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Making the Most ... by Exercise?

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We're all struggling with less activity. I guess I need to move a little more. I'm not a big exercise guy.  I never liked going to the gym or working out or running just for the fun of it.  It was never, well, fun. I like sports.  I played hockey twice a week this winter, which was fantastic.  I coach school basketball.  That's fun. Any "working out" I do is merely for one reason: To make me better at hockey.  Faster skating.  But it's pretty rare.  Like commercials during Netflix.  Like unopened bags of cookies in my cupboard right now. But then I saw the Connor McDavid Workout ... I could be fast like Connor! Knowing that I needed to do something, and that hockey season is only 5 months away (really?), I decided to try. I'm thankful that it doesn't include any fancy gym equipment, because I don't have any, and I don't know how to use it anyway. Gyms look like they were put together by NASA these days. Keep it simple. H...
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Making the Most ... Making it Work

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Apparently this isn't going to happen by itself. It's pretty easy to do nothing every day.  Sleep in, read too many COVID 19 news stories on the internet, let hours pass away, and get nothing done.  The end of the days comes and I've made the most of nothing. That's not entirely true - I'm being too hard on my self.  I read my Bible every morning.  There's a book I'm making my way through.  It's horribly boring, so I get some points for enduring.  (Apparently the last chapter makes it all worth it.)  I've made a nice supper every night.  I go for walks outside.  (I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's fine.)  I'm doing ok.  But I'm not really thriving.  I feel a little ... unproductive. I've slept in a few days.  One of my goals was to get more sleep, so that's good.  The problem:  I'm fresh before 10 am, and late, after 8 pm.  So if I sleep until 9:00, I don't have a lot of prime time left.  I'...
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Writing about Writing

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Here's one thing I want to do more of:  Write. Some people have always dreamed of writing a book.  They imagine putting pen to paper, filling endless sheets, until they have a beautiful manuscript.  I'm not one of them.  Writing is hard work.  It's long and tedious.  It takes time.  It sounds a little pompous.  It's not something I ever dreamed of. Guess what class I hated the most in high school ... Thoughts.  I have thoughts.  And ideas.  They pulse around in my head, daring me to let them out.  So ... once in a while I write. I actually have had 3 books in my head that have dared me to let them out.  Entropy causes them to lose energy over time, and they go silent. Letting them out isn't like letting air out of a balloon, or toothpaste from a tube.  It's more like dropping a set of Pick-Up Sticks.  I have to surgically reorganize, caress, and rebuild each piece.  Once in a while I take the da...
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Making the Most ... The Bigger Story

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It's safe to say that we need a corrective. A realignment.  We all have a sense of "I don't think this is the best way to live."  We feel it individually and collectively.  As an individual I don't really live according to my values and interests.  As a collective, we know that life isn't really sustainable.  It's not even enjoyable often.  We can do better.  But we're so busy moving that we don't know how to stop and refocus. Several years ago I participated in a triathlon.  Participated is the key word - I have the ribbon to prove it.  I'm a good runner, a decent cyclist, and a terrible swimmer.  The interesting part was that, for the race, we swam in a lake.  And in a lake you have no idea what direction you're going. All the training for the swim was in a pool.  In a pool there are handy lane markers to keep you straight, and nice lines on the bottom of the pool to follow.  It's literally impossible to lose y...
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Making the Most ... Get More Sleep

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Maybe it sounds odd, but one of my first goals during social distancing it to get more sleep. If you already sleep too much, you will love this.  Even more sleep!  This might not be the message you need to hear. Many people, I think, need more sleep.  I do. I don't really value sleep.  I value productivity, and doing things.  When I calculate how much sleep I need, I ask myself "How little can I get and not be overly tired?"  I calculate the minimum. It's compounded by the fact that I'm a night person.  I feel alive late in the evening.  (It's 9:21 pm right now.)  I can focus and do things.  And, I'm a procrastinator.  At night I finally start doing things I wanted to do all day.  And I put off getting ready for bed.  End result: It's usually past my ideal bedtime when I check out.  Often Darcia (my wife) is already in bed and sleeping.   I look at the clock and do the math ... How many hours do I n...
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Day 9 of Social Distancing ... And Day 1 of Writing

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Today is Day 9 of Social Distancing due to COVID 19.  D Day was the day the NHL cancelled/postponed their season.  We had heard about the pandemic in China, and Italy and Iran, but it was still an "over there" problem.  We knew it would hit North America.  But seriously ... it wasn't very serious.  Not in my mind. Then the NBA cancelled/postponed their season March 11.  I listened to the Edmonton Oilers-Winnipeg Jets game on the radio on the way to my own rec hockey game.  A lot of the talk was about the NBA season being halted.  I knew the NHL would follow suit.  The next day the hockey season was postponed. That's when it hit us:  This thing is big.  It's not a normal virus, it's not even SARS or H1N1.  This is big.  They were starting to shut the world down. No NHL games. No soccer.  Baseball.  Golf.  Car racing. One by one, every sporting event was cancelled. Other public events were cancell...
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