Warm May

 I think I broke my step counter. We had a few hikes that added up over the days to over 30k steps in a day and another day that was over 28k. Other days were over 15k pretty easily. Now that I look at it though, my adjustable step goal is just over 10k. Spot on for some questionable science.

That might seem reasonable, except that all through the pandemic I have consistently not even come close to that goal. Some days were below 3k. My body really suffered for it because I was always on edge in terms of not wanting to let my team down. As I have discussed before though: The only way to take care of others well is to (often) take care of yourself first.

There are deep philosophical discussions to be had behind this idea, but I will give two short caveats and an illustration: Never moving beyond yourself is just narcissism, and sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice many things in order to care for or protect someone.

But in general, if you are unable to feed yourself, you will probably be unable to feed another, whether you are unable to procure food today, or don't have the means to ever procure food. In an age-old sense, if you cannot hunt or forage because you are too weak, then those depending on you will starve. Right, so you need to eat, but in a modern sense you should not be denying others just in order to eat...

So back to too much work, essentially health might seem to be tangentially or maybe unrelated to how one works, but if you have ever been sick, hungry, or worried you know that it is hard to concentrate on a task-at-hand that won't alleviate the distraction. Physical health is the same, preventive maintenance means you will reduce the chance of dysfunction.

So I need more steps and I need more exercise. I am looking forward to starting my new Job on Monday. With everything new there is always apprehension, but I think this will be that much better.

My brother-in-law is married off, it was a good wedding. We took some time after and hiked and birded Utah and Idaho, that's where all the extra steps came from.

Also, why is it already summer? It is already too warm, and I need to plant beans, tomatoes, and peppers.

Finding Apathy

Does taking on responsibility in something you enjoy cause apathy? Very possibly. It doesn't help that when I arrive at the usual time there might be someone around, but usually no one. That makes it a bit harder. I don't think taking on responsibility would cause so much apathy without that thrown into the mix. Also just the assumption that I am a bank... Not very fun.

Enough complaining. I will go to fencing this evening after going home for a light dinner and a few minutes of downtime. Then I will go, and if no one is there I will either run outside or around the gym, hopefully it isn't raining because it will be much more fun to run outside. Unlikely as that is.

My brother came into town last week. We went snorkeling at Kapoho on Wednesday. Thursday we went to prayer just as normal except we managed to bring my brother and our housemate because of the turkey trot down at bay front. That was a decent 5k, one of the flattest courses here on the island. I managed a 26:30ish 5k, which is well away from my best but not too bad considering how little I have been running. Then, of course, we stuffed ourselves silly.

Friday morning we met with my boss and went hiking on the observatory side of Mauna Loa. The hike starts at 11,100 feet. This is my fourth attempt with the third being successful. I did not feel great going up, and the first part of the hike was nearly agonizing. Unfortunately one of the guys with us was not doing so well and I was staying with him to make sure he was doing okay. When he stopped I went up to catch up with my brother and my boss to tell them we might need to turn around. I think I covered nearly a quarter mile in just over 5 minutes, I felt light-headed after that but much better than I had felt before.

We all turned around due to weather, as it was getting misty and looked like it could snow. A good thing I think too, a couple we met on the way down were going up. I did warn them about how easy it might be to lose the trail in the mist. They were later rescued off the mountain after wandering off the trail...

Saturday we went to Ke'ei and snorkeled, didn't know that there could be so much coral around Hawai'i.

My brother went back on Monday, but it was good to see him, hike and snorkel with him.

I am going to try an experiment soon with basically a fencing forum, but with a twist. I want people to post videos of themselves for constructive commentary/criticism. That could be quite tough to do, but we will see, as it is an experiment.