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Exercising Reboot with a Surprising Soundtrack for EK!

I think it’s beyond time for an update.  Just because I have not been posting, doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. This week in fact I have been very busy. Tuesday we took our daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend Marcus to the Newark Airport. They are taking a trip to Portugal, where Marcus’ grandparents live. They will be staying with them for a few days and then they will be sightseeing for the remainder of their nine-day trip.   So while the farthest I’ve ever been from home is Florida, Elizabeth has been to England and Ireland and now to Portugal. Anyway a typical 3.5 hour trip to Newark and back took 5.5 thanks to a horrible t-storm while I was driving on the NJ Turnpike and then a traffic jam getting back on the NJ Turnpike. Yesterday we babysat Zoe, while our daughter-in-law took Logan to the Paediatrician for his 7 month checkup. The little chunky guy weighed in at 22 lbs!
EK Starts Exercising Again…..
At the beginning of the week, I decided that it was time to start exercising  again so that I can start running again. I stopped running in the beginning of June. I had some funky twinges in my left knee and I decided to rest it for a few days. Well, a few days turned into a few weeks. During that time, I also stopped doing any extended cardio exercising. The only thing I continued to do was my morning yoga. This last Saturday (July 14th) I did a 30 minute cardio workout and felt pretty good. I followed that with a 3.30 walk/jog on Sunday. Because I felt pretty good after those two workouts, I decided to go full steam ahead this week. The result has been a great week of exercising! Every day, including Monday a Target work day, I have had at least one 30-50 minute cardio workout that burned 300-500 calories. The routine that I have been doing includes: some dance-cardio (or in my case some movement cardio), a set of Kundalini yoga, kettle bell and bands. Yesterday, I also added a 30 minute plus walk! Two out of the four days (Sunday-Wednesday) I surpassed my steps goal of 14,300 steps. One of the days I didn’t make my goal was Tuesday, which was the day I was in the car from five and a half hours!  Anyway the bottom line is that I think I am doing well as far as exercising goes
……With A Surprising Soundtrack
The soundtrack  for the dance-cardio portion of my morning workouts has been music from the late 50s and early 60s. I think I’ve chosen some classic tunes that really get my old body moving! What do you think?? I have some thoughts about the pop music of the 60s versus today’s pop music that I’m going to share in a future post! But until then get moving!! Guess you can say that I am and was sweating wit the “oldies”!

Renaissance Granddad – A new name for a New Era!

Renaissance Granddad – rejuvenating, revitalizing, and moving on!

I have been very bad about writing on this now renamed blog, so maybe I should explain why I renamed the blog, Renaissance Granddad.  To start, last year was a year of big changes in both my family and life. The year started out with my employer of 34 years Lippincott and Jacobs Consulting Engineers not having any work for me. I was basically laid off, but I was on call if they had work. So for nine months I collected unemployment and worked part-time at Target. I really didn’t go out and look for a new job because I didn’t think anyone would hire me at my age (63) to do the work that I do, and certainly not at the wage I was making. So I hoped that maybe work would turn around, but it didn’t. When my unemployment benefits were exhausted in September I decided to look into filing for Social Security benefits. What I found was that, with what I would receive from SS couple with a few more hours at Target, we wouldn’t be doing badly. So we took money from my 401K, paid off our car loan and our outstanding credit card debt, and so far we’re not doing badly at all!! Read More

A Tough Several Days with our cat James that end with a tough but right decision

James in Box

James Loved Boxes!

So i don’t know what the right music is for when you know you have to put a cat to sleep. We have now five cats. Two years ago we had to put our 19-year-old cat Simon to sleep and it was hard. I was doing really well not feeling to badly about the situation with our 10 year-old cat James this week, until this morning, when I faced the prospect of having to call the Vet and make the appointment! Read More

Musical Thoughts about that Parent Child Relationship (Videos)

Oliver 3As I was working along last night at Target, my thoughts drifted back to Andrew, Meaghan and little Oliver and the perilous journey that they are embarking on. We took that trip four times, well maybe we’re still on the journey, and it seems that the results so far, have been very successful! But it’s a tough trip and there are many obstacles along the way. many wrong words to say, many wrong actions to take and all you can do is try to keep them safe, try to help them develop a strong moral character. Often as my children were growing I told them, you know what’s right and what’s wrong so do the right thing! Finally love them unconditionally, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong, or do things that you don’t like and at that point in time, you may not like then very much but you never stop loving them!! And beyond those things you just hope for the best! And I think we got it right so far!! Read More

Today’s Your Birthday – Happy Birthday to You – Oliver Edward Karn!!

Sleeping OliverOk so today is PI Day at 4:52 AM Oliver EDWARD  Karn, son of Andrew Karn and Meaghan Reess Karn was born!! After being called to the hospital at around 10 PM on the 13th when the birth seemed imminent Oliver had other ideas and thought that it would be a good idea if Grammie and Grandpa, Aunt Elizabeth and Lauren got a chance to enjoy the ambiance of the ER at Inspira Medical Center (formerly Underwood Hospital) in Woodbury, NJ. Now while we did enjoy the show that included two very strange gender confusing people. One of which uttered the phrase “I feel like killing someone”” just moments before coming over and standing near us! He/She also had spent the prior one and a half hours in the women’s restroom doing who knows what? Well, maybe the security and staff personnel,  who kept going back and forth wearing gloves and carrying bags did, but I didn’t,  While the wandering black he/she who was evidently being allowed to wait for a bus in the ER grabbed a wheelchair and blanket shrouded herself and went to sleep. The guard woke her at 5 telling her the buses would be running again and she’d have to leave!! Read More

Sunday Thoughts about Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo and grandbaby Oliver Edward Karn

AbiyoyoSo sometime this month, my wife and I will become grandparents for the first time, when my son Andrew and his wife Meaghan have their baby, Oliver Edward Karn!! Well, it’s actually Meaghan doing all the work right now and Andrew just gets the congratulations!! A couple of weeks ago, they had Meaghan’s baby shower.and Oliver’s gifts from Andrew’s brothers and sister and my wife and I were books and not just any books, but ones that were special to us.The kids picked ones that were read to them and my wife and I picked either ones that were read to us or ones that we read to the kids! After my wife, whose idea it was first announced the idea. Peter immediately said “I’ll get Where the Wild Things Are” – though Bossy Boots may have been a better choice! What surprised my wife and I, was the first book that Elizabeth picked, which was Abiyoyo! The picture book based on the Pete Seeger song…. Read More

Life’s Intrusions… a flat tire and a trip to the Veterinarian for Liam!

So I had a couple of life’s unexpected intrusions into my music listening this week. The latest was this morning when the front end of my car started to shake and rumble horribly. I hadn’t gone far so I turned around, and almost made it back home. But I knew I had to stop and pulled to the curb a block from home and checked. The front  passenger tire had blown and was now off the rim. I checked in the trunk for the spare,. It was there, as was the jack. What was missing was the lug nut wrench. After a couple of calls I decided, the best option was to call AAA and have them change the tire. They did their usually good job and a service truck was there within the hour! Now I am sitting at STS waiting to get two tires. While the good thing is that I have two books that I am reading on the iPhone,(Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin and The Mayor of MacDougal Street)  the bad news is that I forgot my headphones! Read More