The first week back at work after a vacation. It has been a rough one. It’s always rough, but this week has been extra rough.
I was hoping it would end quietly and mercifully but I just got asked to join a 3:00pm meeting and it’s going to stress me out and piss me off and I am not looking forward to it.
10 minutes left before I have to join the conference call.
Crud.
I took the trash out this morning and snuck a peak into the back yard. The bird feeders are empty, but my new friend here was hanging out picking through the leftovers on the ground.
We hung out for a while, getting to know each other. Strangely he’s not a very big fan of Thanksgiving. I wonder why?
I live with her. I travel with her. I have dinner with her every night. I spend as much time as humanly possible with her. I hate being away from her at all, even when I have to go into the office for work, or go to the store, or whatever.
Yes, kind readers, there is only one possible answer to today’s question and it shouldn’t be hard to guess who I’m talking about.
I spend the most time with the love of my life, my wife. Jen. My dream come true. No one on Earth even comes close and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We have a cat named Robin. She was not named after English guitar hero Robin Trower*.
Robin Trower had a US tour booked for this fall and he has a 50th anniversary expanded edition of his biggest record, Bridge of Sighs, due to hit the stores tomorrow. I did not buy tickets to his show in my neck of the woods, on October 5th (which is also my sister’s birthday), but I was thinking about it. Strongly. I saw him live once in 1988 (I think) and would love to see him one more time before he packs it in.
Unfortunately, just the other day he had to cancel the tour. He has a health issue that requires surgery and has the possibility of a long recovery period. It seems I may have missed my chance to see him one more time. Crud.
Get well soon, Mr Trower. Come back and see us soon, and maybe bring a Les Paul with you. I mean you used to play Gibsons back in your Procol Harem days. I know you’ve been pretty much 100% Strat since then, but maybe it might be fun to be nostalgic for the old days, eh?
*Robin the cat was not named after Robin Trower. She was named after Robin Sparkles.
Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday, and now all day Thursday. They’ve all been a crazy and stressful as days get for me. I’m ready for things to calm down.
I still have the head cold, but it might finally be getting better. There have been a couple of moments where I was nearly able to inhale oxygen through my nose. That’s a huge improvement!
Why does my foot hurt now? What’s up with that?
Okay, back to the crazy and the stress. Happy Thursday, folks!
Back in high school my band played at the annual Greek Festival in Lowell, MA. This would have been 1988, I think. One of the guys in the band was Greek and he set it up for us. He told us that, for appearances sake, we should all pretend to be Greek. We decided to each come up with a fake, Greek sounding last name. We then proceeded to argue over which of us got to use the name Papadopoulos. Our drummer won out. That is the only time I’ve ever even thought about using a different name.
Years later I went through a period of obsession with playing EA Sports NHL games on my Playstation 2. When the game introduced the ability to build your own players I made one with my name and put him on the Bruins. At some point I made a bunch of players for various teams (all very tall and very overweight with red hair, wearing number 71 (because I was born in 1971, get it?)) and used my first, last, middle, and confirmation names in various order to give them all unique names… because I am the king of friggin’ nerds.
I’ve never even thought about a different name. I am named after my father. That’s the only name I’d ever want to use. If I were forced to use a different name? How about Luke Skywalker? That’s a good name. How about James Eric Beck (as in Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, get it?). How about Alex Neil Lee (as in Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart, Geddy Lee, get it?). How about Robert Papadopoulos? I bet that name would get me a gig someday.
I think my band’s search for a new singer might be over. I am hoping we’ll know for sure this coming Sunday.
Who might our new singer be?
Our new singer might be our old singer.
He told us he moved back to the (Merrimack) Valley from Maine and he has the itch to play in a band again. Is that itch to come back to the band permanently or is it to just jam around for fun?
I just asked our group chat if anyone was up for some Rock and Roll at an absurd volume on Sunday evening. So far I have one positive response. If we get two more… then Sunday will be the day we find out what’s what.
It would be really cool if we could put the singer search away and just get back to playing regularly again. I haven’t played a gig since February 1, 2020. I really, really want to play a gig again. I want to play my new Les Paul through my new Vox amp in a public place in front of a crowd of happy (re: drunk) people. I want to know what it feels like to be up on stage for four hours without being 200+ pounds overweight. Will I have the strength and the stamina? Who knows. Let’s find out.
Cautious optimism, folks. Cautious optimism.
I thought about doing this yesterday but I didn’t, and then I did it today because why not?
Yesterday was the two year and one month monthiversary of my gastric bypass surgery. I said I wasn’t going to weigh in monthly anymore, and for the most part I haven’t. The last time I stepped on the scale was the day of my two year check up with the surgeon. That was May 16th (wasn’t it?). After spending a week between Disney World and the road I was pretty sure my weight would be down, so why not step on the scale and find out?
Yup, I was down. Way down. Six pounds, to be exact. I am now 203.4 pounds. That puts me below the magic BMI number of 205 which is the weight that puts my BMI at 25, which is the border between overweight and not overweight. My new BMI is 24.8. Welcome back to the healthy weight range, Robert. Pat yourself on the back, bro.
Total lost since surgery is 228 pounds. Total lost since the first weigh in at the clinic is 248.6. I am 100% positive that it will creep back up to the 215ish range soon enough, but let’s just enjoy this for now. Maybe if my head cold persists I might drop below 200 again. That happened after we came back from Disney with Covid-19 back in September. I’d like to be back in OneDerland again, but I sure as hell don’t want to catch Covid to make it happen. Screw that noise.
Inside the Red Head's Head 