It has been nearly two months since I powered off my workouts for this thing—zombie whatever. I reminiscence how I once passed the Christmas lights through the night in temperatures dipping in the 20s. But now it is April, any workout is a cool memory.

I think I am beginning to come out of this muck.

There remains an element of numbness for my body, but my stomach is only numb like I have worn too tight of a belt for a long time. My legs no longer feel like two logs when I bump them together; I feel the hair on the respective leg. Unfortunately, pulling a sock is an entirely WEIRD experience. Curiously, I had a phantom pain ingrown toenail (ingrown toenails have been commonplace for me since the sixth grade, but I always resolve them). Checked it out under magnification and...nuthin'! But, pain is always a good thing.

(I was even ESPECIALLY itchy from that poison ivy rash that annihilated my forearm, which, I have MIXED thoughts about that!)

According to Garmin, I remain under high stress, but the level has been decreasing. I interpret that my heart rate variability is beginning to return to spec.

My heart rate, while still elevated compared to those freezing walks, is trending downward. As far as real-world application, today after failing at Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, hours-long scenario 8 with the kiddos, I mowed the front and back yards; and did some cleanup and edging with the weedwacker. I went through two charged 80V batteries from Atlas and a partial charge of another. It contrasts with my prior capability to only do the front yard.

You know, it IS a good day when I can outlast tech. The day spent me, but I could tell some of my stamina is back. I even managed to put away clothes and dishes afterward, though I was left to twiddle a foggy mind.

I have one week left of The 37th Expedition: Day 1000. I really ought to kick off a week of workouts to launch off into The 38th Expedition, April 14-May 25.

So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12, ESV

Death is a friend. Or at the very least, it is an advisor. I mean, I'm not exactly doing flips around hippogriffs and centaurs in a forest with a bunch of hallowed garbage—that old stick, rock, and raincoat getup!

No, before I was powered online, my uptime was known (Psalm 139:16). While I am immortal, this current version of me, well, has a bug in the code. Take for example this: last night in the context of no training, I felt my ol' right knee tightening up which was followed up this morning when I nearly fell over during my boot sequence!

The thing is, the bug is systemic to everything. Everything! From prince to pauper; Pangea to pebble. And all because a woman wanted a hunk of Juicy Fruit while her man passively followed along.

Until my code is updated for its final release, beginning with the beginning in mind is good; beginning with the end in mind is better. The Psalm above highlights the value of strategic thinking over the tactical. How can you not gain & apply wisdom when you have the vision to see your destiny? It elevates what matters and drops like a boulder that which bears & bares barely any bearing. And honestly, most of the time in life, we get those two confused. We put more value in strangers playing a little kid's game over there in that foosball cathedral than referring back to our notes to ask this question for our own field of play: "Is this wise?"

And for me, all this really is a part of ἁγιασμός, all funneling toward that last tick of the clock into the updated code of glorification.

Something I considered yesterday (instead of allowing it to breeze past me): Jesus is alive—as in, He IS somewhere in three-dimensional space as a human! He's not buried some 1,970 years ago, but remains ALIVE—as a guy that likes a good fish fry—as someone I'll become teary-eyed when I see him for the first time! And we're gonna be just like Him in His humanity, for in His deity, He gifts us to have some sort of X-Men wizardry:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21, ESV

My resurrected Christ:

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Luke 24:36-43, ESV

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

John 21:9-14, ESV

When it is all said and done, what will be your end? As for me, I'm going to a salmon buffet. I might just have to swing over the dessert bar to grab a slice of cheesecake (I hear it's heavenly). There is gonna be a long line to shake Paul's hand. In the meantime, would you be up for some foosball?

After I asked, my Father brought up Romans 12:9-21 to me. It is a challenging section of scripture. It is the prototype of a "none of me, all of thee" mindset, that 19th-century hymn.

Indeed, that section of scripture from Paul, Romans 12, is now something I have been meditating upon. This dramatized version is effective, for too often, we will apply emphasis on bark when the totality of the forest is needed.

Indeed, this passage is difficult for beneath this smiling veneer, I have always been a fighter, like my father before me.

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But, it does not mean I do not fight in a general sense. Clearly, there is the armor of God and Ephesians 6:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12, ESV

Yes, it is easy to fight in a perceived zero-sum game. But the true fight is against the supremacy of self, the supremacy of Satan. How easier it is to channel a curse to cast against my enemy than to dwell on a blessing for their betterment? Furthermore, how often am I like Jonah!

Upon far less weightier matters, I have been feeling good this morning! I am ready to start rolling on my new weightlifting regimen. I just gotta spin together a worksheet that I can chronicle in my retrowave Trapper Keeper.

In the context of another Fat Focus day, I am also pretty happy with how my cold brew coffee turned out this morning. I am picking it up again, this time with a French press. The morning, by pre-Vitamixing a stick of butter with a ½-cup of hot water, I have removed butter shenanigans—perhaps I will try ¼ in the future? I then pour a 2-cup serving as it runs.

Lemme backtrack: for a 36-hour fridge journey, I added 4 cups of water into the French press to 6 tablespoons of pre-ground ALDI Gingerbread—I am in the Christmas spirit!

C'mon, who wants to do a road trip with me to Finland to visit Santa Claus? (www.visitrovaniemi.fi) I want to rush things—let's skip spring, summer, and fall—ASSUMING my beard receives all of that unfettered growth!

Finally, I am breaking in my new sandals today. I gotta admit: I miss how my old pair is formed to my feet. Sliding into the same model again reminded me of a homeward run through a soaked with dew from the long-bladed grass that paralleled the train tracks on Southern Ave just past Oak Court Mall. I felt alive!