Thank you for all the notifications – I realize that my Facebook and Instagram accounts were hacked. Waiting on approval for a return there. In the meantime, I’m still here as well as my YouTube channel.
5k run is done – and for those of you counting. It’s 68! For the video, I took the blocks from our countdown to Christmas. I’ll get new ones at some point, but it’s March and we still have like summer. But at that point . . . the kids will start wanting to know about Christmas. Again – in the meantime, I got these. 68 in a row.
3 Day fast is underway – easiest day . . . so, I thought.
Goat is fixed. Frog is introduced.
Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Helps with managing out your time for the day.
The frog is that one thing you have on your to-do list that you have absolutely no motivation to do and that you’re most likely to procrastinate on. Eating the frog means to just do it, otherwise the frog will eat you meaning that you’ll end up procrastinating it the whole day.
Wikipedia defines safety as “the state of being ‘safe’ (from French sauf), the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable.” Next, when you add into the equation of safety, the location of a hospital, I can guarantee that the checklist grows even longer.
(how to go for a ride – by this kid)
Within a hospital, there are safety signs everywhere, as there should be. Contracts / agreements / documents / checklists are endlessly written up and followed – again, as there should be. Everything needs to be signed off on, and then double checked before a third checking, and finally a final, final check is stamped with an approval. And yes, as they should most definitely be, especially at a hospital. However, knowing the location of a particular set of keys to unlock the bathroom door with a patient trapped inside – nothing. They have got absolutely nothing on that one.
Since you weren’t with me, let me set the scene. For my job of cleaning fish aquariums, I was on-location at a hospital. If you want to be really specific, it was a rehabilitation and therapy hospital. In turn, these patients were definitely in need of aid and attention, so they would not be going anywhere, anytime too soon. Nevertheless, the hospital had some fish tanks which for my job, I visited monthly to clean.
On this particular day, I was deep into my typical routine, where a certain percentage of water had already been removed from the aquarium. What obviously follows is the refilling process, which was now underway. To transport the water, I had to use the bucket method and was therefore carrying the water to and from the nearby bathroom. There was this hose attachment which connected directly onto the sink’s faucet. The other end would be slowly filling up five gallon sized buckets, as I would continue doing the random duties associated with cleaning a fish tank. Speaking of duty, nobody would usually use the bathroom during these durations of time since it was quite obvious that it was in continued use by “The Fish Guy.” Usually is the key word in the prior sentence.
After starting up another bucket for filling, I exit the bathroom, while leaving its door propped open with a heavy bucket of fish tank cleaning tools. As I head back to the tank area , I notice out of the corner of my eye an elderly woman “walkering” (that’s walking with a walker) her way towards the bathroom. Sensing her confusion with the bucket of obstacles door prop, I spin around holding up my hands and explain, “Ma’am, excuse me, but I’m really sorry, but the bathroom is unavailable right now.”
With a swift kicking motion towards my door prop bucket, she gruffly replies, “I can see that, but I have to go.” My blue bucket of cleaning supplies is shot away from the bathroom. Then, with amazing strength due to the apparent urgency at hand, the door was swung shut sending off a booming sound that could probably be heard throughout the entire hospital. By the way, the location of the aquarium and this particular bathroom are both within the cafeteria area. In turn, not only do I have my blue bucket rolling on its side with cleaning equipment of sponges and tools sprayed out all over the floor, I also have each and everyone’s eyes from the cafeteria tables being directly focused on me. Great. This type of attention is always awesome – not.
Now remember, one of my other buckets still resides inside the bathroom at this moment in time and it’s busy being filled up slowly with water. Quickly, I scan the room of staring (along with some glaring) eyes in desperate search for a hospital employee. After sweeping motions are made over the entire room, I finally spot out two women in hospital work attire and give them a point prior to my hustle over.
Upon arrival, I simply state without an introduction, “We have a situation.”
“You’re damn right you do. Are you going to head back over there and clean that up?” This employee is only concerned about the kicked over bucket and scattered tools.
Realizing the distraction behind me, I wave it off. “That’s nothing.” Trying to refocus them on my words, my hands attempt to tell the story as I narrate, “An elderly woman just went into the bathroom. I tried to explain to her that the bathroom was already in use, but she just wouldn’t listen.” Sensing boredom courtesy of the glazed over looks that I was receiving from both employees, my hands flutter recklessly about as I decide to skip to the end. “Okay, I’m filling a bucket with water in that bathroom.” On the word “that”, I perform an overly dramatic point. Then, to help reach my emphatic conclusion, I go into a teapot pose and end with “and the spigot is running.”
(Can you imagine the pose now?)
What felt like an eternity of a pause made, my teapot pose starts to waver. Finally, the other employee speaks and I hear, “Can’t help you.” At this point, I believe I’m invisible to hospital “help” number two. I choose to do the ignoring and go back to the one that was at least concerned over my blue bucket spillage. “Can’t someone unlock the door?”
“We don’t have a key.” Again, this comes from hospital “help” number two.
“Really?” I shoot off into her direction along with a touch of sarcasm. Okay, a strong touch.
I’ve now gotten the attention of hospital “help” number one again. There’s some odd neck move maneuver performed (not as good as my teapot pose though) as she adds, “Yeah, when you lock the bathroom, it’s locked.”
Genius. I glare into the neck twisty female’s eyes and state, “So, what happens if the person in the locked bathroom pulls the emergency cord next to the toilet?”
(Hahahaha – just kidding!)
Silence. Seriously, I got silence, because they had no clue. None.
“Uh, you guys better work on that one.” I leave the dynamic duo and march back to the bathroom. Ironically enough, just as I was about to give the door a hard rapping police knock, it opens.
The elderly woman walkers herself out and barks at me, “It’s all yours. You better take care of that bucket of yours. It’s going to overflow and make a mess in there.”
I kick into “kill them with kindness” mode and smile out, “Thank you, ma’am.” Ma’am probably meant something other than . . . ma’am.
With several quick motions, I grab my empty blue bucket from the floor, push the door open wider to prop it, and flick off the faucet. The bucket is filled to the brim with water. Then, just as I was feeling a sense of relief, I was punched in the nose with a pugnacious smell of “duty” or, who’s kidding anyone, it was a repulsive, fresh shit smell. I actually had to step out and take in a breath of cafeteria air.
(This is the before picture of the toilet. I have tried to mentally erase the post traumatic picture and therefore will not subject my readers to that disgust and distaste. Instead, I’ll write about it!)
Pulling myself together, I now see that the old woman with her walker is almost seated at a nearby table. I could have sworn that I saw a smirk. Nevertheless, the inevitable has to occur. I turn back to the bathroom and give it a scan. In the beginning of this tale, I explained that these people were in need. Well, by the sight laid out before me, this bathroom was now in need of help. It looked like urine was all over the floor while the toilet itself was speckled with brown marks. Luckily, the sink and my white bucket were far enough away from the explosion that I believe nothing contaminated it or truly “touched” it. This was my final bucket needed to fill up the tank aquarium anyway. Thank God.
Focused, I grab my bucket, detach the hose from the spigot, and then suddenly realize something. After unleashing that mess in the bathroom, that woman didn’t even wash her hands at the end of the production. With my foot, I push away the blue bucket door stop and allow the door to shut behind me. I’m now staring out into the cafeteria and see the woman eating her sandwich which is being held with those disgusting, uncleansed hands.
I head over to the table, “Excuse me,” pause, pause, “Ma’am?”
Her mouth is full, so she just looks up and chews.
As I feel the rest of the eyes from the table shift towards me, I continue, “I just wanted to let you know that the hose attachment has been removed from the sink. So, you’ll be able to wash your hands now.” A big smile smears across my face.
Those same table eyes that were drilling through me, all slowly turn to the “woman.” They know, they all now know.
Feeling a little vindication, I spin around and head back to the tank area. Aquarium is officially done and it looks good. I wrap things up and begin to head out. However, along the way, I feel more eyes watching me. Ahhh – the dynamic duo. My work is not done.
Giving off another broad smile, I wave and then point to the door, “It’s unlocked now. Good thing, because that bathroom needs a cleaning itself.”
My hands do some of the explaining and give off a wave under my nose. “Whew – and it wasn’t me, ladies. Good luck with that!”
(This picture would have been so much cuter at the beginning of the story)
I ran, but it was back on the treadmill. Mountain was fun. My legs still ache, but it was fun. Later this week – I easily see some outside runs happening. Nice weather coming!
Felt good being in my own bed again after a shower in my own shower. Isn’t that true of anywhere you go though? Okay – maybe almost anywhere. Today, I’m certainly feeling refreshed and ready for whatever again.
Ahhhh, but ready enough for the 3 Day Fast? I have to be. It’s a big month because allergy season begins to roll in. After dinner tonight, I start up my monthly 3 day fast. Hopefully, I eat a little early so the Thursday dinner can come earlier as well.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
First weekend obstacle of the year has been hurdled! 5k & Vlog streak continues on!
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, since it’s my vlog and I like music, that’s what I want to talk about again. Yesterday, I bought two records:
Trick of the Tail – From 1976, this is the first album that Mr. Phil Collins moved out from behind the drum kit and took over on lead vocals for the band, Genesis. Former lead singer, Peter Gabriel, had just left to do his solo thing. This particular record was introduced to me by my brother-in-law, Barry. His daughter Melissa fell asleep to this album every night as a baby. In turn, I did the same thing with my son, Elliott. When we walked into the record store yesterday, this album was smack dab up front and Elliott actually saw it first and said “Whoa!” I had to get it.
Are You Experienced? – Got this one because of my daughter. She appears to truly enjoy the rock. When we played the Jimi Hendrix song “Fire” in the car, she locked in and loved the song especially the part about “move over rover, and let Jimi take over.” This album was up front within the aisle – so, it was screaming to be purchased as well.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Everything worthwhile takes a long time” – Milton Glaser
Outside 5k run is done, so the streak continues. As I say in the video, I had other things planned out to say, but that just went out the window. I enjoyed being outside – felt good. That first half of the run though – whew, straight up. I hit my “flight” goal for the day within the first 2 minutes of the run. At the halfway point, I had quadrupled my goal! Now, of course, the way back was all downhill, but it was scary. If I did one slip . . . I would have set some records with the sled ride home that I would have had.
Quick random music notes that I didn’t get to yesterday:
Bruno Mars has a new single out with Anderson. Paak – “Leave The Door Open”
AND – Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, redid Cream’s “White Room” with Apocalyptica.
That’s it – short scribble day. I’m off to a record store!
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Ideas are cheap. Ideas are easy. Ideas are common. Everybody has ideas. Ideas are highly, highly overvalued. Execution is all that matters.” – Casey Neistat
Happy Friday! Happy Birthday to my wife – she is . . . not my age. I’m smarter than that.
Big day – I talked about this before and as always, I’ll include it within the scribble on the website. But, today is the 4x4x48 Challenge courtesy of Mr. David Goggins. Let me review what this is. Starting tonight at 8pm (West Cost Time aka PST) – the challenge is to run 4 miles every 4 hours for the next 48 hours. That fascinates me. Maybe next year – but if it’s around my wife’s birthday . . . that probably wouldn’t be a good idea, but we’ll see. Very intriguing to me. Oh – and yes, I’m still listening to his book Can’t Hurt Me. Not done yet, but getting there. So far – you should go listen to it, too.
New Music Friday:
Drake’s got new music out! It’s not the whole sha-bang that he promised back in January. That album is called Certified Lover Boy – no release date there. This 3 song EP is called Scary Hours 2 . . . because he already had a Scary Hours EP before. That “What’s next” song was a whole lotta him bragging about getting lucky on Valentine’s Day.
St. Vincent has officially announced her new album Daddy’s Home and shared its first single, “Pay Your Way in Pain.” The album is out May 14
The Kings of Leon album drops today – When You See Yourself – 11 songs
“Coming 2 America” is out today – yes, the movie with Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Tracy Morgan, James Earl Jones, Leslie Jones . . . the list goes on. But – Def Jam is releasing not one but two soundtracks to go along with it. I last week that there was the release of the on song – “I’m King” with Bobby Sessions and Megan Thee Stallion. But, I’m not seeing the whole soundtrack yet today. Movie is through Amazon Prime.
GRAMMYs are coming. The show hosted by Trevor Noah is March 14. But – on SiriusXM, you can hear all the nominees and contenders for a Grammy can be found on Ch. 104. You get Beyoncé, Post Malone, Taylor Swift, and more, plus virtual backstage interviews and other “shtuff.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.” Chris Rock’s dad
This scribble needs to be worked on still . . . I’ll do that soon. OFF TO WORK!
Today is going to be a good day. I would even venture to say – a Great Day! I know it’s – Friday Eve, but today, my parents are getting their 1st vaccine shot. I am so excited for them. My dad is 81 and mom is 78. They needed it. Thank you to my little sister for finding out about a website and instructing my mom to go there. As of today, if you qualify for a shot, you do have to play that game. But – keep playing it. It’s important. I miss hugging my parents . . . and I’ve missed out on a lot of those hugs this past year.
Tomorrow – I leave. Well, I will be here in the morning.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “There is more freedom to be gained from practicing poverty than chasing wealth. Suffer a little regularly and you often cease to suffer.” – Tim Ferriss
Coffee – I like the pour over. Remember – me and Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach. I found it – I talked about that before here. Anyway, I like the dark roast. BUT – I have found an odd thing about dark roast coffees and not all of them are the same – I know, obviously. However, I have noticed that the oily, slick looking coffee beans that are “dark roast”, I like them best. After “googling” it, I learned that if the dark roast bean has the “wet look”, then it was roasted correctly. Here’s the link.
Speaking of coffee, someone saw me at Dunkin and he thought I was cheating on my fast. Three things: (1) 3 day fast begins next Monday (3/8) after dinner, (2) Black coffee is fine for the 3 day fast, and (3) Dunkin’s Snackin Bacon is not available on the fast though and that is what I was having. If they ever have a 2 for 1 – I’m in trouble.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemy” – Alexander the Great
So, my Thunderstruck song went off yesterday and I didn’t stop working. I kept pushing. AND – I became grumpy Brent. It’s sort of a special week though. I just can’t really get behind because of the upcoming weekend away.
I’m big with trigger songs:
Back in high school with baseball, I’d hum “Guns in the Sky” to myself at the plate. Yeah, by INXS. Don’t laugh Michael Hutchence can be tough. Alright, sexy tough?
Anyway – for running, I have my “Angry Run” Playlist. These include Linkin Park, Godsmack, but the one song that gets me every time – “Legend Has It” by Run the Jewels
Now, it’s not all angry or getting psyched up moments that I need. At night in our house library, I love playing certain vinyl – the whole ritual of putting the record onto the turntable – almost like the ritual of brewing a cup of coffee. Currently, my favorite go to chill album has been the latest one from The Raconteurs with Help Us Stranger. Sometimes though, I turn to Beck’sMorning Phase
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
Hello March – do you believe that “In like a lion, out like a lamb?” I’m cheering it on because I’m so ready to get outside. Hoping by the end of this long month
Stay home day and I have so much planned in getting done today – paperwork wise. This is where I can get myself in trouble. I set some lofty goals and then come the end of the day when I haven’t hit them all. I get bummed. A little downward spiral. I think it’s important to set these high goals, because I want to push myself to get it all done. BUT – it’s not worth it if I just become grumpy Brent at the end of it all. To help shift me out of this work, work, work mode, I actually have an alarm set on my phone to go off around 3:15pm to begin wrapping it up. It’s AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”. It sort of clicks me from the work to the “have to” work and I begin wrapping it up for the day in order to get to my family!
Oh – yesterday, I talked about Tim Ferriss and all of his books. BUT – I failed to mention his podcast, which – yes, I do know about and listen to religiously. He just did his 500th episode with Kevin Rose – so congrats to him on that accomplishment. He plans on keeping it going which I’m happy to hear. Also today on the treadmill, I began listening to #501 with his guest, Steven Pressfield. I’ve talked about him before with his book, The War of Art.
I ran! 31 + today + 28 = 60 in a row! Also means 60 videos. Thanks for putting up with me!
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When one teaches, two learn” – Robert Heinlein
