happy august. may your august be filled with joy, courage, happiness, and great health.
a new beginning is here, i pray you make the most of it.
i pray we all make the most of it.
-ratha, 3:21pm, 8.1.22
i went to the gym, did my 65 minutes on the treadmill, then went to pick up my shorts i dropped off mid-june at the alterations place at the burlington mall. they said it would be done on july 15th, and i forgot all about it until i saw the slip in my wallet. when i pulled up, the guy brought the shorts and said he couldn’t make pockets on them due to how they were stitched. dammmmn. summers almost over in new england, and i wanted to wear them a few times with pockets, but maybe authentic shorts aren’t meant for them. it’s all good because he refunded me the $55 i paid to get them done.
i guess saving $55 is good for the pockets, though i’d prefer having actual ones.
-ratha, 7:24pm, 7.31.22
i just came up from recording a song in the basement and i hear a beeping sound. i stood still to hear where it was coming from. that’s when i recognized it to be a car alarm from one of our neighbors. the alarm was even louder when i let bagel out. i came up to my room, but i can’t sleep because the alarm is still going off. i know i’m not the only one in the neighborhood currently with this problem. the alarm will go for a while, stop, then continue again. i came up at 1:06am. it’s been doing this since then and it’s currently 2:46am.
i don’t think i’ll be able to sleep tonight, but luckily tomorrow (today) is saturday.
-ratha, 2:47am, 7.30.22
i keep thinking of something that happened yesterday while i was riding bikes in the city. i was riding back to cambridge when someone opened their door. i swerved out the way, but we caught eye contact. i gave a knee-jerk reaction and mean mugged him. i looked forward, then looked back again. i could tell he was apologetic, he kept looking at me, almost scared/timid. when i pulled up to the nearest redlight, i felt bad. i looked back to see if he was there to give him a thumbs up, but he was gone. i could just tell he felt bad, that it was an honest mistake, i just wish he knew i felt bad for giving him the reaction i did.
these are the types of things that keep me up at night, but hopefully this was just another random incident in both of our lives that we’ll forget soon enough.
-ratha, 8:43pm, 7.29.22
this week has been incredible in terms of work-life balance. i was able to hit a bike ride around the city after lunch. i went over the bridge to boston, past mit, then back to cambridge. when i crossed the bridge back to cambridge, i got lost. i thought the whole time i went straight, but i must’ve made a turn to get to the bridge. i knew i was in the wrong place when i started seeing harvard signs. i was nervous because it was raining, plus it was humid, which meant there was a chance for thunderstorms. i’m not a fan of thunderstorms when i’m outside, so i was rushing. eventually i found my way back to the office, 7.41 miles and an hour and 8 minutes later.
i’m really taking a liking to biking, hopefully there will be more afternoons like this.
-ratha, 4:52pm, 7.28.22
it’s been about a month and a half since the last time i’ve hooped with the guys from work. dave asked me today, plus he said he could give me a ride home, so it was a go. they were hosting a kids league at our normal courts, so we moved to the ones by star market. i was a little rusty, but we still made it out clean on the night. thanks to dave, we ended up going 4-0. i definitely have to work on finishing at the rim, i was ice cold for 2 of the games. taking a month off didn’t do me any favors at all.
i’m hoping i can get back into rhythm next week regardless of how much fun it is to be out there.
-ratha, 7:47pm, 7.27.22
while i was walking, i came across a row of bikes you could rent out. i thought about it twice, then figured why not?? it was $2.50 for 30 minutes. i rode around the city for almost an hour before coming back. it was perfect weather, but as i kept biking, i kept sweating. it became hot, but i was able to find some routes with shade. it felt so good being on a bike, prolly the first time in 10+ years. my hamstrings were burning going up the bridge connecting cambridge and boston. i mainly explored cambridge, but next time i’ll do more than drop by boston.
$5 for a mid-day vacation from work isn’t bad by any means.
-ratha, 4:25pm, 7.26.22
work this week (thus far) has not been bad. i was able to be home by 2:15pm yesterday. today, not too busy as well. i’m doing some trainings, catching up on housekeeping, etc. i even called insurance to ask how to do the fitness reimbursement and how to do the healthy actions benefit. healthy actions is where your primacy care physician fills out a sheet documenting you are in good health and sends it to the insurance. if you are, then they send you a card worth up to $300. i took the preliminary health assessment, and thank god i am healthy according to that. thank god for good health in general. i also have to set up a dental cleaning appointment. being that i have some extra time, i might take a walk around cambridge this afternoon. sometimes i sit back and think this 9-5 isn’t so bad as i feel it is some days.
i can’t tell if that is a grateful thought or if that is one of comfort.
do you see how much in the grey area i am these days?
-ratha, 2:19pm, 7.26.22
over the weekend, the ac unit went out for our 2nd floor. this happened last year and some guy came to refill the freon. because of this, mom and dad slept in the living room sunday night. ta slept in the family room. bagel and i slept in the basement. it was such a good slumber i didn’t even wake up until 8am this morning, and that’s after falling asleep at 11:30pm. it was the most sleep i’ve had in one night in (maybe) years. my dad had an epiphany mid-nap yesterday that the capacitor may have went out. i don’t know how he came to that conclusion, but it doesn’t surprise me because he’s a genius. he calls me over and tells me to order a few parts. thanks to amazon prime shipping, the part came in over night. we installed it today, and sure enough the system cranked.
it’s much cooler now and all seems to be normal, but let’s hope it continues to be throughout the night as we’re all transitioning back to sleeping upstairs.
-ratha, 7:41pm, 7.25.22
my goal is to make sundays my dedicated cardio days. i went to planet fitness and did my jog/walk on the treadmill for 60 minutes. turns out, after 60 minutes, the treadmill goes into cool down mode for 5 minutes. so i jog for 5 minutes, then walk for 5 minutes, then alternate until it’s been an hour. it goes by pretty quick because the walking segments fly by. i was able to burn 548 calories over the course of 4.71 miles in 65 minutes. i stopped by stop n’ shop after to pick up ingredients for firebirds pasta i want to make for this week’s lunch. then i chilled at home until it got cool before taking bagel to the park for a 2.30 mile walk.
7 miles total??
that’s not a bad maintenance level from here on out.
-ratha, 8:11pm, 7.24.22
