Category: Photography

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Jackie and I are in Chicago for the weekend, staying in the Palmer House. We came to attend the opening of a tapestry exhibit at an art center in the West Loop, put on by the American Tapestry Association. The exhibit includes a piece by one of Jackie’s teachers, So Jackie particularly wanted to see it.

Jackie looking at a tapestry showing a woman with a dinosaur
Jackie looking at a different tapestry, this one showing a woman with a dinosaur

After a period where I was being a bit casual about them, for the past few months I’ve been doing pretty well at getting my workouts in, and I didn’t want to let that go, so I went to the fitness center here at the Palmer House. It’s pretty good!

I cranked through a slightly reduced version of my usual morning exercises, then went to the main room of the fitness center for the workout proper. They had an adequate set of kettlebells, so I did two exercises with those:

  • With a 35 lb (16 kg) kettlebell I did 10 x 20 swings emom
  • With a 20 lb (9 kg) kettlebell I did 4 x 5/5 clean&press reverse ladder

Then I found a barbell and loaded it up with a pair of 45 lb plates and did 2 x 5 deadlifts. I’m super out-of-practice with deadlifts, and would not have wanted to do more weight or more reps, but that much was okay.

Having done the tapestry thing, we’re looking to do some other Chicago stuff. Probably the Art Institute. Maybe one of the boat tours where they talk about the architecture. Maybe the Field Museum. Maybe something else! We’ll just see.

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When I was 40 or so, I suggested to Jackie that it might be time for my midlife crisis, and she said, “Too late! You had your midlife crisis several years ago and married me.” So, for some time now, I’ve figured that was it.

However, my current plan is to live to eleventy-one, like Bilbo. This morning I was thinking, “Hey! Maybe that means my midlife crisis comes much later! But simple arithmetic suggests that my midlife crisis should have been when I was 55 or 56. So I went back through my photo library to see what I was doing in the second half of December 2014.

Mostly it wasn’t anything of particular interest, but I did rather like this photo:

Me taking a photo inside a mirrored box, showing me from multiple angles

Doesn’t that perfectly capture a midlife crisis?

Having had my midlife crisis back then would be for the best, I guess. If I want to have a midlife crisis now, I’m going to have to plan to live to 132 or something, which doesn’t seem so likely.

(Aside: I have tags for “energy crisis” and “mortgage crisis,” but none for “midlife crisis,” even just “crisis.”)