Kevin Bresnahan

I started working out regularly when I retired. I hate running, especially in the winter, as it just wrecks my knees and feet, so after trying a few out, I bought a Matrix A30 elliptical machine. I love it. I get on it 45-60 minutes a day. No knee or foot pain, which is great. If you want a low-impact workout, I'd recommend an elliptical.

Zenato makes some great wines. My favorite one is the one they make after they make their Amarone. After the press the dried grapes to make their Amarone, they press regular Valpolicella grapes on the skins from the Amarone grapes. They call it a "Ripassa" and it has that Amarone flavor profile at about 1/3 of the price. I call it "baby Amarone". https://buywinesonline.com/collections/zenato/products/zenato-ripassa-valpolicella-superiore-2021-750-ml

I used to get a back issue every time I shoveled snow. During one of my chiropractor visits to treat the problem, he recommended a back brace/belt - which he just happened to sell. I tried it and it does minimize the issue quite a bit. The other way to minimize back issues while shoveling is to avoid twisting. Pushing straight ahead is best. This is the type of back brace I've used for over a decade: https://www.coreproducts.com/products/corfit-back-support-belt Make sure to get one with the stiff support ribs in the back. BTW - regarding chiropractors - I have recommended my chiropractor to a lot of friends and coworkers. Two coworkers with serious back and hip issues were very skeptical. I told them to just try him for 3 visits. Both of them finally took my advice and gave him a try. After those 3 sessions, they were both back to normal. They thanked me over and over again for the recommendation and I'm sure they are still patients of Dr. Stephen Shields at Hampstead Chiropractic in NH. The important thing about Dr Shields is that he takes X-rays before doing anything, which is important. If your back issues are disc-related, like a herniated disc, and someone starts adjusting your spine, they could do some serious damage. I knew a guy who almost got crippled from that.

Back problems are the worst. I get a twinge every now & then. I have a chiropractor that does wonders when it gets really bad. A good chiropractor can do wonders. A bad one can make it worse.

I'm the same age and like you, I don't "feel" old... in my head. I was lucky to be able to retire at 61. The company where I spent the last 21 years of my career, Analog Devices, "made me an offer I couldn't refuse" so I took it.

We need more info on this Amarone. I have two bottles of Bertani Amarone in my cellar (2012 & 2013). I used to have several bottles of Masi Amarone down there but it has been a while since I bought more of that one.

I stopped playing volleyball about 10 years ago shortly after a surgical procedure that left about 6 stitched up holes around my lower stomach area. I tried playing and when I went up to block a spike, my stomach felt like someone punched me. I had to sit down for about 10 minutes. I tried going back in but it still hurt. I think it's been long enough by now that I could possibly try again but I bet I'd suck now. Too slow. Too old. I don't want to be that "old guy who can't play anymore". I remember not really liking playing with guys like that when I was younger.

It's interesting to read about old sports injuries coming back to bite you later. You want to know the worst one? I was walking our late dog Auggie along the beach when he saw another dog behind us (that I didn't see). I use an extendable leash and it rapidly ran out behind me and I was too slow to realize it was happening. When it hit the end of the line, I got yanked into the air and I landed on a pile of rocks, mostly slamming into my left shoulder. I saw stars. Don't ever injure your left shoulder if you can help it. A left shoulder socket injury causes shooting pains down your left arm later on. They tend to wake you up. They also tend to mimic what you've been told is a heart attack. It really sucks. And yes, I do consider walking the dog a "sport". Walking my dogs has been a big source of exercise for me for the past 35 years.

That's a great CD. Cedar Walton, David Williams & Billy Higgins were a working trio at this time and operated like a well-oiled machine.

Benito Gonzalez was out of this world last night. If you haven't seen him play live yet, prepare to be amazed.

I sometimes wonder about Joe taking so many sideman dates around this time (late 80's/early 90's). He did a lot of them. This is certainly one of the good ones. My favorite sideman date from this time is probably the one he did with Neil Swainson but Tyner's "New York Reunion" is great too.

I was in my late 20s when I had to quit playing basketball. When I was at Raytheon, we had a pickup game every Monday night. We played for hours. My first years out of college, I was still able to play OK. I could get my shot off without getting blocked and I could drive to the hoop and even sneak a layup by one of the bigger guys. Then after about 4 years, some younger guys fresh out of school started playing. I was getting my shots blocked and getting stripped every other time I came down the court with the ball. It was extremely frustrating. I switched to volleyball shortly after that. I played volleyball 3 or 4 nights a week until I was in my early 50's and loved it. Now I really can't jump much and I really shouldn't be diving around on a hard floor. I do think about playing again. There was a time when several of the guys I played with were in their late 60's. One guy played until he was 75. He couldn't spike and he never dove, but he could still bump/set/serve fine, which was more than a lot of the younger players could do.

I'm also getting to the point of having regrets for some of the stupid shit I did when I was younger. I should have worn ear plugs to those rock concerts. The resulting tinnitus and hearing loss sucks. I should have started eating right at a much younger age. I was diagnosed with super-high cholesterol at a fairly young age and have been on statins ever since. That didn't stop me from eating junk all the time. These days, I really miss french fries. I should not have taken that job on the road back when my daughters were little. They grew up way too fast to have missed that part. I wish I had listened to my friend Paul and gone to a couple of Jazz shows with him back in the mid-80's. I would've been able to see a lot more of the greats if I had started earlier. As it was, I missed seeing Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' last Boston show by about two weeks. I should have bought that red with white cove 1961 Corvette convertible when it was offered to me for 8 grand. I didn't because it was red. Even being red, I'd love to have that car today. I was also offered a '57 T-bird at a ridiculously low price but I was never a Ford guy. I should have helped my father restore one of his Indian Motorcycles. So much knowledge was lost when he died. He had all kinds of tricks on the best way to take those things apart and putting them back together. Maybe I'd still have one if I did. I'd also know how to drive one. I never did try driving one of those suckers with the left foot clutch and right hand stick shift lever with a right hand throttle and left hand spark advance. Actually, I'm glad I never had to drive one. It sounds even worse when I describe it. I should not have cleaned my Yamaha DT-175's carburetor with that can of (now banned) Trichloroethylene (TCE). I figure some day it's going to crop up during a doctor's visit. So much stuff we used back then was unhealthy for us, it's a wonder that we're still here at all. Speaking of that... when I worked for the Holyoke Water Department one summer, they patched/replaced a water main. The way they did it was using an asbestos rope tied around the joint which was then packed with asbestos paste to contain the lead solder. They mixed the asbestos paste on site, dumping the bag of powdered asbestos into a cement mixer and adding water. I should have stayed much further back from that mixer. As it was, I did stand far away, but the dust went everywhere. Speaking of that Part 2... at Raytheon, we used some nasty toxic materials. I remember one time we had a part that contained tiny bits of Beryllium Oxide. Nasty nasty stuff. I refused to work with it. There was also the time they sent me a part to test after it had been exposed to a nuclear reactor to see if it was "rad hard". It arrived in my lab in a lead-lined box with skull & crossbones all over it. They said, "Don't worry - it's been long enough. It's safe to handle". Fuck that. I had someone else test that part.

I had just asked him what it was like playing on the Teddy Edwards session with Billy Higgins. He thanked me for the reminder. No idea why he's pointing at me other than that it might be good for captioning ideas.

Ogunquit is one town north of me. It's a nice little town. We go there often, particularly to visit their restaurants. We have been missing our Canadian friends lately. There used to be a lot of Canadian tourists visiting our beaches down here in Maine but not last year and not likely this year either.