“Here’s the thing – we don’t rent to locals. But, I think I may make an exception for … you.”

I was kinda killing it on a random Friday in July. I had gotten off work at 1pm and while keeping an eye on emails, I had begun washing dishes, cleaning the house and doing laundry – typical “house-husb” stuff that I do on Fridays. We were planning to take Pops out for his birthday that night and were going to give him his killer birthday gift: a ticket to see the Hottest Band in the World with us in November. It was going to be a great night. 

Until disaster struck in the form of not one, but TWO major plumbing issues. Not only did we have a clog somewhere down the line that was causing our laundry room to flood each time we ran water or drained the washing machine but we also, randomly, got a busted pipe in our main line from the road. We were very lucky to find a plumber who could come see us despite not getting called until mid-afternoon on a Friday and he took good care of us, but we were in a position where we couldn’t get water into the house or flush it out. The clog was fixed within a few hours so drainage was happening again by the end of the day, but the main line needed special equipment and with it being a Friday, I began making plans to get us away from the house for a bit.

Fortunately, our plumber was available to come fix it up the very next day but in the meantime, Katie and I packed our bags and landed at the local Hampton Inn, just walking distance from our favorite Aubrey’s, for an impromptu Lenoir City staycation. We had dinner next door and a couple of showers and pairs of comfy-pants later, we were beat and ready to go to bed. As odd as it was, I couldn’t help but be super happy in what should have been (and was) a very stressful situation because all I could see was that I was living through it with my best friend.

The same best friend who took ice-cold showers with me every night so we could be cool enough to sleep during the week we didn’t have our HVAC last summer. The same best friend who toughed it out and made biscuits in the air-fryer because our oven was out for an entire month the year before. That same woman was cuddled up in the bed at a local hotel with me, scrolling on Facebook and eating a cookie from the lobby. It was a tough time but I was still the luckiest man on the planet.

Oh, and about the introduction to this post: we were told that our Hampton Inn doesn’t rent rooms to locals, primarily as a means of preventing people from trashing the rooms and doing drugs in them, etc. But let me tell you, if you flirt with the front desk staff hard enough and have a serious enough emergency at home, they’ll make an exception. I even got a couple of free bottles of water for being a Rewards member. I couldn’t stop winning that day.

On that note, let’s talk about the rest of July.

Goals I’ve Kept Up With:

Clean Eating & The Spirit Returns

After you finish this post and see all the wild stuff I’ve gotten to eat this month, you probably won’t believe me when I say that my clean eating journey has been going well but please just take my word for it! As for training – I’m LOVING this version of 5/3/1 that I’ve been doing so far! The stupid 5×10 “Boring but Big” addition along with the 5×10 accessory work is blowing up my legs and chest, not to mention the intense arms day I’ve tacked on! I’m already seeing nice results and I still have 2-½ months left! The running has been harder than it should have been (I think). I think the program I’m following is a little more ambitious than what I’m ready for, but fortunately since I’m doing the heart-rate training, I’m able to keep my pace slow and low.

I’ll have to admit, though, that I missed a run last week. It wasn’t out of laziness – I damn-near kicked a field goal with one of our dining room chairs last week and thought I broke three of my toes on my left foot. My toes ached for THREE DAYS after that incident so I missed my end-of-week run for fear of actually injuring myself.

3-Month Goal – Read 3 New Books (15 Books, 12 Month Goal)

I wanted to be done with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert. M. Pirsig this month SO BADLY but it’s just not in the cards. At the time of this writing, I am halfway through chapter 29 of 32, page 373 of 430. I do plan to have it finished this week, just not by the end of July as intended. The good news is even without finishing it, I’m still at nine books read at the end of month seven so I’m still ahead of my target pace. I’m calling this a win.

More Writing 

Just here in the blog I have posted three blog posts that aren’t month-end related with another in the can ready for publishing on Wednesday this week (when I’ve been publishing my 11 Albums … reviews). I’ve also been pounding away on my series The Combined Man that I hope to release in the blog later this year and have been continuously keeping my 2023 Date Nights book up-to-date. All in all, I’ve written at least a little bit every single day for the last four weeks and that’s pretty rad.

Goals that Need Revision:

None this month!

New Goals:

Banned Books

Can I just say that there isn’t much going on out there politically that upsets me as bad as random acts of censorship and hatred targeting minority groups or the arts all in the name of “protecting the children?” I absolutely cannot stand the fact that LGBTQIA+ people all over the country are being demonized for being who they’ve always been “to protect children,” while the Catholic Church continues to thrive, sporting events happen damn-near every night that include teenage (and younger) cheerleaders wearing skimpy skirts and child beauty pageants are still a celebrated pastime. It angers me to see the state of Florida systematically reworking history to teach children that American slaves somehow ultimately benefited from slavery. And I was spitting bullets when I read that many Texas school libraries were being removed in favor of detention centers. 

When Katie and I start our family, we fully intend to break those cursed chains that come along with living in the American South. Our home will teach love and compassion; our home will prioritize education and understanding. That means learning, that means reading and that means asking tough questions. With that said, I’m going to start seeking out “banned” books from throughout history so that not only can I read and learn from them, but our little one can have access to them one day as well (when appropriate). Katie and I may pride ourselves on the fact that we can both fight with our fists but we both strongly believe that someone who can fight with their intellect is far more dangerous and superior.

Life SAVERS+P

A couple of years ago I read The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod. In it, Elrod encourages readers to partake in a series of daily habits he’s cleverly titled Life SAVERS: Silence (meditation/prayer/quiet time), Affirmations (read or heard, always positive), Visualization (through vision boards, etc.), Exercise (gym, running, yoga, what have you), Reading and Scribing (aka: writing). The beautiful part of these practices is you can spend as much or as little time doing them as you want as long as you’re doing them, at least a little, every day. I re-ignited my Life SAVERS practice this month and am on a three-week streak as of today! It’s keeping me motivated, keeping me productive and keeping my creative juices flowing. Oh, I also added +P to mine to remind me to play music every day – guitar, drums, bass, whatever, as long as I play a little every day. I’m going to keep this going indefinitely.

Goals I’m Letting Go:

None this month!

Rad Things from July:

In July we flew direct from Knoxville to Las Vegas where it was 112 degrees, doubled our money then lost nearly all of it in the Vegas casinos, stayed out until 3:30am one night, got to wear my new pork pie hat several days in a row, went to a Vegas wedding, enjoyed bottle service on a rooftop, drank a smoked vanilla-bourbon cocktail out of a glass skull, moshed to Slayer at a wedding, lived a nearly life-long dream of visiting Madame Toussads, made friends with a couple from Spain, enjoyed a Key Lime Pie Margarita, drank from a champagne “bong,” had my first Dole-Whip cocktail, made our own mustard, saw the Barbie movie, started running again and … ate Peruvian Corn, West Coast Kusshi Oysters, Grilled Squid, Lobster Benedict, an “Elvis” Waffle, Chicken Feet, a room service pizza at 2am and Carne Asada Nachos.

Bon appétit and let’s have a killer August!

-JS