Here's a brief summary of what I'm up to:
Living in Virginia (USA) with my partner, Anna.
Still working for the Navy, writing modeling/simulation code. Nobody in my organization has been fired by the new administration (yet), though we've had some tense moments. Also not furloughed yet, but it feels like it's coming soon. I've had the opportunity recently to design and implement some new tools from scratch, which has been fun and engaging.
I hurt my back in 2023 and the past year has been pretty painful, so I've been on a break from most athletic activities since Nov '24 to focus on rehab. I read Dr. Stuart McGill's Back Mechanic (and Ultimate Back Fitness) and followed his recommended daily regimen of walking and core exercise and more walking for about six months, with slow improvement, until I decided to take more action and found Dr. Clayton Skaggs and Dr. Jim George at CIHP in St. Louis. I went to see them in May and spent seven hours at the clinic over two days while they evaluated and educated me. They gave me a number of simple exercises to follow ("do these and nothing else") to help strengthen and gain awareness and control of my lower abs and a couple other areas. I didn't keep up with my exercises while traveling over the summer, but have been very consistent for about 2.5 months now and my pain is significantly reducing. I've also been meeting with their head PT, Tim, every two weeks (virtually) for the last couple months.
The rehab takes a lot of my time (2-2.5 hours/day), add in work with the 40-minute commute each way and that accounts for most of my days. Just enjoying time with Anna and watching a little disc golf on Jomez when I can. And driving all over Virginia on weekends for live music and spending time with friends and family.
Playing music has fallen down my list of priorities. I want to play more, but just haven't had/made the time. I need some people to play with for motivation.
Read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts last year and it really made me want to see India. (Goodreads is probably most up to date with my current reading.)
Anna and I went to Vietnam (3 weeks) and Thailand (2 weeks) over the summer. I was fortunate to be able to take some unpaid time off from work and of course Anna is a teacher so she has summers off. It was a ton of fun and I'm working on putting together a little post about it (blog would be too strong of a term, but a few pictures and comments). We learned so much. Will link that here when it's ready.