BURGER SCOOT

Back in early January, I wrote a post that was, in essence, my 2024 resolutions (though I called them “Challenges.”) How am I doing so far? The answer is why I normally don’t do the resolutions thing (or if I do, I keep them to myself). It’s depressing to be reminded that you have failed at something, and if you have multiple resolutions then the failure can be manifold.

I am my own worst enemy when it comes to executing self-improvement plans. Then, I realized I had failed to improve myself and said, “Ah-ha! See, I knew you wouldn’t stick with it!” I am not the only one who falls short of their resolutions. My wife and I belonged to the now-defunct Capital Athletic Club (CAC) in Sacramento at 8th and P Streets. CAC would always get a surge in membership in January, only to have the number drop down to the pre-January level within three months. Since I don’t like to be crowded in the showers or around my locker, I was happy for the pre-January membership level return.

In fact, imagine how I felt when the club re-opened after the COVID Shelter-in-Place mandate was lifted: Many old members had canceled their memberships and were now either exercising at home or found a gym closer to their house since they continued to, like me, work mostly from home. I was giddy for even more space. It wasn’t until the postmortem came that we all discovered the club had lost thirty percent of its pre-COVID membership. The current membership wasn’t sustainable to pay the large staff, keep the enterprise-size washers and dryers going (yes, CAC had a laundry service!), and run all the other amenities, not to mention the gas and electricity; so much for getting my wish.

We now go to City Sports Club. Annoyingly, the name is a double misnomer. First, there are no “sports” like basketball, volleyball, handball, racquetball, tennis, or pickleball leagues. (To be fair, CAC didn’t have the ladder two, but many gyms with a larger footprint do and “sport” isn’t in their names.) Secondly, it’s not a “club,” at least by my definition. There are no special events like the ones at CAC: the annual Sacramento Ballet season’s pre-premier, wine and beer tasting events, an annual Octoberfest event, Holiday Season party, and other events including excursions like snow shoeing, hockey and baseball games. All of these events meant to bring members together outside of exercising. Things a club would do.

But that’s enough of my nit picking. I originally chose the word “challenges” because it was a more positive, hopeful word than resolutions: “I’m challenging myself to get in shape,” not “I resolve not to eat half a pink cake box of Mahoroba pastries every time we go there.” Here are the original challenges:

• Be Positive
• Lose Weight
• Be Productive
• Pay Attention
• Write (in this blog) More

Update on Being Positive

No change here. I continue to be a negative thinker. This is probably the toughest quality to improve. Your neuropathways are set from a very young age, making behavior change of this kind very difficult. My mentor in college, Bill Dorman, once told me, “I think you are living a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone, some time ago, told you were not good enough, and now, every time you stumble, you say, ‘See, I knew I couldn’t do it.’” Negativity seems to be baked into my psyche. Improvement: NONE

Update on Losing Weight

Technically, I am down a few pounds, but in February and March, I hit my all-time heaviest, so this isn’t a great improvement. The older I get, the more critical it is that I lose weight and keep my weight manageable. Late in May, a specialist I see only a couple of times a year said he was glad I had lost a couple of pounds, but he didn’t know the whole story, and I spared him the truth. Recently, though, I began a stretching regimen every night and am back to practicing yoga. Back on November 20, I wrote a post about how I was on my way to regularly practicing yoga again (see Observations from the Mat #9 Well, I ended up bailing on that, but I am back on the horse. Improvement: SLIGHT

Update on Being Productive

No, same old me in this department. The only marginal improvement is my old boss asked me to come back to work two days a week as a Retired Annuitant. My wife has been doing a lot of yard work, and I haven’t helped, but when I go out to see her progress and she puts me to work, I’m happy to help, but that doesn’t happen very often. Improvement: SLIGHT

Update on Paying Attention

Only a slight improvement here. I have run into some Medicare issues that have shown just how out of it I am, but since I originally wrote this, I have taken copious notes during phone meetings. Also, the CPA/tax issues have been mitigated for now, but I’m generally still the same spaced-out old man. Improvement: SLIGHT

Update on Writing in This Blog More

I posted 20 posts last year, and, including this post, I have done 10 so far this year. The thing is most of the posts for 2023 and this year have been videos with a small amount of original text by me, so there’s nothing to celebrate at this point. When the final nail in the Oakland Athletics move is driven in, the percentage of video posts will most likely be greatly reduced. Improvement: SO FAR ABOUT THE SAME

There they are. There’s one more challenge, perhaps the biggest challenge of them all: Don’t beat yourself up if you fail at any or all of these challenges (resolutions). I guess this post is a way of using my body as a speed bag. Some people never change.