A Sunny and Hot Afternoon Hike to Buy My Younger Brother a Bottle of Scotch for His Upcoming Birthday

Last evening certainly did not develop as I was expecting. Right around 8:00 p.m. my cellphone rang ─ it was my younger brother's girlfriend Bev.

Nothing was amiss ─ she was just phoning with a movie suggestion for when she and my brother showed up 30 to 60 minutes later.

Well, I located the movie through our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, so it became a 'go' once they finally got here.

The movie was Where the Heart Is, released in 2000.

Bev had learned of the movie from someone she knew, and had the impression that it was going to centre around the pregnant main character secretly or otherwise living in a Wal-Mart store.

As it turned out, that incident was a very small portion of the movie, and my brother and I were subjected to recurring expressions throughout the movie of Bev declaring that she had no idea that the movie was going to be anything like it was, and she was so apologetic for it.

Eventually even my brother began grousing that it was nothing more than a Hallmark movie.

I conversely was enjoying the film ─ as much as I could with the ongoing blather that my two drinking companions kept drowning out the feature with.

I hadn't noticed the opening credits identifying who the cast members were, so I had no idea who most of the actors and actresses were.

Only at the end of the movie did I see that the central character was played by actress Natalie Portman ─ she's a name I am familiar with, but I don't know anything of her work, nor was she visually familiar to me from anything else I may have seen her in.

But her character was extremely cute and endearing in the movie; and actually liking the main character makes such movies enjoyable, does it not?

Bev and my brother complained so much and for such extended periods of time that they often entirely missed various events and incidents. Also, Bev took at least one cigarette break to go and smoke outside; and my brother disappeared for quite some while, after which I heard a toilet flush (bowel movement?).

In my brother's absence, a dramatic incident occurred in which one of five kids of a single mother ─ the woman had become a best friend to the central character ─ phoned our heroine and let her know that something was very wrong at home.

When help arrived, the mother was found in a bedroom, conscious but badly beaten up.

It turned out that a new boyfriend she was so hopeful about had shown up at the house when she was not there. He proved to be a pedophile.

The mother arrived home and discovered he was there ─ with two of her kids in a bedroom, apparently quite involved in having his way with one of them.

The mother flew at him and struck a couple of blows, but he viciously retaliated and beat her before fleeing the scene.

My brother knew nothing of this event.

He also had to be told by me who it was when the "librarian" older sister of an educated young man who had come to be in love with our heroine, had suddenly died.

The alcoholic sister was mentally and physically ill and had been essentially bedridden for the longest time.

My brother had no idea who it was that had died during the scene when a pair of paramedics were wheeling out the woman's corpse, and her brother was shown clearly devastated over the loss.

My brother and Bev by that time were so caught up in endless alcohol-inspired complaining that they were unable to fathom elements of the movie any longer.

Bev had even once expressed to me that I could turn the movie off and fetch up something else, for she was assuming that I was deriving as little from the show as were they.

Of course I did not turn it off; and as I said, I quite enjoyed it.

However, the plot spanned a half dozen or so years, and often took considerable leaps in time while depicting events that were only given very brief play or development. Too much was being crammed into the limits of the duration of the movie.

But I would still rate it a "7" out of "10" points because of how much I liked Natalie Portman's portrayal of the character, and the actress's on-screen presence. She made me hearken back to me as a younger man, and how much I would have cherished having the love of someone like her.

I was to enjoy two cans of the strong (8% alcohol) beer that I keep in stock. Bev retired after having a final cigarette following the movie, but my brother had me fetch up two episodes of the sitcoms that we follow before he followed suit and I was also able to go to bed ─ well into the midnight hour, if not actually after 1:00 a.m. (I do think that it was that late).

Overnight I developed what  may well have been a hangover. I refrained from rising until it was after 7:00 a.m., and then I got to work on the day's content assignment for the new post I am constructing at one of my six hosted websites.

I was to take a break during that work to perform a 5½-minute plank, but it was unexpectedly difficult to endure even though I have been doing planks of that duration daily since June 24.

My brother and Bev do not typically rise until after mid-morning, so I nurtured the desperate hope that I would be able to return to bed before they had risen ─ that hangover sensation was not abating. It was as if a headache mightn't be far off.

As it happily developed, I did indeed get to return to bed well after 9:00 a.m., for I had 'pulled out all the stops' in discharging that content assignment and everything seemed to work in my favour for a rare change.

Incidentally, when I took that plank break, I of course had to use my cellphone's timer. In lighting up the phone's screen, I discovered that I had missed a FaceTime call from my wife at 4:50 a.m.

She generally spends her weekends somewhere in Vancouver, and had not been home since she left here just after 10:30 a.m. Friday morning to drive to work at her friend's Thai restaurant (my wife typically has an 11:00 a.m. start).

The only reason I can imagine for her to be using FaceTime to call me that early in the morning is that she had been up all night partying, and possibly had wanted me to transfer her some money from our chequing account to her personal account.

She will be getting no nighttime money transfers from me for her nonsense ─ not with our annual property taxes due on July 2.

Anyway, despite a pretty good latter morning nap ─ I got up around 11:00 a.m. ─ I still feel threatened with a headache.

Right now it is 12:25 p.m. on a spectacularly sunny day, and my brother and Bev are downstairs watching a baseball game. My wife will very possibly show up sometime this afternoon, although it may not happen until the early evening.

But I want to get out and make the four-mile round trip hike to the government liquor store over by 108th Avenue & King George Boulevard (Google map) in Whalley.

My brother's 66th birthday is about 10 days off, so I want to ensure that I have his expected bottle of Scotch, and maybe even a birthday card ─ I cannot be sure that I will be up to the task next weekend, and I really do need the exercise and the sunshine.

I would also buy a dozen cans of the strong beer that I try to keep in stock.

This is a hike that I need to do once my brother and Bev leave ─ which ought to be happening early in the afternoon ─ and before my wife shows up if she is going to be coming home in the afternoon.

I also would like to get the worst ─ if not all ─ of the day's allotted exercises over with out in the backyard toolshed before I leave on the hike.

Thus, I am going to break from this post now, and see how things develop as I hope for the very best.

oooooooooooooo

All pretty much went as hoped. 

After my younger brother and his guest left, I had some exercise out in the backyard toolshed ─ just the two most challenging exercises.

I even had some conversation with my eldest stepson concerning the property taxes due on Tuesday. It seems he recently received some ICBC money ─ part of a settlement for a no-fault-of-his traffic accident he suffered some injury in a few years ago.

So some of that pressure is more or less off me now.

By the time I readied myself for my hike, it was 2:54 p.m. once I was on my way. And it was no later than 4:40 p.m. by the time I was back here in the house with my errand done.

I never bothered looking for a birthday card ─ there is still lots of opportunity to do that.

I bought my brother a boxed 1.75-litre bottle of Ballantine's Finest Blended Scotch Whisky ─ the shelf price (before taxes) was $52.99.

I feel a touch guilty for buying so much alcohol for him ─ my brother will only begin drinking the stuff late into the evening when he's already plastered on beer, and his ageing organs do not need this sort of abuse.

It was definitely a hot and wearying hike home toting that and the dozen cans of beer I also bought. Heck, I was already sweating by the time I was in the liquor store ─ and I had walked slowly, and was not bearing any extra weight.

Only my youngest stepson was home when I had left, so I alerted him to lock the house up if he went anywhere. I arrived home to find that he had indeed gone and locked the front door, but the sliding door to the backyard sundeck was left open.

He can be quite the knob.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed him performing some midsection exercises in the boys' den area, so I brought up the subject of planks.

It seems that he recently tried one on a whim, and could only last for two minutes. He claimed that when he was in school (he is now 21 years of age), his record was five minutes.

Honestly, he should not be wasting his time doing any other midsection exercises ─ nothing he could do here at home would match the benefit of planking.

Anyway, he did seem a little surprised to learn that I am currently performing 5½-minute planks on a daily basis ─ half a minute more than his school best. (I am 69 years of age.)

I might as well wrap up this post ─ the afternoon is nearly done, and my brother could feasibly be back home at any time now. My wife, as well.

Last year in June, my wife was over in Italy to visit a sister of hers who has basically made that country her second home.

I want to close with a few more photos that were taken at that time. The photos were taken approximately on June 7, 2018.

I say "approximately" because the digital camera she took with her did not have its date setting adjusted for the holiday; and it may not even have been adjusted when our time locally advanced an hour that Spring here in the Pacific Time Zone.

Thus, the camera's metadata is not reliable for the date.

Anyway, this is my wife posed in the first photo:

Incidentally, my research reveals the location above to be the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

I have yet to eat a thing today beyond my day's two hot caffeinated beverages and the evening is already upon me!

 

Reflecting upon the Current 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Matches, yet Another Missed Annual Surrey Pride Festival, and My Experiences with Physical Exercising

As seems to occur more often than not, within a few minutes of my younger brother sitting down in his favourite chair to watch T.V. with me last evening once he was home from wherever he had been drinking, he passed out.

He wasn't out too long, but it was enough ─ I cancelled out of the episode of Wynonna Earp that I had been streaming via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box; then I turned off the Android TV Box; and finally I switched the T.V. over to the basic cable package we subscribe to.

The sorry sot would not have my company any further that evening. And since he doesn't know how to operate the Android TV Box, he would have to settle for whatever limited fare of interest he could find through the basic cable package.

I don't think that it was yet 9:00 p.m. when this took place, but I'm even fuzzier on just when it was that I actually got into bed ─ possibly around 10:00 p.m.

Initially I had felt somewhat sleepy, but I allowed my mind to dwell on my financial and marital woes, and the consequence of that was a delay of sleep.

But sleep did come.

Then perhaps around 12:45 a.m. or thereabouts I found myself awake enough to be checking the time, and I decided to rise so that I could get at the day's content assignment for the post I am working on at one of my six hosted websites.

It is a rare thing to complete such assignments in as few as three hours, and that certainly did not happen last night. However, added to that time are an initial check of accumulated E-mails since my last previous check; and roughly midway through the website work I have of late been taking a break in order to perform a plank.

Since June 24 my target has been 5½ minutes (plus a few extra seconds for the comfort of assurance that I have indeed reached that target). Yesterday I was overzealous and inadvertently achieved six minutes because I apparently counted excessively slowly ─ you see, instead of constantly staring at my cellphone's timer, I have started relatively slowly counting off to 300 (300 seconds are of course five minutes).

Today I was a little more accurate. I deliberately try to count slow enough that when I do reach 300, I am usually several seconds beyond the five minutes, for that reduces the amount of time remaining for me to hit the 5½-minute mark.

I find that a plank break invigorates me well into the second half of the website work, but it's not a perfect fix. I can grow most taxed, for I am essentially remaining up through much of the night.

Oddly enough, I now cannot recall if it was around 4:30 a.m. that I returned to bed, or 5:30 a.m. ─ I suspect and hope the former.  Sleep was somewhat fragmented, but I was almost deliciously comfortable in bed, and seemed to dream a lot.

I remained abed until around 10:00 a.m. before rising to go downstairs and fix my day's first hot caffeinated beverage. My younger brother was at the dining table and reading the Saturday morning edition of the Vancouver Sun that I subscribe to.

I came back upstairs here to my computer, and eventually got around to checking the progress of the status concerning the very last two Quarter-finals games of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The first match had ended earlier this morning, for it had a 6:00 a.m. start (my time here in the Pacific Time Zone). The Netherlands blanked Italy 2 - 0.

But the second game was into half-time with a 1 - 1 tie between Sweden and Germany.

I decided to go downstairs and alert my brother to these two developments.

Very soon thereafter, he tuned in the latter game ─ the second half was in progress, and Sweden had already scored a second goal. I decided to join him.

Ultimately, Sweden were to outlast poor Germany, and the games were over for that soccer powerhouse.

Both of today's winning teams ─ the Netherlands and Sweden ─ were behind Canada's exit from the games, for both of those teams gave us our only two losses.

Yet I bear no grudge. I like both of those European teams. Thus, I have absolutely no idea which of them I am going to sympathize with when they meet this next Wednesday in a Semi-finals match. What will likely happen for me is that if one team begins to be clearly losing, then I will most probably side with it.

Maybe I'll align with the Netherlands ─ my father was stationed over there during World War II, and I know that generally, the Dutch still bear an enormous gratitude to Canada for the war effort back then. It is one of the few countries that I would love to visit...but it is unlikely that I will ever manage to travel again.

Such is the debt my wife has me in. Besides, I am nearing the age of 70, and it is becoming less and less likely that I will be wanting to travel as further years add on ─ even if monetary cost was irrelevant. 

Right now it is 2:48 p.m. My brother left some time ago to end up drinking somewhere. I want to have myself some bedrest. If it is at all possible, I would like to get out awhile later to check out the 20th annual Surrey Pride festival being held about a mile from where I live, and officially running from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

I would have to walk, for I don't drive. It is unlikely that I will go, but I definitely will not go if I do not get some rest.

oooooooooooooo

Well, I'm going nowhere today.

Oh, sure, I napped well; and then I had my day's second hot caffeinated beverage.

But it's just not in me to get out and hike anywhere.

Also, today was my workout day with my 43½-pound dumbbell. That's a two-session workout, meaning that I have several hours in between the two sessions.

For much of my adult life, I was able to exercise with that weight in one gruelling session, and it involved three different exercises.

I have dropped one of those exercises, but only because it was never the challenge the other two are.

At the age of 69, I just don't seem to have the reserves of strength that I must have once had, and I can't seem to gain back or build up those reserves.

The first exercise session I use the dumbbell for are bent-over one-arm knee curls. I tend to have to do some heaving of the dumbbell, but I try to be fairly slow in the execution of both raising and lowering the weight.

I start off with my left arm and do 10 repetitions, and then I put the weight down and stand fully erect ─ I may even lean back a little ─ in order to ease out some of the strain that my lower back feels from the weighted and awkward crouched position.

I only stand on that break for three or four seconds, and then I go down to do 10 repetitions with my right arm.

In all, I do four sets, alternating my arms, but reducing by a repetition with each successive set ─ so 10 repetitions for both arms, then nine, then eight, and finally seven.

The later exercise session involves standing shoulder-height one-arm 'presses' ─ I'm unable to just press such a heavy weight up, so I definitely have to heave the weight aloft to get my elbow straightened. But in bringing the weight back down, I do not rest it upon my shoulder. I hold it a little above the shoulder, and then rally and do the next repetition.

The totals for the sets and repetitions match what I do for the bent-over knee-curls; and when each set is done, I put down the weight and stand erect for a second or two before bending over and picking the dumbbell up with the other arm so that it can do its set.

These 'presses' heavily tax my breathing ─ by the third set, I am pretty much gasping.

When I first started using the weight again several months ago after a virtual layoff of a number of years, I couldn't even do a 'press' with my left arm because the shoulder had grown so weak from damage it has sustained over the decades. In fact, just hoisting the weight up to my shoulder would cause such alarming pain that I would have to bring it back to the floor.

Back in the (early?) 1980s, I had let my younger first-cousin-once-removed put that arm into a type of wrestling hold in which he stood behind me and more or less locked my bent left arm into such a position that my arm was elevated over my shoulder with my elbow fully bent, and my forearm held over and behind my shoulder in an arm-lock that my cousin then held firmly, but without applying pressure.

I think I had been drinking, and I refused to believe that my arm was immobilized by this weaker and younger relative. So, mustering all of the strength I could, I proceeded to power my arm free without using any twisting movements of my body.

It was a test of strength ─ me in my early or so 30s, and he in his late teens.

Well, there was a very audible 'pop' that caused my cousin to release his hold and step back, and there was also quite a lot of pain. And there in the midst of the top of my left shoulder was something rigid and about the size of a pea (or maybe a little larger) beneath the skin ─ cartilage, perhaps? I never knew, for I never sought medical attention.

For months, I could barely use the arm for certain things. For example, it was impossible for me to toss a pebble more than a few measly feet by just using a small underhand motion ─ I could only flick with my wrist, and not use much of my lower arm because it resulted in too much pain in my shoulder.

It seems to me now that despite the agony, I would still try to do certain bodyweight exercises such as the most partial of triceps dips between standing parallel bars, and I also did my best at chin-ups and pull-ups.

Push-ups, too.

I had to try to do whatever I could to try and maintain my fitness, for I have always been driven.

My arm has never looked quite proper since then ─ it seems somewhat out of position. This is most noticeable when I put my hands on my hips ─ the arm has the look of being somewhat flared or turned outward.

Recuperation took months and months ─ maybe even more than a year. But in time, I was able to do my full exercises again. That strange, hard 'pea' atop my left shoulder also eventually subsided.

I have had other more minor incidents over the years, but a half-dozen or so years ago I badly reinjured the shoulder by forcing out full-range and very controlled (i.e., slow) push-ups.

I had managed to work myself up to something like 75 of these full-range push-ups that involved lowering myself until my body was just brushing the ground ─ chest, hips, thighs ─ and then I would push myself up until my elbows and arms were more or less straightened out before I rallied for the next miserable repetition.

I don't remember now, but the full 75 push-ups may have taken around 10 minutes because each push-up was drawn out for a number of seconds.

I forced my poor shoulder one too many times to power myself up from the extreme lowered position ─ the stress was just too much for it to bear.

And there I was, basically crippled all over again.

As before, I never sought medical attention. Why bother? The only intervention the medical profession would be able to offer would have been surgery.

There is definitely something more amiss with the shoulder this last time, for even though it feels to be normal, occasionally when I innocently elevate my arm for whatever reason, there will be a searing pain that strikes from out of nowhere.

So it was only within the past year or so that I tried once more to do those so-called one-arm 'presses' with the dumbbell. Over the intervening half-dozen years, the shoulder had become weaker beyond anything I had realized.

But at least now I have managed to develop from not even being able to perform one repetition with my left arm ─ nor even to bear the weight after hauling it up to shoulder height from the floor ─ to finally being able to go through the full four-set workout.

Oh, gosh ─ it's almost 7:00 p.m.! I must bring this post to a close.

I am going to do so with a few more photos that were taken a little over a year ago when my wife travelled to Italy to visit a sister of hers who has essentially made that country her second home.

As I have explained before, the digital camera she took did not have its date setting adjusted for the holiday; and it may not even have been adjusted since our time here in the Pacific Time Zone went forward by an hour earlier in the year.

So although the camera metadata has the photos as being taken on June 7 (2018), that can only be a very good approximation.

This first photo is a selfie by my wife:

And that's all for today, folks!

 

Trying Hard to Salvage My Friday (Despite an Early-Morning Six-Minute Plank)

As I recall, last evening I was into bed before it was quite 9:20 p.m., thanks to my younger brother passing out early into the very first show I had tuned in for us to watch via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box after he was home from wherever he had been drinking.

I felt rather peaceful at getting to bed ─ too often, I fret over one thing or another, including some apprehension about my wife arriving home from her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.

If she arrives home before I am asleep, then I will only become too disturbed to sleep thereafter.

When I later found myself awake enough to care to check the time, it was at least 12:30 a.m. ─ I had managed some sleep, and been in bed a little over three hours.

I felt rather restored, so I rose in order to tackle the day's content assignment for the post I have under construction at one of my six hosted websites. However, as often happens, tending to accumulated E-mails took nearly an hour and delayed my start.

Roughly halfway through the website work, I broke to perform what has become (as of June 24) my daily 5½-minute plank ─ I had increased my daily plank to that duration after first doing a daily five minute plank since June 14.

Of course, I had somewhat progressed to the five minutes before that ─ I did not just choose five minutes from scratch.

Anyway, while suffering through the plank this morning, I refrained from periodic checks of the timer on my cellphone. Instead, I waited until I had done a slow-count to 300 ─ if I had done the count closely enough, at least five minutes should have elapsed.

Thus, at the count of 300, I looked at my cellphone, and the screen was dark. It only goes dark following a dimming warning after a period of five minutes.

Maintaining my agonizing plank position, I revived the cellphone's screen and then tapped in my password.

By then, the time was into the five minute and 50-some-odd-second range!

Well, I wasn't about to break my plank with the six-minute mark so near, so I held strong and allowed a few seconds beyond that to pile on before finally quitting.

Despite the achievement, I am not going to prematurely make six minutes my new daily planking target ─ it was too damned hard! I will adhere to the 5½-minute limit for some while yet in the hope that it becomes somewhat more comfortable to endure.

Following the exercise break, I returned to work on the website post. And then at ─ was it 3:23 a.m.? ─ I heard my wife unlocking the front door.

She fixed herself something to eat downstairs in the kitchen, using the microwave to warm it; and then she came upstairs and wordlessly passed by the room I keep my computer in ─ a small room immediately adjacent to our bedroom.

She quickly used the bathroom, then shut the bedroom door and seemed to be eating in there.

Soon, she was quiet. Not once had she deigned to say aught to me.

I finished my website work ahead of 4:30 a.m. and returned to bed ─ I had been up for almost four hours. For a change, I found that my wife had not assumed possession of most of the bedding, so I had plenty for myself and was thus quickly comfortable in bed.

Sleep came and went in successions, but I was always comfortable until I finally decided to check the time ─ it was around 9:00 a.m., so I carefully rose and gathered up my clothes and exited the bedroom.

My brother was downstairs watching T.V., but I came here to my computer. I won't go downstairs until nearer 10:00 a.m. in order to put our Android TV Box into operation for the remainder of the morning (he doesn't know how to operate it). I will also rouse my party-girl wife at 10:00 a.m. if she hasn't yet gotten up, for she has to ready for a new workday and her 11:00 a.m. start at the restaruant ─ she has a fair drive to get there.

Right now it is 9:34 a.m. as I take a break from my day's account.

oooooooooooooo

It is now 3:39 p.m., and I'm 'running on empty.' I've just had a nap, and am about to enjoy my day's second hot caffeinated beverage, so maybe that'll pluck me out of this pit, for I still have to somehow deal with the day's scheduled backyard toolshed exercises.

I did rouse my wife at 10:00 a.m., but maybe she would have managed on her own. At least she got away to work on time.

My brother and I watched some of our shows until it was nearly 1:00 p.m. before he sought his bedrest ere taking off for the afternoon to eventually get back into his drinking somewhere.

The day has been mainly overcast, and I noticed signs of some rain early this morning.

As for the presently ongoing FIFA Women's World Cup matches, I only watched a little of the French / U.S. Quarter-finals contest that was played today.

The French team were definitely tough, but they just couldn't catch up once the U.S. got that first goal. The game ended 2 - 1 in regular time. 

I admit that my sympathies were with the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup host country, France.

Hey, my afternoon is wasting away, and I truly must have that toolshed workout ─ so I am going to bring this blog post to a close and hope for the best.

I would also like to try and get out to do some local grocery shopping, but I doubt that I'll manage that small hike today.

I am going to finish with a few more photos that were taken in June of last year when my wife travelled over to Italy to visit a sister of hers who has made that country her second home.

I cannot say exactly when the photos were taken, for my wife's digital camera's date setting hadn't been adjusted for the trip; and it may not even have been changed when our time went ahead an hour in the Spring here in the Pacific Time Zone where we live.

Thus, the images' metatdata claims the photos that follow were taken on June 7, 2018, but that can only be a very good approximation.

I suspect that these were all shot in Rome; and that is my wife in the first two photos posing with a wooden Pinocchio that was on display outside what I am supposing was a toy store.

The boy in the third photo is my wife's nephew.

And that's it for today!

  .

5-HTP for Insomnia Relief, Pain Relief, Depression Relief, and More

Since my younger brother was not as yet home last evening, I was to bed nicely ahead of 10:00 p.m., wondering if I would succeed in obtaining any sleep before my hardworking wife was home after her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.

I cannot now recall if I succeeded in descending into any sleep before she came into the bedroom, probably to fetch her housecoat. I wear a blindfold, so she left the bedside lamp on.

As I lay there in bed, it occurred to me that I actually felt somewhat restored, and that I might as well rise to get to work on the day's content assignment on the post I have in development at one of my six hosted websites.

A glance at the clock-radio gave me the impression that it was somewhere around 1:30 a.m. ─ definitely time enough in bed!

And so I rose and came here to my computer that I keep in a small room next to my bedroom. In so doing, I was surprised to see that my brother's bedroom door was still open and the room dark ─ he must not as yet have come home, which was vastly unusual.

I did not immediately get to work ─ I got diverted by my E-mail's Inbox. Ultimately, I was led to make an application to be considered for the affiliate programme offered at a book seller I cannot say I had ever before been aware of called the Book Depository (Wikipedia).

Anon my wife came upstairs to finally get to bed, and commented on my brother's absence, causing us to share the speculation that maybe he had finally been nicked by the fuzz for driving when ought he not.

I had wasted about an hour since getting up from bed...yet it was only a little beyond 12:30 a.m. Evidently I had originally misread the clock-radio ─ it must have only been around 11:30 p.m., and not 1:30 a.m.

I had not been in bed for too far beyond 1½ hours, and indeed may not have had any sound sleep whatsoever.

I had still not logged into my website when ─ around 12:45 a.m. ─ I became aware that my younger brother had at last arrived home. Initially it took him a ridiculously amount of fumbling at the front door lock as he busied himself with trying to gain entry, and I almost went downstairs to let him in.

Fortunately, I withheld, and happily quickly realized that I would not have cared to have his society.

When he got into the house, his constant loud sighings were probably audible throughout the structure, and he was intermittently mumbling to himself.

As he fussed around downstairs, I deduced that it was likely best I not have aught to do with him whatsoever ─ the experience would be too distasteful. And so I betook myself back to my bedroom and joined my (probably) nearly asleep wife in bed.

Eventually, I slipped into some sleep. And when next I checked the time, it was a few minutes after 5:00 a.m.

I slipped from bed, hardly believing so much time had elapsed. My website's content assignment would ─ at the very least ─ take me three hours to complete. Often, it can take four hours and even longer.

I would not be returning to bed ─ I do not choose to disturb my wife's sleep if the hour of 6:00 a.m. has been achieved, for she needs all the rest she can get. Granted, she does not normally rise until 10:00 a.m. to begin readying for her drive to the restaurant and her 11:00 a.m. start there, but she is as impaired a sleeper in her fashion as am I in mine.

My eldest stepson usually rises around 6:00 a.m. to begin readying for his workday, but this morning he did not do so until around 6:45 a.m.

Then when he had finally left on his drive to work, I took a break and ─ for the fourth consecutive morning ─ performed a 5½-minute plank. Since June 14 until I began the 5½-minute planks on the 24th, I had been performing five minute planks.

I'm unsure just where I am ultimately going with these things, but for now I am in no particular rush to progress beyond 5½ minutes as a daily ordeal.

Does anyone who is not fanatical about planks actually hold them for as many as 10 minutes as a daily exercise? I realize that's not record-setting in the least ─ I am just wondering if any 'average' people actually plank for that long simply as a daily matter of course?

I'm not interested in those idiots who claim that 20 seconds is all a person needs if he or she is performing planks with the maximum amount of tension ─ I already blogged about my position on this several days ago.

Tension like that is unproductive ─ few people could adhere to such a limited regimen because it leads nowhere. Most people need targets ─ a sense of accomplishment.

Bodybuilders do not need to use great weights when they exercise ─ not if their only interest is in achieving a 'burn' and muscle-pump. But most bodybuilders want to use heavy weights ─ it gives them that motivational and competitive feeling of accomplishment and achievement.

Getting a 'burn' and 'pump' simply by focussing in agonizing fashion upon (for example) slowly curling a barbell with a 10-pound plate on each end can be all the work anyone could handle ─ if the focus was intense enough and the curling repetition drawn out to some ridiculously long action, such as taking 30 or more seconds to raise the barbell, and just as long to lower it, all the while trembling with focussed and agonized concentration.

Probably no one could handle more than a few such repetitions.

But where's the satisfaction in doing that? Most of us need to be able to measure the work we are doing, and it is the same with planks.

It's impressive for someone to be able to claim that he or she is performing a daily 10-minute plank; but where are the grounds for acclaim when someone is 'claiming' that he or she only planks for 20 seconds a day, no matter how intensely that plank is performed?

Hardly anyone will care, will they?

But enough exercise talk.

I did indeed work on that website content assignment until after 8:00 a.m., and then I just bedded down here on the floor in front of my computer to sink as much into deep rest as I could.

Eventually I became aware of movement across other areas of the upstairs flooring, and the noise went on for some while. I had set my cellphone alarm for 9:59 a.m., but I gradually began to suspect that not just my brother had risen ─ had my wife, too?

Then I became certain I heard her voice downstairs, so I rose.

It was not yet 9:50 a.m., but she was busy downstairs doing some cooking for the household to enjoy later today after she had gone to work.

Busy girl.

Ultimately she left on her drive just after 10:30 a.m., and I watched T.V. (via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box) with my brother until maybe 12:40 p.m. before he decided that it was time for some further bedrest ere he took off for the afternoon to end up drinking somewhere again.

Yesterday had been beautifully sunny, and I got in just over an hour of sunning. Then it clouded over by the evening and started raining overnight and well into the morning.

Yet this afternoon it had again become sunny enough that I could have sat outside to benefit from it once again, if only I did not have this blog post to bother myself with.

I want to return to the subject of sleep ─ and in particular, an article I read yesterday that offered some encouragement by way of a supplement that I have not before paid any attention to.

I don't tend to place much credence in the efficacy of things like herbs where successfully aiding sleep is concerned, even though I have never tried any. I'm just too skeptical and my pension too limited for me to care to 'waste' money on those kinds of supplements.

As for melatonin, I have never noticed the slightest effect ─ not even 10-mg tablets. So I don't bother buying this natural hormone anymore. 

But maybe this might work for me or my wife?

HSIonline.com

Sleep longer and better with 5-HTP from griffonia seed │ BANISH sleep troubles FOREVER with this exotic African ‘sleep seed’

If 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) spikes your interest, here are some other articles about it ─ supposedly 5-HTP even works as an antidepressant, pain-reliever, and more:

• PsychologyToday.com: Better Sleep with 5-HTP
• MedicalNewsToday.com: The health benefits of 5-HTP: For sleep, weight loss, and depression
• WebMD.com: 5-Htp: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Dosage, and Warning
• Healthline.com: 5 Science-Based Benefits of 5-HTP (Plus Dosage and Side Effects)
• Insomnia.net: Tips for Buying and Using 5-hyroxytryptopan - 5-HTP Supplements 

As well, the following two webpages list reviews by actual users of 5-HTP. The first webpage has reviews from users that used the amino acid for various of its intended or lauded purposes; while the second webpage just concerns users who were only using it as a sleep aid:

• Drugs.com: 5-HTP Reviews & Ratings
• Drugs.com: 5-HTP User Reviews for Insomnia

If you intend to give this stuff a shot, just ensure you research the information about it ─ understand the cautions and dosage risks, and make sure you're not already taking medications that can make taking 5-HTP a risky proposition.

As I said earlier, I have no idea concerning the actual efficacy of this stuff, for I've never tried it; but I am seriously considering buying some to see if it can work for me ─ or at least my wife.

After all, I am retired ─ I can nap anytime during the day that I feel the need to.

I did an Amazon (U.S.) search at the bottom of this post just to get an idea on the prices for whatever products are available ─ have a look, if you care.

I conclude with a few more photos that were taken a year ago when my wife visited a sister of hers who has make Italy her second home.

I don't know exactly when the photos were taken, for the digital camera's date setting had not bee adjusted for the trip ─ and may not even have been changed since our previous time change when our clocks moved ahead by an hour here in the Pacific Time Zone where we live.

Thus, June 7 (2018) is merely a very good approximation.

The first photo features my wife taking a selfie:

I have a weather update. The rather sunny afternoon clouded over in its late stage, and it would not surprise me if we had more rain by nighttime.

And finally, I want to express congratulations to England's FIFA Women's World Cup win today over Norway in the Quarter finals.

The British gals must be pretty darned good to defeat the Norwegian women 3-0 in this stage of the playoffs. If they next play the States, then I hope the Brits can prove that they truly are the fighters that they appear to be.