If you enjoy fireworks and being among friends, please consider coming to Kate’s house on Saturday for the Hannawa Falls Fireworks! All are welcome!

Both Joe and Gavin have lost their voice and will after battling gnome-bots during the Father’s Day event. I am proud of all who showed. Everyone did phenomenal today. Thank you.

Friends, Americans, North Country Folk, lend me your eyes! Alright, enough of that. There's a lot going on over the next few weeks and you're going to want to read this post to be up to date. As usual, for the tl;dr: 1. GO Members App is changing. 2. The Summer Quest is almost here! 3. Renovations update 4. Staffing changes 5. Content explosion First up, GO Members, the app that we use to schedule your sessions and process payments, is getting replaced by its parent company. So because they've partnered with a new company they're requiring that everyone using their system migrate to the new one (I've used it, it's much better). The migration is set for the 19th. So we will be scrambling to get this taken care of this weekend! During your sessions this week (near the second half of the week) we will be helping you set up the new app and get logged in. If you have questions, comments, concerns, or pictures of cute animals feel free to shoot us a text on the business phone. The new app is going to make a lot of things easier for you: Easier booking, better progress tracking, ability to manage your membership, and a lot more. Keep an eye on your email over the next few days, and make sure to whitelist me (al@bjornfitness.com) so that it doesn't appear as spam in your email. The day after it goes live you'll be able to log in and access it, so you'll get the link that day. Second, it's almost time for the Summer Quest! Keep an eye out for hints about what's to come. Third, I've spoken to some of the maintenance guys about the renovations. Timeline hasn't changed much, but they've already built the outline of what will become our new showers and bathrooms. We'll likely start in earnest around July or August! Fourth, our dear Maire has graduated! Congratulations! This does mean that she will no longer be able to work as a part of the team here at Bjorn. To those for whom she writes programs, don't fear! She will continue to write your programs for the next few months until she begins graduate school in the fall semester. But we have added two new apprentices to the team! Welcome @Kate Cruikshank and @Kaitlyn Luther! We are very excited whenever an adventurer graduates here at Bjorn, but when an adventurer tells us that they want to become shape smiths we can't help but jump for joy!

Don't you forget, this Sunday we'll be hiking Mt. Arab! Be at the mountain around 8:00 am! We will start hiking at 8:30. If you would like a ride we'll be meeting at the Forge around 6:30 and I plan to leave for the mountain around 6:45!

Some of you may have noticed my absence last week. On Friday April 3rd at about 2:00 am I got up out of bed too fast and passed out from the lack of blood flow to my brain. I have always had a history of falling when I get up too fast, but it's never made me pass out. This condition is known as orthostatic hypotension. It was especially bad before I started lifting. I hadn't had this problem for years now and didn't think it was an issue until that Friday. On the way to the ground I hit the left side of my head and the base of my neck, almost tearing my ear in half in the process. The result? A concussion and four stitches. As well as a major red flag that my thyroid medication is underdosed. This is the first concussion I've ever had. I'm hoping it's the last as well. But it has taught me some valuable lessons that I needed this year. So here is what I've learned: 1. Your brain needs idle time We spend a tremendous amount of time over consuming information. I realize now that I constantly bombard my brain with inputs. From podcasts to books there are very few of those precious moments where my brain can sit still. For some of you this might sound like a kind of hell. For me it took a bit more adjustment than I would have liked. I spent hours staring at my boring, white ceiling. I couldn't read, I couldn't listen to anything, I couldn't get up. It was just me and my brain. It was quality time with the only person in I should know best: me. It's amazing what staring at a ceiling or taking a walk without a podcast can do when your brain is already healthy. When you're concussed, it's mandatory. I realized that this idle time is what allows your brain to reconnect with the world around it. So many of us buy into woo woo nonsense like "grounding", or "chakras" when the answer is staring us in the face. The whole time it was just sitting with the silence that brings you back to the world around you. There is no need to live forever when there is an eternity in every moment if you'd stop to find it. That, by the way, is me getting a little woo woo.