Correctly described as middle-aged men

Pierini Fitness recently learned that Microsoft intends to help him be more politically correct and inclusive in his middle-aged man reflections.  They plan on doing so using artificial intelligence.

Microsoft recently announced the upcoming integration of its artificial intelligence powered ideas into its Word, the word processing program used by many including Pierini Fitness when composing his middle-aged man reflections appearing here.

According to a Microsoft blog post, this new feature will be offering familiar fixes for spelling and grammatical errors and advice on more concise and inclusive language such as “police officer” instead of “policeman.”

What does Pierini Fitness have to say about this?

“No way, man, as in middle-aged man.”

Rest assured that Pierini Fitness middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life will continue to properly identify its primary audience as middle-aged men.  Calling them middle-aged people just doesn’t have the ring to it that’s necessary to properly identify who they are.

No thank you Microsoft but this isn’t something Pierini Fitness is interested in using, so he’ll be shutting that feature off once it’s part of the latest version of your Word software.    

Here at Pierini Fitness, middle-aged men will never be called middle-aged people because they’re more correctly described as middle-aged men.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Howling at the moon

Many moons ago, when living in the country on 5 acres, Pierini Fitness had a hot tub on the back deck that he would often submerge himself to relax at the end of a hard day.  The country nighttime fresh air, stars in the sky and the “music” of the country critters orchestra made this time enjoyable and gave him many pleasant memories.

Part of his ritual including getting out of the hot tub and wrapping a towel around his body in transition to returning to the real world.  On full moon nights, his ritual included another step that preceded the towel wrap. In his buff, he would look in the sky, stare at the moon and then howl like a wolf. 

It always made Mrs. Pierini Fitness laugh when he did this but, more importantly, it gave Pierini Fitness a middle-aged man release of any rough-around-the-edge whatever was remaining in him that hadn’t been released by hot tub time.  And, it gave him a good laugh at himself moment. 

Howling at the moon should be a great middle-aged man pastime that we should all do on a regular basis.  Believe it or not, there’s a day set aside for doing this on October 26^th of each year.  Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night is a day people are encouraged to go out and howl at the moon.

Pierini Fitness has learned that, contrary to what he thought was true, wolves don’t howl at the moon.  When they howl, they’re communicating with other wolves in their pack, and do so by holding their heads up towards the sky, as if looking at the moon, so their howls can carry longer distances.

For Pierini Fitness, howling at the moon is more about releasing his middle-aged man primal feelings into the universe where they can meander and land where they’re destined and make the earth a better place for all.  Rumor has it, at least in his mind, that his howling at the moon has a benevolent impact on global warming, but this hasn’t been scientifically proven.  Therefore, it’s more of what can be described as a Pierini Fitness middle-aged man tale.

The next full moon is scheduled to appear in the sky on June 17, 2019 which is a mere 11 days from today.  Pierini Fitness invites all restless middle-aged men around the world to join him on this day in preparing for Summer 2019 hot summer nights, beginning four days later on June 21^st, by going outside in our back yard, scantily dressed or in the buff, as you choose, and have a good old time howling at the moon.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Maximum occupancy

California political will recently spoke with the current demise of proposed Senate Bill (SB) 50.  As reported in a Sacramento Bee, my local newspaper, article last month - California cities killed a sweeping housing reform bill. Can Gavin Newsom find another option? - SB 50's density-rich solutions would have aggressively dealt with zoning restrictions that impact housing affordability by forcing local governments to authorize taller office buildings and multi-family housing in areas where they're currently not permitted. 

This political will of local governments is a bigger example of not in my backyard (NIMBY) mentality, heretofore known as not in my city.

Governor Newsom's ambitious $1.75 billion proposal of building 3.5 million new homes by 2025 and a host of other legislative solutions on the drawing board, will create a hard-to-imagine gargantuan California in the not-to-distant future.  California already has a bursting-at-the-seams population of about 40 million residents.

According to one source, California has an average household size of 2.94 so the additional 3.5 million housing units Governor Newsom wants built would swell California's population by an additional 10 million residents.  Imagine a California in six years, with a population of over 50 million.

Did you notice the traffic on the way to work this morning?  Imagine it being 25 percent more congested. 

When will our elected officials realize that perhaps the way to deal with the unaffordable housing crisis is to let the housing market do its thing?  Supply and demand are powerful forces that have an amazing ability to create correct economic solutions. 

Lack of housing affordability, if not tampered with by government-orchestrated manipulation, will ultimately decrease housing demand.  People will relocate to other states where housing is more affordable.  There's nothing inferior about this market solution. 

And, a decrease in housing demand will improve affordability for those choosing to remain because demand will more closely align with supply.  Maybe, even, housing supply will eventually exceed demand.  Know what impact that'll have on housing affordability?

Concurrent with the unaffordable housing crisis is political chatter about how to solve California's traffic problem.  Some advocate government-orchestrated solutions such as additional investment in public transportation, or the next new form of taxation masqueraded with a clever name of traffic-congested pricing charged to drivers of vehicles roaming around congested areas. 

Do we need new government solutions like another high-speed light rail boondoggle to nowhere?

What about our California environment and its air quality?  How will another 10 million Californians affect California's ability to protect our environment? 

Have you ever walked into a restaurant or other establishment and notice a sign that reads something like "Maximum occupancy permitted by law of [insert your number]" Maybe this is what we need in California, a maximum population number known to our elected leaders so they don't go about mindlessly with proposed legislation  as if the sky is the limit with California's future population.

When was the last time our elected officials asked us the population we want for California?  I haven't been asked if I want a California of 50 million residents, have you?  What do you want?

Maybe our California is at maximum occupancy.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-aged man fitness training burnout?

A “world” organization that Pierini Fitness is not a die-hard fan of is the World Health Organization (WHO) and he’s had a reflection or two over the years about the works and products of this worldly gang, such as this one:  Eating too many doughnuts

WHO’s latest revelation is that workplace “burn out” is now a legitimate syndrome people experience so they’ve added it as a serious health issue existing in the modern age in which we live.

WHO previously recognized this serious ailment by describing it as “state of vital exhaustion” but over time and in recognizing its work is never good enough or complete, had to ratchet up the description to a higher level. 

So that it’s not mistakenly diagnosed, WHO has provided further descriptive details such as “"feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and reduced professional efficacy."

Therefore, it’ll now be officially listed in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Manual.  At this time, it’s not risen to the level of a medical condition but merely an occupational syndrome.  Pierini Fitness guesses it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a WHO medical condition along with relationship problems with your in-laws or getting bite by an orca. 

What would we do without your WHO?

But it does make Pierini Fitness wonder about whether there’s a burnout condition of a different type, one experienced by middle-aged men in their fitness, health and wellness journey.  One encountered by those having an “all or nothing” mindset and a proclivity for chasing fitness, health and wellness “pedal to the metal” style.

Might WHO one day agree and add to their gargantuan ICD Manual, a condition that’ll be described as middle-aged man fitness training burnout?

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Bucket of spit

Pierini Fitness is better at certain exercises than others; so are most middle-aged men.  One exercise he’s better at than others is the pull-up.  He’s done lots of pull-ups in his middle-aged man training past and has recently resurrected his yesteryear above-average greatness. 

When he belonged to a gym years ago, he had no trouble getting his pull-ups workout completed.  While there always seemed to be a waiting line for the bench press, with Monday being “International Bench Press Day”, the pull-up bar always seemed to be available.  And, he used it to do lots of pull-ups.

Then, his pull-ups prowess went through a decline when he slacked off, but now his pull-ups performance is headed back the other way.  He’s been doing pull-ups lately and, slowly but surely, his rep quality and volume are improving. 

So highly does Pierini Fitness think of pull-ups that he came up with one of his many famous sayings, “Any middle-aged man worth of bucket of spit should be able to bang out a dozen pull-ups.”  But until late, he wasn’t worth a bucket of spit because his single set maximum reps of pull-ups fell short of this gold bar benchmark. 

Knowing that there’s nothing new under the sun, Pierini Fitness began wondering about the origin of the “bucket of spit” figure of speech.  After some research, he learned that it was former Vice President John Nance Garner who coined the expression.  Vice President Garner served two terms in that office when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President.

According to an article appearing on the website of the Briscoe Center for American History, Vice President Garner was a crusty, sharp-tongued Texan, known during his lifetime as “Cactus Jack” and built a reputation on biting commentary and one-liners. Apparently, his observation was that the office of Vice President “is not worth of bucket of warm spit.”

Putting history trivia aside, there’s something about this figure of speech that middle-aged man Pierini Fitness likes. He likes it better when it doesn’t apply to his character or fitness performance. 

Last Friday, in a single set test of maximum reps for the standard-grip pull-up, he was able to bang out twelve legitimate reps.  It was a new best for him in his current fitness, health and wellness journey begun last August 31, 2018 and he’s now “walking” around in cyberspace acting like a middle-aged man pull-ups comeback kid.

Stay tuned for a video in the future but until then, Pierini Fitness is a proud middle-aged man who, in the fitness department, is worth more than a bucket of spit.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum