First post of 2020! So…. errr……2020! Amirite? *laughtrack*
It’s hard to think this Blog’s been around for 6 years. I started it to kind of document my progress through the hobby, and I guess this continues to serve its purpose. At the height of my writing I was getting a lot of gaming in. These days, not so much. That’s ok, because priorities change. So… How do I provide a snapshot of the milestones in the life of Oak?
Since my last post even, so much has changed in the world it’s difficult to know where to begin.
Well, yeah, I suppose there was that whole pandemic thing that happened around March. It’s impacted everyone a bit differently, and frankly my household has been very fortunate in that both breadwinners remain employed and the biggest hurdle has been looking after our now 2 year old son who never stops moving, while also remaining employed. That’s meant getting the same amount of work done on a weekly basis in a matter of 3 days, and providing front-line childcare services with the remaining 3 days (while fending off clients and coworkers and making the best of regularly scheduled nap-times), and maybe getting a half day off on a Sunday afternoon if we’re feeling frisky. Even if we could go out (because lockdowns are a thing) we probably wouldn’t have had the time. That said, IT COULD HAVE BEEN MUCH WORSE.
(errrr… And I suppose it’s still going on so I shouldn’t be using the past-tense for fear of becoming complacent…)
Actually, 2020’s been great at demonstrating how disciplined I can be when I put my mind to it.
For example, the Mrs. had been on me for a while to be ‘more active’ in the winter months, and I guess i didn’t know what that meant, for literally the longest time. Eventually I guess I felt some conviction, likely as I went clothes shopping and nothing fit properly… But what to do…? Usually I would start something and it would just kind of… flop… for whatever reason. My running career started and stopped due to knee injuries, and no sports that ran through winter really appealed…
…and then there were those cheapy “PLANET FITNESS XL” gyms, which largely left you to your own devices, with those intimidating, dangerous looking dudes not-so-quietly hoarding the bench-presses and squat racks while you tried to figure out what you could do on a Lat pull-down machine. A routine would be made, and then some life changing event would derail my schedule, and I’d never go back after paying for 4 months of the membership without using the facility over the same period…
Since October 2019 or so I’ve been going to a crossfit gym instead. The class set-up worked perfectly with schedule keeping, the workouts were more than challenging enough to do me some good, and had a strong enough community to keep me coming back. More expensive, yes, but this is something I sunk my teeth into.
By January I had dropped 30 lbs, and at the time of the Pandemic and the gym closed, I had started putting it back on again (in a good way!). The pandemic would have been a perfect excuse to pack it in, and probably would have represented the speed-bump I needed to kick me out of my schedule but I rented some equipment, and had a program rigged to get me through until such a time as it re-opened. Now I am the danger. I am the one who squats.
It’s been good, and I think it’ll continue to be good. Considering I’ve never worked out like this before, I’m setting personal bests seemingly every week, but eventually it’ll kind of plateau a bit, and that’s when the real discipline will settle in. In about 6 weeks, I will have kept this up for a full calendar year. Crazy.
It should be noted these gains in discipline have been ramping up over the years, particularly since becoming a dad. With free time no longer being a luxury, I’ve been more careful as to how I spend it. I’m sleeping better (mostly) and not eating as much garbage as I used to. I’m reading more, and playing World of Warships less.
Where does the mini-wargaming hobby kind of fit in with all of this? Well, to be honest, it’s really taken a back seat for now. I’ll pick up a brush occasionally, but with the work/childcare situation there just hasn’t been an opportunity to get a (socially distanced) game in, and thus the motivation just hasn’t been there. 9th edition really couldn’t have come at a worse time in that respect, because it seems silly to run out and blow a bunch of cash on books and models that I won’t be able to use for an undefined period of time.
Anyways… This is a brief progress post, and i might follow up a bit with some painting and other stuff but… yeah… lets not get too far ahead of ourselves…
The Emprahs Mighty Flowry Meadow 