It is 81 degrees out here in Westwood, MA.
I am sitting at my desk, shivering with cold.
Effing air conditioned nightmare*
Here’s a cat to make us all feel better about how cold it is in the office.
*That’s a Steve Hackett reference.
This is one of those he-had-gastric-bypass-surgery posts. You’ve been warned.
I am doing a small food experiment today. I am hoping I do not get the results that I expect I will get.
I work in the office twice a week. Over the last couple of months I have noticed a trend. When I leave work I am dealing with some major gas pain. I thought it had to do with me having something to eat on the drive home and then being too stuffed for dinner, but the last couple of office days I have cut way down on the food I eat in the afternoon before dinner, and the gas pain has still been a thing.
I had a (very minor) epiphany on Monday. I think I know what’s going on. I bring the same lunch every time I go to the office. One serving of Purdue Chicken Bites (12 little mini chicken nuggets) that I heat up in the microwave, and then one serving (either 2.0 oz or 2.6 oz, depending on the brand) of peanuts. Combined it works out to 22 grams of protein, which is pretty good for that small a meal. Sometimes I’ll have some crackers or some sugar free candy with my lunch as well.
I have Purdue chicken, in various shapes and sizes, all the time. I have the sugar free candy and crackers all the time too. Peanuts though… in the early days of post-surgery solid foods I had peanuts all the time. Over the last year or so I have sort of lost interest in them and have only been eating them with lunch in the office. My question to myself then is this: Why didn’t that set off a red flag sooner?
Are the peanuts causing the afternoon/evening gas issues? It seems likely, doesn’t it? Today’s experiment then is to not have peanuts with lunch and then see what happens. I like peanuts. They are a good source of protein and they are tasty and while it’s true I have grown a little tired of eating them lately, I don’t want to have to stop. If peanuts turn out to be a problem… well that just sucks. I haven’t thought of an alternative yet. I will. Today I’ll just have a small protein bar with lunch to make up the difference, but going forward I’ll find something else.
We’ll see how today’s experiment goes, and then one day next week we’ll do it again and see if we get the same results. Then I’ll decide what to do going forward.
Until then… here’s an airplane for today’s photo a day challenge pic.
It’s an office day today. I’m up early to start my exercising and to get some shite* done and here I am typing in this completely useless blog post.
Motivation level = Zero.
Hey! I am trying to pick off another episode of Torchwood because I am trying to finish off the show (even though I don’t exactly love it) and here is season three episode one and Peter Capaldi is in it! Doctor Who Number 12’s actor in his second of two Doctor Who related roles from before he was actually cast as The Doctor. Fascinating.
Where was I?
Oh yeah. The morning routine. Let’s start my exercising and maybe get some shite done before I have to drive in to work.
*Back in the 1980’s I started obsessively reading the novels and short stories written by Clive Barker. Mr. Barker, in at least one of his works, used the word “shite”. I had never heard or read that word before. Mr. Barker is from Liverpool. Is shite a Liverpudlian thing? I don’t know. I do know that I am currently a little more than half way through the audio book version of Weaveworld and hearing the word shite get used again is making me feel nostalgic for the old days of language discovery and shite.
I think my step son Harry loves both of our cats very much, but if I am being honest, I think Robin is his favorite. I also think that Robin knows this, and I think that Harry is Robin’s favorite human. They are best buds, really.
As I have mentioned a few thousand times on this little journal of silliness, my work from home office space is currently situated in Harry’s room. When he moved to Burlington he took most of his furniture with him, including his bed. In it’s place, Jen and I bought a day bed that can double as a couch when Harry isn’t home with us, and a bed when he is.
Earlier today, while I was working, I turned around for a second and found this view of Robin sleeping on the day bed.
I sent it to the family group text and said I think this means that Robin misses Harry. I think that is clear.
Food for thought, haiku style, on the day after the supreme court fucked us…
Our society,
Crumbling before our eyes.
Fuck, let’s eat pizza.
I think it was May 22nd. The last time I used my CPAP machine before breaking it down and packing it up to take to Florida. I didn’t use it at all on the vacation. I didn’t even take it out of the case. When we got home I had a nasty head cold and the thought of sneezing into the CPAP machine’s mask was gross enough to stop me from setting it up and using it.
On the 19th of June I used it. The next four nights I tried to use it, but had to shut if off after a couple of hours. I’m not sure why. I was still coughing up phlegm quite often and I just couldn’t find a way to be comfortable with the mask on and it kept waking me up. From June 24th on, I didn’t use it at all.
Then last night, July 1st. I used it again and it went pretty well. The questions I have now are these:
Do I need to use it anymore?
Is it doing anything for me?
Sleep apnea doesn’t really seem to be an issue anymore. At least I am not snoring at 100 decibels and waking my wife up every night. I was hoping that when I checked the sleep stats my Apple Watch collected last night it would show me that my percentage of restful vs light sleep would be higher. It wasn’t. At least not compared to the previous few nights’ worth of numbers.
So… am I wasting my time with this thing? Am I putting that huge alien face hugger over my nuggin’ for nothing?
I’ll use it for a few more days and see how the numbers look. If, after a week or so, the restful sleep percentage doesn’t go up, or I just don’t feel as rested come the morning, then I’ll talk to my doctor about maybe returning the machine and moving on with my life.
Healthcare… am I right?
I moved the squirrel baffle higher up on the bird feeder pole. Let’s hope that stops the little bastards from getting to the bird feeders. I’ve seen a squirrel get past the baffle four times, but I have never actually caught them in the act to see how they are getting around it. I am hoping it was just too close to the ground and they could somehow jump over it. We’ll see.
It is a beautiful day, even if the American Experiment is over. Also, there are still cats, so that is good.
Hey Americans. How we doing today? Specifically the Americans who are not a part of the maga cult or the republican pro-dictatorship/anti-Constitution camp.
I feel like I was hit by a train. I feel like I was run over by a steam roller. I feel like a wrung out dish rag.
248 years was a pretty good run, I guess.
I’m not going to hang my flag on the 4th of July. What’s the point? I’m not going to buy sparklers and be all happy and celebratory like I wrote about yesterday. What’s the point? I’ll just treat Thursday like a vacation day rather than a holiday. I’ll probably still have a cook out or something but other than that? Why bother. If the supreme court no longer considers the US to be a thing then why the fuck should we?
Robin Sparkles the Cat is clearly not a fan of the bullshit being spewed out by the catastrophically corrupt US supreme court.
