Day: January 21, 2021

Gadgets and gear

Today’s walk: my Garmin “said” it was faster than than Tuesday’s one, but the course was more or less identical and the time was about 1 second different…

The pain never did come but the tingles were there; focusing on my core and posture seemed to help. I think that, moving forward, my endurance will be how long I can remember to keep the posture erect.

Now about those courses:

3.09 miles

3.23

I think that my first mile was early (13:42..should have been about a minute longer. This was from earlier… so, no, the Garmin is not perfect.

Home gym inventory

Home gym: well, it appears to be in place. I started with old stuff from 1984: old 66 inch long, 1 inch bar (17 lb), old cheap DP Olympic bar (44 lb) along with plates for both, and a very cheap 1 inch curl bar that I don’t use much. I also had an old flat bench (still decent, but no spotter arms)

January 16, 2020, just over 1 year ago. Trap Bar.

About the same time: 45 lb. bumper plates.

Then came the pandemic in March; I knew gyms would be closed for a while (didn’t dream this long). I got ahead of the rush a bit:

March 2020: 25 lb bumper plates.

Pull up, push up and dip station (outdoor)

March 2020: dumbbell handles and 10 lb. plates

March 2020: inexpensive, portable squat racks with spotter arms.

These wobble a bit; rated at 400 lb but I wouldn’t go that high with them. They are adequate and portable.

March 22 2020: spotter bench: MY BABY.

Though the dumbbell handles are the most practical purchase and I use the trap bar more than any of my new toys(rows, deadlifts), this behemoth is my favorite.

This set up served me for a while, but then I wanted to upgrade from my rusty old cast iron plates.

August 2020: new steel 45’s, 4 10’s, 2 5’s.This made trap bar loading just a bit easier.

November 2020: weight seat I was running out of confidence in those old folding metal chairs. Sure, the weight plus my body weight was still less than my old top weight, but I wanted to be safer.

November 2020: new steel 25’s, 2.5’s, and another set of 45’s This allowed me to not have to empty the bench press barbell for “heavy” trap bar deadlifts.

December 2020: weight plate holders: one for 2 inch, 1 for 1 inch plates

January 2021: new squat rack to use as a pressing rack. This makes racking the weights MUCH easier.

So…I put together this “gym” using sales and being opportunistic.

Where next? Incline bench? Uh, not sure if that is necessary as shoulder presses and flat benches are doing the job. Low priority though one that is light weight and portable can be used outside for nice spring/summer/fall day workouts (along with the portable squat stands)

Bar? My two bars are from 1984 (37 years old) BUT they are getting the job done. The 1 inch bar is frankly better than what I can find right now; it is sold and, at the sleeve width, stood up to 300+ lb. deadlifts. It’s current “wide configuration” is fine up to what I can either bench or shoulder press. So no need for a 1 inch bar.

Olympic? My current one has chipped chrome and a few rust spots, but it is still …getting the job done as all I really use it for is bench presses these days. Another Olympic bar might allow me to take a wider grip on shoulder presses…but..I don’t know; it might be wise to wait until there is a glut (post pandemic) or a sale.

A cancer removed, but challenges remain

Ok, I was relieved to see the previous president FINALLY out of office.

I can say that I did not have the white hot hatred of him that many of my friends had; I kind of saw him as a cross between Arthur (from the Dudley Moore flim) (rich and irresponsible) and the Cartman character from Southpark: Amusing when not in power, but unpleasant to be around, incompetent and uninterested in learning to be competent.

You might call him “unserious.” Much of what a good president has to do is tedious, difficult, and will inevitably make at least 30-40 percent of the country upset (in most cases).

Nevertheless, 74 million voted for Trump and think he did well.

Some STILL think Democrats are about bribing people with “free stuff”. This was posted by one of B’s former students (now an attorney):

“it seems like the goal now is income redistribution and to tax, tax and tax and bribe folks to vote for Dems by providing more “free stuff”….I would much prefer rewarding folks for working and providing value and thereby incentivizing hard work and innovation ….as Reagan once stated, you can’t tax your way to prosperity”

You have nonsense like this too:

And let’s remember: many who stormed the Capitol were reasonably well off (state lawmakers, private jet users, CEO’s, Service Academy grads, police officers, etc.)

And so, yes, while some of the 74 million liked the tax cuts, business deregulation, the way that their retirement accounts looked, right wing judges, etc, …these are what I call the “Faustian bargain” types..

But, there is this aspect too:

And there is the left wing. These are the ones who were upset that Biden was nominated…the ones who just KNEW that Sanders or Warren would win.

And I see them going around, thinking that Biden won thanks to the sanctimonious left wing “activists.” Frankly, the “defund the police” type stuff hurt us in Congress and darned near tipped the election to Trump; he needed only about 43K votes switched in Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia to flip the EC.

Frankly, a lot of these types may have helped Trump win to begin with.

Remember, Trump improved his performance among minorities, ..NOT just Cubans in Florida.

Liberals keep falling for this (ok, this was about Brexit but the principle applies)

I really wish liberals would look at those large Trump rallies, or even those large Trump boat parades and ask themselves: “did I find this convincing?” Then maybe they might get the answer to “what did our demonstrations do?” (besides possibly spread COVID19….and liberal hypocrisy on that is another matter both at the individual and mass levels)