Scale and Sleep and Stuff

There were a number of reasons why I wanted to change what I eat. The main reason being that I felt like garbage all the time due to having to carry around my gigantic stomach. The other reasons included things like clothes not fitting right anymore, spending way too much money on junk food, fearing that when I sit in a chair it will be crushed beneath me. You know, the little things.

Another of those reasons was due to the digital scale in our bathroom no longer being able to read my weight. When I stepped on it the display would say ERR. In other words, you’re too fat for the scale you fat ass. I’m happy to say that after two weeks of no coca~cola, smaller lunches, no junk food breakfasts, and less snacking between meals, the scale gave me an actual number today. Granted it was an absurdly huge number, but a number. I feel happy about that little detail. Granted, hippopotamuses often feel happy too. I’m still a monstrous fat ass, but I’m enjoying my tiny little victory.

On a less successful note, another reason for changing my intake was that I had trouble sleeping through the night. Eliminating coca~cola from my diet would remove the vast majority of my caffeine intake. If I can cut back on chocolate too (so far so, sort of good) I could stop having caffeine all together. Well I haven’t had any caffeinated soda of any kind in over two weeks now, but I’m not seeing a lot of improvement in my sleeping. A little, maybe, but not that much. I still wake up 1-2 times a night for no apparent reason, and I never feel all that rested in the morning. I probably do feel better than I did a couple of weeks ago, but there has not been any major change. I wonder how long it takes caffeine to purge from your system? I wonder if my massive caffeine intake over the years would skew things so that it takes longer to purge. I wonder.

On the upside of things, the cold that cleaned my clock last week is about 95% gone. Jen is feeling better too, although it hit her much harder than it hit me (and it kicked my ass) and she still has a way to go before she’s all better.

On a non-health note, I put some new strings on one of my guitars yesterday during telecommute lunch and I did a little recording. Then immediately after work I did a little more recording. Then this morning before work I did a little more recording. New/old song in a couple of days? Seems likely. Maybe if I keep up the pre morning commute schedule there might be two new/old songs soon.

In the meantime though, Robert says no to caffeinated beverages. The goal is to have a decent beach body by 2033 (kidding). At this rate, anything is possible.

Camp Day

Today is the day the kids go back to camp. Jenny is still ridiculously sick with the cold from hell. I am still a little sniffly, so hopefully the end of the illness for her is imminent. Fingers crossed.

I have a two hour drive to get them to the camp site and I have to do it without my favorite navigator. I’m going to miss her on the drive, and then I am going to miss the kids like crazy while they are at camp.

I hate camp. I hate that they go away for a long time. I miss them when they are at their fathers, never mind when they are away from all of us for an extended period of time. Boo.

They are going to have an absolute blast, but Jenny and I are going to be sad the whole time.

Figures

Massachusetts is firmly entrenched in a heat wave. Temps are in the upper 90’s Fahrenheit, supermarkets are running out of bottled water, folks are getting nostalgic for blizzards…

And Jen and I are both catching a cold.

Irony sucks in a big way.

It’s Cold Out

Just yesterday I wrote something about the imminent arrival of Spring.  This morning the kids and I went outside to the car and the temperature was a balmy 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  Are you freakin’ kidding me?

On Wednesday I mentioned something about my right ear being completely blocked up and therefore just about useless.  Yesterday throughout most of the day the situation was much, much better.  Then I made the mistake of absent mindedly rubbing my ear a little.  Boom, completely blocked again.  It’s still totally closed off.

The Bruins beat the last place Panthers last night.  They managed to not blow a third period lead.  Wonders never cease.  Bad third periods are becoming the norm with this team.  It’s getting worrisome.  They went the whole season last year without losing a game in which they lead after two periods.  This year they’ve blown third period leads in embarrassing fashion a whole bunch of times.  It has to stop if they plan on contending.  Go Bruins.

New England Weather

I’m sure you are all familiar with the old saying, (often attributed to Mark Twain, but is that accurate?) “don’t like the weather in New England? Wait a minute, it’ll change.”

Today has been the perfect example of that. Prior to leaving the house to bring the kids to their dad’s before school, I checked the Weather Channel app on my phone. It said the temperature was an incredible 62 degrees Fahrenheit. To say that temps in the 60’s in January is unseasonably warm is a huge understatement.

At 1:00pm I broke for lunch. I needed to go to the post office so I checked the weather app again. This time it gave a temp of 47 degrees. In about six hours the temperature dropped a whopping 15 degrees.

At 5:30 I got off work and immediately left to get the kids. I checked the temp again when we got where we were going and it was down to 36.

The temperature has dropped 26 degrees today.

I took a little longer than a minute, but it most certainly did change.

Even More BRRRR!

Please forgive me for essentially making the same post twice, but before leaving to take the kids to school today I checked the weather channel app on my phone.  It said this:

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Twenty minutes later I was dropping the kids off at their dad’s and my car said this:

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You suck, Mother Nature. S. U. C. K. Suck.

The Black Plague: Day Twenty-One

It’s official.  The flu/cold/plague symptoms have now been with us for three full weeks.  Hoo-freakin’-Ray!

After visiting the emergency room last week, Jen was not seeing any improvement so she went to see her primary care.  He gave a better explanation of the situation and prescribed yet another new antibiotic (her fourth since this all started) and a steroid.  Nice.  My wife is going to smash the long ball, just like Barry Bonds!

I’m still congested.  I still have a cough.  Neither is as bad as it was three weeks ago, but they are all still sticking around.  I had a bit of a tough night sleeping last night.  The cough woke me up a couple of times.  Last week I thought I was 90% well.  Now I’ll put it at 70% well.  My health is currently getting a C-.

We are having a post-holiday, holiday party with Larry and Mike and families this weekend.  I am going to be well enough to go to that party, even if it kills me!  My health needs to be at least at a C+.  I can do it.  Hear that, immune system?  I have confidence that you can stop sucking just enough for me to spend an evening with my family and my friends all in the same place together.  You can do it, immune system.  You can do it!

Did you hear that hockey is coming back?  (yes, that was a sudden change of subject)  Baseball pitchers and catchers are less than two months away from reporting to spring training as well.  The days of no sports to watch but football (yawn) and basketball (zzz zzz zzz) are coming to an end.I am still furious with the NHL.  That is not going to go away.  When it comes to holding a grudge about pro sports labor disputes, I am the king.  I am still fuming over the 1981 baseball players strike.  Because of that stupid thing, the stats on my 1982 Topps baseball cards did not include 162 games for that season.  Dwight Evans only got to play something like 104 games.  That sucked and I’m still pissed.

Anyway, I think one of the reasons why I am so much more upset about this lockout than the last one (don’t get me wrong, I was steaming with rage last time too) is that last time I had an AHL team to distract me.  The Lowell Lock Monsters.  Eric Staal.  Chuck Kobasew (sp? sorry Chuck).  Damn, what a great team we had that year.  While everyone else was boiling over with rage about not having hockey, there were maybe one thousand or so people in the Greater Lowell area who had Monsters season tickets.  No, it was not the same as having the NHL, but it did keep our hockey minds occupied for that black hole of a season.

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I could have followed Worcester, or Providence this time, but I still have that old Lowell loyalty. Be it the Lock Monsters or the Devils that replaced them, I loved AHL hockey in Lowell. For the record, there was no way I would ever have followed Manchester. That would be like rooting for the Yankees in the Red Sox absence. It would never, ever happen. In fact, I talked to my gorgeous wife Jennifer about maybe going to a game in Manchester, but I made it clear I would be rooting for the visiting team.

Lock Monster hockey, it’s alive! (or at least it was back then when I needed it)