November Work Outs and Runs

 

11 23 25 21:10

I went for a run today.  It was more than 6 miles and I was thinking maybe I should sign up for the Christmas race again this year.  Last year, I ran in the single digits, down Main Street and up hills and over streams.  I can do it.  But I have not been running as consistently in the past few months.  I have my reasons.  It used to be every other day and then three times a week and two times, but the last couple have been one 4 miler and couple of milers on the tread mill at the gym.  There’s so much to say about a good run, my mood is better, a sense of accomplishment, seeing a few other runners and bikers.  There’s a trail I used to take fairly often and it’s been weeks – dare say months since I was on the trail.  It’s off of Sand Island and leads under train trestles.  I was surprised I was able to go out for the distance and get back feeling very good.  Good enough to get to the gym for a little work out.

11/30/2025 21:13

And a week later, I was on my ass for most of the day.  Meli and I have been battling a virus that effecting our throats, coughing fits and our voices are raspy and whispery like Miles Davis in any interview.  No run today.  Tomorrow, back to work.  I took a walk today and finished my push-ups.  Our gym has a board and if you make it to the gym, at least 12 times you get on the board and if you go 15 times you’re in another group and 20 or more, well you make the elite group.  My goal each month is to get on the board, at least 12.  Considering we flew back on 11/9, I made the board. 

Dave and Rennee stopped over yesterday with dinner, White Castle and Bo Jangles Fried Chicken.  I have not had a White Castle in ten years.  And my body was paying the price.  Overall, we eat healthy in this house and eating fast food is a treat.  Tastes good going down, but my body sends off warning shots, what the fuck are you putting in me? 

And Thanksgiving, we spent Wednesday night in a hotel in Philadelphia with a beautiful view of the river and skyline and saw the parade.  It was the first for both of us and next year we’re planning to take in the Macy’s parade in NYC, the 100^th anniversary and besides, I want Meli to see the floats.  The room is already booked.

Tomorrow night, Patti Smith reading in Philadelphia.

Thank you for reading this

Turning Sixty – or as Patti Smith says, Fuck the clock

For months I had a feeling of dread, shit I’m turning sixty (Oct 7th) and where am I in life?  What have I done?  But my new job is demanding, learning new services and capabilities, working with a new manager and enjoying the new culture, but all of this has kept me away from getting too deep with the sixty milestone.    

My routine is the same, still writing – fiction – finishing the last novel.  Writing Charles Plymell biography and poems when the inspiration strikes.  I’m going to the gym more often and have noticed the change.  Running, twice a week on a good week, three times, and reading as much as possible.  But it’s the work that has taken my time.

Meli and I had lunch with some friends in Northport a few weeks ago, and both are in their seventies, you would not believe it, they are active, traveling around the world. My friend’s wife said, sixty is the new forty and of course it’s just a number.  I am grateful for where I am in life.  Meli and I have a good life in Bethlehem with friends and yesterday, my two oldest daughters drove up from Long Island to visit and brought a card and a book on bridges in Pennsylvania.   We walked around Easton and were amazed at the amount of protestors, no more kings demonstration, one truck with Trump flags, but it was a warm and peaceful day. We watched when they drove back as they passed us on 378 and we waved and I wished they’d visit more often.  As I wrote, I am grateful.  Had dinner with local friends at our favorite Mexican restaurant last night and made it home at a decent hour.  Watched most of Al Pacino in Scarface, why did they have an Italian acting in the part?  It wasn’t necessary. 

Emma is married, there was a lovely celebration on October 5^th – it was a warm Sunday like today, it’s 73 degrees outside.  Matt, my son-in-law brought tears to most of us, yeah me included during his declaration of intent.  He was weeping when Ali and I brought Em down the aisle.   We danced with Em during the Stevie Wonder song, Isn’t She Lovely which we heard when Ali was getting a sonogram – expecting Emma Tess. 

The air conditioner is packed away and we’re taking out our warm clothes.  Yet, I can go outside and take in the sun, instead I am jotting down some thoughts.

Thank you for reading this.

MG

London Calling

 

January 28, 2024

Flying to London tonight for our sales meeting.  First time traveling out of the country for the job.  First time in London since 2001 or 2002?  I’ve been at this job eight years this year and recall during my interview when the HR person asked if my passport was up to date.  There was speculation that our sales meeting would be in the UK.  So, here I go.  More later. 

Hey it's a New Year 2024 and it's time to set some goals!

 January 14, 2024

Instead of starting off that it has been so long since I wrote a blog entry, I will stop and say that it’s good to be back.  2023 was the first full year, living with Meli.  Our relationship is growing, and I am grateful each day that we are together.  Last year, we went to some concerts, Mark Anthony at Prudential. It was the first and last time I saw him.  Juan Louis Guerra at MSG which was a great show, Cheap Trick, Santana, Smithereens, and Duran Duran.  We also went to a Jets preseason game, NASCAR in the Poconos, IronPigs baseball.  Trips to Costa Rica, Mexico City and a week in Maine.  Of course, there were the trips back to Long Island.  We finally saw a CC performance, a drag show.  We went out to dinner many nights and took up hiking, bike riding, joined a gym and have been working out consistently for close to a year.  I ran a half marathon and a 5-miler last month.  I finally got into fly fishing.  We had visits from family and hung out with friends.  My second novel in the Bombastic Adventures in the Arizona Desert trilogy will be published by Imzadi this year.  Last year, an audio book of Black Market Bones was published.  And our home has a new roof and siding and lots of plants and books.  So, that is a brief summary of where we are at.

But this is a time of reflection as well.  And this is where I am.  Yesterday, I had a coaching session with John Joseph, former singer for Cro-Mags, Iron Man, a plant-based guru.  It was an intro session. We need to know we can work together and what was supposed to be a half hour turned out to be close to one hour. I told him, I’d like to get back on task.  My writing time and output has been minimal, and it’s been this way for months.  I get in maybe 10 minutes a night and consolation were that is ten minutes more compared to not writing at all.  Walter Mosely writes every day for hours and I was thinking, so can I.  I used to get up and write before starting my real job.  I finished a novel, not in the trilogy, that takes place in Ireland.  But since my wife is here, life is different.  She likes to have breakfast together each morning.  Most mornings, I clean the dishes, make breakfast, eggs, turkey sausage, we eat together, and I warm up her car and scrape the windows off of any frost.  I used to drive her to work, and I am grateful that she’s driving.  This saves a lot of time.  But what am I doing with the extra time?  I will be honest, not much.

Last year, I made the foolish decision to go back to Facebook.  It’s different compared to when I was on it back in 2017.  There are now reels and there are the same friends who are making the same comments, sharing new pictures, happy for those who are expecting or been promoted or other positive or not - life events which should we shared.  But most of it is whining, political or religious banter, regurgitating of old garage bands, reliving the romantic past, but it was the reels that did me in.  Months later, I got off FB.  It was difficult. There were a few aborted attempts.  It’s been months since I’ve been there.  Formerly Twitter, X was back in my life as well, but again I realized I was in a place that was wasting my time.  It’s taking me away from my goals and I am encountering posts that I don’t need to be exposed to.  It all boils down to time management. 

It is Sunday morning.  I woke up at 5:00.  I want to start waking up earlier, before Meli, so I can write. One of the suggestions John made.  Mission accomplished.  It’s more than two hours since I started and I am happy.  John said many things yesterday and I will hire him for more coaching sessions, but he said, I love what I do.  He also writes and is focused on his projects, meals, workouts, and goals.  I am getting back.  I haven’t had a drink since January 1^st.  Meli and I are on the road to transitioning to a plant-based diet.  This year looks like it will be more productive and just think, my phone is tucked away in the drawer to avoid any distractions.

Thank you for reading this,

Mike

 

      

My wife is here and we have two cats and lots of books and plants in our home

 Saturday September 23, 2023

It has been almost a year since I posted on the blog.  It’s a good time to provide an update on things.  Today’s rain has something to do with it and with a new computer comes the opportunities to post a few things.  So here it goes.  At the end of last October, I flew down to Costa Rica to bring Meli and her cat, Blue back to the US.  After waiting for years, it happened, and it seems like more than a year ago when we pulled into the driveway together for the first time.  Meli and I have settled into the house with two cats and an assortment of books.  Since she came, the house has been re-sided with what looks like cedar shakes, a new roof, re-insulated.  Soon we will have two new storm doors and new basement windows before the winter hits. There are new plants and trees in the yard and the look inside our home feels warm and welcoming but call me first if you’re interested in visiting.  Since February, Meli has been working as a technician at the pharmacy department in Allentown Hospital.  She likes her job although I think she can earn more money since she is busy speaking to a majority of patients who only speak Spanish.  She is driving back and forth to work with me in the passenger seat, and she is working on getting her permit and license here.  Before you send in the cops, she has her driver’s license from Costa Rica so she can legally drive.  The kids are all doing well and I will share more details in further blogs.  My job has been very busy and I’m happy with the progress I am making on some prospects.  The job allows me time to write on the side.  Back in July, I submitted the second installment in the Bombastic Adventures in the Arizona Desert.  I am currently working on the third and final book.  The audio book for the first installment, Black Market Bones will be released soon.  So, look for more posts on my flyfishing, working out, biking, running, reading and other assorted comments about this life.

Thank you for reading.

The VISA is on-hand

 10/17/2022 07:55

 

I have to get ready for work but wanted to write that my wife has her visa.  This is after two plus years of us processing.

 

10/17/2022 22:36

Calling it a day.  Time for me to get out of the office. 

 

10/28/2022 18:35 Bethlehem

Well, it’s happening. Flying to Costa Rica on Sunday.  The plan is to stay a couple of days and fly back on Wednesday.  I’ll either drive to Long Island tomorrow and spend the night at Ma Pa’s or spend the night here and wake up early and head out.  How much time am I saving if I stay the night on Long Island?  Maybe about an hour, so it may be best to leave from here and make it a day.  I’ll park at the terminal. So, instead of waiting for the LIRR and heading back to Ma Pa’s, Meli and I with her cat Blue will drive back to Bethlehem. It will be another long day.  I’ll buy a coffee at Dunkies at JFK and make the drive.  I hope we’re back here by 1 AM.  That would be incredible but being this is her first trip and immigration and Blue’s paperwork, we may not get back till…I don’t know.  I don’t want to think about it.  What will it be like to start at life with Meli?  I don’t know?  Last night I walked around the neighborhood. Saw one lit up face in a dark living room on their phone and was curious why they were in the dark, what was so engaging?  Engrossed in the news?  I’ll pack tomorrow.  Need to buy a couple of things.  There’s a small bowl of candy outside for the trick or treaters and I thought I may have missed the costumes.  Not sure if I will see any.  Need to turn on the lights outside for the rascals and animals who will happily eat the candy.  But here it is.  Meli will be here, and we can take walks together and all the sites that I see, the rivers and streams, we can share together.  We already have plans to see Tina, the Broadway show – playing in Philadelphia late next month, on her birthday, the 22^nd.   And there’s so many more plans. Travels.  Meeting my parents and eventually the kids.  What will it be like?  How about all the stores who know me and our story, when will your wife be here?  Hey, look, here she is.  It is all in God’s hands.  Until she is here, until a few weeks pass, and we settle in and know this relationship is real and it is meant to me and not something in the future, until then.  More months will pass and then years and we will create the life we want.

 

Thank you for reading this

9/11 and Covd

 9/11/2022 14:46 Covid

Last Tuesday, I woke up feeling miserable.  My brain was throbbing, coughing, fatigue and aches and the rest of the symptoms that would make anyone guess, they got it.  I heard the expression a couple of weeks after people were getting hit with Omnicom, it’s not a matter of IF you get it, it’s a matter of WHEN.  I thought I beat it.  I take care of myself.  I eat well and run and workout.  I play baseball.  But it caught me.  I made an appointment at the local Rite Aid and took a test.  The results came back Thursday morning as positive. I took a rapid test which looked inconclusive.  Wednesday and Thursday I was feeling better and thought, I beat this.  Friday, I woke up feeling sicker.  Yesterday, I woke up feeling horrible, as if I had a hold cold, but without the mucus and in the shower, I noticed my sense of smell was gone.  We played our first in a series of three in the playoffs and lost.  We were down a few players, but next weekend we will play a double-header and that will be it for the season unless we win those games.  I feel better today.  Still no smell.  I heard this thing kicks ass for two weeks.  So, I am resting and reading, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana which came from Strand as part of a fiction Book of the month club.  I am enjoying it, the characters are in a series of train wrecks which constantly pop up.  

Received a text from my publisher and they are scheduling interviews and promo pieces.  I need to jump on marketing my book now that it’s out for a year.  It’s time.  Worked on Part II of Bones. 

It has been raining all day.  A stark difference to that day twenty-one years ago.  May those souls rest.

Thank you for reading this