September 17, 2021 – The Thirty-Second Official Friday Night BeerBlog

I have a confession. I give Mike tons of crap for his morning routine. Or the rut we call it. Every morning starts with a little cardio on the treadmill or the bike. Mondays and Wednesdays he does 250 crunches. Tuesday and Thursday he is on the Bowflex and stretches. Fridays are for weights, pushups and planks. Like clockwork. Every weekday you can tell what day it is by the workout Mike is doing.

When I ask “Shouldn’t you change those workouts up to get more benefit?”, he answers in his best neanderthal voice, “Rut Good”. The Rut! Honestly, everything we do is about the rut. It’s about the ride routes we do every day. It’s about the process of how we clean the house. And even about how we drink beer and record the Friday Night BeerBlog every Friday night. We get up, workout, work, ride, eat, sleep. Same thing. Every day. Pretty much.

The rut can get quite boring. I’m sure most people are pretty much in the same boat. The days melt into each other with a lot of the same mundane activities day in, day out, week in, week out – you get my drift. After a few days, weeks, years, you ache for something different. A little excitement of a date night or a concert to go to. Maybe even, dare I say it, a vacation.

Back in July I was really wanting to go somewhere, anywhere. The rut had overwhelmed me. With our anniversary in early September, I had been making big plans for a trip. Like for like a long time. But then Cate needed to move to Los Angeles, like now. Suddenly the anniversary trip plans changed to allow us to go out west with her.

Change that I been looking for happened quickly. Our little Louisville snow globe had been turned upside down. Research was done quickly. Flights were booked hurriedly. Big life decisions were on the fast-track. Mike and I take pride in our ages and with age come certain schedules and ours were off. Eating, working out, sleeping, and yes, that too. All the schedules were off. Memories and good changes were made during that time, but the stress on the body and mind were real. It was exhausting. And we yearned for a little rut action.

Before we could even finish the last moments of the much shorter anniversary trip that we had looked so forward to, both of us could not wait to get home. We both craved for our beloved rut of the familiar and ordinary. We were ready to get back to the old rides, the same old dinners, the once criticized morning routine. I had taken it all for granted and swore to never do it again.

The house sighed as we walked through the door. It missed the rut of having us around all the time too. I KNOW our dogs missed the rut and they quickly moved back into the rhythm. I don’t think I will take the rut for granted again. And even though I may continue to make fun of Mike over it, I feel lucky to be able to get up and put that old, familiar friend on every damn day.

On with Fall – my favorite time of year.

LLM

The FNBB Podcast Version:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822142/9215411