PHIL IN THE BLANK: Summer season

The Clarkston Village Players’ production of “Hamlet II” finished its run a couple weeks ago.
It was an awesome experience. It turns out, however, in addition to gaining new experience as an onstage performer and new ways to get over stage fright, I gained about 10 pounds from overindulging in green room snacks.
I need to get a bigger part next time.
As Doctor Granett says next door, there is no magic pill to losing weight.
I have been relying on exercise, mostly running, to get the pounds off, in addition to eating less and drinking more water.
Summer brings warm, sunny weather, which is great for getting outside and running. I don’t have a treadmill nor gym membership, so outside is it, no matter the weather.
But the sunny season also has a huge challenge in the form of my annual vacation, which in recent years meant going to Alabama to visit family.
My brother likes to barbecue and he’s really good at it. He doesn’t grill hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, or chicken. He cooks up all of that at the same time. And the folks are all mostly in good shape down there. I don’t know how they do it.
The way I’ll do it is increasing my run schedule from three times a week to daily. I’ll have to watch out for ticks, though. I found one of those suckers on my arm after a brief trip down there last month for one of my niece’s high school graduation.
I credit Trevor Keiser’s article “Look out for ticks” for that. I got the thing off pretty quickly, hopefully within the 36-48 hours before any Lyme disease bacterium present could be transmitted.
I posted a picture of it on my Facebook page, if anyone is interested in seeing it.
All that is to get back into shape, specifically military shape, by July 4.
I’ve been wearing my old Army uniform the past couple years for the annual veterans’ celebration in Clintonwood park after the Fourth of July parade.
Fireworks are scheduled for launch from within the park this year. The last few, they were launched from the Everest Academy property across the street.
The location should make for good photos of kids lit up by fireworks explosions a bit closer than before.

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