Updated: November 13th, 2024
We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through which no one else can take for us … The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you are not the result of training at home by a father, or by masters at school, they have sprung from beginnings of a very different order, by reaction from the influence of everything evil or commonplace that prevailed round about them. They represent a struggle and a victory.
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
Bought a 100-Year Old House
No, I’m not Bob Villa. The house is in great condition. The size an initial concern of mine but it is an opportunity to learn more about minimalism. What can I get rid of? How can I downsize? Gym membership or home gym?
There are some projects that I look forward to, like what is ‘tuck pointing’ and can I do that myself? Or, do you think we put a small raised bed garden here? What about a green house or hot house? Kathleen wants a “plunge pool.” Can I pour a small concrete slab myself for that shed (or even better, can I push out the back of the garage and extend it for more storage, a workshop and or that home gym equipment)?
What I’m Reading
I have no idea why I have so many books going at one time but I’ve always been that way…
- In Search of Lost Time, vol. 1–Swann’s Way & In a Budding Grove, Marcel Proust. Apparently this is the longest novel ever written and seldom do people actually finish the whole thing–challenge accepted.
- The Story of Psychology, Morton Hunt — found this book when I was on the tail end of the Story of Philosophy, and love how it seems to speak of many of the same characters, and I love how philosophy and psychology cross over.
- The History of Jazz, 3rd edition, Ted Gioia — set this aside for a bit while I finish The Story of Psychology.
- I’m also thoroughly enjoying This Jungian Life or Stoicism on Fire podcasts anytime I am in the car or at the gym.
Zettelkasten & ‘Second Brain’
Having processed through all of the papers, scraps, and notebooks brought over from my last job and years of self study, now I’m processing through my more business-like files. Most of this will go into the recycling bin (if not shredded). I’m sure I will stumble across some stuff for the zettlekasten. The rest will probably end up in a digital archive (I’m switching from Evernote to the Apple Notes app; yes a future blog post will explain why and how).
Next step would be to process all of my old common-place notebooks. These are all in storage right now. I also have most of the books I was reading when I scribbled in those notebooks, so I’ll probably be combining a review of the books with the processing of the notebooks.
All of this processing will land in my zettelkasten on 4×6 cards, filed into my antique library card catalog (see “Writing a Book” below).
An Atelic Activity
I’m back to learning Scots Gaelic via Duolingo. I started doing this back in 2021 with the intent (goal > telos) of speaking Gaelic when we went to Scotland for my 50th birthday. It became “another chore” to do each night, and thus I abandoned it.
Now that I have no end goal, so far it seems more fun.
My current favorite word is coineanach, meaning “rabbit.”
Flânerie in the Greater Cleveland area (another atelic activity)
Found our grocery store and even “my favorite” liquor store to satisfy basic needs and my cocktail hobby. Now I can move on to exploring individual towns/neighborhoods in the greater Cleveland area.
Completing a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification
Further delays. I still need to finish the final test and complete the final project.
I Have a New VA PACT
(Patient Aligned Care Team). Got checked in with primary care a day before my 52nd birthday. Got a dental referral (not easy to do at the VA unless you are 100% service connected). I’ll check in soon with Optometry/Vision clinic. Bonus: It’s time for my next colonoscopy!
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
Joseph Campbell
Mental Health Update: The psychologist with whom I was doing CBT advised me to “take another run at trauma therapy when you get to Cleveland.” Further, I had a recent “addendum” pop up in my health records indicating I have been diagnosed with PTSD. Huh? My new doctor asked me if I wanted to meet the Primary Care Mental Health Integrated therapist. They call them “drive-bys.”
In case you haven’t delved further into this site, my (primary) traumatic experience was essentially a “drive-by” or “road rage” incident. I made the joke “no pun intended, right?” I thought it was funny; she became instantly apologetic.
Any way, I did meet him for a ten minute chat. Basically, yes, the Cleveland VA has some of the best mental health care and PTSD resources in the country. If I want to I could look into trauma recovery or various trauma specific therapies. Decisions, decisions…
The Centenarian Olympics
I am “de-trained.” I’m also retired from law enforcement–a group that suffers from higher rates of all-cause mortality, I think in part because they just stop. They are tired and worn out and what purpose is there NOW for training?
Enter Peter Attia and his centenarian decathlon. As outlined in Doctor Attia’s book Outlive, The Science and Art of Longevity, the centenarian decathlon is a frame work he uses to organize his patients’ physical aspirations for the later decades of their lives.
“Think of the Centenarian Decathlon as the ten most important physical tasks you will want to be able to do for the rest of your life. … I find it useful because it helps us visualize, with great precision, exactly what kind of fitness we need to build and maintain as we get older. It creates a template for our training.”
Peter Attia, MD
Time to stop talking about it and get started training for my version of the ‘Centenarian Decathlon.’ I need to line out my ten (or more) events and get to work on a training plan.
Regardless of the events the over-arcing mission is intentional, purposeful, deliberate, goal-driven training to optimize three physical fitness dimensions, highly correlated with longer ‘health-span’:
- Aerobic endurance and efficiency–for metabolic flexibility and maximum aerobic output,
- Optimal strength and power to weight ratio,
- Stability, balance, and coordination.
Update: Back from Virginia so now I’m at the gym five days a week. Working through a 40-day “Even Easier Strength” program (Dan John). This will include a week of “Litvinov’s” every four weeks. Then, I think maybe I’ll follow Dan John’s “Easy Strength for Weight Loss,” if I feel I need to cut more weight (it’s basically Easy Strength with a zone 2 cardio component added in, but follow the links for more details). I’ll likely add in sprints or other VO2 max improvement work as well–say 2-3 times a week.
Writing a Book
This will be on hold while most of my books are packed in boxes… maybe even in a storage unit while we house hunt (yikes). But, I am (still) thinking about writing a book.
To move in that direction I’ll be reviewing old “common placing” books, book marginations and my indices, and developing my (analog) zettelkasten of 4×6 cards into my antique library card catalog (thank you Kathleen).
A small confession: I’m an organizing junky. I have common placing books from 1995(?) which was a combination of travel journal, spiritual practices, and the notation of interesting stuff I read or learned or found. Problem is the accessibility of this information is near nil. So too are all the marginations and self-developed book indexes that I wrote but never processed. That’s a big backlog of lost learning and knowledge.
For these reasons I’m likely to be blogging about this process and my re-reading and research.
Coaching
Due to my move and other projects, I am not accepting new athletes/clients at this time.
Like what you’re reading? Has this information been helpful or entertaining? It’s all free, of course, but if you feel moved to the point of spending money, I won’t stop you from clicking this PayPal donation button…
