How I started Playing Ping Pong Seriously  Like so many of you, I played ping pong as a kid on the table in the basement. I wasn't particularly good.  At one of my jobs, there was a table and I played a little more intensely. And as a parent, I installed a table on the patio and played with my kids.  My son and I played a lot. On a family vacation about 12 years ago, my son and I entered the resort's ping pong tournament and to my delight. I finished 5th out of 50.  But the guys in front of me were not just a little better than me, they were much better. So I asked them why ..read more

 My concept of fit at this point focuses on agility, flexibility, some cardio, and some strength.  Most important, it's gotta be fun and keep me healthy.   And no injuries.   So my mix of workouts includes some yoga, some gym, and some swimming. They are good but a little dull. Lots of ping pong which is great. I'll post on that soon too.  A tiny bit of tennis (not too much since it is too likely to produce injuries given the arthritic feet and funky back that I carry around) and some cross fit.  But at this point, my main work out is the 9 Rounds: boxin ..read more

 I worked regularly over an extended period of time to get to be able to do five pull-ups. Once I get there, I got ambitious and aimed at 7. I made it there.  The first of July 1, 2023. I do seven once. Not perfect (there's lots of jerking) but not cheap partial extension ones either.  I was proud: Check it out. But then I took a trip.  Spent four weeks in Europe. Ate more than a few croissants and pain au chocolate. I visited a gym 2x but didn't do anything like a lat pulldown or pull up.  On July 8th, I thought I would test and see how much I'd lost. Result: I could ..read more

 In the last few years, most of my collecting has been via Ebay and some contacts. I haven't been out "in the wild" looking for decks so much.  In early July, while site seeing in Brugge Belgium, my wife and I stopped to look at what might be for sale in a street market. Tourism in Brugge, Belgium Site Seeing in Brugge a street market We found a few card things of interest. Most fascinating was a complete mint condition deck of playing cards by carta mundi called Zandstraat Brugge. Artwork by Ghislain Swimberghe. It's a limited edition certified to have ..read more

 My wife likes to travel and wants to do it as a couple. I like to work out. Can we get organized to make both of us happy? I had a little success with this on our time in Paris but frankly, if I'd been more organized, I could have figured this out my first day there and worked out all week instead of just the last two days. I found the Boxium. It was a 90 second walk from the apartment we were renting. It was as intense and chic a personal training facility and I've ever seen. And, considering what it was, reasonably priced. Check out this three tone leather heavy big. I'm used to a beat ..read more

 Dear Readers,  The news is good. I'm now 65 years of age.  That means I'm starting my 66th trip about the sun.  Very excited about it. My birthday (I'm Pisces) comes near the end of winter. Of course, since I live in Florida and don't think astrologically, that previous sentence was a little random.  But despite being 65, I'm still sort of "with it". Evidence: the use of the "a little random" expression. I'm taking a gap year. This means that John Edelson, as of March 1st, no longer has a job. He resigned his employment and is not applying for, and will not accept ..read more

Since my hip replacement in Dec 2018, I have been healthy but strikingingly lacking in cardio. I can play tennis, lift weights, walk fast, swim sets of 10 lengths, bike at up to 16 or 17 mph, and do yoga but theres’s been a sort of limit to how intense it could be. When I try to swim a few sets of ten lengths, I feel weak. My tennis is marked by mistakes. And whenever I try to jog, I feel dangerously out of breath and energy after 50 yards. At the start of 2020, I was with a pack of my college friends who noticed as we hiked around Marin County that I was out of breath. They insisted that I ..read more

 Using the metrics set up in the last post, here's an update: Fitness. I made it to 6 pullups but it's been up and down (ha ha ha). As in once I declared victory with 5 pull-ups in late Feb, I stopped until mid April when I was back down to only 3 and a bit. I started building again and yesterday I did 6.  My pushups of two sets of 25 are holding steady. I want to get to yoga more but haven't yet figured out how to do more than the inhouse session on Sat mornings. Weight. For almost a month, I was steadily under 200 but the last weeks, I've been back at 201-203. This week I'm crunch ..read more

 I'll be 63 this next week and I'm thinking about my health and tryign to figure out how I'm doing and what I should be concentrating on. I'm thinking about metrics. I've recently spent a fair amount of time playing with my new toy, a Renpho scale. It automatically records my weight (bluetooth to phone) along with all sorts of other data.  At the risk of over-sharing, here's some screen shots and a picture. Of course, one reason that I'm sharing this is that my target for the end of February was to weigh under 200. While the top picture from today  shows me over, it doesn't tota ..read more

 New Topic: Pandemic Pastimes. Finding meaningful challenges Thinking inside the box. Here's a video showing how much I have to refine my technique and endurance. My pandemic pastime is to learn to solve a rubrik cube while in plank. I’ve worked for two weeks reading and watching YouTube. My nephew pointed out some basics to me but I kept running into roadblocks. I finally hired an online instructor (Tania: she’s amazingly patient and useful. Highly recommended. Comment for her contact info) and I can now solve the cube. Not every time but I have done it now twice myself. M My initi ..read more