Category: Generic

Sacrifice

Daily writing prompt
What sacrifices have you made in life?
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I feel like I answered this question recently, but could it have been a different question? Is it just a coincidence? I don’t know, and I’m too lazy to do any research on the topic at 7:07am on a Friday.

Sacrifice is a really heavy word. A sacrifice is what a soldier does when they give their life for their country. It is what you do when you give your child’s life to the fire god at the local temple. You know, serious stuff. What have I done that measures up to things like that?

I sacrificed eating sugar to the gods of weight loss. How’s that for making bariatric surgery more dramatic? Did it work? No? Oh well. It is the first thing that pops into my tiny little brain when I think of the word sacrifice. It’s not what I’d call noble or anything.

I don’t really mean to be a smart ass here. I am looking forward to reading through other people’s responses to this because many of you really are noble and deserve respect for what you’ve lived through. Don’t hold my being a doofus against me, please and thank you.

Everything is New-ish

Daily writing prompt
What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?
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I lost a whole truck load of weight back in 2022. I lost more weight than I currently weigh. I’m a little less than half the man I used to be… literally.

What does that mean in regard to today’s question?

It means I don’t own any clothes that aren’t relatively new. The socks I’m wearing at this moment might be a year old. Maybe a little more than that. They are the oldest thing I’m wearing, by far.

Now that is assuming we’re taking about clothes. What if we broaden the search a little? My Apple Watch is a little more than a year old, but probably not quite as old as my socks. My glasses are a whopping three weeks old, give or take a day or two. What else is there?

There is one thing, and it’s the winner. Two weeks from now is my 15th wedding anniversary. That’s right, my wedding ring is the oldest thing I’m wearing today and everyday. 15 years and counting, with many more to come.

I love you, Jen. I love you more and more each day.

To Do List for Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a half day of work. Here is what I hope to accomplish…

Wake up early.
Exercise.
Eat breakfast.
Play some guitar.
Go to my doctors appointment for my two year post-surgery follow up.
(Maybe) hit the sugar free bakery on the way home.
Play a little more guitar.
Punch into work and work a half day.
Go to a wake.
Cook dinner and eat it with the love of my life.
Go to sleep.

That sounds like a full day.

Yes

Daily writing prompt
Are you a leader or a follower?
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I have thought long and hard about how to answer this question (we’re talking at least five minutes of internal debate here) and I think the best way for me to answer it is:

Yes.

Am I a leader or a follower? Yes, yes I am.

I am a supervisor at work with a small staff reporting to me. I have to be a leader for them or else I’m not going to be terribly good at my job. Outside of work I feel much more comfortable letting other people take the lead so I can just follow along. I would like to think that in my relationship with my wife we are both leading some of the time and following at other times, but I suspect that I do a lot more following than leading. I suppose I could be a leader in the cover band, but I prefer to let other people take the reigns and just go along for the ride. I feel like I am playing that leadership role more today than I used to before our singer left, but I suspect as time rolls on I will step back again. We’ll see.

So there you have it. Am I a leader? Yeah, sometimes. Am I a follower? Yeah, sometimes.

Yes, yes I am.

Deep Discussion

Daily writing prompt
List your top 5 favorite fruits.
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Well, today’s prompt is going to lead to some deep, heavy discussions. I’m a little hesitant to contribute as I don’t want to upset anyone today (yeah, right).

Also… do I have five favorite fruits? I haven’t had a lot of fruit since the gastric bypass surgery. Something about the few things I’ve tried have made them difficult to handle so I’ve backed off. A lot of this will be pre-surgery opinions, but it’s not like I was a big fruit eater when I was eating party sized bags of chips in one sitting almost every day. You don’t get over 400 pounds by eating things that are good for you all the time. Once in a while, sure, but doubtful it could be a regular (ya know, healthy) kinda thing.

Here is my super detailed list. Enjoy!

  • Grapes. Specifically green grapes. Post-surgery, the thin layer of skin is tough for me to chew up to a small enough state to not get stuck trying to get into my newly redesigned stomach. I’ve been mostly okay eating grapes, but every now and then they bring on a nasty case of The Foamies.
  • Apples. When I was a kid apples were my favorite by a mile. As I got older I sort of lost the taste for them. Not completely. Every once in a while an apple would be great. Post-surgery I haven’t had one. My hesitation is the same as the grapes issue. I’m worried about not being able to break down the skin enough. I could peel them, of course, but I just haven’t tried it. Also, there’s a lot of sugar in apples. Would that lead to dumping syndrome? On a related note, just after surgery while I was in the pureed food stage I tried some apple sauce. It went down fine, but the gas it produced. WOW.
  • Oranges. I love a seedless orange. I haven’t tried one post-surgery. One of these days.
  • Pineapple. I’ve tried a couple of bites of pineapple since the gastric bypass and it went fine. Pineapples are delicious, but do they go with pizza? I’ve never tried it so I recuse myself from the debate.
  • Okay… one more… now we are firmly into, “is that a fruit or a vegetable” territory. Also… I’m having a hard time thinking of something else I like. Is celery a fruit or a vegetable? It’s a vegetable. Also, the stringy nature… there’s no way I could eat celery without getting savagely nauseous. What about olives? Google says it’s both, though technically a fruit. We have a winner! I always loved seedless black olives. I haven’t had one in ages though. Maybe I should revisit them. There was a time in my younger days when I really liked them.

And there you have it, friends, neighbors, and gentle readers. Five fruits that I like or liked, some of which I might still be able to eat without vomiting! Enjoy!

Stop Procrastinating

Daily writing prompt
What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
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There is irony here. Big time. I just got to work. Thanks to insane traffic I was a couple of minutes late. I’m caught up now though. I have a lot of stuff I want to plow through this morning, but here I am writing a blog post. Foreshadowing? Oh yeah. Big time.

One small improvement. Hmmm. Just one? I can think of a few. How about doing something to tweak the ol’ work ethic? How about we try to cut down on the procrastination. Work now, flake later, rather than the normal vice versa. I feel like that would go a long way toward making me feel like a better human, in the purely professional sense. I haven’t been missing any deadlines lately or anything that demands changes, but I also feel like there have been times when the nose should have been squarely on the grindstone and it hasn’t. Case in point… I am writing this now while I should be doing some paperwork. Ugh.

I should be more attentive to my wife’s needs. I should be quicker to help out with anything my kids need. I should be more attentive to my father and really just be there for him more than I am. That’s a big source of guilt for me. Anything related to my father is a source of guilt. Ugh, again. I’m trying. I am failing often, but I am trying. I should initiate talk with the kids more than I do too. Just send them each a text saying little things like you rule and I hope you’re kicking ass today. You know, little things.

Okay, stop procrastinating. Get back to work, Mr. Red Head. Get some stuff done.