It’s 7am, and I’m lined up with the other senior citizens waiting for Blue Dog to open. Late night concerts and parties may belong to the young, but sunrise belongs to us old folks.

The Blue Dog quiche is just as good as expected, and I even got an olive loaf for the weekend. Short night sleeping (but when isn’t that the case?), but I can nap later. Right now I can enjoy sitting in their sidewalk-facing counter and watching the world wake up.

It feels great to be back in KY after an unplanned two-month hiatus. These last two months…very Dickensian. The absolute best and worst of times. The days spent in the hospital and then getting used to doing home infusions – the worst. Seeing Africa up close and personal – the best. And then a blend, because much of the time in Africa I was fighting some nasty pain. Win some, lose some.

Now it’s all about making up for some lost time and regaining the fitness I had before kidney stones. Walk, walk, walk, play some golf, and decide about re-signing with the personal trainer. I’m looking into an online trainer – my top two candidates are Copilot and Future. While I really like my human personal trainer, it’s $250/month for twice per week sessions. Not terrible, but if I want to really get after it and work out 3-4 times per week, the cost scales up accordingly. So I may have to sacrifice some of the personal touch for online scalability.

A big downside is the psychology aspect. I’ve been deeply trained to keep appointments and commitments (thanks, corporate America), so my twice-week appointment with the trainer is rarely missed. I’ll have no such commitment to others with the app. And I’m notoriously bad at keeping promises made to myself. So we’ll see.