http://www.amillionmilesawayblog.com/

A Million Miles Away Blog, Regina, SK (2026)

09/02/2026

Wednesday, September 2nd 2026

Kim took me to the gym on Monday. She’s busy today & could use a full day at the office but I’m not going to the gym today because of an oopsy on my part yesterday.

I fell backwards on my right leg & foot while exercising on the carpet in our bedroom. There’s an exercise I do on the floor in our bedroom. I was kneeling on my right knee, lifting a 10 pound weight from my shoulder upwards with my left arm. All while holding my balance with my right forearm & hand on the bed. On the 11th repetition my balance disappeared. I fell, heard a loud “CRACK” on the way down, my right foot (I had runners on while exercising on the carpet) & leg collapsed underneath me as I hit my head on the wall behind me. I sat there for 5-10 minutes, initially wondering if I broke my ankle with nobody at home. After a couple minutes I was confident I was just in a little bit of pain. After those 10 minutes of rest, I got back up, finished the home exercises below that I had started on Thursday & got going on 4 more.

My ankle was OK yesterday but I haven’t used it much today, when I move it I can feel some pain, to be expected since it didn’t move all night. Nothing serious but I’ll raise it, ice it and avoid getting up unless Olly needs out. Hopefully I can start exercising tomorrow or Friday? I’m not a fan of sitting & doing nothing. I get VERY restless watching TV.

Other than that I’m hanging out with Olly on the couch today. We’ll probably watch something educational, another viewing of one of the three “Deadpool” movies, “Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars”, “Dark Knight” trilogy perhaps? We watched “Live Free or Die Hard” over 2 days last week.

HOME EXERCISES
Bird Dog – 30
Donkey Kick – 30
On arms & knees, then raise knees off of the floor – 30
½ wall squat – 30
Kneel with weights at shoulders, raise one weight at a time – 30
Kneel with arms up to tall leg side, move arms to lower knee – 30
Plank on forearms & knees, one leg up and out – 30
Lean on ½ wall & extend leg – 30
Pushups – 50

I’ve been listening to nothing but “The Warning” catalogue of 5 albums that I feel as though I’ve neglected other albums. I listened to “Tool” the album “Fear Inoculum” the other night and last night was the most recent “Muse” album “The WOW! Signal”

“The Warning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_RB0tRI624&list=RD3_RB0tRI624&start_radio=1

“Tool”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FssULNGSZIA&list=RDFssULNGSZIA&start_radio=1

“Muse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sHHwz0duzY&list=RD_sHHwz0duzY&start_radio=1

The Wow! Signal. Out Now.https://muse.lnk.to/TheWowSignalThe Wow...

08/31/2026

Monday, August 31st 2026

We were going to move the last bunch of landscaping rocks to the backyard this weekend but it didn’t happen. Kim felt sick to her stomach on Wednesday & that lasted through Saturday. She wasn’t feeling up to doing anything. We did have supper at The Willow Restaurant beside the lake on the patio, my brother’s acoustic trio “King for a Day” was playing there Friday night.

We were hoping to move rocks on Sunday if Kim was feeling up to it. She was but the weather had other plans involving a thunder storm. So we still have about a yard of rocks on our drive way. Kim still has stuff to do in the backyard before we move them. I can shovel rocks into the wheel barrow but it’s impossible for me to get to the ground level in the backyard. Even my portable ramp is a royal pain to get into the house from the deck. I get a full ½ inch on each side of my chair that must be perfectly centered to use the ramp.

I don’t start teaching guitar until October. He’s got flag football & this will be his first year in high school & other things so he’ll be busy enough. I was worried that I didn’t have enough songs & lessons ready, I’m good as I have 13 ready and another partially written out. I’ve also thought of quite a few more to teach him different chord voicings.

I’m still pretty tired overall & I can’t say I’m looking forward to going to the gym today or exercising any time soon. I’ll be in a MUCH better mood once this is done for the day, & then I get up & exercise some more “YIPEE!” I was hoping this was just another short lived funk. It’s stayed around for too long, which just sucks. I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be physically & my body is yelling at me to take a rest. I’m thinking that taking every Friday off is a bad idea. Well we’re into the months that have one scheduled day off. Next Monday, (October) Canadian Thanksgiving, (November) Remembrance Day in Canada, then the Holidays I December. Those will give me a bit of a break each month.

I didn’t do any exercises on Friday. I did 6 home exercises on Thursday that I’ll finish the rest tomorrow. From here on I’ll be circulating through 3 exercise at the end of each gym session. Today will be leg raises. The others are 10 minutes on the elliptical & my Rope exercises. Yes, just like you see people on TV doing rope exercises with their arms. At home I’ll be swapping 50 pushups with the weighted arm exercise each time I do them.

GYM EXERCISES

Foot ahead of other foot touching heel to toes & walking 20 feet – 6 times for a total of 120 feet.
Pointing your right leg to every hour on a clock from 11 – 6 then 1 – 6 with your left foot always balancing on the other foot. – 3/leg
Monster Walk, walk in a medium squat with exercise band around ankles with feet slightly more than shoulder length apart – 120 feet
Reaching left to right bending at waist – 30
Reaching forward bending at waist – 30

Leg lift machine – 60 reps @ 25 pounds

Doing the leg lifts without doing the kettle bell squats or squatting to lift a 10 pound weight from a chair in front of me is WAY easier! I’m still just happy I’m done with it today.

Lots of people say rock music is dead. If so why did see “Big Wreck” at the beginning of the month, & I’ll see “Foo Fighters” & “Queens of the Stone Age” in a couple weeks & then “The Watchmen” in October? Most new streaming TV shows that Kim watches has ‘90s rock music playing during a scene. I watch Toronto Blue Jays baseball & if they’re playing in Toronto I hear Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir in the stadium as the outro to a commercial break. Then I got the new/5th album by “The Warning” on Friday along with the first 2 albums I wasn’t aware of & WOW actual rock music from a trio of young 20 something year old sisters out of Mexico. You might not like current rock music or this might not be what you’d call rock music, that’s fine. Lots of other people call it rock music & like it so I’ll say rock music is NOT dead.

Two weeks until “Foo Fighters” & “Queens of the Stone Age”

REMASTERED IN HD!Official Music Video for The Lost Art Of Keeping...

08/26/2026

Wednesday, August 26th 2026

I had stopped drinking 2 cups of coffee in the morning. I went back to having one coffee followed by multiple cups of tea & about 1.5 liters of water. The tea & water help my throat muscles but I’m still pretty wiped out after I exercise. I’m going to see my doctor & ask for a blood test. Other than my constant fatigue I’m OK, just want to see what’s causing my lack of energy. It’s better but not great. I have the will to continue this program, I’m just lacking the energy.

I plan to cut down to 2 days of home exercises & 2 days at the gym until I know if it’s a medical issue I can fix. I do miss seeing others & I’m exercising during normal working hours. On gym days I’m a pile of goo after that exercise, even this past Monday I exercised at home a promptly crawled into bed completely exhausted.

What I find odd about leaving the gym/physiotherapy program is that there are NO clients from when I started on January 2nd 2024. They completely disappeared by mid-2025 & most clients from 2025 are also gone. The program even changed the days of my group & a new program director came since my first director moved to Saskatoon to go to school to be an X-ray technician. Apparently during the summer of 2025, enough people had quit that when I returned after Kim’s family reunion in Sundrie, Alberta most of the personnel changed & there were different clients.

With SO many clients having left the program, it makes me wonder if I’m doing the right thing in being this persistent with my physiotherapy. I don’t like the fact that I’ve likely made so many people feel like castaways, which has never been my intention but I could see people feeling that way since I don’t like that either. I’ll have to stop at some point but slow down a bit for now at least.

Kim tells me this program can provide a different service. I go in once every 3 months, get an exercise plan to do at home & a new one 3 months later. You pay for it but it’s covered under Kim’s work benefits. That’s an intriguing thought but it doesn’t really solve the problem that I’d like to leave the house more often to go somewhere other than the gym. I’ll at least finish this year & reevaluate over the holidays. I know I’m not at a point where I’m able enough to quit & I know I’ll be doing some type of exercises when I’m finished with this program.

These are the home exercises I did on Monday & Tuesday. Kim’s pretty busy at work so my dad will be helping me out at the gym. Getting the proper equipment I’ll need for each exercise or adjusting things height wise for me to use. Also on stand by if I fall and crack my head open. I’ve never fallen at the gym and only 2 times here…I think?

HOME EXERCISES
Bird Dog – 30
Donkey Kick – 30
Plank on extended arms & knees, then lift knees off of floor – 30
½ wall squat – 30
Kneel with weights at shoulders, raise one weight at a time – 30
Kneel with arms up to tall leg side, move arms to lower knee – 30
On hands & knees, one leg up and out – 30
Shoulder raises with a 10 pound weight in each hand – 75, both arms at once
Curls with a 20 pound weight in each hand – 120, 60 on each arm

GYM EXERCISES
Squat & lean forward @ waist pick up 10 pound weight & stand – 30
Step on Stepper – 30
Lifting 10 pound kettle bell from floor in a straight posture & squat – 30

NEW Ropes – 4:30 minutes

I mentioned on Monday that a rock band of 3 sisters from Mexico, “The Warning” are releasing their 5th full length album on Friday. Then yesterday PRS guitars dropped the new limited run (200) guitar for the singer Dany. Gorgeous guitar but a pipe dream in Canada, not only is it a run of 200 guitars, in Canada its $9013.20 after tax. This isn’t the “Price is Right”…..I’ll bid $1 Bob! I didn’t know about the first 2 albums but I have the 3rd & 4th album & REALLY like the first single of the 3 they’ve released from the upcoming album to be released on Friday.
https://prsguitars.com/electrics/model/astryx_limited_edition_2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGRH6MvX2Oo&list=RDxGRH6MvX2Oo&start_radio=1

Unfortunately we lost Dolly Parton yesterday at the age of 80. Here’s “Collective Soul’s” breakthrough hit as covered by Dolly Parton. She was on my bucket list to see in concert along with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plUD6vN80dg&list=RDplUD6vN80dg&start_radio=1

08/24/2026

Monday, August 24th 2026

Kim’s on what is hopefully the last summer of landscaping the backyard. She ordered 2 yards of golf ball sized rocks to put around the planter she put together and stepping stones from the stairway to the deck. The stones were delivered Friday afternoon around 2:00 pm. Before this she asked if I could help shovel the stones into a 4 wheel wheelbarrow that she’d take to the backyard to dump the stones in place. When the stones arrived & she spoke with the delivery guy, I geared up. Outdoor shoes, sunglasses & held on to Olly until Kim could put her in her kennel. Got the gloves to wear that Kim got me found the shovel I’d use, filled my water bottle and headed out to the rock pile on the drive way. This was just going to be an abbreviated trial for Saturday, so I could figure out the best way to approach it.

Wasn’t really a trial, we just did it. Nice guy across the street was pressure washing his drive way & offered to help the second he saw me. I replied “Thanks but were OK”. 15 minutes later he brought over a slightly bigger shovel than one of the 2 we had. Kim can obviously get more rocks in her shovel where as I got ½ as much. Worked out well we were out moving the stones for about an hour & got 1/3 of them moved. Kim wasn’t quite ready for the rest of them yet after 4 wagons Saturday morning. There’s still about 1 yard of stones left on our drive way after 14 wagons were filled & dumped in the backyard. I initially thought it would be really awkward in a wheelchair but it went fine. Kim said to me “I’m impressed at how much you can do”. I’m not doing all of this exercise for fun & I’m not pretty enough to be useless.

EVERYTHING about this cancer/disability situation hit me again over the weekend. A friend of mine from grade 9 who now lives in Edmonton is planning on coming to Regina for the Labour Day Classic football game on Sunday, September 6th. He has no other ties here. He was hoping that he & his daughter could stay with us. I hated saying we can’t that weekend. Kim’s on contract part time as a second job to help us financially. So my mind went right to what I think is the obvious. She’s working that job because I’m disabled & because of that my friend has to try & get a hotel in town on what is one of the busiest weekends in Regina for hotels, restaurants & bars. I felt kind of sick about it.

Here we are over 18 years & cancer/disability is still a problem in my life. I exercise every day, even before I started my physiotherapy program in 2024, I was doing much lighter/less intense exercise 5 days a week, yoga, pushups, planking, weight curls, shoulder raises, crunches, etc. Here I am with the same wonderful re-occurring problem.

I don’t want to die but I don’t want to live like this. Sitting on the couch, watching TV all day is SO not for me, so I exercised as my initial physiotherapists suggested. After 18 years & 6 ½ months I need to reevaluate this exercise thing since I’m not even close to where I’d expect to be physically. I know I’ll finish this year as is, after this year, who knows. I’m more than certain I won’t walk on my own since I still can’t stand on my own for more than 3 seconds. I see the teeny tiny bits of improvement but I expect a LOT more!

I could stop this program, take what I’ve learned for exercises & do them at home. That’s a possibility, but I need to get out of the house more too. Going to the gym is good for that but I’d like to leave my house to do something fun more often rather than going to the gym. Basically I’m REALLY tired of being disabled & I starting to feel tired, physically & mentally, of exercising, now 4 or 5 days a week. Even though ALL of my home exercises have changed & a couple at the gym, I pretty much glaze over & just do my routine exercises & kind of don’t care what comes out of it.

I’m more than a little frustrated with the entire thing & think the last decade was pretty much a waste of everybody’s time. I’ve pretty much abandoned friends & most family because I was so busy exercising then too tired to do anything & yet the next day I do the same %@!$ #^&*@ thing again. Nobody has ever said they’re disappointed in me, but I sure as hell am! Kim said something to me this weekend as we were talking about this, “You can’t keep blaming cancer for everything, this is life” that hit me and sat with me for a day. At the end of the day I brought it up “This is not life, this is you bending backwards to do everything & me constantly exercising & doing whatever I can do to help out”. We both have very little free time.

I know I can’t stop exercising but I think I need to dial it back some more, maybe one day at the gym & 2 days at home a week. I’m just finding it VERY repetitive with very little physical change.

There is something VERY exciting today. Not my story to tell as it really doesn’t involve me but I’m VERY happy/excited for the people involved. Kim’s working online from home today, Olly is sleeping at her feet & after she’s done work we’ll join others for a Monday evening celebration.

I’ll be doing home exercises today & tomorrow, then probably at the gym on Wednesday with my dad. Below are the home exercises I did on Tuesday & Thursday of last week. This means it’s time to do some exercise & probably work on a lesson for the fall.

HOME EXERCISES

Bird Dog – 30
Donkey Kick – 30
On arms & knees, then raise knees off of the floor – 30
½ wall squat – 30
Kneel with weights at shoulders, raise one weight at a time – 30
Kneel with arms up to tall leg side, move arms to lower knee – 30
Curls 120 with 20 pound dumbbells – 60 curls per arm
Shoulder raise 10 pounds in each arm – 75
Plank on forearms & knees, one leg up and out – 30

This is rock band out of Mexico. Three sisters that call themselves “The Warning”. This is their 3rd full length album, Everything’s Falling, that will be released on Friday, August 28th. This was the first of 3 singles have been released.

The Warning - Kerosene (Official Video)Download and stream: https...

08/19/2026

Wednesday, August 19th 2026

I did 6 of my new home exercises yesterday, I have one to try at the gym & maybe another one as well, unless I can use a stepper here to side step on? The other exercise I have to use the parallel bars at the gym to do. It’s called the “Monster Walk”. Medium depth squat, exercise band around the ankles, legs wide apart & walk forward. I’ll try this out today for the first time, can’t say I’m looking forward to it. Actually I haven’t been looking forward to it since I was given it through email last Wednesday.

I haven’t been looking forward too much of anything other than Kim’s family coming down last weekend. Doing my home exercises Monday & yesterday was boring. All I do is get up, have breakfast, watch www.youtube.com, exercise, feel tired, watch baseball, still feel too tired to play guitar & it’s too late to make noise when I get a little jolt of energy, then go to bed & repeat the next day. Today I had breakfast, I’m watching www.youtube.com, I’ll play guitar & maybe work on a lesson plan, stop to have lunch, maybe play guitar, go to the gym, come home to watch baseball, eat then shower and go to bed. I’ve gone to Calgary, Alberta 4 times, Saskatoon twice, once for a memorial, Sundrie, Alberta for Kim’s family reunion, Winnipeg twice, & Kim’s Prince Albert, Saskatchewan 4 times & that’s all since 2008. All of that being said, I’m a little concerned about flying anywhere with a wheelchair. I’ve read/heard too many horror stories about them being horribly taken care of to the point they’re unusable after a flight. I need a new wheelchair now. I got my current wheelchair in 2017 for $7000 a replacement is currently $12000. Makes absolutely NO sense! Nobody wants to spend $12000 on any kind of chair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My routine works for me but nothing really changes for me & at this point I’d likely be too tired to try anything different. For a very little change I’m going to take every 2nd Friday off, starting this week. My routine works but it’s only for a limited time. I’ll go to the gym today, I’ll continue exercising here & at the gym, then maybe by the end of this year I’ll notice a small improvement on something that nobody else will notice or care about? I have moments of joy, it doesn’t really balance out between work & fun time, too much work/being tired from work makes me a dull boy.

I do have a few things coming up in the near future & I have a good idea of what we’ll be doing up to & including October 3rd. I’ll see my brother’s acoustic trio, “King for a Day”, at the Willow restaurant by the lake on August 28th, my high school friend & his daughter are coming for the Labour Day Classic football game on Sunday September 6th. Then Tuesday, September 15th is “Foo Fighters” & “Queens of the Stone Age” at the football stadium & Saturday, October 3rd is “The Watchmen” at the casino show lounge. The rest of that time will be business as usual. I’d like to curl up & sleep until this all starts though.

I’m exhausted, Kim’s exhausted. She took this week off & she’s busting her butt on landscaping the backyard. This is her 3rd & hopefully last summer of work on the yard. She’s digging out a path to put stepping stones down at the bottom of the 6 steps from our deck. I’ve been on our deck twice this year, I think? It’s been a while since I was out there, from what I could see it looked REALLY good, Kim has a REALLY good eye for that stuff.

I don’t like eating lunch but I have to when I go to the gym or I’ll get light headed. It’s happened once, last year or in 2024. I’d rather eat lunch than fall onto a concrete floor at the gym.

GYM EXERCISES

Foot ahead of other foot touching heel to toes & walking 20 feet – 6 times for a total of 120 feet.

Pointing your right leg to every hour on a clock from 11 – 6 then 1 – 6 with your left foot always balancing on the other foot. – 3/leg

NEW Monster Walk, walk in a medium squat with exercise band around ankles with feet slightly more than shoulder length apart – 120 feet

Reaching left to right bending at waist – 30

Reaching forward bending at waist – 30

Elliptical – set at 24/24 resistance for 10 minutes 1004 steps at 100.4 steps per minute

I got through everything in that order above. The first length of tight rope walking, one foot directly in front & touching the other foot, I was trying to do everything properly while feeling EXHAUSTED. Once I had done one length of the Monster Walk I started to wake up & be more alert. I finished one lap of that, 40 feet, and asked for further instructions. I was doing it in a much more difficult position, Kim even said “Somethings not right, you’re gonna fall backwards”. Turns out I was WAY to low in my squat. I did 2 more laps in more of an “I’m gonna sneak up on you” type of crouch as instructed. When I had finished everything I had a brief moment of accomplishment but I was also out of breath almost the entire way home. I’m just glad it’s done for today.

My director saw me on the elliptical & suggested I try the long ropes with my arms for cardio instead of killing myself on the elliptical. She tells me it will be a much shorter time & a good cardio exercise. I’ll give that a try after next round at the gym when I’ll do leg raises.

I guess I need to find out when the guitar lessons start. I’ve got 12 lessons completely ready for him & 2 that are part way done. I’d like to finish off those 2 & do a couple more including this “Alter Bridge” song. I’ve played it live before cancer & I play it at least 3 or 4 times a week. This will teach him how to use individual notes in songs & pinch harmonics. I also have other stuff to show him how to apply triads & a major scale in a song. Stuff he’s doing already, just a way of showing him what he’s doing. Although pinch harmonics are new & could be sketchy with single coil pickups on his guitar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9LZ0OkdxGg&list=RDw9LZ0OkdxGg&start_radio=1

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupFind The Real · Alter...

08/17/2026

Monday, August 17th 2026

Kim’s parents & brother were here for the weekend. They got here Friday afternoon & left this morning before I got up. Nice to see them all, there was an abundance of coffee & tea consumed & always good food. I felt bad since I’ve been EXTREMELY tired since Wednesday & slept more than my normal amount. I am definitely not a morning person. Kim & her family are.

I hoovered tea & honey as well as my water bottle all weekend because of my throat muscles. I was nervous to fall asleep last night in case they acted up during the night, I was fine. Definitely need to see my doctor about this & possibly go back to my previously prescribed heart burn pills that I haven’t taken since my smart syndrome episode in May 2023. Apple Cider Vinegar doesn’t seem to do the trick anymore?

On Wednesday I got a revised list of home exercise from my program director. She sent me 9 exercises in total. I do 2 of them at the gym already & I’ll have to add one more to the gym list. I kept my curls & shoulder raises in there as well. There’s one other one that we’ll need a stepper for here to see if that’s possible here, if not I’ll add it to part of the gym exercises.

I haven’t done any exercise since some home exercises on Wednesday & other home exercises this morning. I’m VERY tired. I don’t know if it was too much time off, I’m getting older, or if I’ve hit a wall. Despite the exercise changing at home, it still feels like this is as good as I’ll get. It has to get better than this with the amount of energy I’m putting in. I guess I’ll just keep going since there is no end game for this & I’m only 46 years old.

I guess I should make my hard boiled eggs & vegetable sludge. I had a banana mushed up in vanilla yogurt & part of a fruit tray for breakfast. Shortly after that I finished figuring out how to accomplish the home exercises below. Time to make my food, have a nibbly for lunch & shower

HOME EXERCISES

Bird Dog – 30
Donkey Kick – 30
Plank on extended arms & knees, then lift knees off of floor – 30
½ wall squat – 30
Kneel with weights at shoulders, raise one weight at a time – 30
Kneel with arms up to tall leg side, move arms to lower knee – 30
Curls 120 with 20 pound dumbbells – 60 curls per arm
Shoulder raise 10 pounds in each arm – 75

New “Queens of the Stone Age” album coming out on September 30th. I assume this is the single but nothing on Apple Music or iTunes yet. I saw an album announcement of Facebook yesterday.

Featuring Nikki Lane Stream "Easy Street": https://qotsa.lnk.to/ea...

08/12/2026

Wednesday, August 12th 2026

Yesterday I slept a bit later than I wanted to, 9:00 am & then felt like I rushed through EVERYTHING started to unwind but no, I get a call to start cooking supper. I didn’t even realize Kim would be home from work soon. I had breakfast & got moving. Kim went to work & Olly was at day care. I cleaned as much as I could. I only stopped for a quick lunch & had just finished my exercise. They’re listed below, upper body exercises on Friday, leg exercises yesterday. Kim even mentioned how clean it was when she got home. Easy to tell since I gathered ALL of the dog toys & put them away so I could actually vacuum the house.

I emptied the vacuum to begin. Then I vacuumed the carpet in the bedroom where I do my upper body exercises. I had enough Olly hair, backyard dirt, grass, twigs & leaves & a bit of Kim’s hair that I probably could have built a new friend. I just emptied it again. Vacuumed the rest of the house only to empty the vacuum one last time from all of the backyard stuff that sticks in Olly’s paws & whatever she’s rolled around in that sticks in her fur.

Got an email from my program director with some different exercises, mostly my home exercises because I’ve done them SO MANY times. There will be one I’ll do at the gym. This makes me a bit excited to see what I can do! I’ll give a few new exercises a try ASAP. No gym today just new home exercises.

Kim’s parents & brother are coming for the weekend so I plan on taking Friday off to help out Kim with whatever we need to do. I might see how a few of the new exercises are at home if I don’t get to them tomorrow. Either way I’ll help out Kim for the bulk of Friday.

HOME EXERCISES
Front plank on knees & forearms parallel to floor, lift arm – 30
Mountain Climber, Front Plank & Touch Knee to Elbow – 30
Bridge walkout on feet – 30
On back Bridge on Exercise ball & raise one leg – 30
Side plank opposite w/ 5 pound weight from hip to above shoulder – 30
Side plank opposite w/ 5 pound weight parallel to the floor to above shoulder – 30
Side Step over Object – 30
Pushups – 50
Side step with exercise band around ankles – 30
Hip Abduction with exercise band around upper legs – 30
Lean on ½ wall, extend leg with exercise band around knees – 30
Shoulder raises with a 10 pound weight in each hand – 75, both arms at once
Curls with a 20 pound weight in each hand – 120, 60 on each arm

My student was unimpressed that his favourite band used mostly power chords. I’ve already made different song style choices to teach in the fall so I’m glad he told me. Gives me a little more open road to choose what to show him.

When I started playing, I was self-taught on guitar. Nobody showed me what fingers to use on the fretboard when playing, so I played power chords with the wrong fingers actually making it more difficult for me. I corrected that when I started playing after cancer in 2019. My hand used to cramp up during shows. Now I’ll play for a few minutes that turns into 5 or 6 hours and my hand is fine, I’ve got to rush & do important stuff but my hand is fine.

Good thing I haven’t written this entire song out yet. I don’t play the middle section the way I should. Better to find out before I write it out to teach.

"Better Man" by Pearl JamListen to Pearl Jam: https://PearlJam.lnk...

08/10/2026

Monday, August 10th 2026

Of course I did my home exercises last week below is the stuff I did on Tuesday & Thursday, I also did my upper body exercises again on Friday which I’ll finish up my leg/standing exercises tomorrow.

Went to a small concert where I used to play about once a month in the last band I was in. When I got sick the band sort of fell apart. My brother & our drummer soldiered on with new members filling in the gaps. That worked for a while, then they changed their band name to “Room 333” which was the number on my room in the hospital. People got busy with life stuff & had to quit the band. One of the last drummers my brother, Mitch, played with ended up in Toronto. I think he was doing session work there? Recording with groups in the studio. He ended up mixing an album that kind of fell through the cracks & nobody bothered to work on it. He ended up joining that band, “Bleeker”, & has been in that band over the last 2 or 3 albums/Eps.

Mitch told me about their tour coming to Regina at least a month ago, told me he’d get tickets & never mentioned it to me again. I had completely forgotten about it until Friday morning when Facebook reminded me I was attending this event. I didn’t think much of it since I didn’t know if Mitch had gotten tickets. I carried on with my day as usual. Around noon, after I had exercised, my dad called me. “I just talked to Mitch, he has tickets for us to the Bleeker show after the football game tonight”. We made plans for that evening. I really don’t like sitting around & just watching TV, so there was a 4:00 pm baseball game followed by a 7:00pm local football game, then the concert. Dad came over at half time, & we left during the 4th quarter around 9:45pm. I was ready to crawl into bed, not go to a concert. I woke up, the concert was great. It wasn’t a border line metal concert it was a rock radio concert presented by the rock radio station as a kick off to the weekend’s folk festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVa8OEUM3k4&list=RDbVa8OEUM3k4&start_radio=1

I like finding out about bands on their way up. They don’t all become HUGE in popularity but I feel like I was at least in on the secret. They don’t have to be a big name for me to latch join the ride.

Other than that I was coughing A LOT at home. I think it was Thursday night I was coughing non-stop for 20-30 minutes, so much I thought I was going to throw up. I got out of bed & made my way to the washroom while Kim got a big bowl incase I threw up & cough candies. I didn’t throw up that night, I took a cough candy & fell asleep.

I spent the rest of the weekend constantly clearing my throat & randomly coughing. I was OK though, just felt a little dry spot in my throat. Then came Sunday evening. Our supper had just been delivered from “Boston Pizza”. I was on the couch watching a documentary. As Kim was answering the door I took a small sip from my water bottle & it was on! Coughing & threw up on my shirt, shorts, down the side of the couch cushion & on the floor. I had to go change & wash off. I had my supper & finished my water with small sips of water & small bites of my pasta.

We took our ‘nephew’ to see the “Minions & Monsters” movie Sunday morning at the mall. Yes, a mall that has a public library & a record store!!! Those aren’t completely obsolete yet. The movie started at 11:10 am. The mall was a ghost town when we got there at 10:40. The mall was open but NONE of the stores inside the mall were open other than the arcade & the movie ticket office. I like all of the “Despicable Me” & “Minions” movies but this one didn’t do much for me. This was his long overdue birthday present, a movie with his ‘Auntie’ & ‘Uncle’. He thought it was great & that’s all that matters. Then we perused the mall got him a couple toys & had lunch in the food court. He was happy as usual! He got toys, I didn’t get any Spiderman toys! I call EPIC FAIL ‘Auntie’ Kim…if that’s your real name?

HOME EXERCISES
Front plank on knees & forearms parallel to floor, lift arm – 30
Mountain Climber, Front Plank & Touch Knee to Elbow – 30
Bridge walkout on feet – 30
On back Bridge on Exercise ball & raise one leg – 30
Side plank opposite w/ 5 pound weight from hip to above shoulder – 30
Side plank opposite w/ 5 pound weight parallel to the floor to above shoulder – 30
Side Step over Object – 30
Side step with exercise band around ankles – 30
Hip Abduction with exercise band around upper legs – 30
Lean on ½ wall, extend leg with exercise band around knees – 30
Shoulder raises with a 10 pound weight in each hand – 75, both arms at once
Curls with a 20 pound weight in each hand – 120, 60 on each arm

I hope these gym exercises are easier than last Monday. It had been a while & I was in pain in my quads & hamstrings. It was a bit of a challenge to stand up to get in the vehicle after. My dad’s taking me again since Kim must be available online all day. Here’s hoping I don’t go into a coughing fit at the gym?!?! Two times within a month ½ is more than I need & certainly don’t want it to happen at the gym.

GYM EXERCISES
Leaning forward while balancing on one foot – 30
Step on Stepper – 30
Squat & lean forward @ waist pick up 10 pound weight & stand – 30
Lifting 10 pound kettle bell from floor in a straight posture & squat – 30

Weight machine – 60 repetitions at 25 pounds

Gotta say that felt much better on my legs this time & I broke the 30 kettle bell squats into 2 sets of 15 this time.

Movie trailer for “Minions & Monsters”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSdOwt-G49w

Hollywood has a monster problem. Minions & Monsters is only in thea...

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