Hammy Update

As both of you know, I injured by left hamstring during my Thursday morning workout.
Today was a walking day and I was curious if my little hammy would have any comments resulting from the Thursday workout where it was injured or the Friday workout where it was tested.
The answer is no.

My leg was in pretty good shape.
There was a slight tightness in my left hamstring (noted especially with putting my shoes on...) but no pain or distress during my 3-mile walk.
This is good news.

I have another walk scheduled tomorrow morning and then Monday is another arms and legs session.
Barbell squats are on tap for Monday and there is a question if the rear bundle of my left leg is ready for such a challenge.
Wee shall see....

In God we trust...
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MO'NUTHAH HISTORICAL DAY

Yesterday was a historic day for me.
I injured myself working out.
The first time ever (if you don't count dropping a weight plate on my foot a few years ago...)

Um hum, you say. (nodding head knowingly)
See?
All that lifting and grunting and whatnot.
It ain't good for a feller.
'Specially an old geezer like yoo.

Shut up and let me 'splain.
On rep 35 of my first set of lunges(planned reps = 40), I pulled a muscle in my left hamstring bundle.
I tried to finish the set but left hammy would have none of it.
Nuh uh, him say.

After a few minutes of rubbing and gentle stretching to try to salvage the two remaining sets of the exercise, I submitted to the will of the Lord.
He had determined for some reason to cut that move short. (prolly another lesson in humility...)

I finished the other exercises in the workout and was done.
Almost every time I moved yesterday my left leg barked or squeaked in protest.

Today (muted trumpets play fanfare in the background) I wondered how my wounded hammy would tolerate my planned dead lifts (and other moves).
All 36 of them.

Well, the results are in and I win.
My hamstrings put up with (the best that can ever be said about how a part of my body "likes" a particular exercise) my dead lifts just fine.
If fact, I made a mistake when putting on the weights and assembled the weight to be 10 pounds more than planned.
I STILL did three sets of 12 reps with the "wrong" weight.
Woo hoo.

The gotcha today was bent dumbbell rows (after the deadlifts).
I was tired (from a tossy-turny night on the bed, mostly, I think) and not looking forward to the heavy rows. (which consist of lifting an 85 pound dumbell with one arm 12 or 14 times for 3 sets for each arm). [85 x 36 x 2 = 6,120 pounds total for both arms]

Anyway, a test lift in the required position elicited town-hall-meeting level protests from my left ham bundle.
That was enough for me.
I didn't want to do the exercise today anyway.
Thanks, leg.

Thankfully, my injury seems minor and keeping the affected area busy should help it be all better by next Monday when it will be squat time again.
Hopefully, my two planned walks around the neighborhood will help the problem and not add to it.
It's just walking, right?

In God we trust...
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Obammunist Healthcare Tax Bill 2

Below are a couple more tidbits from the giant bill.
........................

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

[NOTE - of course, if all illegal aliens are given amnesty then they will all be here "legally" and we get to pay for their medical care.]

SEC. 1233. ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION.
(a) Medicare
(1) IN GENERAL- Section 1861 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x) is amended--

‘(hhh)(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), the term ‘advance care planning consultation’ means a consultation between the individual and a practitioner described in paragraph (2) regarding advance care planning, if, subject to paragraph (3), the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years. Such consultation shall include the following:

‘(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.

‘(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.

[NOTE - I did not see any wording in this section to support "death panels" etc.. Still checking.]

THE OMAMMUNIST HEALTHCARE TAX BILL

After hearing about "outraged" citizens and "out of control" town hall meetings around the country, I decided to see for mahsef what is in House bill 3200 - Obommunist healthcare tax bill. (Not the official name).
The thing is huge (1300 pages) and it is pretty dry reading, but here are a couple of tidbits from my reading so far.
I have noted the sections, etc, sos you can look it up fo yosef.

Below is a couple of sections of the House bill.


TITLE IV--AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986

Subtitle A--Shared Responsibility

PART 1--INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

SEC. 401. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
(a) In General- Subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new part:

‘PART VIII--HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES

‘SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.

‘(a) Tax Imposed- In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of-

‘(1) the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
‘(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer. [income equal to or in excess of standard deduction plus allowed exemptions - me.]

‘(b) Limitations-
‘(1) TAX LIMITED TO AVERAGE PREMIUM-
‘(A) IN GENERAL- The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the applicable national average premium for such taxable year.

[NOTE - So you pay for health insurance whether you sign up for it or not - mee]

......................................

SEC. 412. RESPONSIBILITIES OF NONELECTING EMPLOYERS.

(a) In General- Section 3111 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (d) and by inserting after subsection (b) the following new subsection:

‘(c) Employers Electing to Not Provide Health Benefits-

‘(1) IN GENERAL- In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on every nonelecting employer an excise tax, with respect to having individuals in his employ, equal to 8 percent of the wages (as defined in section 3121(a)) paid by him with respect to employment (as defined in section 3121(b)).

[NOTE - so, if an employer chooses to NOT provide employees health insurance, the employer must pay an 8 percent tax on each employee's base wages to the government. Think what that will add to the cost of doing business for your local merchants. - mee]

...............................

Is that hope and change stuff working for you yet?
Just you wait....

More to come...

In God we trust.

One Mo'nutha Day

It is Monday.
The start of another week.
As has been my habit for the last year or so, I will start my weight workout in a few minutes.
Today is a session for arms and legs. (chest and back, tomorrow)

I am following a plan suggested by a contrarian trainer who contradicts the common training pattern of working each area of the body just once per week.
He suggests wording each area twice per week.
Since I am no longer running, I have the time and energy to try this plan.
This will be my fifth week on this plan and, so far, it seems to be working.
I feel stronger and a bit "bigger" (I do not see any physical differences).
The bigger feeling could be my normal delusions of grandeur after starting a new program.

According to this guru, I am to follow this plan for eight weeks then take two weeks off.
I am not going to take two weeks off at the end of the month.
I might take a week off.
Maybe.
It depends on how I am feeling (and if am still making progress).

I will prolly change to a three-per-week plan for a few weeks (4?) and evaluate whether I want to go back to the four-per-week, two-way split of this plan, or try something else.
I may go back to the four-way split (arms, legs, chest, back) I was doing before I started this program.

Almost all methods work (meaning they build or maintain strength and muscle mass and burn calories), it is just that some plans work faster than others or work better with your system.
Typically, you cannot stay on one program too long before your progress plateaus and the program becomes ineffective.
At that point you must change your program in some way - take a week or two off, or change the exercises you are doing, change the order of exercises, change the kind of exercises, change the frequency of your workouts, change SOMETHING, to get your body to respond again.

It is hard for me to believe but I have been working out with weights for 14 years.
I stopped for only a few months in 2003-4 when I was shipped off to Oklahoma to work 12-hour shifts for three months.
I ran - for 9 1/2 years - taking about a year off in 2007-8.

Those two activities are very taxing to my system in different ways.
Of the two, I love (LOVE!) running psychologically.
I am/was addicted to the endorphin high it produced.
But it was hard on my overall system.
As I grew older, it began to eat away at my muscle mass (not a good thing for a skinny old man).
That is the main reason I quit this last May.

My body loves weight lifting.
It responds by adding muscle and it likes the strength that it builds.
No real endorphin high is produced by my workouts, but I feel "good" afterward (a mild high?).
At at this time in life, weight lifting is what I must do.
As I said in my previous post when I announced by retirement from running, weight lifting is easier to control time and effort-wise to match my physical constraints as I age.
I hate to even mention age, but it is a fact of life that increasingly intrudes into my ongoing delusion that I am still twenty-something. (I feel like it most of the time...)

So, it is time to walk across the hall, into the room that has been set aside as my gym in my little house.
My torture chamber. :)
And do the moves I have assigned myself for this workout for this day.
Mentally, I don't want to.
But, once I start, I will feel better about doing it and feel better about the whole thing when I am done in an hour or so.

Here we go......
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MY HOW THE DAYS FLY BY

I have been busy with the triviata of my life.
Nothing major (that I want to share at this time) going on, really.

I went to my first training course for HR Block last evening.
It is time to get ready for the new "tax season" as they call it.
There are still five months until the end of the year.
Congress and the Ocommunist administration have plenty of time to make changes to our tax laws.
None of them will be beneficial, I suspect.

I just got out of my second shower of the day.
This was done to de-sweat me from mowing my grass.
My mower again used less that a half cup of gas for the whole deal.

Prior to that I did my usual Tuesday morning weight workout.
Chest and back moves today.
Pushing and pulling as it is called by some.
The exercises today were incline sit-up (yippee, no lower back pain!), pull-ups, barbell bench press, barbell deadlift, and dumbbell butterfly (or just "flies").
Total weight lifted was 22,243 pounds.
I think I deserve a nap.

More later.

Last Campmeeting Pictures

Here is the caboose (a metaphor from a bygone era) of the campmeeting pictures.
Just some odds and ends.

First is a candid shot of some of the teenagers at the camp playing some sort of game in the afternoon.
They occasionally made a good bit of noise while having a good time.



I sneaked a picture of one of the new friends I met while at campmeeting.
Her name is Vinita.(she is the one in the black jacket.)
She is a soft-spoken, pleasant lady.
(Don't get any ideas, we just had a few pleasant conversations together)
She attends the Community Church of God in Dunn Loring, Virginia.



During the campmeeting several older people were recognized for their long, faithful service in the work of God.
One couple among them was brother and sister Rexroth (sp?).
I remember seeing them at campmeetings through the years but did not know much about them until brother Tony read a summary of their accomplishments.



I sneaked a picture of brother Tony and brother Rodney White chatting before one of the services.
I was able to get better acquainted with brother Rodney when I visited brother and sister Bayless in Lawton, Oklahoma earlier this year.
Brother White was preaching a revival meeting there with them.
I have several pictures from that visit that I forgot to post here.
I will post them soon.



That is all the pictures I will post of the campmeeting (took more but many of them are alternate shots of the ones I have posted.)

Mo Campmeeting Pichers 5

Moving on to more pictures from campmeeting....

This little girl in the choir is the daughter or niece of the man holding her (I am not sure which).
She has some development problems.
She is not growing normally or as fast as most children her age.
Someone told me that she is three years old but looks about the size of a two-year-old, and she cannot/does not talk.
I am sure much prayer is being done on her behalf.




Here is another little muffin I saw at campmeeting.
She had come into morning prayer meeting with her mother and was sitting quietly in the back of the room while we waited to begin the prayers.



Here is another shot of the choir.



This is brother Creyts, from Dunn Loring, Virginia, near the Washington D.C. area.
He is very gifted, musically.
He played the vibraphone a few times before or during services.
The sound of the unusual instrument gave the services a surreal atmosphere.
The singer here is named Amaria.



Brother Creyts also played the drums during a couple of services.
At the piano is Ann Webb who is gifted in her own right.
She can play piano well and sing.
I can play the piano and sing, too, but it does not sound like when she does it.



Still more pictures to come.
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Mo Campmeeting Pichas 4

Ok, enough of Miranda.
Here are the last of the talent show pictures from campmeeting.

The "judges" in the talent show usually dress up in some funny outfits and this year was no exception.
What look like Jewish tourists in Miami are actually brother and sister Bartlette.



This was a quartet (duh) that sang in the talent show.
Some of you may recognize at least some of these people.
I am only familiar with their faces.



Sister Evelyn Romine dressed up as Susan Boyle and evidently memorized nearly the entire youtube video - including the song "I dreamed a dream".
She did very well.



Sherm and his daughter(?) dressed up and did a "newscast" of ancient news that was quite funny.



And a young man (whom I later saw looks NOTHING like Elvis) did a pretty good imitation of a young Elvis Presley.
I was impressed and a little surprised.
It was amusing how the crowd responded (loudly, with screams from some of the women) to his performance, they, supposedly being such quiet, "isolated" people, many of whom had/have no televisions.
He won one of the awards.



Lest you get the wrong idea, there was plenty of serious, eternity-oriented activity at campmeeting.
I did not take a lot of pictures of the ministers while they were preaching, so there is less visual information about the most important aspects of the meeting.
More to come....
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Mo Pichers 3

Onward we go with more campmeeting pictures.
I am purposefully concentrating on the "social" aspect of the event, rather than the spiritual, at this point.
There were many "good" messages that enlightened, challenged and encouraged we in the pews during the meeting.
I may elaborate on some the the high points of those presentations later.

Below are a few more pictures of Miranda Wells.
Thursday evening each year after the main service there is a talent show at the campmeeting.
It is generally a time of fun and craziness.
This year, in one of the "acts" in the talent show, Miranda told a story about a young person with a very strong sweet tooth.
As I said before, Miranda is a natural performer, and she proved that again with her part-planned, part-ad libbed presentation.

More pictures of the talent show and campmeeting to come....

Mo Campmeeting Pichas 1

As promised, here are some more pictures I took during campmeeting.
As some of you know, I tend to be a landscape photographer rather than a people photographer.
This prolly has its roots in by-gone days of being shown long series of pictures of, here's Elmer and Alice (standing like sticks) at the Washington monument, here's Elmer and Alice (standing like sticks) at the Lincoln memorial, here's Elmer and Alice (standing like sticks) at the Grand Cooley dam, here's Elmer and Alice (standing like sticks) at mile marker 215 in Nebraska, etc. you get the picture of old pictures.

But this year, I took a lot of pictures (about 150) of people, most of them candid (meaning the people did not know I was taking a picture of them.




Above is a shot of the choir.
Brother Sherm Romine has been the song leader/choir director since I have been attending Newark campmeetings beginning in 1967.
He has a gift in this area.
I kiddingly told someone he could make a rock sing.



Here is a pic of Rebecca Whitehead and an unknown little person, taken just before evening service.




Here are some other people waiting for the evening service to begin.
The youngest one was the main object of my lens but I realized that I had captured three generations of folks.



Here is one of several pictures I took of Miranda Wells this year.
I was trying to sneak a shot of her, as I know she would assume some "pose" for me if she caught me taking a picture.
I failed.
She spotted me and, as expected, made a face for me.
She is a delightful young lady with a very outgoing personality.
She is a natural performer, according to the local folks who know her.




And here are the old war buddies, standing like sticks for their 43rd year anniversary.
From left to right is, brother Danny Bartlette, Tony Bartlette, Walt Williams, mee.
We met in 1967 in Teagu, Korea.
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