Wordle 9

I pretty much had to use-up the whole alphabet to cover all the words which are blank R O blank blank

 

Wordle 8

 

Fitness news

 As of my most recent run, on the 13th, I now have 13,000 miles on my current app.

Also, I've been slowing increasing the number of clean & jerks I do in a weightlifting workout:  I used to be a total minimalist and would crank-out 4-5 in 10-15 minutes (including warm-up)  Today I did 22. 18 of them were at or above 145 lbs and 10 were at or above 150 lbs.  Good news is that I broke a drought lasting a couple of workouts, of not reaching 155 lbs, but today I made this twice.  Unfortunately, the only instance that felt easy was the 22nd lift.

Wordle 7

I really should have gotten this in three:  Using s twice in the third row was careless. 

wordle 6

 

Wordle 5

 Wow! Made it in 2!

wordle 4

When I can, I like to start with the answer to the previous one.  In this case, I don't think I'll be using Abbey as an opening word.

 

Wordle 3

 

2nd Wordle

 

1st Wordle

 

History Matters

 We have lived in the same house for 20 years.  Every winter it snows and every time it snows the city ploughs our street.  On my neighbor's side of the street, they plow right to the edge--they don't have to clear any snow to allow the mailman to reach their mail box.  On our side, they come up to about 4 feet away from our mail box and since we have to clear-away approaches 15 feet on either side, that comes to moving 30 feet of berm, every time.

After all this time, I finally modified the mailbox cross beam, so that it can extend into the street.  I can already see the problem looming:  Somebody will claim that the reason they plow so far away on my side is that the mailbox sticks out.  It's really all my fault.

Just wait.  It will happen.

Twitter thread...

 

Did I Ever Tell You About...

 The time I accidentally Clean & Jerked 155 Lbs?  (Follow the link if you don't know what this is)

What happened was that I got to 155 after two failed attempts and then failed twice more when I tried to repeat that weight.  I ratcheted-back down to 145, then up to 150, then made 155 twice, before failing to make 160.  So I ratcheted-back down to 145 again, did 150 and then 155.  Then, I thought I added 5 more Lbs, but right after cleaning the weight and noticing it seemed a little too easy, I looked over to where the 2 1/2 Lb plates go and they looked back at me with a, "Were you looking for us" look.

Fuuuuk!

I made the 155 Jerk and then added the 2 1/2s, for real this time.  I easily made the 160.

It kind of ended up being a banner day:  I make 155 in most workouts, but a lot of the time it's a final lift and I make it but I make it messy and by the skin of my teeth.  This workout featured 5 successful 155 and 1 successful 160 Clean & Jerk.  I weighed myself after and was 159 1/2, so another benchmark was hit.

A Rare Triple Digit Year

 I will have to double check this, but I think this is the third and final triple  digit year of my life.

First, what is a triple digit year?  It is one with three (of the four) digits being the same.  So, for me, born in 1962, the only three are:  1999, 2000 and 2022. I missed the one before I was born: 1911 and am unlikely to live to see 2111.  Also, two of my three daughters will see exactly the same three and I have seen.  It is possible that they could live to 2111, Humans have lived to be that old, but sans major medical breakthroughs, it seems unlikely. 

Further thoughts on the pattern of qualifying years:

The first one was 111, then 222 etc. 111 years between each, until 999, then 1000. 1011, 1101, 1110, 1111, 1112 and every year till 1119, then 1121, 1131 etc till 1191, then 1211, 1222, 1311, 1333, 1411, so every 111 years plus any year ending in 11.  That takes us to the years talked about in the present time. Once we get into the 22's, then it will be a lot like the 11's--any year ending with 2 or all years in the 222's.

We Could Have Watched These Cuties All Day

But we had other things to do, like explore the area around the rock, the village of Morro Bay and git us some seafood.

One Day And One World Apart

Christmas day, we hiked up to Mendocino Hot Springs.  It was drizzly, overcast and peaceful up there. The light was perfect for sitting around in hot sulfur-smelling water.

 

The next day was bright and sunny and spent in the most artificial setting possible--a movie studio.  This was a setting where you could make one person look larger than their actual size.  Some of the effect was reversed by the picture of the monitor being taken closer to the "small side" of the forced perspective side of the screen.

More WB Studio Tour Pictures

One of "Phoebe's" outfits from Friends

Central Perk

IBID

And another thing!

Hello My Darlin'

Take me to your leader...

Me, seeing the restaurant check--like every time!

Lesser known characters from the show.  Hey, I said lesser known!

 

Movie stars were really tiny, if they were women.

Random Places in SoCal

Beachwood Canyon, CA

Griffith Observatory

Morro Bay, Rock Beach

Morro Bay, bay.

 

Mission Santa Barbara

WB Studio Tour

 Just one soundstage among about 30 on the lot.  Just an amazing number of legendary TV series and Movies shot right there.

Why All The Drama?

I run and I lift weights.  A little more of the latter than the former, but I used to run more than I do of both.

The thing about running, was that there was hardly ever any drama.  I got hit by a car once, stung by a hornet that flew into my mouth and, of course, fallen down a bunch of times over the years.  The only routine angst I regularly had, was when I was training for marathons.  I would have a lot of apprehension at the prospect of going out for 2-3 hours of continuous running. 

With weight lifting, there is almost always drama.  I've been doing clean and jerk lately and I start at an easy weight and add 5-10 lbs on successive lifts.  About once in ten times, I flawlessly work my way up the ladder.  The other nine times, I struggle.  I will get to a weight below what I know I can do and then I either can't lift it or it is inordinately hard to do and I can't progress higher.

Sometimes I can break through the blockage by just lifting that weight a few times till it gets easy.  This works about one time in three.  The other times, I will go back to a lower weight, to get "the feel" back and then work up from there.  What is this "feel"?  Hard to say.  Some mixture of effort, timing and technique, which makes a heavy lift feel easy and elegant.

Just to make this easy to explain:  The current numbers:  Almost every session, I will make 150 lbs.  though it's pretty rare to get there easily.  I probably make 155 more than half of every work-out, but I really have to have the feel to do it, so it's a break-through lift.  Maybe one time in three, I hit 160 lbs.

Yesterday was a perfect example:  I struggled to get to 150 and ended up doing a dozen lifts at 150 or 145 before, on the 19th lift, doing 155 so easily that I even "tried" for 160 immediately afterwards.