Early Rising, Day Planning

I woke up and got out of bed this morning a little past three...did ten minutes of running in place while brewing coffee.  Now I'm sitting here looking ahead to the coming day, just a little past four.  One item on my agenda is to go down to my local public library branch, update my card and account, and check out one or two interesting books.  Unlike the case with 2nd and Charles a few weeks ago, I have no intention of picking out books out of desperation because I'm too tired and can't find a place to sit.  i do know that this is now post-Easter and we're now back on the regular calendar. It's a foregone conclusion that further exercise for me today will tax my ability to accomplish it.  If i do more back-yard inner perimeter laps, then I know what to expect.  And my eating will be measured and recorded., with the notion that spacing of meals and snacks is to be recommended. Yesterday evening i did watch a YouTube video listing and explaining 7 simple habits I could easily adopt...probably would be better off writing them down and implementing them, 1 by 1.  i want to install and begin using a smartphone app that identifies wild bird species by their songs...this afternoon on the back porch sounds like a good time to get that going.  And hydrating a lot more, that sounds good. Life is good, and I am a person in charge of my own happiness...

Up and At it Early Again Today

 Over the past several weeks I accustomed myself to waking up (and staying up) two or three hours before sunrise.  I would take care of bathroom business, adjust the air conditioner/heater, and brew a pot of coffee. Then, as was just the case, I would exercise by running in place on the living room rug for ten minutes.  And then I would pull out the computer and write and post the new day's blog article.  And now, to today.  Melissa, always the expert, knowledgeable nurse and loving woman that she is, has brought up that I appear to be suffering from a deficiency of potassium in my diet, only particularly alleviated by an increased consumption of bananas. This evening I tried going to bed at an earlier, more consistent hour.  The intent tonight was to get up around two or three...and stay up.  Now it's nearly 6:15 and still nighttime, after my bathroom, exercise and brewed coffee. I probably could use a good brief shower and hair-washing and rinsing on this, Thursday March 26th. I watched a good rerun of the old The Prisoner episode Dance of the Dead on my Tubi channel, as well as the Star Trek movie The Voyage Home.  On the home news front, it looks like our president is frightening his own followers with the stock market plunge, a Congressional deadlock in place against paying TSA workers, spiralling gas prices and no end in sight to the missile war between the USA and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.  Personally, I would like, in a more humble way, to work some of my habits by reading Shadow Magic some more and go for longer walks.  Walking around the block at least once would be pretty cool, too.  And some of the personal development podcasts that YouTube presents seem pretty attractive as well.  This includes the late Jim Rohn, Andrew Huberman, that doctor who wants me to walk, and a half dozen others who usually have something significant to say..

Trying to Recover Endurance After Cancer Treatment

 After I was dispatched from my stay in the cardiovascular surgical hospital on July31, 2021, Dr. Miles sent me to the UF Cardioversion, which brought my stabilazation away from the acute atrial fibrillation that had been bothering me immediately following my heart valve replacement and aortic aneurysm.  For some months I felt very weak as I tried to remain with enough energy to be able to run around my home block for the ,7 mile block.  But it wouldn't be until I could maintain that distance when I was finally able, to run my Hampton Inn to the Daytona Beach Pier at the pier and back.  Right now I'm wondering whether I'll have enough to go on to allow me to be able to be maintain my light jogging level at a high degree.  Today, fot a little past few minutes, I was able to run on my run own on the living room alone for 8 minutes before taking a break.  Now I feel I'm making some marked improvement with some walking endurance.  I have an apppointment to get a chemo injection today at the Davis UF Avis Cancer Center at the UF Davis Pavilion Center, under the authority of oncologist Dr. Jones.  As for new habits, I am working on a new system including incorporating water hydration.  Way to go, Bill. Now let's see if I can't throw in a few new little home habits...

Early Morning Waking and Activity a New Habit System

 It looks like a new habit has begun with me.  Over the past 3-4 days I have only slept two or three hours during the late evening, with me waking up around midnight and struggling to "nap" until after two in the morning, which I think is an appropriate time for early rising.  Just a half hour ago I got up, went to the bathroom, brewed a pot of coffee and did ten minutes of light running in place.  Tonight I'm going to try going to bed a bit earlier.  Maybe the Parkrun 5K will work out for Saturday morning, maybe it won't.  Shifting topics, I've pretty much had it with Trump and the Republicans about voter eligibility and their repeatedly shifting efforts to roll back voter rights by requiring cumbersome documentation to 'prove' citizenship.  The way I see it, if everyone who was eligible went out to vote on election day, then my one vote would only be one drop in a vast ocean of ballots...and my one filled ballot has NEVER decided an election.  I'm just tired of my 34-count convicted felon of a president going overboard sucking up to his master Netanyahu's agenda...the latter wants to prolong his own war by invading Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with the USA providing military insurance and backup.  I'm hovering around 181 pounds, using temperance to avoid excessive consumption of sweets while adhering to my living room exercise routine.  I've been up and at it, being awake and active from 3 to 5 each morning.  That's a praise report for sure;  I'm changing habits by adopting a new system of consistent behaviors. Astronomical spring is set to start on this date, and, with a nod to Morgan Freeman, I'd like to enjoy "getting busy" living through it.  If I happen to begin changing a habit today, I want to make it short and sweet and written down and incorporated into an established system...

Following Self-Help Gurus with Discernment, Working on Recovery

 Over the last few days I've grown to enjoy listening to YouTube podcasts by Jim Rohn and Rob Dial.  Both men have different agendas and messages they're trying to convey, and I'm good with their efforts even when I don't entirely receive them.  That people will either grow or weaken over time seems to be the main idea, and I appreciate the similar stoic philosophies underlying their talking points.  So our brains are there to protect us, and keeping ourselves in a state of comfort seems to fit the bill as far as our brains are concerned.  Consequently, I'm supposed to deliberately seek out discomfort and resist the obvious temptations to choose the easy course of action (or inaction).  Changing habits is very much a feasible proposition, and it's best to start small and not let boredom or pressure unduly and negatively influence me.  I don't dig Rohn's tendency to be all-or-nothing with his ideology, but here I am at age 69 with a most serious brain cancer diagnosis and the opportunity to build my mind and body back up into a fine state of VO2-max level cardiovascular fitness with plenty of resources and time for reading and study...maybe this will help with my lifespan and healthspan.  Now it's about working out and studying while watching my hydration, recovery, and attitude.  So I ran in place early this morning for eight minutes, with more to come...

Sleepy, but Got Up and About Early Anyway

 This morning I was only partially sleeping, hoping that when I finally awoke it would be later...a little past three.  Still, I felt in little shape to get up, although I did and promptly brewed some coffee.  I ran in place for ten minutes, dutifully writing the time down in my spiral notebook.  The temperature in the house is leaning to the cold side, and before long my plan is to reset it for 'cool' and return to bed and my barking, excited Daisy. It now being Tuesday morning the 10th of March, I foresee no new Rob Dial podcast for today...maybe Huberman or Rohn will produce another episode.  My hope with fitness is to cover the backyard with walking more efficiently.  I'd like to be able to write that I read more pages in the vicious, frustrating Khan fantasy book...not looking forward to enjoying it, though, with the anger of its main characters resembling that of the TV series Grey's Anatomy.  Just thank you for this day you provided me, Lord, and may I live it out more responsibly and graciously.  Let's celebrate a small victory...I got up and stayed up! Maybe later on I'll get Melissa to help me start up (and move) the white Camry.  May I avoid getting myself caught up in digging for dopamine, and allow boredom to grow my good habits and character.  It's not quite four yet, and I still remember the times 55 years ago when I had decided to arise before dawn in order to begin my school day in a wise, positive manner.  In a way, this is one of those kinds of days...

Stumbling with Routines During Multiple-Holiday Season

 I've been working on getting through this annoying head cold I've been suffering from during the last few days.  With the sinus congestion working on overdrive along with sneeze-triggering irritation in my sinuses and throat, life has not been very enjoyable...especially during the late-night, early-morning hours when I am accustomed to be asleep.  Now we're entering the highly-hyped holiday season, so naturally I feel that the expectations are for me to abandon all of the routines I have established, because Thanksgiving and Christmas, after all, are  "special events" and I'm presumably guilty of something if I want to do things regularly and responsibly, albeit on my own. Tonight on Thursday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills are at Houston to play the Texans.  I don't feel anything approaching the confidence I had in this team to win games as in years before, so I won't be surprised if Houston prevails.  Maybe I'll do some "rock-running" exercises while watching a NYC Marathon virtual YouTube video, or maybe I'll take a break from it all.  It sure would be nice for me to be in "reset" mode whereby the future is open for me to make responsible progress in distance running.  Let's see if that can't happen in the next few weeks of "holiday wonderland":guilty as charged...

Coffee Shop Visits as a Study Routine

As I progress through my first week of retirement, I think I'm starting some good habits to replace those which going to a forty-hours-per-week job automatically imposed on me. Maybe in future articles I'll spell out some of these, but right now I'll discuss one of them.  In my November 19th article a little more than a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about more consistently resuming the old habit I had of going regularly to a coffee shop (or someplace similar) and studying there.  There's something about a public setting that focuses my attention better on my tasks while not placing demands on my attention.  Mental drifting and external distractions not only interrupt my efforts, but they also dilute them when I'm devoting a bigger part of my mental efforts resisting them, and this place helps with that.  I'm writing this article on my old AlphaSmart word processor, completely disconnected from the Internet and which I later loaded onto my blog site. I take Google translations of past articles I've written, and print them out to take with me here.  Then I go phrase-by-phrase with each of them, temporarily memorizing it in each target language and then writing it down.  I cover a small amount of material daily this way but am training myself better to think in the languages I'm studying.  Now on to other activities I do here: reading, speculating and planning...

Rereading James Clear's Book Atomic Habits

I have been listening to James Clear's book Atomic Habits while driving...I checked out the CD-set from my local public library although we own the book.  I've read it before...click HERE for my earlier review.  He has a lot of information to share, and it can be a bit daunting to ingest.  The main point I've taken from it is that habits are best tackled first in a modest way, making them small enough to handle within a short span of time.  Good habits should be made attractive and immediately rewarding in some way, which sometimes requires creativity since by-and-large they involve delayed gratification.  As for things that give an immediate pleasurable feeling, the author warns that they can lead to bad habits...oh, swell, just what I wanted to hear!  So far the one big thing I've taken from this rereading is his idea of starting on a new habit by making it ridiculously small...he uses the "two-minute rule"...and then gradually increasing the time and/or intensity. I do some variations of this already, whereby I'll just set aside a small block of time, say 15 to 30 minutes, and see how much I can get done with a specific task.  Sometimes my daily schedule carves out a time niche with borders, within which I'll devote myself to a worthwhile activity I want to make into a constructive habit.  I think that keeping up with the mundane things in my life on a habitual level is probably the most immediate desire I have with regard to replacing bad habits with good ones.  As with many things in life, transforming it all into a kind of fun game works for me...

Quote of the Week...from the Movie Groundhog Day

Phil Connors: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

This to me was the funniest line from a very funny movie, 1993's Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a vain Pittsburgh TV weatherman on an unpleasant assignment to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  Only things suddenly get much worse when he wakes up the morning after February 2nd...and discovers to his horror that it's Groundhog Day all over again, with the same people saying and doing the same things and himself exactly the same as if he had never already lived through the day...the same, that is, except for his complete memory of what is happening to him.  After a few experiences of repeatedly waking up to the same day, he goes out drinking with some local blue-collar dudes, the above-mentioned Ralph being one, and poses the quoted question.  Of course, Phil means something quite literal as he asks about what if nothing you did mattered...and promptly comes up with the answer: no consequences...leading to another hilarious scene.  As Phil's affliction keeps going on from same day to same day, the movie does change in tone to that of desperation and ultimately acceptance and a deeper appreciation of life and what should be one's priorities in it.  But Ralph's answer so poignantly expresses so many people's viewpoints without needing to undergo any supernatural time-bending experience. Time does tend to march on from day to day in a cyclic, repetitive pattern.  Part of this is how we're constructed as biological beings tied in to the solar cycle, part is society's way to organize itself to prevent chaos, establish some order and effectively function...and part is each individual's aggregation of habits...some of them more recently acquired and others lifelong...that resist spontaneity and change.  There's not so much to be done with the first two reasons, but that last one is within each person's power to control and steer into a more interesting and meaningful direction...