I Don't Need a Game, I Need a Puzzle

    It's getting to that point of the year where I bring out my latest batch of themed music puzzles.  It started out with the rephrasing puzzles, where I redo a song title with different words and you guess the original title.  For example, "Your Physique Is Reminiscent of an Unpaved Rural Driving Surface" is a paraphrase of Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road," which doesn't really seem like a complement when phrased like that.  I then ventured into emoji titles, where I replace the words in a title with emojis.  For instance,  "🇺🇸 🥧" could stand for "American Pie" by Don McLean. I then got into altered titles.  By switching out one letter for another, I make up an entirely new title. I give a synopsis of what the song would be with the new title, as well as the artist, and you guess the original.  For instance, if I gave "Nuns show off the latest in uniforms with bold colors and unusual designs, Ed Sheeran," your answer would be "Rad Habits," for "Bad Habits," with the "B" changed out for an "R." (I have also done a version of this puzzle involving either removing or adding a letter.  So far, I have only done this with television shows, not with song titles.)  Unfortunately, I am having even more problems coming up with these puzzles than normal.  There are an inordinate number of short song titles this year.  Only two of the top ten songs have titles with more than two words, and one of them is a parenthetical.  The number of repeat songs is very high this year because the charting period was reduced by a few weeks.  This also means that there are a few more Christmas songs than usual as well.  There are also a fairly high number of songs with titles in Spanish and/or intentional misspellings.  Those titles are automatically off limits for use.  This means I might have to go very deep into the Top 100 chart, and lower, just to come up with a good selection of titles to actually have good puzzles.  I expect to have something up soon, but it is going to take some work.  Maybe a lot of work.

Push Up On This!

    This week marks the point where I have been weightlifting for half my life, approximately.  I got my first set of weights for my birthday when I was twenty-six, or maybe twenty-seven.  After so many decades, I can't remember the actual year.  The late 90s weren't the best for me, although taking up weights helped. I am currently on my second set of weights, after the first set got lost in the 2003 flood.  Technically, they survived, but I didn't really want to re-use metal that had been submerged in mud and water.  I almost thought of painting them, but I thought better about it.  Anyway, to celebrate this anniversary, and as part of my New Year's resolution, I decided to take a push-up challenge.  I did my first challenge in December 2021.  I started out with ten push-ups on the first, and I tried to add at least one more each day.  I made it up to about fifty push-ups before I got sick on Christmas Eve, and I had to stop for the rest of the month.  I would occasionally add push-ups to my regular workouts, but I never made them a standard part of my routine.  Well, I decided to start another challenge this January, but I didn't publicize it immediately, unlike the last time.  I started out with fifty push-ups immediately, as that felt like a good number to start out with.  My technique wasn't the best, and I had to drop to my knees for the last ten or so.  Don't judge me!  There is a slightly derogatory term for such push-ups, but I won't use it here, but if you lift, you may have heard of it.  Like last time, I tried to push-up at least as many each day, even if I had to drop my knees, or take a rest.  After a week, I didn't have to go to my knees.  By the third week, I was reaching sixty.  I also started adding variations into the mix.  Usually decline or incline versions to the standard flat, as more unusual one would actually detract from the challenge instead of complimenting it.  As of yesterday, I was up to seventy push-ups.  While I doubt I will make it to one hundred by the end of the month, I am almost certain I will make it to ninety. And I will probably take it a little farther until I do make it to one hundred.  Now, I know this could cause a muscle imbalance and overuse.  Once a do make it to one hundred, I will end the challenge on a daily basis and start a new one.  I will continue to go for one hundred push-ups, or more, but on days that don't interfere with my standard workout days for chest.  I already to one hundred abdominal crunches every other day, with extra variations on my ab day.  For February, I will move onto back exercises.  The go-to bodyweight exercises for back should be pull-ups or chin-ups. (For those who don't know the difference, as both raises your body over a bar, in a pull-up you use an overhand grip with the palms facing away from you.  For a chin-up, you use an underhand grip with the palms facing towards you.  The chin-up also emphasizes some biceps use to raise one over the bar.) Unfortunately, I have nothing solid enough or narrow enough to really try either exercise.  I can do inverted rows, where one 'hangs' from a much lower location to pull one to it.  It isn't the best possibility, but it the only one I have. I will continue to switch out muscle groups each month to challenge myself, while relegating the previous one to a secondary workout each week.  By the end of the year, I could be doing multiple challenges to one hundred reps, and such workouts will become standard for me, as common as my regular weekly weightlifting sessions are. Maybe I could even find the time to add a true second workout session per week like I used to do back when I didn't have a job. Stay fit people!        

Dam, I Wish I Was Your Beaver

    A little over a week ago, I was just driving to work and passing by where I used to live, when I noticed something crossing the creek a little ways past that point.  It looked like a tree had fallen and a bunch of stuff had collected around it.  However, there hadn't been that much rain recently.  Also, stuff had been collected on the downstream side of the tree, against the current.  And just this morning, I noticed that the water behind the tree was at a higher level and frozen. I'm pretty sure that this means it is a beaver dam.  Now, beavers can be found in eastern Kentucky.  In fact, I seem to remember seeing one in the creek in front of my home when I was a little kid.  Maybe an otter.  It has been way too long to remember the exact details.  (As an aside, I didn't learn that the waterway coming out of Wheelwright was named Otter Creek until my senior year of high school.) How is it that I rarely saw any animals such as this when I was a kid living there?  Besides the beaver, the only major animal sighting from when I was kid were two chipmunks scampering out in the snow on birthday when I was about ten or so.  That was all.  It wasn't until I was much older that better animal sightings came about.  A groundhog, or woodchuck if you prefer, trekked from the front yard to the creek and maybe across the road to the next hill.  A giant of a possum went from the front yard to the back yard one winter.  And of course there was the summer that a rabbit colony all but exploded around the house.  I mean, I saw at least one bunny everyday for about three months.  Sure, I sometimes had to stand out in the drizzle for a few minutes in the back yard to catch a glimpse of one, but there were bunches of them.  What's worse, or perhaps better, are the animals I've seen since my old home had to be torn down.  I regularly see heron in the creek near where the dam is.  A few times, a heron has flown beside my car just going over the bridge near there.  (I have also had heron fly along my car at other times, but that is beside the point.  I've also almost driven over a heron in the road, as well as encountered a heron almost face-to-beak one morning getting into my car.  It flew off almost immediately after I got close.) I have seen deer walking down or along the creek when it is low, which has been most of the time lately.  Just a few weeks ago, I actually saw four deer running into the brush beside the road, about the same place where the dam is. How I would have loved having deer so close to my home when I was a kid.  I only saw my first deer when I was around eleven or so.  A small herd were running across the highway while my mom was at a car dealership.  I wasn't interested in looking, so I was reading library books in the back seat of the old car, and I mostly missed the spectacle.  Why couldn't I have had so many animals when I was younger, so close to home?  Sure, I've seen plenty since then.  Heck, I may have seen a coyote running up a snowy hillside just this morning on the way to work.  It had a very bushy tail, so it probably wasn't a dog, and it was tan, not red like a fox.  So, good chance there.  Now, this dam might not be the work of beavers.  It is just a possibility.  But it my heart, beavers for sure.

Peter Is Going to Freeze His Little Cottontail Off

    It is the start of a new year, and this means that a slew of new products are coming out in stores.  For instance, Duncan Hines is expanding its line of Dolly Parton endorsed baking kits, with blueberry muffin, banana nut muffin, and cinnamon crumb cake.  None of these are particularly Southern, by hey, name recognition.  I saw another new product that kind of disturbed me, though.  Rice Krispie-flavored marshmallow peeps.  First, having Easter products out barely a week after Christmas isn't right.  Sure, a few things would be out, but most stores would have their focus on Valentine's Day instead.  Some stores still don't have their V-Day stuff out.  I usually don't like seeing such a wide selection of Easter stuff this early.  Yes, Easter is early this year, March 26, but this feels like it is a little too much for me. As someone in retail, I know that many seasonal/holiday products need to be available a long time in advance.  For instance, the new Valentine's Day books for children started coming out before Christmas.  However, candy and other treats have a limited shelf life. Even if the products have shipped extra-early, I'm not sure I would want to see them so soon after Christmas.  Another thing is the new flavor.  Peeps have been coming out in special flavors for decades now, with some keyed in to certain holidays.  For instance, the general flavors for peeps this year include the usual flavors of birthday cake and sour watermelon, as well as branded flavors that used to be exclusive, such as Hawaiian Punch and Dr Pepper.  (I've tried it.  I felt something was missing, but it wasn't bad.)  There is also the sparkling mixed-berry bunnies, the lone instance that isn't a peep.  There are also a few chocolate-dipped flavored peeps this year, but not it as wide a selection of flavors as in some years. This year, the Rice Krispie flavor is a Walmart  exclusive.  The other exclusive flavors are ICEE Blue Raspberry for Target and sour strawberry for Kroger's.  Those two flavors make a bit more sense than the first one.  I mean, marshmallows are an ingredient for rice cereal treats, but having the marshmallow taste like the cereal is a bit too surreal.  Not that I make or eat treats, or that many people use peeps for their treats.  Peeps used to have a larger range of flavors before they cut back on some of their excesses.  For instance, peeps used to have a Valentine's Day selection, with white vanilla hearts and red strawberry hearts.  There were chocolate teddy bears and, my personal favorite, red cherry-flavored cherries drizzled with chocolate.  Those were only around for a two or three years.  The entire holiday line ended in 2020.  Maybe it will come back near year, considering that Easter is going to be almost as late as possible, April 20.  There will need to be something to fill in the gap.  Halloween had chocolate peeps a few times, but last year there were no flavors.  Christmas had gingerbread and peppermint, but nothing else.  Even Easter had 'mystery flavors' a few times, that would occasionally get a full treatment if well-liked enough.  In fact, Easter was the holiday that started the flavor rush with vanilla-and strawberry-creme eggs, with orange-creme added a year later.  Alas, all three were stopped years ago, with only generic eggs left.  It will probably be another month before the whole range of Easter products come out, as it should be.  

The Mothers of Inventory

    One thing I can look forward to at the end of every year is the year-end inventory for my store, Booknotes.  On the last day before Christmas that the store is open, I rearrange all of the books so I can more easily tell what books I have counted and which ones I haven't.  I usually do the inventory even before I take down the decorations.  For various reasons, I can't take down all the decorations down all at once anyway.  Some can only be taken back home when the weather is dry.  Others are so big, that I am limited into how much I can fit into the trunk of my car.  There is also little extra room for boxes until I finish moving the books back.  I also make sure I take all of the books out of the window display.  At least once, I forgot a book in the window, and I had to start the count over.  Now, if I just tabulated how much all of the products cost, I would be done in one day, probably.  However, I use a multi-factor method I developed way back from before I had a computer.  I don't just calculate how much the books are worth, I also check on what I have sold over the year to see what I sold and what I didn't.  I already do weekly checks on inventory every Monday based on what I sold the previous week.  However, the year-end check is more on trends.  I also add the 'discount' decal to every book that has been here for ten years.  We tell people that we offer a discount on said books, but not the reason why.  For the fiction, it usually doesn't matter how old the book is.  For some of the nonfiction, we offer bigger discounts.  Just this year, we finally sold a book predicting the future, up to the year 2012.  That book came out before 2000 and got a huge discount.  Anyway, I chronologically go over each packing list from each order, moving each book after I count them.  I then total up the cost of each order, to come up with a running list of costs.  Some orders are the same, so I don't have to recheck them to make sure I added correctly.  Orders where we sold books have to be rechecked before I move onto the next one.   Sure, this leads to hundreds of subtotals, some with only one or two books, compared to about forty if I just did it per shelf.  However, this way I can see yearly trends as well as comparative analysis, without the use of a computer.  For instance, when the store first opened, my mother and I had large lists from two distributors of suggestions of opening stock.  Books could be eliminated either singly or by entire page.  Well, my mother eliminated the entire literature section from one distributor, wrongly thinking that the much smaller selection from the other would be sufficient.  In retaliation, (remember, I have a BA in English), I eliminated most of the romance section from that one as well, possibly even a book by an author my mother wanted to order due to one of her workmates.  Well, after that debacle, we agreed not to eliminate entire pages ever again without fully consulting each other.  I was proven right though, as literature has been the store's most constant bestselling category, as it has the fewest books on discount.  This is comparison to business, including careers and personal finance, which still has most of the books from that original shipment still in stock.  Almost the entire category is on huge discount.  A few other categories have sold well in the past, but not great now.  Oh, after all the books are counted, I go over the non-book products.  There are not too many of these.  This year, it was almost entirely chocolate-covered cherries.  I waited until the last day of the year we were open to count those, as we were still selling them fairly consistently.  Because the last day of the year was a Sunday, when the store is closed, I technically waited until Tuesday, January 2, to actually calculate everything, just in cast we had to open the store for an emergency to make a sale.  So, the grand totals have been added up.  The Christmas decorations are down, and the Valentine's Day hearts are being put up.  I just need to come up with good idea for my new "Making the Logo" video for my YouTube channel, but I am ready for the new year at my store.