Rambling Session - Workout Excuses (06/25/2024)

This morning I lit up a Santa’s Here Again from Julian Sued Tabac. This limited edition was released back in 2021, and I managed to snag some last year that Edgar Julian had left. This is an interesting smoke compared to the other cigars that Edgar blends. It has his signature “herbal” flavor notes I get from a lot of his stuff, but is much more wood-forward and spicy than his other products. 

This morning I needed to spray some primer on this guitar body I have been working on for awhile now. I am hoping to finally be ready to apply to final finish coats, but we’ll see tomorrow morning. I’ve been fooling with the finish on this body for nearly two months now… I’ve mentioned it several times, but basically I never paint wood. However, for this build I wanted/needed to go with a color instead of just natural wood. I decided to experiment with tinted sealer followed by tinted polyurethane. That didn’t work out. Then I experimented with coating it with just the tint to see what would happen. That actually covered nicely but didn’t hold up to even light scuffing to prep for the top coat. I then found some unopened black Minwax Polyshades in my cabinet. So I shot some black primer, scuffed then brushed on the Polyshades. That covered nicely, but had some runs and puddling in spots and ended up having to sand through some areas to get things flattened back out. I didn’t have enough primer left one morning to spray again, but I did have some gloss black and figured I would try that, not thinking about how miserable that is to sand back. From there things went downhill.. I ended up having to sand everything back off and practically restart. No big deal, but somewhere along the line I managed to get some gouges in the wood that I didn’t catch till I reprimed… So I have been working on getting them filled and everything resealed. What a trip. 

Anyhow, my plan this morning was to shoot some primer on and then try to workout a little bit. I used to routinely lift at home, some years back, but, and now I can’t recall exactly what caused it, I stopped. I am an active person between working in the shop, farm work, playing basketball, and playing with my daughter, but I certainly don’t do as much as I should for my overall well being. 

I go in spurts where I want to be better about my fitness, but truly my struggle with it is finding something that I feel that I can consistently work into my schedule. I get up at 4:30, get ready for the day, then work in the shop for about 30 minutes before I start my day job, which keeps me tied up till about 3. Then it is daddy and husband time until my daughter goes to bed. By then, it is too late for me to have a dedicated workout session because I have farm animals to tend to, then bed. 

It’s all excuses, I realize that. I can make time for things that are important to me. I also can incorporate some workouts into different areas of my day. An idea I had intended to implement, but really haven’t, is to do random exercises while playing with my daughter (i.e. lunges when we’re running up and down the hill in the backyard, or planks when we’re goofing off in the grass, etc). Sometimes it's hard to remember to do that, other times I am beat and just don’t do it. Again, excuses. 

For me, I have always done best when I have a scheduled workout time. Come to think of it, I quit working out because of some changes in our schedule. Anyway, I had to create time for me to get work done in the shop, and that is why I started to get up so early. Right now my best chances are to actually incorporate those playtime exercises into my day and/or to take 2 or 3 mornings a week to workout instead of working in the shop. 

The combination would be best, but the second option is a hard one to swallow, as those 30 minutes each morning through the week are my only shop time. It already takes me forever to get any guitar builds done because of the short work windows. That being said, I don’t have anyone waiting on me or expecting me to get those builds done besides myself. So yet again, it comes down to me. 

Take care,

-Trevor