarchist's Design Book (about 450 pages done out of the 700+). Compared to the other 2 Anarchist's books this is by far the most focused on how to build specific pieces of furniture, not Christopher's writing, and I'm finding it rather boring. Yes the plans are great, and if I ever build any of the furniture he's outlining it'll be handy, but I love the man's writings and insights so I was hoping there'd be more in this one. Perhaps the ending few chapters will be more of it. Overall, at this point, I'm slogging through it. I'm really wanting to start the Kingkiller Chronicles as it was a recommendation from the friend I met up with a few weeks back, and I've heard this series come up a few times already. Plus I've seen Patrick Rothfuss on Critical Role. 

Anyway, so that's pretty much the summary. 

 

In a bit of what I hope is fun news, a local Emergency Housing that my wife and I have donate to put on their FB page they needed a handyman for a few hours a week. I reached out and said I'd probably have the skills and it sounds like I'm in. Should be a good change of pace over the slog that Dev work has become in an all remote work environment. I know some folks love the remote work, but I man, I need at least a day or two a week of face time to keep myself sane. 

[Waldo]

I do it the lazy way with drill bits; drill a hole in a 2x4 for the bits; though I have a big machinist set in a metal tin it'd be ridiculous to do it with.  But it works great for forstners, spades, masonry, and all my rando big bits (and router bits).

 

I gave up on my lawnmower last year; it was only a couple years old, a basic push gas mower that replaced a similar old one I had (motor mount on the deck rusted through that one).  It would run for a bit, then cut out.  First here and there on hills.  No matter what I did to try to fix the issue, it just got worse and worse.  I finally got sick of dealing with it so I bought a reel mower.  Tried to start the gas one when the sticks and acorns got bad in the fall but it was useless, wouldn't stay running long enough.  I took advantage of the black friday deals though to get an battery electric mower, got rid of the darn gas one once and for all, I just don't need to spend hours of my weekend time a few times over the summer trying to make a little engine run (leaf blowers and trimmers are even worse, darn things always need attention).

 

Have you ever watched any of Paul Sellers videos?  I learn quite a bit from him.

[Elastigirl]

That sounds like a great app!  Glad you have a chance to get out of the house and use your skills to help others

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

58 minutes ago, Waldo said:

leaf blowers and trimmers are even worse, darn things always need attention

God save us from two-cycle engines.

 

My dad was able to make a weed-eater run for decades by always draining the gas tank after he was done then starting it several times to burn off all the gas.