Growing my hair out, shaving my face, riding a bike, cooking and shooting

Haven’t posted in a little while, been riding this out like most of you out there.  This will be more of a human side of PJ update and I suspect it will resonate, not that I’m doing what you are doing but hey…might share some good thoughts.  First things first, here is what I’m listening to while writing this post.  Good tune, Tyler has a lot of good stuff worth checking out.

The Quarantine Hair

So I spent a month and a half growing out my facial hair, I’ve done it before for various obligations and my wife has never liked it.  I finally gave up the fight and shaved it all off which to be honest, did make me feel a little lighter on my feet.  FWIW I remember the first time in the military where I didn’t have to shave and my uniform was sort of non-standard, although I was grimy it felt good to toss off the chains of years of “shaved and pressed uniform = professional” from the conventional Army…but I digress.  These days I’m going less conventional in that I haven’t gotten a haircut in over a month and before that was determined to grow my hair out longer than I’ve ever had it.  Think Steven Segal in a really bad action flick, ok maybe not that bad but the hair is so long that I really have a hard time stuffing it up into a baseball cap.  Give it another month or two and things will be approaching surfer status which I’m totally fine with.  Mid life crisis or something, why not give it a shot.

Exercise 

One thing I do know is that during these times of doing less, exercise is critical.  I haven’t gone back through my old posts but do recall writing about that exact scenario, where during SHTF one just sits at home smashing MREs and survival food while piling on the pounds.  Look I’m not what I used to be in my 20’s in that I really don’t actively lift weights anymore, but I am very active in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and other forms of Cardio fitness.  These days I can’t do BJJ much but I still ride my Peloton bike and go for walks with the dogs.  I figure if I can do 20-30 mins a day where my heart rate is way up and I’m burning calories it has to be a good thing, followed by a cool down walk of 2-4 miles with the dogs and repeat the next day.  I should point out that I’ve had the Peloton for 1.5 years and got it for a deal off of someone who bought it and never used it, the thing is awesome and suits me fine.  It’s not about “why don’t you just ride a bike outside” but rather, I want to sit on this thing and burn 300, 500, 1000, 1500 calories and work up a sweat in a controlled environment.  Now more than ever finding ways to keep the pounds off can only be a good thing.

Cooking and Saving Monies

I was just talking to my wife about how much money we were saving on this stay at home order.  We make breakfast, lunch and dinner at home and head to the store for some basic stuff maybe once a week if not less.  I have yet to dig into any of my layer 1 survival preps which includes the canned food or the big freezer in the garage (much less the #10 cans or other longer term foods).  We simply mask up and do some limited shopping once a week and cook all of our meals, no eating out required.  Before all of this I would hit the supermarket every other day at least, dropping $50 to $100 each time.  What the heck was I buying??? I couldn’t even tell you but what I will tell you is that my chef skills have gotten much more legit.  I’m doing more with less and making some fantastic meals.  Good times.

Pew Pew Time

If you are fortunate enough to have some land to shoot on, even if it’s not your own I think these are good days to polish up the skills.  Tomorrow I’m loading up all of my steel and heading up to my spot, a full range complex where I will probably be the only person putting in work with my handgun and long gun.  These are perishable skills and must be honed but it’s also a great way to get out of the house in order to exercise a little freedom.  I must state that I don’t know how your state or local law enforcement works, I’m good with our local Sheriff’s office and they know I’m out training.

Final Thoughts

The next few days into the weekend are more of the same, some conference calls and emails, more time outside and snow that is inbound.  I think totals for the weekend and next week might add up to around 10 inches or so but it will melt off quickly and quite honestly it’s good for the well.  Hope everyone is hanging in there and ready for more weeks and potentially months of this.  Hit me up in the comments below.