Dukes of Hazzard?

I was flipping through the channels relaxing the other night and I stumbled across the Dukes of Hazzard. Now its been on & off the air for quite some time (like THIRTY YEARS). I used to make fun of it a couple of years ago. I find myself flipping back to these old episodes. Its easy to notice the silliness within the show and the numerous coincidences but there is a lot of interesting things about it. I call it the "Mysteries of the Dukes of Hazard"... I started noticing little things. First off I started to watch it again because I noticed the Bo & Luke always wear the SAME shirts. Uncle Jesse wears the same thing. The only person that gets new clothes on the episodes is Daisy! Of course!! (Hello?? Daisy Dukes... Heard of them??) Except for yesterday's episode #110 in 1983. Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrain was a basketball coach in the begining and his outfit is something that must be mentioned. He was wearing white sweatshirt, white sweatpants, his official sheriff cowboy hat AND his duty belt including his gun! Well folks, lets just say that no one is attractive in sweatpants. Another things I noticed was when Bo & Luke picked up Daisy & LuLu (Boss Hogg's wife) they picked them up in the General Lee. Now if you are familiar with LuLu Hogg she is well... A large lady. And if you're familiar with the General Lee you know that its doors are welded shut. Yet she & Daisy were sitting in the back seat waiting for the boys! Apparently in Hazzard County they also defy the laws of physics.

Yet I am drawn to this show! Its got some realistic points. There is always road construction in Hazzard County just like HERE! There are lots of backroads that they use at a high rate of speed, just like here! People on this show pull out onto the road without looking! I really think I am drawn to it because I can remember watching this show with my family in 1983. I also think people are drawn to this show because everything was solved in the 60 minutes, they always had popular musicians on there, AND it was always exciting! It was a simple show with this idea of family and helping each other including strangers like that southern hospitality. Good looking cousins as best friends, good looking female cousin, a wise Uncle Jesse to keep cool heads! No cussing and very little violence, plus there was a very obvious line between good & evil. And of course good always wins! Even if the bad guy is two gorgeous female twins!

Then there is the General Lee. The show used 256 different cars. One was used per SHOW! The show made that type of car so popular they started have difficulty finding them and started building them on site The General Lee was in every episode but one. And in the end very ending they had to use remote controlled cars for some scenes & used jump shots from previous episodes.

There is Dukefest! YES! DUKEFEST!! I wouldn't go but I am sure there are still LOTS of people that go & enjoy the festivities. LOL It was organized by Ben Jones (Cooter!!) He has a website www.cootersplace.com and its the official headquarters of Hazzard Nation. And there is www.hazzardnation.com which has pics of the most recent Hazzard Nation gathering.

Its always fun to go back and watch old shows from when you were a kid. It brings back memories. I'm not saying you should plan your annual vacation around the Hazzard Nation festival every year but just watching a silly show like this makes me laugh because it was a long time ago & it brings back lots of good memories!

Ciao

USMCdaffy

30 Days and counting....

Its been over a month since my ankle injury. Its not broken but sprained which is 6-8 weeks to heal. I wish the first doctor would have said that rather then getting my hopes up by saying 7-10 days. That time frame is a DROP in the bucket compared to the OTHER diagnosis. SO it is getting better just slowly. It is a difficult injury because you have to use your ankle to do EVERYTHING! And I have a long commute and of course driving makes you sit your leg at an odd angle. Not straight but not really bent which puts stress on any injury. It was the same for my knee when I tore my meniscus. I didn't really notice how long it took for that to heal because I was not really working out. I wanted to but I was not working out at the level I was during TurboFire.

I didn't realize how much being unable to exercise has effected me. For 58 days I did TurboFire, six days a week. Then all of the sudden I was forced to stop. I was feeling so good and I was actually FINALLY seeing progress. FINALLY! The stress relief that I got from working out was amazing and I didn't realize how much it helped me deal with the stress. And then in one moment I was forced to stop. It was tough and I was angry. Then I got totally paranoid about losing muscle because I could not work out like I did before. I know from after two weeks you start to lose flexibility & muscle by NOT working out. So I started over by really watching my food intake & using www.myfitnesspal.com to log calories. I really had to focus & figure out what I could do instead of what I could not do. It was a struggle.

Pilates! HA!!! Turns out you don't even need ankles or feet to do them!!! I had done pilates in the past. I use the Winsor Pilates DVDs, original ones, www.winsorslim.com and I follow Pilates: From the Inside Out w/ Karon Karter on the www.veria.com After doing TurboFire I actually have better form while doing pilates because I am stronger and more flexible than I was in the past. Pilates is no TurboFire! But its what I could do at the time and I NEEDED to do something! ANYTHING! When even a short walk was painful the pilates was able to give me a workout without additional pain or reinjuring myself.

I have now officially moved back to yoga. I still am wearing my ankle wrap (no gel cast for me!!) during the times I am away from home but I also wear it during yoga. The wrap gives me support but flexible enough that I am not fighting against the support it gives me. I am only on the second day of yoga and I do it every other day so I don't do more harm then good! It's very easy to get over enthusiastic about working out on an injury..... So I modify a lot of moves and I am definately slower then before. There are some poses I just cannot do right now. I am not having significant pain in the ankle and I am definately getting a workout. It does make me happier and allows me to relieve stress.

So the moral of this story is when dealing with an injury you MUST let it heal first otherwise you run the risk of extending waiting period for your injury to heal. Then start back slowly and being injured is NOT the end of the world even though it does feel like it at times...

Ciao

USMCdaffy

The websites listed in this blog (and future blogs) are my favorites and I am not being paid in any form to promote them. :o)

HOLY! A brief update. Happy New Year!

Last post, September 18th. WHAT?? I thought it had been a while since I posted but its literally been MONTHS!! So I guess I should do a bit of an update.

Round 1
I finished Round 1 of ChaLean Extreme. The first 90 days I didn't see weight loss. I admit I was disappointed. But I know that in just 90 days doing just weight resistance is not the best way to lose weigh and I have more then a few pounds to lose! I did notice that I was stronger and more flexible. My yoga has improved greatly. It is all incorporated! :o) I took a 1 1/2 week break. I did some cardio and yoga but no ChaLean Extreme. I even worked out while I was in Las Vegas.

Round 2.
I finished week seven with full/heaviest weights. YAY!! Uh oh. My shoulder..... The pain was so bad that I even went to the doctor. UGH!!!! She was nice but she said I strained my shoulder. *sigh* Good news!! I guess.. Under her recommendation I dropped all the weights to half of what I had left off at for week seven. AND I decided that no cardio and yoga instead. Seemed like it would work. I thought it would work. I stopped after eight weeks. It was not feeling like it was not healing. I did get a new workout from Christmas (thanks, Heather!) called Jackie Warner Extreme Time Saver Trainer. WOW. I would do that DVD one day and the next was yoga. NOW! I am doing the Kurt Johnsen 30 DAY Yoga Challenge! Yoga for 30 days in a row. I have completed DAY ONE!! My arms are sore... :o)

Kinect.
Holy!! We got the Kinect for XBox360 for Christmas. Sweaty and floppy-that was Chris & me!! We both drank a whole water bottle and can only play for an HOUR! I know!! This is the new age of gaming! WE LOVE IT!! We got the car game and that makes you hop and flop around too!

Food.
Food is my downfall. Snacking is my issue. A new goal for the NEW year.... Chew my food completely and enjoy the taste. Today instead of dipping crackers into hummus I dipped more veg! YUM!! Working on portion control. More Shakeology! Well more consistent Shakeology!

Well that is all for now!
Chao
USMCdaffy