Tag: 365 challenge

Starting a Tough, Short Week

This week is going to be a tough one for me. Not because anything particularly difficult is on the horizon, but because I took vacation days on Thursday and Friday and my brain is already in long weekend mode even though it’s only 11:30am on Monday.

Yeah, it’s going to be a long three days getting to that vacation time.

The reason I took the vacation time is Friday is my 20th anniversary with my company. July 12, 2004 was my start date. I figured I’d take the day off in celebration and then just splurged and took the day before too. I don’t have any set plans for the two days yet. Just vague ideas about making music in the cellar and going outside and taking lots of pictures. The latter assumes the weather will cooperate. The five day forecasts look okay, but not great. Maybe it’s getting time where I have to stop holding out for morning sunlight and just go outside and shoot whatever regardless of the light conditions. I don’t know. Maybe some ugly clouds over the ocean would look interesting? Who the hell knows. Surely not me.

Anyway, I am sure I will write 23462346747 more posts about my upcoming four day weekend before it actually arrives. For now though, here is today’s photo a day challenge picture… because. I don’t know. What do you want from me? I’m just an old hack. Leave me alone!

312/365
312/365

Food Experiment

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.

307/365

Blue Sky

Remember yesterday and the day before when I posted little blurbs about how crappy the weather was? Today is Monday and we’re back to work so…

305/365 - July 1st
305/365

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Hey mother nature… bite me.

Cause and Effect

Before work this morning, I went outside and topped off the bird feeders.

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302/365

The full bird feeders lead to this…

And this…

(I hope you enjoy the glimpse into my food tracking spreadsheet. Protein bars for breakfast, as usual)

Backyard Violence

I just saw some backyard wild kingdom violence. Well… it was mostly over by the time I looked outside, but I saw a little of the aftermath.

I have the window open in my home office room. I heard a bang outside followed by lots of angry bird noise. I looked outside and…

…right in front of my window was a hawk standing on the ground eating a fresh kill. I think the fresh kill was a sparrow. It was tough to say. I thought maybe a chipmunk at first but it was definitely a small bird. I reached for my phone to take a picture but the hawk and it’s lunch flew away into the woods.

I guess we’ll have to settle for a cat photo as my photo a day shot.

301/365
301/365

This was taken before the murder. Robin had left by the time the horror went down.

That Moment When…

That moment when you’re running a little late getting through your morning routine and you remember you don’t have enough gas in the car to get you to the office.

Ugh.

300/365
300/365

Fortunately the traffic was awful but normal levels of awful (unlike yesterday which was awful times two) and I got to my desk with a few minutes to spare.

I have a story from the road too. Want to hear it?

You know that old saying, there’s never a cop around when you need one?

I was stuck in a 1.5 mile long line of gridlocked traffic trying to exit route 93 South and merge onto route 128/95 South. Some jerk off in a pickup with Pennsylvania plates decided to drive up to the exit ramp in the breakdown lane. Prick. Schmuck. There’s never a state trooper around when you need one, I thought. At that very instant, an unmarked state trooper pulled into the breakdown lane behind him, put on his flashers, and pulled said prick/schmuck over.

Finally! I’ve been driving for 37 years and that is the first time I can ever remember seeing karma kick some jack ass in the teeth like that. It was glorious.