July 2020: The Cave Staging is Set.

 By now the idea of retiring to a hippie cave in Crete to escape the Covid Crazies is looking better and better. The pandemic seems to be readying for a roaring second chapter with a lot of help from everyone who will not wear a mask. And still more help from mobs of shoplifters and looters. Go to work? That's dangerous. Stay at home? There's rent to pay and landlords are tired of waiting. Worse, you may be laid off any day. And if you're 'lucky' enough to have a low-paying position in an essential industry, you may have your face caved in by someone who won't wear a mask.

What are you to do? 

For starters, come back here at least once a month, on the first. I'll always go to elaborate lengths to keep my posts both short and useful. The structure will be consistent.

We'll always begin with the Covid Crazies--not just the maskless Karens and wackos the plague's turned loose on all of us, but the not so little things that leave our sanity in tatters: 

--How do we counter the hoarders of supplies we need?

--Is there really no way to sanitize N95 or KN95 masks?

--Where are you to find the gloves you hate to admit that you need?

In this part, we'll always tune into some positive vibes. You've got a place to live. Start there. Then take a look around at homeless huddled in their tents or stretched out underneath carpeting from construction sites. 

Gratitude for your digs is a boost beyond compare to your immune system. Your cave is not Bill Gates's cave, not  Brad Pitts's, not Rod Stewart's. Hell, it's not even your boss's. But make at least one corner of your cave completely yours...a part that you love to come home to...a part about which you can whisper, 'I am blessed to have this.'

To that end, I'll share each month, small steps I've taken to make my cave mine. From time to time I'll review a book or film I've enjoyed in the cave. And then I'll follow with...

I took several kicks to the seat of the pants my dream of achieving a summer beach body.

1) I sprained my knee in March, then was dropped from therapy because of the virus.

2) L.A. Fitness closed weeks after I'd enrolled.

3) I had next to no equipment to serve as a home gym and no room or money for barbells.

4) With the pounds I'd gained in quarantine, bodyweight workouts would not be enough.

5) The workout area in my cozy cave is roughly 6x10', ideal for prison-style workouts but not a sprawling routine.

Today, lined up along one small section of one wall, is a row of kettlebells ranging from 5 to 50 pounds. I'll tell you why I swear by them...where you can find them though they'll seem sold out wherever you look...tidbits about their history (though their current form did come from Russia, the ancient Greeks had their own version)...and links to useful workouts for beginners.

From now till we all get together again on August 1, here's the challenge:

1) Analyze where you are blocked from taking the steps you need to take in order to protect yourself: from finding masks/gloves/sanitize to insisting that your social distance be respected--in buses, in stores, on the street.

2) Analyze your digs. If you're unhappy, either move or transform one corner into the grooviest cave that you can.

3) And, by God, think kettlebells! Check them out on YouTube. You won't be sorry.