Sunday, February 28, 2021

YouTube TV Added MLB.TV as an option for Add-on this Past Week and I Added Immediately... I Still Want to See Fox Sports Midwest Available for YouTube TV Customers

YouTube TV and MLB.TV Now Available

Today marks the beginning of spring training for the 2021 season. Looking forward to watching baseball after a shortened 2020 season. This past week, YouTube TV announced they added MLB.TV to their add-on lineup. While a step in the right direction, it still does not address the missing Fox Sports Midwest channels from YouTube TV, Dish, Hulu, Sling, and others as contract disputes continue between providers and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

I was excited when I read the tweet earlier this week that MLB.TV was now available as an add-on for YouTube TV. I added it almost immediately and I look forward to watching more games this year starting with spring training today. I remain disappointed that blackouts still apply and I will not be able to watch the Kansas City Royals as they are blacked out.

Originally, I was thinking that for the 2021 season, I would be listening to MLB games through the radio option of MLB.TV which I still subscribe to and I did not think I would be able to watch any games. I decided to check with my mom to see if I could use her Midco account from Lawrence; I believe I will be able to watch the Kansas City Royals using Fox Sports app and logged into the Midco account. I have tested and it appears to work, but I will not know for sure until the games start later today.

I remain excited to have MLB.TV available on YouTube TV as I have been a subscriber through MLB direct for many years. The past two years though moving to the radio only option, but I did enjoy the watching of live games through MLB.TV  watching key game recaps, key plays, etc. on archived games. While I wish there were not blackouts I am happy to have the ability to watch games again not in my market. I am hopeful that one day I will be able to watch my local sports teams through YouTube TV, but for now, I will watch out of market games through MLB.TV add-on for YouTube TV and my Royals through my mom’s account.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Extreme Weather, Remembering Snow and Cold from February 2021 and a Dog Paw Hurting from Extreme Cold

Snowy Back Yard in February 2021What a few weeks it has been not only here in Kansas but across the whole United States. Record temperatures for much of the country and in Kansas we saw temperatures drop to -16 which did not include the wind chill. Our friends in Texas continue to deal with water issues from not being able to drink water to broken pipes when their temperatures fell below normal temps for the region. We have heard that friends in Houston and Dallas are starting to return to normal with drinking water returning to normal in some areas, but still many people in Texas reported as not having power or issues with the water they have in their area. With warmer weather, hopefully we continue to see areas return to their normal temperature for this time of year and get things back to normal.

Here in Topeka, I worked from home Monday and Tuesday as there was snow, extreme cold, and not ideal to be outside let alone traveling. On Wednesday, February 17, I went into work and found that the roads were not bad at that time. The city had not done much of anything to treat the roads, but I had no issue getting around. By the weekend, we are up in the low 40’s and find much of the snow melting away. 

After having what I would say is a mild winter, we were caught in extreme temperatures, snow, and even some freezing rain, to make the middle of February 2021 interesting. As we see MLB spring training starting next weekend, college basketball is winding down to final regular season games, we can only hope that no more extreme winter weather will be had for our state or others that suffered through an unusual winter period for all.

I know our dog, Oliver, is happy to have warmer temperatures. On Monday when I let him out at one time,  I think he hurt his paws with the being in the snow and cold. Prior to that time, I was not letting him be outside very long and would often go with him to rush him along, but one time on Monday when he was out, he appeared to hurt his right front paw when the cold got to it. He was not interested in our touching him or checking why he was hurting. By later in the week, he seemed to be back to normal and whatever was hurting him from Monday had stopped hurting. 

Be safe and just think that Spring is right around the corner.


Sunday, February 14, 2021

Happy Valentine’s Day on this Snowy and Cold February 14 — Here is How Carrie and I Spent our Saturday and Plan to Spend Valentine’s Day Today #ValentinesDay

Photo from Pexcels.com — Happy Valentine’s Day

 
Happy Valentine’s Day to my wife, Carrie, my whole family, and to you. I was trying to remember what we did a year ago for Valentine’s Day and I could not remember what we did or where we went. This year, with the snow falling and temperature being in single digits, not to mention that COVID and social distancing is still happening, Carrie and I will remain home. Carrie picked up crab legs for us to have today which we are both very excited to eat later today. 

Valentine’s Day 2021 in front of Fireplace Watching “The Dig”
Last night, we spent a cozy evening watching a movie in our living room. I brought home a projector from work so we could project on the wall, have a fire going, and hang out in a warmer room other than our breezy family room. It was a good way to start the Valentine’s Day celebration and I know Oliver loved our new location of hanging out too as we sat on the couch opposite the fireplace, and movie, he sat between us sleeping, dreaming, and enjoying the evening. For dinner, we had left over BBQ Carrie had picked up on her way home Friday after getting a haircut which made for a special evening of relaxation and being with my family.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Valentine’s Day! I will be enjoying chocolate that Carrie got us for celebration and I hope you have something to enjoy on this day too. 


Sunday, February 07, 2021

January Stats from Peloton for My Workouts Along with Goals of Completing All Categories for Peloton — Staying Motivated is the End Goal in Exercise

Peloton Stats from January 2021Peloton workouts continue to keep me motivated. I am doing some type of workout every day of the week. I have met my 30 day Peloton streak and working on 60 days now of daily workout. As I mentioned previously, I am not cycling daily, but instead I have mixed in weight lifting, stretching, cardio, and even yoga along with cycling. I have changed my cycling schedule to be three days each week and one of the other Peloton workouts the other days. 

Each month Peloton sends a summary of workouts, minutes of workout, miles, and calories burned for the previous month. The first week of February, I received my January report. 33 total workouts, 710 minutes working out, 169.2 miles traveled, and 9,551 calories burned for January 2021. It helps to put some perspective to what I did for the month. The total workouts being 33 is obviously because some days (i.e. two days) I did an extra workout those days. I sometimes do this when biking to do a tough ride and then a five to ten minute cool down. 

My goal is to workout in every category of Peloton and gradually making progress. It is helping my recovery period to not bike every day and put some space between bike rides as I think doing so everyday or even every other day became a little too much for my body and I could feel myself starting to get burned out on the thought of biking. Mixing in other workouts has helped to keep me motivated and I feel like a more rounded workout.

My workout totals since starting Peloton back in November are the following as of today:

  • Cycling: 87
  • Strength: 9
  • Meditation: 5
  • Stretching: 3
  • Cardio: 2
  • Yoga: 2

Categories not yet started include Bike Bootcamp, Running, Tread Bootcamp, and Walking. Granted, I have done running and walking but not necessarily tracked with Peloton app when doing so. I plan to get those workouts included in my stats at some point during the next month or two. 

As achievements are completed, it can cause many high-fives when going into a live session or even recorded sessions. When I hit the 30 day mark as soon as I went into a recorded session I had so many high-fives I could not keep up with high-fiving back. Makes it fun though but if not expecting to hit a mark it is a surprise when high-fives start happening. In my case, I forgot 30 day streak was happening when I went into do a popular recorded session with over 300 people doing the session and found my notifications light up with high-fives after high-fives. It is fun to high-five back. When I am working out live, or recorded, I always give high-fives to notifications I see for others such as ten, 30, 60, or even 300 workout. Most people high-five back and some do not which is not an issue. The idea is that it builds encouragement within the Peloton community and I completely agree.

Today as I look forward to watching Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV I am also looking forward to my live class today with Ally Love in “Sundays with Love”. A good 30 minute workout and then thinking of doing another 30 minutes just to prepare for tonight for some beer, snacks, and cheering on our Kansas City Chiefs

Until next week, stay well, stay warm, and share your Peloton workout in the comments.