I have spent a significant chunk of my day gagging and hacking and spitting up into the little trash barrel next to my desk. Too much information?
Okay, here’s my shitty and pointless photo a day picture for today. I haven’t taken a candle pic in a while. Maybe tomorrow we’ll do a time lapse video to celebrate?
Two days ago when I had my nine month follow up with the surgeon who rearranged my digestive system one of the things we talked about was the state of my sleep apnea. Am I still using the CPAP machine? Am I still showing symptoms of sleep apnea? Am I going to have my sleep study redone?
I am still using the CPAP machine, and as a result I don’t know if I am still showing symptoms or not. I haven’t really thought about getting the sleep study redone. I feel like the CPAP machine is still helping me get better sleep. Now I have some evidence.
Last night I didn’t use it. I set it up and filled up the water tank and was ready to go, and then I just didn’t use it. I wanted to see what would happen. I never woke Jen with loud snoring, so that’s a plus. The numbers on the Apple Watch app I use to track sleep looked pretty good. I didn’t feel like I had a bad night’s sleep at all. Good news, right?
Maybe not. I am super tired this afternoon. I still have two hours worth of work day to go, but I am ready for a nap. I am willing to believe that what I am feeling today is all in my head, but regardless I think I am going to keep using the CPAP for a while. Maybe we’ll reevaluate in May.
No idea what happened to make the sky so dark. I must have meetered for a spot on the building that made the sky weird. Underexposed? Is that the right term?
The last couple of days have been weird, health-wise. First it was the headache issue on Tuesday, then it was stomach issues on Wednesday. Now here we are on Thursday and I am feeling a little like a wrung out face cloth. Here’s hoping today will be a quiet day.
We’re having some HVAC folks come and tell us what they need to do to replace the mini-split in the bedroom. We’ve had it serviced a couple of times this winter, but it’s just not working and we’re more or less unable to heat the bedroom without using a space heater as a supplement. They won’t actually replace it for another week or two, but they are coming for a fact finding mission.
So, television. Yesterday was the premier or season three of The Mandalorian and I could not be at a higher hype level. The first episode was excellent but… I think today’s third episode of season three of Picard might have been better. I did not see that coming, kids. I was just glued to the screen as I was getting this morning’s jogging (yogging) in. The captain vs admiral conflict seemed a little forced and out of character, but everything else? Fan-freakin-tastic. The bad guys behind the bad guy? Fan-freakin-tastic! I can’t wait for episode four. I also can’t wait for episode two of The Mandalorian, but that’s a given. In the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, I come down on the Star Wars side, generally, but only by a little bit. Regardless of which franchise you prefer, it’s a pretty good time to be a space opera fan, am I right?
For the first time in a year, I am suffering from guitar gear acquisition syndrome. There are two overdrive pedals that I really want to buy, and I also really want to buy an amplifier simulator that I can use as a plug in through GarageBand. Last year I finished the RPM Challenge with a plan to do their Record Every Month challenge throughout the rest of the year. I had a goal of two songs each month that I could pretend were a single. I failed completely. I didn’t write a single song over the 11 months between the 2022 RPM and the 2023 RPM (with the exception of a few failed attempts in November). I am going to try again, but I am probably not going to record guitars through my amplifier on a regular basis. I am thinking I can do direct input more often and I want a good amp sim that I can use consistently. The one I am looking at is only $40, but I just don’t want to spend any money. We have a mini-split to buy after all.
Speaking of gear acquisition syndrome, I also really want to buy a new lens for my new camera. I adore the 40mm lens we bought for Disney, but I’d like a little zoom option. Possibly because the cats are suffering from The Zoomies every night and it just sort of inspired me, you know? I also really really want to buy a 35mm film point and shoot and I don’t know why. I want to buy a 35mm film camera with autofocus functionality too, but that’s going to cost some dough, and I think I can get a point and shoot for pennies. I want to go Nikon, as usual, but decent Nikon point and shoots are stupidly expensive on ebay. I looked for Pentax options yesterday and saw some with the starting bid of $1.00… so yeah, that could be a better option. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll hit the thrift stores more often.
Okay, time to get breakfast and get my day started. I have a lot of meetings today and need to be ready for a long day at the home office. Wish me luck.
Here are a few pics from my point and shoot from the last few days that I sort of forgot about.
Wasn’t that fun???
I was 100% sure that today was the NHL trade deadline. I was going to write a post about today being christmas-esque with both the trade deadline and the premier of season three of The Mandalorian.
Nope, the trade deadline is Friday March 3, 2023.
How could I be so wrong? How could I have been so sure I was right and still be wrong?
I am a failure as a hockey fan.
Now that the RPM Challenge is over, and Spring is right around the corner… the photography shit is likely going to ramp up again. Road trips, anyone?
The Spicket River, crossing through the bird sanctuary in Methuen, MA.
I had my nine month check in with my surgeon yesterday. Everything is going great. I mentioned that I’ve been having a tough time eating over the last month or so and she said that’s common. I guess when you’re this far along you just start getting cocky. It was good to know there isn’t some surprise in my stomach that is making things go south. I asked about leveling off the weight loss. She assured me it’s going to happen, and that I’ll probably gain a little back too. She said I need to keep doing the exercises I’m doing but also do more for building muscle, and that will be part of slowing down the weight loss.
So I have some things to think about and some things to work on going forward. For today at least, it is Wednesday and Wednesday is weigh in day. How did I do? Last week I was at 220.60. Today the scale had me at 217.40. That’s a loss of 3.2 pounds. So much for leveling off, eh? Part of that is likely due to not hitting my food goal yesterday, especially given that over the last few weeks I haven’t just hit the 80 gram protein goal, I’ve been obliterating it. I’ve been topping 100 grams regularly, and often topping 110. The doctor said that’s fine. I’m 6’4″ tall. I’m half the man I used to be, but I’m still a big person. I can handle a little extra and still lose weight.
Dropping below 220 is the only milestone this week. My BMI went from 26.8 to 26.5. My weight loss since the surgery is now at an amazing 214 and the weight loss since the first check in is at an astounding 234.6. I’ve lost 17.2 more pounds than I currently am. It’s insane.
So that’s the latest on the weight loss. The next weigh in will be early this week. The monthly weigh in will be on Saturday. I am not expecting a lot, but hopefully I’ll creep down a little by then. We will see. I am having a bad day so far today. I have a stomach ache and I’m not sure why. It might be a case of being hungry and not really knowing what that feels like anymore. I have an hour to go before I break for lunch. Maybe I’ll have a small snack and see if I feel better.
Hello and welcome to March 1st, everyone. The RPM Challenge is over. Well… technically working on March 1st is allowed, but I don’t.
Last time I posted here I said I had two songs to mix and then I’d be done with everything that I wanted to have done. I managed to mix one of them and then, around 7:30 last night, it went bad. I had one of those episodes where my vision went blurry and I started getting a headache. I went to bed, turned off all of the lights, buried my head under the blankets, and called it a day. I had just finished dinner when it started, but I was still seven grams of protein away from my daily goal. I missed it for the day, but not by much. I’m not that worried about it.
I slept from 7:45 to 3:30. I woke up, put my watch on the charger (it was at 33%), filled up the tank on my CPAP machine, stepped on the scale for the Wednesday weigh in (more on that later), and went back to sleep until about 5:20. Then I got up, got dressed, filled up my water bottle, updated my food tracking spreadsheet and my weight tracking spreadsheet, jogged in place for 40 minutes or so (pronounced yogged, with a soft “j”), watched the new episodes of The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch, packed up my laptop, and started my day.
Wednesdays are in the office days now so I have to get a move on so I can get out onto the road about 50 minutes from now. I have to prep a lunch and a breakfast, refill the water bottle, shower, get dressed, clean off the car, bring in the trash barrel (assuming the city picked up the trash during the snow yesterday, not sure if they did or not), and get going.
My headache is still there, a little bit, but it’s better after hydrating myself some. My eye sight is normal again too. I just have to watch out for crap like that. It’s not fun at all.
Okay, let’s get a move on.
A street corner in France… in Epcot’s World Showcase… it’s not real France, it’s Faux France.
