Dragging feet, Lifting it, Back to the sun

Every other year we are required to get a physical for our health insurance at work. This time I have been dragging my feet. I always dislike any and all things doctor related but this time I have even more reason to not want to go. When they did our comprehensive blood screening it revealed that my overall cholesterol number had climbed significantly from my last test two years ago. Although my HDL and triglyceride numbers are good, the LDL is not. I can only attribute it to going off my pescatarian diet during that two year hiatus. Since receiving those numbers I have been doing some diet modifications that will hopefully start trending that number back down. I don’t want the physical to spin into a round of other medical testing. I do however need to be careful as my mom died of a heart attack and my younger brother had a mild heart attack within the last year as well. I am however more active and in better overall health so I am hoping that stacks the deck more in my favor.

Speaking of activity, yesterday at the gym I did something that I am pretty sure I have not done since prior to covid, barbell deadlifting. One of my old calisthenic buddies, Fi, a woman over in the UK posted a picture of her deadlifting recently. Like me, she was once very hardcore into strength training and calisthenics but scaled back over the years. Well anyway seeing her pull heavy weight off the floor stuck the idea back into my head of “I wonder if I can still deadlift”.

The last time I tried to pull heavy deadlifts my lower body had significantly less aches and pains than it does now. When I did the first warm up set of 135lbs my body gave me sort of a “WTF are you doing” reaction. However I kept adding weight as I tried to remember some of the form that helps you stay safe in the movement. The rubber plates at the gym are fat, making my efforts look far more impressive than they were.

I topped out at 275 pounds which I did for two sets of one. When I used to deadlift sort of regularly my all time best was 390 pounds. When I could do that I used to be able to do 315 pounds for 5-6 reps if I recall correctly. 275 pounds felt heavy but I was pleased just to be able to lift it cleanly without injuring myself. I am thinking about adding it into my rotation of things. Deadlifting hits your entire body and is one of the best exercises you can do. I’m not sure if it’s the best exercise to do at 58 years old, but we will see.

Yesterday I was doing my home delivery order for Costco. The site popped up a Jackery Solar Generator deal they were running. It included the 1500WH battery system along with 100 watts of portable solar panels. It’s a great deal at $599. Normally this combo would cost closer to $1000. After doing some brief inner deliberations I added it to my grocery order.

You may or may not remember I had a Goal Zero solar generator at the old house in the chicken coop. I had solar panels connected to it that would charge it during the day and the box would power devices in the coop during the night. That was only a 1000WH unit and it cost me somewhere around $1000 just for the box alone with no panels. With the Jackery having 50% more capacity at a drastically lower price it was too good to pass up IMO.

You may ask what I need it for? I no longer have chickens and I have a portable gas generator. This gives me a safety net and flexibility in the event of a power outage. Despite it’s small size the unit can power high amp devices like a microwave, window AC unit or an air fryer. It is advertised to be able to power a fridge for two to three days. In addition to being able to be powered by solar you of course can plug it in to charge as well. I went from 25% to full in about an hour. Hell I could put it in my office to serve as a super sized UPS for every day use until I need it for something more urgent. It’s a great little unit.

This weekend is another free flowing type. As long as I am not too sore from dead lifting I would like to get a Saturday pickleball session in. I also have a number of 3rd party Tesla accessories incoming so depending on their arrival I might be doing a lot of car installation projects as well. So far the only additions I have made is getting the front windows tinted and installing a charging hub in the console that adds even more RGB coolness to the interior.

Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as press secretary. Her claim to fame is being the youngest and possibly most annoying version ever of that position. She would parrot Trump’s lies like they were spoken by Jesus himself. Maybe she is stepping away before the shit hits the fan, pun intended.