Month: January 2023

Hurt feelings online

A few days ago, B posted a meme that lampooned religious violence. One of her old boyfriends (probably in his 80’s) complained about the meme…and his complaints were less than well received.

That made me think:

  1. Why was he so confident about expressing his opinion and
  2. Why did he think it would be well received.

So..what was going on? My guess: he is probably well respected in his church, and when he speaks there, the others listen and appreciate his insights. But Facebook is not his church.

And I think about that about myself. In class: I know more math than my students and they KNOW that. So in class, I get listened to. At a conference, my credentials are respected. Now some in the audience may know more math, and often, they are better at it. But they know that I know the topic I am talking about.

But..on something like Twitter? Well, if I am not talking academic/math stuff, well, there is no reason for anyone to, a priori, take me seriously. Who in the heck am *I*? And on math topics, I hope my knowledge shows though, but you have to know some math to make a judgement.

Online, few have any prior knowledge of us and..if we are talking about something that someone feels passionately about, well, I, as a stranger, am not going to move them, at all.

I don’t miss the gym, at all

Yes, I still belong to two, and I might use the indoor track or perhaps the pool at some point in my recovery from COVID and, well, to be honest, recovery from the back stuff too. 2 miles walking seems doable.

But as far as lifting at the gym: I last lifted in March 2020, right before we went online. I have yet to lift in a gym since. But I did add to my own home gym and I enjoy the pull ups, push ups, bench presses, etc.

But…at the time I left, I admit that I was enjoying the gym atmosphere less and less.

Gone are the days when people, who didn’t know each other, worked in. And there are things like this:

It seems that few ever thing about other people and that other people might be trying to work out as well.

But …where this video stuff was non-existent for most of my gym using life (1972-2020), perhaps part of the reason is age. I do like an occasional self challenge but most of what I do is to try to keep from further falling apart.

Hey, my bench…I got 176 this year, and I got 314 with the low handle trap bar deadlift in December 2021. I am over 100 lb weaker in the bench and about 100 lb weaker in the deadlift than I once was.

It is just …different. And I don’t miss it.

Progressing

No, not 100 percent; not even close. But I did have a leisurely paced workout that didn’t kill me.

PT with 5 sets of 10 push ups

Pull ups: 2 sets of 6 crunch style singles, 2 sets of 6 and one set of 6 singles.

bench: 6 x 134, 6 x 145, 6 x 145

high incline: 3 sets of 6 x 94

4 inch dead: 5 x 134, 5 x 184, 5 x 228 lb.

Then a 2 mile walk: Put a slight effort into it.

The deadlifts: second 3 reps looked better than the first 2, where my hips shot up.
Overall: slight cough is there at times, mood: I get irritated easier, sort of tired.

First 2 miles felt really good; rolled on the hip/glute afterward.

Masking, public opinions, personal opinions, etc.

First some personal stuff: this morning, I did my PT in a very leisurely manner. Then I walked 2 miles on a route which was 95 percent snow-free. Averaged just a hair under 15 mpm (15:15/14:45).

Not much pain, but I do have to roll a bit…and this is now infections go: your recently weak areas get exposed.

I had almost 2 week of symptoms. And I noticed the following: of a group of 3 friends, two with small, slender builds had almost no symptoms at all, whereas the 3 with higher BMI (I am 6 feet, 195 lb pre COVID) had worse symptoms.

Technically, my symptoms would be classified as “mild” as I never had breathing problems; O2 was 97-98; main symptoms were disrupted sleep, fatigue, body aches, old injuries flaring up. Fever was only 1 day, coughing is slight and I did have mild drainage, except for one day where it was heavy.

Still, the experience is unpleasant enough for me to work to avoid in the future; the mask is coming back (I got slack for couple of days).

Public Opinion and masking Yes, I posted a photo of my getting ready to teach a class by Zoom and I posted a video of my wearing a mask while doing push ups.

And OF COURSE, someone had to comment on the mask, each time.

“Mask for Zoom?” and “Bro, take the mask off.”

Context: in the photo, it was my day of my first negative test. It was in the home office room, which has two folding doors leading to the living room, where my wife hangs out. So, I wanted to limit the amount of virus I put in this room (that she uses) and in the adjoining room; this was NOT my isolation room (nicked name “the goathaus”)

In the second case (the video) I had another negative test. But I was doing these in the living room where my wife was, so the mask was to protect her (unseen in the view of the camera.

Moral: if it looks strange that someone is masking, there may be more there than meets the eye. Sometimes, I am walking a short distance between indoor buildings and don’t want to bother with the “on/off”, especially if I am bundled for winter.

First full day back

Yes, it felt good; few streamed the classes. But it WAS tiring.

Maybe this will be the final test result I’ll post.

Workout notes: yesterday, full PT and 5 sets of pull ups; 3 were 6 singles and 2 were 6 reps (ok, 4 if you believe the critics)

I went into the office a bit.

Today: PT (full) and push ups: 5 sets of 20. Then one sort of rough commuter walk; I’ll have to roll a bit and I’ll have to stretch before walking. It wasn’t like the bad old days though..not even close.

Fool’s Gold

The saga continues. Frankly, yesterday’s negative kind of surprised me. I did not feel quite that good. And last night: frequent urination again (not as bad as day 1). And low and behold: faint positive.

I was expecting this yesterday. But I feel ok as I type this and I got a few things done, took a micro walk (about 1/2 mile total) and did my back exercises. Push ups tomorrow with back, and online AGAIN.

Society It appears as if COVID is being accepted as being part of the background now, just another one of life’s risks. I really wish we had used this to invest in better air filtration systems for our schools, office buildings and the like.

I do like that we are going to go to some sort of “seasonal vaccine” to match the current strain. I’ll get one of those for sure. And I’ll probably become a regular mask wearer (indoor in large groups that I do not know), at least “in season.”

Reluctance to get the newest booster

I’ve read about people who got the first vaccine and are now refusing to get the booster and I know some of these personally.

Of course, understanding why would require study by qualified professionals and not just some unqualified blogger throwing some thoughts together.

But here is my guess:

In the US, the vaccination rates of the older age groups are higher than those of the younger age groups. And boosters are recommended for the older age groups.

Now think about what happens as we age: things start to go wrong with our bodies. For example: my blog, at times, is a boring status update of my current health problems.

Within the past 3-4 years, as I went from 59 to 63 years of age, knee problems (long standing) have gotten bad enough to make me stop running. Shoulder problems took away swimming and made me alter lifting (and to do life long physical therapy). Back: yes, I first got treated in 1977, but the problems (spondylolisthesis) got bad enough for me to get an MRI and a referral to a spine surgeon. My psoriasis has flared up from time to time and excessive caffeine intake lead to urinary tract issues (happily resolved, though COVID brought some of it back)

And, if you look at my Facebook timeline, my “problems” are sort of normal for someone my age who tries to remain active.

And now go back to older people getting spaced out vaccinations and boosters. Chances are, these shots will probably coincide with something going wrong with their bodies..it is the age.

In fact, I have a reverse coincidence: right around the time I got my omicron specific booster (September 2022) my back related glute pain started to improve quite a bit…but of course, my ongoing PT, activity modification and management and slow gradual increase in walking were probably the reason.

But oh my, the timing.

The TL;DR summary: old people get shots right around the time when something goes wrong with their bodies, and they ascribe the shot as the cause.

I think this is good old “post hoc ergo propter hoc.”