Wildcard Archives - The Daily Octane

December 28, 2021December 31, 2021

First Diary Post

I have never successfully kept a diary. I have tried a couple of times to start one, but something has always derailed me.

Recently I have experienced an epiphone. It is time in my life for me to once again go through a transformation. I feel the calling of the Universe, if you will.

“Why?” you ask. It is because I am floundering. For the last couple of years, I have lived in the “Covid World.” The reality of that sent me spiralling down a rabbit hole of alcohol, food, pot, and less fitess. My weight has ballooned. My stress has increased. My life has gotten increasingly more complicated.

Professionally, I have been on a roller coaster. When Covid arrivd in March of 2020, my business was closed for three months due to the mandated closings by, then Governor, Cuomo. For those months, I was racked by stress. Stress of the unknown, money, my relationships, my staff, the future of my business.

When my business opened back up, everything was pretty good for a while. Yet I felt compelled to turn my life upside down again by running for local office in 2021. I also decided that a third marriage was a good idea. My oldest son tried his hardest in 2021 to fail at graduating high school. The culmination of these stressors was the news that the massage school in Syracuse was closing. Without a school, there is an uncertainty about future staffing.

The other thing that has been hard during these Covid years is all the death. Sadly, I am not talking about Covid death. My greater friend group has seen many losses to suicide, overdose, alcohol poisoning, etc. A few of these losses have been especially close ones. Two of them were former lovers.

So this brings me to the original point of today’s post. A new beginning. A Universal calling. An epiphone…

Here is what I have done so far:

I have begun my fitness recovery. For Christmas, I bought my wife (and me) an Ergatta rowing machine. I have used it a bunch since Christmas day, already logging over 17 kms of distance. I have also been utilizing my treadmill and Wahoo setup for my bike in Zwift. I recently became better familiarized with the workout options built into the software...and I like it.

I am starting Yoga Teacher Training in January. To begin this process, I have some required reading I have to accomplish before I begin. I will explain why I have chosen this new path.

I am signed up for the Berlin Marathon in September of 2022. I will find out on January 9th if I made it into the lottery. In preparation of the trip, I have begun learning German. I took several years of German in High School, but that was nearly 30 years ago, and I have forgotten a ton.

I have reengaged my meditative practice. It is a struggle each and every day to find the time, but I will get there one way or another.

I am reconnecting with business in new ways. I have a bunch of plans for the near and far future, and 2022 is the year I begin several of these. I will discuss this in a future post as well.

That is all for tonight. As I get more comfortable with this process (hopefully I stay on the wagon for a while), I will include photos, videos, and links.

Chris
ZeroOctane

P.S. I will be including some stats as a part of my daily posts. These will include my weight and a general list of my physical activity and food intake.

Weight: 222.1
Workout: Several activities on the rower. Approx 600 kcal
Food: TOO MUCH...two tacos, a burrito, a tossed salad and 3/4 of a bag of Sweettart Hearts (LOTS of calories)

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020

A Heart Of Gold – Battling Childhood Cancer

I am a proud father

The universe gifted me two wonderful children. Each of them has their unique qualities. My older son has an edge to his personality but he can also be sweet at times. He is great at reading a room and engaging anyone in conversation. My younger son has a heart of gold. His kindness presents itself to everyone he meets. Childhood cancer is a terrible curse on society and a new child is diagnosed with it every 2 minutes. Luckily for me, I never had to deal with any childhood cancer with either of my children. now, one of them is trying to help fight it.

For the last two years, my youngest son Michael, has participated in St. Baldrick’s Head Shaving Campaign to raise money to the non-profit. With the raised funds, St. Baldrick’s spearheads the fight to eliminate childhood cancers.

Who is St. Baldrick?

St. Baldrick is not actually a real saint. No Baldrick (to the best of anyone’s knowledge) walked the fields of Ireland at any point in time. The name is actually a derivative of BALD and ST. PATRICK because the annual head shaving takes place on or around St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Baldricks — St. Baldrick’s has been fighting childhood cancers since 2000

The first Head Shaving event took place in New York City in the year 2000 and has grown nation wide. Each year, they raise money for research into childhood cancers and the amount continues to grow. In 2019, they awarded 24.7 million dollars to organizations fighting pediatric cancer.

Please help Michael

Today’s Wildcard Wednesday post is short and sweet because I would like everyone to read it quickly and take the moment to help out.

Michael has been passionate about St. Baldrick’s for some time now. Growing his hair out every year is annoying at times, but he is happy to endure it. He truly believes in the good he is doing for other kids. That is a selflessness you seldom see in children. He would be honored to be one of the top fundraisers locally and we are trying to help him reach that goal.

This is Michael having his head shaved last year for St. Baldrick’s

Would you please take a moment to give a small donation to the cause of fighting childhood cancer in my son’s name? I promise you that he AND children suffering from pediatric cancer thank you!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO MICHAEL’S PAGE

Christopher Hess, LMT

Click here to learn about Wildcard Wednesdays

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020

Wildcard Wednesdays

Note: Over the next week, I will be introducing readers (however few there are) to the new format of The Daily Octane. Each day will be the topic reveal for that calendar day going forward. Additionally, I will provide context for why I feel I have ANY business even writing about the subject.

A New Beginning

As I was planning out this blog several weeks ago, I came up with seven topics for seven days with ease. There was no question that I had even more than seven topics I could discuss on a weekly basis. I ran into a problem limiting it to seven.

I made the choice to pick the top six that I could topically write about on a weekly basis. With those six topics established, I then brainstormed a myriad of ideas for the coming months and Wildcard Wednesdays was born.

Click Here to read about the decision to start over

From this day forward, I may grab something from the headlines and take some time to inject my opinion on the matter. If not a headline, I may write about a topic that doesn’t fall under the defined parameters of the other days. Wednesdays will be kind of loose since that is really the point.

Its all about what you know

At 44 years old, I have acquired a rather sufficient amount of life experience. However, I am also not a dive bar old timer obfuscating about better days gone by. Some subjects I feel I have passion about and a modicum of insight on include:

Politics

I serve on the local Democratic Committee and my girlfriend works professionally in politics. Recently, I have started getting involved in local politics. I certainly have a vocal opinion.

Travel

In a small way, tomorrow’s topic will touch on some travel topics. It is not only about travel, so Wednesdays will be a good spot for this topic. In my years, I have been to most of the United States. During my military days, lived in Japan and traveled around southeast Asia a bit. The Bahamas and the Caribbean have recently been favorite destinations and I am planning to hit Europe next year. I have cruised several times and will certainly be doing that more in the future.

The coast of Saint Lucia. Soufrie is on the left and The Petite Piton is on the right. — This was shot with my DJI Mavic Pro on the west coast of Saint Lucia. The city of Soufrie is on the left and the Petite Piton is on the right.

Small Business

Being a small business owner for six years has offered me some insight into the pitfalls and rewards of being your own boss. I have made the transition into having employees and changed business entities. I have lost employees and gained wisdom. There is a lot to unpack.

Parenting

The most beautiful thing about parenting is that there is no right way to do it. The most terrifying thing about parenting is that there is no right way to do it. That is Dad life in a nutshell. I have two teenage boys and coparent with my ex-wife pretty well. There is always something to discuss there.

Me & my boys — This is me with my two boys at Disney’s Hollywood Studios a few years ago. It is nearly impossible to get all three of us in a photo together. Teenagers are a pain.

Food & Drink

Without any doubt, I am a foodie and a wine/beer snob. My Italian Mother taught me a ton about cooking and how to do it well. I also eat out on the regular basis. A wide variety of beer and wine pleasures my palette, but I am currently Keto, so wine it is at present time. When I travel, I feel compelled to post all of my food on social media. I am aware that I am a victim to modern social media tropes and I am okay with that.

The charcuterie plate at Tiffins — This is the charcuterie plate at Tiffins in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It is my favorite Disney restaurant.

There is undoubtedly many other subjects in which I can put several hundred words on the interwebs for your enjoyment. Only time will tell how interesting it will be.

An interesting start

Before I close down today’s post, I would like to look back on the past week. I know there is another topic to go tomorrow, but that is probably THE topic people been expecting, so it won’t be a surprise to most. Over the past week, I have taken a website that I have owned for years and finally decided to do something with it. I have connected it to my Adsense account, researched and implemented several plugins to improve layout and functionality, learned how to established a Pinterest presence and began establishing a following there.

What is amazing to me is that people are finding this blog and actually reading it. It is not just my social media networks either. This blog is getting search traffic from Google and Pinterest searches. While I am not going to see any money from Google anytime soon, I have “earned” six cents. That makes me laugh but it is still money.

Once again, I know this is a short post. Tomorrow’s topic is the one that I probably have the most to say about so I will give you plenty to read then. I hope you come back for more…

Christopher Hess, LMT